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beachknit · 3 years

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MYSTERIOUS AUTHOR OF SIGNED, VENUS, "THE WRITER," FOUND

Sorry for the clickbait title. Pretty soon it won't be clickbait, though, and that's what this post is about!

If you don't already know, my name is Hayden. Welcome to my blog! Loyal readers might notice that all my old posts are gone… don’t worry, they’ve just been archived to a different site, and I will be sure to send everyone who was following before this post (which, honestly, wasn’t many people) a link so you can still read those old posts if you’d like. But for what I’m about to do, I think a fresh start and introductions are warranted!

Those of you who are from Coast Venus yourselves (which, I believe, will probably be the majority of you) will be excited to hear that the mystery we've all been keeping tabs on for the last ten years is about to be unravelled. Yes, that's right, I'm talking about the anonymous author behind Signed, Venus. The person, the myth, the Coast Venus legend themselves... The Writer!

To start this off with a bang, I have managed to identify and track down the slightly-less-enigmatic illustrator of Signed, Venus to their home here on Coast Venus's beach. Please do not try this at home, though, readers, for in most cases, it is rude to blatantly disregard the privacy and boundaries of others.

Now, I know what you Coast Venus skeptics are thinking, but rest assured: by the time you've finished reading this post, you will be completely convinced that I, Hayden, am the best and most worthy person for the job! But before we get to that, let me explain to our readers from out of town just why any of this matters.

Coast Venus is a little town in the country of Conclaire. If you've heard of us, it's probably because the town is known as a hotspot for authors and creatives. I copied this description from the town's official website, but we've been described as "Everyone's dream vacation, with breathtaking ocean views, world-class resorts, and famously friendly locals who will inspire with storytelling and poetry." The really important thing is that writing means a LOT to us here. You won’t find a person in this town who doesn’t at least read regularly, and I’m told that our local budget for literary arts is much higher than the international average.

The second most important thing to pay attention to is that, apart from Coast Venus, travel to other towns in Conclaire is generally off-limits. There’s a bunch of history behind that, blah blah, but basically for the last eighty or so years travel throughout Conclaire (except for Coast Venus, of course) has been almost completely unheard of. Almost.

Until The Writer did it. The first issue of Signed, Venus was published roughly ten years ago. In it, The Writer explained that they are breaking Conclaire’s travel taboo, going to the different towns, and recording what they find for publication here in Coast Venus. Signed, Venus is the only modern source of knowledge about what the rest of Conclaire is like. It’s such an important project for anyone who is interested in learning more about Conclaire, and The Writer conveys their findings with a unique and personal flair. Signed, Venus is my absolute favourite creative work, and I highly recommend that all of you check it out if you haven’t already.

Now, of course, there is a catch to all of this: nobody actually knows who The Writer is. We know that they’re from Coast Venus (or claim to be), and that they work with a local artist who illustrates and publishes each issue of the series. We know a bit about their personality from their writing, but we don’t actually have any identifying information other than that. Signed, Venus is published completely anonymously, and The Writer has only earned the moniker of “The Writer” from Coast Venus locals discussing their work.

Thank you for bearing with me through that explanation, Coast Venus readers, and you’ll be glad to know we’ve reached the part you actually care about. Here are the five W’s for your convenience:

Who: Me, Hayden, and my partner, Kameron, in pursuit of The Writer of Signed, Venus

Where: We will be going on a road trip throughout five locations in Conclaire, visiting sites that The Writer talked about. Specifically, we will visit Arabella, Sayre, Quidel, Mulani, and Urbina

What: We’ll be meeting and talking to locals of these different towns mentioned in Signed, Venus to ask them about their encounters with The Writer and their impressions of them

Why: The Writer is known for exaggerating. Instead of trying to go straight to where The Writer is right away, we want to try to learn more about what they’re like as a person as part of the process of uncovering their identity. Talking to those who have actually met him will be a great way to get a sense of what their character is really like off the page

When: This plan has been in the works for years, actually, but the first tangible step is happening today!

Okay, I know the “why” didn’t really answer the question you’re actually asking, which is, what prompted this? Why now?

The answer can be found in the latest issue of Signed, Venus, #44, in the final paragraph:

“… with my hammering heart and a tank full of gas, ready to head into what will likely be the last chapter of Signed, Venus, I want to thank those loyal readers who've kept up with my journey over the years. And, if my vain hope I've nurtured all this time ever comes true, that someday these journals will inspire one of you to set out from Coast Venus and explore Conclaire yourself, I'd like to ask that you not come after me or try to identify me."

As you can see, The Writer clarifies here that they have hoped for Coast Venus readers to someday be inspired by Signed, Venus to explore the rest of Conclaire. They then request that those of us who do make that journey do not try to find The Writer.

I believe that The Writer is being purposely facetious here (see issue #31 where they explain at length about their use of reverse psychology when talking to River). In the ten years since the first issue of Signed, Venus was published, no one has ever tried to find and identify The Writer. Sure, there has been plenty of guesswork done as to The Writer’s identity, particularly with astute readers comparing his writing style to the writing of other famous Coast Venus authors, or looking up records of locals who have left town, but no one has actually tried to follow in The Writer’s footsteps for the purpose of uncovering their identity. Also, there haven’t been a lot of attempts to travel Conclaire. The ones who have left end up either returning fairly soon after, discouraged by how this country isn’t exactly built for tourism once you’re outside of Coast Venus, or they create no written record of their travels so it’s pretty well useless to the rest of us. Keeping all of that in mind, it’s curious that The Writer would even bother to mention this, right?

Well, not really. If you’ve read enough of Signed, Venus, you’ll recognize this as a clear sign of encouragement. The Writer mentioned that readers travelling Conclaire is their hope because it’s something that they want readers to do. They love a good twist and a challenge (as we can see from the entirety of the series…), and they’ve been carefully creating a mystery around their identity since the very first issue. There’s a reason that here in Coast Venus we refer to The Writer as our town’s very own urban legend - that is exactly how The Writer wants us to feel about them. Telling us not to try to identify them just makes their identity even more mysterious and intriguing. The Writer knows that, and that’s the entire reason that they said it - they want us to look for them, and they want us to find them.

This morning, Kameron and I took the first steps on our journey. Like I said at the beginning of the post, I’ve figured out who the elusive illustrator of Signed, Venus is and their place of residence. But what I didn’t mention is that today, we actually went over to their house to ask them about The Writer. It didn’t all go exactly according to plan… but that’s a topic for the next post!

Follow my blog to keep up-to-date with me and Kameron as we set out to find The Writer! :) You can also follow Kam on Instagram.

#blog #signedvenus #signed venus

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sheliesshattered · 4 years

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This Isn’t A Ghost Story extras for Chapter 6: The Future

Chapter 6 of This Isn’t A Ghost Story has been posted! You can find it here on Tumblr, or here on AO3. Spoiler-ish extras under the cut!

With chapter 6 under our belts, we’ve made it through the main portion of this fic! The next two chapters will wrap up a few loose ends -- and possibly create a couple more, of the open-ended variety -- and if I hadn’t gotten quite so deep into the world-building for this, I might have actually ended the story here. All the research I did for the world-building directly inspired the next two chapters, which were both written and finished before I had anything more than a basic sketch in place for chapter 6.

Egyptology in the 1920s has clearly been a huge part of the world-building for this story from the beginning, and we get a bit more of it in chapter 6. The Doctor mentioned Howard Carter briefly in chapter 5, and here we loop back around to that and find out that Clara and the Doctor knew Carter well. I didn’t want to derail the chapter too much with talking about their friendship in any detail, but large portions of the timeline of when they were in Egypt in the 1920s was built around the historical events of the discovery and documentation of Tutankhamun’s tomb, and there are a few passing allusions to it in the journal entries in chapter 3 as well.

Howard Carter (pictured above in 1924) and his team of excavators found the entrance to Tutankhamun’s tomb in November of 1922, which would have been during the phase when Clara and the Doctor are exchanging letters and falling in love. One little historical detail that I sadly couldn’t quite use was that 23 November 1922 was actually a date of minor significance in the discovery of the tomb. It was the day that Carter’s financier, Lord Carnarvon, arrived at the dig site to witness the opening of the tomb, along with his daughter Lady Evelyn Herbert, who would have been about a year and a half younger than Clara. This picture of the three of them was taken at the entrance of the tomb in late 1922, and is similar to how I imagine Clara and the Doctor’s picture with Carter would have looked:

As the tomb was being excavated, Carter and Carnarvon assembled a team of experts to help with the huge task of cataloging, preserving, and translating all the many items found in the tomb, and though I never called it out specifically in This Isn’t A Ghost Story, I figure the Doctor was part of that team, probably specifically focused on translation work. In late February 1923, there was a short halt in the excavation that lasted a few weeks, which was what led, in our fictionalized version of events, to the Doctor briefly returning to Glasgow, and Clara’s impulsive decision to follow him there. After their wedding in May of ‘23, Clara and the Doctor went directly to Egypt, and the Doctor returned to work on Carter’s team.

Family members, tourists, and the press were all known to visit the dig site during that first year of excavation and the resulting media craze:

Given that, and Clara and the Doctor being ‘disgustingly in love newlyweds’ it seemed reasonable that Clara would have visited the site at least a few times, and been on good terms with Howard Carter. Carter actually got his start in Egyptology when he was hired as a young man to paint reproductions of ancient temple walls and other Egyptian artifacts:

During the excavation of Tutankhamun’s tomb, he made detailed sketches, including careful measurements, of every item removed from the tomb and where it had originally be found in the tomb. Much of what we know about King Tut’s tomb now is down to how methodical Carter was in documenting the original untouched state of the tomb, both with measurements, drawings, and photography. These are both drawings Carter did of the tomb during that period:

Chapter 3 mentions that Clara decided to learn to draw in the summer of 1923, so I liked the little detail that it was Howard Carter, with his meticulous and beautiful art, that suggested she take up the hobby. Modern Clara also notes in passing that she drew all throughout her childhood, particularly her ghost, which all connects back to those early days of their marriage in 1923.

I’ve got more up my sleeve about the world-building elements for the next two chapters, but since chapter 6 was the last chapter I finished, long after chapters 7 and 8 were done, I thought I’d talk a bit about the writing process as well. The final scenes I wrote for the entire story were near the end of chapter 6, and despite knowing what I needed this chapter to do, what needed to be in place to set up chapters 7 and 8, chapter 6 gave me a bit of trouble along the way.

I imagined this chapter in a lot of different ways as the story was evolving, but I always knew I wanted to emphasize the possibility of future travels for Clara and the Doctor. The theme of ‘101 Places To See’ is so strong in canon that echoing it for 1920s Clara was a big part of my world-building from the beginning, and I felt like any version of a happy ending for Clara and the Doctor had to include travel. An early draft of this chapter ended on Clara’s final line from Mummy On The Orient Express, ‘Then what are you waiting for? Let's go.’ to help emphasize that travel theme -- and because I can never resist borrowing a line from canon whenever I can find an excuse.

Another early sketch for this chapter had Clara and the Doctor venturing out for grocery shopping, with the Doctor complaining up a storm while Clara tried to carry on a conversation with him without any strangers taking note of it. Originally I had planned to include more of Clara’s work week, and had scenes roughed in where her friend and fellow teacher Amy Pond found out that Clara had gotten “engaged” over the weekend, leading Clara to have to make up something on the spot about how she’d been in a long-distance relationship that had only recently turned serious, which was why Amy had never met him. There was a whole thing about how Clara and Amy (who taught ancient world history) were co-directing Coal Hill’s production of Antony And Cleopatra, and Amy wanting to make sure that Clara wasn’t going to run off to see the world with her new fiance before the night of the play. Eventually that all got boiled down to just a single exchange between Clara and the Doctor, as I decided to keep the focus tight in on the two of them and their relationship, and not even include dialogue from any other characters.

One thing that comes up again and again in my writing projects is that when I’m imagining the plotline early in the process, it always takes up a lot more calendar days than the final product does. I imagine events taking place over the course of weeks, but then find that the emotional flow works much better condensed down to a handful of days instead. Despite my stories following that same pattern in development for more than a decade now, it somehow always seems to surprise me, lol.

Really early on in working on Ghost Story, I knew I wanted to keep Clara’s canonical birthdate of 23 November 1986 and build the rest of the timeline around that, and I picked out November 2014 as the time period for the main part of the story because it corresponds roughly to when the end of s8 of the show originally aired. But in a very early outline of events, Clara didn’t have the nightmare that led to her memories coming back until the night of her birthday, a full week later from what ended up happening in this final version.

Even as recently as a few weeks ago, I was still planning on ending this chapter on her birthday, and it wasn’t until I started digging into the scene by scene and line by line breakdown of the chapter that I realized that it really wasn’t necessary. And leaving her birthday as an upcoming event folded in nicely with the ‘Future’ theme I wanted for this chapter, so again I decided to keep the focus tight on Clara and the Doctor’s relationship as they unravel the mystery and deal with the fallout of what happened in 1927.

Figuring out what I actually wanted to happen this chapter versus what could be left on the cutting-room floor, as they say, was a huge part of the final phase of writing This Isn’t A Ghost Story. Once I had cut out extraneous scenes and meandering plot tangents (and poor Amy Pond), I was left with a very specific list of scenes and conversations, and I wrote them much the same way I write everything, jumping around to a given scene as dialogue or internal monologue occurs to me. To me it always feels like putting together a large jigsaw puzzle, filling in holes and connecting up pieces as the puzzle comes together.

I find that technique works really well for me when I’m in early and mid development of a story, but once I was down to just a couple of scenes that still needed written, progress slowed way down. I got to the point where I knew the emotional content of a scene and even most of the dialogue, and needed just a little bit of stage direction to stitch the whole thing together. Those of you who have been following along with my #process thoughts posts here may remember me posting about working on that last scene just a couple of weeks ago, trying to wrestle it into shape.

@tounknowndestinations, @praetyger, and a few others of you have asked about it, and I can now reveal that the very last bit to get written was the sequence with Clara preparing for bed and then the two of them getting into bed. I had the awkward sex conversation and the final scene the next morning already written, I just had to connect the first part of the chapter up with those last scenes. I’m happy with how it eventually came together -- and very curious to hear if any of you could pick out that that was the last bit written? -- but not having the option to work on anything else, just those specific words in that specific place, made it more of a struggle for me than writing most of the rest of Ghost Story.

My husband and beta reader Jack was more involved with the editing of this chapter than he was with any of the other chapters, and in several places helped me rewrite individual lines or conversation beats until we were both happy with how they read. @praetyger asked how I know when writing is ‘done’, and I have to admit it’s mostly a process of reading it over and over again, and then getting Jack to read it and taking his feedback seriously. I tend towards overly long run-on sentences, so if Jack gets lost while reading a sentence, that’s one he’ll call out as needing to be reworded for clarity.

There’s one sentence in this chapter that we went back and forth over quite a lot: ‘The feeling of what might have been that seeing their wedding photo had elicited in her wasn’t some strange, misplaced jealousy, but rather the knowledge she carried deep in her soul, buried in her subconscious, that their story wasn’t over yet.’ It was originally even more wordy, and Jack would have preferred the final version be a lot more simple, but it just didn’t read right to me without ‘elicited’ so I stuck to my guns on that bit, even as I filed down some of the wordiness in other parts of the sentence.

Both for reworking a sentence and for writing big sections in the first place, my method is generally to write it and edit a little as I go, trying to get the word choice and pacing as close to what I want as I can on a first pass. Then I’ll let it sit, at the very least overnight but often for days or longer at a time, then come back and reread it when it isn’t so fresh in my mind. At that point, sometimes a phrase will jump at me as awkward or something I used just a paragraph or two earlier, so I’ll rewrite it, let it sit, come back and edit it all over again. Sometimes what seemed like plenty of room for an emotional beat when I was writing it will go by way too fast when I reread it, so I’ll add to it, give it space to breathe. Rinse and repeat.

For the record, Jack’s favorite line from this chapter is this bit of dialogue for the Doctor: ‘“Yes,” he allowed warily, clearly not sure where she was going with this.’ I imagine it’s probably for similar reasons as why he liked the ‘she didn’t add again but knew they were both thinking it’ bit from chapter 5. I try not to put my own marriage into my writing too much, but there are some experiences of being married that I think are probably pretty universal.

@ephemeralhologram asked about my writing inspiration, and for me my writing is always driven by a kernel of a what-if idea and a desire to convey a certain emotion. I almost always start out with a ‘plotbunny’ idea, some tiny thing that I daydream about and consider from multiple angles until a plot and emotional tone starts coming into focus.

For Ghost Story, it was actually a shitpost here on Tumblr about a real estate agent having a conversation with the ghost who haunts the house they’re trying to sell, along with wanting to try telling a Twelve/Clara story in an alternate universe completely separate from the show canon, which I had never done before Ghost Story. The emotional tone started out much sillier, more in line with that Tumblr post, but as I got into the world-building and decided I wanted to have a mystery and mutual pining at the center of this story, the tone shifted quite a lot.

The other major drivers of writing inspiration for me are that I enjoy putting words together into interesting and emotionally evocative combinations, and I enjoy conveying character emotion and eliciting emotion in the reader. No matter what fandom I’m writing in, no matter how close to canon or how AU, how short or long the story is, those two things are always at the center of my writing.

I walk around the house or do chores that I don’t have to focus on too much (dishes are excellent for this) just tossing around bits of dialogue in my head until I find an emotional beat that grabs me or a bit of phrasing that I really like. I jot those down into a googledoc -- most of my DW stories start out in a doc called “Doctor Who Bits” that is in fact just fragments of multiple stories, and then eventually a story will graduate into having its own dedicated googledoc. Figuring out the plot is just as much about deciding on the emotional journey I want to take the characters and/or the readers on as it is deciding on an order of events.

Thank you to @tounknowndestinations, @ephemeralhologram, and @praetyger for the questions! I am more than happy to answer any questions about my writing process or details about this story, or anything really, so feel free to hit me up in my ask, or in the comments on this post, or in a comment over on AO3. Thank you to everyone who has followed along with this story, and for all the support and encouragement you’ve offered along the way, I couldn’t have written this story without this wonderful little corner of the Whouffaldi fandom! ❤️

Extras for Chapter 7: The Museum

#This Isn't A Ghost Story #This Isn't A Ghost Story extras #process thoughts #my writing #Doctor Who #Doctor Who fanfic #Clara and the Doctor

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jaehyun-eclipsed · 4 years

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Before I Met You | Ten

Updates: Sundays, ~8 PM EST

Pairing: NCT (Jaehyun, Lucas, Mark, Jaemin, Johnny) X Reader/OC

Genre: Romance, Angst, Coming of Age

Summary: Four. There were four people before I fell in love with you… Here are their stories.

Before I Met You Masterlist

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“What are you doing?” Jaehyun asks.

He looks down at me as I sit on the floor, boxes and papers scattered around me. A smirk slowly forms on his face, the scene in front of him clearly amusing.

“I’m just going through some of the old papers I’ve saved.” I chuck a stack of papers into a cardboard box. “There’s a lot of stuff from my college days that I haven’t touched in years so I figure I can throw it out.”

Jaehyun’s eyebrows raise in curiosity. He bends down to pick up something that catches his eye. “What are these?”

“Oh! Those are a bunch of polaroids we’ve taken together. I put them in a box each time we took them and since I’m cleaning up and redecorating, I thought I’d make a photo garland with them above my desk.”

“That would be nice – oh! This is from our first date!” He flips to the next photo. “Oh and this was the first night you came over and we watched Before Sunrise together!”

I stand up and lightly grip onto his forearm, leaning my head against him as he continues looking through the photos. “You know, I was quite surprised you suggested we watch that movie.”

“Oh really? Why?”

“It’s an unusual style for a movie; it’s not something everyone would necessarily appreciate,” I say. “I was pretty excited you wanted to watch it though!” I grin up at him. “It’s one of my favorite movies. I watched it for the first time when I was a sophomore in college.”

“I really liked it. It was really interesting and I was impressed at how it kept you focused the entire time even though it was so simple.”

I let go of his arm as he hands me back all the photos.

“I have a couple emails I need to send, but for dinner I was thinking we could make some pizza? I bought sourdough,” he says.

“Yeah, that sounds great! Let me know when you’re ready!”

He smiles and gives me a light peck on the lips. “I love you.”

I lift my hand to gently caress his cheek before bringing it to the back of his neck to pull him down for another kiss. “I love you, too.”

As Jaehyun leaves the room, I look down at the floor again, spotting my chemistry lab notebook from freshman year. I pick it up and flip through it, seeing that there are still a significant number of blank pages that can still be used. Perhaps I’ll keep it. When I reach the back cover, a sense of nostalgia overcomes me as I scan the many sticky notes containing various equations and important points I needed to memorize for the final. I briefly quirk an eyebrow before breaking out into a smile when I see the light green sticky note at the bottom with a doodle of a smiling watermelon with arms and legs. Mark had drawn it for me when we were studying and hid it in my notebook when I left to use the restroom.

I actually haven’t spoken to Mark in a while. He’s difficult to get a hold of. Last I had heard was that he was doing some service work and traveling. Occasionally, he’d post a picture of himself playing the guitar wherever he was – usually on a beach or for an audience of small children.

Mark will always hold a special place in my heart. My time with him was very limited, but he’s a fond memory I’ll always hold dear. He was the first real friend I had in college – the first person away from home I ever felt comfortable speaking to. For me, he was the sign that things were going to be okay.

He was right though. Things did get better as I progressed through college. I moved out of the dorms and found a better roommate. I made some new friends that I could call up and hang out with. Studying was still difficult, but I did figure out what worked in order for me to be successful. It’s still not a place I miss, but I do appreciate all of the opportunities I had. And on the rare occasion I had the chance to talk to Mark, he was always so excited to hear that things were going relatively well. He ended up being someone I told a lot of my boy problems to, and though he didn’t have a ton of advice every time, he was always amused by my stories.

However, there was one time – the summer before I graduated college – where he did have some advice that really helped me. That was the last time I saw him in person.

I do miss him.

Sadly, we didn’t contact each other that much after he went to London. The time difference made it a challenge and whenever one of us was available, the other wasn’t. I felt like the universe was trying to tell me something.

I do remember one phone call we had though. That call broke my heart.

Is it even possible to have your heart broken by someone who was just a friend?

Because Mark was the first person to ever break my heart… and break it twice.

“Hey! I went to Derbyshire the other day. You’d love it! It’s so beautiful!” he said. “And Chatsworth House is gorgeous. No wonder you like that movie so much. They chose some good filming sites.”

“It’s a very aesthetically pleasing movie!” I remarked. “I’m so jealous though. You got to live my Elizabeth Bennet dreams.”

“Yeah! You should come visit considering I’m going to be staying here for two more years.”

“Wh – what?”

“Yeah! Shortly after I got here, I was looking into transferring and college here is usually three years so the timing kinda works out. The UK normally doesn’t like transfers, but since I’m here, I figured some stuff out with their counselors.”

I was happy for him, truly. But that didn’t mean I didn’t want him to come back considering our time together was so short. There was so much more I wanted to talk to him about. He was different and he embraced being different. He was always so comfortable in his own skin and had a carefree spirit that was easy to be around. Mark truly enjoyed life – with all of its complexities and particularly its simple pleasures.

Honestly, I didn’t think Mark could say anything else that would have been as devastating as when he told first told me he was leaving.

But I was wrong. Hearing him decide to stay there for longer than he had originally planned was equally heartbreaking. It’s hard when you’re waiting for someone to come back and they don’t when you expect them to. I even get a little disappointed when Jaehyun says a business trip has to be extended for a couple days. But that’s nothing compared to two years.

Timing.

The timing was never right for us.

But one thing’s for sure: Mark kept his original promise.

Dear Y/N,

Hello! I’m so sorry it has taken me so long to write to you! Life just gets so busy sometimes! I wanted to thank you again for the journal you gave me. Your note was so sweet! I don’t know if you noticed, but I was trying not to cry when you gave it to me haha. I also added the pictures we took together. You know, we look pretty cute in them haha!

I hope you know that I live vicariously through you. London is great, but I do miss California! I like hearing about all of the different aspects of your life, especially your boy drama (because who doesn’t like a little gossip) so keep it up! I just wanna let you know that even though I’m 5,000 miles away, I’m always a call/email/letter away! If you need me, I’m here!

I’m really grateful I got to know you, even if it was only for a little bit. I do wish we had met earlier, but I’m pretty sure we’re going to remain friends even after I return! Once you become friends with me, you’re stuck with me forever haha :) But please stay in contact with me! Sincerely, I think you’re incredible.

I hope everything this semester is going swell for you! Sounds like you’re taking on a lot, but I know you can do it! As you know, I’m not the most gifted in chemistry, but if you need anything else, just let me know!

One last thing: Keep up being amazing! Good luck trying to keep all these boys off you, but I’m sure they know when they’ve met an incredible find. It’s not often you meet a girl who is kind, pretty, smart, and funny; so I doubt you’ll be able to keep them away for too long!

Anyway, I hope you continue to write me letters sometimes! Isn’t it fun to have a pen pal?! I love hearing about what you’re up to! So keep me posted!

Love, Mark

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Before I Met You Masterlist Masterlist

#nct #nct 127 #nct u #wayv #jaehyun #jung jaehyun #jung yoonoh #nct jaehyun #nct lucas #lucas wong #wong yukhei #mark lee #nct mark #superm #nct x reader #nct fluff #nct angst #before i met you

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nightmares06 · 4 years

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A Decade in Review

2020! Holy shit, we’re here at last!

I can hardly believe how far I’ve come over the last decade, when I think back to 2010.

I wasn’t married yet at that time, but we were planning our wedding. I was working at my most stressful job ever, trying to scrounge up enough money to have a decently nice ceremony with my family.

It certainly paid off. I haven’t regretted marrying my husband, after almost a decade being officially tied to him.

In the last decade, we went from living with a roommate-- (which was terrible, near the end the guy started having parties on the weekend and I gotta tell you, when I’m working at bumfuck o’clock in the morning, the last thing I want is a bunch of drunk dudes and chicks in my place. I ended up staying over a friend’s a few times just to get some shuteye)-- to living on our own. It’s a cozy little place, but it’s ours. We don’t have to worry about family dropping by, and I have the privacy I love.

No surprise guests of my roommates.

Admittedly, there was one time I thought we had a stranger in the apartment that he let in, only to later discover that he’d shaved off his beard and mustache and I just didn’t recognize him at all for like an entire awkward hour.

Holy shit. Memories.

There was also that one time our roommate locked himself out on the porch, and couldn’t get back in. He had to wait there, outside, until I got home, all because my husband, sleeping one room away, wouldn’t wake up. And that time one of his ex girlfriends put him on suicide watch-- he was not suicidal, she was just crazy. I came home to cops in the living room, hanging out with him until they were sure he had someone around to look out for him. Good thing they never looked into his room, he has a sword collection that was 10 deep at that time.

He also went for a walk one night and was incarcerated for leaving the site of an accident he had nothing to do with. Just happened to be walking along the road near the abandoned vehicle.

The kid didn’t even have a car.

Anyway, back to the decade and how it’s gone. I can’t quite believe it, but in the last few years I’ve come so far in my abilities as a writer.

I grew up loving to read. Books were my favorite escape, and there are so many days I spent buried in the newest Star Trek, or Star Wars book. Years yearning after Anne Mccaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern. I always partially wanted to write myself, but it seemed so far out of reach. I have such difficulty concentrating, and my grammar isn’t the best.

Yet, when it came to my stories, and explorations into g/t, none of that seemed to matter. I wrote because it was what I wanted, and if no one else was writing these stories, I’d do it myself.

Brothers Apart was never meant to go further than the first story. It was originally going to be a one-and-done short, but when I was sitting there, looking at Archive of Our Own and wondering at the “Series” button they have, I just thought... what if it wasn’t?

What if Sam was never fixed, and yet they stuck together?

Now, I have millions of words of writing down, both posted and unposted, and I’ve made some of my closest friends through it. The story would be a ghost of itself without @neonthebright‘s input, and we never would have traveled to Great Britain to discover the background of Celeste and the underground where borrowers are sold as pets without @borrowedtimeandspace‘s help. We’ve developed entirely new storylines and characters just from working together, the three of us.

I don’t know where I’d be without Supernatural, but I know I’d have a lot less in my life if I’d never turned on that show one day in the spring when I was bored.

In fact, I’m planning on getting a tattoo this year. My first, and in recognition of Supernatural and all its done for me.

Along with that, my husband has been joking that “2020 is the year you get 2020 vision!” My big plan is to find a provider to do Lasik surgery, and to no longer require these glasses I wear.

It’s always surprised me when I see people calling out corrective surgery as something people do “So they can look better.” Honestly, I think I look just fine in my glasses. I’ve had them since I was eight. Just imagine being able to see, first thing in the morning! No more blurry world! No more smudgy lenses, no more having to be careful about where I put my glasses, since they’re my only pair.

Soon. New eyes soon.

Lastly, this decade has been quite hard, especially right at the end. A lot of people have wondered why I’ve been slowing down, on my blogs and in my writing.

It’s truthfully quite hard to put myself in the mindset to write currently, as life has become more and more stressful. Not with my job-- I very much appreciate this job I have. They let me work from home when I need to, and I don’t have to drive in on snow days.

My husband’s health has been declining for the last few years, and he got news this year that he might need a high-risk transplant, so I’ve had a hard time taking that all in. To learn that his lifespan might be shortened that much, not long after we finally tied the knot... it’s been hard. People with what he has often live another ten years past the transplant... that would mean mid-forties. I’ve wanted to spend my entire life with him.

Writing is an escape for me, and I love having friends and readers along for the ride with me. Please be patient if I struggle from time to time. I very much want to keep up the pace, and these stories give me life.

In the next decade, my big plans are:

Finally get my vision fixed.

Begin to keep a journal, something that can help me work on my memory when it fails.

Support my husband no matter what. He doesn’t want his family to know about any of this until it’s a certainty, so I have to lean on my friends instead for support.

More game nights with the kids in my husband’s family. We had one, and it was great! We’re now the fun aunt and uncle. No kids for me, but that’s not gonna stop me from spoiling them.

Big plans to start writing my Own story. I dream of one day being published, and it’s a goal for me to start on that path now that I’ve developed the skills to write.

Ahh, it’s so weird looking back at how much happened in just a decade!

Despite how stressed I can get, I see this as one of the best times of my life. I have people around me that care, a husband that’s always there for me, and we live independent of either side of our family. It’s a huge step up from where I was in the decade before.

Thanks all, for coming on this ride with me.

#2019 #2020 #decade in review #long post

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therealguy-thebestguy2 · 5 years

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Who Can You Trust? - Therren Feywind

Journal Entry 4 — Hello sister,

It’s been a while. I should have talked to you sooner but… I didn’t. I talked to Simon, though. It’s been so hard to make sense of these thoughts in my head, maybe if I take my time and go through them it will become clearer. Like Maximilian taught me to.

So, some days ago now, we went on another adventure. This one had a little more direction than the last ones. Missing people from the town, dire consequences. Then again, there always seems to be dire consequences no matter how the adventure starts. Danger is an open flame and we are but moths, destined to dance around it until the day we finally get too close.

Nymatra was there, as usual. Things are still… hard to read with her. At this point I don’t even know whose fault that is. Did I do something? Did she do something? I suppose we’ve both been complicated. I wish social interactions could just make sense. Nature was never this complicated. Hemmel, a dwarven man, joined the group too. Reminded me a lot of our friend Thymus. Say what you will about dwarves, but they build those bastards tough. That alone is worth respect.

Maximillian was also there. You know, he grows on you. There’s just something, I don’t know, comforting? Something comforting about him. Even when he says something like how there’s “definitely no traps”, and you know there’s no way he could really know that so he’s probably full of shit, something in me just wants to believe him. Which, well, it can lead to problems. Sorry, I’m jumping ahead. Like I said, everything is a confusing mess. I’ll start over.

So, we went out to some miserable swamps to track down some missing people, like I said. Found our way to some creepy looking outpost, tracks from the missing people leading inside. And some other tracks we couldn’t place. We were investigating the tower and, remember the thing I said about traps? I think we set off every trap possible along the way. If only Max’s faith that there were no traps was strong enough to make it so. Then again, we made it through all those traps without so much as a scratch. Maybe there is power in faith after all? Everything in my life is crazy, so why not?

On the other side of some close encounters we ran into the things responsible for those tracks we couldn’t place, and had an even closer encounter. Strange lizard-folk. Like just about everything in these cursed lands, they were not interested in a non-violent solution.

Close-quarters in a tower, not a great place to be relying on the range of a bow in a fight. I didn’t need your depth of experience to figure that one out. And these powers I have, they give me considerable strength in a close fight. But, I don’t know, I used my bow. I was scared, alright? I… I don’t like it. Whenever I, when I shift, it… changes me. I don’t like who I am when that happens.

It was a selfish and irrational decision, a stupid decision. I knew it was the wrong tactical choice, and I made it anyway. And… and I paid for it. One of the lizards was shooting back at me. I was doing my best to avoid it, dodged one arrow, but there’s just so little space to move in an environment like that. Bastard got me good. Left myself open and he got me right in the neck. I barely had time to react to it.

All the strength left me, and before I knew it I was on the ground. I tried to move my arms and legs, pick myself back up and keep fighting, but they wouldn’t move. I couldn’t even feel them. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Nymatra, taking cover on the staircase. I tried to call out for help, but I was choking. Drowning. I could feel the warmth and that coppery taste that I have unfortunately become familiar with as of late. Blood. Probably a lot of it. More arrows bounced off the stone wall beside her and she retreated further down the stairs and out of site.

I was alone, things were getting blurry and dark and quiet, and then something unexpected happened. I saw rolling, forested hills, immaculate grass-swept plains, a stream fed by a small, calm waterfall. Everything had this strange haze to it, and perfect sunset-colours. It almost looked like the fey wilds, but not quite. There was a warmth unlike anything I had ever felt. Every part of my senses told me I was safe, and loved. And… and Simon was there, sister. I was lying there, on the softest grass I had ever felt by the bank of the river, and I saw his familiar boots approach from the water’s edge. It couldn’t be him, just another trick of the mind, like when the Lion attacked Nymatra. Simon was gone, I saw what happened to him. But it was him. The same silver robes with the blue crescent moon. The same kind cerulean eyes. He crouched down, held my face in his hands. There was a sadness in his eyes, but he smiled. He said “It’s okay, let go” and he lifted me to my feet. A look over my shoulder and the sadness in his eyes deepened. “I’ll be right here. It’s okay to let go.”

And then things got weirder, if that’s possible. I was standing there, by the river, forest all around. But I was also in the tower, Maximilian’s hand glowing on my neck. My confusion was drowned out by a flood of familiar anger, and the beast took hold again. I smelled blood, anger and fear. It was intoxicating, like being starved and smelling the most delicious thing you’ve ever tasted suddenly in arms reach. It creeps me out thinking about how much I enjoyed that smell. Seconds later, and the two lizard-folk were in pieces. One moment they were there, and then the next moment they weren’t. I had torn them apart.

Just then Nymatra charged back up the stairs, hands crackling with eldritch energy and a fiercely determined look in her eye, shouting “I’ll save you!” Better late than never, right? It’s a lot braver than I was when I abandoned you and Simon. The group took a moment to heal and gather their strength, relieved to have a reprieve from the monsters that lurk in the tower. But are they really safe? There’s another monster, in me, how can they be sure it won’t turn on them?

I was walking through the tower, but at the same time I was walking through that strange etherial place. I couldn’t shake it. even when we got back to town I couldn’t shake it. I knew I was at the tavern, but I was also there in the woods. I can’t make sense of it. Sorry, I’m skipping ahead again. I’ll go back.

One last push, to the top of the tower. Up a ladder, and a terrifying massive serpent awaited, along with some kind of magical lizard sorcerer. Before I knew it, the snake was on Max. Tangled around him and damn-near devouring him. My eyes darting from the serpent to the sorcerer, I took in as much information as I could as fast as possible. My beast snarled, pulling at the chain as I glared at the sorcerer. I knew it had to be some kind of magic, that he was the key to stopping the serpent and saving Max. I think I knew that. Did I know that? I remember being angry, I remember thinking about the other lizard-folk I had torn apart. I remember the hunger. Was I trying to save Max? I hope I was. I hope I didn’t just choose to leave him to die.

I let the anger erupt inside me. I was gone and the wolf was in my place. Without a second thought I charged right for the sorcerer. The serpent lashed out at me with a hit that might have knocked me out in my elven form, but I didn’t care. All I could think about was the lizard. With a leap I was on him, teeth tearing at his form, trying to find purchase on his scales. With the lizard knocked to the ground, the serpent vanished. Was that the plan, or did I get lucky?

The lizard had tricks of his own, shifting into the massive form of a crocodile. Its massive jaw clamped down on me, and my world became pain and anger. The pain threatened to overwhelm me, but the anger won out. Mind focussing, I found a target. Maybe I couldn’t get through its scales, but I didn’t need to anymore. I bit down on the creatures tongue and pulled with all my strength. We battled with nightmares, and mine was stronger. I walked away from that tower, he didn’t. The others managed to rescue some of the missing people. I’m a little vague on the details, my mind was on other things.

We got back to town, and still I’m in the etherial woods. But I’m somewhere else. I can’t seem to find Simon again. I’ve been keeping to myself in town. Didn’t have time to go off on adventures, I needed to find Simon again. I even organised to go back to the tower in the swamp. I thought maybe going back to where I saw him last time would let me see him again.

Travelling alone seemed dangerous, so I asked Nymatra to come with me. I think I trust her the most. She thought it’d be too dangerous to go without more protection and suggested bringing Max, but I kind of freaked out at the idea of sharing what’s going on with a group and cancelled it. But taking Max was a good idea, so I went to ask Max if he could go with me and- oh wow that sounds way worse than it is when I write it down like that, I- No, okay, it doesn’t just sound bad, that was pretty bad of me. Am I a shitty person? Damn it. Anyway, yeah, I went to talk to Maximilian. About a lot of things. About what I saw, how I was feeling, my confusions. I really opened up to him. I haven’t really done that with anybody. I mean, I’ve told Nymatra a few things, but this was more than that. It’s just so easy to talk to him, and unlike any other time I relive my memories, I actually feel better with Max’s help. He’s very reassuring, and his advice somehow simple but something you never thought of.

He agreed to go to the tower with me, which was relieving. I just feel like, whenever he’s in my group, I know we’ll get through it and make it back home. We talked about Simon. About how he was religious like Max. About my history with Simon, how we loved each other. I never really told anyone that before. But I guess I just feel safe talking to Maximilian.

Maximilian talked about his religious stuff, about Pholtus, and there’s definitely part of me that really likes hearing about that stuff. He just seems so confident and assured about it. I think wish I had that kind of faith. I’ve never been that sure about anything. We reached the tower, but nothing for me. Just more unrecognisable forest. Retracing steps through the tower, and still nothing familiar. Back to that room in the tower, to the spot that I fell, the blood still staining the ground where I laid. Still nothing. No stream. No lazy waterfall. No Simon. No matter what I tried, I could not find my way back to him. I was half way to asking Max if he could beat me into another near death experience when I realised how ridiculous I was being. The whole trip had been a waste of time. I was not going to see Simon again.

But Maximilian had another suggestion. I think it was some kind of religious technique? I don’t know, I’m not sure how any of that works. He guided me through some technique to get in touch with my memories. At first I thought it was another dead end, I was just seeing more of the same. Then I remembered Simon speaking, like last time but… not like last time. It was the same memory, but there were details I noticed that I had missed the first time, words that I had somehow forgotten. What Simon had said was “It’s okay to be angry. But you have to let me go. I’ll be right here when you’re ready. It’s okay to let go” I don’t know how I could have forgotten something like that, or missed it. Maybe the trauma and heightened emotion of the near-death experience had impaired me? Or maybe it was the distraction of being healed?

Maximilian asked me what that meant, why I was angry, so I told him everything. That horrible night when I lost you, Sister. When I lost Simon, and the rest of the group. The nightmares that came after. The fear and hatred. The beast that lives inside me. But Max told me the beast was not evil, that if I let go and allowed the beast to take control he could prove it to me. It was a crazy idea, but I went along with it. Like I said, even when you know there’s no way he could know something for sure, he makes you want to believe him. I braced myself, took a deep breath, and let the beast out.

I’m not sure what I thought would happen. Maybe I thought I would tear his throat out, or that I would bite his tongue off. Whatever I was expecting, it wasn’t what happened. Nothing happened. The beast tested Maximilian, decided it liked him, and gave me back control. Afterwards Max told me he could sense when there was the presence of evil, and he sensed no evil from me.

So I guess Maximilian is right. I guess Simon’s right. I’m not a monster. The beast is not a monster. Simon told me it was okay to let go. I don’t know if he meant let go of him, or let go of the fear of the beast inside. I guess either way it’s good advice. Maybe it’s time I start living again. Time to stop existing in that dark forest. Make some decisions for myself, learn more about Pholtus with Max. I’ll see my friends and family again someday, but for now I’m ready to move on.

You will always be in my heart, but this is the last we’ll speak for some time. Goodbye Thiala.

#dnd #dungeons and dragons #creative writing #short story #letter to dead sister #trust #home #letting go #elf #druid #therren

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douchebagbrainwaves · 3 years

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I LIKED MOST ABOUT IT WAS THAT IT CONSIDERED ME AN EQUAL PARTNER

You can do well in math and the natural sciences, the more charismatic Hubert Humphrey. Smack! There is one case where the list of n things is in that respect that they might have some plan for shows aimed at specific regions, but it isn't something that has to pervade every program you write. Give the Programmer as Much Control as Possible. Knuth pointed out long ago that speed only matters in a few big successes. Another attraction of object-oriented abstractions. When you can't deliver ornament, you have to be funny, but it's there. As a practical matter, I think, is that a great artist is something that's good for you. Symmetry is unfashionable in some fields now, in reaction to excesses in the past, have scientists, engineers, musicians, architects, designers, writers, and painters. If so, your old tastes were not merely different, but worse. Election forecasters are proud when they can achieve the same results with much more complicated models. I don't know yet what the new rules will be, but apparently not in the sciences generally, citation is considered a rough indicator of merit.

These opportunities are not easy to find, though. Attitudes to copying often make a round trip. Your spinal cord is less hesitant, and it had better do what they guess it will, because they're affected by how you react to them. During the 1992 election, the Clinton campaign staff had a big sign in their office saying It's the economy, stupid. The expected value of starting one would be $1 million. When we interviewed programmers, the main thing we cared about was what kind of software they wrote in their spare time. Why stop now? I wanted.

But I think server-based. Everyone makes up their own story about the Mona Lisa. I think we should be just as happy speaking any language that was unambiguous. Actor too is a pole rather than a profusion of superficial ornament. A recent article in the Wall Street Journal described how TV networks were trying to add more live shows, partly as a way to get there, and the truth turned out to be an answer. So I think efficiency will matter, at least in our own minds, we have a remarkable coincidence to explain. Maybe if I were smart enough it would seem the most natural thing in the world that e i pi-1. If I could get people to remember just one quote about programming, it would be a good idea. It's unrealistic to expect that the specifications for a program will be perfect. Architecture is related to physics, in the sense that performance has remained consistently mediocre despite 14x growth. Programming languages are how people talk to computers. Ronco is good.

Architects started consciously making buildings asymmetric in Victorian times and by the 1920s asymmetry was an explicit premise of modernist architecture. The term angel round doesn't mean that all the investors in it are angels; it just describes the structure of the round. The situation now is like it was with crack in the 1980s: we've invented terribly addictive new things, then instead of turning a blind eye to the places where conventional wisdom and truth don't quite meet, you should pay particular attention to them. Perhaps what practice does is train your unconscious mind to handle tasks that used to require conscious thought. These are not startups, except in a few days. If I could get people to remember just one quote about programming, it would be the one at the beginning of his career, an actor is a waiter who goes to auditions. There are two major types of problems a site like Hacker News needs to avoid: bad stories and bad comments. Fortunately one of them is much higher valuations. I know, no one thought these paintings were as important as we do today. That's the measure of a startup is like being an actor or a novelist. As a rule, the only thing that can kill a good startup is the embodiment of your discoveries so far.

Another attraction of object-oriented program, it can be extended by users. Almost all technology, from Unix to bitmapped displays to the Web, became popular first within CS departments and research labs, and gradually beat it into shape. As of now, few of the startups that take money from super-angels know is that it gives your mind something to chew on: when your eyes are looking at something, your hand will do more interesting work. They just want to get the effect of first class functions, you can use growth like a compass to make almost every decision you face. Because the main points are unconnected, the list of n things within something that looks like a more sophisticated type of essay. The manual should be thin as well. If you're hoping to hit the next Google, you shouldn't care if the valuation is 20 million. They just want to get the effect of subroutines in the inherently stateless world of a Web session. If you look at the most successful companies and less successful ones. The other way to get better at your job. Your watch?

And there is a clear trend among them: the so-called super-angels were initially angels of the classic type. The recipe for great work is done for you. It means that a shorter proof tends to be written by large and frequently changing teams of mediocre programmers. I'd like the site to go away. What is it about startups that makes other companies want to decrease the standard deviation of the outcome. Bar neighborhood is a sufficient idea for a small business. Writing novels doesn't pay as well as writing ad copy for garbage disposals.

And this is especially true for strangeness. The downside of tuning a site to attract certain people is that, to those people, it can be extended by users. You learn to paint mostly by doing it, but by doing labs and problem sets. Painting has been a much richer source of ideas than the theory of computation about as much as painters need to understand paint chemistry. It will be especially important to do i/o fast, because server-based apps get released. Will it be? Inevitably, the people running a company to grow really big, it must a make something lots of people want, and b you're sufficiently worried about whether you can keep hitting your numbers without hiring someone new. A barbershop serves customers in person, and few will travel far for a haircut. Good design may not have to be a belief in government. I've been able to keep up, in the end.

Should you spend two days at a conference? The phase whose growth defines the startup is the second one, the ascent. In the matter of platforms this tendency is even more pronounced, because novel software originates with great hackers, and they have started to use it. Our ancestors must rarely have encountered cases of exponential growth, because our intutitions are no guide here. Something that might naturally be represented as a list of n things is parallel and therefore fault tolerant. And yet because of the scale of the successes. They should both just face the fact that they have a single format. Whereas if the next time you need to raise money. In fact, nice is not the word. Good software designers are no more engineers than architects are. The expected value of a startup seems like a fraud.

#automatically generated text #Markov chains #Paul Graham #Python #Patrick Mooney #idea #languages #Symmetry #Street #world #startup #things #fraud #asymmetry #ornament

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f1 · 1 year

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Ferraris new direction upgrade was supposed to come a lot later in the season | 2023 Spanish Grand Prix

The upgrade Ferrari has brought for its cars at this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix was originally planned to appear much later in the season, according to Carlos Sainz Jnr. Ferrari brought the upgrade forward following its disappointing start to the season. The team which led the early stages of last year’s world championship lies fourth in the standings and has only scored one podium so far this year. “You cannot imagine the effort Maranello has done in trying to bring this package forward,” said Sainz. “It was supposed to come a lot later in the season and the whole factory was just flat-out these last few months, because of the situation, to try and bring it earlier.” The changes to the SF-23 are “a bit of a new direction a bit into what we believe should be the right path into developing this car,” said Sainz. He is hoping it will make it “more of a drive-able car, more consistent, better in the race – that we know is our main weakness.” “You’ve seen it hasn’t been an easy start to the season and we’ve been struggling,” he admitted. “But it is true that with this first step into this direction, we try and correct the deficiencies we have. “We also know that this upgrade is not going to change our life from one race to another. It’s the first step of many steps to come still.” Sainz’s team mate Charles Leclerc said the team is “not expecting any big miracles, to be honest” from its changes, but hopes it signals the beginning of regular improvements from the team. “From now on, we want to try and bring some small upgrades every race. This one should go in the right direction, but I don’t think it will be a massive change.” Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free Leclerc expects the changes will do more for the car’s drive-ability than its sheer performance. “The thing is that we have an extremely peaky car,” he said. “In qualifying on the one-lap pace with new tyres, the wind, we know exactly how to drive the car, it’s okay. “But as soon as we go a little bit out of those conditions we lose so much downforce overall. We have been working a lot on that with this new car, so this will help us. Not gain that much performance, but to at least be a bit more consistent throughout the weekend, which hopefully will help us to have a better result on the Sunday.” The Circuit de Catalunya, scene of this weekend’s race, is the ideal venue to test the upgrade, Leclerc added. “Barcelona is known for [being] probably the best track to understand exactly where you are with the car. So I think it’s really good to have these new upgrades here and to understand where are we so we can confirm still our weaknesses. “I think in our mind, even though we’ve had very different tracks, it’s very clear for us where we need to work, and that is mostly on race pace and having a car that is a bit easier to drive. I think this is a perfect track to see whether this upgrade is going in the right direction for us.” Bringing the F1 news from the source RaceFans strives to bring its readers news directly from the key players in Formula 1. We are able to do this thanks in part to the generous backing of our RaceFans Supporters. By contributing £1 per month or £12 per year (or the equivalent in other currencies) you can help cover the costs involved in producing original journalism: Travelling, writing, creating, hosting, contacting and developing. We have been proudly supported by our readers for over 10 years. If you enjoy our independent coverage, please consider becoming a RaceFans Supporter today. As a bonus, all our Supporters can also browse the site ad-free. Sign up or find out more via the links below: Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free 2023 Spanish Grand Prix Browse all 2023 Spanish Grand Prix articles via RaceFans - Independent Motorsport Coverage https://www.racefans.net/

#F1 #Ferrari’s “new direction” upgrade was “supposed to come a lot later in the season” | 2023 Spanish Grand Prix #Formula 1

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seo1code-blog · 7 years

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"Dear google.com,

I visited your web site and detected that you just don't seem to be listed in most of the foremost search engines and directories..."

Reserve an equivalent skepticism for unsought email concerning search engines as you are doing for "burn fat at night" diet pills or requests to assist transfer funds from boot out dictators.

No one will guarantee a #1 ranking on Google.

Beware of SEOs that claim to ensure rankings, maintain a "special relationship" with Google, or advertise a "priority submit" to Google. there's no priority submit for Google. In fact, the sole thanks to submit a website to Google directly is thru our Add uniform resource locator page or by submitting a Sitemap and you'll be able to do that yourself at no value whatever.

Be careful if a corporation is uncommunicative or will not clearly make a case for what they will do.

Ask for explanations if one thing is unclear. If associate SEO creates deceptive or dishonorable content on your behalf, like entranceway pages or "throwaway" domains, your website may well be removed entirely from Google's index. Ultimately, you're answerable for the actions of any corporations you rent, therefore it is best to take care you recognize specifically however they will "help" you. If associate SEO has FTP access to your server, they must be willing to clarify all the changes they're creating to your website.

You should ne'er need to link to associate SEO.

Avoid SEOs that bring up the ability of "free-for-all" links, link quality schemes, or submitting your website to thousands of search engines. These square measure generally useless exercises that do not have an effect on your ranking within the results of the foremost search engines -- a minimum of, not in a very approach you'd probably fancy to be positive.

Choose sagely.

While you concentrate on whether or not to travel with associate SEO, you'll wish to try and do some analysis on the business. Google is a method to try and do that, of course. you would possibly conjointly search out a number of of the cautionary tales that have appeared within the press, as well as this text on one significantly aggressive SEO: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2002002970_nwbizbriefs12.html. whereas Google does not discuss specific corporations, we've encountered corporations line of work themselves SEOs World Health Organization follow practices that square measure clearly on the far side the pale of accepted business behavior. Be careful.

Be sure to know wherever the money goes.

While Google ne'er sells higher ranking in our search results, many different search engines mix pay-per-click or pay-for-inclusion results with their regular internet search results. Some SEOs can promise to rank you extremely in search engines, however place you within the advertising section instead of within the search results. a number of SEOs can even modification their bid costs in real time to form the illusion that they "control" different search engines and may place themselves within the slot of their selection. This scam does not work with Google as a result of our advertising is clearly labelled and separated from our search results, however take care to raise any SEO you are considering that fees go toward permanent inclusion and that apply toward temporary advertising.

What square measure the foremost common abuses an internet site owner is probably going to encounter?

What square measure another things to appear out for?

There square measure a number of warning signs that you just is also managing a scalawag SEO. it is from a comprehensive list, therefore if you've got any doubts, you must trust your instincts. By all suggests that, be happy to run away if the SEO:

owns shadow domains

puts links to their different shoppers on entranceway pages

offers to sell keywords within the address bar

doesn't distinguish between actual search results and ads that seem on search results pages

guarantees ranking, however solely on obscure, long keyword phrases you'd get anyway

operates with multiple aliases or falsified WHOIS information

gets traffic from "fake" search engines, spyware, or scumware

has had domains off from Google's index or isn't itself listed in Google

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thearialligraphyproject · 7 years

Photo

We’ve talked about how you can truly own your bullet journal by including pages which focus on your health, interests, acads, etc. We’ve also checked out layouts for your weekly spread. If you’re looking to make your planner or bullet journal more colorful and creative, you’re in luck because this part of the Plan and Play series will give you tips to help you do just that!

New to the series? You can still catch up! Click here to read part one and two.

It’s the new year and I know a lot of us made a promise or formed a new year’s resolution to become more productive and organized. Hopefully, these quick tips can get you started on what you can do for yourself with your planner or bullet journal and have fun while doing it!

Decide on a color palette. You can use a color wheel to help you with this. You can play around with the tints (+ white) and shades (+ black) of the colors until you find a set that you’re happy with. Or, you can check out sites like COLOURlovers and Material Palette for some pretty amazing color palette suggestions.

For the example above, I found a poster with the words “Don’t let your emotions make you their bitch.” on a plain red background. The quote was something I figured was a good reminder at that time but I would hate to look at a big and bright red image on my planner. So I cut the words out and looked for photos with colors that would complement the image I already had at hand. I eventually went with primary colors and other colors that helped tone down the primary colors’ intensity.

Another example would be this planner spread from hell week (aka exam week; may also pertain to the week before exams or any week in school tbh). Since that time wasn’t fun for any student in my school, I went with a rather “dark” theme for my weekly spread. I like matching the color palette to my mood because it helps me depict how I am doing without verbalizing or writing it down. Like in the first planner spread, I went with bright and strong colors to show my strong emotions and to remind myself that everything written on those two pages are important and worth paying attention to.

In contrast to what I do with my planner, one more way to heighten the appeal and aesthetic of your planner or bullet journal is by having a consistent color palette. It also saves time since you already have an idea of the colors and materials you will use.

Pin it. These are the things I usually put in my planner:

I also include magazine clippings, poetry, small flowers or leaves, and washi tape. Here are ten more things you can add to decorate the pages of your planner or bullet journal:

maps

brochures (I always have a lot of them when I come back home from traveling. They help me remember the places I’ve been to and appreciate them more.)

printouts (Pinterest is a great place to find stuff to print)

planner stickers (You can find a set that I made here)

quotes

recipes

cards

the wrapping paper from gifts you received

certificates (You can always have it photocopied if you don’t want to stick the original)

labels (From clothes, food, etc.)

Make use of writing materials. If you think the photos, movie tickets, etc. that you stuck aren’t enough to liven up the pages of your planner or bullet journal, you can always turn to your writing materials! Here are some of my favorite ones:

From left to right (L-R): Stabilo Pen 68, Muji Gel Ink Pen, Stabilo Cappi, Letraset Promarker, Faber-Castell Tri-Click mechanical pencil, and Unipin Fine Line Water and Fade Proof Black Pigment Ink

I find them all great for illustrating, coloring, and outlining but of course, there are more materials out there that you should try out! Like Zebra Mildliners, which are pretty popular amongst studyblrs. Not only are they double-sided with a chisel and fine tip, they also come in a wide and unique range of colors. Sharpie pens are also worth recommending because its ink doesn’t run out easily, they have a variety of point sizes, and they come in different and beautiful colors now.

Aside from using them for your doodles, colored pens are extremely helpful in organizing your planner or bullet journal. You can have a color code for tasks like red for important and urgent, orange for not important but urgent, green for important but not urgent, and blue for not important and not urgent. This helps you differentiate all the dates, tasks, and reminders you’ve jotted down on your notebook.

Thanks for following the Plan and Play series! Stay tuned for part 3.1! I’m going to give mini-tutorials on making headers and more designs for your planner or bullet journal. 😀

#studyblr #studyspo #school #uni #college #high school #study #revision #study tips #articles #plan and play #planners #bullet journal #bullet journalling #rise and grind #thearialligraphyproject

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roland-terrasold-blog · 7 years

Text

Journal 56

We saved Sandpoint. Again. We’re well on our way to clearing Elkin’s name, too. I should feel like celebrating. I don’t. I really don’t. Things have taken a turn for the better, mostly. But I managed to really screw up in the meantime. I hurt Elkin. Badly. After the situation with his room I would have thought I’d learned my lesson about letting Unae’s panic rub off on me, but it would appear that I can’t go a day without hurting Elkin worse while trying to help him. I loathe this situation. It feels like every choice I’ve made recently has been the complete wrong decision.

I guess I should start from the beginning. After I finished writing the previous entry, I left the demiplane to see if I could find Amara. I assumed she would likely scry on me sometime early in the day since she made a point of contacting my friends, so I didn’t doubt if I went looking I’d find her fairly quickly.

Along the way I noted that the murals and statues of our group had been heavily vandalized, especially the depictions of Elkin. At the time, I considered it the first sign of the damage I’d caused by turning my back on Zalbrag.

While I examined one of the vandalized sites, Amara snuck up behind me. She’d probably intended to try to spook me, but honestly I’m so used to her eccentricities I expected something like that. What did take me by surprise was “Stumpy”. That is to say, the lich Linda mentioned. Apparently my old friend had the bright idea to track down an ancient and powerful lich and jam its phylactery into her left hand. With the right kind of magic tinkering she was able to basically bend the lich to her will. I’m none-too-comfortable with the implications of this. It’s basically enslaving another creature, albeit an evil creature that would have done a great deal of harm if left to its own devices. Knowing Amara, this was less for the noble ‘protect people from an evil lich’ aspect and more for the ‘no one’s ever tried this magic before so it’s time to experiment’ aspect. I never know whether to have respect for Amara’s scholarly ambition and boundless curiosity, or fear for what horrors she’ll almost certainly unleash someday testing experimental and morally grey magic.

I haven’t mentioned Amara in my journals before (my apologies when you read this, Amara, my magic studies just aren’t something that’ve come up). She’s a brilliant, if not eccentric, wizard whose brother Alaric is a cleric of Desna. When I first began following Sarenrae’s path, I came upon Amara being attacked by wolves and saved her, then healed her wounds by accident, as I had no idea how magic worked back then. Amara, for her part, had been running late that day and had neglected to prepare magic to defend herself, thinking the roads she’d travelled a dozen times before without incident were perfectly safe. Knowing her it’s entirely possible she stayed up until sunrise experimenting and decided to sleep in rather than prepare her magic. It wouldn’t be the first time. I suspect there wouldn’t have been much left of those wolves by the time I showed up if she had been better prepared.

Regardless, after I healed her, Amara took note that I seemed inexperienced, and offered to teach me what theoretical knowledge she had on divine magic, and what light Alaric could shine on the subject. I tried to turn her down, but she wouldn’t drop the subject. One thing lead to another, and I ended up spending nearly half a year studying both divine and arcane magic with her help. I have Amara to thank for almost every bit of magical knowledge I’ve used on this journey. I knew next to nothing about magic, whether divine or otherwise, before I met her. Even simple healing or channeling positive energy would have been beyond me if it weren’t for her. I don’t know if Amara would agree, but I feel that Sarenrae guided me to her that day.

Eventually she had to get back to her research, and I wanted to get back to traveling and following the Dawnflower’s path, so we parted ways. We’ve exchanged letters a handful of times since then, and apparently she’s been scrying in on occasion.

Anyways, Amara and I caught up a bit. She told me a little about her ventures that lead to her binding a lich to herself (that sentence will never quit being disturbing). She also mentioned that she’s working with the Pathfinders Association now, and that she was going to be joining their expedition into Hell. I was surprised to hear this, generally in the past Amara had always been a bit apathetic towards actually using her skills and knowledge for another other than hording more skills and knowledge. She made it sound like I’d inspired her to do some good with her abilities. Even though that good seems to have included binding a lich to herself (I’m not letting that go), I’m glad to hear she’s putting her skills to good use. Maybe next time we meet she’ll be the one with heroic stories to tell (and unlike me I’m sure she’ll love the spotlight).

Before I parted ways with her, I shared the formulas I’ve been sketching out in the margins of these journal entries and the location of Runeforge. I hope she’ll put my divine-arcane formulas to good use. I can only really decipher them when I’m using my Suzaku holy symbol. I think if anyone can actually crack how to mesh divine and arcane magic without the Suzaku, it’ll be Amara. As for Runeforge, that was on her insistence. I warned her of how potentially dangerous Runeforge is, that time moves differently and that there’s no guaranteed exit, but she was insistent that I give her the location for her studies when she’s back from her current expedition. I’m sure she understands what she’s getting herself into, and surely Runeforge isn’t worse than literally traveling to Hell…yet I can never help but worry.

We parted ways once again, and I returned to the ship. On the way in I spotted Ichibod leaving. I was too distracted thinking about having seen Amara again to ask him where he was going, or to consider it was a bit strange that he might wander the streets by himself. I wish I’d taken a moment to think. A lot of trouble could have been avoided if I’d stopped Ichibod right there. My second mistake of the day.

I took some time to meditate and then to train some. Eventually Unae burst into the basement of the demiplane in a panic. I don’t remember her exact words, this next part was all kind of a blur. But it boiled down to this: the sheriff wanted Elkin brought in because people were accusing him of the vandalism in town, Unae had gone to the temple of Desna to get a gift for Elkin and arrived just in time to see Ichibod get arrested for something he did, Zalbrag cornered Unae and demanded that Elkin be turned over to him, and afterwards Unae ran into Linda and Linda formed a plan she wouldn’t share involving everyone in the group dressing nicely. I tried to calm her down and talk to her about what to do, but in the end it seemed I didn’t have a firm grasp of the situation. My third mistake, because afterwards Unae asked me to talk to Elkin about it and explain the situation. With my poor understanding of what was going on, I apparently did a piss poor job of explaining the situation to him, as I later discovered. He came out of what I said thinking the main issue was Ichibod being imprisoned, while the real main issue was that two people wanted to jail Elkin as well.

Linda eventually returned and had us all dress up (except Elkin who blatantly refused). She told us that she planned to use her political standing as the new queen of Blackwell to try to keep Elkin from being jailed, as he’s technically a member of her military. I pointed out that few people knew that Blackwell even exists, but I had to admit it was a better plan than anything the rest of us had thought of. So we did as Lady Linda commanded and dressed like proper members of her court. Linda and Unae were quite stunning dressed up. They looked like true nobility. If I didn’t know better, I would never guess that the two of them were warriors who could fell creatures ten times their size. Nel and I dressed in our finest clothes as well. I don’t think I’ve ever dressed in such fine clothes. I’ve never had the money or the appropriate situation before. It’s a shame we were dressing up to fight for Elkin and Ichibod’s freedom rather than for a party of something a bit more pleasant. Maybe when they hold the parade I’ll wear them again.

Befitting of the less than pleasant situation, we had to consider that there might be a fight. Although Linda insisted we go unarmed, Nel refused to relinquish his ranseur, which he disguised as a walking staff, and Unae hid her daggers on her person. For my part, I left my blade behind but I had my holy symbol act as a pin, so that I could easily cast spells if necessary.

We finally headed out, and to my surprise we went to the church rather than to meet with Hemlock. Zalbrag cornered us here, along with a number of guards and a tied up Ichibod. He told us to hand over Elkin. Elkin bristled at this. He was under the impression that this was entirely about Ichibod. I could have sworn I told him about the vandalism, and that Zalbrag and Hemlock were looking for him, but it seemed I didn’t make myself clear in our rush. Elkin felt that we’d betrayed him, that we were going to hand him over to Zalbrag because he was inconvenient to us now.

Linda stepped in and put a stop to that, claiming sovereignty as queen of Blackwell and arguing that as a member of her army Elkin couldn’t be detained by Sandpoint or the church, especially without definitive proof that Elkin had committed the crime he was being accused of. Unae and I brought up the point that the physical evidence near the vandalism sites didn’t match Elkin’s abilities. From what Hemlock had told Unae, there were large footprints near each site, but they always vanished not far from the crime scene. Elkin doesn’t have any magic of his own, nor does he own any magical items that allow teleportation. His footprints wouldn’t have simply vanished into thin air. Zalbrag brought out that leather bound book again and claimed that if Elkin was the demon lord depicted, teleportation was an ability easily within his grasp.

I questioned why, if he truly was this terrible evil demon lord like the Cardinal claimed, Sarenrae time and again allowed me to use her power to protect and heal him. Zalbrag told me that this was a test, and I was failing. Considering what happened later…well, just remember that part for later.

Linda returned to her original plan, arguing that regardless of what the Cardinal thought Elkin may or may not be, he was still under the protection of Blackwell and had diplomatic rights. Zalbrag didn’t even hesitate, he told her that a country had to be recognized by at least two other states to be considered a true sovereignty and to be recognized has having diplomatic rights. Otherwise, he said, assuming Blackwell even exists, it was little more than a guild, and the church wouldn’t recognize Linda’s authority. A guild…on the moon.

Linda and Zalbrag argued politics for some time. I admit to getting a bit lost. Magic, religion, medicine, fighting, these things I understand well. Politics, not so much.

Eventually, Mayor Zalag and Lord Grabanath made an appearance. The newly formed city-state of Sandpoint and the long established city-state of Magnamar both recognized Blackwell as a sovereign power, and Lady Linda of Blackwell as a legitimate ruler and ally to their respective states. With that established, Zalbrag lost the right to seize Elkin from us.

However he could still take Ichibod, as he pointed out. He said that he would use his authority to have Ichibod jailed for life on charges of heresy and for attempting to modify church documents. Specifically, Ichibod had tried to sneak into the Cardinal’s office to nullify my excommunication and reinstate an official biship title instead. I found out later that Linda and Amara had helped form the original plan, and I suspect Unae was in on it as well given how she was acting the night before. Ichibod had gotten impatient and acted on his own, but if he hadn’t basically all of my companions would have been in on it.

I…have mixed feelings. I was indignant at the time. I’m still a bit angry about it, if I;m honest. I couldn’t believe the others had been going around behind my back about something that directly affected me, which they admitted to knowing I wouldn’t approve of. If they had succeeded, Zalbrag would have found out eventually and it would have incriminated me rather than any of them. So I was pretty livid with them, especially with Ichibod. On the other hand, they really were just trying to help. I don’t like how they went about it. It was illegal and poorly thought out and could have blown up in our faces (and, in fact, it did). But they really were just trying to help after how Zalbrag had been treating me and Elkin. Their hearts were in the right place. I did, however, very pointedly tell Linda and Ichibod that maybe in the future they should keep this in mind if they want to go behind the back of another member of the group, especially regarding something that directly affects them.

Zalbrag said that he would be willing to let Ichibod go in exchange for Elkin, which obviously we refused. Linda didn’t try to protect Ichibod, however, seeing as he really did break the law. It’s a bit hypocritical if she’d planned on helping to do the same thing later, but I digress.

I brought up that while Ichibod may have attempted to trespass, he did so in a temple of Desna, not Sarenrae. If anyone should have the right to hold charges, it was the priests of Desna, not Zalbrag and his followers. Zalbrag became indignant, citing the fact that he’d donated a great sum to the temple for himself and his followers to stay there, and as such he had every right to Ichibod. At this Father Zantas stepped in, Sarenrae and Desna bless him. He agreed that Zalbrag had donated a large sum to stay in the temple, but that was the extent of it, and he was dropping any charges against Ichibod. Father Zantas explained that regardless of Ichibod’s intentions, the only thing he’d actually done was try to enter a room in the temple, which he claimed he would have gladly let Ichibod into himself if he had just asked.

Without the temple backing the charges, the city guards let Ichibod go. They seemed rather happy to be rid of him, to be honest. I think he was chatting their ears off the entire time. Probably reminiscing about his own time as a city guard.

This could have been the end of it. But of course, Zalbrag had one more card up his sleeve. One of his attendants whispered something to him, and Zalbrag told us that a witness of the events the night before had come forward to testify. The person in question was Habe, the sanitarium worker we’d met many months earlier. Habe was jittery, likely because Linda was staring him down (I’m about half a foot taller than her and often the only person keeping her alive, and I’d probably hesitate if she shot me that glare). He told us that the night before he’d seen Elkin entering a store, hidden under a cloak. Later he heard a commotion outside the sanitarium, and when he looked outside he saw Elkin leaving and later found the statue nearby vandalized.

We tried to find a hole in his testimony, but before we could get far Elkin took things into his own hands. By that I mean he turned himself over, even though he didn’t do it. Zalbrag took Elkin, telling us that he would be tried at the high cathedral to Sarenrae. Just to rub salt on the wounds, he added that no one in our group would be permitted to enter, as we lacked a ranking member of the clergy. Whatever else I may think about him at this point, the Cardinal has proven he can be rather petty when angered.

After Zalbrag took Elkin away, Unae told us that she needed to talk to us in private. She had us return to the ship, where she revealed that she was able to get through to Elkin for a moment with their mental connection. He told her that if he didn’t take the fall then the two tieflings who work for Habe would be the ones blamed for the vandalism.

While we tried to discuss what to do to clear Elkin’s name without accidentally implicating his friends, Meinus arrived at the ship. Linda had sent him to try to catch Habe to see if we could get more information from him, but the man got away. Instead, Meinus had run into the two tieflings, who told us about what the two of them knew about the night before. The two of them had vandalized a single statue in frustration at how the town was treating their fellow tiefling. Elkin was out of the ship and spotted them. He took them back to the sanitarium to keep them from being caught, and the three of them spent the night drinking. They were only the cause of a single case of vandalism, the rest were someone else.

Unae kept talking with Elkin’s new friends while I talked with Linda and ichibod about how we would save Elkin. Ichibod wanted us to try to sneak into the cathedral using disguises and magic. Considering his recent track record with that, I told him absolutely not. I thought that Unae was bad at bluffing. From now on, in my opinion, Ichibod absolutely cannot be trusted with stealth.

Ichibod argued the merits of his plan, which is when he threw Linda under the carriage by telling me that she and Amara had been a part of the original plan to doctor church documents as well. I told them my thoughts about them plotting behind my back, but I couldn’t say everything I wanted before Unae popped into the conversation and let us know that Elkin’s friends had given her something to help Elkin, which she would be keeping in Linda’s bag of holding until further notice.

We went back to planning, but we weren’t getting anywhere fast. I dryly commented that I almost wished that some of Karvoug’s minions would show up, since he was likely getting impatient at how long it was taking for us to get to Xin’Shalast.

At that moment there was a sound of panic outside. Linda demanded to know what I did (hopefully joking) and we rushed outside. There was a fire and some sort of commotion outside the town wall. We ran towards the source of the smoke to see if we could help calm the situation.

Just outside the town walls was a huge pillar of fire and a smashed carriage. To one side was Cardinal Zalbrag, gravely injured and shielding a number of priests and reformed goblins with his own body. Near the smashed carriage was a huge figure: a huge hairy demon which held a hexagonal shield and a sword swathed in black flames. It was the real perpetrator of the destruction in town. And the monster was looming over Elkin, who had his shield raised to defend himself.

The creature faced us. He introduced himself as Malfeshnekor, and told us that he was the demon that Nualia had been trying to summon nearly a year prior. When we’d swayed Nualia into letting go of her wrath and seeking repentance for her actions, we’d inadvertently left this demon half-summoned and trapped in the ruins below Sandpoint. He was left weakened at the time, and he taunted us that we should have found him and killed him back then. As Sandpoint grew, he gainted a larger pool of human sin to feed off of, and was eventually able to regain a large portion of his lost power. Enough, at least, to escape the Ruins of Wrath. Now he wanted revenge on us for thwarting his original return, and to use our deaths as a sacrifice to realize his full power.

The demon summoned two enormous fire elementals and stood back to let them try to take care of us.

Meinus, Elkin, Unae, and Linda focused on the demon and his minions. In the meantime Nel and I worked to heal Cardinal Zalbrag. Even Theo borrowed some of Unae’s magic to help patch the Cardinal’s wounds. As much as I still hated him at the time, he was trying to protect innocent people from being killed and had been hurt in the process. I couldn’t turn a blind eye to his injuries.

After I finished healing Zalbrag, Ichibod cast a spell which affected everyone but Unae and Elkin. Time around us seemed to slow, although Linda surmised that it was likely that we were actually moving much faster than before. I didn’t have much time to think about it at the time, but my guess is it was a variation of the haste spell cast in a way that suited Ichibod’s time magic.

Linda took advantage of her newfound speed to attack the nearest fire elemental, which had set Meinus on fire. Nel was attacked by the other elemental, and both he and Meinus retreated to put out the flames.

In the meantime, Elkin and Unae focused on the demon. Malfeshnekor seemed to realize the danger he was in facing the two of them. He retreated and cast an invisibility spell on himself. I cursed myself for preparing neither true sight nor invisibility purge. I believed we’d be forced to try to find him, which had never worked in our favor with invisible enemies in the past.

Fortunately, I hadn’t taken one thing into account: Cardinal Zalbrag. The Cardinal asked if such magic was all the forces of darkness had to throw at us, and he cast invisibility purge, breaking through Malfeshnekor’s spell without any sign on strain.

I didn’t much want to be shown up by Zalbrag’s spell casting. I faced the elemental which had attacked Nel. Using one of my vials of holy water as a focus, I cast banishment and sent the enormous living flame back to its home plane. At the same time Linda took her usual approach with the other fire elemental and destroyed it with her axe.

This left only Malfeshnekor to deal with. Elkin charged the large demon. Backed into a corner, the demon had one final trick up his sleeve. He cast killing order on Elkin, dominating his mind and turning our friend’s blade against us.

Blessedly, we didn’t have to fight Elkin. I was prepared to try to dispel the magic controlling him, but before I could even begin casting Zalbrag cast his own spell. He activated one of his magical rings, which allowed him to magically lift the remains of the carriage and crush the demon under it like an insect. When we were skeptical that the demon had truly died from the physical wounds, Zalbrag finished the job by casting destruction on it. A pillar of holy light engulfed the demon and when it faded there was nothing left.

I am so glad we didn’t take Unae’s advice and try to kill him. There is absolutely no way we would have survived that encounter. I thought I was a fairly powerful magic user at this point. I now feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface of what magic, both divine and arcane, can really do.

With the demon gone, Zalbrag cast a mass heal spell on us and on the people he’d been protecting. There was a moment of silence between us. It was clear now who the real culprit was, but we didn’t know if Zalbrag would still try to take Elkin regardless.

Blessedly, Zalbrag had a change of heart. He told us that while he’d said before that Sarenrae had been testing me, in reality he was the one being tested, and he felt he had failed. As he put it, while he’d been paranoid of an evil within Elkin that no one could see, he’d failed to see a real evil lurking within the city. He told us that before we arrived Malfeshnekor had attacked their carriage, and Elkin had jumped in the way of an attack meant for Zalbrag, despite the treatment Elkin had received from the Cardinal over the past three days.

The Cardinal promised to revise the church’s stance on Elkin and to help fund a recreation of the lost art works in Sandpoint, this time reflecting a more accurate depiction of Elkin. He also told me that he would have me officially reinstated as a fully fledged bishop. This took me by surprise, honestly. Just an offer to not excommunicate me would have been more than enough. As much as Zalbrag’s way of going about it had been scummy, he was right that I had little working knowledge of the actual church. It would seem I’ll have to learn, sooner rather than

I’m glad that we came out of this on better terms with the Cardinal than we’d had. Writing the recent events, I still think he was overly petty and spiteful on a few occasions, but much of what he did was out of a belief he was stopping someone evil before they could do harm. I hope that he’s truly learned his lesson from this, and that next time he’ll heed the words of those who know the person he’s accusing rather than assuming that everyone else is naïve and blind. I get the feeling from our parting that he’s truly going to take the lessons he learned today to heart and quit blinding himself in mistrust because of his past, but I suppose only time will tell. Change is hard.

Unfortunately, as I implied at the start of this entry, all was not well. After the Cardinal left us, Linda went to check on Elkin to make sure he was alright after being freed from the demon’s spell. Elkin rejected her concern. He was livid with us for how we’d handled things the last few days, especially for invading his privacy that morning and causing him to believe that we were handing him over to someone who wanted him locked away or dead. Both were directly or indirectly my fault, as you may recall.

Ichibod tried to reason with Elkin in a very Ichibod way, telling him that it was stupid to think that we would ever hand him over, and that we were his friends and only wanted to help, and that we’d been fighting tooth and nail to keep him free and to clear his name. Elkin, in so many words, told Ichibod to shut it. He said he knows, and that if a logical argument was all it would take for him to calm down he wouldn’t need the ring that keeps him from going berserk. He told Ichibod that he was lucky to have never met him without the ring, because the rest of us likely had flashbacks the moment Malfeshnekor took control of Elkin. I…cannot deny that.

Elkin stormed off back to the ship, needing some more time alone. The rest of us were left outside the city walls. Linda was fuming, Unae looked hurt, and Ichibod was likely just confused and concerned. I felt like the lowest creature alive. I still do. Writing this, I can see every place where I made a misstep. Every place where I could have done something to keep from accidentally screwing Elkin over. Every place where I made the exact wrong decision. I hate it. I hate how I always manage to hurt the people I care about the most. I hate how I can’t think of anything to make this up to Elkin, to show him I’m sorry and that I didn’t intentionally hurt him. I betrayed his trust, even if unintentionally. I hurt him, even if I didn’t mean to. I don’t deserve someone like him in my life. My head is fully of white noise, I can’t think straight right now. I need to lay down.

#Journal Entry #pathfinder #Rise of the Runelords

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theonyxpath · 4 years

Link

That’s right! The Kickstarter for They Came From the Grave! starts at 2pm EDT on Tuesday the 21st, which is tomorrow as I write this.

Grave! focuses on the tropes and themes of horror films and TV shows that came out throughout the 60s and into the 70s – and because so many of them were also based in a sorta-Victorian era, we have rules for that in there too!

Travel back in time through magic or science. Relive the experiences of your ancestors ala past-lives. Play through what you found described in one of their worm-eaten journals. Or just play in that earlier time period – there are a lot of ways to time-slip in They Came From Beyond the Grave!.

If the old Universal Monsters were the first round of film horror, then the advent of Hammer Studios, American International (especially with films helmed by Roger Corman), and Amicus, plus various horror-themed TV shows, gave us a new sort of horror. Often action-packed and more physical, and always bloodier and gorier than those that came before, they also brought in a more overt sexuality.

Sometimes that manifested in kinkier characters and sometimes in (s)exploitative scenes and dialogue (and costuming). It’s said that at one point during his career working on Hammer films that Christopher Lee was receiving more fan letters from women than any other actor in Europe, no doubt helped by his notable physical presence as Dracula.

Just like in They Came From Beyond the Sea!, we take those sorts of cultural mores of the times the films were created to note and use them in ways designed to be fun to play for modern audiences.

That’s part of the core gaming experience we’re aiming at with the They Came From…! game lines. They’re designed so that you can play them “straight from the box” settings, with the option of including as much of the meta-devices as you want. For example, the Quips and Cinematics can be sparse or non-existent, or they are fired in a mile a minute in a paean to the joy of the cinematic standards of the time.

Your characters can be people of the time the game is set in, or the time the films were made, or modern people with our sensibilities and expectations. Players can deconstruct the hell out of the setting, or create an homage to the sorts of films and time periods the game lines focus on.

So, yes, the They Came From…! games provide all the needed material to go from a serious, even dark, setting all the way to a laugh-a-minute cross between riffing on old films ala Mystery Science Theater 3000 and a fill in the blanks card game. We needed to provide as much structure as possible to enable humor at the table.

Because, as they say, dying is easy, comedy is hard.

Just to give you an idea of the range I’m talking about, there are four different links below in our Onyx Path Media section. Three are to very different Actual Play sessions, and one is to the brilliant trailer for They Came From Beyond the Grave! created by filmmaker/artist/writer/cool guy Larry Blamire. Each of them present a totally accurate way to play – any one of which might be the way your table wants to play.

Check us out on Kickstarter tomorrow if ANY of that piques your interest!

Grave! illustration by Durwin Talon

What About the Buried Bones?

Well, not only was that a reference to digging up some of the inside stuff for Grave!, it was also a reference to the two Realms of Pugmire PDFs and PoDs going on sale this week!

Pirates of Pugmire will be available in PDF and PoD versions this Wednesday, even while the traditionally printed version enabled by the Kickstarter campaign is getting ready to ship from our printers to our KS fulfillers.

Then there’s Buried Bones, subtitled Creating in the Realms of Pugmire, which wasn’t attached to a KS, and contains a lot of Eddy’s thoughts on Pugmire (and the Monarchies of Mau) with background info and info on how to create adventures for the setting. It’s also coming out in PDF and physical book PoD versions on Weds.

Seems like this would be super-useful for folks planning on adding projects to the Canis Minor Community Content site!

Pirates of Pugmire illustration by Pat Loboyko

Hey, look at this:

That’s for 100,000 downloads of the Onyx Pathcast! Huge congrats to Dixie, Matthew, and Eddy for years of weekly Pathcasts exploring ours and other company’s game lines every week, taking Deep Dives into specific games (like the They Came From Beyond the Grave! one going live on Friday), their insightful interviews of industry professionals, and all the farty horns, wresting references, and digressions that they are rightly known for!

While the Terribly Terrific Trio, or the Terrifically Terrible Trio depending on your PoV, do foster a light-hearted, irreverent, and quick-witted atmosphere during the Onyx Pathcast, they do also talk about the challenges of creating artful games in the TTRPG business. From the Dreaded Deadline Doom, to the Care and Feeding of Creative Folks, to trying to stay focused on the projects you love while the world goes topsy-turvey, Eddy, Dixie, and Matthew manage to cover some serious topics without loosing that spark of fun that makes this thing of ours so special.

Again, congrats!

Titanomachy illustration by Andrea Payne

Hopefully, I can bring up this next topic as carefully as the Trio do with such things, but that’s actually the point, I guess. As a company, we’ve signed up our Onyx Path Monday Meeting crew to attend Sensitivity Training Workshops starting this Wednesday and into August.

As a group, we talk to many different people in the course of doing our jobs (nevermind non-job time), and we’d like to do that better. We’d like to be able to communicate better, and to be more aware of how we are coming across – especially as we continue to bring more diverse creators into the TTRPG biz.

Finally, if you get a chance, take a look at all those projects at press down there at the end of the project progress section! I think these are the most projects we’ve ever had finishing up printing at the same time. Some of that is, of course, due to the slow-downs in printing and shipping due to Covid-19, and some of it has been Mirthful Mike Chaney gettin’ it done!

Combined, we’re getting the decks cleared so that more projects can get finished up, and therefore more projects can get started. It’s the Circle of Life, or something like that. End of the day, we’re making the games you love set in our:

Many Worlds, One Path!

Blurbs!

Kickstarter!

They Came From Beyond the Grave!

Goes live on Tuesday the 21st at 2pm EDT!

Here’s a specially-made special trailer by the brilliant Larry Blamire:

And keep your eyes open for:

Onyx Path Media!

Congratulations on achieving over 100,000 DOWNLOADS!

This week: They Came from Beyond the Grave! Deep Dive!! (Exclamation Points!!!)

As always, this Friday’s Onyx Pathcast will be on Podbean or your favorite podcast venue! https://onyxpathcast.podbean.com/

With They Came from Beyond the Grave! coming to Kickstarter this week, let’s start off with all the actual plays and assorted videos for that game!

Over on twitch.tv/theonyxpath, Vorpal Tales are running their first campaign of They Came from Beyond the Grave! This follows their fantastic They Came from Beneath the Sea! campaign, and I really think you should check it out! Their YouTube channel has episode one right here: https://youtu.be/Q6na0WHTfjo

Meanwhile, over on YouTube, our friends at Red Moon Roleplaying have started their own They Came from Beyond the Grave! story, with their usual excellent editing, quality, and in this case, a lovely cast of players led by Director, Matthew Dawkins! Come join in and listen to the Cult of Abaddon at play: https://youtu.be/RDYzNbk7VkQ

Also on YouTube, Larry Blamire’s hilarious trailer for They Came from Beyond the Grave! has dropped and is there for your viewing pleasure. It’s a testament to the kinds of stories you can tell using this game: https://youtu.be/NP65PlAw7mI

And finally, also on YouTube, in case you missed it we have the actual play of They Came from Beyond the Grave! that Matthew ran for Rich Thomas, Ian Muller, Dixie Cochran, and B. Dave Walters. Dare you enter Karnstein Manor? https://youtu.be/qLEFXntIa3g

This week on Twitch, expect to see:

Mage 20 – Technocracy Reloaded

Scion – Behind the Screen

They Came from Beyond the Grave!

Mage: The Awakening – Occultists Anonymous

Realms of Pugmire – Pawsome Junction

Scarred Lands – Purge of the Serpentholds

Scarred Lands – Tears of the Weeping Maiden

Deviant: The Renegades – A Cautionary Tale

Get watching for some fantastic insight into how to run these wonderful games and subscribe to us on Twitch, over at twitch.tv/theonyxpath

Come take a look at our YouTube channel, youtube.com/user/theonyxpath, where you can find a whole load of videos of actual plays, dissections of our games, and more, including:

Realms of Pugmire: Paws & Claws – S2E6 https://youtu.be/oWSUZCVQhpA

Realms of Pugmire: Paws & Claws – S2E7 https://youtu.be/ThgctcL9bTY

Changeling: The Lost: Littlebrook Reunion – E22 https://youtu.be/QJZLhWW6qOs

V5: Blood City: Chicago by Night – E20 https://youtu.be/Ua7ja2F9r80

Scarred Lands: Purge of the Serpentholds – E7 https://youtu.be/ZtnVKzQQAn8

They Came from Beyond the Grave! Trailer https://youtu.be/mWTla3xEmGA

Legendlore: Lost in the Crossing – E1 https://youtu.be/twMAjrCpj3c

Legendlore: Fiction Reading https://youtu.be/Dj5Qp0aagy0

Storytellers with Coffee: Technocracy Reloaded https://youtu.be/hb44inqafmE

Subscribe to our channel and click the bell icon if you want to be notified whenever new news videos and uploads come online!

Systematic Understanding of Everything is a new Exalted Explainer Podcast by Exalted Dev Monica Speca and Exalted Writer Chazz Kellner. Check out their array of episodes (the show’s only just started!) over at http://www.exaltcast.com/

Our very own Chris Allen runs a fantastic session of Werewolf: The Forsaken here and on Twitch: https://youtu.be/XTaTf7sxnLk He’s not being violent enough with people’s eyeballs yet!

Our friends over at Near Dark Studios have just concluded their second season of V5 Chicago by Night, and you can find the entire playlist right here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhENuwZpsO7HXSuQ26MvX5uP-xqbYAwGG

Our good buddies at Vorpal Tales recently concluded their superb actual play of They Came from Beneath the Sea!, which you can find here on YouTube in full playlist form. Enjoy! https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9fUj4KdqE4Ayzfw1vrDtFY81E0uaNT2K

And Occultists Anonymous just got their latest episodes to us:

Episode 114: The Devil You Know Zolius faces a VERY upset cabal, trying to keep his own life and maintain the deal he established with them. The cabal debate the pros and cons of keeping him alive. https://youtu.be/5NavGFi9_rQ

Episode 115: Going to the Dogs As the cabal settles and makes plans after Zolius’ intrusion, Atratus takes a trip into the Shadow with Shanna. A little sightseeing on the other side of the Gauntlet. https://youtu.be/FCcenqJfxMk

Please check these out and let us know if you find or produce any actual plays of our games! We’d love to feature you!

Electronic Gaming!

As we find ways to enable our community to more easily play our games, the Onyx Dice Rolling App is live! Our dev team has been doing updates since we launched based on the excellent use-case comments by our community, and this thing is awesome! (Seriously, you need to roll 100 dice for Exalted? This app has you covered.)

We’re told that the App Dev is currently creating an updated version for the latest devices, so keep an eye open for those!

On Amazon and Barnes & Noble!

You can now read our fiction from the comfort and convenience of your Kindle (from Amazon) and Nook (from Barnes & Noble).

If you enjoy these or any other of our books, please help us by writing reviews on the site of the sales venue from which you bought it. Reviews really, really help us get folks interested in our amazing fiction!

Our selection includes these latest fiction books:

Our Sales Partners!

We’re working with Studio2 to get Pugmire and Monarchies of Mau out into stores, as well as to individuals through their online store. You can pick up the traditionally printed main book, the screen, and the official Pugmire dice through our friends there! https://studio2publishing.com/search?q=pugmire

We’ve added Prince’s Gambit to our Studio2 catalog: https://studio2publishing.com/products/prince-s-gambit-card-game

Now, we’ve added Changeling: The Lost Second Edition products to Studio2‘s store! See them here: https://studio2publishing.com/collections/all-products/changeling-the-lost

Scion 2e books and other products are available now at Studio2: https://studio2publishing.com/blogs/new-releases/scion-second-edition-book-one-origin-now-available-at-your-local-retailer-or-online

Looking for our Deluxe or Prestige Edition books? Try this link! http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Onyx-Path-Publishing/

And you can order Pugmire, Monarchies of Mau, Cavaliers of Mars, and Changeling: The Lost 2e at the same link! And now Scion Origin and Scion Hero and Trinity Continuum Core and Trinity Continuum: Aeon are available to order!

As always, you can find Onyx Path’s titles at DriveThruRPG.com!

On Sale This Week!

This Wednesday, the Pirates of Pugmire come sailing in, in PDF and PoD versions, both on DTRPG!

Large portions of the sea remain unexplored and uncharted, denying pirates the assurance of a safe journey home. If treasure is found, there’s always a hostile crew or two out there on the waves, lying in wait to raid returning ships. And twisted corpses of dead sea life animated by Unseen forces haunt the waves. It takes an extra level of grit to brave the Acid Sea. Do you have what it takes?

Pirates of Pugmire is a chronicle sourcebook for both Pugmire and Monarchies of Mau. It’s usable with either game, or as part of a joint experience.

Some highlights include:

Two new species for players to enjoy: lizards and birds

Six new callings, including two for dogs and two for cats

Rules for building, sailing, and sinking ships

A trove of new allies, enemies, and treasures

Information on Waterdog Port and Port Matthew

“Going on the Account,” a chronicle of three new adventures, taking characters from 1st through 6th level

For more Realms of Pugmire good-dog-ness, Pugmire Buried Bones, a guide to Creating in the Realms of Pugmire is also available this Weds on DTRPG in PDF and physical book PoD versions!

Collecting a variety of internal documents, email exchanges, blog posts, and community content projects, Buried Bones is the ultimate guide to creating in the Realms of Pugmire. Whether you’re making your own products for the Canis Minor community content program, want to make your personal Pugmire chronicle as accurate as possible, or are just interested in some of the behind-the-scenes details of the world, Buried Bones is the book to read!

Buried Bones includes:

A number of blogs related to the Realms of Pugmire, rewritten for this edition.

A handy guide to help people convert material from the 5e OGL to Pugmire or Monarchies of Mau.

Answers to frequently asked questions about the lore of the world and the mechanics of the RPGs.

Conventions!

Though dates for physical conventions are subject to change due to the current COVID-19 outbreak, here’s what’s left of our current list of upcoming conventions (and really, we’re just waiting for this last one to be cancelled even though it’s Nov/Dec). Instead, keep an eye out here for more virtual conventions we’re going to be involved with:

PAX Unplugged: https://unplugged.paxsite.com/

Keep an eye out for our games being run at the online version of GenCon at the end of the month, as well as our What’s Up With the Onyx Path? panel currently slated for 1pm, Thursday July 30th!

https://www.gencon.com/online/

And now, the new project status updates!

Development Status from Eddy Webb! (Projects in bold have changed status since last week.):

First Draft (The first phase of a project that is about the work being done by writers, not dev prep.)

Exalted Essay Collection (Exalted)

The Devoted Companion (Deviant: The Renegades)

Saints and Monsters (Scion 2nd Edition)

Trinity Continuum: Anima

M20 Technocracy Operative’s Dossier (Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary)

Squeaks In The Deep (Realms of Pugmire)

Prometheus Unbound (was Psi Orders) (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

No Gods, No Masters (Scion 2nd Edition)

Redlines

Dragon-Blooded Novella #2 (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Exalted Essence Edition (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Wild Hunt (Scion 2nd Edition)

CtL 2e Novella Collection: Hollow Courts (Changeling: The Lost 2e)

Adversaries of the Righteous (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Second Draft

Many-Faced Strangers – Lunars Companion (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Contagion Chronicle Ready-Made Characters (Chronicles of Darkness)

Trinity Continuum: Adventure! core (Trinity Continuum: Adventure!)

Dead Man’s Rust (Scarred Lands)

The Clades Companion (Deviant: The Renegades)

V5 Forbidden Religions (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

M20 Rich Bastard’s Guide To Magick (Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary)

V5 Children of the Blood (was The Faithful Undead) (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

Dystopia Rising: Evolution Fiction Anthology (Dystopia Rising: Evolution)

Hundred Devil’s Night Parade (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Novas Worldwide (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Development

TC: Aberrant Reference Screen (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Across the Eight Directions (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Contagion Chronicle: Global Outbreaks (Chronicles of Darkness)

Exigents (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Assassins (Trinity Continuum Core)

V5 Trails of Ash and Bone (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

Kith and Kin (Changeling: The Lost 2e)

Mission Statements (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Manuscript Approval

Crucible of Legends (Exalted 3rd Edition)

M20 Victorian Mage (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

Under Alien Skies (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Post-Approval Development

Editing

Lunars Novella (Rosenberg) (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition core rulebook (Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition)

Player’s Guide to the Contagion Chronicle (Chronicles of Darkness)

Contagion Chronicle Jumpstart (Chronicles of Darkness)

TC: Aberrant Jumpstart (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Trinity Continuum Jumpstart (Trinity Continuum)

LARP Rules (Scion 2nd Edition)

Heirs to the Shogunate (Exalted 3rd Edition)

The Book of Lasting Death (Mummy: The Curse 2e)

They Came From Beyond the Grave! (They Came From!)

Scion: Dragon (Scion 2nd Edition)

Scion: Demigod (Scion 2nd Edition)

Dearly Bleak – Novella (Deviant: The Renegades)

N!ternational Wrestling Entertainment (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Post-Editing Development

City of the Towered Tombs (Cavaliers of Mars)

W20 Shattered Dreams Gift Cards (Werewolf: The Apocalypse 20th)

Cults of the Blood Gods (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

Hunter: The Vigil 2e core (Hunter: The Vigil 2nd Edition)

Trinity Continuum: Aberrant core (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Deviant: The Renegades (Deviant: The Renegades)

Monsters of the Deep (They Came From Beneath the Sea!)

Legendlore core book (Legendlore)

Pirates of Pugmire KS-Added Adventure (Realms of Pugmire)

Tales of Aquatic Terror (They Came From Beneath the Sea!)

Terra Firma (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

One Foot in the Grave Jumpstart (Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2e)

Masks of the Mythos (Scion 2nd Edition)

Indexing

Lunars: Fangs At The Gate (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Art Direction from Mike Chaney!

In Art Direction

Tales of Aquatic Terror – Off to LeBlanc.

WoD Ghost Hunters (KS)

Aberrant – AD’d. Meredith is helping with keeping track of all the artists.

Hunter: The Vigil 2e – Full art notes are in.

Mummy 2

Deviant – Sam doing fulls for this next.

Legendlore

Technocracy Reloaded

Cults of the Blood God – Rolling along.

Scion: Dragon (KS)

Masks of the Mythos (KS) – Getting notes over to Cover guy. Pinging a couple of artists about fulls. Talking to Tucker about doing some of the dreamy stuff.

Scion: Demigod (KS) – KS art in progress. Fulls progressing. Halves progressing. Getting a few more halves rolling on that.

They Came From Beyond the Grave! (KS) – Ready for KS Tuesday.

TC: Adventure! (KS) – Cover is in.

Geist: One Foot In the Grave – AD’d, art is rolling.

In Layout

Yugman’s Guide to Ghelspad

Vigil Watch

TC Aeon Terra Firma – With Josh.

V5 Let the Streets Run Red – continued working it.

Pugmire Adventure – small project, knocking the layout together.

Scion Titanomachy

Trinity Core Jumpstart

Proofing

Trinity Aeon Jumpstart – PoD files updated.

Lunars: Fangs at the Gate – Indexing.

Cavaliers of Mars: City of the Towered Tombs

Magic Item Decks (Scarred Lands)

Yugman’s Guide Support Decks (Scarred Lands)

At Press

TCFBTS Heroic Land Dwellers – PoD proof on the way.

TCFBTS Screen and Booklet – Files at press.

They Came from Beneath the Sea! – Press proofs signed off on, PoD proofs ordered.

Pirates of Pugmire – Traditionally printed books almost ready to ship to the shipper. PDF and PoD versions on sales this Weds.

Pirates of Pugmire Screen – Files at press.

Pugmire Buried Bones – PDF and PoD versions on sales this Weds.

Dark Eras 2 – Files at press.

Dark Eras 2 Screen and booklet – Files at press.

Changeling: The Lost 2nd Edition Dark Eras Compilation

Contagion Chronicle – Press prep.

Contagion Chronicle Screen and Booklet – Files at press.

Lunars Wall Scroll Map – Files at press.

Lunars Screen and Booklet – Files at press.

Scarred Lands Creature Collection – Press proof signed off on.

Scion Companion – PoD proofs ordered.

Today’s Reason to Celebrate!

One small step for a man: in 1969 Apollo 11’s crew successfully makes the first manned landing on the Moon in the Sea of Tranquility. Americans Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin become the first humans to walk on the Moon six and a half hours later.

Which we reference in a bunch of our games, but for me, it’s a strong childhood memory of watching the moonwalk on the small, scratchy, b&w TV we moved into my parent’s bedroom. They had the only room AC (it would take years before we could afford to catch up to the other houses in the neighborhood and get full-house AC) and it was a hot and humid Philly July night. Right before the news broke in with the Special Broadcast, Jerry Lewis’s The Nutty Professor was on (I think it was Channel 10, Philly folks), and I was afraid of the transformation scenes.

Our parents tried to impress on us the importance of what we were seeing, but it was near midnight, and it was all we could do to stay awake that far. After the single greatest achievement mankind had achieved in surpassing the bounds of Earth, we just wanted to get to sleep. Yet, I still remember it all as it happened.

#Onyx Path Publishing

0 notes

tamboradventure · 4 years

Text

Our New Blogging & Writing Masterclasses!

Posted: 4/8/20 | April 8th, 2020

With the COVID-19 pandemic in full swing, being safe and self-isolating at home means we now have a lot of time to learn new skills. Suddenly, the one thing we have is time. I’m finally getting through the online courses I’ve purchased over the years and my friends at Teachable told they’ve seen usage of their platform go through the roof.

This is an excellent time to learn something new.

While we’ve always had courses, we’ve decided to completely change them – and do something completely different than what you see online.

There’s plenty of free information and courses you can take on your own. You can Google anything and watch a YouTube video on any skill.

Information is a commodity.

But information alone is never enough. Education does not happen in a bubble.

Learning new skills is most effective when you get feedback and guidance.

Think of your skills.

The ones you learned best probably involved the help of teachers who used their deeper experience to give you advice and guidance.

Instead of just dumping information in your lap and saying “good luck”, we’ve changed our courses into actual ongoing training classes. While we always provided feedback, we’re taking that up a notch. Now, our courses are now monthly memberships that provide:

Tech support for your blog (you break it, we fix it)

Edits and feedback on your writing

Weekly Q&A office hours (ask us anything)

A community forum to network with your coursemates

Unlimited email support

What separates our program from the other “blogging courses” you find online is that we’re not just going to give you information, we’re gonna be there to show you how to use it, help you fix any mistakes, provide hands-on feedback and strategy tips so you improve your skills and your business.

This is a class with full access to us.

Our writing course, Superstar Writing, is co-taught by David Farley, a professor of writing at NYU and Columbia University who has been featured in The New York Times, National Geographic, Condé Nast Traveler, and The Wall Street Journal, among other publications.

This course gets into the nitty-gritty of becoming a better writer. You’ll learn about structure, dialogue, self-editing, and how to craft evocative sensory descriptions that pull your reader in and keep them wanting more.

We’ll help you come up with story ideas, pitches for editors, and book proposals as well as give you sample proposals, emails, and scripts you can use. Plus, we have over a dozen hours of interviews with other expert writers who share their wisdom for you.

And, since writing is not taught in a bubble, David and I will give you feedback and edits on your writing for as long as you’re a member. We’ll read your story, provide notes, and copyedit it until you feel you’re ready to self-edit without us.

Additionally, David will be having online office hours twice a month, where you’ll be able to ask him questions directly.

And, our flagship course, Superstar Blogging, now goes even deeper into online business and marketing. In this course, using plenty of screenshots, I take you behind the scenes of my website and give you all my tips, tricks, and secrets to running a successful blog. I’ll show you how I create products, grow my email list, make money with affiliates, write sales pages, network in and out of travel, get media coverage, and much more. I share our metrics and strategies and take you behind the scenes on what we do.

But, as mentioned, information alone is never enough.

So, with our course, you’ll also get help from my team and me. You’ll get ongoing tech support (our motto is “you break it, we fix it”), weekly Q&As with me (where we’ll go over your problems and troubleshoot anything you need), editing feedback on your blogs, and strategy emails from me.

Moreover, we have a community forum where you can talk to your fellow students, ask questions, network, exchange guest posts, and conduct other collaborations.

My team and I are going to be fully hands-on to help you develop the skills you need to build a successful online business.

Both courses are $49 per month or $450 per year (a 23% discount). You can cancel anytime. No questions asked. And we have a 14 day trial period where you can test out the program risk-free!

And, right now, we’re offing a discount on both courses. You’ll get 50% off your monthly membership (saving $75) or $75 off the price of the yearly membership!

You can sign up for the writing masterclass here or the blogging masterclass here.

Too many courses out there are just content dumps. It’s time for something different.

If you’re ready for a new plan, join our programs. If you want someone to show you how to make sense of the firehose of information online, we’re here to help.

I’ve been writing and running online businesses for twelve years and want to teach you what I’ve learned, so you can get started on the right foot.

See you in class!

And, if you have any questions, leave them in the comments.

– Nomadic Matt

Book Your Trip: Logistical Tips and Tricks

Book Your Flight Find a cheap flight by using Skyscanner or Momondo. They are my two favorite search engines, because they search websites and airlines around the globe so you always know no stone is being left unturned.

Book Your Accommodation You can book your hostel with Hostelworld as they have the largest inventory. If you want to stay somewhere other than a hostel, use Booking.com, as they consistently return the cheapest rates for guesthouses and hotels. I use them all the time.

Don’t Forget Travel Insurance Travel insurance will protect you against illness, injury, theft, and cancellations. It’s comprehensive protection in case anything goes wrong. I never go on a trip without it, as I’ve had to use it many times in the past. I’ve been using World Nomads for ten years. My favorite companies that offer the best service and value are:

World Nomads (for everyone below 70)

Insure My Trip (for those 70 and over)

Looking for the best companies to save money with? Check out my resource page for the best companies to use when you travel! I list all those I use — and they’ll save you time and money too!

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Adventure Blog WordPress Themes | Templified

New Post has been published on https://templified.com/adventure-blog-wordpress-themes/

Adventure Blog WordPress Themes

For world travelers and travel bloggers, there’s a lot of different WordPress themes that could be perfect for your website. We’ve created this collection of Adventure blog WordPress themes to help give you a big selection of themes that might be perfect for helping to build you’re website. You want something fast loading, something with a great style and tons of features to make the right impression and to help grow traffic to your blog. You may also be interested in these adventure journal WordPress themes, since they’re pretty closely related. No matter which of these theme collections you prefer, you’re going to get a very high quality theme, one with everything you need to make your blog a massive success.

We’ve search high and low to create a great looking, memorable collection of adventure blog WordPress themes. These themes are perfect for travel bloggers who want to show off amazing images, highlight and blog about recent trips or upcoming plans and more.

So, here we go, the very blogs themes for adventure websites.

First on our list is a classic looking adventure blog theme called Go. This modern, gorgeous WordPress theme is ideal for travel and tourism blogs, websites that cater to travel and adventure. The clean, simple style works great no matter where the destination is. If you absolutely love to travel and want to explore and discover what there is to see on every corner of the world, Go is a theme that’s made for you. This theme has all the essential functions and features that make it a perfect system for booking services like hotels, resorts, events, honeymoons, package tours, cruises and more. Travel agencies, tour operators, tour companies and more will absolutely love the Go WordPress theme. Go is even WooCommerce friendly, so you can sell products on your website. Something of a rarity with travel blog and adventure blog templates. Check it out to learn more below.