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elvenbeard · 8 months

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I was at Phantom Liberty Tour Cologne and this is how it went!

Img: A screen showing Johnny Silverhand with tickets to the Phantom Liberty Tour Cologne and the title "Phantom Liberty Tour - 25. August 2023 Köln"

The following is 100% an expression of my personal views! I experienced the Phantom Liberty Tour event in Cologne as overall extremely positive, I had been very hyped about it in the weeks and days before, and CDPR did not disappoint me in any way shape or form with what they put together! For transparency, I didn’t have to pay for anything beyond my own travel costs and accommodation, everything else was included solely in my application for the event being accepted.

This post is intended as a way to give a glimpse into the experience to everyone who couldn’t go or whose application wasn’t accepted -and I just wanted to share my thoughts xD It was a very small and exclusive event with very limited tickets, and I still feel super priviliged to have been able to go there. I’m aiming to share my experience with everyone reading this now and give you at least a little peek behind the scenes of it all!

We didn’t have to sign any NDAs or such, we only weren’t allowed to take pics/videos or make audio recordings of the showcased gameplay!

If you’re also going to one of the upcoming events in your respective countries, maybe wait reading this until you’ve been there to not ruin any potential surprises! And also, if you don’t wanna be spoilered about anything Phantom Liberty as such, meaning, the actual game and story, but still wanna know about what the event was like: I will put a warning onto sections that contain spoilers for the gameplay, so you can skip those!

How me and my sibling even got invited in the first place

I only learned about this event more or less on accident when my sibling sent me a screenshot of an Instagram post about it XD So, big props to them for giving us both this chance! XD That was back in May, the post said “tell us why we should invite you to the PL tour in Cologne” in its sign-up form. I did, and then waited patiently to maybe hear back from them. Originally, after sending my submission, I received a reply saying that “if you’re invited, we (CDPR organizer team) will get back to you until August 4th “. In my submission I wrote something along the lines of that I’m relatively new to the game and fandom, but it quickly evolved into my new favourite video game and unlocked so much creativity for me, so that I’m making my own mods for it now, create art, and write. My sibling was a fan of the first hour, preordered the Collector’s Edition for PS4 back then, and now we can both simultaneously get hyped for Phantom Liberty. It would be an amazing opportunity if we could also attend this event together!

When I hadn’t heard back by then I accepted that I hadn’t been selected, was a bit sad, but it was alright. But then, a few days later while I was at work, I got an email with the headline “Hey Choomba” and I was like wtf? So, turns out, due to the insane amount of submissions they pushed back the notification day about a week. Around 1,500 people sent applications that the organizers all looked at individually, and only around 250 guests plus team members and special guests were actually present that night. I didn’t know about the delay in response, because I’m not active on social media beyond Tumblr… lemme tell you though, that was such a nice surprise, and I was super happy and would’ve been none the wiser had I not been picked xD

Due to the shorter timeframe though it was now a little harder to find a hotel still, as the PL Tour took place during Gamescom week. So, half of Gaming Europe was already in Cologne for that convention and hotels were scarce. On the one hand, it obviously made sense they put the date this weekend, so the devs already in Cologne anyway could swing by with ease. On the other hand, if you were, like me, definitely not from Cologne or the general area, a little more prep time ahead would’ve been nice.

Still though, my sibling and I still found a somewhat reasonable hotel and drove to Cologne in the early morning hours of August 25th!

Img: The door to the venue with a bright red "Phantom Liberty Tour" banner above the entrance

(cont. below the cut, long post with many pics, beware!)

The Venue, the Queue, the Delay, the Tickets

The sole information we had in advance was an address, to bring our ID cards as they’d make sure we are on the guest list and are 18+ years old. The event would start at 6pm and last until 12am. It said that "cosplays are very much appreciated" so I went in casual cosplay as Vince, because why the hell not XD But that was it in terms of what we knew about what was going to happen.

At around 5.20 p.m. we were at the location given to us via E-Mail. Parking was eh, but alright, we found a space close by, and as we drove past the venue, they were just in process of setting up their flag and banner. So yay, we’re in the right place! :D

Img: The black CDPR flag above the entrance :3

I was so fucking hyped, I couldn’t last in the car a second longer, so we just joined the queue and waited despite the occasional rain shower. We got talking a little bit with the people around us, there were some fellow modders, everyone was wearing some kind of merch, there were lots of fantastic cosplayers, too! Miles Tost, CDPR level design, was there and briefly talked to us all waiting patiently. Then we were informed that sadly there would be a little bit of a delay. I think at around 6.30 or so the queue finally started moving and at around 7 my sibling and I were inside the venue :D The reason of the delay is and was unclear, we learned later though that the guy responsible for the organization had set up something like this for the first time iirc, and therefore I’ll happily forgive the slight delay. Overall, the night was fantastic and I sure as hell couldn’t have done it better!

After checking our IDs, the lovely people by the entrance handed us our numbered tickets! One of the staff then asked us if we’d already played Phantom Liberty at Gamescom, which we hadn’t, so we also received one of those yellow plastic throwaway bracelets. Those who had already played it got a red one. The reasoning here was that they only had a small play area upstairs, so not everyone would be getting a chance to play the demo of the game, and people who hadn’t seen it yet would be preferred, to keep things fair. During the night some people with yellow bracelets would then be randomly approached by a member of the team and invited upstairs with a “mystery ticket”. I sadly didn’t get to play the game myself, neither my sibling, but we still got to see the gameplay anyway :3 We’ll get to that in a minute.

Img: Mine and my sibling's tickets, front and backside respectively; the bottom text on the backside says "be careful not to damage this section as you may still need it over the course of the night!", both tickets feature prominent circuit board and barcode designs

CDPR also invited us to free drinks with little tokens, and there was a broad selection of non-alcoholic and alcoholic beverages at a small bar! I would’ve loved for there to be something like a Johnny Silverhand or Jackie Welles to order, but I guess it wasn’t the Afterlife after all. Still though, free drinks, even if generic, pretty cool :D

Activities within the Venue

While we were queuing outside still, we’d also heard about various activities that had been offered at the Warsaw station of the tour, and those were different from what we could do in Cologne!

After receiving our tickets and everything we were free to explore the location for a bit, as the actual show wouldn’t start until 8pm (originally 7 pm but well… delays :D).

There was the main floor with a big, convention center style setup with rows of chairs and some bar tables. There was the huge screen, the bar, and a really cool netrunner chair for taking pictures that the cosplayers rightfully loved :D On the left side were also a small Xbox play area where you could test out some Xbox game pass games XD The event had tons of sponsors contributing something cool.

Img: The main area of the venue right before the show begins, an industrial-style interior with bright red and white lights, and many people looking at a big screen at the wall featuring Johnny and a welcome text in German and English respectively

Next door was a little secluded area for a podcast to be recorded later during the night, as well as a booth where visitors could record video messages for the devs (I missed my chance here and that’s what I regret most about not doing during that night ;A; but I think/hope a lot of others present seized the opportunity to send some love to Poland for this amazing game and team <3).

Img: A small square room with four high-end gaming PC stations sponsored by NVIDIA; the screens are currently showing the main menu screen of Cyberpunk 2077 - can I just take one of these home with me please?

Then there was the upstairs area with the gaming corner, as well as another little recording studio set up by an independent German filmmaker team who were documenting the development of Phantom Liberty! We could’ve also contributed to that, if we had wished to, but I preferred to stay behind the camera this time around xD Looking forward to watching the documentary though once it’s out!

Img: a Netrunner chair replica surrounded by screens and gadgets

There was also an outdoors courtyard area serving as a chillout zone with food (vegetarian options available) and a really cool live medieval folk band playing songs from the Witcher OST :D The various walls on the inside were decorated with photos showcasing German cosplayers and works of fan artists, and those of them who were there that night were allowed to take their photos home as a little extra special keepsake!

Community Love

The community love was so, so real and despite being comparatively new to the game and fandom still I felt super at home and comfortable and welcome. Kind of like, “I’m in the right place”, if that makes sense XD

Speaking of community… while we were still outside in the queue my sibling pointed out to me that there was a Kerry cosplayer in the line behind us, and lemme tell you, I was fucking hyped and made it my mission to greet them over the course of the evening xD I’ve been to a few smaller, less gaming-focused cons this year and there were few Cyberpunk cosplayers, no Kerry so far, so this was my chance!

Turns out, the Kerry in question was none other than fantastic @ophani (you can follow her on Instagram as well and check out what she’s working on atm!) who had been one of the first Cyberpunk people I’d ever followed on tumblr after becoming more involved in the fandom xD So yeah, the fanboy moment was even more real once I’d realized that. Also, there with her, amongst others, was @korribancosplay (also on Instagram!! Go check out his fantastic work <3) who actually recognized me first for being there looking sorta like Vince. He recognized that specific V with that hair and tattoos from my art xD I was like whaaaah! Honestly, that was my highlight of the night hands down in regards to meeting fellow fans :D Again, big shoutout to you two for the lovely conversation and everything, we’ll definitely stay in touch, and I hope I can venture over to NRW again in the future to meet up! xD

Img: Left, ophani as Kerry Eurodyne in his 2023 appearance <3, right, korribancosplay as Goro Takemura - I wish I'd brought a proper camera, blurry phone pics that I tried to somehow save through editing ftw :D

There were a lot of other amazing cosplayers, accompanying the two mentioned, and others as well that I didn’t all get to talk to but yeah… it was amazing seeing them all regardless and the love everyone poured into their costumes! Really got me hyped about getting back into cosplaying as well!

Let the Show Begin

But then it was finally 8pm and everyone gathered in the main showcase area.

None other than male V’s German VA Björn Schalla opened the show with a little speech (“I guess I don’t have to say who’s speaking right now”). That already sealed the deal for me in terms of “okay yeah, CDPR not playing games (figuratively), this is gonna be an amazing night if literal fucking Voice-of-V is here as a special guest”.

Then the German community managers joined for a little introduction and walkthrough of the schedule, as well as all the devs and CDPR team members present for the night came on stage to kick off the event officially with a big selfie. Shame on me for not really knowing who exactly everyone was, I’m too new and not as well versed in the who-is-who yet, but there were some very big names that people got super excited about so o.o

Img: Left, Björn Schalla aka German voice of male V, giving a little introduction speech reading out loud some randomly picked names from the guest list; right, the CDPR team and devs at the venue on stage together

Pretty much immediately afterwards, Miles Tost came back on stage, and we got to experience about an hour of gameplay of Phantom Liberty! If you don’t want spoilers for the expansion, skip the next section until the “Spoilers end here” line! I will try not to take too much away, but I want to give an honest and thorough review of what I’ve seen!

SPOILERS START HERE

The Game Showcase – Public Demo

The way this worked was, Miles stood on the front stage and narrated through the gameplay shown on the big screen, while the German community manager (iirc) Ryan played the game following a predetermined route I assume. He very strictly showed specific features, locations, and took a few very specific dialogue choices, always omitting the blue optional ones and just going with one of the generic yellow ones. The V in the demo was a male corpo, and Ryan never chose any of the plentily available Corpo dialogue options (and I’m very thankful for that, so we as players get to explore those ourselves somewhere further down the line :3).

Miles mentioned that the build shown to us was around three months old, and the first half hour of the game we saw revolved around Songbird guiding V through Dogtown prior to Myers’ plane crashing. They showed some minor NPCs running shops, the new Ripperdoc interface, and so on and so forth. I liked the new Ripperdoc animation but would’ve loved it to be even more expansive than it was in that build XD It was more a “sits down, selects cyberware to buy, then sits back up again after a short black screen, wiggles briefly then ventures forth” moment. Not comparable to the first scene with Viktor, when V gets their optics installed in the main game, but it still adds a little immersion!

V was also wearing very funky purple tights (the same level of tightness as a netrunner suit, but textured sort of like crocodile leather? I have a mighty need for them), and very sporty white sneakers that I also didn’t recognize from the main game. Everyone in the room very much loved his extravagant fashion sense XDD

So far so good, V walks through Dogtown a bit more and has some fun banter with Songbird who is not there physically, but also not quite on the phone… Then the president crashes into Dogtown kind of how it was shown in one of the trailers, and V has to go and save her, obviously, fighting Kurt Hansens forces! Up until this point of getting to and saving Myers from the wreckage was part of the publicly available demo that could also be tested at Gamescom and that I think was also showcased in recent dev streams.

The Game Showcase – Extended Demo

BUT THEN we got to a screen that said “extended demo unlocked” and got to experience some more, so far unseen content!

There was a bit of a time skip, V now traveling with President Myers and trying to get her to safety. Then we quickly got to a scene I had been kind of anxious about: V having to take an oath to become a special agent working for the NUSA. Thankfully though: you didn’t actually have to take the oath as shown in the trailer, and I was relieved, because being forced to do that that would’ve ended the expansion for my V then and there XD You still get to work for Myers though, and then V actually ventured out to find Solomon Reed! :O

We got to see quite a bit more of Dogtown, which is much bigger than I had assumed o.o Like, big buildings, proper streets, etc. etc. - not massive, but also not small! It seemed to sort of seamlessly blend into Pacifica, maybe… But in the showcase we didn’t venture far enough to the limits of the area to really be able to tell how exactly it is integrated into the world. Also, no visuals on the new Badlands areas or anything beyond this little story mission, but I think for a showcase like this that would’ve been too much! Mr. Hands called about a gig though that he maybe shouldn’t have, interrupting Miles' speech a little XD I don’t recall the exact details, but it sounded like a "SOS: Merc needed" type gig. I’m super excited about that, too, there's tons to do in this area!

They also showed the new phone interface, as well as the completely reworked skill trees, which is something @darcidarlin asked me about!

For the phone interface I’m so so thankful! It was so much bigger and organized, much easier to handle and read.

About the skill trees I’m super torn in a way… they’re different and simpler now, but sometimes simpler isn’t necessarily better imo. I’m used to my current build and skills, I like the attributes, and I don’t really see yet how my old playstyle is gonna translate into this new version. Basically, what they did (or at least how it seemed to me) was replace the attributes with "Skills". There is a "Relic" skill, an "Edgerunner" skill, and so forth, at least I saw nothing labelled "Cool", "Strength", "Tech" in the way I'm used to, but the glimpse we got was too short and superficial to really get a good idea of the new menu layout and contents.

The combat they showcased looked very fun, but it was all very centered around hands-on fighting, guns, swords, heavy cyberware. They showed very little stealth and no hacking/tech, and me being a predominantly stealth/hacking/tech player I was a bit “meh” and beginning to wonder if I’ll still have fun with what’s to come in the same way I do now. They kinda quickly flicked through the skill trees and I almost had the impression they completely remodelled Tech into a Cyberware skillset now, with armor fully tied to cyberware as well… I really don’t know XD Right now I can do a tech-heavy build without getting chromed up to my teeth, and I’d like to keep it that way… But I’m not sure if it’ll still work out like this in 2.0. Not much info on Cyberpsychosis either, only that again, with Tech perks, you can increase your threshold in terms of how much chrome V can stuff into their body before suffering an "overload". My low-on-chrome but otherwise tech-loving V is crying a little bit about this change XD

But yeah, this build was 3 months old. And my impression of the skills way waaaay to brief, so it's likely I'm getting upset about nothing XD Specifically for getting a closer look at combat and skills I would’ve needed to test the game out myself, so take everything about this with a big grain of salt!

Next up Ryan made a savegame and they showed the reworked police system a bit. Calling his vehicle in the middle of Dogtown was hilariously difficult, as it kept glitching and crashing into some parked cars the AI just didn’t seem to recognize, always ending up lying on its roof xD Miles joked “Oh no, some glitches just persist no matter what we do… but I bet your car can’t do this!”

Once Ryan had finally managed to get into his car though he started shooting. When you commit crimes in Dogtown, the NCPD will actually not come after your ass, but instead Kurt Hansen’s Barghest, which is neat! They are similarly equipped and will put up a bit of a fight for sure. There is now basically a 5-star system like I know it from GTA, and as soon as you reach 5, MaxTac will show up and whoop your ass. And man, they did not mess around XD MaxTac is not unbeatable, V put up quite the fight and managed to take down a couple of them, but in the end he got overwhelmed and taken down xD It did take a considerable amount of effort and destruction and killing though to even get to five stars, so much so that both Miles and Ryan were getting a bit desperate about it taking so long. So yeah, you really kinda have to put some actual effort into even getting MaxTac’s attention was my impression, and I do like that a lot to keep it balanced!

After this little demonstration of the police system, V went on to find Solomon Reed and damn, the first encounter with him is so fucking cool… I will not spoiler it here, because yeah. Wait and see! I really loved it, Spy-Thriller vibes over 9000, they definitely hit the mark on that XD

There is also so so so so much lovely new banter with Johnny. He was very present throughout this second part of the demo and had a lot to say on his past as a soldier, which I was really hoping for!! So, I’m definitely looking forward to seeing how deep it’s gonna get and even more so how it’s gonna end o.o

So much though to the gameplay I saw and my impression on it! There are more details I can share on request, so hmu via DM or ask if you wanna know more! There definitely were a lot of little choices in dialogues, and there seem to be a lot of choices that you can mess up that then have consequences, too :o High risk, high reward vibes, fitting for the high stakes this story seems to have.

One other random sidenote: the music is insanely beautiful o.o There was a new sort of action-packed background track for finding President Myers in Dogtown. And at the end of the demo there was another new song playing that was sort of… “dreamy, but in a dreadful way” sounding? A female vocalist, no actual lyrics, electronic music with similar vibes to the “V” main menu song, but quieter and calmer and sadder. My sibling found it annoying after a while XD But I really enjoyed it, and I kind feel like it could’ve been Songbird’s theme!

I got a question by @cheapcheapfaker about updated character models and animations that kinda fit into this section of the post! So… sadly I cannot answer it for sure because we only got to see the expansion characters and never ventured out of Dogtown (and I didn’t get to play the game myself to test out if it would’ve been possible to go and meet somebody else). What I can say is, I personally didn’t notice much of an update of Johnny’s appearance or facial animations at all actually. I know others did in regard to the same build of the game I got to see. There was no opportunity to ask, and a lot of questions that went sort of deeper into the territory of technical or story stuff, Miles wasn’t allowed to answer at that point. I think they played the game on the highest graphics settings, too, with path tracing on, which was also was something I’m not used to seeing with my rig. Johnny looked somewhat different to me actually, but not in an improved or updated way, more in a higher/different settings way.

What was confirmed during the Q&A though that followed on a different topic later (I made a post about it here already), was that they did go back and fix some voice lines in the main game that turned out weird in the German dub. And I read somewhere else before that “no system was untouched” for making Update 2.0, so maybe the other characters also received some minor updates and final polish. But nothing concrete sadly that was said or came up during my experience of the evening!

SPOILERS END HERE

Meet and Greet with German V

After the showcase of the game was over and some people had received mystery tickets to test Phantom Liberty on their own time, the crowd dispersed across the venue for a variety of activities. I tried to get into the “leave a message to the devs” booth, but it was occupied quite permanently, so I went back and then sat and waited for the Q&A, because that was super-duper down my alley, and I wouldn’t have wanted to miss it. In the podcast room next door some devs had come together to talk a bit more about the expansion as such, too, including Miles.

I had to gather all the fucking courage in my body, and I think being sorta sleep deprived and pumped full of adrenaline helped, but before the Q&A started, I went up to Björn to ask for an autograph and we very briefly talked. I got to tell him that I loved the way he played V so so much, lol XD I wasn’t very coherent, but he was very kind and funny, super chill guy!

Img: My ticket now signed "Für Elven, von 'V'" and Björn Schalla's autograph - need to get a fancy frame for it asap xD

I’m so glad that after the Q&A, of which you can find the detailed content in this separate post I made already, I went up again to get a pic done with him and Localization Director Mikolaj! :D So yes, this was definitely my personal highlight of the evening’s program, maybe even more so than seeing the new exclusive gameplay!

Img: Left, the Q&A with Björn and Mikolaj, right, Mikolaj and me and Björn XD

Raffle and Goodies

Towards the end of the night the live band that had been playing outside joined us in the main room (because, of course, the neighbors had complained about the noise… the peak Germany experience, the organizers got threatened with “we’re gonna call the cops if you continue playing music outside after 10 pm” x’D). But like this those of us who had been mostly inside watching the show at this point also got to experience the music a bit, which was very nice!

We were getting close to the end of the night already, and then people with goodie bags started walking in from all corners :O So I ventured forth once more to score one, but I think there definitely was enough for all, and at the end of this post I’m gonna show you what was inside :3

Img: Me holding my roughly letter-format sized Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty paper goodie bag :3

The last item on the agenda was called “Quiz and Raffle”, due to the delayed start of the night though they decided to skip the quiz, or rather, do a quick run of some of the questions they had prepared. It was all something like “What was the name of the character that X called to take over his shift?” or “What was the sign above the location V had to go to during X section of the gig?”, so nothing super hard. You just had to pay a little bit of attention during the game showcase. But yeah, the quiz was skipped and instead the raffle prizes were handed out a bit more freely and damn… there was a lot o.o Displate had gifted a super limited edition illuminated poster, as well as several of their tarot card metal posters. There were gaming keyboards, custom Cyberpunk themed PC cases, some leftovers from the Gear store, figurines, and so on and so forth. Some of the bigger prices were given out via random number generator, where our individual ticket numbers were important again, others were just handed out a bit more freely.

Ryan: “Damn, I have so many gaming mice left, what am I gonna do now…” Random Audience member: “Can I have one?” Ryan: “Sure! :D” *hands them a mouse*

Img: Ryan and Carolin of the German Community Management team at the end of the event with some closing words on stage

This part of the night was honestly just very lighthearted and funny, and I really felt entertained from start to finish XD There were no boring moments or situations where I was like “urgh, I wish we could just continue now” because even during the breaks I talked to people or was still recovering from a previous encounter or experience XD

The End of the Event

The event then ended pretty much on time a short while after midnight, some people had left a bit early to catch their trains, some lingered a little while longer. Lemme tell you, I didn’t wanna leave, I just wanted to move in and live with all these people forever in an amazing little Cyberpunk bubble. But I was also running on like 3 hours of sleep at that point, was extremely overwhelmed with so many positive experiences and impressions, and so we then left after taking some final snaps here and there and walking through the venue once more.

Img: The exit of the venue late at night with the Phantom Liberty Tour Banner now glowing

10/10 would go again, it was a blast, and I wouldn’t have minded for it to go on another six hours xD Not that I managed to sleep much anyway that night, because my brain was still going BRRR from all the impressions and conversations and encounters (still is to a degree right now, but I’m slowly getting calmer again xDD)

The Goodie Bag

Finally back at the hotel I got a proper look at the goodie bag!! All of this was also included in us just *being* there, like, whaaat...

Img: an overview of a variety of items featured in the goodie bag!

The goodies everyone got: a t-shirt with the Barghest logo in front and the Phantom Liberty Tour locations on the back. It was available in a lot of different sizes that you could ask for quite easily, and I hope there was one available for everyone and every body!

Img: A bright red, VERY WRINKLED t-shirt with a graffiti-style Barghest logo on its front in orange, and a white and orange print with the Phantom Liberty Tour locations on the back

The shirt is 100% cotton and made in Poland, but it smelled really really bad, coming out of a plastic bag XDD Not gonna put that on before it goes through the wash. But the quality seems very decent, and the color and print are really nice ;A; Could wear this casually under a shirt or zipper hoodie without anyone even being able to tell it’s gaming merch, and I love me a versatile piece like that!!

Then there was a Phantom Liberty themed sticker sheet with a nice rainbow holo effect :3 Some factions, some people and places, some more generic stickers. It’s very pretty and I think I might actually just frame it together with my signed ticket XD

Img: A holographic Phantom Liberty themed sticker sheet including faction and Night City logos amongst others

What I really really really loved though were these two Cologne-unique pieces: another sticker and a patch :O These seem to be 100% exclusives to the Cologne event, and I figure you can get something similar at the other events as well! Will treasure these like hell <3

Img: A blue and orange fabric patch and a holographic black and white sticker showing the same design: Phantom Tour Cologne below a stylized moth

And finally, everyone got a little mystery bag within their mystery bag, containing one of 6 keyboard cap thingies (don’t even know wtf they’re called but they’re cute XD). They were modelled after the various ingame factions, even including Barghest I believe! :O You can swap them out with any key on a mechanical gaming keyboard. I got Maelstrom, my sibling had the Mox :D So you could’ve definitely swapped with someone else for your fave faction, but I was actually quite pleased with Maelstrom :3

Img: Two small keyboard key replacer thingies... I don't know what to call them. One is red, featuring the head of a maelstromer on top, the other is blue, featuring the pink skull-head with bob haircut and bow of the Mox

So yes… that was my Phantom Liberty Tour experience! I apologize for the insanely long post, but I do hope you enjoyed reading it!

I tried to keep it somewhat concise and coherent and could definitely go more into detail about the gameplay elements we saw, the venue, the people there, and so on and so forth. So, don’t hesitate to hit me up with your questions :D And obviously, thanks so much for reading to the very end <3

#cyberpunk 2077 #cp2077 #cyberpunk phantom liberty #phantom liberty #phantom liberty tour #phantom liberty spoilers #elven attends phantom liberty tour posting

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fourseasonsfigs · 11 months

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Hug a Column

Similar to yesterday's Hug a Pig fig, this fig had me scratching my head when I saw it. I had no idea what it was supposed to be, or represent. But when I found out, I was entirely charmed!

For the inspiration for this fig, we're hopping into the wayback machine - all the way back to Gong Jun's college days!

At university, Gong Jun was in a performance of Molière's play The Miser. He played Harpagon, the titular miser. We have this little snippet of him performing in this role:

I'm assuming this is the part in the play where he digs up his moneybox to discover it has been stolen. That's a bad day indeed for a miser!

A fig maker was so delighted by this performance, they rendered it in fig form. And I'm so delighted they did!

The fig arrived, as all PVC figs do, in a sealed little pouch inside a box. Also inside the box is the column that the fig will be hugging.

There was nothing to it for assembly - I just threaded the thinner end of the column up through his arms from underneath.

As such. The base of the column actually forms another support for the fig, so it stands on it's own quite well. However, the column is fairly loosely held in his arms, so it moves around.

You can see how the fig's right hand is holding on to the column - that's the main point of contact and sort of what controls the column in his arms. My fig wanted to hold the column in a way that pulled it closer to him, which gives it a bit of a lean.

So, I stuck the fig on a fig stand, and you can see how it helped to keep it more vertical. I did not stick the column itself (and now I'm second guessing myself as I look at these pics).

Harpagon-Jun's shocked and distressed face is adorable! Never has a 70-year old money grubbing character looked so cute.

The column is going to look more or less totally vertical as the pics progress around the figure. Some of that is due to my ever-present camera wobble, but it's also true that the column isn't 100% vertical either. It looks pretty good from this angle!

The fig maker did a great job with the tattered smock and little slipper-shoes that Harpagon-Jun was wearing in the play. It's of course not very complex of a design, but it's rendered really cutely, with his rosy little legs and arms sticking out.

The video of Gong Jun is lower quality due to the age, so it's hard for me to tell too much detail of his hair, but I bet the fig maker did some heavy forensic scrutiny of the video. I am positive this is very close to what his hair looked like.

This is such an extra-charming fig now that I know the backstory. I really hesitated before buying it at the time, but now I'm super glad I got him!

Some creative and clever JZPs put a straw hat on him and swapped out the column for veggies. A big chili pepper! It's hilarious and also super cute. He can hold all kinds of stuff.

Ahahaha his little expression! I love him.

The fig maker did a great job of making this face look even younger than normal.

*************

Whoa! What are the Fig Spice Stars (tm) doing in the middle of a fig post about a college play fig?

No, there's exactly Zero (0) spiciness factor here, but I surprised myself a little when I reopened this pic, so in consideration of you maybe reading this on public transportation or something, the pic that follows is the VERY usual bottoms-up angle I take for all the figs nowadays.

BUT! The Miser is TOO cheap to even buy underwear. There's nothing to see, but it's got a bit of an up-smock feel to it.

Alright! That person shouldn't have been looking over your shoulder on public transportation anyway, they had that coming.

You can see how the circle of his arms actually doesn't have a ton of space - just enough real estate for the column, or a few flowers, or a chili pepper.

I took some liberties translating the name of this fig (because you know that's exactly what someone slowly and painfully working their way through Chinese HSK 1 in 15 minutes a day should do).

According to my translate app, 抱柱傻俊 means "hold a column silly handsome". The handsome of course is Gong Jun's first name. 抱 is hold/ hug, and is the same character in Zhehan's Hug a Pig fig yesterday. There's the obvious symmetry about figs in the same release having similar names and concepts. The column part is self-explanatory. So that just leaves out silly! I couldn't think of a way to fit it into the fig name, so I just went with the symmetry. I like it!

Material: PVC (fig) and wood (column)

Fig Count: 378

Scene Count: 26 (I don't think this counts, even if it IS a scene from a play!)

Rating: Cuter than a box of gold!

[link back to Master Fig Index for more posts]

#junzhe #gong jun #word of honor cast #figthusiast

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flame-shadow · 2 years

Text

Okay, so this is all sofd's fault. <3 This is what happens when I'm encouraged to talk about my characters. I'm going to ramble about some HK OCs of mine who are in the forefront of my mind right now. For everyone's sanity, it'll be under the cut. Enjoy!

It's only right to start with the first. Cyra, my beloved wasp.

But more than that, she's very often conflicted. She's some sort of paper wasp [since I couldn't find the image to make an ID, I took creative liberties with what she is], she has the eusocial desire to be around others and contribute to something. But she didn't have a Hive growing up. She had structure for work, but it wasn't family. So she became adamantly independent and put a lot of effort into being antisocial and hating other bugs.

(edit: fuck Tumblr for deleting the first part of this paragraph. It said something about my seeing a blue wasp pic once and being inspired. And I think there was something else I said but I don't remember. RIP) Typically, I try not to lean into negative stereotypes with my characters. Wasps are generally not angry and aggressive and ready to sting at the slightest offence. Buuuuut, in a lot of ways, Cyra is. But it's for more than just "she's a wasp so of course she's angry and stabby;" she has ~trauma~

In her earliest iteration, she had been trained by the mantis tribe to fight and that's where she found her sense of purpose. That's since been retconned because as I started to expose myself to more of the HK fandom, I saw that seemingly everyone had at least one character who was trained by the mantises, and I never figured out a great reason for why they'd train Cyra specifically, so I quietly removed that. Now, her weapon-related backstory is that she is mostly self-taught through watching warriors train, and through many years of doing her best to survive the Infection with whatever weapons she keeps on her or finds as she travels.

She's never been big on authority, so she saw most laws as optional when she thought they were stupid and wasn't trying to blend in as a model citizen. She kept her name clean, if not her hands. She wasn't particularly distraught over the King's absconding.

Cyra was distrustful of the Soul Sanctum, but circumstances brought a scholar from that place across her path at just the right time. The right time to get out of the City before it was closed up, and the right time for a character arc. Against her better judgement and over the course of the subsequent adventure, she started to trust the soul twister, started to rely on him at times, and even saved his life at the risk of losing her own. And after all that, she couldn't save him when they were finally safe, finally at a respite. It affected her deeply. Her... friend. Gone now. Not her first exposure to death, of course, but the first one that was truly personal. It took her a long time to get over that. At least to get over it enough to go back to living a more vibrant life.

And the bug that gently coaxed that life out of her was none other than Jerome, everyone's favorite boofly! (well, except one of my friends whose favorite is Jerome's half-brother, but we're not talking about Zip today :P)

Beloved boofly. Wonderful, cherished friend. He is in many ways the thing anchoring Cyra to life, to caring and self-care, to trying to be a better person. He cares for people a lot, and he directs a measured amount of that care towards the defensive wasp. It took a while for her to warm up to his presence, but he was patient and respectful, existing nearby and being a pleasant presence, and eventually, she realized that she actually wanted to interact with him. [if you're wondering how a boofly can be more than just a passive cow-fly-thing, I explained that a while ago HERE]

It took longer for them to become friends. Cyra isn't the sort to rush into friendships, and especially not after the last few.... The Infection couldn't be blamed for all of her losses. So despite Jerome's open friendliness, Cyra was very reluctant to connect, to become vulnerable again. She was glad that she did, but Jerome never faulted her for her slowness. It made the friendship all the more meaningful afterwards to know so clearly that it was mutual and deliberate.

It wasn't a one-sided relationship either. Jerome might've helped Cyra with building a connection again, finding a purpose, and having a sturdy friend, but she helped him with communication, quality of life improvements, and treating him as a person with a mind, complex thoughts, and feelings.

Sometimes when I want to explore other ways to hurt Cyra, I'll target Jerome. Not that he deserves it, but it's the most direct way to elicit a reaction from Cyra. Though, I have turned the tables, and it's fun to explore Jerome's reactions to bad fates befalling Cyra too.

It's not just the two of them in their world, though. He encourages her to seek out connections and companionship with other bugs. She sometimes orchestrates for other bugs to meet with Jerome. He enjoys interacting with other bugs! And he's got other booflies to interact with too! Just because he has more mind than them doesn't mean he thinks he's better than they are. They're still his species, his family and friends.

Okay, I don't have a good segue this time. Last bug I'll talk about is Mossy Fool.

Big, strong, dumb man who means well but often forgets important things .... like the people he has befriended and what promises he has made. Oops.

A moss knight who made his way to the Colosseum of Fools. Fighting is lots of fun!!! He's very good at it!!! Not the best, not undefeated, but he has a reputation and he has a good time. And really, what else can you want from the life of a gladiator?

That mossy cloak isn't just for show, either! Removed from the verdant lands of its origin, it cannot offer camouflage, but it has changed with its wearer, and if Mossy Fool gets too injured or gets knocked out, the cloak itself takes over.

It can be rather scary if you're one of the Fools left in the arena, and this is what you find yourself facing.

Mossy himself doesn't recall these periods of time. He just thanks Unn for his life and happily moves on to prepare for the next fight.

[Okay, so there's actually more to him, but I'm tired, so this is where I stop]

Thanks for reading if you made it this far! Very cool of you. Have a cookie 🍪

#hollow knight ocs #cyra #jerome #mossy fool #long post #hopefully tumblr's wonky post submission thing didn't delete or replicate any parts of the text #text is interspersed with old art for your viewing pleasure

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dragonshoard · 2 years

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Shdhf here’s most of the other drawins! M gonna be workin on sm digital ones tmrw probably but these are the traditional ones i did in my free times :>

(Btw these were all done yesterday morning/afternoon, so more visible/harsh scarring than i’d now draw with the new info u gave me)

Honestly, since u havent posted a ref/in depth description i jus went with whatever i thought might be likely(shoeless because grew out of them+couldnt get any in the pits, tho im guessing she likely has shoes in the au shfg- also scarring on the chin cause i thought ‘damn what if she smacked her face into the floor while trying to get away’) tho obv i’d draw it differently with any new info. The ‘Jinx’ carving into the collar was also jus me being like ‘damn dont they smtms do that to dogs in fighting rings?? Thatd be fucked up lol’ so like,, feel free to ignore it shdhf

Anyway! Away from the doodles! I am jus,, fuckin burstin with questions mate- ur au’s so cool!! U dont have to answer any of em tho dw sjdjf

So does vi show up well post!pits or do her n cait investigate the pits n see jinx? Im assuming its post based on ur comment of them takin a while to show up since things happen differently, but i felt like askin anyway :p

Does fighter!jinx still tinker/build stuff?? Ik u said she would never touch bombs n such(which, understandable. That sounds like jus askin to be triggered tbh)- but if/when she meets up with ekko does she maybe help with buildin them stuff? Makin/repairin hoverboards, makin guns- or maybe knives n such? Idk what skills u’re givin her dhdgdb

Oh, and with ur first post on this au, im assuming jinx escapes at 15? Can i ask how old she was when silco first gets her? Does she spend a lot of time after escaping just hiding out and ekko happens upon her by accident? Does she gain any injuries while escaping? Does she stay with the firelights when she meets them or does she only visit so as to not draw silco towards them too much? Does silco have specific people hunting jinx down(say, her handlers from the pits, or sevika?) or is it jus like,, everyone in his empire is on high alert for her n everyones to go after her if they see her?

And speaking of sevika- whats her opinion of all this? I mean, obv im guessing shes in favor of whatever silco wants, but do u think she ever felt guilt/regret over tossing vander n his kids to the wolves(literally, in powders case) or does she jus,, not care??

And a final thought(im so sorry i jus realized how many questions this is dhdhdhv)- with jinx’s seeming penchant/willingness to bite anyone n everyone(jus based off the mention of biting the animal-turned-shimmer!monster she fought + her desire to bite silcos hand) does she ever get muzzled?? Or nah??

kjnkdjfnkj i love the pics!! Nah any creative liberties you took are cool to see! I’m still having a hard time drawing Jinx so I was practicing before I could actually post any art refs.

“Jinx” would be inscribed in the collar if Silco was a pure asshole, but as cruel as he seems in this AU, he doesn’t actually see her as a dog or a pet despite what everyone thinks. He wants her by his side eventually and sees everything that he’s done (towards the last year or two) as a means of “freeing” her. Oh and she does have shoes. They’re falling apart, but they exist xD Not the best idea to fight barefoot on metal.

And I can totally see the logic behind the scarring. It doesn’t help that she is malnourished, especially in those first few years, so her healing wasn’t very efficient. But, surprisingly, her face is not as marked up as you think it would be after 5-6 years. It’s the rest of her body that’s got an impressive collection.

(He visits her pretty often towards the end, talking to her and braiding her hair, and it sucks because Jinx naturally wants to not be alone, but also hates the bastard with everything in her. She’d have Stockholm syndrome in this au if it wasn’t for the voices)

Vi is gonna have a straight up heart attack the minute she’s close enough to see the scarring. It’s pretty extensive on her upper body, despite how most of it is pretty faint (barring a few bigger scars) and it’s enough to tell Vi that Jinx has had a rough couple of years.

I’ll be honest, when I first posted about this AU I thought Powder was 10 in Act 1 and 16 in Act 2-3. Apparently she was 11-12 and 17-18, respectively, so that ruins things a bit xD

So for sake of keeping it mostly canon, she is roughly 11 when she’s captured by Silco and 17 when she gets free. It won’t be Vi and/or Cait who comes to save her though (I’m actually writing her escape right now so I think I’ll keep quiet on the ‘how’. It’s gonna be appropriately tragic xD). But she does get about a year of freedom before Vi and Cait go into to the undercity. And they show up because she’s messing with Silco’s stuff and leaving a very noticeable trail of destruction behind her. The firelights may or may not be getting caught in the crossfires of her crusade. Ekko is desperately trying to find her (take her in), but for a long while she is absolutely convinced that he’s working with Silco so avoids him like the plague (but doesn’t seriously hurt him or his out of respect for who he used to be to her).

Speaking of Silco, he absolutely is having multiple people hunting her down. Everyone in his circle has a “report if found, do not engage” order while a select few lead capture attempts. He’s very aware that, as her target, she will eventually come at him so he fortifies himself the best he can. He’s ALSO very aware that she is much stronger than most of his lackies, so knows not to attempt a “capture on sight” order.

As for Sevika... I’ll be honest, I don’t think she gives a damn what happens to the girls. She was perfectly fine with a bunch of kids dying for the undercity, so I don’t see why she would care about Powder being put into the Pits. Personally, I think Sevika is in favor of getting rid of her and makes her opinion to Silco very known. Jinx was a danger to them if she ever escaped and Sevika was well aware. She also knew that Silco was soft enough for the kid that he would give her leniencies that might lead to said escape (she’s not wrong).

On another note, Jinx does eventually learn to love building things again. She’ll start building at first out of necessity (her guns aren’t gonna come from thin air, ya know), then because she remembers her passion for it. She is going to be very scared for a while, but eventually learns to get that part of her back. No explosives, but there are plenty of other things to make. In the future, she does spend a lot of time with Heimerdinger once he comes to the undercity/Zaun and he sort of takes both her and Ekko under his wing. He understands she’s been hurt for a very long time and there used to be a part of her that loved to invent, so he does his best to support her interest and catch her up on what she’s missed over the years.

Personally, I think he’ll encourage her to go back to the basics and start her off on small things like those butterflies/animals before moving onto bigger things, but Jinx would probably try to jump right into the deep end (she would be building guns at this point, it couldn’t be that difficult - said Jinx). Not sure if that works out for her yet. This post is a bit long, so I’ll talk about her skill a bit later (but it does change over time).

Ekko... I’m on the fence with him. There’s going to be so much guilt and anger there for a long time. Once she realizes he’s not with Silco, Jinx just wants him to forget about everything that’s happened and go back to the way they used to be (desperate to re-claim the very few good things she has left in this world), but that just can’t happen.

I’m a timebomb shipper. I want them to be together if Jinx is shipped with anyone in this AU, but I don’t know if I’ll actually put her with anyone. She’s got a lot to work on personally (not even looking at her mental health issues) and I’m not sure if pairing her with Ekko is what’s best for the both of them.

-- oh no you’re giving me ideas with the muzzle ahh. But really, I could see it happening the first year or two before she’s permanently fitted with a shock collar. By that point, I think she’s learned when to bite and when to punch or kick.

#origin #Fighter!Jinx AU #oof sorry for the late reply i just got back home :DDD #arcanecorner #arcane #jinx #sry for typos :(

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thatasianstereotype · 4 years

Text

Damn, You’re Looking Fine.

To my utter delight, my crack writing Fuck. I’m Gay. got a good reception. I was not expecting to write more for this AU/pairing. But why not? I got some ideas and a computer to write them down on.

So this fic is the took-a-while-to-put-together sequel. It’s focused on the downfall of one certain Liar-la, Damian wooing Adrien with all the flair and romantics as his Chaton deserves, and Adrien being a blushing hot gay mess.

P.S. Damian’s formal way of talking is an utter pain to write but hilarious to read.

P.S.S. Creative liberties were taken. Again. I just feel this needs to be mentioned.

So Status Update:

Adrien and Damian are definitely dating (It is totally official. Told you ya boi got game).

Adrien still calls him Hot-And-Sexy from time to time much to his utter mortification (He can’t make himself stop. Please send help). And Dami gets amused by it every single time, that arrogant smug jerk.

Marinette still puts the fear of god in Damian and he is wary of her. She feels very proud about that. Adrien wants to facepalm.

Fuck Gabriel Agreste.

And Lila Rossi is still a bitch.

Adrien and Marinette were made aware about Damian’s alter ego —well mostly because he is utterly terrified of Marinette’s seemingly sweet (icy) smile she gave him when she politely asked how he obtained the Butterfly and Peacock Miraculous and partly because of Adrien’s pouting kitten eyes.

They truly were a pair to reckon with.

“I am not sure why the Justice League dismissed your concerns and pleas for assistance. So I am taking the initiative. My name is Damian Wayne, the son of Batman and the current Robin and leader of the Teen Titans.”

He’s a superhero too?! And it’s Robin!!! One of his favorites!! Can you hear him internally squealing in excitement?

Adrien bit his lip to keep from fanboying right then and there. But a slight pink hue spread across his face.

“You’re not lying.” Mari has gotten pretty good at deciphering through people’s bullshit. Whether it’s because she is now a Guardian or because Lila’s bitchiness made her a human lie-detector remains unknown.

Damian took it in stride. “I am not.”

“Paris is still our city.”

“I am only offering my assistance.” He won’t barge in on their superhero duties to the city. He has more class than that.

Mari didn’t have to look at Adrien to know his decision.

She smiled, a bright genuine smile. “Then we’re allies.” Before her eyes gained a spark of mischief and her smile turned teasing. “Hot-And-Sexy.”

“Marinette!” Adrien immediately covered his blushing bright red face with both hands, utterly mortified.

His sister was evil. E. V. I. L. And why is Damian smirking and looking so smug? Fuck! He even makes that look completely hot. Curse his Adonis genes. And curse his teenage hormones.

He regrets introducing the two of them together. What a pair they make. Truly a couple of fur-midable terrors here.

Back to the matter at hand, Marinette is able to ensure that Hawk Moth and Mayura will never be out again and another akuma won’t be made. She already made sure that the miraculous were better protected.

Damian has enough evidence to put them behind bars for their crimes but Marinette wanted to go through it and make sure that Adrien won’t suffer the repercussions of having a villain for a dad so they held onto it until they figure out how best to protect their sunshine.

Ah Shit.

“Duusu? Where are you?”

Did Gabriel lose the miraculous again?

But when he looked into the last place he left it, he groaned. Fuck. His brooch was a fake again.

He knew he shouldn’t have made a miraculous fashion line and had replicas of the miraculous jewelries made. It was his most popular items to date. He has gotten lot of praises for getting the details just right and capturing the essence of each miraculous holder. No surprise there. He deals with them on a daily basis. He should get the details fucking right.

It’s a wonder he only came up with a line because there was talk that he was becoming obsolete with no new ideas coming forth and if there is one thing that Gabriel Agreste isn’t, it is being obsolete.

The line was just a joke, a parody of the heroes and villains if you will, but apparently people like it. Ladybug and Chat Noir were the most popular obviously (he should’ve seen that coming to be honest). Hardly anyone buys Hawk Moth or Mayura and he is left with boxes of fake brooches.

It is annoying.

Especially since he keeps fucking misplacing his miraculous.

Adrien felt like he could be a Disney princess and just skip his way to school and sing for the world to hear.

Now that the Butterfly miraculous were safely with Marinette, he doesn’t have to worry about another akuma. He could just die happy right now. His dad doesn’t have a hold over him anymore. He doesn’t have to put up with Liar-la anymore. But if they put up a fuss? Well, worst case scenario is he becomes a Dupain-Cheng.

And he doesn’t mind. He’s already an honorary one.

And if that somehow doesn’t work out (which he highly doubts), Damian offered to make him a Wayne.

Françoise Dupont High School experienced a shock that morning. Specifically Ms. Bustier’s class.

When they saw Adrien and Marinette walking in class with arms intertwined, laughing and smiling together.

What the actual fuck?

Did they cross into an alternate universe? Marinette is a nasty bully and Adrien’s a pure sunshine child. Why would they be acting like they were the best of friends?

Lila glowered darkly when she saw them walking towards the back and sitting at the same table. Didn’t Adrien care about what his father thinks? Doesn’t he want to still be able to go to school?

She bit her lip and turned on the waterworks, her eyes close to bursting into tears. She made herself be the very picture of a pitiful woe-is-me victim as she cried out in a hurtful and betrayed tone. “Adrien, what are you doing with her? I thought we were close friends.”

The sheep class instantly catered to Lila, pointing their fingers at the pair.

Alya, her biggest supporter, led the charge as always. “Adrien! What do you have to say for yourself? How could you cheat on Lila like this? And with her?”

Adrien narrowed his eyes at his former friend. Bitch, how dare she implies he was in an actual relationship and had feelings for that harlot.

Wow.

He has been spending way too much time around Damian.

"Yeah, bro!” Kim said, raising his voice. “How could you do her dirty?”

“Okay guys.” Adrien cut in. “I don’t know where you heard that but me and Lila are not dating. Like at all.”

“Please.”Alya waved him off like he didn’t know what he was talking about (he was highly offended at the notion he didn’t know what his heart yearns for). “We all know you have feelings for Lila. You’re just in denial over them.”

Bitch, what?

Is no one catching onto his chaotic gay vibes here?

And oh, how his fragile little heart was betrayed yet again when he saw Nino supporting his girlfriend. He still couldn’t believe the first friend he made all by himself was a part of their rabid pack. He deeply mourned the loss of such a great friend in the midst of that deceiving fox’s claws.

“How many times do I need to say it?” At this point, Adrien was about to throw hands. “I don’t like Lila like that. I feel nothing but pure spite for her. Also, me and Marinette are not dating if anyone’s wondering. We’re just really good friends.”

“But Marinette’s a big bully.” Alix piped up, a hard edge in her voice. “She treats Lila horribly.”

“Marinette didn’t do anything to her. Rossi is lying.”

“Oh Adrien.” It was Mylene of all people who spoke up. “Did Marinette get to you with her lies?”

He was done.

Completely and utterly done.

He looked over at Marinette who shared his exasperation at the class’ antics.

Adrien already said it before. But it bears repeating.

Lila Rossi is a bitch.

Luckily (or maybe unluckily), that was the moment Ms. Bustier chose to step in the room and class started.

When the teacher’s back was turned, Adrien pulled out his phone and proceeded to spend the rest of the time alternating between taking notes and texting with Damian.

They were currently at the stage of their relationship to be sending animal pics and memes back and forth, with a few puns added from time to time.

He really does have the perfect boyfriend.

They cornered him after school.

One: Rude.

And two: Double rude.

He was excited to meet Hot-And-Sexy (daMn iT! It’s Damian! Get it right brain) at the bakery and spending time with his two most favorite people in the world (Tom and Sabine don’t count because actual parents don’t have a ranking).

His former friends were looking all concerned and everything because they somehow collectively came up with the idea that Marinette actually brainwashed him to believe Lila was evil.

The fucking irony.

They actually had the audacity to say that Marinette —sweet and honestly badass Marinette— was no good and just wanted to use Adrien to get ahead in the fashion industry (as if Mari actually needed him for that). He shouldn’t be around her. Lila was a much better person to keep as company.

Adrien laughed in their faces and left.

Onto happier events, Adrien was having a blast hanging out with Mari and Dami. His boyfriend (he still can’t believe he managed to score such a hottie!) fit right in the everything-that-matters siblings’ dynamics.

They were in Mari’s room. Adrien was cuddling with Damian on her bed. And Mari was at her desk working on fashion designs.

“So what’s your family like?” He played with Dami’s hair. It was so soft. Like what the fuck. It is so unfair.

Damian thought about it for a few seconds. “My family is a bit...crazy. We drive each other insane every other day but at the end of the day, I have no doubt they have my back as I have theirs.”

“You guys sound close.”

“We were not always. We had an extensive amount of issues to work through before we actually bonded as a true family.”

It was quiet for a minute until Damian casually said. “I would appreciate it a great deal if you can make time to visit Gotham for the summer.”

Adrien stopped playing with his hair to look at him with wide incredulous eyes. “Summer’s only two months away.”

“I am aware.”

“You really want me to meet them? Isn’t it too early?”

“I met yours the day we started dating.”

True but....

Adrien averted his eyes. “Do you think your family will like me? You guys fight criminals and my dad’s a villain.”

Damian put his hands over Adrien’s and gave them a light squeeze, making his Chaton look back at him.

“My mother is a villain and I was raised as an assassin. Yet despite of that, my father accepted me. And I am fairly confident he will do the same to you. Mon amour, you have a pure and selfless heart. You are a better person than I am. I have no doubt that my family will love you from the start.

“Are you being fur real right meow?” Adrien tried to lighten the atmosphere but he could feel his eyes tearing up.

"I wouldn’t lie to mew.”

He let out a small laugh, wiping his eyes. How did he ever get so lucky to land such an amazing guy? “You always know the purr-fect thing to say.”

“We get it you’re in love. It’s amazing. Now stop it with the puns.” Mari rolled her eyes, utterly exasperated at these idiots who just ignored her and pulled out even more cat puns. “You have got to be kitten me.”

Before she noticed what she said and groaned in faux despair. “Oh you two are so dead.”

Adrien stuck out his tongue playfully. “You can’t catch me. I got a handsome knight in shining armor to protect me.”

Damian interlaced their fingers. “Always, mon amour. I’ll protect you from everything like your wicked father.”

“Does that make me the dragon here?” Mari joined in. “Cool. I can breathe fire and torch people. Too bad I can’t do that to a certain liar.”

“Liar-la is totally the witch here.” Adrien said before thinking for a few seconds. “Does this make me the princess?”

“Well, knights always have to save the damsel in distress.” Mari said.

He frowned before crossing his arms indignantly. “Dami, I love you more than Plagg loves his stinky cheese, but I’m no damsel in distress.”

Damian rolled his eyes. “Tt. Of course not. You can destroy things with a single touch. It would be not be in my best interests to downplay your abilities.”

Adrien relaxed and beamed a sunny smile. “Good. Remember that.”

“Mon amour, I look for an equal as a partner, not some weak spoiled harlot that can not defend their self.” Damian placed a flower crown (that was just sitting on Marinette’s nightstand, must be one of her projects) on Adrien’s head. “Having said that I do believe you are a prince that deserves all the love and care in the world.”

And oh my.

Adrien can feel his face burning scarlet and his heart almost bursting at how sweet this incredible, conceited Adonis was.

He was falling in love with Damian over and over again each time they meet up.

“You deserve love too, Dami.”

And sweet, caring Hot-And-Sexy (Ah, fuck it. He will never grow out of that) placed a soft kiss on his cheek.

Oh dear, he didn’t know his face can burned any redder.

He could almost hear Mari cooing in the background.

And in case anyone was wondering, Tom and Sabine adores their everything-that-actually-matters son’s boyfriend. Damian Wayne seems like a responsible young lad. And he makes Adrien really happy which is a major plus. Anything that makes their son happy is good in their books.

Lila was not at all pleased.

Why was Adrien suddenly hanging out with Marinette? Yeah, he doesn’t buy into her lies but she was confident he will be lured into her charms. Why wouldn’t he be? She was young and way more beautiful than a baker’s daughter. He was supposed to be hers.

She and Gabriel are going to have a talk about his rebellious son.

Except when she arrived at the Agreste mansion, Gabriel was apparently too busy to see her.

He was too occupied with searching through boxes of fake miraculous to find Duusu to bother with her.

“I don’t have time for you.”

“Excuse me?!”

She was aghast. How dare he speak this way to his biggest supporter —well, besides Mayura and Nathalie.

“You’re excused. Now leave the premises.”

Before the door shut in her face and she was left fuming, her face an unflattering angry red.

Being Damian’s boyfriend, Adrien has come to learn that Damian does nothing by halves. Including asking him out on a date. And the actual dates themselves.

Today as the sun fell down and night came about, Damian and Adrien were taking a stroll in the park. It was relaxing and it was nice. They talked about everything and anything.

Adrien did not think Damian planned anything more.

But he really shouldn’t underestimate the son of Batman.

Because when the last of the sun’s rays were gone, Damian led him to a gazebo strung up with beautiful lights giving the whole place an ethereal feel. And with the bright moon out tonight, it looked like fairies dancing in the garden.

He didn’t notice Damian pressed play on his phone and classical music filled the air.

He definitely noticed Damian bowing with a flourished and holding out his hand with a charming smile. “May I have this dance, Chaton?”

Adrien would have to be a huge fool to say no.

“I’ll loved to.” He placed his hand in Damian’s and let the Adonis lead him in a simple waltz.

This was his life.

His life was one big sappy romance novel. And you know what, he doesn’t care if it is. Between dealing with his shitty father and Liar-la, this kitty deserves some happiness.

It was a scene from one of those Disney fairy tale movies Adrien used to watch as kid. The magic. The love. The romantics. He felt like Cinderella and wished this night will never end, that the clock will never strike midnight. He just wanted to stay in his Prince Charming’s arms forever.

Under the starry night sky, the lovebirds danced to their heart’s content and when another song ended, Damian tilted his head down to place a tender kiss on Adrien’s lips.

“I harbor a great deal of non-platonic affections for you, mon amour.”

“I love you too, Hot-And-Sexy.”

What the fuck?!

Seriously.

What the actual fuck?

Lila was simply walking home after her disastrous meeting with Gabriel (She was still not over how he simply dismissed her like she was nothing. How dare he).

When she saw them.

Adrien and some guy (she’s pretty sure that was a guy) dancing in the park. She can feel that disgusting jealousy just burning in her veins, a cold anger thrumming underneath.

Things were not at all going her way.

First, Adrien is back to being friends with that Mari-whore. Then, Gabriel ignores her. Her. And now, she is seeing her Adrien in the arms of someone else.

Oh this will just not do.

She took out her phone from her pocket and snapped a couple of pictures, making sure Adrien can clearly be seen. She didn’t care too much about the other guy. He’s probably just another pretty airhead Adrien knew through his father. He’s not important.

A cruel smirk appeared on her face at the thought of the perfect revenge. Adrien was going to have a rough time at school tomorrow. After all, he should’ve known better than to make a move against her.

“Seriously?!”

“Wow.”

“I’m sure there’s an explanation for this.”

“Yeah. Adrien is obviously gay. That’s the only explanation.”

“....Maybe not? There could be another reason.”

Lila had watery eyes and a sad frown on her face but inside, she was fucking smiling like a Cheshire cat. She made sure to be at school early so she can show the class the picture of Adrien’s little date last night. Who —predictably— were shocked at their sunshine child being with a guy and made plans to confront him about his supposed sexuality.

She glowed at the thought of her plan working. This will teach Adrien to know his place or become a social pariah like his little friend Marinette.

“I thought Adrien had feelings for me.” Lila wiped the “tears” from her eyes. “How could he lead me on like this when he’s been gay all along?”

Alya —predictably— comforted her. “I’m pretty sure he’s just confused. He doesn’t know what he’s feeling.”

“I’m sure that’s it.”

The pair didn’t notice Juleka and Rose glaring at them.

Damian was not at all pleased.

He was rightfully angry.

How dare that poor sense of fashion taste trollop tried to shame his mon amour for being gay. How dare she try to say he was simply confused and didn’t know any better. How dare she defame his reputation because he holds nothing but spite for her person.

How dare she.

As Adrien’s boyfriend and future husband, it is his duty to correct this travesty and defend his Chaton’s honor.

When the Damian Wayne, youngest son of Bruce Wayne, appeared at Françoise Dupont High School, you know that people are gonna stare and talk.

When he headed towards the courtyard where Adrien and Marinette were sitting at, boy are things going to get juicy.

Lila and her followers who were sitting a bit father from the outcast pair were utterly confused. They could possibly get Adrien knowing such a super hot celebrity but for him to be on good terms with Marinette too? How inconceivable. Absolutely flabbergasted.

“Hey Lila didn’t you tell us you knew him and his family?” Max brought up.

“Uhhh....” Lila knew she dug herself in a corner here. She never thought that the Damian Wayne would ever visit here. At this second rate school.

“Well, let’s go, girl!” Alya exclaimed. “I’m sure Damian just hasn’t seen you. That’s why he didn’t walk towards you.”

Before proceeding to practically drag Lila to where Damian was talking with Adrien and Marinette.

Lila, on the other hand, was cursing out Alya in a bunch of different languages in her mind while trying to come up with something to dig herself out of this mess. If they talk to Wayne, the class will realize she was lying all along.

She was not going to lose control of her kingdom like this —well, not without putting up a fight.

But when they and the rest of their classmates walked close to the trio, they were shocked when they saw Marinette playfully punching Damian in the arm.

“Okay. How the hell are you so close with Damian Wayne?” Straight off the bat, Alya was on the offense as she glared at Marinette as if it was Mari who did something wrong.

Damian answered before the bluenette could. His face was impassive and his glare cold. “I’m Ms. Dupain-Cheng’s top model for her fashion business.”

What?

Even Lila was taken aback at the news. She knew that goody two shoes likes designing but she didn’t think anybody would actual buy her stuff. She didn’t think a Wayne would like her stuff.

She could feel her fists clenched. How dare Marinette steal the spotlight again.

“I’m also Adrien’s boyfriend.” Damian continued casually as if that wasn’t a huge bombshell.

Everyone’s minds screeched to a halt.

They knew about the possibility of Adrien being gay since Lila showed him on going on a date with an unidentified but clearly male person yesterday. But they didn’t think there was actually something there.

Lila could feel her anger clouding her mind. Adrien was supposed to be hers. He was her ticket to fame and fortune.

“And what about Lila? Aren’t you guys best friends?” Alya put her hands on her hips. How could Damian just ignore someone he is close friends with but give Marinette all the attention? Lila deserves better than that.

Damian was unamused. “I don’t know her.”

“Yeah, you do.” Alya ignored Lila’s gestures to stop talking. Lila was too shy about her achievements and she was going to have her amazing best friend’s back. “She’s the one who helped your family out multiple times.”

“She did not. And I am appalled that you believe I would know a harlot like her in the first place.” Damian’s face twisted with disgust as he glanced at Liar-la like she was a mere insect. “Please. I have class and dignity.”

“Take that back!” She screeched. “You are so rude.”

“Are you honestly going to lecture me on my rudeness when you plebians are being hypocrites?”

“What? I’m not a hyprocrite.”

“Lila Rossi is a pathetic liar who begs for attention like street dogs beg for scraps. She never once saved Jagged’s cat nor does she help out with green charities. Lastly, she is not on close terms with myself nor with my family.”

“No! You’re lying!”

He raised an unimpressed eyebrow. “Ok then. Look her up on the internet. If she is as grand as you lot seem to think, she should have articles dedicated to her. Show me proof of her actions that isn’t your subpar blog and I will give you an exclusive.”

Alya’s eyes gleamed at what should be an easy challenge. But when she pulled out her phone and typed Lila’s name and what she did in the search engine, her smile disappeared.

She spent the next few minutes scouring the net for anything, any mention of a Lila Rossi that wasn’t on the LadyBlog.

She found nothing.

Lila Rossi was a fucking liar all along. And Alya and the rest of the class believed her.

“We tried to warn you.” Marinette said in a soft voice. But anyone who knew her knew she was trying to hold back her laughter.

“Marinette,” Rose cried out as she realized the class has been total jerks to the one person who always had their backs. “We were horribly wrong. Can you ever forgive us?”

She shrugged. “I forgive you. But this doesn’t mean we’re friends again. Because we’re not. Seeing how easily you drop me for that liar without even looking for any kind of proof hurts and I’m not eager to be friends again. Maybe in the future but not right now.”

“That’s goes ditto for me.” Adrien added his two cents.

Their former friends classmates wore gloomy expressions, utterly devastated at ruining their friendship with their Everyday Ladybug and Sunshine Child.

And with that, Adrien and Marinette left the courtyard, with light hearts and heads held high.

Damian shot the class a razor sharp grin. “Well, it’s been nice to meet you.”

Everyone knew he meant anything but.

“I always knew teenagers were prone to be foolish imbeciles. But seeing the collective stupidity of you people today made me realize that the bar can in fact be lowered.”

Adrien was fucking ecstatic.

Elated. Overjoyed. Jubilant. Drunk on happiness. All the synonyms associated.

Because Lila was finally exposed. The class realized what utter assholes they have been. His father will receive his due (soon according to Mari and Dami).

He was happily humming a tune as he swung his and Damian’s intertwined hands back and forth.

He was entirely grateful that Damian showed up to school today. Although he was a bit mean for Adrien’s taste.

But oh man. Payback was so sweet.

He smiled giddily.

Mister Hot-And-Sexy definitely earned himself a kiss.

#ml x dc #ml salt #ml salt fic #lila rossi salt #class salt #gaydrien #adrien is a hot mess #bamf marinette #adrien deserves better #marinette deserves better #adrien agreste x damian wayne #adridami #well would you look at that #turns out to be 3.8K fic this time #I'm still down with this ship

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nckzart · 4 years

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🧠👁🦷✨HOLY TRAUMA✨🦷👁🧠

📷Photography and editing: @/miguel_gphotos on instagram

🎨Digital paint and model: me

Im so proud and happy to finally be able to post this 💖

We took these pics pre-pandemic, the world was so different and I looked so different, but somehow we are still the same simultaneously.

Miguel was so nice to me, I’ve worked on this project for months and he never pressured me, gave me so much creative and time liberty, and i cant thank him enough, both for being an awesome photographer and collaborator, and of course a wonderful friend 💖💖

Definitely check out his page too!!!

We’ll be sharing these pics with u in the course of a few days 💖💖

(5/16)

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obsidiathedragon · 4 years

Photo

A few pics I made based off of the purple-pink sketches. The first comes from my own personal headcanon (that I may or may not write) where Ozai is actually a nice person. The second is half-canon. The third is a mixture of @muffinlance‘s ‘Zuko is adopted by Vaatu’ on her tumblr and Seraphim_of_Dragons (orphan_account)’s stories on AO3. There was no definitive description of how Vaatu’s human vessel looked in that story, so I took some creative liberties and made him look like Satan/Rinka from Blue Exorcist (see B&W reference pic).

#alta #little zuko #zuko #avatar zuko #vaatu #ozai #sokka #fanart #who made the original pics?

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girlofthemoon75 · 5 years

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Led Zeppelin Cover Artwork Part 2

Led Zeppelin II

Welcome to part 2 of the Cover Art work history of the Led Zeppelin albums. Led Zeppelin II is the next album we are looking at. The album was released on 22nd October 1969 with advance orders of 400′000 copies. The slogans for the advertising campaign were Led Zeppelin - The Only Way to Fly and Led Zeppelin II - Now Flying.

The album sleeve design was from a poster by David Juniper who was a fellow student of Jimmy’s at Sutton Art College, Surrey. The band just told him to come up with something interesting. So he had every creative freedom!

The picture we see on the sleeve is based on a photograph of the Jagdstaffel 11, Division of the German Air Force during WWI. They were called Flying Circus and was led by the Red Baron, Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen who was a famous pilot during WWI.

(Source: Bundesarchiv Bild 183-2004-0430-501, shot 23rd April 1917) This is the original photograph, Richthofen is sitting in the airplane, an Albatros D.III

Juniper pasted the faces of the band members from other photographs and added faces from other photographs as well. The only women you see on the pic is actress Delphine Seyring. Also you can see a outline of a Zeppelin on a brown background. Because of this the album got the nickname Brown Bomber.

The making of Led Zeppelin II, in the words of the artist, David Juniper (Source)

“In the late sixties in London, anything seemed possible!! I was employed at the time in a boring Art Director’s job, so I got a lot of satisfaction out of moonlighting on speculative stuff.

The music of "Led Zeppelin I" had blown me away and so, on spec, I mocked up a fold-out design for the second album and took it to (Zeppelin’s manager) Peter Grant and Micky Most at Rak Records. I had a few friends starting to get into the music industry and they helped to point me in their direction.

The combination of collage/photography and airbrush illustration was groundbreaking for me, because the traditional airbrush technique was very tricky, especially when compared to today’s digital equivalents. The cover imagery was completely experimental and I liked the combination of the abstract ghostly Zeppelin shape along with a faded sepia WW1 photo of German Aviators.

All the faces were replaced or altered (sunglasses & beards on some of the pilots!). In amongst the four band members (airbrushed in from a publicity photograph) are Miles Davis (or was it Blind Willie Johnson?), a girlfriend/muse of Andy Warhol (perhaps Mary Woronov) and the astronaut Neil Armstrong. The original photo of the Jasta Division of the WW1 German Air Force came from an old book about the ‘Sopwith Camel’, which was a famous British bi-plane from WW1.

I used bright inks to make the illustration parts really pop. I just presented it to the group and they went for it, with only a few changes to the inside spread (see below). The outside cover went through as it was proposed.

The inside image is full-on psychedelia, in contrast to the original idea discussed, which had a Zeppelin flying past the Statue of Liberty. They did not want something on the inside with a similar feel to the outside, so I just went for a colourful painting as a complete contrast to the outside. I remembered a documentary film of 1920/30's German architecture and thought this approach would give the image a heavy rock/blues feel.

Anyway, from that point forward, the group’s management was all very friendly and used me on other covers for some of their other artists, including Donovan and Lulu. Another great treat was to be asked down to Olympic Studios in Barnes while they worked on the recording, but what pleased me the most was that cover was nominated at the 68' Grammy Awards!

The photograph of the boys which Juniper used (by Michael Ochs, 1969):

Hope you enjoyed this - tell me your favorite song of the album! Mine is Thank you but I love the other songs as much!

#led zeppelin #art cover #artwork #led zeppelin II #jimmy page #john paul jones #robert plant #john bonham

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vestedbeauty · 3 years

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Unleashed: Life Lessons from a Dog

New Post has been published on https://vestedbeauty.com/unleashed-life-lessons-from-a-dog/

Unleashed: Life Lessons from a Dog

Dogs are some of my favorite people. Hubby and I have three. They’re all our babies, but Pickle is extra special. I’ve learned a little something about life from her. Hopefully this won’t get sappy.

First, Let Me Tell You About Pickle

If you’re a dog person, you know the type. You look into her eyes and there’s someone there.

At the shelter where we adopted her, they said she was a border collie mix. Perhaps her mother once dallied with a border collie. But Pickle is most definitely a pit bull mix. I wouldn’t have gone looking for a pit; I always thought their hair was too wiry and their faces looked funny to me. I’d hoped to find a dog who’d fill the shoes of my boy Woody, my constant companion for over a decade. Like Woody, Pickle had spots on her snout, and they called to me. She marched right up to us and introduced herself as our new pack member. And so it was decided.

Brains and Brawn

She’s a problem solver. As in, when she was a pup, if I took a work call in the office and closed the door, she got to work eating the drywall to solve the problem of not having eyes on me. If she hears someone approach the front porch, she opens the door. Delivery people and I are equally grateful for the metal screen door, a second barrier to keep her from eating them. She would never, but she gives off that vibe. Also, she ate pillows.

Pickle’s athletic in a way I’ve never been. She doesn’t just play fetch; she earns extra points for style. Throw a high-pop and she’ll probably catch it in the air. Sometimes it bounces off her snoot and she’ll catch it on the bounce. It took a while for her to learn how fetch works. I’ve said, “Pickle, I can’t throw it if you don’t drop it,” thousands of times. She gets it now. Mostly.

She taught me that tennis elbow isn’t for tennis players only. Aside from playing ball, her other favorite game is simply called “Rope.” We go through several of those thick rope toys every year. Many ratty knots of string, formerly known as Rope, litter the backyard gardens. I get side-eye from Pickle if she notices me gathering them for the burn pile. The game goes like this: She holds one end in her teeth. I hold the other end. Then she shakes, tugs, and yanks that rope until I end up with bursitis. Alternatively, the judges will allow one modification to the game. I may fling Rope across the yard, sidearmed, until I end up with bursitis.

So Much Togetherness

Pickle takes togetherness to a whole new level. While she’s not a fan of having a bath, oddly, she and her sister Belle like to get in mine with me. Hubby took a few pics. I’m debating whether my children would die of embarrassment if I post one. Also, I’m writing this on a plane, and don’t want to alarm my seat neighbors. (OK, doing it.) Pickle’s also good for keeping you company while you poop. I have no idea why, but she’ll march right in, climb into the tub (a foot away from the toilet), and just wait. No pics of that, thank goodness.

When I come home from visiting the kids or a business trip, Pickle’s affection levels go through the woof roof. She’s a vocal girl, so there are sound effects as she snuggles into my lap like she did when she was five pounds. (She’s now 72 pounds but that is irrelevant.) Like Heath Ledger’s Joker’s demented grin, her smile is impossible to miss.

The Most Vicious of Breeds

She’s learned to be gentle with all sorts of “babies” except for any kind of toy. When we have baby chicks, she’ll lie down near them and we can stack them on her (weird hillbilly hobbies!) or tuck them into her armpits. She does her best not to chase the older hens. But if one dies and she gets to it first, it’s probably going in her mouth.

Even Nermal the kitty (formerly known as the asshole kitty – thank goodness for neutering!) tries to nurse on Pickle. She’ll look at me with this confused look, like she’s asking how much of this insanity she’s supposed to endure.

A Terrible Traveler

Know how with most dogs, you practically have to spell C-A-R because they’ll lose their ever loving minds if they think they’re going on a ride? Pickle’s like that, too.

Except here’s the thing. She’s the worst car-riding dog ever on the planet. I thought babies could puke. HA. Poop everywhere? Please. Pickle has upped that game to the point no contenders need apply.

How’d I find this out? First, I took her on a six-hour ride to meet my kids. Off and on for two hours, she gacked in the back seat. I’d stop, mop, gag, and get back on the road thinking certainly she was empty. But no. Also, it got into some places in the car that no human can reach. (Apologies in advance to the poor soul who buys this car if I ever sell it.)

Oh, and there was a second instance. We decided that perhaps if she practiced on shorter rides, that would do the trick. During the ride, she seemed only a little more nervous than we were. Once we got to our (thankfully dog-loving and very kind) friends’ house, she let loose like a scene from The Exorcist. Thus ended our transportation experiment.

Unleashed

As she doesn’t travel much, Pickle’s domain is the back yard. She knows every board of the fence, every stick on the ground, and every pile of chicken shit in the clover.

But that girl loves a good walk. All three pups go bananas if they hear their leashes jingle in their place. We start with the leash on, but let it drag on the ground. The dogs magically seem to understand that they’d better be on their best behavior in this situation. One crazy dog move, and we’ll grab the other end, putting a stop to self-walking mode in a heartbeat.

This is the part where it seems my dog is teaching me something about living in midlife that I am learning to grasp fully.

I’ve taken to calling this state of being unleashed. Free to frolick like there’s no leash. Safe from doing utterly dangerous stuff (thanks to decades of accumulated experiences and the wisdom that comes from doing things that don’t work so well). Fully present to nature’s cacophony of sights, sounds, scents, and sensations. Gulping the fresh air, noticing the wave of tree branches, feeling each springy footfall.

There’s no phone. No Zoom. No Slack. Certainly no social media or email. Just my husband’s warm, work-calloused, huge hand holding mine. Sometimes we chat, greeting neighborhood dogs and talking about work and family. Sometimes we stroll arm in arm, silently.

Many times, it’s on these walks when one of us gets a great idea. Every time, we end it thanking each other for nudging us out the door.

Again with Trevor Blake

I really do try not to fan-girl too much. But when someone writes a book that hits me right where I need it most, it’s hard not to talk about it incessantly now and then. In Three Simple Steps he talks a lot about spending time outdoors. This guy started his first business in his forties, has had massive exits, and works five hours a day. (Two of those hours, he’s walking his dogs in the woods!) As a reformed workaholic (i.e. human doing), I have a lot to learn from him. One big area is in how I spend my time.

The three ways I love spending my time unleashed are:

Creating – writing, primarily. Making anything appear in physical form from just an idea is about the most amazing experience ever. Highly creative, productive sessions satisfy my soul so deeply that words fail me.

Puttering. I searched for the best word to describe this regenerative, rejuvenating state. It might involve doing little household, gardening, or chicken-tending tasks. The orderliness, the voluntary nature of puttering is soothing.

Being with. I have never so enjoyed being with my family and few friends more than I do at this point in my life. As a young working mom, I loved every minute with my babies, but I was so aware of their few and fleeting nature that I felt terrified and unable to soak it all in. Plus, exhaustion. As a work-at-home mom of older kids, I felt tremendous pressure to provide for our family. Fear makes a terrible motivator, robbing us of the present. As an empty-nester with an understanding of life’s brevity, I can enjoy “being with” like never before. I see it in the times I go up to visit the kids. And also in the unhurried bathrobe-clad morning coffee sessions on the porch with hubby. I treasure time now.

Life’s Too Short Not to Go Unleashed

Especially in midlife, there’s this sense of turning a page and discovering the rest of the book is blank. We’ve got a lot of new liberties in our lives, and a greater appreciation of what matters most to us. Maybe your schedule is not as flexible as you’d like, but you still have hours each day you can spend doing whatever lights you up. I recommend finding what “unleashed” time means for you – and lavishing it on yourself.

Like Pickle, may we all enjoy each day to the hilt. As I used to tell my old boy, Woody, each morning when we woke up, “We got another day!” How will you use yours?

#Lessons from My Dog #Pets

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fourseasonsfigs · 2 years

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Word of Honor x Koitake / Tofu (Official) Set 1

I very clearly recall when the first Word of Honor figure sets were announced in 2021, because I distinctly remember thinking, those are cute, but they will just sit around collecting dust. I don't need them. I won't buy them.

And then I watched the concert, and saw more pics of the figures, and thought, you know, they're really cute, and maybe, if I just bought one set as a memento, that would be ok. It would be a happy memory.

So I intently examined the pre-order pictures, and after a lot of back and forth, finally decided that I would buy the Tavern set, because like Gong Jun, the basking in the sun scene is my favorite. I recall feeling very self-satisfied with myself. What fiscal prudence! What rational judgement! What a thoughtful, responsible adult!

Right. So...

At this point, I feel like a lot of people have already seen these figures, but for the sake of completeness, I feel like I should post about them anyway. So I'm going to do the entire first set all in one mega-post.

And I have to say, I feel a lot of affection for these little figures - they are so wrapped up in my memory of the watching the show and going right into the concert, and all the joy of that time. So I can't help but treasure them.

Tavern

While Tofu did have some major system glitches (manufacturing, distribution and delivery logistics issues!) on these figures, I have to say the overall quality is quite high. The details are both well thought out and well executed, and the poses and expressions are true to the show and have personality. They even detailed the shoes and pants on the underside for Lao Wen, despite the fact that it doesn't even show.

The figures come with two magnetized square tiles to place the figures on, but I didn't get a shot of it here because I instead place the figs on the one and only diorama from this series - Tianya Inn from episodes 3 and 4. Tianya is of course related to Tianya Ke (Faraway Wanderers), the name of Priest's novel that the show is based off of.

It's more like a standee, really, with the eponymous mountains from the series' Chinese name of Shanhe Ling, Mountain River Order. What those mountains are doing hanging out right in front of the inn, I am not totally sure, but that's ok!

Here's a few screenshots of Tianya Inn from the show for comparison purposes:

Beautiful! I admit when I first saw the standee, I didn't immediately recognize it as belonging to the show, since they took a few creative liberties with it. But that's ok, I'm still prepared to love it.

Taolin (Peach Forest)

Just because I didn't initially pick this pair as my One and Only Figure Set doesn't mean I don't love it. It was a hard choice, ok!

This is actually my favorite costume on A-Xu, and the details/motion on Lao Wen's iconic pink yuanlingpao here are just lovely. His fan is removable, and I adore the pink peach blossoms twigs that you can pick up and move around the tile bases.

They both look so happy and content strolling up the road to Siji Manor. Lao Wen, in fact, looks extra jaunty with the laid-back lean to his pose here - this was the only fig of the set that wasn't quite stable. After a few times of him falling over backwards and making my heart skip a beat (turns out PVC figs are quite sturdy, but STILL, hasn't Lao Wen been through enough?!?!), I ended up putting a fig sticker on his foot to keep him on the upright path.

You can see the bases here - the magnets are those thin rectangles in the middle keeping them together.

Snowy Mountain

Simple figs but I like the pose and the expressions, and the robes and the hair are well done. More detail on the pants underneath as well, although technically (yes, I'm going to be that person), Lao Wen's pants should have been black.

I wish they had done a diorama of the mountain - that could have been spectacular! As it is, these figs make me remember the large version of these two figs from the concert, and I smile every time.

Alright! You're hanging in there like a champ, here's the last set:

Concert

This of course is the nakama pose from the manga One Piece. From what I understand, this is generally considered to mean something like "closer than family" and is very meaningful to that fandom. This pose was Zhehan's suggestion for the final moments of Day 2 of the concert.

The lantern stage here had to be assembled - the lanterns are all separate, including the ones in the hands there, and you have to gently push them into a slot. They've actually stayed solidly in place.

I'm categorically incapable of NOT loving anything to do with the concert, so I'll just leave this picture here:

And here we are at the end! These sets all had box cards with them as well:

Material: PVC

Fig Count: 24

Diorama Count: 3

Rating: The OG

[link back to Master Fig Index for more posts]

#word of honor #shl #zhang zhehan #gong jun #zhou zishu #wen kexing #shl concert #figthusiast

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thisisthetragicstoryofme · 7 years

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Acting with Feelings.

Here we go! I got a request sent in and I thought I’d give it a go!!! WOOOO here’s for my first imagine EVER!

Request (by anon): I want to request a Harrison fic! One where the reader is like an actor too and they're on the same tv show and just fluff on set?! (I took a little creative liberty and did what I did haha it’s open for a part 2 or a continuation if people want it.)

Warnings: none.

Word count:1346

You sighed as you sat in your dressing room, your makeup artist and hair stylist having just left. Today you began filming season 4 of your latest TV series, it loomed upon you that this was the last season and your character was finally going to meet her soulmate before she died and apparently you were meeting your counterpart, Harrison Osterfield, in a few minutes when you got called on set.

The butterflies in your stomach never failed, pushing at your sides to get out. This boy, THIS BOY, you thought to yourself as you began the descent to the set, your characters long whimsical dress dragging behind you. It didn’t help that you googled him the night before or that you lost sleep over his perfect blue eyes and how even in photos you found yourself getting lost in them.

“Y/N! Y/N!” The director called, watching as you walked onto the set and saw a group congregating, “I want you to meet your soulmate, this is Harrison and his friend Tom.” He said as you sauntered over, not looking up into his eyes.

“Nice to meet you.” You murmured, finally looking up at Harrison. He was at least a foot taller than you, had sandy blonde hair and was beyond toned.

“You too Y/N, I’m so excited to have this opportunity to work with someone like you.” Harrison blurted out as tom held back a smirk. Harrison had been talking about Y/N nonstop since he found out he was cast in her TV show.

“Well let’s get this started.” You said with a smile as you both took your places and the filming began.

~A few weeks later~

You and Harrison both started laughing as you began to film the sex scene, the laughter never fail and your director even held back giggles too. The scene wasn’t that hard to film as the pair of you had become incredibly close over the few weeks you’d known each other.

“Cut! Cut, Come on guys, we’ve got enough bloopers for the gag reel but I need you guys to take this seriously!” He yelled, calling for the scene to be reworked.

As the pair of you began the scene again, something about this take seemed personal, it seemed serious. You didn’t know if it was the glint in his eye or the fact that it felt like no one else was in the room, the camera and crew non-existent to you as you kissed him with passion and he lead you to the bed, following every action that the script had laid out, only this time there was no laughter and no calling for cut. The call for the scene to stop came as it was due to fade to black, giving viewers exactly what they wanted and a little room to imagine what could have happened. You both stopped, covers over your heads as you were in Haz’s characters bed, a smile on both your lips and a small smirk as he pulled the covers down.

“Think that was good enough?” He asked you as you grabbed your dress and pulled it over your head to cover your body.

“Yeah, I think we get a break now.” You said as you walked away, retreating to your dressing room as the director said it was a great shot.

Harrison followed you, wanting to know if you guys could hang out, if you wanted to go for a drive and get fast food like you always did after a difficult scene but when you closed the door and he heard the lock turn over a frown took over his lips and the sadness met his blue eyes.

When you were both called back to set, you had a final scene for the night as the first episode was airing and you all had a viewing party and a live tweeting session planned. The scene called for Lara (Y/N character) and Nathaniel (Harrison’s character) to talk about what just happened and for her to reveal that she’s going to die soon.

“I think we were due that, I’ve been waiting years to meet you Lara and now that we’re together I never want to lose you.” Harrison said, moving to hold your hand as he looked into your eyes.

“N-Nathaniel, I am very sick.” You said softly, the tears began falling as Harrison’s eyebrows raised, clearly he never got told about this and it showed in his expressions. “I’m going to die Nate.” You added, watching as Haz shook his head.

“AND CUT!” The director called clapping his hands “That’s great!” He grinned.

Harrison grinned, pulling you into a hug and lifting you up a slight which brought a smile to your lips. “We did it Y/N! WE DID IT!” He said to you with a smile as he kissed your cheek.Your cheeks lit up as he kissed them, causing a huge smile on your lips as you turned to him and kissed him on the lips while the rest of the crew, celebrated the last shot of the day.

A few hours later the whole cast was sitting inside your lounge room with your phones out, watching the hype build up for the first episode. You posted a picture of you and Haz, captioning it ‘I wonder who will make an appearance in this season’ therefore announcing that Haz was in the season as it hadn’t been announced yet. It got a lot of likes by people who followed Haz and a lot of people who had Holland in their name, it also got a lot of ‘I ship it’ replies, one of which came from Tom Holland himself.

Watching as Haz got his phone out and retweeted the pic he looked over to you with a smile, “Tom thinks we make a good couple.” He said softly, shaking his head as he put his phone back down and you both took your places on your lounge as various other cast members sat on the floor or the bean bags you provided.

The show started and you tweeted a video of all the cast singing along to the theme song, laughing as it picked up from the cliff hanger that last season left it on. ‘Oh damn, we’re all so musical.’ You captioned it with a cry face emoji.

‘Damn Lara, you is gonna meet someone soon’ you tweeted, watching on as your character cried to her mother, wanting to know who her soulmate was.

‘@Y/U/N Yeah some handsome fella I believe’ Haz replied to you.

‘@Hazosterfield I dunno but he has dreamy blue eyes’ you replied hesitantly, watching as Haz’s eyes widened as he read the tweet.

‘@Y/U/N He might have but at least I got to act with someone who has a genuine and beautiful soul’ he replied, looking back to the screen as his character got revealed.

A smile met your lips as you read his reply. You simply replied with a few heart emoji’s and rested your head on his shoulder, watching the rest of the episode and occasionally tweeting.

As the episode ended and everyone took their leave, Haz stayed behind lingering in your kitchen as he helped you clean by stacking your dishwasher.

“So that was pretty fun...” He said as you binned the last of the rubbish and he finished with the dishes. “Yeah, we should do it every few episodes.” You suggested, looking over at Haz before he ran a hand through his hair. “Uh Y/N I know this may seem weird and everything but I... I would uh like to take you out to lunch tomorrow, like a date kinda thing or not I mean it can be whatever you want but I want to get to know you better.” He spat out, not stopping to take a breath or look at you. You looked over at Harrison, the butterflies you had when you first met returning with a vengeance as you let go of the breath you didn’t realise you’d held in.

“Yeah okay Haz, it’s a date.”

#harrison osterfield #harrison osterfield imagine #haz imagines #tom holland #for anon #be nice :)

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birbleafs · 7 years

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hi thanks for sharing your fanfic. it was very good! im curious abt true names and tried to make some for RP OCs but im not sure still ;w; could you explain how you came up with sorey's true name? thank you!!

Sorry for the late reply, anon! And afdksjfk thank you, I’m glad you enjoyed the fic :’)

/bREATHES

oKAY, I’m not superb at explaining stuff like this, but I’ll try my best to show how I came up with Sorey’s True Name for my fic.Forthe record, this method isn’t accurate if you want to translate actual words/phrases fromEnglish/Modern Glenwood to Ancient Tongue, and vice versa. But it’ll do if allyou want is to create True Names for fics/RPs or simply just for the heck of it. You’ll also still need to takesome creative liberties with it (I’ll explain more below).First, decide what your OC’s True Name means. I’d always planned for Sorey’s to mean something along the line of “Unwavering/Resolute” and I’d also wanted “heart” to be part of his name.

This is the chart (left corner of pic) I used as for translating the True Names to Ancient Tongue. I’m not certain of its actual source, but I’ve seen it linked a few times on tumblr and on some Japanese TOZ fansites couple of years ago. The translation keys goes English (Pink) -> Glenwood (Orange) -> Ancient Tongue (Yellow). With that chart, you can see how the True Name I chose for Sorey - “Resolute-Heart One” - would translate into Ancient Tongue as follows:

RESOLUTE => WUKIM(?)SU => WUKIMSUHEART => RUAWS ONE => IVUIf there’s a missing letter from the chart, I usually leave it omitted (or if it makes the word read better, I suppose you could also add a vowel).

After I have a ‘rough name’ written in Ancient Tongue, I then tried to come up with the closest spelling to match how the name would bepronounced in Japanese katakana. The easiest way to do this is to take the name in A.T.and then stick it into this English-Katakana generator.

And I got something like this:

RESOLUTE => WUKIMSU Katakana: ワキムスー (Wakimusū)

HEART => RUAWS Katakana: ルアウーズ (Ruaūzu)

ONE => IVUKatakana: イブー (Ibū)

Now that I have the katakana for “Resolute-Heart One” (Wakimusū Ruaūzu Ibū), here’s where I took creative liberties and tried to come up with the best romanized spelling that would somewhat match the katakana pronunciation (and as close to the localized English dub of the True Names).

So, Wakimusū can be written as Wachimus, Welkimus, Wilkemus, etc. Ultimately, I settled for spelling it as Wilkiphis because it has a gentler, nicer ring to it. You can stick variations of your romanized names into Google Translate just to get an idea of how it might sound when pronounced aloud.

I shortened Ruaūzu to Luz, and Ibū (Eevuu) to Rev, which I then combined into Luzrev.

And voilà! That’s how I got Wilkiphis Luzrev.

Because “Resolute-Heart One” reads off rather awkwardly in English, I switched it around to mean “One of Unwavering Heart” because it sounds a lot more poetic, haha.

*If you’re interested to read more about Ancient Tongue, there are other more detailed posts with better translation charts (for actual words/phrases) which I’ll link here too. Beware though, because some of them have Berseria spoilers (or rather, a Berseria fan-theory that TURNED out to be right and a real major spoiler, lol). So don’t click the links below if you don’t want to be spoiled yet!

Discussion links on Ancient Tongue (with possible TOB spoilers): 1, 2, 3

I hope this helps, anon. Thanks for dropping by!

#tales of zestiria #sorey #ancient tongue #true names #true name guide #ask #anon #reference #meta #...except not really but what to tag #ahh i hope this make sense #and sorry for the late reply oops

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lesnerinn · 6 years

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We’ll be honest. We think that we have the best job on Earth because every day is a party at Lesner Inn! Every Monday, we meet to recap the weekend’s events & have been keeping a running list of some of the most memorable weddings of 2017. At the end of each year, we sit down to go over all of these lists & pick our favorites to share with you, our past, present, & future couples!

We hope you enjoy scrolling through some of the most beautiful, touching & even comical moments from Lesner Inn over the past year!

Best Something Old

As the saying goes, you must have something old, something new, something borrowed & something blue on your wedding day. Courtney nailed it with her something old by altering her mother’s wedding dress for her own wedding. Her mom did not get to see the dress until the day of & the result gave us all chills!

Below: Love Simply Photography

Best Something Borrowed

Continuing along the path of something old, new, borrowed & blue, Liz’s something borrowed pulled at our heart strings when she wore a bracelet from each of her grandmothers. We love that she tied in both sides of her family on her wedding day!

Below: Beth Hamilton Photography

Best Something Blue

Elizabeth made sure not to forget a single bit of blue on her wedding day & we loved her take on a coastal wedding. They even kicked off the day with blue champagne!

Below: Echard Wheeler Photography

Best Cake

This amazing creation by Whipped Up by Mimi quite literally takes the cake for the year! We see so many different styles of cake but we were head over antlers for this rustic naked cake. Oh & those antlers…they’re pure white chocolate!

Right: Lee Yen Photography

Best Cake Smash

Tim & Kate cracked us up from day one & that didn’t stop after they said “I do”! These two have such a laid back style & didn’t feel the pressure of wedding planning one bit. Kate clearly wasn’t worried about what Tim’s white shirt would look like after she smashed cake into his face, and we found it hysterical!

Below: Echard Wheeler Photography

Best Dessert Alternative

Amanda & Surge aren’t big cake people so, instead of a traditional wedding cake, they brought in Confetti Gelato! We knew that we loved this sweet couple but, when they told us that they were skipping the cake & going for gelato instead, we knew that they were meant to roll with the coordinators at Lesner Inn!

Below: Wasin French Photography

Best Cake Topper

Justin & Ariel weren’t messing around when they picked out their cake topper! We got such a kick out of this one that we had to award it best cake topper of 2017!

Left: Ashley Peterson Photography

Best Bridal Bouquet

Kelly Gish, you are the florist of the year with this incredible bouquet! We loved Nelson & Nicole’s color palette for their wedding & the flowers were just the cherry on top of a beautiful day. Check out those small pops of purple nestled in the arrangement!

Below: Luke & Ashley Photography

Best Ceremony

It’s rare that a bride & groom can surprise us with something new, but we are pretty sure that this is our first couple to get married ON the water. Morgan & Jake sailed out into the Lynnhaven River with their immediate families to tie the knot while their guests enjoyed cocktail hour in the Waterside Deck. This beautiful moment is definitely the most unique ceremony of 2017!

Below: Lee Yen Photography

Best First Look

Mike, you HANDS DOWN had the best reaction of any groom seeing his bride for the first time when Alishia walked down the aisle. We are so glad Dustin Lewis captured this moment!

Below: Dustin Lewis Images

Best Kiss

The moment that we saw this photo, we knew that it had to be awarded the best kiss of 2017. We love that this groomsmen got down on his hands & knees to give Jonathan a boost to his bride!

Right: Kelly Dier Photography

Cutest Ring Bearer & Flower Girl

Alright, so these two actually weren’t from the same wedding but we were so taken with them that we had to award them cutest ring bearer and cutest flower girl. Kayleigh & Wayne created this “Ring Security” badge for this little guy to make sure that everyone knew what his main job was. And even though it took a little nudging from their coordinator, Kyle & Amy’s flower girl strutted her stuff down the aisle once she realized that she was the center of attention!

Left: Jason Jarvis Photography – Right: Dragon Studios

Best Décor

Style Events did it again with one! Meghan & Craig had a beautiful wedding with long banquet tables, stunning linens from Waterford Event Rentals & romantic florals from Palette of Petals. Their use of creative floor plans & floating florals on the arch wins them the best décor of 2017!

Below: Echard Wheeler Photography

Best Theme

We will be the first to admit that we were a little confused when Tim & Kate told us that theme of their wedding was going to be America. But these two are the goofiest, most fun-loving people so we knew that we were in for a treat. They tied the knot on Memorial Day weekend & requested that all of their guests wear white with patriotic flair, had Statue of Liberty centerpieces, & danced to God Bless the USA for their first dance while their guests surrounded them waving American flags. Hands down, the best theme of the year!

Below: Echard Wheeler Photography

Best Stationery

One of the parts of the planning process that we rarely get to see is the invitation suite. Every once in a while though, a couple will bring them in so the photographer’s can snap a few photos of them. We loved Nelson & Nicole’s trendy invites with the agate textured background!

Right: Wasin French Photography

Best Traditional Wedding

We see all sorts of family, religious & cultural traditions at Lesner Inn. This year we were lucky enough to be able to learn about the Bengali culture during Trina & Greg’s wedding ceremony. They incorporated both of their traditions into their marriage ceremony & you can read much more about the traditions and customs in their wedding spotlight here!

Below: Chelsea Anderson Photography

Best Exit

Oh hello beautiful Lynnhaven River! We love when couples utilize the water for a boat exit or entrance &, even though it was a misty day, Thomas & Lauren still sailed away in style. This boat exit won the best exit of 2017!

Below: Dragon Studio

Best First Dance

Tyler & Rachael’s first dance gave us all the feels & when we saw this photo from Kelly Marie, we knew that they stole the spotlight for 2017. What is better than a handsome man in uniform spinning his new wife around the dance floor?

Right: Kelly Marie Photography

Best Sunset

Lesner Inn is FAMOUS for the epic sunsets that you can catch every evening from the venue. While there were 365 contenders, Jon & Andrea win the award for the best sunset photo of 2017!

Left: Winston Veranga Photography

Best Party Crowd

Everyone looks forward to a wedding for the drinking, dancing, & love. Jordan & Nicole’s guests were no different but these guys REALLY came to party! Check out the top right photo, even Grandma got in on that open bar action!

Below: David Champagne Photography

Best Dressed

This category is a liiiiittle deceiving, but it is going three years strong now! We aren’t quite sure what makes guests want to strip down on the dance floor, but anyone who does definitely deserves to win best dressed!

Below: Dragon Studios

Best Rainy Wedding

Rain on your wedding day isn’t what most couples hope for, but sometimes Mother Nature has another idea in store for us. Kent & Haley rolled with the punches so well when it started to pour right before their ceremony, but luckily our Sunset Deck is covered so you can still have your outdoor ceremony, even with a little inclement weather. Because of their positive attitudes all day, they get the award for best rainy wedding of 2017!

Left: Bryan Myhr Photography

Best Groomsman Photo

Guys can be goofy… but this crew really had us giggling! We love that they took posing into their own hands by stealing the bridesmaid’s bouquets.

Below: Jason Jarvis Photography

Best Squad Pic

Amanda & Matt got busted with their squad when the First Landing State Park rangers jumped in on the action. Nothing says a party like some flashing lights & sirens!

Below: Dustin Lewis Images

Best Personal Touch

Jamie & Jill hid a little personal touch inside of their wedding dresses. Here is what they told us when we asked about these blue hearts:

“One thing that we decided to do was create our own little memorials for those who couldn’t be with us on our special day. Jill’s father passed away several years ago, so she cut a heart out of one of his blue shirts… and, Jamie’s grandfather had passed away in February, so she cut a heart out of one of his favorite jean jackets. We pinned these inside our dresses – as our something old and something blue.”

You can read more about their wedding on their wedding spotlight.

Below: Valerie Betz Photography

2017 came & went so quickly, & we cannot thank the people & vendors we worked with this year enough for making our weddings such a success! We can’t wait to see what 2018 has in store, & to meet all of the wonderful, beautiful couples who will tie the knot at Lesner Inn with us in the years to come!

Best of 2017! We’ll be honest. We think that we have the best job on Earth because every day is a party at…

#beauty #dos #Flowers #memories #Photography #views #Virginia #wedding

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kalachand97-blog · 7 years

Text

New Post has been published on Globeinfrom

New Post has been published on https://globeinform.com/android-app-revenue-on-course-to-overcome-ios-in-2017/

Android app revenue on course to overcome iOS in 2017

A boom in app installs from the Google Play shop in addition to 1/3-celebration Android app shops is projected to pressure Android client to spend to surpass iOS in 2017, in keeping with app analytics company App Annie.

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App Annie’s app revenue forecast encompasses only consumer spending or revenue that routes thru app stores. This includes in-app purchases, paid apps, and subscriptions, but now not in-app advertising and marketing.

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App developers took into consideration the “pay once and play” model — in which customers pay up the front an app and are not precipitated to make in-app purchases — the first-class way to generate revenue. but as more “loose-to-down load” apps entered the market, customers an increasing number of opted for those experiences. those apps offer microtransactions for in-app items and offerings and in-app commercials.

Because the app environment expands similarly, it becomes increasingly more difficult for developers to compete in a crowded marketplace. basic, global gross app revenue will double to attain $102 billion through 2020, according to recent projections with the aid of App Annie. As a result, app monetization strategies want to shift as a minimum as quickly as purchaser developments and options so as for developers to seize a chunk of this developing market.

Laurie Beaver, studies analyst for BI Intelligence, Enterprise Insider’s premium research service, has compiled an in-depth record on app monetization that explores the pinnacle app monetization strategies below user- and marketing paid methods, and the developing mixture of Both. We are able to also look at rising tendencies that might assist developers to navigate the fiercely competitive app ecosystem, and deal with the capacity boundaries that builders may have to conquer to achieve the benefits of the multi-billion dollar market.

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