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wintertimestoryteller · 1 year

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Linked Universe x Reader Fairy Tale Collection

A gift for @luimagines , thank you for listening to my rambles and for writing the original prompt and all your work in the fandom so far, it's just the opening chapter in a full fic, and I'm not fully satisfied with it nor all that good of a writer an English is not my first language, but I did my best XD.

Once again, thank you.

-Just an Anon on a Stroll 🐚/WintertimeStoryteller.

Opening Act, Scene I

It was a cool, beautiful summer night, the fields of Hyrule beautiful under the moon's light, the stars shone, and the fire crackled merrily away. to the side there was the sounds of lighthearted chatter as everyone finished settling in for the night as Wild took over cooking duties, it's been a while since you've started traveling with the Chain and peaceful as it was, traveling on the road for so long and never knowing when you'd all be spirited away again by a portal to face the shadow and it's tricks could leave anyone on edge and homesick.

Hence, with a night as lovely as this, it was the perfect time for stories to get the group to relax, and today was your turn, everyone likes tales of many kinds, and you had many from your world to tell, as many as you remembered anyway, and it was always a treat to see the heroes of Hyrule look forward to you telling them and a balm to your soul and theirs. A simple and nice distraction.

"-And so the doorknob was placed onto the door, everyone in the family and village held their breath, a beat later. And the house was engulfed by a warm, golden light, one of the hinges moving on it's own as if to welcome them all back inside as their gifts returned, causing celebration to spread through the hidden village. Now finally reunited, they could step forward to a brighter tomorrow as one no matter what they'll face, the end." You finished, pausing to take a big breath and a sip of water to soothe your parched throat, trying to condense an entire one hour movie into a a different format can take a lot of time. At least you didn't add in the songs.

Flushing slightly as you try to ignore the eyes of your enraptured audience, had anyone told you a few months before that you'd be stuck in Hyrule with arguably some of the strongest men in it's history in what's basically an almost textbook definition of the Hero's Journey, you'd have probably laughed in their face. Now here you are, telling stories from your world around a campfire, with two long since dozed off Heroes by your side.

Honestly, even if without finding out just how you were going to set up your bedroll with Sky and Wind both pinning your legs down wasn't a minor issue, you probably wouldn't have it any other way.

"That was probably one of the more sweet stories you've told yet." Came from Twilight, ruffling your hair with a smile, Hyrule nodding from his side and chiming in with a head tilt, "It's fairly open ended though, isn't it? It's not like the problem was really solved. What if the house starts cracking again?"

"He's right, it can't have been that simple as just 'hugging and talking it out.'" came the scoff from Legend, derisive as he aided Four in sharpening the Chain's weapons for another day on the road. The smith lightly elbowing him on the side, making you chuckle.

Humming while shifting just enough so your leg won't fall asleep, you answer, "Well, clearly it isn't, problems like the ones told in this story aren't just solved in a day and all. It's difficult to break a bad habit, or to try not to strive for perfection or notice you're wrong. But it's a step in the right direction no? So it's worth something."

"I see, so basically like scars."

"Precisely!" Came your nod to Hyrule as you smiled warmly at him. His ears twitched, how cute, "Can't exactly swing a sword at a wound and hope it goes away after all, it will heal in time, even if the marks remain."

"Have any other good ones for today, o' lauded storyteller? Be a nice thing to fall asleep to, a beautiful voice telling us even more lovely stories." Came a faint nudge from Warriors as he winks, you lightly push him back with a small smack to the shoulder, playful in nature even as he leaned back, mock wounded, it brings a smile to your face, "Flattery will get you nowhere, I did say I'd rotate them didn't I? I won't go back to your favorite just yet."

"Worth a try anyway."

"Oh! Could we maybe have that one about the girl in the tower? It's been a while since you've told that one." Asked Wild eagerly as he handed you a bowl of soup, which you gratefully accepted, it smelled divine and honestly? It is a fantastic motivator in getting you to agree. Besides you can't really go wrong with Rapunzel, it's one of the classics for a reason.

"Or you could surprise us, no pressure." Chimed in Four from his side of camp, "You honestly seem to know a lot of them, why not tell us one you really like instead? To make it fair." He smirks a bit, "Although if one about a certain little brave mice is your favorite..."

"Don't think I don't see your angle mister." You make a small 'I have my eyes on you' gesture towards him, making the Hero of Minish raise his hands in surrender, you both giggle, "Well, I wouldn't say I know that many...", You chuckle sheepishly behind your soup, "I just heard many back home in many ways and my memory is decent enough, is all. Hm... Do you think it's getting too late for one more, Time? I'll retell the one from today later on when it's my turn again, it's only fair everyone gets to hear it rather than miss out since Wind and Sky fell asleep midway too."

The leader of the group, who had just returned from his shift with the Hero of Calamity and The First Hero and was just in the process of putting most of his armor down turned to you, voice steady as he inclines his head, "We'll need to move on early, but there's not too much rush so one more should be fine. Thank you, (Reader)."

"Oh? Find anything interesting?" Asked Warriors, helping Legend and Four organize and put away the weapons (and failing in snagging the fire rod, from what you can see).

"We discovered a village up further ahead, if we all wake up bright and early tomorrow it won't be that much of a walk. It's close by, but it's best if we rest here for today." He nods to you, smiling slightly, it really wasn't much, but it warmed you how eager they all could get for a story, "So by all means, the floor is yours. Let's see what you can come up with."

"No pressure at all with that, I'm totally not nervous." You playfully rolled your eyes.

"Not at all, you have always done a brilliant job without asking for anything back in and out of the battlefield. We have no reason to believe it will be different now when you've been an incredible storyteller as well." Reassured First, coming by to sit by the fire, from the corner of your eye. You see Calamity nodding along, subtly sitting close and leaning against your other side, Wild giving him an amused look at his anticipation but wisely not calling him out on it as he all but threw himself onto Twilight's side, burrowing and getting comfortable underneath his cloak as the Ordonian yelped, almost dropping his soup. Swallowing the last of your soup (and your nerves) along with it and coughing into your fist to hide a blush, regretfully catching sight and ear of affirmations and nods around the camp as the boys rounded up against the hearth as the last of today's chores was done, you wrack your head for words and for which story to tell next.

Staying composed while having the unwavering support and attention of most of the heroes of Hyrule is quite nerve wracking and flattering in equal measure, can anyone blame you for being flustered?

You had already gone through most of the fairy tales from the West, from Snow White to Beauty and the Beast and Rapunzel and now Encanto, there's their original versions, the one's that weren't made into movies that is, but it would likely just put everyone on edge so we'll save those for another day, it's such a lovely night. You'd loathe to make it sour even if most of those had a good ending, but maybe... Something Eastern? To mix it up, a lightbulb goes off in your head as you grin, giggling, you have it! "Alright then, one more, since you all are so eager." You wink, "Usually the audience knows best. Now, let us start." Taking a deep breath, your voice takes on a lighter, soft tone, the heroes get comfortable, all of you miss the glare of crimson eyes deep in the darkness of the woods. Brief as it was, none would look too closely at a dark colored owl after all, "Once upon a time, there was a brave, noble prince, one day. A maddened, dying god attacked his people and he was cursed defending them, fated to die young..."

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"If you keep glaring like that, your face will get stuck in that ugly expression." Came a lilting, amused tune, poking the owl between the eyes, laughing as it attempted to bite them through the mask, "Although maybe it would be an improvement to that horrible, nasty mug. For a shape shifter you sure don't make good use of your abilities, are you sure you're up to the task? Having an awful looking performer not playing a wretched character is bad for business."

"Silence." Hissed the owl, flying out of their shoulder and, in a twisting, distinctively wrong surge of shadows. A form like a man's stand in front of the masked figure, unnaturally sharp teeth bared into a too wide smile, "You have your job, I have my own. The question is whether you'll deliver or not. Are you ready?"

The voice hummed, smirking as they pat the Shadow's shoulder, lightly pushing him away, "Don't worry your pretty, wretched head about it. You gave me all I need, play nice once they get here. And I'll give you your rupees worth, I'm not know to disappoint." They look up at the moon as the wraith snarls, but vanishes, laughing as they open a leather bound book, "What a lovely night indeed... Now, let's set the stage, and have some fun, shall we?"

Opening Act, End Scene I.

#linked universe #linked universe au #linked universe x reader #linked universe fanfic #not tagging any boys x reader yet since it's just the opening act #slow start because both reader and the boys can have a bit of soft and slow before it all inevitably comes crashing down. as a treat #Also added in Cal/Age of Calamity Link and First #I know they're not proper part of the Luverse #And that they weren't in the og prompt #But I felt like mixing it up and I know a good chunk of the folks basically adopted them as canon anyway so may as well #Though of adding Spirit/Spirit Tracks Link but still deciding on which story would fit him best plus I don't write Wind x Reader stuff #When I do they have to be the same age or it's just. not okay? So deciding wether I should properly add him or not #but pretend he's there and asleep with Wind and Sky if y'all like #lu sky #lu four #lu time #lu twilight #lu wind #lu legend #lu hyrule #lu warriors #lu calamity #lu first #trust me there's a reason they're in this story besides variety and my sleep deprivation #lu wild #lu chain #lu fanfiction #lu dark link #Dink gets some help this time #he hired them and questions every single second wether or not that's a good idea

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k-chips · 1 year

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Late ask, but just wtf is Sanremo? All I can tell it's something Catholic and has to do with a Saint, but based on the chaos I saw in your reblogs, it also isn't?? The Italian part of me needs to know, mainly because it makes sense for a festival about a Saint to be insane, seeing as many stories about them are pretty insane (read in a children's book on St. Francis of Aussi that when he accepted God's call he stripped naked and strolled out of town, while heard St. Patrick once cursed a group of people being jerks to be werewolves (he asked God to help him out and God was like "Yeah I'll grant you a solid my dude")

So, what is Sanremo??

Oh my gosh. What did you ask. You opened Hell.

(Sorry, this is a bit long but it's funny af)

Nono it's not something Catholic, it's called Sanremo because it takes place in Sanremo, a city in Liguria.

Sanremo it's the "Festival of the italian song" (people can only sing in Italian, that's one of the rules)

[[Before this edition of Sanremo started I found a very cool, funny and useful guide for non italians that explained what is Sanremo and how it works, you can find it here]]

[[since that's for last year, here's also the thread for this year edition, just to see what changed]]

But, basically, it's a musical competition where we decide who's gonna represent Italy in Eurovision. Sanremo is way older than Eurovision toh, at first it was just a competition on its own but then they decided to use it for Eurovision too.

The reason why it looks so chaotic it's because IT IS CHAOTIC XD at least it has been for the past 4 years, it became so much fun to watch. So many funny things happened.

We once had this guy, Morgan, who changed his lyric to insult the guy who was gonna sing with him, Bugo. And this poor guy just straight up left the stage and DISAPPEARED for the rest of the night 💀

This was the host's reaction

(I love this guy lol he's so funny)

Or every time someone does something very homoerotic on stage, just because. Especially the two hosts we had for the past 3 years, the ones in the pic above. (we ship them so much. FOR FUN, shipping real people is gross)

Here they were dancing... :'D

Here with some cool wigs

They're so silly lol

OK I THINK THAT'S ENOUGH AHAH

There are a lot of other things, some scandals here and there (mostly right wing italians being scandalized), cool songs, a bit of sexism (we're working on it), some good feminism and LGBT+ and some more funny moments, like the host (the guy with the blonde wig) that this year started using Instagram to be "Less boomer" and was doing live streams during the festival (hilariously and adorably cringe) but I don't want to bore you ahah

Anyway, the links I left here are very funny threads on Twitter if you want to read something faster and more funny

(SORRY FOR MY BAD ENGLISH. I was on the train and to walk home so I didn't have time to check everything I wrote)

#sanremo 2023 #Sanremo #italian stuff #amadeus #fiorello #chiara ferragni #gianni morandi #maneskin #ask

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liberty-or-death · 10 months

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"My heart has stilled" 2HA Meta (Chapter 2)

2HA’s a book that’s filled with literally references. I’ve always wanted to explain them all, but I couldn’t find the right medium to do so. Then along came the english translation and it made it a lot easier to use it as a basis to explain XD

As a matter of fact, did you know there’s a famous line at the start of Chapter 2? XD

“MY HEART HAS STILLED, and my thoughts turned to ash / Yet unexpectedly, the light of spring shines through the cold night. / Could it be that the heavens pity the blade of grass in the secluded valley? / Yet I fear that the world is unpredictable and full only of hardship.” - 2HA Chapter 2 This Venerable One Lives

This is actually a line from the Teochew Opera “Lady Mo Chou 莫愁女.” Lady Mo Chou was a dancer/singer born in the Chu State near the end of the Waring states. She was so good at her craft that the palace caught wind of it and the King of Chu kept her as a concubine. In the palace, she got to know a few people, one of which was Qu Yuan (I’ve talked about one of his works before lol.). Her dance and song was subsequently integrated into folk songs, and ultimately Chu ci.

This folk story was then made into an award winning Opera by the Nanjing Yue Opera Troupe in 1983. The opera is set in the the Yongle period (1403—1424) of the Ming Dynasty. Xu Cheng, the grandson of Xu Da (king of Zhongshan), loved Mo Chou the maid, who was tall and beautiful, and he poured out his love to her. Mo Chou was then moved by his pure feelings. Unexpectedly, Xu Cheng's grandmother forced betrothed her grandson to Qiu Caiyun, the prime minister's daughter. On the wedding night, the bride learns from the palace maids about the hidden love between Xu Cheng and Mo Chou. She tricks Mo Chou and gouges out her eyes, then drowns her in a lake. Xu Cheng was so angry that he jumped into the lake as well, resulting in a double tragedy.

If you want to experience what Moran was listening to (lmao the warbling), listen to 2:50-4:11

youtube

(obviously, Meatbun isn’t being historically accurate because this was song written in 1983 LOL) The song was also composed by He Zhanhao, the same dude who composed the famous Butterfly Lovers.

Additional links

More 2HA meta

#2ha meta #2ha #Youtube

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ryttu3k · 2 months

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More Dark Urge questions by @daemon-in-my-head ! Previously - set 1 (post also links to previous question sets), sets 2-3.

Here, we have set 4, set 5, set 6, and set 7, because I procrastinated on these for so long that every time I got near the end, another post would appear!!

Content warning for all canon-typical Durge stuff, plus incestuous sexual harassment and mention of pregnancy in set 4, question 6.

Set 4

1. The song that describes you Durge best from your own perspective?

I Want To Live is more Astarion-coded than anything else, but honestly, it works great for a resist!Durge too (and it's a duet, and he's romancing Astarion so it can work for both of them simultaneously!) "There's more to do if we can only live"…

2. OK and now the song that your Durge would actually sing along to because they like it?

Probably something upbeat and bouncy? Pre-tadpole, it'd be the kind of… 'extreme violence set to cheerful/energetic music' vibe. Post-tadpole, it's a lot more genuine and optimistic, haha.

3. What was your Durge's dream before everything happened? What did they want to become? Did they want to stay with their family or did they strive to go adventuring?

Tavias is a people pleaser, deeply insecure, and needs to be needed and wanted, and Father Comes Before All, so his dream was honestly 'do whatever Bhaal wants of me'. It was the impetus for him originally pushing away his fairly justifiable horror at the Temple and cult, knowing that if he did well enough, maybe his true father would return and like him, and it continued to motivate him up until Orin's attack. His dream would have been to carry out Bhaal's plan of omnicide, although he did have a secret quiet desire that Gortash would be by his side the whole time, and that Gortash would be the very last life he took before his own.

If we're talking before he killed his foster parents, honestly, his main desire was to find somewhere where he belonged.

4. Did your Durge ever fulfill that dream or did the temple and cult get in the way? Did they simply discard it? Why?

I mean. In a way XD He assumed he had fulfilled his dream by finding the Temple, his ~true~ family. He actually does end up finding a place where he belongs post-tadpole, though - with Astarion, with Halsin, with Jaheira. With people who love him for himself, not his heritage ;_;

5. What does Durge think of family? Describe it with one word.

Messy.

6. Sarevok, what was his relationship with your Durge like? Did they like each other? Was it complicated?

They goddamn loathed each other. From Sarevok's perspective, when Tavias first comes to the Temple in 1472, there are only a few remaining Bhaalspawn - himself and Orin, Abdel, who famously disavowed Bhaal, and Veikang, who's been keeping quiet for all these years. Sarevok sees himself as the head of the Cult of Bhaal, and Orin as his heir (having already pit her against Helena two years earlier, and Orin being the survivor). Now there's this child, an outsider who knows nothing of the cult's ways, who's being positioned as the new leader - and worse, he's far more 'pure' than even Sarevok is, than even Orin, his bespoke Bhaalspawn grand/daughter, is. It was instant resentment.

On Tavias' part, he initially did want Sarevok to like him. Sarevok was kin. His older half-brother. He had always wanted older siblings, and now here was one who knew all about the strange place he had found himself in, only for Sarevok to dislike him? Very crushing. His disgust and dislike started growing as Sarevok made no secret (behind closed doors, of course, had to present themselves as a happy family to the cult!) of his own dislike, and definitely amped up as he learned about Orin's parentage - and Sarevok's plans to create an even more pure Bhaalspawn. Tavias was, at least, treated as a boy from the moment he arrived, but Sarevok was well aware that Tavias had the right anatomy to get pregnant, and pretty much… would try to convince him that the two of them would create the Ultimate Bhaalspawn.

Tavias was 16-17 at this point, more or less leading the cult on a daily basis after his successful murder spree, and, uh, had got very well-accustomed to using violence to solve all his problems. He told Sarevok that if he ever laid a hand on him (or the then-14-15-year-old Orin), Tavias would get revenge so violent and gory that even Bhaal would go, "Hmm, that may be a bit much", and more or less banished Sarevok just to running the Tribunal instead of the entire cult. By 1492, he thinks Sarevok is both washed-up and a disgusting old pervert who would be better off dead, and frankly, he's all too happy to kill his big brother when he finally returns.

7. Does your Durge know of Sarevok's past? What do they think about it?

He learns the 'official' version pretty early on, and all the messy details a few years in. It doesn't do much to improve his view on him, just reinforces the fact that he failed. In 1482, after Abdel and Veikang die and Bhaal returns, Tavias uses the fact that Sarevok's death wasn't required as evidence that his earlier resurrection around the time of the Crisis removed any essence of Bhaal from him; he was no longer relevant. It was just Tavias, and, less importantly, Orin (being only part Bhaalspawn), who would represent Bhaal in the future. Tavias was pureblooded, Tavias was the Slayer, Tavias had the Urge, Tavias was Chosen. Sarevok? He was yesterday's news.

8. Education in the Temple, what did it look like? Did they enjoy it?

Yeah, more or less! He had essentially four streams of education - a general education that any kid in Baldur's Gate would get, because Bhaal's heir would not be an uneducated hick. He was given Bhaal-specific education, about the history of the cult, of Bhaal, of the earlier crisis, and of other things relating to the gods. Technically, should Tavias had wished, he could have 100% qualified as a Cleric of Bhaal instead of a sorcerer. As it was, though, he was a sorcerer, and so learning to use his arcane abilities was the third stream; finally, he (and everyone else in the Temple) was given combat training, with a special focus on assassination and, uh, vivisection. He enjoyed it for the most part, although he's still not a fan of literature studies.

9. Did your Durge ever attend a gathering of High Society with Gortash? Did they fit in, did they charm their way into the upper echelon's heart or were they despised?

Oh yes, and he loved it. Tavias knew how to turn up the charm, even if he came across as… kind of disconcerting; on the other hand, the upper echelon was fairly used to 'disconcerting'. Lots of dirty secrets going around! But yes, he did take a lot of enjoyment in dressing up as the most beautiful person in the room and charming the pants off everyone. And if the occasional back-room murder happened, even better! :D

10. Ketheric Thorm's dream, reviving the dead. What did Durge think of it? Did they consider it a sacrilege as Ketheric wanted to reverse the death Durge so loved to sow, or could they understand the desire of wanting to reclaim a loved one?

He could vaguely understand it in abstract terms, but did not relate. By the time he met Ketheric, he had well and truly pushed aside any sentimentality, had been drinking the Bhaalist Kool-Aid for nearly two decades, and there was no one he thought would be better off alive than dead. His goal at this point was to murder the world, after all, and he genuinely believed the world would be better that way. The timeline is a little unclear on whether Isobel was resurrected before Tavias was attacked or not, but he definitely knew that the desire to bring her back was why Ketheric had turned to Myrkul, and also thought it was a stupid idea and a sign that Ketheric was a weak link in their plans.

Set 5

1. The Gate has more than just one cult dedicated to an evil aligned Deity. What does your Durge think about the Sharran Outpost establishing itself within their turf? Were there any sort of run-ins that escalated?

Honestly he just kind of takes it as a given that there are other cults and the like around the city, and the Sharrans aren't too close to the Temple. He doesn't like Sharrans - removing someone's memories when they could, say, be twisted and put towards murder instead seems like such a waste! - but he tolerates their presence (and, of course, they'll stay out of the Undercity if they know what's good for them :) ). For run-ins, I feel they would probably try to stay out of each other's ways, for the most part.

2. How did your Durge feel seeing the bodies of their brethren being ogled by the general populous in the Hall of Wonders? Disgust, pride, nothing?

A bit of disgust, if only because they're not being presented right, dammit. Museums set up a narrative with their exhibitions, whether intentionally or otherwise. Oh, some definitely try to be impartial, but every museum is going to go, okay, what story are we telling here? And they tell a story of Bhaalists as losers, Bhaalists as failures, Bhaalists as irrelevant, and - no. Bhaalists are very much on the rise again, thank you very much, and those bodies and relics should be displayed with care and pride, not as, "Look at this sad figure!"

3. Nine Fingers has dedicated herself to keeping peace between the warring underworld factions no matter the cost. What price did the Bhaalists require under Durge's leadership?

More or less the same as the Sharrans - try to stay out of each other's way. The Cult are more powerful and are backed by an actual deity (well, quasi-deity), but the Guild are far more numerous, and have their fingers - pun unintended - in far more pies. In a one-on-one conflict, a Bhaalist would win, but en masse, the Guild and their allies could probably do a fair bit of damage to the Temple. So they try and keep things… more or less chill. There's probably a bit of collaboration - if a Bhaalist needs some pressure put on someone in a more 'diplomatic' way than Bhaal would approve of, or if a Guild member needs someone disposed of but without the Guild itself being implicated, they could scratch each other's backs.

4. Speaking of Nine Fingers, what was your Durge's relationship with her like? Was it amicable or did they regularly come for each other's throat?

Yeah, amicable. Keene is a bit older than Tavias, and was a little surprised when he started openly leading the Cult when he was only in his teens, but hell, she was already doing Crimes at his age. So long as he's competent, no issue there.

5. The Zhent may follow Bane, but what did the Bhaalist leader think of them and their operations?

Useful at times. Pretty widespread, good contacts for smuggling in particular. He would let them use cult safehouses as drop spaces at times in exchange for a cut.

6. Mercenaries are a valued resource even for death cults and almost any significant operation in Faerûn. Did Durge ever hire any, and if so, what for?

Oh yeah, and similar to the kind of collaborations done with the Guild or Zhentarim. Sometimes, they'd identify a promising new member, send them on a test mission, and if they passed, they received an offer to join the cult. ('No' was not actually accepted. You become a cult member, or you become a murder victim.)

7. Did Durge have a last name? Why or why not and if they had any, where did they get it from? Was it self made or inherited?

Nope. In his childhood, he'd just use whatever his current foster family used, and after going to the Temple, it kind of… wasn't necessary. "Tavias who?" "…Tavias the HEIR OF MURDER??"

8. Does your Durge have a symbol of their own? What is it?

Ooh man haven't thought about it before but the Bhaal skull with added in dragon horns would be cool as hell.

9. Did your Durge have any familiars? Why or why not, and if yes, what were they?

Not unless Sceleritas counts!

10. Does a portrait of your Durge exist somewhere in Faerûn? How did it come to be?

Oh yes. Sarevok most likely had at least a few commissioned of the kids as they were growing up, and Tavias himself definitely had one commissioned in full regalia after Bhaal's return and being officially named Chosen.

Set 6

1. Durge flayed themselves at least once, why?

Sex, probably. Maybe as a pentinence thing? I feel he was quite willing to try Abdirak's methods because he was used to pain for pentinence and it just sort of… resonated. Alternatively, another way of communing with Bhaal? Taking himself to the brink of death or something.

2. What did they think when they wrote the Prayer down? Why was it so important for them to have a physical copy of it?

Kind of… a desperate attempt to get all his thoughts about Gortash out of his head, he'll do what he's told, he's a good boy, he really is. (It was a massive bit of downplay, saying he 'admired' Gortash. Tavias was in love with him, and if Gortash had asked if they could scrap their plans and leave their masters and make their own story, he would have been tempted.) He never ended up 'officially'. Uh. Submitting it? Praying it? Whatever, he wrote it down intended for Bhaal but had second thoughts and hid it in his room. It shows up in the colony solely because Orin found it there post-stabbing and brought it to Moonrise to taunt Gortash with, and left it in that room in the colony out of a moment of carelessness.

Gortash never ended up seeing it before Tavias found it again, recognised his own handwriting, and promptly had a panic attack at the implications.

3. Balthazar is an infamous necromancer and has extended his 'life' far beyond what should've been. What did Durge think of him?

The man has a sense of style, no doubt there, but Tavias doesn't like him at all personally. Necromancy certainly has its uses, but when it's used to prevent or even reverse death? Yeah that shit's not okay with Bhaal. He also got the impression that Balthazar personally thought little of him, and given how patronising Balth is about Tavias in his notes about Kressa's preoccupation with Tavias, he entirely correct.

4. The Warden hates Durge. Why? What did they do?

Swanned in like he owned the place. Mentioned offhandedly that if she wanted a professional to take care of the prisoners, he would be willing to give her a few pointers. Stared a little too intently at her.

5. The Worgs in Gortash's warehouse, what's the story behind them?

Just security, I think! I don't think Tavias was super involved in all of Gortash's plans, so he may not have even realised they were there.

6. Minsc is quite infamous, did Durge have a hand in the disappearance of his statue? Was it originally their plan or did Orin do something successfully by herself for once? How would your past life Durge react to it?

It was his idea, yeah. Minsc was a known enemy to Bhaalspawn, and he wanted to make sure he could get control of at least one possible obstacle by tadpoling him. If he had been able to find Jaheira, he would have done the same to her. Of course, Jaheira ends up adopting him and Minsc ends up his uncle, so… works out in the end!

7. If your pre-lobotomy Durge could say anything to your post-lobotomy Durge, what would it be?

I think he would be incredulous, but there's enough of the previously sweet kid there that there may also be a bit of envy. He'd openly be angry that post-lobotomy Tavias is rejecting his heritage and his gifts, but there'd be this underlay of, "Why can you do it, and I can't? Do I have to lose myself to be free?"

8. What was Durge's greatest nightmare?

Being cast aside by Bhaal, being told he was irrelevant and useless and unwanted.

9. What do they think of other deities? Especially those of their race or good aligned ones?

Ooh, answered this in an earlier post, will copypaste! "He thinks very little of Bane and Myrkul, considering them the weaker parts of the Dead Three. He has some passing interest in Mystra, although that becomes disgust and loathing after he befriends Gale, is a bit frightened of Lathander, doesn’t have a lot of consideration for Shar other than, “Well, she exists”, although he also ends up pretty disgusted by her after everything with Shadowheart, and is pretty sure Selûne would hate him on instinct but has no negative feelings towards her in return, and is really quite gratified when he’s able to help Aylin." Pre-lobotomy, it's pretty universally a combination of (somewhat performative) disgust and dismissal, and a bit of wariness / fear of those specifically opposed to Bhaal, especially Lathander, Tyr, and Helm.

10. Drizzt is quite famous in Faerûn. Did your Durge have an opinion on the man who betrayed his origins and rose to become a hero?

Drizzt is… a story figure, mostly. Like he knows he exists, but eh, so do a lot of people. Post-lobotomy, I think he'd be a bit more fascinated by him, I can just see him and Astarion starting a mini-bookclub, haha.

11. What would past Durge think of their new companions? Would they like, love, dislike or despise them?

Ooh, don't think he'd like them much XD;; He'd have some passing admiration for Lae'zel's willingness to FIGHT EVERYTHING, but Shadowheart is Suspicious(tm) as a cleric of a different god, Wyll and Karlach both seem too nice and good, and ditto Halsin but with added wariness, since Halsin is an Archdruid and over three hundred years older than him and not to be messed with (whereas he's pretty sure he'd be able to take Wyll and Karlach). He'd be more interested in Gale as a fellow Chosen, but see him more as a cautionary tale on why not to displease your deity or you'll be personally fucked over. I think he'd still find Astarion attractive, but more in a, "I think it would be hot to fuck someone who looks and feels like a corpse" kind of way XD;;

12. What does their handwriting look like?

Generally neat if he's taking time and effort, but when he's stressed, he writes too quickly and often blends letters together. It looks like that on the Prayer.

13. If they could have one modern thing in Faerûn, somehow through magical means or something, what would it be? Luxury toilet paper, a smartphone (no, charger or internet is not included), a history book for research perhaps?

Anxiolytic medication. :)

14. Shoes on or off in the temple? After all it is their home, so what’s their rule? Did they enforce it on others too?

Generally 'on' is advisable for most, given that it's… kind of gory underfoot. Heh. He does occasionally slip off his boots just to, er, enjoy the experience!

15. If they could rewind time to any moment of their choosing once, would they do it? And which moment would it be?

Ooh man rewinding is always a bitch. I feel he'd want to redo his first meeting with Bhaal and compose himself a bit better instead of getting a bit panicky and overwhelmed XD;; Post-lobotomy, obviously, he'd go back and make sure he never killed his foster parents…

Set 7

1. What is the worth of a single mortal life from the perspective of their former self?

"Only the value which snuffing it out gives to Father."

2. How does Durge actually view death? Is it a mercy, a gift, or perhaps just nature's course?

Bhaal's mandate. Something that people should embrace and welcome (be grateful when he murders you, dangit!), because the world is a shitshow and it'd be better off if everyone was dead, him included. Probably… probably fair to say that his views on death are a bit warped XD;;

3. What languages does Durge speak?

Mostly just the Baldurian dialect of Common, little bits of ritualistic Infernal, and a bit of Draconic. He can read and write in Espruar, although his pronunciation of Elvish is woeful (post-adventure, Astarion and Halsin help him out with it, and much to his delight, Halsin is also teaching him Wild Elvish).

4. How old are they when the game begins? Did their age affect them or how they view the other Chosen in any way?

31, although he looks more like early 20s due to his half-elven background. He's definitely the youngest of the Chosen - while Gortash is a reasonable 10-15 years older than him, he sees Ketheric as well and truly over the hill and an old relic who's no longer relevant.

5. What was their greatest display of self-control?

All the times over the last twenty years he hasn't killed Sarevok.

Seriously, if Bhaal had ever given him permission, Sarevok would have been a smear on the ground.

6. Did they ever lose control and what happened when they did?

Aside from one very specific time where he lost control and it ended up with him being eleven years old, holding a kitchen knife, and covered in his foster family's blood? XD;; Oooh yeah, several times. It usually ended with, well, a lot of smears on the ground. He more or less tried to 'ride the wave' and let Bhaal take the wheel, although he didn't absolutely love losing control. It was mostly a begrudging acceptance of, "Well, might as well happen."

7. Being divine and all that might have it side effects. Which one did your Durge have to endure? Did their immunity to poisons perhaps also meant they couldn't use potions or did they have a certain effect on people?

Pluses, +4 charisma modifier. Downsides, -1 strength modifier. Also if he had stayed Bhaal's Chosen he would have been functionally immortal.

8. If they could critique one thing about their father and get away scot-free, what would it be?

He has a few things to say about the downstairs anatomy he had been born with!! Also tbh he isn't entirely sure everything has to end in blood and murder. Like. Like can he maybe keep enough of a supply chain going for cinnamon rolls? Can he just kill, like, 99% of the world? Can he keep Enver alive?

9. Did Durge use utensils to eat or did they decide to embrace the old fashioned way Bhaal intended?

He has perfectly good manners when necessary! As a general rule, he only prefers being covered in the blood and viscera of his enemies, not, like, grease and crumbs from his dinner, y'know?

10. Speaking off, what's their diet like? Do they actually exclusively do the cannibalism bit or can they be convinced to eat normal food?

lmao definitely not exclusively cannibalism. He generally does eat like a normal person! Just that you have to ask pretty delicately just what meat is being served XD;; Has a definite sweet tooth. His favourite drink is Amnian dessert wine, his favourite foods are cinnamon rolls, and he loves fresh fruit, especially grapes. If you're having dessert with him, you're probably good to go!

#baldur's gate 3 #bg3 spoilers #the dark urge #oc: tavias

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llamagirl28 · 1 year

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Hi, I have to be honest, my knowledge about the Arthurian legend is almost nothing, I've barely seen the Disney movie, I didn't know who Mordred was so I had to look him up 😅

But I was interested in your story so I wanted to read it, and I did like 2 days ago lol

And I have some questions...

From what I have seen —and my little knowledge— Merlin is usually represented as a good old man, but your story presents him as someone more suspicious, what kind of Merlin are you going to show? If not too much spoiler.

I also wanted to know if you could recommend me books and stuff to learn more about this whole world of Camelot. What should I read?

And what sources do you use as a reference for your story? Series and movies or original sources?

That's all i thing xd

Ah! And I love the story ^^ even if I'm not familiarize with the legend, and i think that speak well of it!

All my love to you~

First off thank you so much! 💕 Secondly, don't worry about not knowing anything about the Arthurian Legends - one should be able to enjoy the game without any knowledge of them. Honestly, it's inspired by the myths but the game has become very much its own thing, to the point that the world of Boc is not inspired by Britain in geography, but continental Europe - with Camelot's landscape being based on Austria, lol So yeah, the world, the characters - they're my own interpretation and you can enjoy that on its own.

As for my sources - the internet! Lots of browsing articles and sites about Arthurian myths. Also, not Arthuriana, but my love of dragons must be attributed to How to train your dragon! (It's a cute series of movies, if you wanna watch them.)

I initially got into Arthuriana thanks to the choicescript game Guenevere, which is amazing 💕 (Note: it's supposed to be a series of books, and the first one is completed while the second is about half-done. The author hasn't had the time to work so much on the game but they've kept players updated with the fact that they still love it and intend to continue it at some point.) You can also find them on tumblr at @/jeantownsend

Not a book nor game but when coming up with the concept of BoC I kept playing the song Mordred's Lullaby by Heather Dale. It's really good. Plus, she's got more Arthurian themed songs, if that's up your alley!

A bit random but I really enjoyed Kaz Rowe's video on queerness in The Green Knight, even if I haven't read the poem or watched the A24 movie. Also on YouTube, some vids summarizing the myths: here and here.

If you do want to read more, here's a compiled list I found of some Arthurian titles, older and newer: link

Regarding Merlin, you're right that I'm going for a more suspicious interpretation. I haven't been shy about saying he's an ambitious, cutthroat individual who's done unsavory things, but it'd be a spoiler to get into more!

#the bastard of camelot #Merlin

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thetentaclecommander · 2 months

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🥺🎢🎶🤩🤲 for the ask game, if you're still doing it! :3

Ah, it's never too late to send me ask questions! -Is there a certain type of moment or common interaction between your characters that never fails to put you in your feels? I adore building out the complicated feelings between Nemesis and Jill. A common interaction is where their minds do this 'mind bleed' between the two where their thoughts blend in this trippy way that reveals them at both their most vulnerable and their deeper thoughts, usually in mid-argument. Every time I do this it feels like a gut punch. I love it where you aren't certain who is speaking anymore, and how because of this thoughts that they wouldn't address normally with each other are forced to be. For example: Jill remembered punching him, screaming at him in her pain, and he sat palms up and looked downwards please let me…let me sleep…please don’t steal my words, you monster! please let me…let me sleep…please, Father, we can’t if we kneel hard enough, will you, will it end This little bit shows the way their thoughts, memories and fears blend with her recalling the first night where she broke down hitting him them sleeping with him, to his own traumatized memory bubbling, her confused thinking he was making her remember a bad thing he did to her to then realize he was referring to himself packing so much in so little. It's like writing little nuggets of character/lore building and pain that at times is soul crushing to me (which tells me I did it right). -Which of your fics would you call your wildest ride? I'd say my main one On a Devil's Wings is because you get a complete deconstruction of the whole Devil's Saga storyline, with both Jill and Nemesis deconstructed as characters, their motivations and internal selves broken down revealing so much unchecked baggage both from themselves and towards each other.

You also get: 4+ overlapping storylines including backstory conspiracies involving the BSAA, Umbrella and society at large explanation on what makes up a NE-T Tyrant biologically (and Sia) filling RE3/5 plot holes Ada and Carlos just being hot Zeus. Just Zeus. A lot of 4th wall riding/surrealism A situation happens at a rave. I am not kidding.

It's my most ambitious story ever and is a genuine novel in how dense it is plotwise.

-Do you listen to music while you write? What song have you been playing on loop lately? I am an intensely musical person (guess the times my word rhyming and alliteration goes into interesting 'patterns' lol) and am known for nearly always having a music rec linked in each fic. Lately, I've had this on loop

youtube

This gives me Jill vibes in her rise from the murky fall of her own fears and in demanding Nemesis to truly accept the role he keeps saying he wants with her and yet never fully submits to. I also have GODS by League of Legends and NewJeans on sometimes. I just like LoL music lately okay I don't even play LoL XD

-Who is your favorite character to write? Hands down, Nemesis with Zeus a very close second. He's such a complicated traumatized monsterboy who painfully knows he is a tool and is so deeply angry at knowing that fact. While he keeps trying in ways to rebel finds every attempt - refusal to cooperate, sinking into his role as a ruthless killer letting black hate and rage guide him, to trying so hard to have his 'happy ending' at Jill's expense - painfully futile. Writing him trying to cope with all this on top of him trying to understand what intimacy (and no, sex does not inherently equal intimacy) is through a nonhuman filter is such a fun mindset to play with. -Would you please share a snippet of a wip? Sure! Snip from OaDWs: “Seeing that my deceased co-conspirator had done work with live humans before, but he never thought to slow down the infestation rates in his subjects to engender a better bonding process. The idea I admittedly gleaned from that detestable Ashford woman; sometimes a bit of time to let an introduced vector rest in one’s subject is warranted. You Jillian made that a possibility even though you had the added protection of prior infestation. “I wanted to see if I could expand on previous work…yet your sample didn’t seem all that operational at the time. Not until ‘patient zero’ awoke. It’s almost as if your suitor put himself on pause for you as your DNA caught up to his parameters! What a kindly gent. Sort of like with my other ‘sibling’, putting his life on pause for a greater cause than ‘survival’. Downside is he began to go over time ‘off the rails;’ so needing to meet out violence and evolve a world for an old man that gave him little thought!” Wesker laughs, the cold lilt hinting of privileged upbringing lacing the braying sound. Jill could only restrain the cold chill that ran up her spine as his words sank in. “That person…wasn’t you?” “Didn’t you in your desperate and blind observations of me during our Africa tour not notice? You wanted me gone that badly? Or was it you wanted badly for my ‘death’ be true? I’m hurt, Jill.” “Fuck you,” slid out of her mouth in a venomous hiss. “Ah ah ah, that wasn’t part of our agreement. I did in fact honor that restriction unlike what you tell yourself with Christopher.”

Thanks for the ask as I sure had a lot to say! (refers to this ask game post)

#thetentaclecommander does an ask #resident evil au

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captain-kraken · 11 months

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Writing Questions Tag

Thank you @writernopal for the tag! See her post here!

No pressure tag for @lexiklecksi @arctic-oceans @kittensartswriting @toribookworm22 and anyone else who wants to do it :)

What is your absolute all-time favorite idea you’ve ever had?

I can't say because of spoilers!! Which is SO frustrating for me XD all I can say is that it's related to the Sinni bonds and one of the misconceptions around it XD

Is there a question you’ve been asked in the past that really stands out to you, and you still think about sometimes?

I don't think so? Nothing that stands out in particular.

What is your favorite part of being a writer? What parts could you take or leave?

My favourite part is just simply the creation of it. I love being able to pull whole worlds out of my mind and poke around to see what lives there.

I don't really like the editing stage, as this is where most of my self-doubt kicks in.

What is your greatest motivation to write/create?

Escape, mostly. My real life isn't... great. I honestly struggle to get through to the end of each day, but being able to disappear into the world inside my head makes life a little more bearable.

Plus, making my characters deal with the same stuff that I have to deal with makes me feel less alone, and helps me work through my own feelings that I'm otherwise reluctant to face.

What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever read or been given as a writer?

To just write for myself. It sounds basic but I'm a major people pleaser and it has been very detrimental to my writing over the years. Which is so silly because people seem to like the stuff more since I stopped trying so hard to make it for everyone.

What do you wish you knew when you were first starting out writing?

That there's always going to be people that won't like what I'm writing. It just means that my writing isn't for them. Trying to please everyone means I'll please nobody, especially myself. I've had a lot more fun writing Blue Blood than I did with Outcast because of this.

What is your favorite story you’ve written to completion? Link it if you’d like and can!

This is a tough one, because most of my completed stuff is really old. If anything, I like my poetry a lot more because I don't think too hard about them and they're mostly just raw emotion.

I'd link one but the search system has gone out the window so I can't find any of them :(

What is your favorite out-of-the-box quote?

Ooh this is a tough one because I love a lot of quotes but I dunno what's "out of the box" so i'm just gonna go with this one -

"Think of me long enough to make a memory"

It just always hits hard for me. From this song.

Which of your characters would you say has the most controversial mindset? Why do you say so, and how do you personally feel about their ideals?

Hmmm this is a tough one because I feel like a few of the Blue Blood OCs are controversial lol

I'm hoping Mahrias, since I fully intended for him to be controversial lol. I want people to feel very conflicted about rooting for him, especially with the further along in the book it gets.

I love Mahrias a lot, his desires align with a lot of mine and I can understand his motivations for a lot of the things that he does. But there are some things he does where I wouldn't go that far, so it's complicated lol

If you, when you first started writing, met you now, what would younger you think?

I think he'd see all the queer characters I have and just cry lol. It was such a big thing for me back then, I was so afraid of writing about my two gay characters because of the negative feedback I'd received. Now I'm just like

#thanks for the tag!#writerblr

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w0lp3rtinger · 2 years

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Like You Imagined (When You Were Young)

SHADAMY WEEK 2022 IS HERE! The second prompt was Folktales/Fairytales. So far as I can tell, the oldest written version of Beauty and the Beast is a story called Hans the Hedgehog. I combined aspects of it with various different bits of later iterations more closely aligned with the Beauty and the Beast story we know today, as well as some little personal flairs of things I wish I had found more of in stories I read as a child. If you don't want to read this on Tumblr, you can find it on my Deviantart. I'd link it, but then, it wouldn't show up in search so uh... you can get to my Deviant account by following the link in my pinned post. Sorry XD

Once again, I am challenging myself to try and do these prompts within the day. I overthink and over-edit a LOT and it really hampers my ability to just… have fun and make art. So yeah, that’s my little personal challenge for this week💜I did ask @lambpaca to look this over for generic grammar and spelling mistakes, so to them, I give thanks. (I also listened to a LOT of 'When You Were Young' by the Killers, hence the title XD I find it to be a VERY good song for Amy and her love life. Furthermore, if you can't tell, I really love bi/pan Amy, so that is absolutely in this. I wanted to sort of build up and express, as best as possible, what she has been (in my opinion) looking for in a romantic companion. So...yeah XD)

-----

Hans the Hedgehog would always be Amy’s favorite story.

It was an easy plot to follow, one with a steadfast hero and a king for a villain and a fearless princess: a simple fairy tale she could tell herself when she was little.

And when times became difficult, she clung to it like a lifeline.

“Once upon a time, a wealthy merchant who lived alone desperately wanted a son,” she had whispered to herself, over and over in her dark cell on Little Planet as tears dried upon her face, “and one day, a fairy granted him his wish.”

She had sat curled into a little ball, knees up to her chin as she stared into the dark. Amy would take a deep breath, holding it until the urge to cry had passed, and then she would continue.

“From a cut sapling sprung a hedgehog boy, fully formed, able to talk and walk and sing and dance. He had quills darker than the bark of the tree he came from and stood no taller than its stump. The farmer, no hedgehog himself but still thrilled at the prospect of a child, took in the boy and named him Hans.”

After Sonic had saved her, the first time of many, Amy would imagine Hans to look like him. When she started to tell the story to Cream, it would be here that she would pause, sighing as she petted Cream’s hair, imagining a little hedgehog boy with wild eyes and crooked smile running circles around the old merchant.

“Hans would grow older and wiser through the years, though never taller. He loved to spend his time alone in the woods looking after his plants and animals. There, after all his chores were done, it would be easy to find him running through the trees with his woodland friends, or sitting atop a stump, wreathed in the green of the wilderness.”

Sonic’s eyes were beautiful, but something about the way Tekno looked up at her through her bangs would make Amy’s heart jump into her throat. There was something perpetually calculating and mischievous in her gaze. They subtly changed the way Hans appeared in Amy’s daydreams as she sat watching guard over a dying fire while the others slept, mumbling to herself to stay awake.

“Then, one day, a king stumbled into the woods. He was lost and afraid, though loath to admit it, and when he saw Hans in his little clearing tending to his garden, he demanded the hedgehog stop what he was doing and help him get home. However, Hans was a clever hedgehog, and he decided to make a deal.”

Amy loved to watch Blaze work. There was something in the way she held herself, something in the way she wove diplomatic strategy out of thin air with just a word and a gesture, that was mesmerizing. Cream would giggle, giving her a knowing look, and Amy would feel her face grow hot as she turned away. Still, she would find herself staring at the ceiling of the guest room in Vanilla’s house, tracing patterns in the stucco that curved like Blaze’s hands.

“Hans made the king put into writing that he would hand over him whatever greeted them in the king’s kingdom upon first entering through the castle gate. Doing this, he thought maybe he could win a bounty that would make his father proud.”

When she cornered Shadow and begged him to reconsider destroying the planet, a small part of her feared they had already lost. Still, she had to try. When he turned to her in that moment, she didn’t see the fearsome monster everyone said he was. Instead, she found a boy, not much older than she was. She found a boy who was hurt, and angry, and afraid, and doing the best he could to do the right thing.

When Shadow sacrificed himself, the same part of her that had doubted, the same part of her that she hated, told her it was her fault he had died. She would wake from nightmares where she would see his eyes and weep.

“The king, thinking Hans stupid, agreed to the promise and shook hands with the hedgehog. Hans then threw a saddle atop his favorite cockerel and rode out of the woods, the king trailing behind. The journey was smooth and swift. Hands knew these woods, after all. Upon reaching the castle gates, the king’s daughter, Rose, ran to greet them. However, the king called out to his guard to defend him, and they rushed the poor hedgehog with weapons drawn.”

Amy remembers staring at the television as the Black Arms invaded, horrified, unable to look away. She remembers the sky opening like a festering blister, the wail of sirens and people as they ran for their lives, the way skyscrapers crumbled as they tumbled down. When the newscaster focused on Shadow emerging from behind an overturned bus, for a moment, she gasped. He was still alive. After everything, after the Ark and even after Metal Overlord, he was still alive. Then a shout had gone out amongst the GUN soldiers, and Amy screamed as they turned their weapons upon him.

“Hans slaughtered every man who charged him. In the end, the only ones who survived were the soldiers who fled the fight and the king, sitting in bloody ruins. The king begged for mercy, offering him riches, offering him anything, so long as Hans didn’t kill him. Hans, horrified at what he had done in order to survive, fled, leaving the king where he sat. That was a mistake. By the time he had arrived back home to his father’s house within the woods, he found his father, his only family, killed by the king as retribution. Hans wept, and vowed never to leave the woods again.”

It would be a while before anyone saw Shadow again. He had joined GUN after the invasion was thwarted. Maybe it was to atone for his crimes, maybe it was some sort of deal to keep him from being frozen again. Whatever the case was, Amy had been furious. How dare they keep him like a dumb animal on a leash. He wasn’t a threat- he was their friend. Rouge had tried to tell her that sometimes, things don't end up the way you thought they would, but that Shadow was going to be alright. Amy hadn’t believed her. The next time she saw him, Amy knew she had been right. There was a hollowness to Shadow’s voice that hadn’t been there before. He didn’t look anyone in the eye anymore either. Still, one time, when she caught his gaze, she filled with hope at the sight of the fire still in his eyes. Despite everything, he was still himself, Shadow.

“Upon learning of the promise the king had broken, the princess was horrified. In a rage, Rose fled the castle. No servant, no guard, no wizard could catch her as she ran as fast as her legs would carry her. The princess screeched in fury from the highest hill that she would not return until she had righted the wrongs of her father. With that, she vanished into the woods.”

Amy did nothing gently. It wasn’t in her nature. She loved with all the might of a swinging hammer and peppered kindness with the same precision as a boxer’s jab. As such, she made sure to become a nuisance to GUN whenever Team Dark needed an extra hand. Amy never exactly stated why she was doing this. When asked, she would just shrug and say she enjoyed their company and considered them good allies. However, on more than one occasion when she met Shadow’s eyes and caught the fire within them, she would remember the ARK and wonder if he did too.

“After days of running through the woods, Rose found herself exhausted. She blindly stumbled through the woods and found a clearing in which sat a house. With it’s shutters drawn and it’s door firmly shut, she assumed nobody was home. All around it lay an overgrown garden in which she found fruits and vegetables and more flowers than she had ever known existed. Wandering through the little dirt pathways, she found herself drawn to a beautiful rose bush tucked into a mass of raspberries and lilies and lavender. Rose reached out and plucked a bloom from the bush. As she did so however, she heard a battle cry from the house and turned to find Hans charging straight for her.”

“What did he do?”

Amy blinked, then huffed, crossing her arms as she turned away from Shadow. “Don’t you know it’s rude to interrupt?”

“Sorry,” he mumbled, but she could hear the smile in his voice even as he bent back down to tend to his own rose bush, “Go on.”

Amy chewed her lip. Looking around, she swore she could feel someone’s eyes on her. Probably Rouge, if she had to take a bet. The agent had begun to use her talents to spy on the two of them anytime they hung out, though Amy was at a loss as to why. She let her arms fall to her sides with a grumble. “You threw me off my rhythm. I don’t know if I can get back into the moment.”

Shadow paused at that, looking up with a furrowed brow. “Oh…”

He seemed to stall in the quiet. Amy could see his jaw working under his cheeks as if he was chewing over what he was going to say next. Suddenly, she felt very silly about just standing there next to him, rambling on about a kids fairytale. Though she couldn’t stop the blush from creeping up her neck, she did look away, waving her hands as she did so.

“It’s- it’s no big deal. I can still tell you what happened! I just- I might not do the voices. Or the moves. Or, um-.”

“That’s fine,” Shadow said, burying his face back into his work, “I don’t mind.”

“But you still want to hear how it ends?”

He nodded. Amy played with the fingertips of her gloves for a moment, trying to find a way to get the words to come out of her mouth. Funny, she didn’t usually have that problem.

“Well… well Hans didn’t really want to hurt her, he just wanted to scare her off. It almost worked, but then Rose recognized him as the hedgehog that her father had tried to murder. She told him who she was and that she wanted to try and fix the damage that her father had done.”

Shadow nodded, but then, of course he would. He usually agreed with that sort of logic. Amy couldn’t help but crack a smile.

“Hans is nervous at first. He doesn’t think he can trust her. Still, he takes her in, lets her get washed up and he feeds her, and they talk. They find they get along well- like, really well- and by the next day, they’ve made a pact. They’re going to take down her father. Then, Rose can have the throne and give Hans a real reward and everyone wins since her evil old dad isn’t in charge anymore.”

“That’s all it takes for him to trust her?”

“She is very kind and awesome and-and- why wouldn’t he want to fall in love with her?”

Shadow looked up again, incredulous, “He falls in love with her? In a night?”

“It’s a kid’s story, okay?” Amy threw her hands into the air, “And I’m leaving out some of the finer details!”

“But-”

Amy snatched the rose trimmers out of Shadows hands, holding them aloft, “No! You asked me about traditional fairy tales and here I am telling you my favorite one out of all of them and you’re just- you’re just being rude!”

She can see Shadow’s shoulders shake as he tries to hold back a laugh. He let himself sit back on the grass with a sigh and gestured for Amy to continue. That only made her more irate.

“No! You don’t get to sit there and just-” she mimicked him, making a silly face as she did so, “- after interrupting me twice! Not once, twice! The mood has been lost! Storytime is over!”

Shadow did chuckle at that. Getting to his feet, he brushed off his knees. “Fine, let me guess then. They work together, storm the castle, dethrone her father, get married, and live happily every after. Did I get it right?”

“You-! Ugh!” Amy shoved the clippers towards Shadow and tried to ignore how it felt when his hand wrapped around hers for the moment it took him to take them back. “Honestly, why do I even bother?”

She watched as Shadow fought a smile.One hand drifted through brilliant blooms until fingers gently closed around one half flowering bud, it’s soft petals still in the act of opening to greet the world. He clipped it free with the trimmers and handed it to her. Amy froze, looking between it and him until he met her gaze out of the corner of his eye. Deep within them, the fire burned bright.

“I don’t know why,” Shadow said, voice soft, “but I appreciate it all the same.”

Thunderstruck, Amy took the rose without a word.

They didn’t speak the rest of the time in the garden. They didn’t need to.

#shadamy #amy rose #shadow the hedgehog #shadamy week 2022 #folktale #library #aaaand just because they make an appearance I'm gonna tag them #blazeamy #sonamy #tekamy

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convexicalcrow · 1 year

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Snowflake Challenge #6 In your own space, post the results of your fandom scavenger hunt. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

This one looked super fun, and I'm doing both physical stuff as well as a few digital things, bc for some of these I had more than one thing I wanted to share so. :D

Search in your current space, whether brick-and-mortar or digital. Post a picture or description of something that is or represents:

A favorite character

Sausage and Santa Perla oml <3

I can't list one without the other ofc. Sausage's lore captivated me in Empires s1, and hasn't let go yet. The lore he's running in Empires s2 is just incredible. It's made me cry far too many times, and I'm just so invested in whatever the hell he's got going on. Also I love a good excuse for religious world-building, and having Santa Perla to work with has been so fun. <3 I'm really looking forward to what Pearl decides to do with her side of the lore now that she remembers as well.

2. Something that makes you laugh

It's Mark Watson, Alex Horne, and Tim Key! This is collectively representing them as a group of friends and just doing stupid shit together, but also No More Jockeys, Mark's long shows, Key's works, and the non-Taskmaster stuff Alex does, though there's not much outside of the Horne Section these days lol, he's a busy boy.

For digital things, may I offer the following: - Longform: Big Fat Quiz 2015. It starts off fairly sensible then gets derailed by bad dong, and only gets more off-track from there. A classic. - Shortform: Carrot In A Box. Need I say more. rip Sean Lock, you bastard genius. </3 - TV series: 15 Storeys High, Sean Lock's sitcom from way back when. It was rec'd to me by a friend, and I don't regret finding a copy to download bc it's so good. <3 - TV series: This Is Jinsy, weird, full of songs, nonsense and whimsy, def worth tracking down a copy of this show. It's so good. Makes me laugh so much. <3 Greg Davies in drag is also a lovely touch lol.

3. A bookshelf

These are the Taskmaster books that still exist. I tore up an awful lot of them to make 1000 paper cranes a few years ago. XD Also have some Key and Horne and Watson. <3 The three books on the far left are my current reading material.

4. A game or hobby you enjoy

iykyk >_>

(and yes at some point I will be making a Dinnerbone nametag for that blue sheep :D)

5. Something you find comforting

Cub omg. <3 I just find his voice so soothing and comforting, and bingeing through his episodes or watching his streams is very comforting for me. I'm really enjoying all the daily speedrunning streams atm bc they're on when I'm awake during the mornings for me, so I can have breakfast and chill with Cub and it's so so nice. <3

6. A TV show or movie you hope more people will watch

Double The Fist is an old Aussie TV comedy that I maintain is actually a metanarrative about the intersections of queerness, homophobia, and toxic masculinity (ESPECIALLY in the second series) that I am woefully inadequately skilled enough to actually write on, but trust me bro, everyone in the main cast is some flavour of queer and I'm here for it. It's very good.

bonus shout out for Set The Thames On Fire, bc it's such a good movie and more of you need to see it frfr. <3 There were some really, really interesting headcanons going around linking Noel's character in this movie back to his character in The Mighty Boosh as a bonus if you like that kind of thing.

7. A piece of clothing you love

look I won't be able to wear these for like another four months but they are super comfy and I adore them so much. <3

also yeah I didn't take these out of my chest of drawers bc lazy and also I live in a dark cave of a room, the lighting is terrible everywhere. XD

8. A thing from an old fandom

The Prisoner! Dhani Harrison got me onto this bc he named his band thenewno2, I adored their music, and when I looked them up, discovered what it was named after, and then I dived right in and fell in love with it. I can't remember which specific episode order I prefer out of the five or so that exist, but yeah!

I've written crossovers with The Prisoner for my last 2/3 fandoms, so maybe I'll get there for Hermitcraft one day. :D?

9. A thing from a new fandom

ConVex my beloveds <3

If you want to know why they took over my brain, I would like to point you at this 3min edit of ConVex lore and let you take it all in. :D They're insane, I love them so much. XD

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serendipitous-mage · 2 years

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in summary

while spamton was the one running it and we did also get some more details about him, the deltarune sweepstake lore updates seem to heavily revolve around noelle, but also? dragon blazers. which is a real game set to release on steam in april 2023. i have no idea what this entails a fun little thing i found though, the developer for this game is hugo guerrini, or 'sylph'. a quick google search says in mythology a sylph is "an imaginary or elemental being that inhabits the air and is mortal but soulless." there are links in the sweepstakes descriptions leading to an abundance of "secret" pages....but one in particular is linked back to in multiple places: '/code'. this is a post noelle has written on her "game secrets, glitches, and theories blog!" about the dragon blazers site being updated with weird secrets that don't seem to amount to anything. the comments of her post include berdly being a cuck and trying to become a mod/admin, and someone called "sports" asking if the game has sports we see some things noelle has written when she was obviously much younger, with a lot of spelling errors and that sort of Rawr XD lingo. we learn of a couple things she was scared of: an ice e pizza box that she went to get za from in the night that she says winked at her and she screamed and was terrified (dess believes her and burns the box, then they, azzy, and kris all go to bury it in the graveyard. kris spooks noelle with the box and dess hits them for it)  she also had a fear of electricution.. "It only made me cry more that I had to plug the game back in by myself. I was so scared that I would get electrocuted and die from the wires. I was actually always afraid of electrical sockets too because I thought they were looking at me XD (Come on I wasn't a weird kid I promise... XP I got over it after that)". the same page also talks about her very unique and suspicious repeated ability to overcome a well known glitch in the dragon blazers game that doesnt allow you to leave a room, and she finds a locked door that she can not open both pages we get this information from have "ice" in the name.. '/icee' and '/icepalace_glaceir' the link present on the icee story to 'sister' goes to a broken page for '/december', but '/dess' works just fine. this page has a red guitar, and the song playing is titled "findher.mp3". presumably this means dess is still alive somewhere, maybe in the dark world, and maybe somehow 'cursed' like susie mentions your sister being as a plot in dragon blazers 2 another blog post from noelle, '/the_n3w3st_g1rl_g1rl' linked from the wristwatch description "THERE LIES THE NAME OF THE [angel with the tattered wings]!" is about an incident with kris and susie. noelle details how susie seems to really hate kris, and kris seems oblivious or uncaring about it (she is also extremely gay and keeps trying to get them to swap seats so she's in front of susie) one day at the end of class, kris is asleep on their desk, and most everyone leaves quickly when the bell rings. susie remains, "staring at Kris's head. Sniffing it...???" and noelle initially stays to help alphys, but does eventually also leave. she only goes into the hallway though to keep an eye on kris susie goes to alphys' desk and takes an apple berdly had given the teacher prior that week and yells at kris to wake them up before saying " 'Nice shampoo. Apple flavor, right? Better be careful about wearing that around me.' Then she BIT THE WHOLE APPLE IN HALF!" kris laughs at her threats, which causes susie to throw the apple at them, but they deflect it off their notebook and catch it midair...and take a bite. susie is pissed, runs over and grabs kris by their hair, says how their mom is going to get sick of them and they'll disappear, and she'll be happy  noelle says it looks like kris's mouth moved, but she doesn’t know what they said if they said anything, but susie's attitude completely changes and she runs out of the room. noelle had hidden in her locker once susie started to leave, and shortly after she had, kris opens noelle's locker, before slowly shutting the door on her and leaving as well from the "YOUR BEST [$#&*]' HEART LOCKET" link, '/kris_dreemurr_kris' noelle talks about how kris would come over to play almost every day, and after a while, they would suddenly get very still as if remembering something before going to the dining room to "get a snack", after which noelle would hear the piano. if she tried to watch them play, as soon as they realized she was looking they would shut the piano and go back, so instead she started staying on the living room couch, just lying there and listening sometimes for hours and sometimes until she fell asleep. she says it felt like a concert just for her '/egg' and then '/bluecircle' from the pipis rug desc "[they're multiplying...!] [they're multiplying...!]" are noelle blog posts that detail some strange happenings in her cat petterz game. she had installed several mods, and was trying to get a rare egg in game. one day one shows up completely white that says "SPECIAL". the egg never hatched, she wasn't able to move or throw it away despite deleting and reinstalling the game. eventually she started raising it like a normal pet, but the next day the egg was gone with just a message that it "left home due to happiness", despite the game normally saying "(pet left home due to sadness" if you neglect them. she also mentions that the egg had a name, but she cannot remember what it was additionally, when checking her spam mail she found one that was just a string of random numbers and letters. she has the thought it could be a cat petterz 2 mod (for some reason lol) and tries it.  it loads  the pet it shows is a singular blue circle floating in the air, and it did not move at all aside from occasionally glitching out. she says that "All of the stats were really bad and all of my pets really hated it except for... certain ones .... lol… I couldn't explain why anyone liked it, but it was really funny to see who did XD" (i desperately want to know what this means and why it was funny some of them liked it-) this pipis sounding pet is able to multiply on its own, and crashes the game from creating too many of them i saw people speculating that the white egg was spamton and noelle was his 'mother', someone asked this on twitter during the q&a to which spamton replied: "YOU THINK THAT [Hochi mama] IS MY [Mama Hochi]!? NO!!! SHE'S JUST THE ONLY ONE THAT EVER READ MY...THAT EVER READ MY...THAT'S WHY I GAVE HER A [Little Blue Gift]!!! IT WAS THE WORLD'S FIRST [Charity]"  from some other quotes, 'hochi mama' is what he refers to noelle as(and one of the things she mentioned was normally in her spam folder). another post i saw said that the white egg had been *from* spamton, and as thanks for taking care of it he then sent her to code for pipis pets, which seems likely

#there's more and some smaller things around obviously #but my brains shorting out and also the finale is starting #spamton sweepstakes #spamton #toby #deltarune

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randowwriter · 2 years

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For the writer's ask:

1, 8, 11, 15, and 27

I started writing (not for school assignments) when I was about twelve years old. I started right away with poetry (that I thought were songs) and fanfiction. Or rather, my first fanfic was a fic written for my Science Class at the time, and while I did well on the assignment, that fanfic was awful. XD I had asked if I could write a fanfic for the class, and my teacher said I could. :) So, I set up my fanfic account then (after having lurked for a while, because I was an avid reader of fanfiction well before I wrote any). I could explain how I got into writing poetry, but ah, I'm a little nervous to share that publicly. XD 8. I don't think any comments have made me cry from sadness before, but I tend to laugh when I get some reviews, because some of my friends are really funny when they write reviews. XD @noctusfury on here is guilty of making me laugh all the time. XD Like, he writes really long reviews on my ANS fics, and he makes me laugh or even makes me reread what I've written and finally find the humor in it. He's great! I do know that as far as crying goes, sometimes I get really sweet reviews that do make me tear up.

11. I write a hundred percent for the readers. Not in a popularity kind of way; I'm not writing to get famous or to make a lot of money. I write sometimes for particular readers that come to mind; I have an assortment of fics that are very, very much aimed towards certain people. (I write a lot of ANS fics with Noctus in mind; a lot of ANS fics for particular readers in mind, and it expands outward.) I often find that the best motivation to work on some of my fics is a friend going hey, that's a great fic idea, you should really write that. XD So, I've literally repurposed fic ideas (where the fic ends up the same way as what I brainstormed) but it's more of a gift for other people. Sometimes I share a link publicly on my account here for the particular person the fic's for, or I send it to whoever it's for privately. I do write fics in mind for particular people, like when I began writing certain rarepairs, it was literally for whoever might ship them and can't write, you know? So, I'm happy when those readers do find it. And sometimes I learn the names (just account names, I guess) of people who I wrote it for, but knew nothing about. (There's a story that would take a detour off this question that relates to a book I read, but I'll behave and not ramble anymore.) XD 15. Ooh, I don't know. XD That's a tough question. I have been known to cry writing some of the Angst or Tragedy fics I've written, and writing fluff just makes me really happy. XD I think it depends on the story. I did get told once that my Angst isn't "Angsty Angst" (I'm sure it was put in much nicer and better words than this. XD) so take that as you will. (I have broken said reader's heart with a tragedy fic later, so who knows???) XD But I guess it depends on how I feel and what the idea is. I just had a lot of fun writing a nightmare fic where Yona deals with some PTSD like nightmare after chapters 99 and 100 and seeing what happened to Zeno. (But I also was kind of a wreck that day honestly, and needed something sad to focus on.) So, I guess it just goes back to how I feel. I love writing Angst when I'm already sad and need an outlet for some relief or at least as a means to take me out of my own pain, if that makes sense? And most the time, I'm writing fluff, so I guess most of the time, it is Fluff. :) 27. Well, I don't write smut. Which probably makes sense. I still feel an immense amount of guilt from the fic that came closest to that. I've written way too many things over the years, but there are certain types of pairings that I don't write anymore. The fact that there is an anymore and not a never bugs me a bit, but I hope my story somehow helps others out. I do not write Yuri, Yaoi, or polyamorous pairings, and therefore don't write harems. Other than those types of pairings and smut, I write almost anything else. (I don't write incest either, come to think of it. Definitely not of siblings or super close relations. I'm working out what that means for a year ago me who had written some SooYona, but only angsty.) I doubt any of my future writing will have cusswords in them, because simply put, I don't cuss. (Which somehow surprises people.) But I have written cusswords into stories back when I was a teenager and was trying to emulate the way certain characters spoke; I go back and forth on whether that was okay of me to do or not. So, I have honestly no idea if I'll ever write cusswords into stories again or not. We'll see, but I'm leaning on the not. I don't feel it's necessary for good characterization in dialogue anymore. (But I guess people grow up, and I'm living proof of that. I'm not like the little teenage writer I used to be.)

#writer's ask game #sctwilightvampwolfgal

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ingo-ingoing-ingone · 2 years

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Submas Song Sunday #8

(On a Monday because I was sick yesterday)

Hello and welcome to Submas Song Sunday, where I take a song from my playlist and kinda just talk about how I think it fits the subway bros (or just one of em!)

I might include references to fanfic, or explain an animatic I can think up to the song, or just talk about it!

DISCLAIMER: Nothing on this playlist is intended to portray anything aside from familial relationships. I am NOT looking at backstories of songs, who they were written for, or songwriter’s intent. I go STRICTLY off lyrics and how I interpret them!

You may find a link to the playlist in my pinned post! If you have a song you want me to talk about, send it in :)

Song: Never Be Alone by TheFatRat

I picked another short one today because holy CRAP am I TIRED!! XD

This song actually is the theme of my fic Negative Space. It wasn’t inspiration while writing it because I didn’t find it til after, but it definitely is the theme!

The voice I picture as kind of the ‘voice of the city,’ because I think that idea is neat.

You You're gonna break my heart You're gonna tear it apart

So just like I wrote, the Subway Masters are like the heart of the city. It starts off referring to the two of them, and then... The heart of the city literally WAS torn apart.

No matter what you do I'll still be there for you

And now this is aimed at Emmet. No matter what, the people of Nimbasa believe in him. They are there for him. They do not accuse him of hurting Ingo. They do not make his job more difficult. They all band together to help him, to remember Ingo, to try and cheer him up.

And when you call my name I won't be far away

All Emmet has to do is ask for help. Just like when people responded to help look for Ingo, all Emmet has to do is put in a public plea to the city and they will come running. Elesa, Emmet, and Ingo are famous public figures. Of course they are beloved.

No matter where you go You'll never be alone

They know. These people KNOW that Emmet is unused to doing things utterly alone. Especially at work.

So they do not let him be alone. Ingo’s memorial grows, and Emmet gets notes and well wishes daily. They are all thinking of him.

You You're gonna break my heart You're gonna tear it apart No matter what you do I'll still be there for you

And then just a reiteration of the first part of the song :)

It’s a short, sweet song and I love it so much. There are a lot of lovely instrumental parts that would make a wonderful animatic of Nimbasa and the subway! :D

I know today was verrry basic but hope you enjoyed it anyways!

#submas #submas song sunday #pla era #i am so so tired y'all #SO SO SO TIRED

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jennamaertz · 1 year

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GRAD SHOW PREPARATION - REFLECTION

In January, I volunteered to be a part of the Web Design/Animation group as well as a floater for the Implementation team. There originally was nothing really to do for the Implementation team at the start, so I really focused on the Web Design team. Originally we started to use a program called Bubble and we weren’t very familiar with it and were struggling to do anything with it.

Some notes and plans we had from the start:

January 19th, 2023

Animate the Logo

Linkedin Website

Include Graphic Design posters on the website

Communicate with Advancement for sign outside college

Upload pictures of wireframes, moodboard, pictures of playing cards

Thursday Feb 23 website/ host purchase (reading break)

Thursday March 23 website is up and communicating

Fridays at 5:00pm meeting with the web/interactive crew

360 degree camera

Projection of the logo

January 20th 2023

Profiles open in the same tab, social media profiles open into a new tab

Clicking logo goes to home page

Email set up a google doc so everyone about the social media profiles they want to include on their profiles

360 degree video

Countdown button

Mail buttons working

Hover over photos - adds animation smooth transition

Time and date for the grad show

Each student’s artist statement included on the profile

Images on the students profiles of their work, and progress photos of them working

Animations for the documentary

January 24th, 2023

Created wireframes for:

Variety Pack Homescreen - “Choose your Grad”, maybe a stack of cards, maybe they shuffle when you click on choose your grad

Profiles Cards Page - 6 x 6 cards aligned horizontally. - When hovering over a card: card gets bigger and drop shadow illuminates. - When clicking on a card: card flips and zooms in

Single Profile Page - Photo, menu bar on the left, social media icons links

RSVP page - Reply by, include logo, Yes, No, Interested, Share event, Add event to calendar, What to expect - food, details, how many people responded, How many people are your bringing, Confirmation email/phone/text

Clea calling Julian about countdown

For next class: Look over exposed proposal, and create ours

Vote for song

Create document for everyone’s social media links

January 26th 2023

Created social media links shared document

Created single proposal with all our tasks we have to do

Created digital wireframes in Adobe XD (in wireframes documents)

This weekend: get used to bubble.io

After planning this all out, we decided to change course and go with a program we were more familiar with which was Cargo. We ended up moving really fast and understood it very well. We did our part for the proposal and paid for the one-year subscription for Cargo. We struggled to create a timer countdown for the website, but it got figured out. Any problem we came across took a little bit to understand, but we usually could figure it out. We did struggle to find a way to get orders and payments together onto the website because we had to buy into a third party. We ended up scrapping the idea because it cost too much to have installed and it was too complicated to figure out. After this, we spent a lot of time waiting on the Graphic Design team as well as the Photography/Social Media Team to get images and the overall design. We had to wait to see what design we were able to use to relate to the theme we had for Variety Pack. After we got all the images and style guides, we were rolling to get everything done. We had lots of setbacks where they were little issues but were difficult to fix at times. It was mostly just trying to fix up any profiles that had spelling errors or any of the images that would not scale correctly. We ended up fixing everything and were able to listen to anyone that noticed any errors. As this was all going on, we were creating animations based on every letter in Variety Pack using After Effects, Photoshop, and Procreate on my iPad. We were able to finish them all and were happy with how they turned out, but struggled to combine them. April ended up finding a way to fix them all up on After Effects and whipped up two different versions of the logo being animated. By the end, we plugged in the Documentary that the Social Media Team created as well as the Virtual Grad Show Tour. I was very happy with this group and enjoyed everything we did. We all worked together well and I found that we had no issues. We communicated when we disagreed with something, but overall, it went really well. I’m very proud of our Web cite and loved how it turned out.

For the implementation team, I helped when Matt asked, I only really helped out with putting up posters and handing out invitations. We only got posters the day before the Easter Break so it was hard to find places that were open. It was a bit frustrating to be running around town, yet finding nowhere to put up posters. We ended up finding a few places to put up posters and to hand out invitations, but I wish we could have had more places to advertise.

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