#especially since it does the ‘disadvantaged people forced to play death games just so they can survive in society’ trope well!!

[floofe-trans-doggie]

Thoughts on the TF2 Zombie Infection update we just got: Overall, pretty good, but I think they leaned too far into the rebalancing in favor of the zombies.

The changes to Engineer and Demoknight were good, really good. Those classes were very oppressive in the original version of the gamemode, and I'm glad they got much-needed nerfs. Engineer stacking is still too strong, but that's a serious problem with the class that the base game hasn't solved, either. Generally I think enough players find Engineer really boring that unless you're up against a really sweaty team or people doing it for the bit, you're not too likely to find more than one or two Engineers on a team, though it does vary from server to server.

The elephant in the room (aside from Heavy, we'll get to him) is, in my opinion, the overall health increase zombies got. I think this was an awful change. The specific mechanic reworkings already helped swing things more in the zombies' favor, and honestly aside from Engineer and Demoknight, who were themselves already decently nerfed in this update, the humans were already at a disadvantage. This change just swings things in favor of the zombies without adding much mechanical depth, and combined with the mechanical changes honestly really hurts the balance of the game.

Zombie Spy's new cloaking ability is a good addition. It doesn't make him too powerful, since you can still see the particle effects on him, but it helps with the Engineer problem since it prevents sentries from targeting him.

Zombie Soldier is overtuned. On open maps such as Woods, he's one of the most played zombie classes now, and he's extremely difficult to avoid without a sentry around to push them back, which if anything just makes Engineer more essential. I think on their own the height increase and timer cooldown on his pounce ability are both perfectly fine, but put together they make him an absolute menace who is impossible to avoid, especially with an extra 15 health, which I really do not think he needed.

Zombie Sniper's changes were mostly good. Being able to damage buildings with his acid spit now is excellent for breaking Engineer strongholds, especially on Atoll, and it's a great way to balance the game without changing his mechanics too much. The acid pool dropped on death, however, isn't the best in my opinion. It only activates on death, so it doesn't add too much depth to the gameplay on the Sniper's end, and in more cramped maps (especially Devastation), it can be required to walk through in order to flee once you've already killed him, which usually deals at least 50 damage, which I don't think is terribly fun to play against. I also think it infringes on Zombie Pyro's gimmick a bit. I don't hate it, but I don't love it.

Zombie Pyro's changes were great. He was really really bad initially with his lower damage and afterburn reliance, and now he has more going for him. Not dropping a health pack on death is a no-brainer that I'm glad they added; it prevents you from just negating his afterburn, the one thing he does, by just picking it up and adds to the post-mortem killer theme he has going on. The fireball igniting people right away is also quite nice; it's not too strong, but it helps a lot since the Gas Passer cloud almost never does anything. He still kinda sucks on maps with a lot of water, though, which is most of them. A swim speed buff might be nice, to sort of reference the Pyroshark playstyle and give him use cases on these maps.

Zombie Heavy is downright overpowered. He's meant to break strongholds with brute force, which is why he's immune to knockback, has a high health pool, and deals a ton of damage. However, he's way overtuned. Sentries already got nerfed this update, so his additional resistances to it from the Battalion's Backup buff, while nice, aren't as necessary, and the remaining damage resistances, when paired with his high health pool, makes him almost impossible to kill alone. That being said, he obviously has a very slow move speed. One Heavy on his own isn't going to do much if you're moving around the map and engaging with the gameplay. However, there aren't class limits (and I don't think they'd be a good solution anyway). If there's a lot of Zombie Heavies, running away really isn't an option anymore, and he's way too strong to fight. Especially on more enclosed maps like Devastation, he's absurdly strong, and not just against Engineer compounds. If anything, the constant threat of Heavies running around (because everyone is using Heavy now that he's far and away the best class on maps without high ground spots he can't reach at all) actually makes people group up more to avoid him because focus fire from a large group is really the only way to take him down without getting picked off by someone else while trying to fight him. Additionally, crit immunity means the mini-crits and full crits obtained by the final few survivors are completely useless against him, so if anyone picks Heavy and you're the last survivor, you have even less of a chance than you already had. He's like the tank from L4D, which was of course the goal with him. Except unlike the tank from L4D, there's no limit on how many of him you can have. Every single zombie can be a tank. It just feels like they didn't consider stacking or team play at all in designing these changes. What's more is that with the changes to Zombie Sniper and Zombie Engineer, he actually isn't as necessary for busting Engineer nests now anyway. Zombie Heavy is the biggest balance issue in the entire mode right now, and I hope they revert the changes to some extent or at least tone it down.

Zombie Engineer's changes were really good. Adding direct damage to the EMP Grenade ability is great; it increases its utility and annihilates mini-sentries. Zombie Engineer is already a pick with the sole utility of destroying Engineer nests, and it's good that they're making him better at that job.

Zombie Scout's changes were honestly unnecessary. Maybe it was just because he was the only one who could keep up with Demoknight, but he was already one of the better choices before. He's far more maneuverable than the regular Scout with his higher speed and triple jump, and I think the changes tipped him from being in a very nice balance of fragility and maneuverability that made him fun and fair to fight to being a bit overtuned in a lot of ways and difficult to deal with. And need I add that since Engineer counters him pretty heavily, making him stronger only further incentivizes more people to play Engineer, which if anything is the biggest thing to avoid in balancing this gamemode.

The only map I want to touch on here is Devastation. This map does not play very well, and it did not take the balance changes well at all. Its tight corridors already catered really well to the zombies, and with the balance tipped heavily in their favor, it's now nearly impossible to survive unless the survivors can camp out the initial few zombies without losing anyone to their ranks at the start, which makes the gameplay on this map very binary and not as fun as the other maps. I can't really judge it too harshly, though, since Zombie Heavy's changes were really overtuned, and the tight corridors and low ceilings of this map really cater to Zombie Heavy already. If he weren't so blatantly overpowered, I think the map might actually play well, albeit being more difficult to survive on than the others.

Oh and I'm glad they fixed the Zombie Demoman bugs. Kinda. I've still seen some invincible Zombie Demomen running around.

Overall, while I do like this update, I think it was too heavy-handed. They laid on the buffs too thick too quickly, and while most buffs on their own would've been fine, all in conjunction they make the gamemode feel unfair most of the time. Still, it's at least interesting, and it definitely is still very fun even if it isn't terribly fair.

And one last thought before I close this out, I just really hope this mode sticks around after Halloween ends. Vscript gamemodes like this are the lifeblood of TF2's future, and I don't say that lightly. Prior to their introduction with VSH in the Summer 2023 update, we hadn't gotten any significant new gameplay mechanics or content since Jungle Inferno with the last batch of balance changes and weapons. Now, we're getting tons of new modes and a lot of new maps like Crasher and Perks with great, unique twists on existing modes. To take Zombie Infection, which is the most fun I've had in years playing this game, and make it limited to one month out of the year, would be the game shooting itself in the foot in terms of reason to keep playing it. Also seriously just give us a community gamemodes tab in the casual map selection menu, it'd make VSH stop cluttering up the misc tab with 4 whole maps and also pave the way for smoothly implementing other unique new modes.

#team fortress 2 #tf2 #zombie infection #tf2 zombie infection

[donutcrow]

SQUID GAME AM I RIGHT?? 🦑🎮

#the soldier’s designs are so cool!! and it matches up with the symbols on the squid game court which inspired this :0 #ALSO THIS SHOW GOES HARD YEAH YEAH #ITS REVITLISED THE DYSTOPIAN GENRE AFTER DIVERGENT NERFED IT AND I JUST!! #especially since it does the ‘disadvantaged people forced to play death games just so they can survive in society’ trope well!! #the show acknowledges the humanity of the players and how each wound up there due to their disposition in the cycle of poverty #also how the rich elite are so removed from other people that empathy is a vague concept to them and they exist just to be entertained #in selfish indulgence and ‘shock factor’ to feel self fulfilled #ANOTHER THING!! the fact bot the players and soldiers are dehumanised by being labelled by numbers and shapes! #even more so for the staff that they’re masked and have voice dismorphers so they can’t even view each other as human or connect #which is key to keep oppressing the players and stay loyal to front man! #also it highlights why society needs equity rather than equality! every individual has their own disadvantages and advantages #so resources need to be distributed based on need which is what the rich don’t recognise and would rather give tons to one individual who #still must ‘work hard’ and earn their place amongst them in society #JUST ALOT OF THOUGHTS BC I CAN’T STOP THINKING ABOUT THIS SHOW FOR THE PAST WEEK #cawart #squid game #squid game fanart #pink soldier #pink staff #k drama #netflix #fanart #tw blood #procreate #digital art #illustration

[mlmdarkfiction]

Josh Washington x male reader fanfic. Josh dressed as The Psycho kills Mike and Emily with a machete. Josh's s/o is upstairs in the shower and hears the screams, and only dressed in a towel, they go downstairs and witness Josh hacking the bodies up. A chase happens and Josh's s/o trips and the towel falls off. But it's revealed that Josh's s/o knew all along about his revenge plan. Then Josh fucks his s/o in the mouth and they both burn down the lodge.

Are you the same person who sent in like a Myer’s request and a Frank request? because if you are you’re a level of chaotic violent horny and I’m here for it. 

if those aren’t all sent by the same person i have a series of chaotic violent horny followers and i support and love all of your requests

anyway sorry this took 800 years it was one of the more recent things in the inbox when I shut requests

This was really fun to write!!

Read on AO3

Read Below:

It’s… an interesting feeling. Being back at the lodge with all of your friends after so long. Part of you hadn’t wanted to return, not after what happened but…you had to be there for Josh. He was your boyfriend, and he wanted this, he deserved this. So you followed along up the mountain, and to the lodge, freezing your ass off as you went.

On the bright side the way up was spent with lots of flirting, although it’s flirting that would, ultimately, go nowhere on the trip. After all this wasn’t about you, or you and Josh’s relationship. This was about your friends.

So once everyone’s arrived, and Emily and Jess have already started fighting you kiss Josh on the cheek. “Since you got the hot water on, hot stuff, I’m gunna go warm up. I’ve not stopped shiver since the minute we started up the mountain.”

Josh watches you go, and just before you’re out of his reach swats at your ass.

Honestly it’s cruel of him to tease you at a time like this.

-

It’s easy enough for the psycho stalking the group of teens at the lodge. He bides his time and waits. It’s Mike he’ll take out first, without Mike there’s no one to play the hero.

So when he gets frustrated with Jessica, and goes to let of steam for a while in another room he strikes.

It’s a good fight. Mike seemed to know it was know joke, and fought as if his life depended on it, which it did. But sadly for him, in the end, it was for not. See, Mike put all his strength into the beginning of the struggle, which is fine, at least until he’s too tired to continue putting in that level of effort. And then it was easy enough to force Mike to the ground, on his knees, and slit his throat.

It’s…an anticlimactic end. The psycho had expected, wanted something better. Something gorier.

A clean death like this?

It wouldn’t get the reaction he wanted from the others.

But he still has a machete, and so he gets to work. If Mike’s body didn’t naturally meet an end complimentary to his vision, then he’ll hack the body up until it meets his standards.

-A scream. That’s what draws you out of your post shower daze. You had been lazily working yourself over in the shower, attempting to get all your sexual frustration out here and now so that you can actually enjoy the rest of the time in the cabin.

At first you assume it’s just Chris scaring someone with a dumb joke, but then you hear the scream again. Now you pause, hands still lingering bellow your waist.

There’s no follow up scream. There’s no sound at all.

Only now do you realize, aside from the running water, the cabin sounds eerily quiet. No dumb drunken laughter or the sound of conversation from your friends.

You turn the water off and listen.

Nothing.

Something’s not right.

The anxiety is resting in the pit of your gut, and your libido has successfully been killed by the strangeness of it all. Grabbing a towel you make your way out from the bathroom and into the hall.

Really…You should have asked Josh where he’d put your bags before you’d taken a shower. Not having any clothes to change into…sucks.

If you get murdered with your junk out that’ll be embarrassing.

“Josh?”

You call out for your boyfriend, voice echoing in the overwhelming silence of the cabin.

How could it be so…empty?

There was a whole group of people here only an hour ago!

“Josh this isn’t funny!”

Bare feet padding across the cold wooden floor you make your way to Josh’s room. It’s like a seen in the movie, you throw the door open suddenly as if it’s burned you- only to be met with an empty room.

Incredibly relieved you start to laugh at your own anxiety. After all, what were you expecting-

The closet bursts open suddenly.

The door hits the wall hard enough to leave a dent, and your met with a sight from someone’s nightmare. A masked stranger covered in blood, but more than that. He in one hand he held a machete, just as stained as his clothing, and in the other Emily’s decapitated head.

Suddenly you feel sick to your stomach.

You’re frozen in your spot, legs not wanting to move due to fear.

This stranger, a psycho, a killer just stares at you. You can feel the predatory smile he must have under the mask radiating off of him in waves. He drops Emily’s head. It bounces, and rolls to you, eventually stopping near your foot.

A small scream leaves you, as her blood dried hair touches your once clean leg, staining you crimson.

Finally you tear your terrified gaze away from the decapitated ex friend to the killer. He’s holding up 3 fingers.

2 fingers.

1.

Realization hits you like a freight train and you take off down the hall, not stopping or hesitating even after the towel flies from your body. Who cares if you’re naked? You don’t have time to worry about modesty when your head is on the line.

Despite your attempts at running…You don’t get very far.

See, you’re at a very significant disadvantage.

You hadn’t bothered to actually dry off before attempting to find Josh, and so you’d left a wet trail in your wake. It didn’t take long before your slick trail resulted in you skidding into a nearby wall, your head connecting to the corner, and knocking you to the ground.

You’re caught.

You don’t get up. You don’t even try. There’s no point.

The slow steady footsteps of the killers boots are only inches away. Holding your head you close your eyes and wait.

“Shit! Babe are you okay?”

Josh’s concerned voice rings out, and you open your eyes to see him already ditching the mask to get a better look at your head wound. It’s cute, how concerned he is. The two of you have played this little cat and mouse game before, although never as thrilled or involving any actual deaths before, and it often ended with you injured like this. Every time it resulted in Josh breaking character to make sure your clumsy self was okay. “Yeah, I think I’m good.” You smile up at him ignoring the hand he offers in hopes of helping you up. Instead you rise to just your knees. “Hurts, but I’m good.” He smells like blood. It’s absolutely radiating off of him.

It does nothing to hinder your growing arousal though, especially when you notice the obvious bulge he’s sporting.

“What are you-”

Sex isn’t on his mind now, despite how much his dick wants to disagree, after all Josh cares about you. It’s cute.

You’ll assure him that you’re fine later. For now you just want to suck the soul out of him while he runs those bloody fingers through your hair.

#josh washington #josh washington x reader #yandere josh washington #until dawn #until dawn reader insert #until dawn imagines #Yandere Until Dawn #Josh #reader #reader insert #yandere reader insert #yandere fiction #yandere imagines #yandere x reader #male reader #male imagines #male reader insert #gay imagines #gay reader #gay reader insert

[carelessgraces]

@srgnt​ said:   the hierophant / justice / the tower / the world   ( major arcana  | accepting )

05.  the hierophant  :  what are your muse’s morals / ethics ? do they follow their moral code strictly ?

     astoria’s moral code, if it can really be considered a ‘code’ rather than a vague collection of convenient limitations, is extremely flexible. there are a few hard limits for her: she cannot tolerate the intentional harm of children; she cannot tolerate a ruler’s neglect; she cannot tolerate the meaningless harm of the people she loves. pretty much anything else, she can deal with — there’s plenty she won’t endorse, but she’ll benefit from a lot without trying to shut it down if she can spin a way that it’s for a ‘greater good.’ she doesn’t turn to something greater to define her moral code — her belief in the maker and respect for the chantry can only take her so far, and she is a firm believer in creating society to fit her needs, rather than just working with what already exists. 

     part of this comes from astoria’s very genuine belief that she’s above it. it’s not a knowing display of pride, though it’s definitely due to her pride: astoria knows that she’s in a position of power, and as such, she needs to be willing to bend and break her own rules whenever necessary, so long as she gives the appearance of not doing so. as per machiavelli’s the prince, which doesn’t exist in this universe but is a huge influence for astoria’s characterization:  

Since, then, a prince must know how to make use of the nature of the beast, he should choose from among the beasts the fox and the lion; for the lion cannot defend itself from traps, while the fox cannot protect itself from the wolves. It is therefore necessary to be a fox, in order to recognize the traps, and a lion, in order to frighten the wolves: those who base their behaviour only on the lion do not understand things. A wise ruler, therefore, cannot and should not keep his word when such an observance would be to his disadvantage, and when the reasons that caused him to make a promise are removed...

Therefore, it is not necessary for a prince to possess all of the above-mentioned qualities, but it is very necessary for him to appear to possess them. Furthermore, I shall dare to assert this: that having them and always observing them is harmful, but appearing to observe them is useful: for instance, to appear merciful, faithful, humane, trustworthy, religious, and to be so; but with his mind disposed in such a way that, should it become necessary not to be so, he will be able and know how to change to the opposite. One must understand this: a prince, and especially a new prince, cannot observe all those things for which men are considered good, because in order to maintain the state he must often act against his faith, against charity, against humanity, and against religion. And so it is necessary that he should have a mind ready to turn itself according to the way the winds of Fortune and the changing circumstances command him. And, as I said above, he should not depart from the good if it is possible to do so, but he should know how to enter into evil when forced by necessity.

Men in general judge more by their eyes than their hands: everyone can see, but few can feel. Everyone sees what you seem to be, few touch upon what you are, and those few do not dare to contradict the opinion of the many who have the majesty of the state to defend them...  Therefore, let a prince conquer and maintain the state, and his methods will always be judged honourable and praised by all. For ordinary people are always taken in by appearances and by the outcome of an event. And in the world there are only ordinary people; and the few have no place, while the many have a spot on which to lean.

- Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince, translated and edited by Peter Bondanella (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), 60-2.

11.  justice  :  does your muse find it easy to be impartial in emotional situations ?

     sometimes !! astoria is very good at removing herself from a situation to get a better understanding of it; she’s practical, and pragmatic, even though she’s also deeply dramatic. with a handful of exceptions, such as a violation of her very limited code, astoria is able to create and maintain emotional distance, so as to ensure that her decisions, whatever they are, are made with a specific goal in mind. as merchant princess, that’s typically the betterment of seleny, but when she’s making a choice simply as astoria, it’s for her own benefit / the benefit of the people she loves. 

     when she can’t be unemotional, however, she becomes vicious and intense in her feelings. if she should be angry, she’s furious; if she should be sad, she’s devastated; if she should be happy, she’s euphoric. if there comes a point when astoria’s emotional control lapses in an intense situation, she’s going to go from zero to a hundred in no time at all. 

16.  the tower  :  what event drastically changed your muse’s life ? do they resent that event or are they glad of it ?

     for astoria, in any verse, it’s always the carrows, and it’s always less of an event than a series of events: here, the carrows arrive in seleny after the death of astoria’s grandmother, escorting her ashes back home after she dies and is cremated in tevinter. they stay with the grimani family — they were close to veronica, her mother, and are astoria’s godparents — and ask to be a part of her life and her education. through blood magic, they put her under a thrall, and begin using her to try and unseat her grandfather as part of an attempt by a rival city to annex seleny. 

     so, basically, astoria’s being used to kill her own grandfather. this is the period when she’s abused, physically and psychologically, and it’s also the period at which she realizes that nobody else is going to save her, and she has to do it herself. this isn’t an easy feat, mostly because alecto and amycus are both significantly stronger than she is; she knows, then, that she’ll have to manipulate other people into doing what she can’t. she sets a trap, she puts her own life in significant danger, and she waits for someone to show up and help her. the help comes in the form of her personal guard, lorenzo; his aid is the only thing that prevents her murder. 

     it comes down to a few lessons learned, for astoria: first, she cannot rely on anyone, except lorenzo, to protect her. she has to protect herself. she has to be the smartest person in any room; she has to know all the ways out of a crisis; she has to be ruthless; and if she’s going down, she has to take other people down with her. it’s not an easy thing to learn at any age, but especially not at fifteen. second, she is not safe anywhere, even at home. safety is not guaranteed; it’s bought, usually with her own bloodshed. she leaves seleny for six years, refusing to return home even for holidays, and she goes instead to orlais, where she studies at the university at val royeaux. there, where everyone is perpetually playing the game and constantly at war with everyone else, she feels safest: not because orlais is remotely safe, but because she’s always alert. and third, she is not ready to rule seleny. her inability to prevent the carrows from controlling her could have destroyed her city; if she can’t protect her city, she has no value to it. she spends the time she’s in orlais training as a bard, certainly, and begging lorenzo to supplement her training, but more than that she learns how to read people, how to understand them. she’s small, and her greatest advantage in a fight is her size, but put her against a warrior or a mage and, unless she has the element of surprise, she’s done for. she’s perfectly adequate in combat, but that’s not a guarantee of anything. she has to fight her battles in more subtle ways, to ensure that she is never put in that position again. astoria’s battlefield is a throne room, a war table, a diplomatic engagement, and she must always excel, and she must always win.

     she doesn’t regret it, even though she hates that it happened. she tells herself that these lessons were necessary, and that without them she would be too weak to have any right to rule; it’s not a healthy outlook, and i don’t think it’s one she ever changes. she’s not grateful for the suffering, but she is proud of the strength she develops in its aftermath, and of herself. 

21.  the world  :  is there one thing in life that your muse must accomplish ? what will they do when they complete that goal ?

     found here !!

#srgnt #tw: abuse #tw: mind control #tw: death #(thank you so much sweet pea!) #i. she had a marvelous time ruining everything. ( about )

[rydain]

Author's Notes from a Modern Brutale - Liberties of Adaptation

Tip of the iceberg canons are fun as hell for me to write for because they allow for such freedom of personal influence in sorting out their unstated specifics. I prefer to go more interpretative than compliant, building on the broad strokes of personality and chemistry and setting that strike me the most - bringing in the particulars that fit my greater vision, shrugging off those that don't, and giving a good yank to the author's strings as needed. As the Chips Fall toward their finale, I figured it would be fun to look back on some particulars of development for the cast and the manor that brought them all together.

Here there be spoilers, both for my series and The Sexy Brutale, if you wish to settle in for a long look behind the curtain.

Tequila

The glass shattering siren from modest means is drawn along the lines of a Deep Southern belle or a Texan pageant queen. Her roots wound up a ways north for me, though far enough in Appalachian coal country to be within that cultural ballpark, thanks to My Old Kentucky Home - just too perfect a song for the hope and homesickness of leaving town and country behind for such a foreign world of glamour. Kentucky's patchwork of dry counties also has special relevance to a particular paint can banging uncle I saw fit to imagine as an ace moonshiner.

I wrote Tequila as a rising star rather than an established one to explore the challenges of fitting into that new world - the polish of fashion and posture and speech and presence, the countless social norms learned on the fly but perhaps never fully internalized. The sense of impostor syndrome thus resulting, the conflict between pride in what she had earned for herself and the fear that she was only this far ahead because of Lucas - and that without him, she would only go right back to where she was. I made the two of them official beyond the canonical winking and nudging because she seemed too well stuck on him for an unrequited crush. This also got her across the pond early in her career for the challenges of culture shock and self-doubt outlined above.

Willow

Canonically a purveyor of curiosities and wrangler of eldritch horror, Willow was a tough one to develop within my idea of modern heightened reality. With her creation of charms and a mention of voodoo, I reimagined her as a consultant and adviser with deep family roots in the faith, and her second sight as an instinctive bent toward conversation that amounts to effective cold reading. This involves communication with spirits who Willow would have a literal sense of speaking to - especially Baron Samedi, lwa of death brought to mind by her skull motif, who can assist with the transitions of loss experienced by Tequila and others at the Brutale, and is very much the type to get handsy with lovely ladies.

Willow established her career in New Orleans' French Quarter near the voodoo shops of Rue Royal, inheriting a small townhouse from a beloved aunt who mentored her in such traditions. Word of mouth and within walking distance, her ecosystem supports a frugal lifestyle based on folkways and homesteading skills learned growing up in the bayou - which, along with an understated modest aesthetic, gives Willow a sense of having stepped out of time. This is a point of compatibility with Tequila and her focus on the classic jazz age and the Great American Songbook, modern music along similar lines, and subtly updated vintage style to complete her timeless presence. More fundamentally, both of them work with the emotional texture of everyday lives - stories that Tequila embodies onstage and Willow seeks in her clients with a guiding hand toward a rewrite.

Greyson

I gave Mr. Yolo Swaggins a hand up toward reformation catalyzed by the shock of a prison sentence he subconsciously courted to kick his own arse toward a clean break. This made for a focus on conflicts of the legitimacy Greyson wants so badly to earn. As a professional, he needs to work with difficult types like Thanos, who values traditional university education and thinks his secrets to be well beyond what he sees as inferior intellect, and Clay, who Greyson could bond with over a rude sense of humor and understanding of each other's cynicism - in turn, sharing respect and eventual friendship rather than begrudging acceptance for Redd's sake. Greyson continues to wrestle with temptations of larceny and proving himself to be beyond them, ultimately rejecting the torment and manipulation of a treasure hunt - Lucas' cruel generosity of playing to others' vices for his own amusement. Which Redd plays his own part in, saving Greyson in the psychological sense rather than physically hauling him out of trouble - helping to reinforce the stability Greyson is already working to develop, and that he gravitates toward Redd to share in.

Greyson's considerable ego - once a force behind the more elaborate and higher risk schemes he took part in - is now fed by his infiltration and analysis of locks and safes and security systems, his determination to be better than the epithets granted by his criminal record and prove his naysayers wrong with a glorious display of upright professional competence. Of course he's not above ripping off some scam or another, but Clay does appreciate the unofficial backup.

Redd

By way of this adorable cartoon and followup ask from @frayed-symphony , Redd likes to read. I extrapolated this into university study of literature and a keen sense of wordplay including all the best worst sorts of puns - an embrace of his awkward streak implied by those untucked shirttails and the Old Habits dance lyrics fail. He works through dense classics with the analytical focus of his piano playing, and he gravitates toward biographies and memoirs of infamous figures who lived much larger lives than his Good Boy nature and risk aversion would ever allow. This fascination also influences his attraction to Greyson and his intrigue of Lucas' employ and the Brutale itself, which Redd feels some desire to properly belong to beyond his initial goal of performing piano. Lucas takes a certain interest in Redd as well, wondering what hidden fatal flaw must reside in someone so upright and considered. Redd doesn't have anything nearly as spectacular as the likes of Greyson. Rather, there are natural disadvantages to his polite reserve - hesitation to go after various personal and professional goals, struggle to provide emotional support to Tequila out of discomfort with that messy and potentially prying sort of talk. Redd needs to learn from someone like Willow, with her well developed emotional intelligence, that he's overthinking the matter like so many others.

Redd plays a strong supporting role throughout my work. Favorite characters tend to do that, and he strikes me as a backbone of the Brutale anyhow - a highly capable, dependable, and well liked linchpin of the casino and music hall. His performance career had a good nudge from Greyson, who convinced Redd that he deserved to take the spotlight instead of feeling that it would be unseemly to ask - seizing a chance as he saw it rather than enduring in silence with that stoicism so clear in his game counterpart's somber expression.

The Rockridge bros lift because of shameless personal bias, because Redd needs to get his cage bending strength somewhere, and because I love the imagined contrast of their training - Redd lifting with meditative focus, Clay forcing himself through the most brutal of circuits because it's not a real workout until he's cursing in a lake of sweat. GO HAM OR GO HOME

Clay

With his responsibilities as head of security and care for Trinity beyond their good-natured trolling, Clay came off as a lovable roughneck rather than someone far more abrasive. He and Redd were implied to run the casino together on various occasions, so I imagined that he shared a close bond, mutual protectiveness, and a measured share of bickering with his much gentler brother. Clay is perceptive about scams and the people apt to run them and just as myopic about Redd's romantic proclivities because whatever happens in the flat - and not very often for either of them - tends to occur when they're on opposite shifts. Redd has good reason to know that Clay is accepting - and he is, beyond his initial frustration that of all the blokes in the world, why did it have to be a flashy, arrogant ex-con strutting around on every last one of his nerves? - but he also thinks it would be something he'd feel a need to explain, which of course he can't. This all let me play that eventual talk for laughs and brotherly bonding with just a fun fleeting touch of embarrassment.

Clay has an intense nature and a self-punishing, self-destructive streak that fueled both his prize fighting career and alcoholism. Despite being the older of the two, he long since felt that he lived in Redd's quiet academic shadow, which caused him to give up on himself in various ways that he regrets. Trinity helps Clay to see his life, lumps and bumps and all, as experiences that tested him and left him better for the wear.

Trinity

Trinity first tried sculpting out of stubbornness to prove herself so capable, especially as her overprotective parents thought it would be nigh impossible. She took off well enough that her well off family willingly supported the study of working with expensive materials, the extra tutelage required to do so by touch, and her life in general until her work became steady enough to rely on. Annoyed at the fussy mores of her stuffier relations and the wealthy sorts who commission her, Trinity finds Clay's blunt and unfiltered nature refreshing. Her part time assistant, who helps with tasks beyond the capabilities of touch or muscle memory or adaptive technology, has a sense of down to earth polish and similar head for eloquent vulgarity.

After her in-game rescue, Trinity encourages an already trolleyed Clay to do shots. Rather than think she was bringing him down, unwittingly or otherwise, I see her as a hedonist who overestimates others' ability to compartmentalize. It's just a party - what's the harm in a bit of excess? Rather than feed Clay's alcoholism, Trinity helps him out of it - genuinely appreciating him just as he is, which inspires him to appreciate himself just the same.

Canonically, Trinity and Tequila are stepsisters in some official sense of the term. In my AU, this particular connection would have been difficult to make naturally because they grew up so differently, separated by an ocean and levels of financial means. In the game, the stepsister relationship implies a closeness between the two, gives Lucas a means of introduction to Tequila after admiring her from afar, and piles on the horror when Trinity finds Tequila's body in the laundry chute. The same sort of closeness arises, with found sisterly implications and all, as Tequila is adopted into Trinity's circles by way of her friendship with Redd. Tequila meets Lucas through the posh New Orleans parties she is hired to sing at and thus needs no other connection to him.

Lucas

So here we are in this hopeful world of competence and agency and self-actualization. And then there's Lucas - who I couldn't stand to leave as enough of a knobhead to not only pull an insurance fraud scam in the first place, but contrive it into a flagrant courting of disaster that I don't see myself ever forgiving his canon incarnation for. Then perhaps a magnificent trash fire as opposed to a dumpster inferno, so let's have at him, shall we?

My Brutale can be saved and is heavily implied to be. For that, I planted some seeds of Lucas' sense and a slow trend toward dialing back the worst of himself. He shows a capacity for analytic thought in his artistic patronage, biting poetic wit, and often successful divining of others' deepest desires. He keeps a modest office and cultivates a friendship with Willow, first seen as a quaint curiosity and soon respected for her straightforward insight and steadfast way of pitting such against his own. Lucas wants to do better on some level, but is welded to his identity as a master of ceremonies and peddler of overindulgence, as a grandiose gambler who very much meant to make a bad bet or three because he wound up with a better one eventually and a good story in the bargain. He gravitates toward people with stories of their own, and who have vices he finds amusing to play with, or who fascinate him - and perhaps somewhat frustrate him - because he can't figure out their downfall.

Lucas' issues are more of psychology than cash flow, and able to be turned around before his ledgers go fatally red. Before the worst can happen, other personal losses show Lucas the need to put real work into himself and his dealings - to fight his compulsions toward high risk propositions and assorted impractical excess, to face his failures of neglect and mitigate their fallout.

Eleanor

In the game, Eleanor is an archetype of purity whose forgiveness is meant to redeem Lucas in the player's eyes. I meant to parlay her cheeky macabre quirks into an endearingly oddball artist with an anthropomorphic sense of humor and a larger than life sense of whimsy, fundamentally compatible with Lucas and apt to help him toward his senses. Eleanor is as intrigued by the Brutale's legends as Tequila is tired of their absurdity, breezy and casually polished as Tequila struggles to play the lady of the manor in structured couture. They meet on neutral terms to be naturally contrasted but not cruelly so, and very much without tired tropes of romantic rivalry.

Lafcadio

A symbol of repentance for sins, canonically a separate character as per the origin comic, which made me very happy because he's interesting to envision as an actual person beyond some idealized facet of Lucas’ personality. In my take, Lucas admired Lafcadio's ability to walk away from the Brutale as it was dragging him down. They both preferred to tell the story as the spectacular bet from the comic - a fateful game of roulette - that Lafcadio arguably came out on top of by ditching this liability. This echoes the theme of rock bottom arse kick that my Greyson gets well ahead of time, and canon Lucas doesn't until it's far too late.

Lafcadio and Willow both intrigue Lucas with the depth of their respective faiths. They bond over their insights into their host and desire to inspire him toward better, though Willow is limited by never having seen the Brutale in its prior incarnation, or Lucas at his worst. In my narrative, Willow works behind the scenes by helping people unearth their own deeper truths and provide emotional support to others, mirroring Lafcadio's role in the game - though he will go on, offscreen as this might be, to likewise mirror the Willownage of Lucas that needs to continue.

The Sexy Brutale

Loath to commit the British equivalent of dropping a small city of a warehouse store on top of Tequila's old trailer in Closplint, Kentucky, I researched stately homes for inspiration toward location and overall aesthetic. I later learned I could have handwaved one within brief vague driving distance of any city, and perhaps in the city itself. Still I'm most confident in my sense of veracity when I can point to a spot on a map to rebrand. In this case, Somerleyton Hall, within train commuting and day trip distances of various points of interest, and with an appealing style and a clock tower that sealed the deal. As did its 19th century transformation by a private entrepreneur - which, in my alternate reality, would have been supervised by a master builder named Gorecki, whose descendants continued on with his upgrades and maintenance of the manor. Its adjusted name is Somerthwaite after the meadow surrounding it, thanks to a jaunt down the rabbit hole of Anglo-Saxon geographic nomenclature to ensure I wasn't trying to bollocks the manor on the edge of an active volcano.

British manor houses are so varied and eclectic that a place like the Brutale seems more matter of course than bombastic fantasy. Casinos in the UK were all private clubs until recently and can certainly carry on as such, and any property can house the owner's particular interests. To balance homage with my sense of historic floor plans, I kept the common areas of interest with some remodeling - great hall, casino, theater, music hall and practice rooms, library, conservatory, gardens - and closed off the south end of the west wing as Lucas' private quarters. The basement is for utilities and storage, the uppermost floor for guest rooms both rented and bespoke for close friends of Lucas.

#the sexy brutale #as the chips fall #tequila belle #willow blue #greyson grayson #redd rockridge #clay rockridge #trinity carrington #lucas bondes #eleanor sixpence #lafcadio boone #writing #meta

[housebeleren]

Ravnica Allegiance Mechanics First Pass

Now that the mechanics for Ravnica Allegiance have been previewed, I’ll take a first pass at looking at them to see how they might play out for Limited.

Spectacle

I really like the looks of Spectacle. It has a surprisingly large number of ways it can play. First, as with Light Up the Stage, it can be a cost-reduction mechanic, allowing you to cast powerful spells at a discount. Second, as with Rafter Demon, it can be an alternate casting cost that opens up a more powerful effect. A Vanilla 4/2 for 4 is mediocre filler in most draft decks, but one that also eats a card on ETB is a 2 for 1.

A third possible mode for this mechanic that we haven’t seen yet (so it may not be used), would be a way to avoid a drawback. Something along the lines of “When X enters the battlefield, discard a card unless you cast it for its spectacle cost.” The cost could be the same or similar to its normal CMC, but available to avoid the drawback. It’s also possible that there will be cards with this type of text, but without the keyword.

With Spectacle, I’d expect a lot of minor damage-dealing effects to help turn it on. Cards like Twin Bolt or Arc Lightning would be perfect inclusions in this set, and if the certain Cult Guildmage doesn’t have one effect that causes loss of life, I’d be shocked.

Spectacle strongly favors aggression. In some ways, it’s likely to play along the same lines as Raid in Ixalan. If you’re attacking, your opponents will be forced to accept the trades you set up for them, or risk you hitting them and getting your Spectacle bonus. How big of a deterrent that is will depend on how good the bonuses are. Also, small evasive creatures (like 1/1 Spirits, perhaps?) will be excellent in these decks, as will creatures with Haste. This means Spectacle will play really nicely with both Afterlife and Riot, making it a particularly synergistic mechanic. Overall, I think this is a really well-designed mechanical fit both for Rakdos and for the set as a whole.

Afterlife

Afterlife feels like it can really go either way, depending on the other synergies in the guild. There are a few possibilities.

The most direct would be an aristocrats strategy with lots of sacrifice outlets and death payoffs. This would make the most sense, as death triggers would play really well with Spectacle on the Rakdos side. And an aristocrats theme can be surprisingly deep for limited, so I’m hopeful that this is the direction they go.

A second direction would be a go-wide attack strategy, depending on how big the Afterlife numbers get. Given that this is the Orzhov, however, I’m not thinking aggression like this is super likely, but even a single Inspired Charge type of spell could be a blowout with a pile of flying spirits.

The last possible direction this could go would be to have some amount of spirit tribal in the set. Again, I don’t think this is going to be a major direction, but it’s possible there will be a minor spirit sub-theme that. The one thing that makes me think this is a possibility is that it would allow for some mechanical overlap with the Azorius, who otherwise don’t particularly synergize with the Orzhov otherwise.

Altogether, my best guess is it’ll be an aristocrat-style theme with minor spirit synergies to tie it all together. If so, this mechanic could be pretty fun in Limited, and even prove to be fairly deep. Without those interactions, the mechanic on its surface is pretty one-dimensional. No matter what, I expect Afterlife creatures to generally be pretty good value.

Addendum

Addendum is basically a keyworded version of the Time Spiral mechanic seen on Return to Dust, Might of Old Krosa, and the rest of the cycle. It’s an interesting design tactic, taking these old one-off card designs and keywording them (like Afterlife did with Doomed Traveler). 

Addendum is the narrowest mechanic in the set, as it only goes on Instants (and maybe a few permanents with Flash). So really, what’s most interesting here is what’s not expressly printed on the card. To design enough cards with the keyword, there have to be an above-average number of Instants in White & Blue in this set. That means the guild will probably play a controlling strategy, similar to some builds of Dimir in Guilds, which can often operate almost entirely at Instant-speed.

It’s going to be hard to evaluate Addendum as a mechanic overall, since how valuable the bonus is will depend almost entirely on the individual card. It will be especially interesting to see if they have any payoff cards, such as an enchantment that says “Whenever you cast an Instant spell during your main phase...” Or maybe they’ll just allow for any spell during your main phase, if the bonus is incremental enough. 

No matter what, however, it does mean that activated abilities and mana sinks may prove to be more useful than usual, to ensure you always have something to do with your mana. For this reason, I can see a subtle synergy with the Simic, whose creatures will have mana sinks attached. 

Adapt

People are dumping on Adapt left and right online, and I honestly don’t understand the hate. Wizards has been super upfront that this is a rework of Monstrosity, but some seem to be pissed off at that fact. Personally, I liked-not-loved Monstrosity, but it’s exactly the type of mechanic that helps glue sets together.

Adapt as a redesign comes with one advantage and one disadvantage over Monstrosity. First, the disadvantage. Since Adapt checks for existing +1/+1 counters on resolution, it means if counters get put on the creature any other way, it shuts off the ability. This means if you have other ways to put counters on your creatures (say... Simic Ascendancy & similar cards yet to be revealed), you need to activate the Adapt ability before using the Ascendancy. That won’t matter much for small creatures like the Homunculus Mutant above, but it would be a real shame to miss out on Adapting Zegana.

The advantage over Monstrosity is that, for Adapt, the counters can be removed from the creature, then Adapt can be activated again. This seems to be the direction that Wizards is thinking for the Simic this time around, so I’m expecting a number of cards to be previewed with the ability to remove counters from your creatures for a benefit.

Overall, I think the design possibilities enabled by Adapt far outweigh the occasional ordering issues, and I’m really excited by this direction. I predict that Adapt and the associated synergies in the set are going to play incredibly well, so fuck the haters.

As for synergies, while I think there’s some potential for Instant-speed shenanigans with the Azorius, the most direct will be with the +1/+1 counters in the Gruul mechanic. 

Riot

Riot is a slam dunk. It’s exactly what Gruul wants to be doing, and allows for a ton of flexibility if you’re on either the attack or defense. And which one you choose will also depend a lot on if you’re drifting into three colors at all.

If you’re leaning into the Green from Simic, the +1/+1 counters will be your best bet, since there are almost certainly going to be good ways to make use of them. If you’re more the Red from Rakdos direction, having your creatures come in with Haste will do wonders to help you sneak damage in and activate your Spectacle cards.

Riot is straightforward, but I have a feeling it will play out really nicely. You’ll never be safe against a Gruul player, since they’ll be able to come out of nowhere just about anytime. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see a Charging Monstrosaur impersonator in this set, and that’s no laughing matter.

Overall Impressions

In general, I like the looks of these mechanics, at least on the surface. Many of them will depend just on how well the synergy pieces are developed. Without good sacrifice outlets, Afterlife will be simply a little extra value. Without some ways to utilize counters for value, Adapt will disappoint. In general, I trust that Wizards has done a good job fleshing out these mechanics and giving them the environment they need to thrive. That said, they’ve disappointed me before (see Convoke from, I dunno... right now.)

The format looks like it will also have a similar distribution of archetypes as Guilds does. So far, I’m anticipating that Gruul will take the helm from Boros as the aggro deck of the format, though I’m guessing there will be highly aggressive builds of Rakdos available as well. Simic will likely take the role of tempo/midrange, and Orzhov will play the midrange value grind. Azorius will almost certainly be the primary control strategy, similar to how Dimir plays now. 

That said, given how few previews we have now, it’s really a guessing game, and a lot can change once more cards are revealed. Either way, I’m cautiously optimistic by the looks of Ravnica Allegiance, and look forward to breaking in the format!

I’m picking Simic for my prerelease guild. What are you picking?

#MtG #ravnica allegiance

[doorsclosingslowly]

Your death is a number but I cannot count that high (6/?)

In which Asajj is subjected to yet another unpleasant conversation.

Zombie Savage AU | 2.1k | canon divergent after Son of Dathomir | also on AO3

Death Watch must be utterly indifferent by now to their leader’s antics, or resigned to them a least. Maul’s breakdown is effortlessly ignored. Everybody must have overheard the conversation. They must have witnessed their apparent commander choke a visitor and then huddle on the floor, mindless and gibbering and terrified of a Sith Lord who isn’t here, but it looks like the Mandos are adept at pretending they haven’t, and the helmets definitely help. There are no accident gawkers, or at least none to be noticed. Instead, quickly, the busy pace inside the cargo hold picks up again.

The Mandos return to their tasks, ignoring Asajj’s presence and occasionally veering off their straight paths to keep a wide circle around Maul clear and empty. At least most of them do: there’s a protective honor guard next to him, still.

The purple-armored soldier is one of them, of course. The other—as short as Maul, but easily twice as wide—wears beskar painted yellow and adorned with spikes.

“Update all rescue teams. Comm Gar. You heard Lord Maul: our brother is not dead. He is in the hands of the enemy. Command meeting, sixteen hours sharp,” the purple Mando shouts, and immediately, the hold empties.

Then, the helmet’s visor turns in Asajj’s direction, and back to Maul. Squatting down next to him, though far enough that his arms can’t reach—that won’t help at all when he loses it again, Asajj thinks—the purple Mando says something in a language Asajj doesn’t understand, and Maul replies in kind, incredibly slowly, stumbling over a syllable or two and with a pronunciation completely unlike the practiced tones of his counterpart, but obviously determined. Asajj’s name comes up, once or twice.

Maul never before seemed the type to openly, intentionally display his shortcomings, not to enemies and especially not to his allies. The breakdown was unavoidable, perhaps—Asajj would rage at the deaths of her family too, if she had a little less self-control—but he’s regained use of his faculties now. This is a deliberate choice.

Only one reason why he’d be speaking, or trying to speak, Mando’a now: this is something they don’t want me to know. It puts up Asajj’s hackles, a kind of vulnerability in ignorance that might well be another motivation, if, after meeting him today, she still was to credit him with the intelligence needed to play these kinds of mind-games. Maybe this is a shade of what he used to be like. It’s easy to forget, seeing him, but he was raised a Sith. He is like her; not like Savage Opress plucked from the fields and magicked, but trained, like Asajj herself and like her former Master Darth Tyranus. She should not keep underestimating this nightbrother.

Regardless: they’ve reached a truce. An alliance, if not in so many words. Maul hasn’t even questioned her properly yet, but at least he knows he knows nothing. He cannot get what he wants without her aid. Whatever these machinations… for the moment, she is as safe as anyone could be, in his company.

Maul heaves himself up onto his knees. His feet, just as unsteadily. He doesn’t favor her with another glance when he leaves, and then Asajj is alone with his guard.

“Follow me, Asajj Ventress,” the purple Mando says. “To your room.”

“You have me at a disadvantage. Your name?”

A beat. Then, the soldier removes her helmet and joggles her chin-length dark hair, not completely unlike a wet finkwolf. “Rook Kast. This is Jagrub.” Pointing over her shoulder with her thumb, Rook Kast, life-long fanatic criminal and the Face of the Terror of Mandalore according to at least five people Asajj has met, indicates the massive gamorrean sow behind her. Jagrub’s also taken off her spiked helmet.

“You brought your bodyguard?” Asajj smirks, which then occurs to her was a tad unwise, perhaps, even if it makes her feel better, but: truce. Maul needs her. A guard detail is as befitting the woman’s obvious status anyway, really. Terror of Mandalore indeed, and in the short time since her arrival, Asajj has seen Kast’s closeness to Maul. Second in command, maybe, or even more. Caretaker. The power behind the throne. It’s not like a feral nightbrother has much experience in leading an army.

Still. A bodyguard. It would be flattering, if it wasn’t so insulting. Another forceblind won’t make even the ghost of a difference to her chances of survival, should Asajj choose to leave.

Kast’s face is effortlessly still. “She’s not here to protect me.”

Whatever.

Politeness is a scarce resource on Mandalore, evidently: Kast and Jagrub take off without another word, straight through a crowd of Mandos that respectfully divides at their approach, expecting Asajj to follow them. It’s left to the guest to attempt small talk. “I wouldn’t have expected anyone to order you to show a visitor around, Rook Kast.” Forward, again, but it’s not like she even attempts to hide her authority, and Asajj is curious. “It’s usually less of a general’s duty. I’m sure you have a busy schedule.”

“I volunteered,” Kast says, and then she smiles at Asajj so widely the light glints off her teeth. It does not reach her eyes.

It shuts off conversation until they reach Asajj’s designated quarters, visually indistinguishable from any of the other rooms she’s glanced at through oddly luxurious stained-glass windows or open doors. A quartet of bunk-beds, and a table. Asajj inspects the door-handle—there is a code-lock, too, but neither of her companions offer to set it and Asajj doesn’t ask—and then she strides in. Kast and Jagrub follow. The door slides shut.

“What did you want to talk to me about in private?” Asajj asks eventually, after a few seconds, when she has tired of being stared at. No response. Apparently, Maul’s found the one cache of people in the galaxy who share his awful habits.

Time for a gambit. Testing the fault line. The limits of Maul’s authority. Surreptitiously, Asajj touches her ‘sabers. It’s not like there is any real risk here—Asajj might piss off Kast, but general or not, the woman’s still only a forceblind soldier. If Asajj is wrong about Kast’s purposes, then this conversation will definitely find its way to Maul’s ears, but even that is only a minor concern. Maul hates her, anyway. He’s tried to wring her neck for long enough to prove it. He won’t breach their truce, though, not if he wants to see his brother again. The brother who is in Sidious’ hands now, apparently. He’ll need all the help he can get, and he’ll prioritize Savage’s recovery. Here goes nothing.

“Something you don’t want Maul to hear, perhaps?”

“Of a sort.”

“It is fairly obvious that he’s not particularly stable—”

“I am curious,” Kast interrupts. “I am Mandalorian, Asajj Ventress. My old enemies, too, are Mandalorian, and they possess honor. I have never before met someone who so utterly devalues family.”

Asajj snarls. She doesn’t care what this this smug soldier thinks of her, this Death Watch terrorist fighting for the restoration of barbaric total and constant war—many of Asajj’s sources in the attempt to track Opress were recent refugees from Sundari’s old regime—and moreover: Kast allied herself with Maul. With the man who drew Mother Talzin into his conflict with Sidious. With the man that got her killed. The man who destroyed the entirety of her clan and the only people Asajj hadn’t yet lost. The man who took her Sisters.

And now she dares lecture Asajj about family?

“Fuck off. You know nothing about me. You know nothing of what I have lost.”

“Interesting.” Kast’s face blanks, and then, obviously deliberately, she grins. By the second, it’s more obvious why she didn’t hesitate for a second to take off her helmet: with her studied off-kilter body language, it’s like she’s wearing another mask below. “True, perhaps. I don’t particularly care either way.”

“Then what—”

“However—I do know of you, Asajj Ventress. As soon as I heard your name, I remembered you.” Kast shrugs, settling her shoulders, and then without warning she changes tack: “Has anybody ever… begged you to kill them?”

Asajj shifts, moving her back surreptitiously closer to the wall and her arms akimbo: her hands, once more, above her lightsabers. She won’t be caught unawares again. For all the tone of that question is closer to idle conversation than Kast’s previous terse statements, for all her face is still wearing a smile, for all the turn in conversation that’s brought them here is opaque, since anyone this readily turning a simple objection into a standoff should not survive to become a general… this is a death threat.

The bodyguard takes in Asajj’s readiness for battle, even if Kast doesn’t. Takes in their meagre chances of survival against a trained force user, too. She puts a placatory hand on her superior’s shoulder.

Kast doesn’t shrug it off. She leans into the touch eagerly, fingering Jagrub’s massive shoulder-spikes with a trembling hand and intense concentration, and then she adds, “It’s an interesting experience. Not particularly pleasant. I have killed scores of enemies, and yet… I would not even have made the Duchess or her pacifists beg, I think. Now that I know, anyway. Didn’t really know what I was getting into. I don’t know what I expected, when I decided to find out what kind of person my new Mand’alor was after we retook Sundari.”

“Maul wouldn’t beg for death.” He’s miserable, and Asajj has watched him howl vengeance at Kenobi deep in the throes of madness, but he wouldn’t ask to die. That’s not like him. She doesn’t know him that well—and does not particularly want to learn more—but this, she knows.

“Lord Maul wouldn’t,” Kast readily agrees. “But then he’s the last person I’d pick for plying with alcohol until he’s too drunk to stay tight-lipped, too. A lost cause from the start. No chance of getting anything out of the poor paranoid bastard. He doesn’t even drink. He says he likes water.”

The worms inside Asajj’s ribcage writhe again. She kind of knows where this is going.

“Fortunately, he had a brother. As you know. Has, and we’ll find him. Much more approachable, and so I invited him along to our victory party. Well, Gar and Kaat did. He was terrified of me. Very flattering, until I figured out why anyway. Nothing like the rest of you arrogant force-users, so I was already predisposed to liking him, and when he asked us for a favor, I foolishly said yes.”

So: Savage Opress wants to die. That’s not even news. He’s been shouting it in her mind for weeks now, and if the sleepwalking cuts on her arm are anything to go by, he’s got in a respectable try already.

His conversation with Kast must have been weeks before he was abducted by Sidious, though. It must be about more than the torture, then.

It…

“I’d have said yes anyway, even with hindsight. He was easy to pity. He wouldn’t stop crying after a few beers, when he told me—you already know what he told me, Asajj Ventress. You forced him, after all.”

“I—” Asajj starts, but whatever she might have replied is simply steamrollered. This is not a conversation, after all. This is a death threat.

“He gave me options. Weaknesses in his fighting style he’d noticed or learned from Maul. General weaknesses of force-users, too. He gave me a long list of body parts to blast and tried to give me his lightsaber, too, so I would have an easy time of killing him, if—when, he said, when he was used again to hurt his little brother.”

Jagrub runs a claw through Kast’s hair in a slow swirl, messily sticking it up, and she calms again.

“I know what you did, Nightsister. I promised Savage I would protect Maul, and I will. I gave my word. Mandalore gave hers, too, when she embraced her new-found sons, and we keep our promises. You said you’d let Feral live and you betrayed him, but when you break your next oath—” Kast cocks her fingers as a blaster and aims. Fires. She blows smoke off it— “when you touch him again or anyone at all, I swear on my home: one single twitch, and it will be my pleasure to deal the consequences.”

“We all look forward to the dissolution of this alliance,” Jagrub rumbles. “For now, you are useful. Do not attempt to escape.”

They leave the door open.

#another thing i forgot to crosspost! #dimtraces makes things #zombie savage au #darth maul #rook kast #asajj ventress

[syradith]

Tyrande in War of Thorns

It’s been a bit since the pre-patch War of Thorns event was released, but even after the novellas came out, I still saw people who were everything from confused to angry about Tyrande and her role in all this and her supposed desertion, even though this was not the case at all. I am aware that the majority very likely either don’t read/experience content outside of the game itself, or are unaware of its existence, or perhaps some other reasoning. Additionally, I think a lot of people forget (especially considering this is a video game centered around war and combat) that there is a lot more to leading and supporting your people than just fighting alongside them, which may have aided in this outlook as well.

Regardless, thanks to a friend’s suggestion, I’ve decided to post a summary of this topic (along with a few of my own opinions, of course), as I absolutely and completely -love and adore- this character and jump at any chance to discuss her or other Kaldorei related things. Plus, I want to just help get this info out there.

As a disclaimer, I will be using quotes from the book itself, and an article from Wowhead discussing this topic this as well.

https://www.wowhead.com/news=286153/the-role-of-tyrande-whisperwind-in-war-of-the-thorns-and-elegy

In the game:

As everyone knows, WoW itself shows her...pretty much not at all until the last minute. She suddenly appears out of nowhere, rescues her husband (again), decides not to take vengeance on Saurfang, and just peaces out with a Stormwind hearthstone. There was zero build up or explanation to any of this, so I fully understand why people would see it in a negative light.

However, her role in it was equally as important and just as involved as those fighting on the battlefield.

In the ‘Elegy’ novella:

She's already currently in Stormwind when all this stuff starts happening in Silithus. She's meeting with the other leaders to discuss war strategies with them on how to best handle the Horde and how to keep them from getting all/more Azerite (not because they want it for themselves. Alliance wants to help heal Azeroth, but know the Horde likely only wants the Azerite to make weapons and conquer...which they do). They note the army looking to head out to Silithus to secure it for good. With Night Elves and Draenei being the closest to do anything about it --and Draenei being too weakened and depleted of all resources in fighting the Legion-- Tyrande offers to pull/gather a large force to send to Shandris to wait, then to Silithus when needed. Anduin agrees and the force is gathered mostly from Darnassus/Ashenvale, leaving the areas with minimal forces to stay to defend themselves. 

It's only after they start to head out from Feralas to Silithus that Ashenvale is attacked and the Horde makes their way from the Barrens through Ashenvale towards the World Tree; cutting down every and all settlements/outposts they come across. Malfurion and Tyrande (and the other leaders), upon realizing the ruse, recall the reinforcements.The Horde army is much, much larger (about 8 to 1 at least, if I remember right), so knowing they can’t win from the start and that both the reinforcements from Feralas and Stormwind would arrive far too late, they have the defenders simply hold the lines while they start evacuations for Darnassus and Darkshore to get as many people out as they can and while they still can.

Malfurion joins the fray and helps defend. Tyrande almost leaves Stormwind to help several times, but is convinced thanks to a Sentinel who arrived to tell her what’s happening (we, go figure, don’t know what was specifically said because it’s from Anduin’s perspective and he obviously doesn’t know Darnassian) to stay there to help the refugees fleeing to Stormwind through portals and be a strong, comforting, reassuring anchor and leader for them when they need her most.

Eventually, she does finally leave briefly to aid Malfurion when she receives a letter from him saying Darnassus was to be lost and he was going to fight the Banshee Queen as a last stand and bades her farewell in the case he doesn’t return. Anduin tries to dissuade her, and obviously fails; so instead, he gives her a hearthstone to return to Stormwind quickly once her task was complete. Stepping through one of the portals, she is, of course, greeted with cheers and signs of relief as the Kaldorei spot her arriving. After reassuring her people and calling upon Elune to bless them and lift their spirits, she continues on.

As she’s flying over the battle and fleeing citizens on a hippogryph, she deeply laments so badly wanting to join them, but is also quite aware that risking her life and leaving her people leaderless would only make things much, much worse. So she keeps going and, using Elune’s guidance, finds Malfurion, nearly killing Saurfang in the process (as well as displaying how -extremely-, immensely powerful she is without even doing a huge display. Like holy shit is she scary and impressive. By the goddess, it was one of those things that reminded me why I love her so damn much). In the end, she lets him survive in the hopes that due to his talks of honor, he would be compassionate to the prisoners and, as we know, uses the hearthstone to take herself and Malfurion to safety.

Case in point, from the article, and as I stated to friends and RP guild mates as soon as I saw it when it was released:

“Some players were also concerned that Tyrande was cowardly for escaping and should have stayed and fought. However, at this point in the battle, all hope for Darnassus was lost. As Saurfang warns her, she would be killed if she were to return to Darnassus, leaving her people without a leader.”

When they return to Stormwind, they start to see smoke coming in through the portals (flame even threatens to reach them through it at one point). They think burning some of the city is part of the occupation process and don’t yet have any idea that Sylvanas changed her plan and, in fact, burned the entire tree down. 

Genn goes to save his wife, Mia, who went to Darnassus early on to help with evacuations. He finds that she nearly died protecting an infant from falling debris. Astarii calls to Elune and the goddess finally seems to answer her childrens’ prayers, giving the priestess the ability to heal the queen and child. Genn thanks her and returns with Mia through the portal at the last second before they are forced to close them. The priestess Astarii, two other remaining priestesses and all those too injured, weak, or arrived too late have been left behind to their fate in order to keep all they’ve saved and accomplished from being in vain. Astarii gathers up those around her, taking up a mother and son in her arms, and begins to sings the elegy the book is named for (and a section of which starts off each chapter) to them. Elune gives those about to die yet one more final show of her presence: a sense of calm and blocking them from feeling pain as they all simply fall asleep peacefully before the fire consumes them.

Shifting back to Stormwind. Tyrande takes up the infant Mia was carrying in her arms as the latter and Genn collapse, exhausted and grieving. Mia tells her the news about the world tree which leads to: 

“Tyrande closed her eyes. “I said the tree would not be…” Her voice broke, She opened her eyes and looked at the child she held in her arms, covered with soot, but whole. Healthy. Alive. Tears slipped slowly down her cheeks. “What is her name?” She asked softly.

Mia shook her head weakly. “I don’t know.”

“Then, little one, I shall name you Finel. ‘The last.’ For you are the last Kaldorei to escape with your life.” ”

It then ends with the leaders grieving for the World Tree, Anduin steeling himself for war, and Tyrande singing an elegy to the baby (different from the one Astarii sings).

TLDR (as taken from the Wowhead article): 

“Tyrande in Elegy has a much larger role than in the Alliance quests. She acts pragmatically, remaining in Stormwind to survive, heal the refugees, and rule instead of rushing into battle. While she doesn’t fight much since her duties are required elsewhere, we do see how powerful she can be in her interaction with Saurfang. Perhaps due to the limitations of in-game quest animations, it was hard to convey the sheer power of Elune and how Saurfang was at the brink of death. As the Alliance questline doesn’t really convey that they knew Darnassus would always fall, Tyrande’s choice not to rush into the city and avoid capture and death makes more sense. When she does return to Darnassus, en route to rescuing Malfurion, the novella makes very clear how conflicted she is that she cannot stay behind with her people and fight, even if she would die. If Tyrande was responsible for Elune’s sudden renewed presence at the end of the novella, that could have implications for later in Battle for Azeroth. Sylvanas, towards the end of A Good War, hints that her ultimate goal is not Stormwind or Darnassus, but one that much larger forces would protest—including Elune. Perhaps Elune is dampened in Sylvanas’ presence naturally, and as we learn more about Sylvanas’ ulterior motives, conduits of Elune like Tyrande will play a larger role in the conflict ahead. Hopefully if you were disappointed about Tyrande’s absence in War of the Thorns, this look at her role in the novella shows that she still played an important role.”

So there you have it. A complete and total 180 from how she was portrayed in-game. I have a lot of opinions regarding Elune’s lack of action until the last minute. How the Night Elves are displayed as weak and seem like they’re just not fighting at all in-game vs clearly putting up a solid, hard won fight in the book (yet still failing and falling for every tactic at every turn). How the Horde so easily manages to get all the way to the World Tree with seemingly little to no real losses in both medias (despite the clear disadvantages and constant difficulties of their conquest). How the Horde in its entirely seem to be perfectly okay with everything that’s happening, and apparently agreeing to start all out, honorless and unprovoked war that neither side can afford considering the whole world just fought and came close to losing to the Legion (again). And, of course, yet another display of storytelling that is starting to convince me that Blizzard seems to just flat out hate the Night Elves. I mean, I’m all for tragedy. They make just as good a stories as overly happy ones. I also know they aren’t the only race to be forgotten/used as opposing faction target practice/etc. But Night Elves are the ones I can speak for the most, and this sort of treatment has been building up and ongoing for some time now. This, however, was just...a little too much for me and took a long time to come to terms with.

Anyway, rant of my insignificant opinions aside, I was immensely glad to see some depictions of Tyrande and Malfurion actually getting to be useful and show off their importance and power for once. After the War of Thorns questline (obviously prior to the books’ release), I was highly concerned that it would end up a repeat of Legion where the pair were largely either ignored or displayed in a manner that most players heavily misconstrued their actions and motivations. I mean, I guess it’s still happening since Blizzard has started relying heavily on outside sources for major storytelling (a very poor choice if you ask me), but at least the information is in fact out there.

While I am extremely anxious and hesitant regarding the direction the Night Elves are going to be taken from here on out, now more than ever, I am still curious to see what happens next and if they will receive some sort of comeback in the future. Or if they will be mostly forgotten like the Gilneans they were supporting and had given a home. If nothing else, it would be nice to at least see more of Tyrande helping lead the Alliance (and even more of the powerful, decisive, fairly competent Malfurion that was displayed in ‘Elegy’ that we haven’t seen since...well probably Warcraft 3).

#World of Warcraft #Tyrande #night elves

[dlamp-dictator]

Allen Rambles about Tokyo Ghoul

Okay, finished up volume 10 of Tokyo Ghoul, I’ll probably wrap up the series by tonight if writing fanfiction, original stories, and drawing don’t distract me and give my full thoughts then, but for now... I have several issues. I’ll try not to Ramble, but... no promises.

Allen, as of editing this post: TOO LATE, I RAMBLED SO I’M JUST GOING ALL IN NOW. GLAD I DIDN’T PROMISE ANYTHING.

Alright, so Tokyo Ghoul. I got into this series when the anime came out. For those unfamiliar Tokyo Ghoul explores on the ideas of the traditional ghoul, humanoid creatures that survive by eating human flesh. Basically, zombie vampires-type creatures. This story focuses on Ken Kaneki, a young college student that was turned into a ghoul after an encounter with a Rize Kamishiro, a powerful Ghoul that would had devoured him had she not died in an accident they were both involved with. From there, the story follows Kaneki as he learns about Ghoul society, both the good and the bad. 

I found the concept worth looking into, and the first few episodes of the anime was very impactful with how Kaneki was forced to adjust to his bad situation, learning he had to eat human flesh in order to survive and not starve, learning how Ghouls live in human society under the radar. I remember the anime being a little lackluster with it ending season 1 on a cliffhanger and season 2 practically plowing through the second half of the manga series, but since then I’ve bought the entire manga series... pre-:Re anyway. I wanted to take another look at this series and see if the anime fixed any of the issues I had with out. Sadly... it doesn’t, at least not yet. Like I said, I wrapped up volume 10 and I have 4 more books to go, but... I don’t think I’m going to be happy with how this story ends if certain questions don’t get answered.

With that all said, I wanted to cover some of the issues I had with the series so far, mostly to get them off my chest before going into what I’m assuming to be the climax of the series.

Kaneki forming his own faction

I don’t believe the anime answered this, but the manga indefinitely doesn’t tell me why Kaneki decides to not rejoin Anteiku and form his own faction of Ghouls instead. And it’s a really big deal that he does this too, so I was hoping I’d hear directly from his mouth why he did this. By not going back to Anteiku and making his own group, Kaneki has added a fourth major faction between his new group, Aogiri, Anteiku, and the CCG. Granted, Anteiku is less a faction as it is a coalition (yes, there is a differences), but the point remains that we have yet another group to keep track of with new goals. In a way... from a writing perspective, I understand why this was done. The Aogiri’s goals and aims are still mostly unknown, the CCG, while established, were slowly falling to the sidelines while Aogiri were being the antagonists, and Anteiku, again, was more a group of like-minded Ghouls rather than a faction making moves and getting involved with the politics of the story. For Kaneki to remain a central character, he had to do something big like this. It’s just... I’m not too comfortable with how it was done.

My issue of why Kaneki does this in the first place. Like... I can infer to why he’d want to branch away from Anteiku, but I don’t know. Just to catch some of you guys up to where I’m at, Kaneki had busted himself out of his Aogiri prison/torture and had beaten his captor to the point of near death. Before that, he was physically and mentally tortured for what I’m assuming was days or weeks to the point of nearly breaking. To break out, he had to accept the Ghoul side of him that he was repressing for about 6 volumes into order to summon his kagune and fight properly. This was also to finish his character arc and move him from being a shy, reserved bookworm to a capable and strong Ghoul able to protect himself and his friends. After this, he saves female lead and this series’s Best Girl, Touka Kirishima from being brutalized by her brother and then rejecting her offer to return to Anteiku, the coffee shop who’s workers consist of mostly peaceful Ghouls, to form his own faction instead because, and I quote: 

“There’s something I want to do. I need to prepare for it. I need to get stronger. There’s a lot I need to find out too. I don’t have time.” (Kaneki)

So... what exactly does that mean. I mean really, what does that explain? That sounds like something a generic shounen protagonist would say, and I would accept that if Kaneki was a 13-year-old spunky kid self-reflect, but Kaneki isn’t Gon Freecss, he’s a college kid reaching his early 20s, I’m gonna’ need more of reason than that. Kaneki was 13, this would be understandable, but he’s nearing 20 so this is esoteric at best, and childish at worse. I get that he was tortured and to the point of mentally breaking, but I’d rather him just leave and muse about his reasoning to himself then saying... that.  

Later on, around volume 9 I can slowly piece this line together. Kaneki wants to find out more about Rize’s existence, Dr. Kano, and the reason he was made into a ghoul in the first place. To do that, he needs more strength than what Anteiku can provide since they are mostly peaceful ghouls that are either unfamiliar, unwilling, or unable to delve into the underbelly of Ghoul society where the information he seeks lies. And he doesn’t have time to train himself in the traditional sense at Anteiku to get the strength he needs to learn these things, as what little traces of Kano and Rize could vanish due to the lack of information about their existence in general. This line makes sense now, but it was infuriating to deal with until then. It felt like Kaneki just left everyone hanging and everyone was... cool with it. Touka wasn’t, understandably, but still. I understand hiding things from the characters to keep them guessing, but I personally don’t like being left in the dark with things like this.

The Abundance of Characters and Perspectives

As of volume 10 there are about 23-26 characters of importance in the manga, and roughly 4 major factions that are actively involved in the plot of the story. That’s... a lot to cover in a series that has only four more volumes before the jump to :Re. The cast feels a tad bloated with it trying to keep all these characters in our minds. Personally, I’d rather just focus on Kaneki, Touka, and Hide as the main trio of perspectives, then occasionally move into the CCG with Amon and Akira with Juza and Shinohara as prevalent side characters, then (probably) to Ayato’s perspective when we need to see what our villains are doing.

Last time I talked about Tokyo Ghoul I said I liked how when we see the CCG’s perspective we get to see them work with the information they have and truly speculate on the situation and... well, investigate. Most of the investigators assumptions are usually in the ballpark of what we, the audience, know, but just missing enough pieces that it feels like it’s a true investigation is going on. However... now it’s getting a little tiring to read that. I’ll talk a little bit more about a pacing in a bit, but seeing their perspective and investigation process really makes things slow down and feels unneeded when gang wars and whatnot are happening in the background of Ghoul society. I care about Amon, Akira, and Hide’s situation, but... not enough that I need to view it with a fine-tooth comb as they chat about it over dinner.

Again, I feel like the main trio should have more focus, but... I digress.

Another thing this large cast does is take away focus from what I would consider the other perspectives we need to see. I said that I think the main trio in this story would be Kaneki, Touka, and Hide. Kaneki being the Ghoul slowly adjusting to Ghoul life and having the world-building explained to him as a surrogate audience member. Touka being a “typical Ghoul” that understand what the life of a Ghoul is like and a general badass for us to root for when the action happens. And Hide being a human perspective that reminds us that humans do exist and interact with Ghouls, as well as an outsider’s look into the CCG as of volumes 9 and 10. I think that would had worked well, but... this main focuses on Kaneki with some peeks at Amon and Juzu, which I think is a crying shame because Touka and Hide really need more screentime, Hide especially as I feel like the manga really wants me to like him, but hasn’t given me much reason outside of his friendly personality. Don’t get me wrong, I like that Hide is probably the only character that is a genuine nice guy, but since he’s rarely around or has little major relevance in the overall plot I... can’t like him as much as I think I should.

Ah, but moving on. Since I mentioned it before, let me just going into...

Pacing and World Building

I won’t say Tokyo Ghoul’s pacing is bad, but it does feel like it takes quite a long time to read as of these recent volumes. It’s mostly due to reading from multiple factions and perspective that I personally don’t care for when other things are going on that I’m interested in, but the world building plays a part in it too. 

I think Tokyo Ghoul has good world building, I think it has great world building. Everything that I want explained about the world is explained. I understand how and why Kagunes are a thing, I understand how and why Qinques are a thing, I know the importance of RC cells, I know the advantages and disadvantages of Kagunes and Qinques by their type, I know how CCG members are trained up. I think if I really wanted to, I could make a pretty decent Ghoul or CCG OC. And if people can make a decent OC that you actually see in the world of a show or series without breaking lore or canon, then that’s some damn good world building. My Hero Academia, RWBY, and One Piece do this well too. 

However... that world building can drag the pace of the manga to a crawl this late into the game. We really shouldn’t have anymore text dumps about lore and world anymore. The extra information about wards that haven’t be explored yet are... unneeded to me until our main characters actually go there. It makes some volumes and moments feel like longer reads than they should.

But moving on to my other issue.

Kano’s Motives

Doctor Kano’s reasoning behind turning Kaneki into a Ghoul are about as vague as Kaneki’s reasons for leaving Anteiku, and unlike Kaneki, I can’t piece together his reasoning yet. I still have about 4 volumes to go until I complete the series before :Re, but I doubt I’ll get a satisfying answer in that time. 

But let me quote the man himself before I go any further:

“Why do you think a caged bird can’t fly freely? It’s because the cage doesn’t belong to them. Who created this birdcage we call the world? That is the question.  I realized a warped cage entangles our world. I want to destroy that To do so, I need the most powerful means. In other words, ghouls.” (Kano)

Much like with Kaneki’s spiel, I feel like this is just... esoteric at best. Within the context of the manga, I don’t understand what Kano means by seeing the world as a cage. I can see the Ghouls thinking that way, as movement and general freedom on their end is practically nonexistent, but Kano... Kano is a human that has way more freedom to do as he pleases than Ghouls do. 

Much like with Kaneki I have my inferences about the meaning behind Kano’s words. Maybe he means that after working with the CCG he realizes the pointlessness of the system and how trapped both CCG and Ghouls are in the current state of things, and went to less savory means break the system. Maybe he’s forced to remain in Tokyo due to his work with the CCG and is making artificial Ghouls to cause enough chaos so he slip out in the confusion. Maybe Toyko is actually on some martial law lockdown and everyone really is caged in the literal sense, so be making artificial Ghouls he can scare the officials into canceling the lockdown.

Or maybe he’s just fucking crazy and that esoteric spiel was just that because he’s fucking crazy... if that’s the answer I’m honestly going to scream. 

I’m not sure, but the point is, this feels... contrived.

Other Issues I Have

I have a few more things to talk about, but I can’t talk about them as in length as the previous points, so I’ll just jot down my notes here.

I said it already, but it worth saying again, as of these later volumes past 8 I find myself caring less and less about the CCG side of things. That’s mostly my own personal investment (or lack thereof) in them, but still.

An issue I have with 90% of manga, but one stating nonetheless, female characters don’t really get much of a spotlight. Touka especially, who's starting to feel like a side character now that big moves and power plays are being made outside of Anteiku’s control. This is a crime as far as I’m concern since she just checks off so many things I like seeing in female characters. But most females don’t really get much development compared to the male ones. Again, this is an issue I have with most manga and anime in general, but Tokyo Ghoul is kind of proving my point.

Something I should had mentioned in the first part, but... Hinami staying with Kaneki bugs me quite a bit. I get why Hinami is with Kaneki, but I still don’t like the fact Kaneki didn’t kick her out for her own safety, especially with all his talk of wanting to protect people he cares about. He should know the dangerous of having a child in a faction of people combating Aogiri, the CCG, and sniffing around the underbelly of Ghoul society. From a moral view, Kaneki should had sent Hinami to be with Touka for safe keeping, whether she wanted to keep him company or not.

Kaneki in general feels... off at times, and I don’t mean as a character, but how he’s written. I feel like the writer is trying to keep this balance of innocence and viciousness with Kaneki’s character, but... I’m having a hard time buying it. Characters with that dual nature are balls hard to pull off well, and I think Kaneki shows why. For examples of characters I think do have this balance looks at Gon Freecss from Hunter X Hunter and Durarara’s Mikado Ryugamine.

That Ghoul jailbreak that was mentioned around volume 8... ish. I don’t remember ever seeing it happen. I know it happened in the anime, but I don’t remember seeing it happen and the manga, which makes Shachi just... come out of nowhere, and that’s kind of bad when he becomes a major antagonist as of volume 10. 

Good Points of Tokyo Ghoul

Like with Juni Taisen, I have stuck with this manga for so long for a reason. Hell, I brought all of the manga pre-:Re because I do like this series despite my gripes and issues with it. So just to prove I’m not ragging on something for the sake of ragging on it, let me just go over some of the good things I like about it real quick.

The artwork looks great, the character designs in general are fantastic to look at. If anything, I’d love to see some more of Sui Ishida’s designs once he finishes Tokyo Ghoul. This man would make one hell of a character designer if he got into video games. I hate Tsukiyama with a passion, but goddamn do I want half his suits.

As bloated as the cast feels, everyone stands out and make an instant first impression from their designs and intros alone. Kaneki is an anti-social nerd, Touka is a tomboyish hard worker, Hide his an excitable bundle of energy that’s clearly hiding his intelligence,  Tsukiyama is... Tsukiyama, Banjo is an idiot, the list goes on, but every makes an impression. One glance at their design, a few bits of dialogue, and I already get what the character is about... most of the time.

The action is just great. Shachi’s martial arts stuff just looks really good, as out of nowhere as I feel he is. I honestly feel like Sui Ishida probably read all the martial arts books Kaneki was in help him draw some of those scenes. It makes me wish Tokyo Ghoul was a little more action-focused... but then again, when don’t I wish for more action in a series.

As little screentime as she’s getting now, I really do like Touka a lot. She’s tough, she’s cool, but she’s got enough flaws in her character to make her feel human. And every panel I see her in she looks great.

As forced as it’s starting to feel now, the world-building is done well. Again, I think everything that needs to be explained is explained. Hell, I’m tempted to make a Tokyo Ghoul OC with all the information I know about it.

This is more about the character design, but I really like how unique every ghoul’s mask is. My favorite designs are Kuro and Shiro, they really complement each other well.

Phew, this essay took awhile to finish, but at least it didn’t take 3 days like the Juni Taisen one. For all my issues, I really like this series a lot. I don’t know if I like it enough to continue to :Re, but that all depends on how the series ends Part 1 I suppose. 

But... what about you all? I’m tagging the fandom after all. What’s the general thoughts on the Tokyo Ghoul manga? And... is there a budding Tokyo Ghoul OC community like My Hero Academia? I’m gonna’ probably work on a Tokyo Ghoul OC after posting this, so... look out for that.

And as always when I finish these essays about shows and anime, Allen’s Best Girl for Tokyo Ghoul is definitely Miss Touka Kirishima. I could honestly Ramble about why I like her so much, but... I think this’ll suffice for now. I’m a little tired after working on this essay, so a cute picture of her should do fine.

#your dictator is speaking #tokyo ghoul

[logh-icebergs]

Episode 15: The Battle of Amlitzer Starzone

October 10-15, 796/487. To the surprise of absolutely no one with any common sense, Reinhard’s admirals make quick work of several of the Alliance fleets, killing a bunch of redshirt admirals in the process. Unable to swallow the humiliation of withdrawal, Lazzll orders the remaining forces to gather in the Amlitzer starzone, where with their powers combined they can...I dunno, kill slightly more people on their way to defeat I guess. Any lingering dreams of a miraculous turning of the tides are crushed when Kircheis uses the newfangled technology of directional Seffle particles to destroy a minefield and bring his fleet of 30,000 ships to the battle as reinforcements.

Poplan!

Olivier Poplan showed up way back in “My Conquest” in the role of a rather dopey comic relief character, one of the tools the movie used to show us a variety of perspectives on the ongoing battles. We’ve glimpsed him once or twice since, but in this episode for the first time we get to focus on him a bit more; and the first thing that the OVA wants us to know about Poplan is that he’ll take any opportunity, even the twenty seconds before his Spartanian fighter is about to launch into battle, to flirt with a cute girl:

To be fair, she is indeed really cute…

There is a lot to say about this incredibly brief interaction. What Poplan actually says is “na, ii darou?” which translates most literally to “hey, isn’t it okay/good?” There are a couple factors that make this incredibly vague phrase feel like a flirtation or come-on: the way he leans toward her with a slight smile; the lowered voice. Her response reinforces this read by treating his actions as inappropriate to the current situation. (What she says is “komarimasu, tai-i, konna toki ni”—”that would be troublesome at a time like this, Lt.”) Is she reading him correctly? Could his question have actually just been about the progress of the repairs on his ship?

Well, yes, it could have been, but the accompanying body language and tone are flirty enough that at the very least there’s innuendo built into his words. Of course as she points out, this is a ridiculous time for him to be propositioning anyone; their interaction is immediately interrupted by an officer berating him for being the last plane out, Poplan takes off, and (spoiler!) we never see this woman again. What on earth, then, was the point of that twenty-second scene?

I’ve mentioned that Cazellnu plays an important role in the show by embodying some of the heteronormative structures of Alliance society: Not only does he himself have a picture-perfect wife and kids (we’ll see them soon I promise!), but we’ll also hear him explicitly voice views about the righteousness of marriage and procreation. Poplan plays a similar and complementary role, giving voice to another side of heteronormativity: the pressure for men to constantly pursue women as sexual conquests. His introduction in this scene emphasizes that sex is so constantly on his mind that he can’t resist flirting even as he flies into battle—and of course that very idea, of men as sex-obsessed and unable to control themselves around women in any situation, is another widespread norm. True to this introduction, Poplan discusses sex constantly: bragging about women he’s slept with in the past; teasing other characters about not sleeping with enough women; pontificating about the virtues of sleeping around (with women). This potentially puts characters who don’t relate to this sort of hypersexualized straight masculinity in somewhat uncomfortable situations.

There’s another angle to Poplan’s strange timing here: The fact that his ambiguous proposition is guaranteed not to go anywhere at the moment makes it entirely performative. In fact if you pay close attention to Poplan (and we will!), something around 95% of what we see involves performing or projecting heterosexuality rather than, well, actually enacting it. Obviously that doesn’t mean that the stuff he says is insincere or false, but ambiguity is always worth keeping an eye on in this show.

...and Konev!

No discussion of Poplan is complete without talking about Ivan Konev, the other star Spartanian pilot of Yang’s fleet and Poplan’s constant companion. When Poplan discovers that the firing sights on his Spartanian are misaligned, Konev covers for him to help get him back to the relative safety of the ship, leading to in my opinion the most intense scene of the whole episode.

We’ve seen Poplan and Konev deal with the stress of battle by treating it like a game: betting on the outcome back in “My Conquest,” and generally keeping up a running tally of their respective kills for bragging rights. But these are in fact life and death battles, not some video game; and faced with malfunctioning equipment that put his life and the lives of the rest of his squadron in heightened danger, Poplan’s fear and frustration come out as anger against the officer in charge of maintenance. It’s Konev who intervenes. 

Poplan’s expression and posture soften the moment Konev puts a hand on his shoulder. Just that one instant establishes Konev as a grounding presence and someone Poplan has a deep connection with.

The unguarded fear that flashes in Poplan’s eyes for just a second here gives me chills.

Shit has gotten serious, and Konev’s words don’t soften that reality; but his steady expression and touch quell Poplan’s rage and help him channel his emotions into renewed focus on the battle.

Interestingly, this exchange comes to us entirely courtesy of the anime team. In the novels it’s Schenkopp who pulls Poplan off of the other officer, in a much more abbreviated version of the same scene. (Poplan actually holds a grudge against Schenkopp for stopping him before he could more thoroughly teach the guy a lesson.) The anime writers made a specific choice to change and expand this scene to show us this different side of Poplan and Konev’s dynamic. Of course we’re not here to catalogue all of the slight deviations from the novels; but a change like this suggests to me that Poplan and Konev’s relationship is one they’re particularly interested in developing, so we should be paying attention.

War

This sentiment echoes Yang’s tea speech from episode 6; finding themselves in this battle, his main goal is to find a way for as many people to survive as possible.

Zooming out from Poplan and Konev’s struggles in their little corner of the fight, the overall battle seems to go exactly how Reinhard drew it up and exactly how Yang and some of the other Alliance commanders feared. Yang places himself on damage control duty as much as possible, knowing from the beginning that their whole fleet is at a huge disadvantage especially after Reinhard’s successful strategy to tax their supplies.

During the various scattered battles we get some fun peeks at the different fighting styles of Reinhard’s admirals, for example when Mittermeyer swoops so swiftly into the midst of an Alliance fleet that he actually has to back up a bit before they can effectively fire at the enemy ships...

...While meanwhile Kircheis just stands on the bridge of his extremely red flagship like the badass he is and calmly encourages any Alliance forces that come near to surrender.

After retreating to minimize losses against Kempf’s fleet, Yang finds himself facing Kircheis and outnumbered four to one; avoiding the temptation to surrender, he concocts some sort of plan involving a U-formation and trying to attack Kircheis’s forces from three sides at once, but since he’s ordered away to Amlitzer in the middle of that fight we’ll never know what the outcome of this tactic would have been. 

This gif is interesting for two reasons: one, everyone’s utter shock at Yang admitting out loud that if it weren’t for concern for the other remaining fleets he’d be tempted to surrender; and two, the ridiculous redraws that keep switching back and forth—Yang’s character design, as well as the entire background, change repeatedly in the course of these few seconds. What the hell.

The main point I want to make about this battle is, well, actually how uneventful it is. LoGH is about understanding cause and effect, inevitability, ways of thinking that lead to different outcomes. We’ve known for several episodes that the Alliance went into this invasion underprepared and for the wrong reasons, while Reinhard has carefully taken steps to weaken the Alliance forces and give himself even more of an upper hand. There are no shocking twists here: The invasion is a disaster, as it should have been, and Reinhard’s (and Oberstein’s) strategy is rewarded with a convincing victory.

Right, Bittenfeld, that's...pretty much what I said.

Stray Tidbits

This brief interaction between Reinhard and Oberstein near the end of the episode is a nice microcosm of the dynamic we’ve seen develop in previous episodes: Oberstein being kind of baffled by the concept of Reinhard fretting about one of his admirals more than the others. Hang in there Oberstein, maybe someday you’ll underst—nah, actually, probably not. Reinhard’s “damn you caught me” expression as he tries to claim he was “just checking” is too cute. 

Don’t worry Reinhard! Kircheis just has to gaze at Alliance commanders with those calm blue eyes and they surrender to his every whim, you know that.

If you’re watching on Hidive, I hate to say it but for once I’ve got to score one for the fansubs: As far as I can tell what Yang says here (after Frederica reminds him that Julian has told him to cut down on drinking) is just “so you two have joined forces?” (The verb is 連帯する, rentai suru, “to have solidarity/share responsibility.”) Cute (if a bit weird) as the Hidive version is, it's a definite stretch.

And while we're at it, here's the original laserdisc version, complete with random blue tube in the background.

Hidive subbers, I would read your fanfic but for the official translations let's stick to what they actually say...

Am I a terrible person if this gif just makes me laugh? 

#Legend of Galactic Heroes #Legend of the Galactic Heroes #author: Rebecca #Amlitzer #battle #war #Poplan #Konev #heteronormativity #whoops

[acommonrose]

Lost Mine of Horncrest Session 2

So as I mentioned last week, I’ve been running a highly adapted version of Lost Mine of Phandelver for my ongoing campaign, which I’m discussing here. This week, I’ll be discussing their exploration of the Redbrand hideout, reworked as the basement of the Alpha Lambda frat house. For information on how I recontextualized this and got them there, check out last week’s description here.

As I mentioned, they decided that their best bet for finding where the frat boys were taking people would be to use the two least conspicuous members of the party as bait. This happened to be the warlock and the wizard, since the paladin’s a noblewoman (who had at that point already figured out that the frat might have ties to her cultist family) and the bard and rogue recently had a very public fake fight to throw off suspicious enemies/for fun. Mostly for fun. The three non-bait members each picked a person to watch (bard watching the warlock, paladin watching the wizard, rogue watching a random person who seemed to fit the profile, I believe), and I gave the party a chance to talk to people or play drinking games. Only the bard took up that offer, and after failing a DC 10 con save while playing beer pong, I decided she was drunk and under the effects of the poisoned condition.

I then had one of the frat boys approach the warlock (chosen over the wizard because the warlock’s had less to do in recent sessions) and offer her a drugged drink. The warlock drank it without much question, went unconscious, and was taken into the basement. The bard did notice, turned invisible, and followed, but due to the exact sequence of events and rolls, the rest of the party didn’t catch up for another moment or two. This turned out to be nearly fatal. I had the bard roll two stealth checks (advantage from invisibility + disadvantage from drunkenness led to it being straight rolls), first in the cellar area (to see if either the frat boy taking the warlock or the frat boys waiting in the barracks area heard anything) and then again after circumventing the pit trap (which she saw the frat boy avoiding and therefore didn’t have to search for) and entering the crypts area. She passed the stealth check by a significant margin in the first room, so I gave the frat boy disadvantage on the perception check, which took it from a nat 20 to... a 17. (This guy had no modifier, and I have fudged no rolls lately, so it was a stroke of incredibly bad luck for the bard’s player, who had a decent modifier and got a 16.) Because of it, I determined that the frat boy retreated to the “slave pens” to lock up the warlock but pointed out the bard to the arcane squirrels I had replaced the skeletons in the adventure with (because I had previously joked about the frat experimenting on squirrels), which happened to beat the bard on initiative and were enough to take her out in one round of attacks. I decided that the squirrels didn’t attack her while she was down, and she passed the death saves, but she was unconscious and taken into the holding pens with the warlock, which definitely led to some player weirdness during he rest of the session, since the bard had actually died (and been revived) the previous session. The rest of the party arrived, fought the squirrels (whose stat blocks can be found here, along with my revised “ruffian” frat boy and my powered up nothic), and that was the end of the first session, because the players were clearly not happy with how things had gone and it was not worth it to push the session longer, given that they were likely going to have to spend another full session on the dungeon.

I picked up with the players rescuing the captured party members, which was a pretty easy fight - there were only two frat boys, and each was roughly equivalent in power to one of the PCs. The bard was healed some during the fight, and the warlock (who was drugged but otherwise at full everything) was woken shortly after the fight. At that point, they were low on basically everything, and I let them consider the time they took regrouping and deciding what to do next as a short rest, which let them regain enough hit points that they didn’t just run away immediately. This also gave them the chance to deal with 2 NPCs. First, they rescued Mirna Dendrar (who plays a pretty similar role, though she is a college student with no children or husband) and got rough information from her about what she had overheard from the frat boys. It wasn’t very detailed, and they didn’t talk to her at length, but they did turn her invisible and let her sneak out through the frat party and sent her off to go talk to their favorite mom friend bartender. They did catch up with her later and got some of the Thundertree plot hook, but they didn’t talk to her much. To get more information, they woke up one of the frat boys guarding the cells (who I, on the spot, named Jeff). After some pretty grisly torture (and a great intimidation check), they found out that the people taken by the frat went to two places. Some were fed to a monster (and, thanks to a very good arcana check, they found out that it was a nothic and got some cool Vecna-related nothic lore that will probably come back later). Others were taken elsewhere, but Jeff didn’t know where.

What the party does with redbrands (or in my case frat boys) is something I’d really be interested in hearing about from other people who have run Lost Mine of Phandelver. I think this is something where, almost by coincidence, I set the players up to taking a nonlethal approach. In the adventure, it’s pretty clear that local law enforcement is just completely outclassed by the redbrands, and killing them would likely be a service to the town. In my game, law enforcement is sometimes morally ambiguous and disliked by the party (and possibly considered incompetent by the party), but they are reasonably powerful, and in the end, the party did turn over Jeff, as well as the names of the rest of the frat, to the church of the god of law (which is effectively in charge of law enforcement in my world). While that did give motivation for the players not to kill the frat boys (because murder is murder and the church of law is pretty strict), the players also chose to do nonlethal damage because at least two party members would have taken strong exception to outright killing of people, which seems like something other parties would have too. Or are D&D characters generally just too murder hobo-ish? In any case, taking one prisoner effectively and forcing him to be a guide is something that I didn’t really anticipate but makes a lot of sense, and I wonder if that’s an approach other groups have taken.

The group then proceeded to the nothic with a quick detour through the armory to thoroughly loot it. (Will they ever sell the armory they’re now carrying around in the bag of holding? Will they ever sell the random books, gems, and pillows that are in there from months ago? Who knows?) Jeff’s guidance made it so they didn’t have to search for the secret door, and the nothic battle was pretty straightforward. My only tip to DMs trying to run it is that, time permitting, you should write out the nothic says to each player if it succeeds on its weird insight against them. I think weird insight could be really cool, especially with a secretive party like mine, but I didn’t pre-write anything, and some of the wording was off. (My tired rogue player didn’t even realize that I was referencing her super traumatic backstory and was just confused.)

After dispatching the nothic, the party debated whether or not to leave straight away (since Jeff had told them about the tunnel out of the crevasse area). They determined, ultimately, that the guard barracks/common room areas were worthless to them, but did want to go into the wizard’s workshop and quarters (though the relevant person is... not a wizard in my game exactly) to get more information about where the girls were being taken. In this case, I replaced “Glasstaff” with Bran Galhyde, a noble previously introduced in the game as a member of the cult that the paladin’s parents are in. Bran’s involvement (and resultantly the cult’s involvement) had been suggested before, since said paladin had spoken to him before going to the frat house, and he had suggested that he had some involvement with the frat (though confirmed nothing). They had also found out from Jeff that Lord Galhyde (who I decided didn’t have reason to go by a pseudonym given the already secret nature of the operation) was organizing and paying for the transport of the captives, though this name didn’t mean anything to anyone but the paladin, who chose not to share what she knew. Hoping to get more information on where people were being taken, the bard and rogue embarked on a stealth mission, turning invisible and sneaking into the the workshop, where they rolled a good enough stealth roll that they weren’t noticed by the rat and a good enough perception roll to tell that there was one person in the next room. Deciding that the best way to handle the situation was to surprise attack (since even invisible people would be noticed rifling through papers on the desk someone was sitting at), the rogue sprung an attack and the bard cast silence. Since the individual (a well-dressed individual the party suspects but isn’t sure is Bran) was a spellcaster, he recognized the silence spell, drank an invisibility potion.

As far as relevant information the party got from this little expedition, they were able to get the Dwarvish book about the Forge of Spells in Wave Echo Cave, which was especially of interest to the wizard (conveniently the only one who reads Dwarvish), since I recently introduced an artificer NPC who is a friend/potential love interest of the wizard. They also found a letter to Lord Galhyde signed from “The Watched One” (my replacement for the Black Spider for reasons that will become clear anyways). I completely changed the content of the letter, since the one in the adventure doesn’t make sense with either my setting or the order in which I’m presenting plot hooks, but the letter they did get mentioned “the cave”, so the players are pretty set on finding Wave Echo Cave and stopping whatever horrible ritual might happen there.

Of course, they need to find it first, and there lies the plot of the next few sessions.

#d&d tag #lost mine of horncrest

[recentanimenews]

Ahiru no Sora's Protagonist Reminds Me of My Favorite NBA Player

Basketball is a sport where if you’re tall, there’s a good chance you’ll most likely be successful. That’s not to say it’s a correlation with skill, but size can give you an edge where if you’re smaller, you might not have. In the NBA, the average height of all players last year was 6’ 7”, which is pretty tall! In fact, players who were 6’ 8” had the most amount of minutes out of any height, with most of the minutes going to players who were 6’ 3” to 7’ tall. So, what happens when you’re not in that height range? Are you going to eternally struggle against your taller opponents? What about players who find themselves less than 6’ tall? That’s something that Sora Kurumatani from Ahiru no Sora has had to deal with personally considering he’s only 4’ 10.6 inches. Not the kind of height you'd find from a basketball player. For comparison's sake, if you put him up against the shortest player in NBA history, he’s still 5 inches shorter than Muggsy Bogues who was 5’ 3”.

    When life forces you to play sports at the hardest difficulties due to size disadvantages, what does someone like Sora do? You’ve basically got two options in front of you. One is to basically give up and not pursue sports as your life’s passion or you have to work harder than everyone else around you. You can’t take a day off, you have to be in the gym before everyone else, and you’ll have to find ways to negate the height advantage most players are going to have over you. It’s certainly more work than people who have been gifted the benefit of height will have to do, but in order to keep up, that’s what it’ll take.

  It certainly shows in Ahiru no Sora that Sora is willing to put in this level of work, and then some. We see that he will make sure he gets up 1000 shots a day no matter what, as he knows this is a key area he needs to be good at in order to be successful. This is especially true after some of his flaws are highlighted after the practice game against Shinmaruko. Plus, with how he’s able to utilize two different kinds of jump shots and the ability of lure defenses into a false sense of security due to his size, Sora has key tools in his arsenal to make sure he’s not immediately destroyed by players that are a foot or more taller than him.

    One of Sora’s key attributes that has been showcased thus far is his ability to never give up. From trying to just join the team to playing the entirety of his first game despite getting battered and exhausted due to never having played an actual game before, Sora’s not going to make excuses. He’s always prepared to show off all of the hard work he’s put in and why other teams shouldn’t take him lightly. With his goal of winning the Inter-High so he can show his mother that he was successful, Sora’s not going to back down easily against tough competition or strong defenses. What’s truly going to make him better is being on the team he’s on now that will be fueled by a fire to get better since a majority of the team are novices. Iron sharpens iron, after all.

  Sora’s qualities in Ahiru no Sora reminded me of one of my favorite times watching basketball and of my favorite player in the NBA. Gather around everyone as I let you in on the story of point guard Isaiah Thomas. Thomas, like Sora, has had to deal with criticisms regarding his size his entire career. Standing in at 5’ 9”, he’s almost a foot taller than Sora, but still on the smaller size of NBA players. That’s one of the reasons he was the last pick in the 2011 NBA draft. However, those teams that passed him over soon realized they’d made a mistake as Thomas’ play over the years has proven that his size was never an issue.

    Since the NBA draft was reduced to two rounds in 1989, only one player stands heads and shoulders above the rest when it comes to the last overall pick with regards to win shares (the estimated amount of wins you contribute to a team), and that’s Isaiah Thomas with a whopping 45.5. Through his first few years in the league, I didn’t pay much attention to him as he played in Sacramento and Phoenix, but when he was traded to the Boston Celtics during the 2014-15 season, that all changed. Despite being a good player on his previous teams, his time in Boston is where he truly shined and became one of the most popular players on the team and a force to be reckoned within the NBA.

  During his time with the Celtics, he became a two time All Star, selected to the All-NBA Second Team in 2017, and had career highs in points with 28.9 during the 2016-17 season. In fact, he was playing at such a level that season that he placed 5th in overall MVP voting. It was an astonishing season to watch him as he wowed fans, critics, teammates, and other players to lead the Celtics to the number one seed in the Eastern Conference for the playoffs. However, what awaited him there was both tragedy and triumph.

    The first round of the 2017 playoffs would begin one day after Thomas learned of the death of his sister. Despite having to deal with an immense amount of grief, he played the entire series and led Boston to a 4-2 series win over the Chicago Bulls. Next up would be an intense seven game series against the Washington Wizards where on the birthday of his sister, he would score a staggering 53 points, the 14th most ever in a playoff game. This also all came after Thomas would have to deal with hours of dental surgery following his tooth being knocked out in the first game of the series. 

  Unfortunately, Thomas’ time with the Celtics would end after the 2016-17 season after he was traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers. Since then, he’s bounced around the league and battled injuries that have not allowed him to play at this sort of level. He’s begun that road back, especially this year by earning a starting role again on the Washington Wizards, and I certainly hope he becomes the Isaiah Thomas of old. His story is one of never giving up, never staying down, and never letting your size be a hindrance. That’s exactly what Sora has shown me so far in Ahiru no Sora. It makes me excited to see his growth with not only his own game, but how he’s going to make his teammates better as well.

    The joys of basketball are in things like the competition, seeing your favorite players grow and get better, the amazing skills and breathtaking moves, along with players that surprise you. Ahiru no Sora has the potential to showcase all of that and it’s going to be fun to see Sora and his team become not only a full fledged group, but one that is competitive. How they go about that will be intriguing to watch as how will defenses handle Sora? Will he be able to use his speed, playmaking, and shooting to his advantage or instead become more of a facilitator for his teammates? For the time being, it’s all about enjoying the journey and seeing what kind of players these kids become.

    How well do you think Sora's team is going to mesh going forward throughout the rest of the series? Will he be able to use his size to his advantage? Let us know down in the comments below!

---

Jared Clemons is a writer and podcaster for Seasonal Anime Checkup where he can be found always wanting to talk about Love Live! Sunshine!! or whatever else he's into at the moment. He can be found on Twitter @ragbag.

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[winniegist]

Types of Irrevocable Trusts

As an estate lawyer, I have explained that there are many types of irrevocable trusts that can help you secure your assets and reduce taxes.

They include the following:

Asset Protection Trust An asset protection trust is used as a fortress to keep creditors from seizing assets. There are asset protection trust laws in states such as Nevada, Wyoming, Delaware, Alaska and North Dakota. In practice, we have found that they can provide a fair level of protection, especially, for residents of those states. However, they have the disadvantage of being under US court jurisdiction. Judge’s do not always follow the law and there are ever-expanding legal theories of liability. So, we have seen assets in domestic trusts seized on numerous occasions. Offshore irrevocable trusts in jurisdictions such as the Cook Islands and Nevis have a perfect or near-perfect track record for protecting assets from judgment creditors. Because US judges do not have jurisdiction over foreign trustees, the trustee need not comply with US court orders.

Bypass Trust This type of trust that married people use. When one spouse dies, the property goes into the trust. The surviving spouse can use the property, but does not own it. This means that it is not part of the estate when the surviving spouse dies. This equates to tax savings.

QTIP Trust Another trust designed for married couples, a QTIP trust typically provides income to the surviving spouse when one spouse dies. When the second spouse dies, other named beneficiaries receive the assets. This is typically the settlor’s children. QTIP stands for Qualified Terminable Interest Property.

QDOT Trust A QDOT trust is similar to a QTIP trust. The difference is that noncitizens use it. QDOT stands for Qualified Domestic Trust.

Life Insurance Trust With this type of trust, the trust is both the owner and the beneficiary of the life insurance policy. Anyone, in turn, can be the beneficiary of the trust. The grantor must typically create the trust at least three years before death. It lets a person reduce or eliminate estate taxes so more of the proceeds go to the beneficiaries. The trustee, then, administers insurance proceeds for one or more beneficiaries.

Generation-Skipping TrustWealthy families often use this tool. As the name implies, the trust skips a generation. The final beneficiaries are the grandchildren instead of the children. The children are beneficiaries of the income, but do not own the property. This means that when the children die, their trust property is not subject to estate tax. However, a generation skipping transfer tax may apply.

Charitable Trust If you don’t have any family – or maybe you do have family but don’t want to give them an inheritance – you can opt for a charitable trust. If you are not married and have no children this may be a good choice. This type of irrevocable trust allows you to give gifts to charity as a way to lower income and estate taxes. The charity benefits from your donation as well, so it’s advantageous to both parties. There are three types of charitable trusts.

Types of Charitable Trusts

Pooled income trust:This trust allows you to pool your money with other grantors and receive income for a specified amount of time. For these trusts, the charity is the trustee and beneficiary.

Charitable lead trust:You put property into a trust. Next, you name a charity to receive income from the trust for a certain amount of time. However, you name someone else as the final beneficiary.

Charitable remainder trust:You put property into a trust. Then, you can receive a tax deduction for putting the asset into the trust. You name someone to receive income from the trust for a certain amount of time. The trust specifies a charity as the final beneficiary.

Trusts for Special Needs

If your goal is to protect assets and income for loved ones, choose one of these trusts:

Special Needs Trust If you have a child or other loved one with special needs, a special needs trust can help provide financial support for this person in the event of your death. Property – particularly money – is placed into this irrevocable trust. You appoint a trustee to distribute the funds to buy necessities for the disabled person. The beneficiary never owns the property. This works to his or her advantage because the money is not considered as asset. The beneficiary does not make too much income and therefore can still qualify for government benefits.

Spendthrift Trust Maybe you don’t have a disabled relative, but maybe you have a sibling or child who is horrible with money. Some people are just irresponsible with money, but that doesn’t mean that you need to leave them out of your inheritance. With a spendthrift trust, you can protect and control the money that you gift to family members who have trouble managing their finances. The settlor places assets into a trust. A trustee doles them out based on the terms in the trust. For example, you may allow the beneficiary to receive only a certain amount per week or month. The beneficiary cannot access the trust property, so the assets are protected from creditors. However, once the beneficiary receives money or assets, they become fair game.

Irrevocable Trust – The Way to Go?

Irrevocable trusts offer many asset protection, estate planning and tax advantages. For the general public, an irrevocable trust may be very useful in protecting assets from lawsuits, securing financial help for a special needs child or providing for children after the death of the parents.

You need to be able to trust your trustee. What happens if you have a falling out with your trustee? Change them. The beneficiaries can simply vote in a new trustee. The trustee must not be you. The trustee also must not be someone up or down the family tree, cannot be a controlled employee and cannot be an agent of yours. If any of these parties were trustees it would lose its asset protection advantages because the courts would consider these people your alter ego.

Should you choose an irrevocable trust, some wise advice is to have it skillfully drafted by an experienced professional. This is extremely important, since a poorly worded document may not do what you intended for it to do and ruin your asset protection and estate planning goals. Contact an estate planning expert to see if an irrevocable trust will meet your needs based on your unique situation.

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Source: http://www.ascentlawfirm.com/types-of-irrevocable-trusts/

[loreneweiner]

Types of Irrevocable Trusts

As an estate lawyer, I have explained that there are many types of irrevocable trusts that can help you secure your assets and reduce taxes.

They include the following:

Asset Protection Trust An asset protection trust is used as a fortress to keep creditors from seizing assets. There are asset protection trust laws in states such as Nevada, Wyoming, Delaware, Alaska and North Dakota. In practice, we have found that they can provide a fair level of protection, especially, for residents of those states. However, they have the disadvantage of being under US court jurisdiction. Judge’s do not always follow the law and there are ever-expanding legal theories of liability. So, we have seen assets in domestic trusts seized on numerous occasions. Offshore irrevocable trusts in jurisdictions such as the Cook Islands and Nevis have a perfect or near-perfect track record for protecting assets from judgment creditors. Because US judges do not have jurisdiction over foreign trustees, the trustee need not comply with US court orders.

Bypass Trust This type of trust that married people use. When one spouse dies, the property goes into the trust. The surviving spouse can use the property, but does not own it. This means that it is not part of the estate when the surviving spouse dies. This equates to tax savings.

QTIP Trust Another trust designed for married couples, a QTIP trust typically provides income to the surviving spouse when one spouse dies. When the second spouse dies, other named beneficiaries receive the assets. This is typically the settlor’s children. QTIP stands for Qualified Terminable Interest Property.

QDOT Trust A QDOT trust is similar to a QTIP trust. The difference is that noncitizens use it. QDOT stands for Qualified Domestic Trust.

Life Insurance Trust With this type of trust, the trust is both the owner and the beneficiary of the life insurance policy. Anyone, in turn, can be the beneficiary of the trust. The grantor must typically create the trust at least three years before death. It lets a person reduce or eliminate estate taxes so more of the proceeds go to the beneficiaries. The trustee, then, administers insurance proceeds for one or more beneficiaries.

Generation-Skipping TrustWealthy families often use this tool. As the name implies, the trust skips a generation. The final beneficiaries are the grandchildren instead of the children. The children are beneficiaries of the income, but do not own the property. This means that when the children die, their trust property is not subject to estate tax. However, a generation skipping transfer tax may apply.

Charitable Trust If you don’t have any family – or maybe you do have family but don’t want to give them an inheritance – you can opt for a charitable trust. If you are not married and have no children this may be a good choice. This type of irrevocable trust allows you to give gifts to charity as a way to lower income and estate taxes. The charity benefits from your donation as well, so it’s advantageous to both parties. There are three types of charitable trusts.

Types of Charitable Trusts

Pooled income trust:This trust allows you to pool your money with other grantors and receive income for a specified amount of time. For these trusts, the charity is the trustee and beneficiary.

Charitable lead trust:You put property into a trust. Next, you name a charity to receive income from the trust for a certain amount of time. However, you name someone else as the final beneficiary.

Charitable remainder trust:You put property into a trust. Then, you can receive a tax deduction for putting the asset into the trust. You name someone to receive income from the trust for a certain amount of time. The trust specifies a charity as the final beneficiary.

Trusts for Special Needs

If your goal is to protect assets and income for loved ones, choose one of these trusts:

Special Needs Trust If you have a child or other loved one with special needs, a special needs trust can help provide financial support for this person in the event of your death. Property – particularly money – is placed into this irrevocable trust. You appoint a trustee to distribute the funds to buy necessities for the disabled person. The beneficiary never owns the property. This works to his or her advantage because the money is not considered as asset. The beneficiary does not make too much income and therefore can still qualify for government benefits.

Spendthrift Trust Maybe you don’t have a disabled relative, but maybe you have a sibling or child who is horrible with money. Some people are just irresponsible with money, but that doesn’t mean that you need to leave them out of your inheritance. With a spendthrift trust, you can protect and control the money that you gift to family members who have trouble managing their finances. The settlor places assets into a trust. A trustee doles them out based on the terms in the trust. For example, you may allow the beneficiary to receive only a certain amount per week or month. The beneficiary cannot access the trust property, so the assets are protected from creditors. However, once the beneficiary receives money or assets, they become fair game.

Irrevocable Trust – The Way to Go?

Irrevocable trusts offer many asset protection, estate planning and tax advantages. For the general public, an irrevocable trust may be very useful in protecting assets from lawsuits, securing financial help for a special needs child or providing for children after the death of the parents.

You need to be able to trust your trustee. What happens if you have a falling out with your trustee? Change them. The beneficiaries can simply vote in a new trustee. The trustee must not be you. The trustee also must not be someone up or down the family tree, cannot be a controlled employee and cannot be an agent of yours. If any of these parties were trustees it would lose its asset protection advantages because the courts would consider these people your alter ego.

Should you choose an irrevocable trust, some wise advice is to have it skillfully drafted by an experienced professional. This is extremely important, since a poorly worded document may not do what you intended for it to do and ruin your asset protection and estate planning goals. Contact an estate planning expert to see if an irrevocable trust will meet your needs based on your unique situation.

Free Consultation with a Trust Lawyer

If you are here, you probably have a trust or estate matter that you need help with. If so, call Ascent Law for your free consultation [phone]. We want to help you.

Ascent Law LLC8833 S. Redwood Road, Suite CWest Jordan, Utah 84088 United StatesTelephone: [phone]

Ascent Law LLC

4.9 stars – based on 67 reviews

Recent Posts

What is Estate Planning?

About Chapter 7 bankruptcy

Utah Registered Agent Services

Kids and Divorce

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Source: http://www.ascentlawfirm.com/types-of-irrevocable-trusts/

[aretia]

Types of Irrevocable Trusts

As an estate lawyer, I have explained that there are many types of irrevocable trusts that can help you secure your assets and reduce taxes.

They include the following:

Asset Protection Trust An asset protection trust is used as a fortress to keep creditors from seizing assets. There are asset protection trust laws in states such as Nevada, Wyoming, Delaware, Alaska and North Dakota. In practice, we have found that they can provide a fair level of protection, especially, for residents of those states. However, they have the disadvantage of being under US court jurisdiction. Judge’s do not always follow the law and there are ever-expanding legal theories of liability. So, we have seen assets in domestic trusts seized on numerous occasions. Offshore irrevocable trusts in jurisdictions such as the Cook Islands and Nevis have a perfect or near-perfect track record for protecting assets from judgment creditors. Because US judges do not have jurisdiction over foreign trustees, the trustee need not comply with US court orders.

Bypass Trust This type of trust that married people use. When one spouse dies, the property goes into the trust. The surviving spouse can use the property, but does not own it. This means that it is not part of the estate when the surviving spouse dies. This equates to tax savings.

QTIP Trust Another trust designed for married couples, a QTIP trust typically provides income to the surviving spouse when one spouse dies. When the second spouse dies, other named beneficiaries receive the assets. This is typically the settlor’s children. QTIP stands for Qualified Terminable Interest Property.

QDOT Trust A QDOT trust is similar to a QTIP trust. The difference is that noncitizens use it. QDOT stands for Qualified Domestic Trust.

Life Insurance Trust With this type of trust, the trust is both the owner and the beneficiary of the life insurance policy. Anyone, in turn, can be the beneficiary of the trust. The grantor must typically create the trust at least three years before death. It lets a person reduce or eliminate estate taxes so more of the proceeds go to the beneficiaries. The trustee, then, administers insurance proceeds for one or more beneficiaries.

Generation-Skipping TrustWealthy families often use this tool. As the name implies, the trust skips a generation. The final beneficiaries are the grandchildren instead of the children. The children are beneficiaries of the income, but do not own the property. This means that when the children die, their trust property is not subject to estate tax. However, a generation skipping transfer tax may apply.

Charitable Trust If you don’t have any family – or maybe you do have family but don’t want to give them an inheritance – you can opt for a charitable trust. If you are not married and have no children this may be a good choice. This type of irrevocable trust allows you to give gifts to charity as a way to lower income and estate taxes. The charity benefits from your donation as well, so it’s advantageous to both parties. There are three types of charitable trusts.

Types of Charitable Trusts

Pooled income trust:This trust allows you to pool your money with other grantors and receive income for a specified amount of time. For these trusts, the charity is the trustee and beneficiary.

Charitable lead trust:You put property into a trust. Next, you name a charity to receive income from the trust for a certain amount of time. However, you name someone else as the final beneficiary.

Charitable remainder trust:You put property into a trust. Then, you can receive a tax deduction for putting the asset into the trust. You name someone to receive income from the trust for a certain amount of time. The trust specifies a charity as the final beneficiary.

Trusts for Special Needs

If your goal is to protect assets and income for loved ones, choose one of these trusts:

Special Needs Trust If you have a child or other loved one with special needs, a special needs trust can help provide financial support for this person in the event of your death. Property – particularly money – is placed into this irrevocable trust. You appoint a trustee to distribute the funds to buy necessities for the disabled person. The beneficiary never owns the property. This works to his or her advantage because the money is not considered as asset. The beneficiary does not make too much income and therefore can still qualify for government benefits.

Spendthrift Trust Maybe you don’t have a disabled relative, but maybe you have a sibling or child who is horrible with money. Some people are just irresponsible with money, but that doesn’t mean that you need to leave them out of your inheritance. With a spendthrift trust, you can protect and control the money that you gift to family members who have trouble managing their finances. The settlor places assets into a trust. A trustee doles them out based on the terms in the trust. For example, you may allow the beneficiary to receive only a certain amount per week or month. The beneficiary cannot access the trust property, so the assets are protected from creditors. However, once the beneficiary receives money or assets, they become fair game.

Irrevocable Trust – The Way to Go?

Irrevocable trusts offer many asset protection, estate planning and tax advantages. For the general public, an irrevocable trust may be very useful in protecting assets from lawsuits, securing financial help for a special needs child or providing for children after the death of the parents.

You need to be able to trust your trustee. What happens if you have a falling out with your trustee? Change them. The beneficiaries can simply vote in a new trustee. The trustee must not be you. The trustee also must not be someone up or down the family tree, cannot be a controlled employee and cannot be an agent of yours. If any of these parties were trustees it would lose its asset protection advantages because the courts would consider these people your alter ego.

Should you choose an irrevocable trust, some wise advice is to have it skillfully drafted by an experienced professional. This is extremely important, since a poorly worded document may not do what you intended for it to do and ruin your asset protection and estate planning goals. Contact an estate planning expert to see if an irrevocable trust will meet your needs based on your unique situation.

Free Consultation with a Trust Lawyer

If you are here, you probably have a trust or estate matter that you need help with. If so, call Ascent Law for your free consultation [phone]. We want to help you.

Ascent Law LLC8833 S. Redwood Road, Suite CWest Jordan, Utah 84088 United StatesTelephone: [phone]

Ascent Law LLC

4.9 stars – based on 67 reviews

Recent Posts

What is Estate Planning?

About Chapter 7 bankruptcy

Utah Registered Agent Services

Kids and Divorce

Tax Lawyer

Family Lawyer

Source: http://www.ascentlawfirm.com/types-of-irrevocable-trusts/

[creativesage]

(via Age Diversity and Innovation Teams – Innovation Excellence)

By Pete Foley

Diversity is good for innovation. Integrating different backgrounds, fields of expertise, depths and breadths of knowledge and experience all help to create new interfaces where innovative ideas can spark and thrive. Likewise, diverse thinking styles and personality types help foster balance between ideation, creativity, execution and delivery.

There are lots of ways to increase diversity, but should this include age?

Are we better of with younger, passionate teams that challenge the status quo, or more mature teams that leverage broader experience and expertise? Or are these both stereotypes, and age doesn’t really matter.

Homogeneity in innovation teams… is generally a bad idea

In the case of age, teams dominated by experience can find it harder to challenge givens and norms. They are also susceptible to confirmation and functional fixedness biases fueled by common experience. As a result they may move teams too quickly from ideation into execution and delivery. However, teams lacking experience may have a counter propensity to repeat historical failures – Not just reinventing the wheel, which even when it is not novel, can still be useful, but also reinventing concepts that are neither useful or novel, analogous to New Coke, Newton PA’s and DeLorean’s. These are concepts that are obviously bad in hindsight, but less so in real time.

Age and Scientific Creativity

A common assumption is that innovation is a young person’s game. Indeed, Max Planck said “Science advances one death at a time” and Einstein once commented that “a person who has not made his great contribution to science before the age of thirty will never do so”. Indeed, many discoveries that led to Nobel prizes in Physics and Quantum mechanics were made by scientists while in their 20’s or 30’s. But this is no longer the case, and the mean age of Nobel Prize winning achievements since 1980 is a little under 50 years old. I believe this reflects that as fields mature, it takes longer to accrue the critical mass of knowledge necessary for even the most brilliant to make breakthrough advances.

It’s Been a Long Time Since… I Rock and Rolled

It’s not just science where innovation can appear to be dominated by youth. For the past two years we have sadly seen far too many Rock and Rollers pass on, from my personal hero David Bowie, to Prince, Tom Petty, George Michael, Chris Cornel, Greg Allman, and However, as painful as their loss was, most of them appeared to have long since passed their creative and commercial peaks. They are not alone, the Beatles, Stones, Bowie, The Who, Elton John, Led Zeppelin all produced their masterpieces in their twenties or thirties. With all due respect, few people go to see Paul McCartney or The Who these days primarily to hear their new songs.

There are always exceptions, such as Bowie’s heart wrenching Blackstar, or Lou Reed’s beautifully crafted Love and Death, but in general, rock and roll innovation belonged, and still belongs to the young. But Rock and Roll is also a ‘young’ art form.

If we look more broadly at the arts, correlation between youth and creativity is less clear. Michaelangelo may have completed David in his late 20’s, but was also actively creating masterpieces until his death at a very respectable age of 88. Mozart composed his ninth symphony at the astonishing age of 16, but his Jupiter symphony, often considered his most innovative, was completed just a couple of years before his untimely death at age 35, at least suggesting he may not have peaked creatively. While life spans were often shorter as we look back in history, Picasso, Dali, Da Vinci were all highly creative throughout their careers.

The Myth of 10,000 Hours

Another concept that supports some correlation between maturity and peak innovation is the idea that 10,000 hours forms an essential foundation for innovation, and 10,000 hours takes time to accrue. This is not a bad concept as a general principle, but is also a vast oversimplification. In reality, the critical mass, and hence total hours of experience needed to innovate is going to vary enormously between different disciplines, and also between individuals. In some cases, 10,000 hours can even get in the way, as it can require unlearning. As a personal example, I came of age as a musician along with Punk Rock.

Unfortunately, I started learning how to play guitar at a young age, and so had close to 10,000 hours when punk rock exploded onto the music scene. At that moment in time my experience was often a distinct disadvantage. Audiences demanded raw, primitive guitar and bass parts. Mine instead sounded, and were, contrived, as I was trying to unlearn the complexity I’d already learned, which is extremely difficult.

A Case for Balance

Often a balance of experience and naivety is the ideal. Nobody wants to go under the knife of a raw, creative ‘punk rock’ surgeon, or take off in a plane flown by a ‘punk rock pilot’. However, the ideal for complex surgery is often not the most senior surgeon either, as she will often only operate a couple of times a month. An ideal balance is likely a junior surgeon with the automatic motor skills and habits of someone who operates routinely many times a day, teamed with a senior surgeon, who has accumulated experience of most oddities and exceptions, and who can draw on that deep experience in the face of the unexpected.

It’s a loose analogy, but mixed levels of experience are not a bad goal for an innovation team, bringing together recent real world experience, open minds, deep knowledge and hard earned experience. Mixed ages also bring a diversity of empathy. For example, older people are typically better at understanding some of the physical limitations associated with age, such as poorer eyesight, reduced physical strength and mobility.  But these can also be great proxys for simplification that also works across broader demographics. A package that is easily read by a senior also carries a simpler message that requires less cognitive bandwidth for everyone.

Managing the Cost of Experience

Finally, one argument I’ve heard for teams with a strong bias for youth is that they are cheaper.  So what if they make a few mistakes, it’s still cheaper than employing expensive, proven innovators. There may be cases where this is true, especially in digital domains where experiments are cheap to run, and can be turned around very quickly. But I’d still argue for some experience, especially as a little experience can go a long way, and potentially be spread across multiple teams.  And experience not only helps prevent us from repeating past errors, but also helps in understanding why something does or doesn’t work. Even if we can run infinite A/B tests, unless we underpin results with theory and understanding, we’ll never develop predictive capability, and so be vulnerable to competition who design experiments based on hypothesis, or perhaps don’t always need to experiment at all.

Also, innovation teams should not be solely about delivering results. They are also about developing capability, and this grows best in groups with mixed experience, where mentoring and experience sharing occurs in both directions.

In Summary: Age and Experience Diversity Will Generally Deliver Multiple Benefits:

1. Help to avoid reinventing the equivalent of the Newton or the Edsel: Have at least one or two members of the team who have enough history and experience to avoid reinventing epic failures.

2. Avoid the ’seen it all, done it all’ trap, and have enough openness to challenge ‘Givens’ and sacred cows. Just because a concept failed before doesn’t mean it will fail now. Some ideas are ahead of their time, and some are enabled by new technology in ways it is hard for someone who failed before to see.

3. Grow Capability. Mixed experience teams pass experience and theory onto younger members faster than they can learn simply via trial and error, but also force more experienced team members to sharpen the saw, challenge sacred cows, and add new creative life to their processes.

4. Provide first-hand empathy for age based differences. A young designer can always don rubber gloves and glasses to experience limitations of age. But living with it brings deeper insight. Likewise, just because older demographics may take longer to adopt new technology, it doesn’t mean it won’t work for them.  Younger team members can often show older ones opportunities they may find hard to imagine.

Aiming for age diversity doesn’t mean we shouldn’t consider weighting teams for age or other attributes. Using personality types as an example, if we want a team that is going to create a lot of new ideas, then consider overweighting for openness.  If we have tight deadlines, and are in a race to market, maybe overweight in conscientiousness.

Likewise, the demographic targets, technical expertise, or the size of the disruption we need to make for different projects may favor a bias towards different age groups. But a designed in bias like this is different to the kind of unintended homogeneity that can come from pulling together a team of similar seniority based primarily on functional expertise, rather than also considering length of experience, personality type, and T-shaped innovation capability.

Of course, age is only a proxy, and some people achieve a critical mass of experience at a young age. Others remain high energy, challenging and contrarian for all of their lives. An individuals innovation age is somewhat analogous to Dr. Mike Roizen’s Real Age concept as applied to health. Because of differences in diet, exercise, weight, abuse and chronic illness, two people of the same chronological age may differ quite significantly in wellness, likely lifespan, and overall physical health.

Likewise, innovators who are constantly learning new things, exploring and publishing in new areas, and collaborating with other individuals in a wide variety of fields may just maintain a younger innovator age. But overall, it’s at least worth considering deliberately mixing ages in a team, especially in organizations where it is common for everyone at a similar hierarchical level to be of somewhat similar age.

[Entire post — click on the title link to read it at Innovation Excellence.]

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Speaking of Innovation and Innovators...

We are proud and honored to have had our @CreativeSage company Twitter account chosen for the sixth year in a row now (2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017), for the Top 50 Innovation Twitter Sharers List! We want to thank Innovation Excellence and everyone in our community who voted for our account again this past year.

Additionally, Founder/CEO/Chief Imagination Officer Cathryn Hrudicka maintains a multidisciplinary artist account at @CathrynHrudicka that some of you may want to follow, too.  She has served as an Artist-in-Residence, and can recommend other Artists-in-Residence in all artistic disciplines, for companies and organizations.

At Creative Sage™, we love to work with clients on social innovation, educational innovation, healthcare innovation, civic and government innovation projects, as well as corporate innovation projects. Our core capabilities include creativity training and coaching, and the design and facilitation of innovation programs, including in the areas of design thinking, arts-based processes, applications of science and neuroscience tools when appropriate, change management, and business model innovation.

We have been very effective in helping organizational leaders and employees move through transitions and cultural changes. We work with for-profit, nonprofit, B-corps, trade associations, and other types of organizations.

In addition to offering our services in creativity and innovation program design, consulting, leadership coaching, and training, we may be able to help your organization define and choose a Chief Innovation Officer (or another innovation management role) — or our founder, Cathryn Hrudicka, may be able to serve in that role for your organization, on a contract, part-time or limited full-time basis.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you would like to discuss your situation and how we can help your organization move forward to a more innovative and profitable future. You can also call us at 1-510-845-5510 in San Francisco / Silicon Valley.

We look forward to helping you find the path to luminous creativity and continuous innovation!

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