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hikari-kaitou · 3 years

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Capcom's Official AA Fanclub Surveys - DGS Edition

Many Western fans may be familiar with the Turnabout 4koma comics that get posted on the official AA fanclub site that Capcom runs, thanks to some lovely fans on tumblr and elsewhere who have shared their translations. What fewer people seem to know about is the character surveys.

Back in the old days, they used to hold a survey on Capcom's official AA fansite every few months where they'd write about the seasonal activities of a handful of characters and ask fans to vote for the funniest/most pleasant/strangest/etc answer.

They stopped doing them in like... 2016? 2017? The original text is lost for good as far as I can tell. Even the wayback machine couldn't help because the content was password locked and you can't get past the password wall while remaining in the archived version.

Fortunately, I saved some of my translations of them so I thought I’d share them.

Cut for length...

"February has begun, and the DGS cast is nearing the end of their journey aboard the RFS Alacrei. Which of them acted the most strangely?"

Ryuunosuke ~ Exhausted from his intensive study session, he decided to try some katana swinging practice as a change of pace and to combat his recent lack of exercise. But because he wasn't used to handling the katana, he swung it too hard and it went flying out of his hands and got stuck in the wall right next to Sherlock, who had just entered the room. Sherlock asked him, "aren't you supposed to be studying right now, Mr. Naruhodo?" and handcuffed him to his desk.

Susato- worked on developing a curriculum for Ryuunosuke. 'If we keep going at this pace, he won't be able to learn it all in time... It'll be hard on Naruhodo-sama, but we'll have to work hard through a couple of nights together.' With that thought, she created a harsh study schedule, and almost seemed to be looking forward to it for some reason.

Sherlock- Driven by excitement over the thought of returning to England after a long absence, he went up on deck to stare at the ocean. Being February, it was very cold out there and he ended up being chilled all the way to the tips of his fingers. He returned to the ship cabins and amused himself by putting his frozen hands on Ryuunosuke, who was stuck in his room studying.

Van Zieks- Upon hearing from Vortex that there was a Japanese exchange student coming to England to study law, he smashed a Lord's Bottle. He apparently also didn't care for the fact that that Japanese student wouldn't be alone, because he proceeded to shatter his chalice, too.

Hosonaga- in order to provide a respite from studying, he provided some hot chocolate. They enjoyed a pleasant tea time, marveling over how sweet and delicious the drink was until Sherlock piped up with some unnecessary trivia: 'Actually folks, chocolate has long been used in Europe as an aphrodisiac!' Everyone promptly spat it out."

"The long winter is nearly over and spring is on it's way, putting the DGS cast members in a celebratory mood. Who found the best way of enjoying spring?"

Ryuunosuke: the Yuumei University faculty members were holding a flower viewing event, and he joined the assistance committee. He exhausted himself keeping the blankets clean so the intense shower of flower petals wouldn't pile up too high on them, delivering sake and snacks, and mediating whatever pointless fights arose. To top it all off, for some reason his compensation was only a single piece of leftover candy. Talk about a sad result!

Susato- her father and the others living in his dormitory were holding the flower viewing event, so she got up early to prepare the bentos. But her father carelessly forgot to tell her that they wanted tea cakes, so she had to go around the house and neighborhood collecting sweets. For some reason, she ended up being able to gather caramels, biscuits, candy sticks, basically everything but tea cakes, for the tea ceremony.

Sherlock- he disguised himself as a beat officer and infiltrated Scotland Yard to have some fun. There was a real beat officer napping on his feet in the spring sunshine, and while observing him, Sherlock ended up falling asleep too. Detective Gregson gave them a good scolding when he found them, but then Sherlock revealed his true identity with a "hey, it's me, folks!" "What the blazes do you think you're doing?!" Gregson shouted, his rage growing even more, and Sherlock ended up making a run for it.

Van Zieks- went to the vineyard to oversee the production of the contents of his Lord's Bottle. As he viewed the still unopened grape blossom buds, he thought about how they would someday grow up to fill his Lord's Bottle, and ended up going around to look at each one. But the farm hands couldn't stop wondering whether the bottle itself or its owner's heel might come flying at them and were quite uneasy.

Asougi: exhausted himself running around since early morning helping with the professors' flower viewing event. When it was over, he took a break, sharing his reward candy stick [the name of the candy literally translates to 1,000 year candy] with Ryuunosuke, who had also been helping out.

"I wonder if the candy's effect is halved if you share it with someone."

"That still gives us 500 years."

They laughed and enjoyed looking at the flowers until dark. Then they parted ways with a handshake and a "see you later, best friend."

(This one was something about celebrating New Years. For some reason I didn't save the original question)

"Ryuunosuke ~ To celebrate New Years, he planned to pound mochi with everyone at the office. He somehow managed to get his hands on some mochi rice and he and Sherlock started pounding. Iris was having such fun watching them that she steamed a whole bunch more mochi rice so they could have some to share, and he and Sherlock spent the whole evening pounding mochi like crazy.

Asougi~ Because it's New Years, he went around to a bunch of shrines. When he drew his new year's fortune, he got a "horrible luck" result. "I'm not worried about it," he claimed, and headed up to the mountains early on New Years morning and work hard on a full training course of purification by water, meditation under a waterfall and wooden sword practice. It seems that he was working really hard to clear his mind of all earthly thoughts

Sherlock- Agreed to help Ryuunosuke pound mochi. As Ryuunosuke was flipping the mochi over, he carelessly dropped his badge into the bowl and Sherlock mixed it in without noticing, so they had to crack open both the hard and soft mochi to look for it. Fortunately they found it in the 4th one they checked, but apparently Sherlock got his hands and face covered in sticky white mochi in the process.

Susato- Wore a furisode and went with her father to do the first shrine visit of the year. The shrine was incredibly crowded and they had to wait in line for a long time, but she brought the Encyclopaedia of British Law and a copy of the Strand Magazine in her sleeves to secretly read as they waited so she actually ended up enjoying the wait.

Van Zieks- Ryuunosuke cheerfully gave him some mochi as a New Year’s (which at that time was celebrated at the same time as the Chinese New Year) gift, which he accepted confusedly, wondering “...Can the Japanese not even keep track of when the New Year is?” Because Ryuunosuke referred to it as a rice cake, he tried to eat it like a regular cake without softening it with heat first. It was so hard that he couldn’t imagine how it could possibly be food, and ended up misunderstanding the Japanese even more!

"Autumn has arrived, and the weather is starting to cool off, which means that everyone is becoming more active. Which character chose the most pleasant autumn activity to keep busy with?"

Iris was making bread but her hands are small and it’s difficult for her to knead the dough, so she asked for Ryuunosuke’s help. She wanted to make enough to hand out to Gina and all the other homeless children in the East End, so she made a massive amount and Ryuunosuke was stuck kneading this massive mountain of bread dough all day. Apparently he became such a expert at kneading that he could be a baker now.

Asougi was practicing with his sword, slicing autumn-colored ginko leaves as they fell from the tree. He cut so many leaves, though, that he ended up making a big mess on the ground, the number of fallen leaves now having increased, and it took him a long time to clean it all up.

Sherlock: Ryuunosuke told him that he was making anpan (bread filled with sweet red bean paste, the bane of my Asian-dwelling existance) and asked Sherlock to help by being in charge of getting the poppy seeds they’d need to sprinkle on top, so Sherlock went out and gathered a ton of poppy seeds. In fact, he got so many of them that no one knew what to do with them all cuz they had a huge amount of leftovers. Sherlock said, “Well, they’re only the size of poppy seeds! Surely you two can deal with them somehow! Ahahaha!” and Iris scolded him.

(I couldn’t capture it in English, but Sherlock’s line contained a pun, and a pretty stupid one at that, so that’s part of why he got scolded)

It’s grape harvesting season, so Van Zieks commutes to the winery regularly to direct the production of the contents for his “Lord’s Bottle.” He demands perfection in everything from the selection of the grapes to the way they’re squeezed, and the winery staff is terrified by the “grim reaper’s” gaze and heel swinging (i.e. the leg thing he does in court) so they grumble as they work.

"Hearing that there’s a holiday in the West called Halloween, the people involved with the court in Japan decided to try it out themselves. Naturally Halloween is a big deal in England as well. So, which member of the DGS cast had the best celebration?"

Team Ryuunosuke and Asougi- Asougi got Naruhodo up on his shoulders and they draped a white sheet over themselves to make a ghost costume. They went out like that, but Naruhodo had such exaggerated reactions to the fear of the people who saw them and to bumping his head on tree branches that they ended up losing their balance and falling on top of each other?!

Sherlock Holmes- went wearing a horse’s head mask. Iris used her skills to make it a fancy horse covered in stars, but the eye holes weren’t well made and he had to wander around blindly. Because of that he tripped hard over a pile of coal! He ended up getting so dirty that the stars on his costume were covered up!

Van Zieks- took inspiration from his nickname and dressed up as the grim reaper. He covered himself up with a skeleton mask and hood figuring no one would know it was him. Unfortunately he got angry when he saw Megundal (McGilded) pass by and started throwing bottles and glasses and ended up giving himself away.

"November has arrived, and autumn is nearing its end. However, the DGS cast is still keeping busy, even on their days off. Which character chose the most interesting way to spend their late autumn day?"

Ryuunosuke- Thinking that he’d better learn more about British culture if he was going to be a defense attorney in Britain, he went down to the East End with Gina for a little observation. However, because an Asian like him stood out so much, he got mobbed by the other children. On top of it all, his arm band got stolen from him and he had to send a replacement request to Yumei University on the other side of the ocean.

Asougi- He went for a meal at La Quantas. The customer at a nearby table got a persimmon for dessert and scarfed it down, saying “Mm! This is it! This sweetness makes it worthy of being called a treasure among foods!” Asougi tried to comment on this by saying, “The customer at that table sure is enjoying his pershim--gak!” but he may or may not have accidentally bitten his tongue in the process and been unable to finish his sentence.

Iris- She accepted Ryuunosuke’s request to learn more about British culture and prepared a bagpipe and kilt costume for him. “This outfit sure is breezy,” Ryuunosuke said shyly upon trying it on. With Ryuunosuke now dressed, he, Iris, and the others from their office headed over to Gregson’s place to get him to treat them to some fish and chips.

Sherlock- He accepted Ryuunosuke’s request to learn more about British culture and cooked up some European style curry for dinner. Thanks to the fact that his secret ingredient was a large amount of Chinese herbal medicine style spice, it caused some strange side effects and Ryuunosuke, who’d eaten it, ended up passing out and falling over.

“Another taxing trial for Ryuunosuke has finished and now it’s December. As the year draws to a close, which character acts the strangest?”

Ryuunosuke- he was recruited to help with snow removal around Yumei University and the courthouse and he enthusiastically began his task with the help of a large shovel. He got a little carried away, though, and ended up accidentally burying his umbrella, which he’d left propped up against the side of the building, in the snow he’d just finished shoveling. He had no choice but to share Asougi’s umbrella on the way home.

Asougi- On the way home, he nods silently to Ryuunosuke’s question of whether he’d finished his travel preparations and changes the subject: “...Come to think of it, it seems that tomorrow is celebrated in the West as God’s birthday.” “I’ve heard that they eat chicken as part of the traditional celebration. Wanna try it?” Ryuunosuke asks invitingly. Asougi is strongly opposed to that particular menu item, however, and they end up going out for their usual beef stew that night instead.

Susato- in addition to her year-end travel preparations, she also was busy with straightening up the book room in her home. She managed to get the law books in order when she suddenly stumbled upon some old issues of Strand Magazine! She hurried through the rest of her cleaning, then began flipping through the magazines she’d found, trying to decide which to take with her on her trip. She accidentally lost herself in her reading and didn’t realize it until it was already the middle of the night.

Sherlock- he was in the middle of a long ship voyage when Christmas night came. His mind on his partner in a far-off country, he made a toast alone on deck, when suddenly the crew began shooting off fireworks with a cry of “Merry Christmas!” Sherlock had to dart back and forth across the deck to prevent the fireworks from hitting him and setting off the explosive chemicals he carries with him.

Main series edition

#dai gyakuten saiban #tgaa #naruhodo ryuunosuke #asougi kazuma #mikotoba susato #dgs sherlock holmes #hosonaga satoru #barok van zieks #iris watson #gina lestrade #translations #official content #my translation #mikotoba yuujin #ryunosuke naruhodo #kazuma asogi #susato mikotoba #iris wilson

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rpf-bat · 4 years

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Underground, Getting Down

Pairing: Gerard Way x Reader

Genre: Fluff

Summary: Written for Gothtober 2020, Day 14. Prompt: “Symphony”.

You’re a flutist, playing in the New York subway for tips. Gerard watches one of your performances, and decides that his next single, needs a mad flute solo.

Beneath the streets of New York, the subway station bustled, filled with people. Some moved up the stairs, towards the streets, and others down the steps, towards the trains. Everyone in the crowd was rushing on to their next destination. At the base of the staircase, you stood, playing your flute.

Your flute case sat propped open on the tiles in front of you. A few bills already lined the inside. A young woman dropped another fiver in, as you played Bach’s ‘Flute Sonata in A Minor’.

You lifted your face from the instrument for a moment, to call out, “Thank you!”

The woman had already turned away from you, rushing down the corridor to catch the E train. You shrugged, returning your lips to the flute’s embouchure hole. Even the best buskers, rarely made someone stop in their tracks. The song ended.

I think I’ll mix it up, you decided, do something more pop for the next song.

You picked the Bach sheet music up off your stand, placing it back in your bag. Then, you pulled out the sheet music for Jethro Tull’s ‘No Lullaby’. This one was usually more impressive-sounding, when you had your friend, who played guitar, with you to do the intro. But, he was busy today, at his day job at Starbucks. You would just have to launch right into your solo.

Your fingers danced over the keys, as the music echoed off the walls of the tunnel. You found your mind wandering, as you played.

I really thought, when I graduated, that I was gonna play for the New York Philharmonic, you recalled wistfully. But, the auditions for first chair ended up being competitive as hell. Instead of playing high society symphonies, I just play out here, for the commuters and hobos.

It wasn’t what you had dreamed of - but it was a living.

As you continued your song, you felt a pair of eyes watching you. You glanced up from your songbook, and realized that a man was sitting, eerily still, on the steps. Hurried people were practically tripping over him, but he didn’t move, to get out of their way. He stayed exactly where he was. He didn’t look homeless, you considered. His face was hidden by thick aviator sunglasses, but his clothes suggested wealth. He was staring at you, with rapt attention, as if your flute, was the only sound in the world.

You found yourself blushing under his steady gaze, as the song concluded. You lowered your flute-holding arm to your side, and looked at the stranger again, curiously.

“Bravo!” he cried, clapping, and jumping up. “You were amazing!”

He walked over, and dropped a handful of bills, into your case.

Wait, what? All of those are hundreds!, you realized, eyes widening. Who the hell is this guy?

He pulled the sunglasses off his face, shaking his long, dark hair out of his eyes as he did so. Your jaw dropped, when you realized you recognized him.

“Hi,” he said casually, “my name’s Gerard Way.”

“I….I know who you are,” you stammered, scarcely believing this was real. Your inner emo kid was screaming. “What are you doing in New York?”

“Visiting family,” Gerard shrugged. “Well, technically, they live on the Jersey side of the river. But, I always have to stop by Forbidden Planet, when I’m in town.”

“Oh, you mean the comic shop, on Broadway?” you nodded. “Yeah, they’re pretty cool. I….I’m Y/N, by the way.”

“Nice to meet you, Y/N,” Gerard grinned. “I really enjoyed that song, that you just did.”

“I….uh, really enjoy your music, too,” you said awkwardly. You didn’t want to sound like a fangirl.

“I’m actually working on some new music right now,” Gerard revealed.

“What?” you blinked. “Really? Wasn’t your last album in like…..2014?”

“Yeah, Hesitant Alien was four years ago, already!” Gerard chuckled. “I think I’m definitely overdue for something new!”

“Oh, wow,” your heart hammered excitedly. “I can’t wait to hear the new record, when it comes out!”

“I don’t know if I’m gonna do a whole second album,” Gerard confessed. “I think I’m just gonna put a couple singles out, and see how it goes.”

“I….I see,” you mumbled. This was crazy. Why was he telling all this, to a random busker, that he just met?

“I wanted to thank you, Y/N,” Gerard went on. “There’s this song I’ve been working on, for a couple months now. it’s just not sounding right to me, quite yet. You helped me realize what it’s missing.”

“And, what is that?” you wondered, still feeling bewildered.

“A flute solo,” Gerard grinned.

“Huh?” you gasped. “Who uses flute music, in a rock n roll song? I mean, besides Jethro Tull?”

“I love Jethro Tull,” Gerard laughed. “But, for real, it’s not that weird. Billy Corgan had some flutes on ‘Drum + Fife’, on the album Monuments To An Elegy.”

“Oh, true,” you remembered. “Didn’t that drop in 2014, too?”

“Yeah, I actually got to open for him, on that tour!” Gerard said excitedly. “That was when I decided that I wanted to bring a flute into one of my own songs, someday.”

“Wow,” you realized, “You’re serious about this.”

“I am,” Gerard said, looking you in the eyes. “But….can we talk about this somewhere else? I’m worried if I stay in one place much longer, somebody is gonna spot me, and start asking for pictures.”

“Oh, uh, sure!” you nodded.

“I think if we go up to the street level, there’s a coffee shop, like, right outside,” Gerard suggested.

“You’re…..asking me to get a cup of coffee with you?” you grasped. Was this a date?

“Yeah,” Gerard said, turning red, as he awkwardly combed his fingers through his hair. “Is, uh, is that okay with you?”

“......Absolutely,” you smiled. “Just let me put my flute away!”

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Gerard had insisted on carrying your flute case for you, despite the short walk. He was such a gentleman. You did not, however, allow him to buy your cup of coffee for you. He’d already given you that absurd tip, when he first strolled over to your busking spot.

You stared at him across the table, as he sipped his latte. This still felt entirely unreal.

“So, the song I’m working on,” Gerard explained, “It’s called ‘Getting Down The Germs.’”

“...Germs?” you repeated, confused.

“The lyrics are still a work in progress,” Gerard admitted. He dug into the pocket of his green coat, and pulled out a small, tattered-looking notebook. He opened it to a page near the back, and pushed it towards you. “This is what I have so far.”

You took the book gingerly, feeling as if you’d been handed a holy text. The words on the page, were written in a surprisingly untidy scrawl:

It's never the same and the nights always glow

There's nothing to see and nowhere to go

It's easy to say you're happier when you're disturbed

The green lights in your head

Getting down the germs

I'm lazy and tame and the chimes always blow

A glimmering sound on the breeze when you go

It's never a shame and I've learned to live with the worms

Underground

Getting down the germs

“That sounds really good so far,” you complimented. “I’m guessing that’s supposed to be the chorus?”

“Yeah,” Gerard nodded. “I usually write the choruses first. The verses, I’m still figuring out.”

“Makes sense,” you replied, as you sipped your drink. “What about the melody?”

“Oh, the melody’s pretty much completely done,” Gerard clarified. “But….I don’t know. There’s this bridge that comes before the second verse. I originally planned for that to be a guitar solo, but it just doesn’t sound right.”

“You think the solo would sound better, played on a flute?” you surmised.

“Yeah, exactly!” Gerard said enthusiastically. You wondered if the caffeine was getting to him.

“....Do you even know how to play the flute?” you asked, raising an eyebrow.

“No,” Gerard shook his head. “But, you do.”

“....What are you saying?” you blinked.

“That’s why I asked you to come up here with me,” Gerard explained. “Y/N…..would you be willing to go into the studio with me, and record a flute solo, for the track?”

You choked on your drink.

“Wh….What?” you wheezed, coughing from the coffee that had gone down the wrong way. “A-Are you serious?”

“....Can you breathe?” Gerard asked, putting a concerned hand on your shoulder.

“Yeah, I can breathe,” you managed, trying not to hyperventilate even more.

“Good,” Gerard smiled, “because I am serious, Y/N. Your flute playing really impressed me. I won’t drag you all the way out to LA, of course. But, if I find a studio space, here in New York, will you work with me?”

“Yes!” you cried. “Oh my god, yes!”

This wasn’t what you had dreamed of - it was more.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

A few days later, you found yourself in a recording studio, in Lower Manhattan. You’d never seen so much professional equipment like this before. You’d always just performed for live audiences.

Can I really do this?, you asked yourself, hit with a wave of uncertainty.

“Y/N, thank you so much for coming out here, and joining us today,” Gerard greeted you. His smile, somehow instantly put you at ease.

“This is Doug McKean,” he introduced, indicating a man in the corner. “He’s my producer.”

“Nice to meet you, Doug,” you said politely, shaking hands.

“And this is Ian Fowles,” Gerard said, indicating a second guy, with longer hair. “He was my touring guitarist, when I went on the road with Hesitant Alien.”

“Oh, I remember seeing him, when you guys played Irving Plaza,” you recalled.

“You were at that little gig we did, in Union Square?” Ian smiled.

“Yeah, of course I bought a ticket!” you smiled back. “You guys were amazing!”

“Aw, you really think so?” Gerard reddened, looking flattered.

“I really do,” you replied. My Chemical Romance had been your favorite band, since your teens. When they had broken up, five years ago, you had been heartbroken. But, you’d found Gerard’s solo work, to be equally amazing - just in a different way.

“Well, thank you, Y/N,” Ian said quietly. “Has Gerard explained to you, what we’re going to be doing today?”

“Yeah, he said he wants me to do a flute solo for you guys,” you said, almost not believing your own words.

“Let’s start from the beginning of the song,” Doug directed. “Ian, can you take us from the top, please? I know we got a great take of your part yesterday, but I feel like we can still do better.”

“Definitely,” Ian agreed. He shrugged his guitar strap over his head, and stepped into the recording booth. You listened intently, as he played the opening notes. The tune was definitely different from anything MCR had done. But, it didn’t sound quite like Hesitant Alien, either. You were intrigued by the new musical direction that Gerard seemed to be heading in.

“Alright, cut,” Doug called, pressing a button, to stop recording. “Ian, that was good. Gerard, it’s your turn to get in there. I want to hear that verse you were working on the other day.”

“Alright,” Gerard nodded. You watched him put his headphones over his ears, and timidly approach the microphone. A blush crept into his cheeks. Did it make him nervous, to have you, as an audience?

“The answer’s always no,” Gerard sang, “to questions of a private nature…...the lights are always low, in settings of a conversation…..”

He seemed to grow more confident, as the song continued. By the time he got to the chorus, he was belting it out. He sounded incredible.

“....How was that?” he asked finally.

“Amazing,” you breathed.

Gerard’s cheeks reddened at your compliment. He stayed quiet, as he watched Doug take the vocal track, and mix it with Ian’s guitar playing. He played back the clip, of the two spliced together. The parts formed an even more impressive whole.

“Alright, Y/N, it’s your turn,” Doug commanded. “Show us what you can do.”

You gulped. You weren’t sure that you could do anything, that was on the same level, as what you just heard.

“You can do it,” Gerard encouraged. “You played an amazing solo, in front of a whole station worth of people yesterday. Playing for three dudes like us, should be nothing.”

That’s different, you thought to yourself. I don’t have a huge crush on everyone in the station.

“Here’s the sheet music,” Ian said, handing you a piece of paper. “I really like what Gerard’s composed here. But, I think he’s right. It’s going to sound better on your instrument, than mine.”

You took the sheet, and grabbed the flute case, out of your backpack. Taking a deep breath, you walked into the booth. Your fingers trembled on the middle joint of the flute. You glanced up at Gerard, who was sitting on the other side, of the pane of glass.

He gave you a friendly smile, and a dorky-looking thumbs-up. You chuckled, your nerves dissipating.

Alright, you told yourself. I got this. You brought your lips to the head joint, and began to play.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

“I don’t know,” you said, as you stepped back out of the booth. “Do you think that was okay?”

“That was incredible,” Gerard gushed, pulling you into an impulsive hug. His arms were so soft and warm.

“Like, wow, what are you?” Ian gaped. “The secret lovechild of Ian Anderson, or something?”

“Ha, I wish,” you laughed. “I’m just your average band kid.”

“I wouldn’t call that average,” Gerard insisted, staring into your eyes, as he still held you close. “I was right….the flute just fits perfectly in with the song. And you’re the perfect person to play it.”

“Y/N, I can show you what the guitar and the flute will sound like together,” Doug offered, “If you could, uh, let go of her for a moment, Gee.”

“O-oh, right,” Gerard stammered, releasing you quickly. You blushed, and turned away.

Doug began to play the edited-together track for you. You couldn’t believe it - your flute, Ian’s guitar, and Gerard’s vocals, blended together, into something incredibly beautiful.

“I wasn’t sure if the flute was going to go well, with your style of music,” you confessed. “My background is the symphony orchestra. Most of the time, you only really see the flute, used in classical music, like that. I wasn’t sure if you could make it sound rock n’ roll. But...it works! Somehow.”

“It does,” Gerard agreed. “Y/N…..I’m so, so glad that I met you.”

His eyes sparkled as he looked at you. It made your heart pound, for reasons you couldn’t articulate.

“Y/N,” Doug said, bringing you back to reality, “that first take was great, but I’d like you to try it again for me, please.”

“Of course,” you acquiesced. “I’ll give it as many takes as it needs.”

“I feel like we could all use some coffee first, though,” Ian decided. “Doug? You want to run down the street with me, to get it?”

“Yeah, I guess it’s our turn, since Gerard ran and got the last round,” Doug agreed. “Y/N - what can we get you?”

“Oh, just a vanilla latte, I guess,” you decided.

“Coming right up,” Ian smiled. “We’ll be right back.”

The guitarist and producer got up and left. Your pulse quickened again, as you realized, that you were now alone in the room with Gerard. It felt different, than it had at the station, or the coffeeshop. Both of those times, there were plenty of other people around. But now…..?

“It’s just you and me,” Gerard said softly. He was still staring at you.

“Y-Yeah,” you said nervously. “I guess we got quite a day ahead of us, huh?”

“Yup,” Gerard said awkwardly. “Doug’s not gonna let you leave, until you get your part just right.”

“.....Gerard,” you asked, “why did you pick me for this job? You could have gotten anyone to play flute for you. I’m nobody.”

“I told you, your performance got my attention,” Gerard reminded you. “I was just passing through the station, minding my own business. But, when I heard the sound of your flute…..I stopped still. I was like, oh my god, this is the sound that I’ve been looking for.”

“Was it really that great?” you asked, feeling unsure of yourself.

“Yes!” Gerard insisted. “Y/N, I swear to god, it was like I was hypnotized. By that incredible sound….and by the beauty, of the person making it……”

“Beauty?” you repeated, your face going hot. Did he mean…..?

“I won’t lie to you,” Gerard said softly. “The moment I laid eyes on you, in that subway tunnel, I was so attracted to you.”

“You think I’m attractive?” you realized, eyes going wide.

“Yes,” Gerard whispered, looking you up and down, with evident desire. “I’m sorry…..you probably think I’m just a creepy, older dude….”

“You’re not creepy!” you shook your head. “Gerard, I’ve always thought that you were extremely good-looking.”

“You’re…..attracted to me, too?” Gerard put two and two together.

You weren’t sure which of you took a step towards the other first, but, before you knew it, you were in his arms. He kissed you gently, but your body quickly responded to him, and the kiss rapidly turned more passionate.

He pressed you against the studio wall, his hands trailing down your body, as the kiss continued.

“.....G-Gerard,” you gasped. “The others could walk back in, at any minute.”

“If they interrupt us,” Gerard said, his voice husky, “we could always continue this, at my hotel, after the recording session is over.”

“Are you serious?”

“Yeah,” Gerard panted, as your lips found his neck. “Oh, fuck, yeah…..I got a room at a five star hotel in Times Square, that I would love to show you.”

“When do you have to go back to LA?” you asked, gasping for breath, as he kissed you again.

“I’m supposed to go home on Saturday,” Gerard confessed. “But, if you keep kissing me like that….I might just miss the flight.”

#gerard way x reader #gerard way imagine #gothtober #i gotta stop posting these at 2 am

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starlightshore · 4 years

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im kinda want to get into this sort of thing so is it okay to ask u a few questions? if not just delete this, but here goes? would u reccomend game maker studio 2, and how hard is it to use in ur opinion? and is there anything u wish u knew at the beginning of making ur fangame?

aw anon you’re so sweet! don’t worry about asking about this, its really exciting to make games and trying new things! i would not say i’m an expert, and i wouldn’t even say i know gml like. at all. i just understand a how the code is used, but now what the code itself is or what to type exactly. like, i understand the theory more so than actually doing it. which is, eh, fine? i’m getting by, and i’m still learning. i’ve only been using gms 2 for 2 months now.

also, i’m using a fangame engine! i feel its kinda like cheating lmao, but its just meant to be a framework to build your own thing off of. and i still need to learn gms2 to use it, and i plan on doing more advanced and complicated things (ie: changing how battles even work structurally.) so. i’m not good at gsm2 yet, but uh, really once you understand coding its not any harder than i’d imagine w/ other professional game engines. compared to unity, i like this better because it seems built on the idea of making 2d sprite games. its SO much more simpler and the userface (while. i’m not a fan of how it has its workspace but whatever) is simple and easy to grasp.

i can’t say for certain if i recommend game maker. its very pricey and doesn’t go on sale often. (big sales i mean, it goes on 15% somewhat frequently) i really, really recommend doing your research first.

so here i talk about what game engines i’ve used over the last year. (also i hear Godot is good!)

at the end of that post i said this: “TLDR; figure out what kind of game and story you want to tell/make. i could of saved a year’s worth of work if i just sat myself down and realized i wanted to make a completely new fangame separate from my old blog stuff. and that i wanted to make an rpg specifically.“

and so! past me has good advice. figure out the scope and what story do you want to tell. with AL, I know it has 2 chapters, and rn i’m only concentrating on chapter 1. chp 1 has 7 nights and one area where you fight enemies. its very story/character driven and is more so like. a deconstruction of the rpg genre than an actual rpg game. (i know that the word deconstruction is over used as hell, but it is what this is.)

it builds off the themes of the original, while focusing on things that i want to focus on and develop. ut, at it’s heart, is about stories and grief, i’m just taking it to a different extreme and angle.

uh, anyway, i really wish i knew what i wanted to make and understood the source material more and what i wanted to make. i’ve. thought really really hard over what UT means, what message toby was trying to convey, how he did it and what I thought about it. understanding what YOU want from and for your project is the most important thing. WHY do you want to make this? WHAT do you want people to feel and think about when playing? or even, after playing? it doesn’t have to be super deep either.

so, figure out what you what to make, and then you can work on the how. really plan your story, but honestly i wouldn’t recommend planning it in super big details right off. also, super helpful to have a friend help you brainstorm and plot check things for you. (shout out to my friend the sniffer

anyway, don’t plan things TOO detailed because things are GOING to change no matter how well you plan! just try to get get an outline done, then rewrite it 5 more times and then MAYBE you’ll be ready to tackle a more detailed version. then write it 5 more times. i can’t stress enough how important planning is, and how you shouldn’t expect everything to work out even on draft 10! things will work, and when they do, draft 10 is going to look like bad awful nonsense cause you’re at draft 20 now and everything is much more coherent and better. games aren’t written or consumed all at once on the fly. its not a piece of fanart, a fanfic, a comic. its not updated more than once. its out, and then its just out. plan for it.

and real quick, don’t worry about art assets! depending on how you do the art, that’s most likely going to change and its going to be polished LAST. i could go more into how you should think of art when game developing, but thats another topic. just. honestly use shitty art assets and worry about it later.

kris’ place holder sprite for deltarune ^ it don’t need to be pretty, it needs to be practical.

second advice: start SMALL!!! i feel i should of done this, and frankly i probably will have to sit down and do this lmao, basically, you should make boring small games to learn the basics. I know, i know, nobody really wants to recreate asteroid when you got big ideas of making stories and animations u wanna make. but like. you really need to figure out how the program works and how the code works in theory and practice.

ok so like, think of coding like this. i got this from a skillshare video series, so uh. i’m going to retell this but in a shittier and likely less nuanced way. sorry

ok so imagine. you’re telling this guy who is trying to get to Gary’s house. now, Gary’s house is just down the road, few houses down, now, you can tell this guy that and he’ll likely find the house just fine. but if you’re telling a robot it’s not going to understand what “down the road” means. what road? how long? it needs instructions that are simple and work in a language it understands.

so you tell the robot “go down two houses, stop at sign until x seconds pass, turn right, go forward 1 house, turn ect. stop at house, ring doorbell. IF Gary answers, go inside; ELSE: do not go inside, wait;

so this what i mean by understanding the theory behind the code rather than the code itself. yes there’s complexities and differences in each language, but they’re ALL based on the same concepts. different program languages are less like different speech languages, but rather different dialects of the same. (uh, like us english vs uk english) its just different rules and “spellings” of the same core concepts.

next advice: don’t be afraid to ask for help! but also! do so within reason! if people are OPEN for helping, be sure do so in the right environment and within what time works for them. compensate people for the time and effort if you can. ALWAYS try to figure out the solution yourself first. often with coding, it can be a simple solution that you could of thought of yourself if you took the initiative to. google is your friend, youtube is your friend! (ok, youtube isn’t, but in this case! yes!) the answer might not always be easy to find, and its perfectly fine to look for help but its good to at least try on your own first!

speaking of which! LEARN LEARN LEARN! be ready to devote A LOT of time to watching and reading about game development. this goes to every game making program, not just gms2. i watch. so many videos on gms. i rec having the video play at 1.5x or 2x speed to cut down time. obvs you still need to retain the information, so speed might be not a good idea then. and its REALLY GOOD to pause and type out the code and follow along. but its also good to just understand the concepts, and theres no harm in rewatching once you’ve understood it better at a different speed.

things WILL click and work out for you, and its going to be a very time consuming and long journey to get there. i LOVE making this game and telling this story but I also had no idea what i was getting into! and i probably will have more advice once i’m further in, (i’ve only used gms 2 for 2 months!) but thats the best i can say for now! i hope you pursue your dreams and start making things!!! you can do it!!!

the best time to start is yesterday, the second best time is right now! even if you put a little effort into it everyday, you’ll build up progress and you can learn SO MUCH over time and theres this whole world of possibilities out there! the world NEEDS your story and your perspective, and i think creating it in anyway you can is necessary for humanity! your work will mean something to someone someday, and i am so excited for you to start your journey!

#i know u probs meant gms2 specifically but this got a little out of hand lmao #long post #personal stuff #sams replies #Anonymous

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mrsspidermanmaryjanewatsonparker · 5 years

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Over the years I’ve heard endless discussion about Mary Jane and more specifically how she should or should not be written. I think a very influential voice in those discussions comes from the author of ‘Why did it Have to be You Mary Jane’, a three part essay series that pretty comprehensively examines Peter and MJ’s history leading up to their wedding in order to rebuttal the anti-marriage sentiments from Marvel.

That same author in other places has even discussed how MJ works when she is written ‘correctly’. ‘Correctly’ according to him is when she is written goofy. To quote him.

MJ has always worked best when she’s a bit goofy and off the wall, needing to be brought back to the center, because that way she contrasts nicely with Peter’s overly serious nature and “I’ve got the burdens of the world on my shoulders” personality, and thus she helps bring him back to the center as well.

Someday I plan to dive into certain parts of that essay series that are…well off shall we say, but that’s for another time.

On another occasion I’ve heard a group of fans look at 2 very different 90s Spidey comics and discuss (among other things) MJ’s depiction within them. The comics in question were Spec #184 and No Adj #18. In the former MJ is loving and supportive towards Peter and in the latter she is argumentative and bickering. The individuals discussing the stories spoke about how the comics raise the question about how MJ should be written.

I’ve equally seen endless shade (from proponents and opponents of MJ, the marriag, etc) throw shade of some variety against Mary Jane ‘waiting by a window’, nagging at Peter or disliking him being Spider-Man in some variety. Hell I’ve even seen people complain about her going out dancing with during the marriage, usually with the qualifier of her dancing ‘with other men’.

As a rule of thumb I think people prefer or treat JMS’ portrayal of the Spider-Marriage as how it ‘should’ be written. And I love that portrayal don’t get me wrong, but I don’t agree that’s how it SHOULD be done inherently nor do I agree with the lowkey implication from the proponents of that take that the other takes, like in the 90s, were ‘wrong’.

I’m not going to pick apart each of these takes individually or look at the context of the specific issues they were discussing. Rather I want to take a broader approach.

The question is which of these renditions of Mary Jane work/don’t work. Or if you like, how should Mary Jane be written.

My response is…they can all work.

And by that I don’t mean in theory a writer could pick one of these renditions and commit to it as MJ’s defined personality or role, much in the way Aunt May works knowing Peter is Spider-Man or alternatively works dead like after ASM #400.

No I mean all these different ways to write MJ can all work as part and parcel of the same character. And indeed have…for 50+ years!

Mary Jane isn’t Mickey Mouse (though she is owned by him). She doesn’t have at best 2 moods at any given time, she isn’t simplistic.

This was even THE POINT of all the Marvel characters when they were created. Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, et al were trying (albeit not always succeeding) to create superhero characters with more dimensions, people who weren’t just good because it was the right thing to do or else paragons of virtue (or vice if you were villains). Whilst that originally just applied to the heroes with villains and supporting characters remaining fairly simplistic there were exceptions. Doctor Doom and Norman Osborn for example were villains written with at least a bit more layers to them. And as many writers (like Gail Simone) and historians (like Tim Hanley) have assessed, Mary Jane was an exception amidst Silver Age supporting characters, especially female ones.

And she grew more dimensions over the years.

And whilst I’m absolutely not saying there is no ‘incorrect’ way to write Mary Jane *glaresatSlott* there is also absolutely no singular ‘correct’ way, let alone a ‘default’ setting for her.

She’s a (relative representation of a) human being. So she has ups, downs, moods, good days and bad days, and those are going to change in response to the situations presented.

The keys to success are:

a) Recognizing the right emotion to go with regarding the situation in question. E.g. if someone is dying she’s probably not going to be cracking jokes.

b) Moderation, variety and balance. That is to say it’s not inherently bad to have Mary Jane wait by a window, or argue with Peter, or take umbrage with him being Spider-Man SOMETIMES! Those are both in character and entirely realistic human reactions for her to have.*And as much as us shippers might love portrayals more in line with Spencer or JMS’ takes on MJ or her relationship with Peter the fact is it’s similarly reductive if she was only ever portrayed that way in most Spider-Man stories. You need both, these guys are supposed to be well rounded characters!

c) Good execution. I know that’s rather easy to preach and harder to practice, but it’s nevertheless true. After all JMS’ run gets all the love when it comes to the portrayal of Peter/MJ’s relationship and it pulled MJ ‘waiting by a window’ more than once. Kraven’s Last Hunt even did this. Compare and contrast with like Terry Kavanagh though and you see the difference.

The problem with b) and c) in MJ’s broader history is that in the 90s the rule of the day was style over substance/quantity over quality; there were for example a minimum of FOUR monthly Peter Parker Spidey titles back then! So good execution and moderation suffered a whole Hell of a lot because writers were just desperately trying to generate content and do it on time. They either lacked the time to execute scenes well (this applied to non-MJ scenes too btw) and or ideas for MJ got reused in a mad dash for content, hence MJ waited by a window, or nagged Peter about being Spider-Man or wore lingerie because those were the simplest and quickest way writers could tick off including her. Plus this mad dash for content led to many unskilled writers getting gigs to plug in holes in the schedule, which is why so many Spidey minis and one shots are bad.

What I’m trying to say with all this is that all these takes, all these portrayal and all these uses of MJ are valid. They’re just part of the same multidimensional character.

*Hell Peter himself often doesn’t want to be Spider-Man or tries retiring, so why does MJ get shit for on occasion wishing he would not risk his life?

#Spider-Man #mjwatsonedit #mary jane watson #Mary Jane Watson Parker #Peter Parker #MJ Watson

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clevercatchphrase · 4 years

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2019 year in review

So… The 2010’s are almost over. Huh. What a decade it’s been. Hard to comprehend how much has changed in 10 years. I can barely believe that I was in high school at the beginning of this decade, and now I’m a college graduate with 2 degrees who’s been working at the same job for the last 3 years. But trying to summarize the past 10 years in a single post is a good way to give myself an existential crisis, so let’s not do that! Instead, let’s just focus on 2019 because there has been more than enough shit that’s happened to me in this year to talk about.

PART 1 OF 2: 2019 AND 2020 GOALS AND RESOLUTIONS

Huh, looking back through my archives, I apparently didn’t make a tumblr post about my goals this year. I definitely had some, though. Lemme list ‘em off real quick, and then we’ll go through them point by point.

1) Pay off all my student loans 2) Finish some song comics 3) Make art for my Redbubble account 4) Finish the first rough draft/script of a game I wanted to make 5) Practice ASL 6) Sew some stuffed animals 7) Finish some fan fictions 8) Work on Ghost Switch 9) AMVs 10) Do some original writing 11) Make illustrations for my fan fictions

Okay, first off, the student loans. I was actually SO CLOSE to successfully completing this one bUT THEN MY CAR HAD TO BE A WHINEY PISS BABY AND HAVE ITS ALTERNATOR DIE ON ME WHILE I WAS ON THE HIGHWAY AND THEN A BLOW OUT THREE WEEKS LATER.

GOD, if I had to summarize this year in two words, for me it would be “Car troubles”. I swear I spent more on auto repair in the first third of this year than I ever have just freakin’ OWNING a car. All four of my tires had to be replaced, my alternator failed and my car literally just SHUT OFF while I was driving, and I was barely able to coast into a gas station. Both my front breaks and rear breaks were worn down the metal and I only learned this when my car was barely able to stop after I had to slam the petal down full force! I went in for an oil change, and they found some problems and then I didn’t get my car back for three days! I don’t even like owning a car! I hate driving! I hate my country’s refusal to provide universal, free public transportation! I NEVER ASKED FOR THIS!

Oh-kay… number 2. Finish some song comics. I didn’t finish any. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t work on them. I have made tiny progress, but that’s certainly better than no progress. One of these song comics I hope to be realizes is going to be a collab with one of my friends. It’ll be a long-time coming as it’s pretty low priority for the both of us, but if anyone else out there was disappointed with KH3’s ending, we’re gonna have ya’ covered… With SONG!

3. Make some redbubble art. I actually did this one! Not in the way I expected, but I added (technically) 3 new designs to my redbubble in the middle of the year. If you like butterflies and dragons, I got some product for you~!

Number 4, finish a script for a game I want to make. I… thought about this. I thought about this a lot, but I never put pen to paper, so… oops. It almost happened! I debated making this my main writing project for NaNoWriMo this year, but ended up having more inspiration for another story. Maybe next year? (god, I hope not. I don’t want to wait a full year just to write something)

Number 5, practice ASL. I just straight up didn’t do this and I only have myself to blame. Still keepin’ up that Danish Duolingo streak, though. 4 years going strong and not a day missed yet.

Number 6, sew some stuffed animals. Again, another one I just straight up didn’t do, but I have an excuse of trying to save money while my car crashed and burned in every other sense except literal this year. Hopefully 2020 will be different. I’ll definitely be able to pay off this last loan within the first half of 2020, and then I can start saving for whatever I want to buy.

Finish some fan fictions was number 7, and I did this! Well, I only finished, 1, but it was a story I’ve been working on for over 3 years, and it came out to over 200 THOUSAND words long, which is the longest thing I’ve ever written, and I’m quite proud of myself. Now that the big story is out of the way, and I’ve gotten into a good rhythm of working on Ghost Switch, maybe I can squeeze in some short writing sessions more frequently. (either that, or just wait for my car to break down again and then go on a writing spree in a pepboys. The lord and the fan fic discord know that’s solely why I finished my other fic this year)

Speaking of Ghost Switch, working on it was a goal this year too, and I did that! I kept it up all year and took a vacation in November and it was wonderful. While the major plot points have been in place since before I started drawing, I still need to script each arc beyond Snowdin, but hey, by the time we get there, it’ll be 2022 so I got time. (Note, don’t do this, kids. Script your stories and comics thoroughly before publishing. The road I’m on is paved with misery and pain and it will only end in tears unless I change lanes soon)

Number 9, amvs. Do people make AMVs anymore? Idk… the last one I made was... Jesus, 5 years ago? (it was a gravity falls/fall out boy crossover, if you were curious) I’ve been wanting to do 2 more for just as long, but in order for me to do that, I’d have to spend time re-watching the shows to find the footage, and then actually edit them together, and I just don’t…. feel like it. Maybe someday, but not any day soon.

10; do some original writing. I did this! For nanowrimo! I wrote the first draft of some original fiction I’ve been planning for a year or two now and it completely sucks! But it’s on paper now and I’m happy. Will I revise and edit it? Sure, but not for a while. I want to let it sit and forget about it and look at it with new eyes months from now so I can be sure I can make it better when time comes to rewrite.

11, make illustrations for my fan fics. Now that You Monster is done, I want to go back and add pictures to it. I didn’t do any this year, but I did keep a list of scenes I wanted to draw, so I have plenty of ideas to do as warm up sketches next year~ I kinda want to stream them~

So, that was 11 goals, and I successfully fulfilled 4 of them! That’s! Not a very good ratio… QmQ So, goals for 2020. Some I’m gonna keep from this year, some I’m gonna drop and some I’m gonna add. In short I would like to,

1) Finish paying off that last student loan 2) Put more stuff on my redbubble 3) Illustrate my own fan fics 4) Sew at least one stuffed animal 5) Make an enamel pin 6) Read one new book a month 7) Write one page a day/Complete at least one new fan fic 8) Learn Python or C# for the game I want to make 9) Finish fully scripting Ghost Switch 10) Boost my patreon

Most of these I think are pretty self-explanitory, but I’ll go into detail just a bit because I’m on a roll and typing my thoughts helps me feel less alone in the middle of the night when you’re super tired and you know you should probably go to sleep, but the toddler in you is throwing a tantrum and doesn’t wanna go to sleep just yet, but you can’t fight the progression of time either way.

Number 1- I should be able to reach this goal by the end of March. End of June at the absolute latest. Once that goal is met, my secret new year’s resolution will be unlocked as well!

Number 2- I want to put more art of my OCs on redbubble. These OCs are tied to the game I want to make. There’s already some art of them up there, but I want at least one piece for each character.

Number 3- Mostly for You Monster. Embrace the cardinal rule of fan fic and apply it to fan art. If you want to read about see art about certain ideas, scenarios, or what-ifs, you gotta make it yourself.

Number 4- I have 3 potential ideas to sew. One is definitely leagues easier than the other two and will probably be chosen if/when I have the time and materials.

Number 5- This year I got really, REALLY into the idea of making enamel pins. Unfortunately it’s a pretty big investment (like, $350 to make 100 pins you might not even sell). If this happens, it’ll probably be towards the end of the year, and if I get enough interest. I’m currently torn between making an original enamel pin and one based off Undertale. We’ll just have to see where this goes.

Number 6- Back in 2018 when I paid off one of my many student loans, I rewarded myself by spending over 200 dollars in used books. All these books had a theme; they were focused on dragons because I have a problem. I have not yet read a single one of these books I have bought, and I would like to fix that. I have, like, 20 unread dragon books, and even if I only read 12 out of 20, I would consider that an amazing accomplishment and money well spent.

Number 7- I currently have about 8 different WIPs I could work on. (well, I don’t know if I can even call them wips. More like, a general idea and a title written down.) I want to build good writing habits, and if I can write just 200 words a day, hell, even 200 words a week and just one of my 8 stories done, I would consider this goal met.

Number 8- I’m torn between making my game in unity or ren’py. I know jack shit about both. Ren’py is more user friendly, but unity will allow me more customization. (Lol, can you guess what kind of game I want to make yet?)

Number 9- I really just want the full story to be done and written incase anything goes horribly terribly wrong in my life and I find myself unable to continue making ghost switch in comic form. Then at least I can finish the story by other means, you know?

Number 10- It always surprises me every month when I get that patreon email saying I got paid. Sure, I don’t even make double digits on it, but it still awes me enough to know that people out there like my work enough to throw me a tip. I can’t thank my patrons enough for supporting me and I hope to one day be in such a good place I can update my comic/song comics/writing frequently enough without need for goals or milestones. But until that magical day arrives, money is always a great incentive for anything, I suppose. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

ALRIGHT. PART 2 OF 2: SHIT THAT HAPPENED TO ME IN 2019

Cheesus crust what a year. This year started off great! Back in late January Kingdom Hearts 3 FINALLY released, and let me tell you a little story. Back in the summer of 2006 I was a 13 year old middle schooler with no way of making money other than by doing house hold chores at a rate of 25 cents a task. A few weeks ago, I had a sleep over at a friend’s house and they let me play this weird game called “Kingdom Hearts” and god, I was instantly hooked on it. That summer, I did over 800 chores, enough to earn myself 200$ and buy myself a playstation 2 (just in time for the ps3 to come out, gg me) The only games I had for the ps2 were KH1, 2, Re:CoM and Okami, and I beat them all… except Okami. Miffed that the PS3 wouldn’t allow for backwards compatibility, little 13-year-old me made a promise. I looked myself in the mirror and said “I will not buy the next playstation console until KH3 comes out, AND BOY that was probably a good choice for me to make with my level of gaming. I’m even less of a casual gamer than the average casual gamer, but I have been waiting 13 years for this piece of closure, and I even told my friends and family that “the day Kingdom Hearts 3 comes out is the day I will buy a playstation 4”. My dad apparently thought this was the funniest shit, because he literally took the day off from work that Friday to drive me on base to get the game and console (he thought it would be less crowded than a regular walmart, I suppose). I paid $400 on a ps4 pro while he bought me the game. Again, I have an impecible sense of timing seeing as the PS5 is now right on the horrizion, but just like before, I’m not buying a new console until the next KH game is released. See you in 2045, sony~. While I was at the gamestop on base, I also picked up Okami HD and The Last Guardian. For all of February and even early March, I took my time playing through KH3. And…! It was the best disappointment I’ve ever played. After a month away from gaming, I started The Last Guardian and finished it in a couple weeks. I love trico and would die for him, but trying to get 100% completion on that game is udder insanity. Okami, HD, however… again after a month break after finishing TLG, I started replaying Okami. I think I had only managed to get about halfway through the game before I just… stopped playing it on my ps2 version. I am currently SO CLOSE to getting a 100% on the ps4 version. In fact, I’ve beaten the game. I only (techinically) need 2 more trophies to be done; 1st, escape the water dragon without being eaten, 2nd, I need to beat that dumb stupid race with Kai, in order to get the last bead on my rosary, as well as the top dog trophy. I hate her so much. I hate this race so much. It’s awful and bad.

Flash forward to December! Earlier this month I was at Barnes and Noble, buying myself a planner for 2020. I exit the store and notice that there’s a gamestop across the street. For shits and giggles I go inside to look at their game selection, and I find KH 1.5 and 2.5. Now, my PS2 died a few years back (it just won’t read my discs anymore, I don’t know why) and I haven’t been able to replay any of my other kingdom hearts games since. If you had seen me the day I finished kingdom hearts 3, after the ending credits rolled, you would have heard me say “Man…. I wish I could play kingdom hearts 2 again”. AND NOW I CAN, ALONG WITH BBS which I had never even played yet, but knew the story of. I’ve restarted playing kh1, and I was so happy to hear that familiar music when I booted the game up for the first time. While at the game stop, I also picked up Rime and Tearaway, two games that had looked interesting to me. At the time of writing, I’ve finished Rime and am 25% done with tearaway. Rime was…. An interesting experience. I learned about it through Jacksepticeye’s channel a couple years back and thought the art style was enticing. For a super casual gamer like me, I found the puzzles just the right level of challenging and exploring was a blast! The music gave me VERY strong Princes Mononoke vibes, but the overall story left something to be desired. Overall I had fun, and enjoyed completing this game to 100%. Now for tearaway. Can I just say this game is super fucking adorable? I know the original was on the ps vita and the gameplay there was arguably more diverse and imaginative, but this game is just so fucking cute I don’t care?? ALSO, this game’s sound track is ABSOLUTELY incredible and I’ve only heard the first fourth of it! Listen to The Orchards, Pig Riding, and Gibbet Hill Pilgrimage for a taste of their wonderful beats and fantastic use of string and woodwinds! God, I’m so excited to get some more games in 2020. I’m proud to say I currently own more ps4 games than I ever did with my ps2 (and now the majority AREN’T Kingdom Hearts titles!), and I’m still hoping to play Journey, The Witness, and Abzu before everything becomes ps5.

What else happened to me this year. Oh, I went to a doctor for, like, the first time in seven years. I also had my blood drawn for the first time ever, and the nurse said the most disturbing thing to me while she did it. Now, whenever I get shots, I refuse to look. I did that here. So she thought it would be appropriate to say to me “Can you feel your blood leaving your body?” Lady… You can clearly see I am uncomfortable with what is happening here. Why, of all the things you could say, did you choose to say that. Unfortunately, while my doctor is nice, she keeps wanting to run tests on me, that I just cannot afford with my current salary, and my monthly insurance is about to go up to 200$ a month, so I’ve cancelled my next appointment with them, and don’t plan to go back until it’s absolutely necessary. Capitalism is fun, guys. Preventative healthcare is for wusses.

I started going to a chiropractor on a monthly basis. Story time- I don’t know when it started, but sometime late last November I began to notice that I had a headache that just... wasn’t... going away? And each day it was starting to get a little worse. It made it hard for me to find a comfortable position to sleep, it made it hard for me to be in bright areas or move fast. So I said to myself “Okay, if this headache persist through the month of december, then something is proooobably wrong and I should go see someone about it. And hoo-boy were thing wrong with me. By the time this January rolled around, I couldn’t even stay on my feet for more than a few hours without it physically hurting to just BREATHE. So I started going to this chain called The Joint (A+ name, I know). THey aksed me “How are you doing?” I said “I’m in pain” and they said “We can help fix that!”. I’ve only been to a chiropractor once before in my life a few years back after my freshmen year of college because I began to notice my hips weren’t able to support me? LIke, I would lie on my back, and I couldn’t push my hips up when my feet were flat on the floor. I also couldn’t climb anything steep, because my legs just couldn’t push me up if my knee had to bend more than 90 degrees when I lifted my leg up. (Turned out both my hips were apparently out of place). This time only one of my hips were out of place (which they fixed. they said one of my legs was an inch “longer” than the other because I had been leaning all my weight on one leg when I stand). But two of my ribs were apparently “Stuck” which was why it was hurting for me to just breathe, and one of my shoulders was missaligned too, causing one of my trap muscles to constantly be streched, which was pulling on my skull, and causing the headache. Anyway, after they popped all my bones back into place, I still felt terrible, but by god, that night was the first time in weeks I was able to sleep without a migrane. A chiropractor can’t magically heal your arthritis, or fibro, but I definately think they have merit to keeping your posture good and helping your body with things like circulation. 10 outa 10, would recomend. It’s all the fun of getting your neck snapped without the dying!

Earlier this month I got together with two of my friends and we baked Christmas cookies. It was a lot of fun, as well as a great learning experience. A member of my family has a gluten allergy, so we used rice flour for most of the cookies. We learned this is a bad idea! The cookies will just fall apart! A few member’s in one of the friend’s family have nut allergies. Other friend and I knew this and were careful to avoid cookie recipes with nuts, bUT THEN COMPLETELY FORGOT THAT ALMOND MILK AND ALMOND EXTRACT COUNT AS NUT. IN FACT, ALMOND EXTRACT IS PURE CONCENTRATED NUT JUICE AND WE FELT SO BAD FOR ALMOST ACCIDENTALLY POISONING THE FAMILY.

Earlier this year me and these same friends took a field trip to Hobby Lobby and just dicked around the store for a couple of hours. It was super fun, 11 outa 10, would recommend, a great date idea for your artsy S.O.

Back in May I went to a wedding for the first time in my life. (well, not true, but the first one I could remember) we left at 5am, drove 5 hours to get there, hung out at a zoo and spent the night in a la quinta before the wedding day. I slept on the bathroom floor because my mom was snoring too loud in the main room and keeping me awake, and the rest of the day was just spent me trying to keep myself together because I was pissed off and tired.

Other than all of that, nothing really major happened to me this year. I guess one more thing I’ve tried to do this year is started the process of breaking certain internet addictions so I can use my free time for more personal projects. Seriously, I found myself watching way too much youtube and following blogs that didn’t even make me happy. I had a personal intervention with myself where I sat down and asked myself, “why do you watch these videos and youtubers? Why do you follow these blogs? Do you really enjoy their content? Do you really care? If you stopped watching/following them, would you even notice?” After critically thinking it over, I’ve found myself unfollowing several channels and blogs and suddenly I feel so much happier. I thought I would miss it, but I realized I didn’t really care if I saw their content or not. I wasn’t missing much. And now I feel like I have more time to draw, read and write. If you think you spend too much time consuming and not enough time creating, I suggest you try and de-clutter your internet habits as well. It’s done wonders to un-fuck my headspace.

And… well, that about sums up my year. How are your holidays going? Anything fun, exciting, dramatic happen to you this year? I hope your new year is warm and safe! Good night, everybody!

#new year's resolutions #year in review #long post #(seriiously this think is like 3k words)

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onwardintolight · 4 years

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Canon Catchup

With TROS coming out soon, I’ve been doing a lot of catchup on canon material that I’ve missed, particularly that which I think will be most relevant either for the movie or for Resistance Reborn (which I finished yesterday and will talk more about below). I will avoid major spoilers, as excited as I may be about some of them, haha, but I wanted to write out a few of my thoughts here while they’re fairly fresh.

A Crash of Fate by Zoraida Córdova and Galaxy’s Edge by Delilah Dawson—these don’t seem quite as relevant to TROS, but I read these two Galaxy’s Edge tie-in novels a few months ago and I thought I’d say a few words. I REALLY enjoyed the A Crash of Fate; it was such a lovely, heartwrenchingly beautiful story that reminded me a little of Lost Stars in the way that it focused in on a friendship/romance between two people who wouldn’t ever be main characters in the movies. The story was told primarily over the span of a single day, and wow did I not expect my heart to be pulled in so many different directions. Definitely one I will read again and again.

I’m not sure I’ll do the same with Galaxy’s Edge. It was a super fun read, with some great, Indiana Jones-like action sequences, and I’d recommend giving it a go especially if you’re planning on ever going to Galaxy’s Edge—but it also had a few seriously problematic elements that I just couldn’t overlook. For one, NO WAY is Leia going to force Vi to work closely with someone who tortured her, and speaking of torture, many black people have already commented on the problematic nature of the excessive violence Vi undergoes in this book.

TFA and TLJ Junior Novelizations by Michael Kogge—I wanted to get a refresher on these stories, and since I’d never read the junior versions, I decided to give them a try. Overall I enjoyed these quite a bit. The TFA one was way better imho than the adult novelization by Alan Dean Foster, and both had some really meaningful character moments. There was one Leia scene at the end of the TFA one that brought me to tears.

Aftermath: Life Debt and Aftermath: Empire’s End by Chuck Wendig—I’d originally read the Aftermath trilogy as each book was released, but with everything I was hearing about Resistance Reborn, AND with the return of Palpatine in TROS and the promise of finally figuring out what’s been going on in the Unknown Regions, I thought it was a perfect time to revisit it. I skipped the first one (my least favorite of the three, and also my copy is in a box somewhere from when we moved last and the library’s audiobook copies were checked out) and read a synopsis instead to refresh my memory, then dived straight into Life Debt. Both of these books were as good or better than I remember them. I enjoyed them the first time, but I enjoyed them even better this time around. I feel like they’ve gained even more significance now. My HanLeia shippy heart is happy with some of their scenes, and also I rediscovered that I absolutely adore and would probably die for Norra, Wedge, Jas, Sinjir, Temmin, and crew.

Spark of the Resistance by Justina Ireland—this was a super cute but ultimately rather forgettable junior novel. The best part about it was seeing Rey, Poe, and Rose interacting. I may revisit it sometime after TROS and see if my unexpectedly skyrocketing feels for these characters (see below) makes it better.

The Poe Dameron comic run—I’d previously read the first trade (Black Squadron), the third (Legend Lost), and maybe a tiny bit of the second (The Gathering Storm), and aside from a really poignant bit in Legend Lost I just didn’t find myself very invested. This time around, however, flipped that on its head. Trades 4 and 5 (Legend Found and The Spark and the Fire) completely did me in, and without warning, I found myself 100% invested in Black Squadron. Poe, Jess, Snap, Karé, Suralinda, and L’ulo have officially joined the Aftermath crew in my list of characters I would die for. I just want all my babies to be okay! There were numerous moments in those last two trades (including the AMAZING Annual #2, a must-read for HanLeia new canon fans) which made me cry. I’m not even joking. So good. Well done, Charles Soule.

Resistance Reborn by Rebecca Roanhorse—Buckle up because I have a lot to say! I HIGHLY recommend reading the Aftermath trilogy, Bloodline, the Poe Dameron comics, and watching the Battlefront II campaign (which I talked about in another post) before reading this because HOLY MOLY. You won’t be lost if you don’t, but it will mean so much more to you if you do. Speaking of crying, I literally lost count of the moments that brought me to tears, and so many were significant because of how all the stories I mentioned and more have been so beautifully interconnected in this one. Wedge and Norra, Zay and Shriv, and so many others—each was given their due and it was amazing. One character’s surprise appearance had me practically on my knees with joy and heartbreak all at once, and I would say more but I’m really trying to keep that promise not spoil you, haha.

If the Poe Dameron comic weren’t enough to win me over, this book has officially cemented Poe as one of my favorite sequel trilogy characters. Tbh, I’ve had trouble feeling much of a deep connection with any of the sequel trilogy leads—I love them, sure, but not like Leia, Han and Luke, the trio I grew up with. I’ve wanted to love them more, I’ve wanted to be more invested in them, but it just hasn’t happened. I’m really glad I read this book before TROS, because I think this has changed that. I was definitely getting a few OT golden trio vibes with Rey, Finn, and of course, my Boi™ Poe—except they’re completely their own characters, and I’m really starting to love them for who they are.

Overall, I absolutely loved this book, it felt really meaningful, and I can’t wait to read it again.

That being said, when I finished it yesterday I felt a little bit disappointed, like it tasted a little bit bittersweet. I’m still trying to figure out why that is, but I think it may be down to three things:

1) Though there were a number of fantastic character reveals, there were some obvious people absent and I can’t help but wonder where they are. I hope they’re not dead. I hope TROS includes some of these characters, too. I hope we get the rest of their stories either way.

2) The book is way too short. Especially on the heels of the Aftermath trilogy, this feels like only the first act of at least three. The ending comes way too soon, just after it really seems to get going. This I don’t blame the author or the publishers for at all; they are very limited, after all, in what they can portray leading up to TROS. But it really left me longing for more. This book had such a wonderful focus on character, but in the end, I wanted to see the character arcs get even more resolved than they do here... but I guess they really couldn’t be, and that’s what TROS is for. I just hope the movie does it well! I need all these people to be okay <3

3) It doesn’t shy away from grief, struggle, and the mental cost of war. Honestly, that’s part of why I love it so much, but I think that’s also part of why it left me feeling a little melancholy. The Resistance is in such a seemingly hopeless place, and while things do get better over the course of the book, there’s still such a terribly long way to go.The First Order rains merciless terror on anyone or any planet who gives even the slightest hint of opposing them or of aiding the Resistance. The whole galaxy is afraid. Poe struggles deeply with guilt and with how to make up for the horrible mistakes he made in TLJ (this is not brushed off in the slightest, not by the book or by the characters in it, and I appreciate that). Rey is confused and still unsure of her place in things. Characters are faced with the fact that they will almost certainly die because of their choice to join the Resistance, and it’s heavy. And Leia. Oh, Leia. I am deeply grateful to Roanhorse for her very realistic portrayal of Leia as someone who has lost so incredibly much (most recently her husband and brother), most definitely has PTSD, and probably is dealing with a bit of depression. Leia is weary. Leia struggles to keep stepping forward, struggles to figure out the next step for those she leads. Leia struggles to keep hoping. The battle between hope and despair in the face of terrible loss and terrible odds is very much felt in this book. But as ever with Leia, hope always wins in the end. By the end of the book, you can still feel the struggle, but hope wins.

I think that because I personally relate so much to Leia, reading some of that was hard. Not because I feel like it’s contrary to who Leia is, but because I resonate with it so much and because it reminds me in a particularly strong way of some of the struggles I’ve dealt with that I’d like to forget. It’s no wonder that my heart felt heavy after I closed the book. But along with that, I also see how Leia perseveres, how she’s finally gotten to a place where she lets herself rely on and be comforted by others, and how she accomplishes the seemingly impossible just because she damned well refuses to give in to despair, no matter how tempting it may be. It reminds me that I, too, can accomplish incredible things despite all my struggles, despite the odds stacked against me.

Anyway, I highly recommend this book. Resistance Reborn hasn’t quite come up to the level of Bloodline or LPOA in my personal ranking, but with future rereads, it very well might someday.

This book—along with all of this reading—has put me even more on the edge of my seat for TROS than I was before, if that’s possible. I desperately want it to be the best ending possible for the Skywalker Saga and for all these characters who’ve become so beloved to me. I’m trying to temper my expectation—TFA still isn’t especially my jam, after all, and while overall I’m a fan of the ST (the TROS trailers made me cry, for goodness sakes), I have a somewhat complicated relationship with it in general—but goddammit, I’m hoping anyway. There’s so much beautiful setup in the new canon EU, such a deliberate focus on character, and so many hints that this might reach through the whole saga and bring together something bigger than we can imagine.

I’m hoping anyway.

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kingofthewilderwest · 5 years

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What do you do most of the time when you’re not on tumblr?

Thanks for asking to get to know me!!! I do MANY things! :D

Let’s get the “boring” thing out of the way: work! Occupationally, I work remotely as a theoretical linguistics contractor. Basically, that means I do freelance language analysis work for other companies. I sit at home in my pajamas at 2 AM listening to folk metal while doing boring repetitive language tasks for money. XD Usually, it involves me pouring through large databases of sentences and annotating pertinent information on top of the sentences, coding it according to the information another development team wants. What I input is what another team uses to improve an AI’s ability to understand English. For instance, maybe I’m going through a large corpus of sentences marking what the verb is, and how noun phrases relate to the verb (as the direct object, subject, etc.) My work helps accomplish a variety of practical uses. The reason why your search results are relevant on a website? The reason why virtual assistants like Siri are able to answer a question you ask it? That’s the stuff I work on, although I do the non-technical, non-programmy side of it, and am more or less just following instructions for what they want me to look for in the sentence databases they use to train their AIs.

I usually am held to non-disclosure agreements, so I can only say so much about what my work involves, but I have had the pleasure to partner with several collegiate universities, Amazon, the Mayo Clinic, Google, environmental research centers, local companies, and more over the years since I first began these gigs in 2012.

But like. Recreationally?

I LOVE DOING CREATIVE THINGS!!!!!!!

I’m usually running around doing three thousand eight hundred forty two and a half projects any given day. Music composition for indie films and video games; cosplay; fanfiction writing; original novel writing; learning new musical instruments (I own literally several dozen instruments…); drawing; Photoshop abuse; video game streaming; skiing; hiking; teaching myself new languages; collecting action figures and other rare fandom materials; getting distracted by cat videos; crying in feels over television shows; staring pointlessly at a wall for several hours; you name it!

At the moment, I’m working on a fancy pants fanfiction novel for Camp NaNoWriMo - which I hope I’ll be posting online in the next few months. I’m creating/planning cosplays for Envy (FMAB), Catra (She-Ra), Rufus (Deponia), and Krel (3Below) to debut at a cosplay convention in May (assuming I get my act together, which I probably won’t, let’s be real). I’m playing Anthem with my sister and brother-in-law and am streaming video games most Wednesdays on my twitch account - also now available on YouTube btw. I’m learning how to use illustration markers and digital art tools, while trying to improve my ability drawing humans and backgrounds. I’m teaching myself 日本語. I’m working with several friends to translate a book from German to English so we can play a roleplay game together where I GM (none of us speak German… whoopsies). I’m going to be drawing illustrations for a children’s book my grandpa wrote. I’m drafting the outline for an original novel I hope to publish in the future. I’m arranging a music suite for some of the Huzzah songs for the Deponia video game series. I’m talking with several friends about movie or game projects we could make. I’m playing Dungeons and Dragons as a gunslinging True Neutral alien. I’m planning several fandom AUs with friends that might turn into comics, fanfictions, or getting lost in the dust because I have a notorious, terrible record for finishing anything. I’m skiing with friends in the mountains before winter season ends. I’m trying to collect several difficult-ish-to-find FMA materials from eBay. I’m trying desperately to avoid making an AMV for a ship I’ve fallen into, but it’s probably going to happen despite my best efforts (damn Deponia has my heart right now, okay???). I’m haranguing my irl best friends by being a loving assholish punster gremlin to them. I’m wasting lots of my hours screwing around with friends on discord. And, I haven’t had the time yet, but I just bought a ukulele, so I want to get around to learning that, too. Only so much time in a day though…. uhhhhh….

This doesn’t mean all my projects are good… I am not talented in all these respects… but that doesn’t mean I get any less enjoyment out of all these creative hobbies!

I SWEAR I’ve recently been trying to limit the number of projects I’m doing at any given time. I even made myself a checklist for activities that I “allow” myself to do so I don’t start three hundred more pointless hare chases. But yeah! That’s the current day-to-day activities of Haddock!

Actually… this conversation is a good lead-in to something I’ve been meaning to say on my blog for a while.

It’s probably unsurprising that, given as I’m doing so much beyond tumblr, that I haven’t been spending an enormous amount of time answering analysis questions recently. My asks have begun stocking up over the last few months; though I have several hundred responses to answer and want to answer, the truth is that my life is prioritized elsewhere right now and I probably won’t get to things all that fast, if at all.

Tumblr has been an extraordinary experience for me and I’ll never like, leave-leave it behind. I’ve engaged a lot in tumblr because it’s provided me life, fandom, happiness, and a community I’ve attached to. It’s also given me hope: hope that my contribution to the fandom gives people happiness and meaning, too. Fiction is powerful for all of us and a way to give us inspiration and meaning. I hope that my engagement in fandom has helped other people feel happiness, inspiration, and meaning, too. Whenever I receive asks from people telling me kind things about my blog, I feel touched beyond words, because it makes me feel like my time on tumblr has been a benefit and a difference to other lives beyond my own, and there’s nothing better than that.

But I also admit: I’m ready to transition to New Things in life. My greatest goal in life is to make as meaningful of a difference as I can. I don’t want to breeze by my years doing nothing but recreation for myself: I want to do what I can to make a maximal difference in the lives of others for the better. Tumblr’s been fun and I hope I’ve made a good impact, but my deepest dreams and goals aren’t around tumblr analyses. They’re around creative writing, especially the wild dream to someday be a published author. I’m increasingly taking the steps and time to reach that goal. I’m done waiting; I’m done planning; I’m ready to charge forward and make this ambition reality, best as I can.

That means that, anymore, tumblr is a hindrance to my life’s greatest dreams, and I can’t do both full-tumblr-activities and reach my heart’s deepest wishes.

I’m honestly feeling a lot happier now that I’ve drastically reduced my time on tumblr. I’m so sorry that it’s resulted in me not answering many asks (that really would be fun to talk about), and I hope no one feels like I’ve forgotten or snubbed them. I’d do it if I had time. But I don’t have time. The truth is that I feel my life shifting to new directions, and I want to take that. Otherwise, I’ll live in a stagnant world in which I go nowhere… and I can’t have that. I can’t. I want to fly.

So I’m going to be continuing to march through with these other life projects. With the creative writing especially. I hope I can post some of this writing to you guys on tumblr, too! It means I’ll be spending less and less time on tumblr, doing analyses not-anywhere-as-often-as-I-used-to (I don’t know if I’ll ever answer everyone’s asks again, sorry!). Leave tumblr? No. I’ll still be here. But… my shift in time… it’s all in the dream to make meaning out of my life.

Thank you so much for asking again! I hope you’re having a great day, have some fun activities of your own, and are staying awesome!

#blabbing Haddock #kingofthewilderwest #non-dragons #about me #my life #ask #ask me #awesome anonymous friend #Anonymous

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thecollectorsector · 6 years

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Did you know...

That Danzig’s classic logo:

Was originally designed and created for a Marvel comic book cover?

Crystar

Today, not many comic book fans remember the Marvel character Crystar. This relatively obscure 80s character was originally created and developed for a line of toys. Crystar was a crystalline warrior who came from the world known as Crystallium-where everything was made of crystal and most characters had bad, rock-themed pun names like Ogeode, Feldspar or Stalax. Marvel Comics later created a Crystar comic book to accompany and promote Remco’s Crystar toyline. This is one of Michael Golden’s many classic comic book covers and is probably recognizable to any die-hard Danzig fan. I doubt Michael Golden imagined when he first created this cover, that someday one aspect of this image would be the identifying symbol of a major band. I’ve always wondered if Michael Golden receives any kind of compensation or recognition for creating the original comic cover that formed the basis of that now famous and highly-merchandised Danzig logo.

Marvel partnered with the now-defunct toy company Remco to produce a comic book series to expand the Crystar line of action figures and playsets. This was a common practice in the 70s and 80s. Marvel had also found success with such toy/comic crossovers like the Shogun Warriors, Micronauts and ROM: Spaceknight line of toys. Since the storytelling abilities of the toy industry were so limited, many toy companies benefited by having a comic book expand upon the characters and universe of a limited toy line. Companies like Marvel benefitted by having a large captive audience of kids who were familiar with the toys but would never have bought a comic book otherwise. This would not be the last time Marvel would create a comic series to promote a line of toys. G.I. Joe, He-Man, Transformers and even the beloved Secret Wars line of toys were all popular toy lines that Marvel published comic books to accompanying and promote. He-Man actually had the rare distinction of being one of the only toy lines to have a promotional comic book published by both Marvel and D.C. Toy companies like Remco used to view comic books as an advertising mechanism to draw in new kids while also being a cheap, easy way to create new characters that could eventually become new toys.

The Punk Connection

I’ve always loved the Misfits and by extension Glenn Danzig. Back in my punk days, The Misfits were always my favorite band, usually tied with the Dead Kennedys and the Germs (but I also loved T.S.O.L, the Buzzcocks, The Adicts, Crass and Minor Threat). As a fan of classic horror, sci-fi, and monster movies, I always appreciated The Misfits’ and Danzig’s use of horror and sci-fi imagery in their lyrics and album art. That was actually one of the things that I loved about the Misfits above all other bands; the imagery. All that Vincent Price and Plan 9 imagery really appealed to a kid like me. When I was a punk, comic books were the last thing on my mind. I hadn’t read or collected comics in years by that point. So I never made the connection between Danzig and comic books, despite being aware of Crystar as a character. I remember owning several issues of the Crystar Marvel series as a kid. After all, I am a child of the late 80s and early 90s who grew up owning many toys from some of the most iconic toy lines of the 80s. I was initially surprised that Glenn Danzig would show an interest in comics and co-opt the cover of a Marvel comic book series that targeted kids and was designed to promote a corresponding toy line. That fact is even more surprising looking at some of his later, solo-era imagery and lyrics.

Looking at that kind of album art, I don’t know why anyone would be surprised Danzig digs comics. As it turns out, Glenn Danzig has been into comics for years. This is why he used so much of that sci-fi/horror imagery in his early days in the Misfits and borrowed themes and concepts from comic books like Crystar and Conan. The misfits often used a comic book/Lichtenstein-esque pop-art art style as evidenced in their Bullet imagery with JFK and their Horror Business album art. Danzig also chose an HR Giger painting as one of his later albums. When you compare Frazetta-era “barbarian/warrior” artwork with Danzig’s comics or album art, you can see the obvious inspiration. In the 90s, Danzig actually began publishing his own line of comic books, Verotik comics (Verotik was a portmanteau of the words “violent” and “erotic”). It would be easy to looks at some of the comic books he’s published and dismiss them as immature or sophomoric. After all, they do feature most of the things pubescent boys are into-big pecs, bigger boobs and the biggest swords. It would also be easy to view Danzig’s foray into the medium of comics as a cash grab. This was the era that outsiders and speculators were coming into the comic book field en masse. Many people who had zero interest in producing quality comics came into the field with delusions of making a fortune based on the newfound popularity of comic books.

The Bubble Goes Burst

When the comic book speculator bubble burst in the mid-to-late-90s, many of these new imprints and comic lines went under; never to return to publication. Verotik has managed to outlive Homage, Wildstorm, Continuity, Legend, Malibu, Chaos!, Caliber, Comico, Defiant, Kitchen Sink Press and Eclipse (to name a few). It’s important to remember that those were among the most acclaimed indie comic companies during the 90s comic boom. All of those companies were either bought, closed or are otherwise now defunct. While it is true Verotik published way fewer comics than most of those other companies, Verotik still publishes comics today. Glenn Danzig outlasted them all. Surprisingly, Danzig’s line of Verotik comics have been continuously published since 1994, with Glenn Danzig himself still involved. While other, more mainstream comics have been adapted into the Hollywood Blockbusters we all know, Danzig adapted one of his comics, Grub Girl, into a porno that came out in 2006. Say what you will about adapting a comic book into pornography... it shows that Danzig has found a way to maintain an almost entirely adult audience while simultaneously promoting his line of comics and spinning those characters off into another medium (film).

Mainstream comic readers have not spoken kindly about some of Verotik’s offerings. I certainly don’t like everything that Dark Horse, or Marvel, or Image publish. Many comic fans have dismissed Danzig’s line of comic books for their perceived “low quality.” However, if you go back and examine some of his earliest works, you’d be surprised by some of the names you’d recognize. Many well known, popular writers and artists of today had work published in one of Verotik’s comic books. Grant Morrison actually had a story published in the first issue of Verotika, something he never mentions. Simon Bisley contributed some really solid artwork on many Verotik comics, as did Frank Frazetta.

Some of the most iconic Frazetta artwork (beyond his legendary Conan art of course) appeared in Verotik comics. The “Death Dealer” image has come to typify the classic Frazetta “barbarian” style. The Frank Frazetta style of heavily painted Barbarian/Warrior art has almost completely disappeared from the today’s modern comics. In my opinion, Danzig and his line of Verotik comics are almost solely responsible for the preservation of that kind of 80’s barbarian/sword-and-sorcery/heavy metal comic book aesthetic. By the 90s, that genre of comic and it’s associated art style had fallen out of favor with the general public and was considered dated by many critics and fans alike. This kind of hyper-masculine Barbarian imagery existed only on the fringes of pop culture and is virtually nonexistent today. What had been an industry staple was now relegated to a tiny niche audience. Fantasy artwork like that is sorely absent from today’s comic book marketplace. Rafa Garres, Eric Canete, Liam Sharp, Arthur Suydam, Dave Stevens and Kent Williams all contributed artwork to at least one of Verotik’s many comic books. When you re-examine some of the covers to Verotik titles like Jaguar God, Valkyrie or Weird Voodoo, they still look pretty damn good even by modern standards. Painted covers like these have withstood the test of time; good writing and artwork often endures and stays relevant for years.

Legacy of Brutality (and Comic Books)

It‘s a shame that Danzig doesn’t get more recognition for his contribution to comic books from the modern comic book community. I’ve never heard anyone mention Danzig and comics in the same sentence. For a guy who’s written songs for Johnny Cash and Roy Orbison, owns his own label (Plan 9), had a long history with the Misfits, found renewed success with Samhain and again with his solo project Danzig...the guy has quite a resume. Even many punks don’t know that Samhain was essentially a punk supergroup, since their debut album featured former members of Minor Threat, Rosemary’s Babies and Reagan Youth. To switch gears entirely and begin writing and publishing comics shows how seriously he took his interest in comic books. He never compromised his artistic integrity and made exactly the kind of comics and music he wanted. Whether you personally like the results or not, you should respect that kind of commitment and discipline. It’s unfortunate for Danzig since many people in the punk/metal community would mock his comic book pursuits, and the comic industry often resents outsiders coming into the field from another medium, he rarely gets recognition from either community.

His contribution to music cannot be understated and his foray into comics cannot be dismissed as a mere cash grab or way to stay relevant. He put his money where his mouth was and was willing to invest his own money and time into his life-long love of comics. I honestly wish more people would do that. Danzig teamed with some of the best fantasy comic artists in the field at the time and wrote many of Verotik’s comics himself. He is also a graphic artist in his own right who is known to do sketches at signings and conventions. Danzig has created music for over 41 years and for 24 years he has also been involved in the production of comic books. That alone makes you a pretty cool guy in my book. His comics are about as “creator owned” as it gets and in that 24 years he has made the kinds of comics that he wants to make. You can’t dismiss that kind of artistic determination. For a guy who has always been known as the “Heavy Elvis” of punk music, his artistic portfolio is surprisingly diverse. Danzig should be accepted by the comic book community as being every bit as worthy of inclusion as any other, more accepted comic book creators.

Don’t sleep on @therealglenndanzig-blog, the dude might just surprise you.

-AG

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sweet-star-storybook · 5 years

Text

Hey all, back at it again with the random posts, aha. I have been working on something that will formally address the month long art / comic hiatus I’ve been on, but that’s taking a bit longer than I expected. So as a break (I guess?) I took it upon myself to update what I call my Original Stories Timeline, i.e. a chronological list of all of my story ideas (as of October 2019 anyway). I have not posted this list anywhere, but I like to update it on my laptop every now and again.

There is a bit of ambiguity with some of the years that these were made, as sometimes there’s a difference between coming up with the title or lead character for a story versus actually making it a “thing” with an idea or scenes attached. As an example, Moth to the Flame technically began when I first drew Kiida in April of 2015, but aside from a snippet of reasoning for why she was an archer, the story as it is now did not start to take form until I drew Zander in December of 2017. Other times I flat out can’t remember when some of these stories were made, and digital files don’t always have the correct dates.

For this post (and for curiosity’s sake), I wanted to add up and categorize them to see just how many stories I have in this brain of mine. It was actually quite a fascinating exercise, so I thought I’d share! I might as well list the titles for each category too, even if some of these are only titles at this point. I’ve renamed a few over the years and others are still working titles, but if any pique your interest at all, feel free to send me an ask about them! I love chatting about this stuff. :)

This got quite long once again so I’ll put it under the cut. Enjoy!

Stories that are old and/or need revamping: 6

Titles in this category: Pasha & Marley (2003), Sonora (2004), Billy and the Rainbow Fish (2005), Spirit Fire (2006), The Darkest Light (2013), Polarity (2013).

These are stories that I’ve either had since I was a kid and would need overhauls to make them usable, or are simply dormant stories that I haven’t touched in a while and may need similar upgrades. This doesn’t mean that I will revamp all of them, but either way they serve as an interesting look at my progression as a story writer and character designer. My oldest story dates back to around 2003, and to put that into perspective, I was 8 years old that year.

Stories that are just titles / a smattering of ideas right now: 10

Titles in this category: Fletcher (2016), The Dragons of Kitevale (2016), King Ace (2017), Ochako & Mai (2018), Psychanimate (2018), Mage Lights (2019), Trickster’s Gambit (2019), Switching Gears (2019), The Owlands (2019), Goodnight, Starlie (2019).

I always have too many of these for my own good, but this happens a lot if I have stray character designs that I think could maybe go together, and then before I know it the gears start turning in my head to add something more. I’m also really good at coming up with titles and logos to make me love the idea even more, even if there’s not much else to it. I guess you can blame my affinity for wordplay and clever puns for that, haha. Coming up with titles is really fun, but at this point I don’t know what kinds of stories these will be if I choose to develop them, so I gave them a separate category. Making this timeline reminded me of how many logos I still need to make!

Short films / animatics that I could also make into short comics: 7

Titles in this category: The Aurora’s Child (2016), Blue (2016), Harpy (2017), Hearth & Lantern (2017), Leif & Shel (2018), The Healer (2019), In Your Orbit (2019).

My background in animation has afforded me the skills of writing for animation, specifically short films. I have always loved short films that communicate their story through little or no dialogue, and using the character’s actions and emotions to do the talking instead. Unfortunately my dreams of making a short film during school did not come to fruition, but that doesn’t mean the ideas have to go away, regardless of what form they take. I’ve made too many at this point to stop now anyway! I will likely do both a comic and an animatic for each one I decide to flesh out, as I want to practice both kinds of storytelling and they each have their advantages. Plus I could potentially make a comic anthology of these shorter stories in the future. Much like the animatics, the comics would likely be “silent”, in that they communicate more with action than dialogue.

Things I call “illustration worlds”: 2

Titles in this category: Fruit Bats (2017), Lucky Stars (2019)

This one is a bit strange to explain, honestly. I picture these as more of a series of character interactions rather than a cohesive narrative, i.e. snippets of ideas carried out in a bunch of individual scenes, portrayed via illustrations. I am reminded a lot of the character interactions that exist in concept art for games and movies (the ones from Spyro: Reignited Trilogy come to mind). These illustrations would feature characters that could be in any sort of environment or setting, and we learn more about their personalities through each one, whether it’s a simple domestic scene or a fantasy world. There may not be anything much deeper than that, but there doesn’t have to be. A great deal of energy and expression can still be shown with these, and I love illustrations that have their own little stories contained within them. I could even compile them as a series of themed illustrations, hence why I still gave them titles (and once again, titles are fun).

Novels / story ideas I don’t plan on making into comics: 2

Titles in this category: Shining Trigger (2014), A Mightier Pen (2017)

I’ve always loved writing long-form prose ever since I was a kid, and based on how many words these posts end up having, I can’t say much has changed! As such, I’ve always wanted to write a novel someday, but it does require a different skill set than script writing. With my background in animation and my new love of comics added in, I’ve done a bit of both. I might do novelizations of some of my comics later on, but these stories are, for the most part, better suited as written prose in my mind. They focus more on the characters and dialogue, rather than an imagined visual design. Not to say that novelists can’t paint detailed pictures of a character or world’s attributes, but it is communicated differently via words than pictures, especially when you consider the mind’s eye of a novel reader. That “design” has to be malleable enough for the mind’s eye to interpret, but clear enough so the reader knows what it is. I’d have to make sure that any reader could picture what I’m describing with my writing alone, and that’s a difficult balance to strike for a primarily visual storyteller such as myself, but a challenge worth taking nonetheless.

Large comic stories that have big worlds, a lot of characters, etc.: 3

Titles in this category: Starglass Zodiac (2015), Id Pariah (2015), Feather Knights (2017).

I call these “The Big Three”, as they are the stories that will take the most world building, character creation, and story development to complete. They will have multiple chapters, expansive lore, several character arcs, you name it. I am very excited to tackle all of this development of course, but I want to make sure these are given the time they need to come to fruition. These projects will take me years to complete, which is why I choose to balance them with smaller projects in between. The potential these stories have is not something I want to squander, so even if the production moves slower, I feel it’ll be worth it in the end.

Smaller comic stories with fewer characters, simpler concepts, etc.: 5

Titles in this category: Moth to the Flame (2015), The Onomancer (2015), Demon Exchange (2018), Take Wing! Emilia’s Tale (2018), Ashes (2018).

This is worded kind of strangely, but this category is meant for stories that have a smaller “scope” than the larger comic stories I mentioned. That doesn’t mean I love them any less or that they’ll be less developed, but they are far simpler in concept and rely less on the development of a massive world and lore and more on individual character experiences. I feel like any creator needs these smaller projects to tackle every so often, especially when tackling the behemoths gets tough. These stories will also have a faster turnover when it comes to completion, and I hope to complete one of these stories in the near future. These will also help me practice writing good foundations for stories, like proper character motivation, pacing, and relationship development that would translate into investment for the reader. There’s a great degree of skill required to do this correctly for any kind of story, but starting smaller in this regard is usually better.

Smaller stories that are supplements or spin-offs of other stories: 3

Titles in this category: Counting Hearts (2019), The Serpent and the Sun (2019), Riders of Eldrigar (2019).

I know it probably seems a bit early to be thinking about stuff like this, but I do like thinking about the extended stories or supplements that I could add to my pre-existing projects, especially with characters or ideas that would best be told separate from the main story, be they backstories or another perspective on something. I also like the idea of stories that could exist in the same worlds, but can function independently of them as well. It’s a lot of fun to see how these could connect with each other, like having your own equivalent to a cinematic universe. This category currently only has smaller supplements to my comic stuff rather than fully fledged sequels, but who knows what might happen later on? I need to make the beginnings of these stories first!

And with that, the grand total is: 38!

-me after reading this total and spending way too much time on this post-

In all seriousness though, while it is a bit daunting to see just how many things my brain keeps tossing at me and how much that number has increased in recent years, it does make me excited for the future, even if I panic about time a lot. It tells me that I always have stories to tell, and new ones could be right around the corner. I’ll always have something to work on at least! I might periodically update this post as I edit the timeline as well, but for now, thanks for coming along on this little journey with me! :D I hope it was at least entertaining, haha.

#rambles #projects #stories #titles #random #don't worry I'm not tagging all of the story titles lol #long post #oh boy this took me hours and i don't know why lmao #i rant about my stories too much i guess

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soepicsokim · 7 years

Text

cause you dared me

How are you, really? I'm depressed, lonely and my shoulder hurts!

How do you feel right now? I feel tired and in pain What are you thinking about? I'm thinking about sleep and the fact the museum is really empty.

What’s your favorite color? green

What’s your favorite food? Pasta or Pancakes

What’s your favorite dessert? CAKE or COOKIEs

How old are you? 23

What have you learned today? Don't know, I've only been awake for 2 hours

What was your favorite subject in school? Writing and History

What do you do? I'm a intern at the museum along with a secretary at another job.

What are some of your favorite books? O geez I mostly read memoirs or historical books... Profiles in Courage by JFK and 11/22/63 by Stephen King

What are some of your favorite movies? STAR WARS

What kind of music are you into? EVERYTHING

If you were going to write a book, what would you call it and what would it be about? It would be called something like, "Love, Death and Twisted Hope." And it would be a lot like my OC's story but it would be my original story.

What’s one of the scariest things you’ve ever done? Fell in love

What accomplishment are you most proud of? Getting accepted into John Hopkins only to turn them Down!!!! HA. !% school in England baby.

Are you married? No

How did you meet your spouse / girlfriend / boyfriend? N/A

Do you think it’s better to get married when you’re young or better to wait a while? Both.

Do you have any kids? Um.... No

Have you ever thought of adopting? I can't with my health

When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up? Astronomer - still do

How did you get into [INSERT THEIR CAREER FIELD]? Museum Studies. I got into it at the Holocaust museum in Washington DC. There is a room full of blue/black leather shoes and one white pair of shoes. I wanted to know the story to the white pair of shoes and why they were placed on the top of the pile. So I looked into Museum studies.

Would you recommend [INSERT THEIR CAREER] for other people? It's up to you. If you want to spend hours researching an object, restoring and object, and then displaying the object, then sure by all means get your masters degree and work at a museum.

What do you do for fun? I read, write, play video games, sleep.

Do you like traveling? YES

If you could visit any country in the world, where would you go? Germany, Poland, Russia.

Who are some people you’d like to meet someday? O geez.... Um.....

If someone asked you to give them a random piece of advice, what would you say? Be true to who you are. Don't let the world change you. Do what you want to do even if everyone tells you it's wrong.

What’s one of your favorite habits you have? Playing with my hair to calm me down.

What are some things that make you really happy? Superman art. Comic Con's. And a really good Disney movie... COOKIES

What are some things that make you really sad? No cookies, Bad Superman art. Bad museum displays.

What are some things that scare you? CLOWNS, and Ferris wheels

Do you like to plan things out in detail or be spontaneous? Both

Are you a religious person? YES

If you could go back in history, who would you like to meet?...... Um... I can't answer this completely because then people will hate me so I'll give you half of the answer. JFK

Would you rather live in the country or in the city? Well I live in the country... CITY!!!!

What was your life like growing up? good for the most part

What were you like in high school? NERD!!!!

Do you have any brothers or sisters? How many? YES, 1 Sister.

What’s your favorite part about today so far? COFFEE

Who in your life has influenced you the most? How did they do it? O geez. There isn't even enough room to start this list and reasons.

What’s your favorite joke? What's a joke?

Have you ever tried sushi? (Did you like it?) I love sushi

Do you like spicy food? I live in New Mexico. Of course I like spicy food.

How do you like your steak cooked? Medium Rare. (You taking me on a date?)

Do you have a favorite number? 3 Any particular reason why you like that number? My number on every soccer jersey I ever had

If you were a type of animal, what would you be and why? PEACOCK because of the colors

What’s one of the strangest things you’ve ever done? Um not safe for children's eyes... ha ha sorry

What kind of vacations do you like? Fun... Disneyland, Six Flags, Museums.

What are some of your major goals in life? Get my PHD and have people call me Doctor Kim.

What are some of your smaller goals in life? Find a husband

What do you like least about yourself? My everything

What embarrasses you? People making fun of how I look

If you could try out any job for a day, what would you like to try? No idea

What’s your earliest memory?... I don't have many memories any more. The last stroke I had took a lot of my child hood memories away.

What’s the best decision you ever made? College

Who’s your best / closest friend? K.T. @kathlyan and Te'a @bat-lakota

What do you think people think of you? That I'm ugly, I'm TOO smart and I need to get a better job.

What were your grades like in school? Straight A's with a c in math

If you could learn one random skill, what would you learn? Tap dance

Are you an introvert or an extrovert? I can be both at times.

Have you ever taken a personality test? (How did the results turn out?) Um... no I haven't but I took an animal personality text. It said I was an Omega Peacock, I like to be showy but I like to be in the back ground.

What’s the first thing you notice about people? Smiles, eyes, fidgety hands,

Do you think people can control their own destiny? No

Do you think all people are equally valuable, or do you think some people in certain situations might be more valuable than others (say, a severely retarded patient vs. a doctor who could potentially save hundreds of lives)? Huh. Every one is equal. You are the only one that can make your self better or worse. No one causes you to be what you are.

Do you think people are basically bad or basically good? Neutral

Do you think morals are universal or relative to the beliefs, traditions, and practices of individuals or groups? Um... Morals are absolute?

Do you think God exists? Yes

Do you think any kind of afterlife exists? Yes

Do you vote? YES Why / Why not? If you do vote, how do you usually vote? Non of your business - independent

Do you think gay people choose to be gay? Do you think straight people choose to be straight? No comment

Is torture ever a good option? If no, why not? If yes, when? No comment

Would you kill an innocent person if you thought it might mean saving a dozen other people? No comment

What’s the most money you’ve ever given away? Ain't tellen ;)

What’s the biggest personal change you’ve ever made? Depressed to non depressed

What’s the stupidest thing you’ve ever done? hahahaha good times. o man I .... oh your standing there um look a cat!

What do you think would be one of the best steps we could take toward ending poverty around the world? As a historian, I have no comment

What do you think we could do to best improve the education system? EDUCATE THE STUDENTS!!!! Not just standardize test them.

In general, what do you think about art? It's ok

What are some of your favorite websites? NOPE

What’s the biggest turnoff in a man/woman? NOPE

What’s the biggest lie you’ve ever told? hahahahah NOPE, NOPE and NOPE (I Worst day of my life started with this lie.)

What’s something most people don’t know about you? I have 2 rare blood diseases, but I look perfectly fine

What’s something you wish everyone knew about you? I don't want to talk about that

What are some of the first things you do in the morning? Read emails, Read tumblr, read text messages, feed the pets then get ready for the day

What’s the worst thing that’s ever happened to you? I really don't want to talk about it. only 6 people outside of my family know. and 3 of those 6 are my friends here on tumblr

Do you cry easily? Depends on my day... NO

How do you feel about public speaking? Um, I'll do it only if I have too

Do you like to talk on the phone? yes, I like that better than texting

How many emails do you get each week, roughly? 200 for work and school

If someone were to make a movie about your life, who would you hope would play you? ...... hmmmm.... ummm... hmmmm. No idea

What’s one of your favorite questions to ask new friends or to get a conversation going? Tell me something random about you

Would you ever sky dive or bungee jump? No and NO

Have you ever been in a fist fight? YES

What’s the best prank you’ve ever pulled? HAHAHA not telling

What did you do on your 16th birthday? went to school and my boyfriend at the time broke up with me on my 16th birthday

What do you think is one of the most undervalued professions right now? MUSEUM CURATOR's

How would you explain your basic life philosophy? You live, you learn, You pass on your knowledge, You be kind, You love, You die/

Would you rather be hated or forgotten? Neither

If you knew you would die tomorrow, would you feel cheated today? NO

THERE I ANSWERED THEM ALL!!!!!

THIS IS ABOUT ME!

so glad only one person sent in this dare. Just saying I post this numbered questions that way everyone can send me random numbers or send me their own questions.

I got depressed while answering these...

#anon #anona dared me #bleh

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lichfucker · 7 years

Note

Do you have any writing tips?

oh?????????? oh god??????????????????????? nobody has... ever asked me this oh god okay

this got really fucking long so I’m putting it under a cut

start with some idea of what you want to write. it doesn’t have to be an elaborately detailed outline of every scene beat or anything like that. it doesn’t even have to be a plot! it can just be a feeling. regardless, you have to want to get something out of this particular piece of writing. when you sit down to write you have to ask yourself what you want to accomplish. I know that can sound daunting but it can be anything from “I want to work through my anger about this thing” to “I want to get through a sentence.” the important thing is that you want something from your writing.

the reason this is important is bc it’s a lot easier to get frustrated if you don’t know what you’re working towards. I feel this more often with poetry than with prose (bc a lot of times I’ll get in my head abt like, oh I haven’t written anything in two weeks I should probably write and that’s never productive), but when I open up a word doc with absolutely nothing to dictate what I’m trying to achieve, nothing to guide me at all, I tend to write ten words, spend half an hour staring at them thinking that they’re wrong and not knowing how to fix them, and closing the document.

don’t be afraid to let that goal change! a lot of times a story knows what it’s meant to be before you do. if you find yourself being led in a direction different from that original goal, follow that new path. your instinct is the most valuable asset you have. I’ll repeat that: your instinct is the most valuable asset you have.

if you know what you want to write and the problem is just sitting down and writing it already, give yourself a deadline, and make it hard. not hard as in, this will be difficult to accomplish, but hard as in immovable. do not waver on this deadline. this gives you a sense of immediacy, of urgency: no, you can’t come back to it in three weeks. you have to start now.

don’t be upset with yourself if you can’t meet said deadline. nobody will get mad at you. it’s not a personal failure. writing is hard. it’s exhausting. for me, personally, my depression often makes it so I can really only do one Thing in a day, and if I decide that my one thing that day is writing, I will end that day completely wiped out. if you need to put projects on hold for a while, or abandon them completely, that’s okay! you’ve already done so much. you’ve already done so much more than you would have if you hadn’t started at all. and that’s amazing.

when it comes to style, fuck all of the rules people will tell you. people will tell you to vary your sentence length and structure so it’s more dynamic to read. fuck that. people will tell you to find a writer you admire and emulate their style. fuck that. the words are in your brain. write them the way they exist up there. write the way you think. write the way you speak. a “style” will develop over time, gradually, with practice. and it’ll change over time, too! the “style” I write with now is very different from how I wrote two years ago, and that was practically unrecognizable from how I wrote two years before that! and that’s okay! that’s good! that means you’re growing. it doesn’t mean that your old stuff is bad or wrong, just that time has passed.

fuck “write what you know.” write what you like. I like werewolves. I have four completely different werewolf projects in my drafts right now. you’re not ~limiting yourself~ to a certain genre. you’re doing what makes you happy.

you won’t always need a beta reader. you won’t always want a beta reader. you know what you want from your work, and you’ll know if you’re missing that mark. if you do want advice or help, find one or two people you trust (no more than that). don’t take every piece of advice they give you. you’ll know which suggestions resonate for you and which don’t. only make edits that you feel compelled by.

it’s okay if nobody ever reads that thing you wrote. it is! it is. you still wrote. you still accomplished something. you completed (or almost completed, or just began) a really fucking difficult task. nobody can ever take that away from you.

my last piece of advice is this: not everything is meant to be a novel. there’s a really popular post that goes around sometimes where op complains that writing novels is frustrating bc they always envision their stories as movies and there’s no verbal equivalent of a lens flare. that post fucking infuriates me. that’s your story nudging you and saying, “hey, this is the wrong format for me.” if you think your story would make a fantastic movie, don’t write a novel hoping that maybe in 15 years somebody will adapt it for you. you’re doing your story a disservice and you’re wasting your time. if it’s meant to be a novel, it will be. if it’s meant to be a screenplay, it will be. if it’s meant to be a stage play, it will be. if it’s meant to be an epic poem, it will be. if it’s meant to be an audiodrama, it will be. if it’s meant to be a comic, it will be. don’t be afraid to branch out into other media just because you only have experience with one thing. there are so, so many tools out there to help you with formatting and structure for literally every medium. there’s no reason why you can’t learn. if you look at this idea you have and you think, “damn, this would make a baller movie someday,” don’t write it as a novel just because you’ve never written a screenplay before. you can find screenplays online to read and emulate that structure. there are tutorials and books and websites that will help you. and please, please, don’t look at this idea that you have and think, “well, I can’t do that, because I’m only a prose writer.” don’t. don’t limit yourself like that. the whole point of writing is to create, right? don’t cut off your nose to spite your face. you have a story to tell. tell it in whatever medium will do it the most justice. this is so, so important to me. I’ve been a poet and a prose author my entire life. I started writing plays in middle school. I never touched a screenplay until I got to college, and now it’s the thing I plan to build my life around. don’t box yourself in as only one type of writer.

you’re gonna be fantastic.

#Anonymous #bluh bluh #okay to rb #thank you references #I'm putting this in my own reference tag so I can remind myself #because even I forget sometimes #anyway I hope this helped!!

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hollybear009-blog · 7 years

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~MY STORY~

Hi! My name is Holly. I'm 26 years old. I'm Jewish. I am known to be the only member in my whole family that is Jewish. My family is originally Catholic & Christian, I am NOT any of them, surprisingly. I would really like to explore my Jewish faith & Jewish religion. I would like to learn how to speak the Jewish language (Hebrew & Yiddish right?), & learn how to Practice the Jewish ways. That'd be GREAT! I am a 100% REAL person & 100% NOT FAKE person behind the computer & internet, no need to worry or fear about that. I'm a REAL person! No Worries! I am "questioning" myself again (sexual orientation). I'm very confused about it! Drives me CRAZY!!! I always try to make everyone & everything happy in whatever way possible. If they're not happy, then i'm not happy so i do what i can to make them all happy, & accepting of me too. I laugh like a hyena. I think my spirit animal is a wolf, cause i have some wolf in me. I can howl like a wolf, growl like a wolf, & i feel the inner WOLF in me! I'm NOT saying this to be crazy or anything. I've noticed that I'm like a wolf too. I love the woods. I'm a HUGE SUPPORTER & FAN of Hillary Clinton. I am a HUGE Cat & Kitten (pets & animals) FAN too! We've always had them as our pets. We have two cats right now named Buddy & Kiwi. We adopted them from animal shelters. We adopted one cat who was later sick & had to be put to rest in Heaven, & crossed the Rainbow Bridge December 5, 2005! His name was Simba. I miss him sooooooo much! I'm glad that he's not suffering anymore though. I just miss him very much! Rest In Peace Forever Simba! We miss & love you very much! We've lost other family members too that really broke my heart. My grandfather died December 5, 2009, my grandmother (his wife) died September 5, 2014 (i think), a few days after my Birthday (which is September 2nd). I miss them both so much too! And I miss my other deceased family & pets too very much! I'm glad that they're not suffering anymore.I still miss them terribly! Rest In Peace Forever all of you! We miss & love you very much! *tears up sadly* My eye color is dark-green & my hair color is dark-brown, and shoulder-length. I'm overweight, but dieting to lose the weight. I'm 5'3 height too. My fave colors are black, white, gray (grey) dark-brown (like my hair color), & dark-green (like my eye color). I have mental illnesses that caused me to hear voices, hallucinate, smell, hear, feel, see, taste, & believe that there is another world where i once was before, even though it's not true or real. It just seems that way. I get a lot of treatment, & care for them, & my other health problems. I have schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorder, depression disorder, etc. I get tact tile issues, premonitions, psychic dreams, déjà vu, & had a "psychotic break" that caused me to be too sick to stay at my job, so i had to leave it behind. The HARDEST thing for me to have to do! I really liked that job. It paid well for me $8.00 an hour, part-time, lunch-breaks, rest-breaks, & very fun to do. I worked in our town's Mini Market called Kennie's Market. I worked there in their deli area. I thought that it'd be hard for me to do at first, but i did it easily! Then the NIGHTMARE happened to me! Been unemployed ever since then. I volunteer at our local, nearby SPCA animal shelter now. I am a really good person. I am shy, funny, innocent, friendly, kind, caring, loving, supportive, anti-social, introverted, have a good, & a loving personalty. I'm just like anyone else. I think of myself as "unique," & "mysterious." I am an English Major who wants to learn more about William Shakespeare, Abraham Lincoln, & the English Literature. My parents are divorced & have been for a long time. They weren't getting along with each other. I had just Graduated High School & got my very first job, at a Mini Market in their Deli area in our town Gettysburg, when they told my twin brother (not alike) & myself that they were divorcing, & that they're not getting along with each other. I became very mentally ill that same year, just after they planned to get divorced. They stayed together for awhile to help take care of me then. Then soon after they actually divorced. I was sent to a Mental Hospital the next year after getting mentally sick in 2008. I don't wanna talk about it right now. Hope that's okay. Growing up I was always bullied by people, who i thought liked me & were my real friends. In high school i was bullied & harassed so bad that i had to switch schools during junior year. I didn't deserve any of that mess & it was for no reason! I even got the same cruel treatment in Creative Writing Class there too, & had to leave the class I was very upset. No one would do anything about it even though they said they would. I switched schools and was still bullied & harassed by others but it was handled by the teacher. I don't have hardly any friends, just one good friend who i grew up with in elementary school. We're still friends, i guess. I wish that I were treated better by people. And I wish that I had REAL & ACTUAL friends, not just my family. I don't know why people aren't nice or don't like me? I'm very friendly, sweet, & funny. And just trying to be a normal person. Shame. . . I live with my mom & pets in Gettysburg. We have two cats named Buddy & Kiwi. And a new pet hamster that i named Harley (Harley Quinn from Suicide Squad & her other comics. I'm a HUGE FAN of her).My dad lives elsewhere with other people, like women he dates. He's currently dating a woman who i really like to spend time with too. She's very nice, funny, caring, & a very good person. I hope that my dad & her stay together forever, if possible. My twin brother (not alike-i only have one sibling in my family) lives on his own elsewhere or with roommates. He's a USA Marine & a Mixed Martial Arts Fighter (MMA). He's my Best Friend & my loving, caring brother! True, we fight a lot & roughhouse sometimes, but we get along mostly. He's a good brother. Just when he tries to wake me up from naps & sleep is very chaotic cause i sleep a lot cause of my medicines i take for my mental illnesses, my regular health issues, & my mental illnesses themselves. I'm still a very good person, i try to anyways. I always put other's happiness before mine, if they're happy then i'm happy too. I love to read mostly magazines, but i do read regular books like Anne Frank, Suicide Squad & Harley Quinn comic books, & other interesting books. I'm not much of a book reader anymore like i used to be years ago. I used to read books & hate writing. My cursive hand-writing is TERRIBLE! I was never good at that writing part. Now I don't read much anymore, but try to do more stories & novels so maybe someday i will be an Author of them. I started doing them in school, even though as a kid i hated writing. My cursive hand-writing is terrible! Now years later, i enjoy writing and would like to be an Author of Books & Poetry again someday. I also like to read Anime/Manga books too. My dream job is being an animal Vet or an animal Vet Tech. I love animals, not insects though. And be an Author of Books & Poetry. My mom and i volunteer at our local, nearby SPCA animal shelter & socialize with the cats & kittens there. We always love doing that when we do. I'd always joke around with my mom about adopting them, too bad we can't cause we already have two cats right now, so we can't adopt anymore cats yet, if we ever do. Oh well. . .We enjoy being around them when we go see them when we volunteer there. I love Photography, just for a hobby. I also love Art too. I'm kinda a kid-at-heart-type of person. I love cartoons & kid-stuff still. I don't watch them or watch much TV anymore though. I like music too. I only listen to music, not play it on any instruments. Though i remember just now that i'd always enjoy playing music on my grandmother's piano years ago. I mostly listen to music though. My fave sports teams on TV are San Jose Sharks, Philadelphia Flyers, Hershey Bears-Ice Hockey Teams, Penn State, Baltimore Ravens, & Ohio State Buckeyes-American Football Teams. My favorite movies are Suicide Squad, James Bond, Titanic, The Horse Whisperer, Band of Brothers, Anne Frank, etc. My favorite Anime/Manga are Sailor Moon, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Hamtaro, Pokemon, Blue Exorcist, Black Butler, Naruto, Inuyasha, etc. My favorite music bands are Evanescence, We are the Fallen, My Chemical Romance, Disturbed, Within Temptation, Bullet for my Valentine, Korn, Godsmack, Breaking Benjamin, Avril Lavigne, Skillet, Avenged Sevenfold, etc. Well Folks. . .I've run out of things to tell you about me for now. If you wanna know more, feel free to ask me anytime!

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morningmindsetpodcast-blog · 6 years

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MM139 - The Storyteller or The Story

Today you may be the storyteller, but someday in the future, you will be the story. What kind of a story will you be; motivating, inspiring, joyful, funny? You cannot choose the storyteller but you can write your story.

If you like the show, please check out our Official Morning Mindset Merchandise!

Episode Transcription

[INTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

Welcome to Morning Mindset. A daily dose of practical wit and wisdom with a professional educator & trainer, Amazon best selling author, United States Marine, Television, and Radio host, Paul G. Markel. Each episode will focus on positive and productive ways to strengthen your mindset and help you improve your relationships, career goals, and overall well-being. Please welcome your host; Paul G. Markel.

*Professor Paul*

Alright, ladies and Gentlemen, let's get right back into it. Let's get back into the Morning Mindset podcast. I'm going to remind you that on September 4th, 2018. We will begin a 30 episode book study in the book. We're gonna be setting is the Morning Mindset book, Morning Mindset: a 30 Day Plan for a More Positive and Productive Life.

You may have heard me mention this book one time before. Now, I understand that September 4th, at least according to my calendar September 4th is a Tuesday. Well, September 3rd of 2018 is Labor day. It is a national holiday and I work hard enough that I'm going to go ahead and take the holiday off.

So there you go. But on the fourth, we will begin a 30 episode program, uh individual books that one chapter per day of the Morning Mindset book, and I would love for you guys to join me to have your very own book and a pen and a pencil or a highlighter take some notes and we'll get started, and if you'd like to if you haven't secured a copy of the book yet shame on you but it's pretty easy.

You can go to Amazon Kindle and you can download the Kindle version and put it onto your phone and it'll be there very conveniently for you or if you would like a paperback copy that is cool to go to Amazon Prime shipping order it it'll be in your at your door within two days or so and you'll be ready to go.

If you would like an autographed copy or if you'd like a Morning Mindset coffee mug or motivational poster or what have you you can go to Morning Mindset podcast follow the links and you will be all set to go. Alright, let's talk about the main topic of the day the Storyteller or the story.

Recently, I was sitting down having dinner with a friend and we got on the topic of comics and we got on the topic of movies and the topic of Mel Brooks came up Mel Brooks. I hope that you know who Mel Brooks is and. Uh, you're familiar with no Brooks's work his movies Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein and uh the producers and on and on the great great works, and of course later on things like Spaceballs and what have you Mel Brooks is a funny guy.

He's a talented guy and he's been around for quite a while now and I mentioned to my friend that I kind of felt bad for Mel Brooks because he's in his peer group. He's one of the last remaining people. He's one of the.

Remaining guys in his individual peer group, because he's over north of 90, now and he lost his wife Anne Bancroft many years ago and his lifelong friend Gene Wilder recently passed and I said, he's like the the last one left man. He's like the last of Mohicans and in his peer group and if his generation I kind of feel bad for him and my Fred said, well, you know, you don't have to necessarily feel bad for him because now Mel Brooks.

He's the guy that's left to tell the story. He's the Storyteller. I thought about I said, yeah that his fallen on him to be the Storyteller. I thought about my own life. I'm not so old now that I am the last of my generation not even close, but I am at that point. Where I'm old enough to have lost many peers and Friends older peers have have gone away and you know in a few cases people that were younger than me the part of this Earth far too early far too soon and left behind they're storing and so where I am in my life currently I am in the position as the Storyteller.

It's my job to continue to relate the tale to tell the funny stories to tell the sad stories to tell the inspirational stories and the educational stories and you know, uh, it's my job currently to be the Storyteller. But I won't always be the Storyteller someday like my friends and peers and people who I respect and admire who have gone before me someday.

I will be the story and someday you will be the story as well. Now for now, I can take my time and I can dedicate myself and I can tell those stories I can make sure that that information is passed on to Future generations to interested parties and I take that very seriously and I try and do it all the time, but I won't always be the Storyteller and I understand that some day.

I will be simply the story someday. You will be the story, and my challenge to you as you consider, this is what kind of story will you be. Will you be a motivating story where you be an inspirational story? Will you be a funny story? Will you be a story that makes people smile when people think about your tail when they think about your story will they smile?

Well, it make them feel happy. I have a good friend who passed a couple of years ago was 10 years. I think it might have been 11 years my junior. He left way too soon. He shouldn't have gone and it made me very very sad when he left but time has passed and after I get over that, you know that tinge of sadness when I think about him.

He makes me smile when I tell his story when his story is told and makes me laugh and makes me smile. It makes me feel good and I enjoy sharing his story with others. I enjoy relating it with my you know, current friends and those of us who knew him. We can share that story, and even though we're sad that he's gone.

We're happy that we have that story to tell. Now there are others uh, for instance, uh older peers who you know, I was quite there Junior bye, you know, many years decades even one of my original mentors in the in the industry and the field departed a couple of years ago and he was he was funny. He there are some very, very funny Tails, but he also was an inspiration.

He was also very wise and intelligent and when I tell his story his story is not only funny but his story is inspirational and it's motivational as well. So as you progress throughout your life, maybe you are currently the Storyteller. Maybe that's your job. I don't know eventually though. You will be the story.

But the good news is like being the Storyteller you can decide whether or not to be the Storyteller and whether or not to tell the story of others, but you also have the opportunity and the ability right now to craft your story. You can determine what your story is going to be. Based upon your actions based upon what you do when you interact and how with other people how they feel about your interaction with them the what you what you put out there your actions and your words and your Deeds all of those things are out there making up your story.

So as you progress as you are currently the Storyteller, What you can do is, uh, take a little bit of time every once in a while to think about what will your story be and you have 100% I know you don't have 100% power over the Storyteller. You cannot determine how your story is told but you can determine what your story is, and remember there are there will be more than one storyteller.

When you become the story there will be many and hopefully they will have a tail of motivation of inspiration of good humor and of and that your story will bring a smile to other people and it will break inspiration and motivation to them when they hear it. Okay, ladies and gentlemen, that's all I have to say. I'm your host Paul Markel and I will talk to you again real soon.

[OUTRO]

♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

Thank you for spending time with us today. To get show notes, submit a topic request, for more from your host Paul G. Markel, visit MorningMindsetPodcast.com. That’s MorningMindsetPodcast.com. Please leave a review of this podcast on your favorite podcast player, we appreciate your time & effort, and we look forward to reading your honest feedback.

Download this Episode!

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zachwritesstuff · 6 years

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Awesome Trevor: The Long and Winding Road

I’m very used to writing things about other people, products and properties. So this one is going to be a slightly weird one for me. It’s a story of hopeful imagination, and disappointment; Of long hours working to make things perfect, and never finding it; And going through version, formats, people, places and ideas just to keep an idea afloat. But, most importantly, it’s the story of Awesome Trevor, an idea that is eight years in the making, yet so far has not given any worthwhile fruit, no matter how hard we tried. In writing this out, I’m hoping to both show the trials and tribulation of taking an idea from concept to fruition, and how impossible it might seem sometimes. Idealism and inspiration can be a hell of a stimulant, while stalling and depression can be a hell of a… depressant. So maybe someone can get something interesting out of it, or at least find the whole saga entertaining, I don’t know. I should probably quit stalling and actually get to the point… It all started...

Part 1: The Movie

The year is 2010. Just barely out of high school, I was now in Community College, and not working, which was a dumb idea for many reasons. I had worked on independent, or more accurately, amateur, film projects a dozen times, both for class and simply because I wanted to. None of them were good. Despite the fact that I was an adult, I still was not a competent film maker (And some might say that I still am not). But I was young, and still had the delusions of being a big shot director someday. All I needed, I reasoned, was a big project to really pick things up and get a bit of a spotlight. I could continue making simple YouTube videos, but if I actually wanted to get anywhere, I needed to make something bigger.

So I had to make a feature film.

I talked to my regular cohort, Evan Greenhoe. I had known him for a few years at this point, having met when I was still in high school, and we had the same thirst for creating. While he was more of the on camera type, acting and performing music (he still is, but he was then too), I always felt more comfortable behind the scenes, writing and directing. We had talked over projects before, as we always loved making ideas and fleshing them out, and when I told him my desire to make a feature film, he almost instantly handed me the idea of Awesome Trevor.

He had come up with the idea with his girlfriend, Sarah, and had held onto the idea for a little while, never fully formed, but when we started talking about making bigger things, he figured it would be a fit. He had never really formed the idea too terribly deeply, beyond making it a video game inspired piece of a regular joe becoming a hero and saving the princess. We talked out the idea over several days, and eventually we had a strong base to work off of.

Now before I go any further, there is one important note I must add. Around this time, Scott Pilgrim vs The World had just come out. This is important because, in the beginning, Awesome Trevor was a rip off of that. In later years, we would change the story around to make it it’s own thing, but to start with, it was a story of a kind of loser dude going on a quest to save his ex girlfriend from a bunch of people from her past, one of which is even a weird ninja girl. It was a copy.

Now that we had our base, the next step was to write out this masterpiece of original fiction. This was no problem, as I had already written out a few feature length scripts before (all of them going unused, of course). While writing, though, I decided to change up the flow a bit: Instead of one movie, I would make it a six part series, and after all parts were released, I would edit them together as a movie! My genius knew no bounds…

So I got to writing this newly formatted script. I filled it with video game references, witty dialogue, and set it in local areas, so that it would be simpler to film. I introduced the amnesiac main character, Trevor; His tired roommate, Mark; The mysteriously vanished girlfriend, Mary; and the 4 mysterious bosses, Kevin Kurochi, Peyote Jones, Stephanie Connor and Samuel Tanner. The story was of Trevor, who woke up after a heavy night of drinking, to find his memories of a former girlfriend gone, and going on an adventure to get them back with the help of his quip filled roommate.

My wit, it burns....

The scripts, well… They weren’t great. They weren’t bad for an untrained 20 year old, but I would like to think I’ve come a long way from when I wrote them. But the most important thing was, we had our scripts. Now started the pre-production.

We pretty much had our cast right off, as they were mostly friends of ours. I was going to play Samuel, who was a bouncer at a club with super strength; Evan was to play Mark, the plucky costar; Kevin (a samurai), Peyote (a drugged out metal guitarist) and Stephanie (a cloaked ninja) were going to be played by our friends Ken, Adolf and Amber respectively; And Mary, who appeared as herself in only one scene, was planned to be played by a woman named Amanda Alch. who I was going to school with at the time and was already an established actress (Bad Kids Go To Hell and Claws). It’s likely she doesn’t even remember agreeing to appear in it, which is probably for the best.

Our starring role went to a good friend of mine from high school named Kyle Mason. Then, he was a kid in his late teens with an interest in cosplay and video production. Nowadays, he is a professional cosplayer and video producer, so he’s not doing too shabby. It didn’t take much convincing to have him play the lead role, and we were off to the races!

youtube

A Readthrough of the script, which of course didn’t go through any editing

I had even asked a dude I had met in college named James to be our Director of Photography, as he had had more experience working on original projects and camera work. Our hearts were working faster than our minds, and we skipped over dozens of important steps (setting proper schedules, storyboarding, finding proper funding, etc) in our pursuit, instead focusing on marketing, finding places to film, and practicing our parts. We even had popular content producers Video Games Awesome plug our project on their show, despite the fact that there was not any actual substance behind anything we were doing.

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Timestamp is at 9:24. A preview of what never comes...

The best way to sum this up is that is was an embarrassment to filmmaking. Had we actually started production as planned, everyone involved would probably hate each other, and the entire thing would be scrapped after about two episodes. I was saved by James cancelling his involvement, probably rightly sensing that this all was half assed, causing the production to fall behind and ultimately being cancelled due to people no longer being available.

And so the first part of this story ends with but a wisp of smoke that was our hope for a movie. Though we possibly dodged a bullet, I was still frustrated and disappointed by all of it, so I put the idea on hiatus and started working on other things. It would lay there for 3 years before it appeared again…

Part 2: The First Cartoon

2013. I was out of community college, and at the University of Texas. I didn’t fit in very well, and being farther away from home and friends made me a bit of a sad, lonely hermit. I knew several people at school, and though I would consider many of them friends now, back then, they were just classmates.

To occupy my time, I was doing side work for Frederator Studios, makers of such fine cartoons as Adventure Time, Fairly Odd Parents, and Chalkzone. I had become friendly with Fred Seibert, the founder of Frederator, after interviewing him a couple years prior, and he had let me make some videos for their YouTube Channel. While I was doing work there, they started up their Cartoon Hangover project, where people could pitch their own cartoons with relative ease, and if Frederator liked it, they would produce a full cartoon short.

This seemed like an amazing opportunity for both myself and Evan, who had experience with animation. I talked to him about it, and he was on board before I even finished explaining the whole thing to him. Like we always do, we started discussing ideas, and after long deliberations, we narrowed it down to three: Captain Amazo, the idiotic superhero; Metal Mania, which was about a metal bad traveling through space to be the biggest band in the galaxy; And, of course, Awesome Trevor, back from the dead.

Well, back from the dead is a slight misnomer. We had discussed the idea once more in between, thinking of bringing it back as a comic. We got far in our discussions, but never made any physical items to go with it, and soon it went back into its slumber.

Editing note: After reviewing the article, Evan has told me that he actually made a comic cover that he never showed me. The cover, unfortunately, has been lost to time.

Both of us were still feeling the sting from the failed mini-series/movie, and as we were now a little bit older, we decided to be a bit wiser as well. Not wise enough to not choose Awesome Trevor, mind you, but also hedging our bets by pitching two shows, the other being Captain Amazo. (Note: we did plan to pitch Metal Mania as well, but we never got around to finishing it).

So this process was pretty much a rinse and repeat. I went home and made a script, and from there, we began working on a pitch. This new script, while not a ton better than the originals, was still an improvement, and since we weren’t having to go through pre-production and big planning meetings, we were able to take stuff in stride. We kept the same general story, but decided to make stuff bigger and flashier, as we weren’t limited by the shackles of real life. We also changed around some of the character designs, as we wanted to have new actors play the characters.

I’m sure I thought of the shirt designs. I’m a comedy genius.

We kept the base designs of Mark and Trevor, but Samuel the Bouncer was changed to match the person we really wanted to play him, Seanbaby. Once Satisfied, we storyboarded everything out and sent them in to Frederator, eagerly awaiting the approval so we can start again on our dream project.

I wrote in the dialogue myself, despite my awful handwriting.

As these are the first you are ever seeing of the characters or story, it’s needless to say that we were denied. The problem with it was that, whoops, we had sent a full storyboard, when in fact they wanted a beat board (like a storyboard, but using thumbnails instead of large images). He also noted that the end of this pitch was left as a “To Be Continued”, and that they were looking for standalone ideas instead of pitches for full series.

Part 3: The Second Cartoon

While again disappointed, this wasn’t a denial based on content, instead just the way it was presented. So we went back to the literal drawing board and reworked the idea into a standalone. It was at this point, in the first time since the idea was formed, that we decided to change the story up. While we kept the saving the girl idea (as to us, it felt like a very video-game thing), we made him more of a player-character like character, almost like an avatar battling in a game.

Looking back through the beat boards we made, they were lame. While I had grown as a writer, I focused way too much on trying to make something someone else would like, and wrote in a very cliched way. Instead of trying to introduce or establish characters, I made Mark and Trevor generic, and didn’t even give defined forms to the people they were fighting. The jokes were bad, the characters were one note, and for some reason I felt the need to physically write out the dialogue on the sheet, despite the fact that I have terrible handwriting.

Seriously, why did I feel the need to write in the dialogue?!

Evan tried his best to work with what he was given, but I feel that I dropped the ball on this one. And of course it showed when I sent it in and got a response from Eric Homan, who runs all the creative development at Frederator.

“Thanks, Zach, for the work and continued interest.

Unfortunately, "Awesome Trevor" is very far away from what we're looking for in our Cartoon Hangover shorts, in everything from character to story to tone.

I may have recommended this before, but I really suggest you take a look at our shorts as we begin to release them in a few weeks. I think they'll give a better indication of the types of cartoons for which we're looking.

Thanks, again.

-- Eric”

In everything from character to story to tone. That said what needed to be said. Even though I was sour at the time, with five years of hindsight, I realized that Eric was, as he often is, completely right about it, in more way than I could have thought. It was a slapdash job on an idea that was already starting to become kind of stale. We tried to change it up, but in trying to rush this idea to get it made (I checked, there was literally one month between the denial of the first pitch and sending in the second pitch), I did a poor job and let both of us down.

I of course blamed people like Eric, who was just telling me the truth, and situations like my school life, which was causing me anxiety and depression, but deep down I knew that I had done poorly. I had taken this idea, that wasn’t even mine originally, and basically ruined it to the point where we felt like we couldn’t do anything more with it. So at this point, I want to make two apologies. One to Eric, who was simply trying to help and harboured resentment towards for years, and one to Evan, who I kind put a lot of pressure on while we were working on these, and probably wasn’t the best person to work with. Um… My bad.

Part 4: The Past and Future

That last one was probably the last major wave we had in trying to produce Awesome Trevor. It pops up in conversations of ideas a lot, but nothing ever comes to fruition. The closest that ever came after the second cartoon debacle was another video game video series related idea I had. The idea was of an NPC in an open world game who breaks programming and tries to fight back against the player character, who repeatedly kills people for no reason. After discussing that idea for a while, we thought of attaching the Awesome Trevor name to it, as they were both vaguely video game related, and even started jotting down some story ideas. But, like many plans, this one faded away, and was soon in the vault, like the thousand other things we come up with…

And, well, that’s kind of the end. There might have been an expectation of some kind of twist or surprise announcement, but that’s not always how things go. At this point, Awesome Trevor is just an old idea, one that had stewed in our minds for years now. It comes up in conversations every few months, maybe trying out a cartoon pitch again, or doing it as a podcast series, but so far, nothing is set in stone. Hell, it’s possible that after this, a new vigor of interests might pop up inside of us, and the world is finally introduced to this plan that is now 8+ years in the making. You never really can tell.

The main reason I wanted to write this was to just put this all out there, and finally view something of it. Maybe I wanted people to finally see this thing that has been on my mind for a portion of my life. Maybe it’s a cautionary tale of not stepping back and taking the necessary steps to make something come to life properly. Or maybe it’s simply my plea of vanity, begging someone to tell me what I made was good. At this point, I can’t really tell. I just hope someone enjoyed it enough to get to the end.

And man, did it get kind of depressing at the end. Well, for those who made it here, here is your secret easter egg ending. Presented in full is the original draft to the Awesome Trevor Theme Song, produced by the extremely talented Evan Greenhoe. Thank you for reading!

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swipestream · 6 years

Text

An Interview with Brian Niemeier, Part II

Brian Niemeier is a best-selling science fiction author and a John W. Campbell Award for Best New ‘Writer finalist. His second book, Souldancer, won the first ever Dragon Award for Best Horror Novel. He chose to pursue a writing career despite formal training in history and theology. His journey toward publication began at the behest of his long-suffering gaming group, who tactfully pointed out that he seemed to enjoy telling stories more than planning and adjudicating games.

Released this week, Brian’s newest book, The Ophian Rising, concludes his groundbreaking Soul Cycle series. Recently, I sat down with Brian to discuss The Ophian Rising, the rest of the Soul Cycle, and more. Part I of our interview focused on the Soul Cycle. Let’s now find out what is next.

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Returning to how layered your storytelling is and the wide sweep of authors and works that you’ve mentioned as influences, what authors have been most influential to your storytelling?

Frank Herbert. I’ve mentioned before that I read and fell in love with Dune in high school. In fact, it saved my love of reading from being smothered.

Also, Neil Gaiman. I loved the Sandman in its original comic run, loved Good Omens that he did with Sir Terry Pratchett. Neverwhere was okay. I really haven’t liked a lot of his solo stuff since but Sandman was a big influence.

Kevin J. Anderson’s and Timothy Zahn’s Star Wars novels from the mid to late 90s. The Thrawn Trilogy, Jedi Academy, and Dark Saber.

During one of our previous interactions online, you mentioned the importance of reading to an author’s development. What are you currently reading right now?

Right now, I am going back to fill in my Larry Correia collection. I have my copy in paperback of Monster Hunter Vendetta right here and I’m about a third of the way through.

Have you read Son of the Black Sword yet?

Yes. I took an interesting approach to Larry’s work, which is kind of unintentional. I’ve read the first installment of each of his series. So I’ve read Monster Hunter International, Hard Magic, and Son of the Black Sword, so now I’m reading the second book in each one. Hopefully by the time I’m done with Spellbound, House of Assassins will be out.

You are also an editor. Can you describe some of the challenges compared to writing?

Sure. In terms of the challenges, editing is a whole different animal. When you’re just composing original prose, the field is wide open. You know that you have this huge blank canvas that you can put anything you want on there, so you’re really free of restrictions. You can always come back and revise it later.

Editing is a far more technical process. It differs from proofreading in that I mainly provide three services, which is line, copy, and content or development editing. I don’t do what your junior high English teacher does. I’m not going through with the red pen and pointing out, “Well, this is a comma splice. This is ‘it’s’ not ‘its’ so it should have an apostrophe. You want to use ‘whom’ instead of ‘who’ here because it’s in the object.” I mean, if I find those mistakes I will correct them, but mainly I am the last line of defense between the readers and an unsaleable book. I’m there to give suggestions that, if followed, will make your book professional and make it saleable.

The questions I ask myself are: Is this prose easy to read and understand? Is it readable? Do the mood, tone, and themes that the author wants to get across come through clearly? Is the plot advanced? Is every page, paragraph, and sentence doing at least two things? Like advancing character, advancing plot, conveying mood and tone, developing a theme? Is this book structured correctly? Do the pinches and turns and climaxes and, you know, the peaks and valleys come at dramatically appropriate moments to maximize the audience’s emotional impact? Those are just a few of the challenges and, of course, so is doing all of that without killing the author’s voice.

I’ve always got to be on guard to make sure that I’m not editing this book into a book that I would write. It’s got to still be the author’s book because the author is still the ultimate authority. The author can take all of my notes and say, “Go pound sand. I’m not going to take any of this advice.” It’s the author’s call. So I’ve got to make sure that at the end of the day, even if he does take all of my advice, it’s still his book, not mine.

Can you mention some of the books you’ve worked on?

Of the books that have hit the market, I edited Justin Knight’s second book. I’m looking through my list of stuff I’ve edited to make sure I get the title right. That one underwent a title change– that was Praxis.

I also edited a short story for JD Cowan, who you may be familiar with, called “In the Eyes of the Demon”, and, just recently released, Vigil by Russell Newquist.

What’s your next project?

Well. I’ve done my passion project. I’ve done the Soul Cycle, and in terms of indie authors, it was a success. It exceeded my expectations. I was hoping to break even on it and I’ve actually been able to earn a living through that, sometimes supplementing it with the editing. It’s been critically acclaimed, it has gotten some great reviews, so I’m pleased. Well done, good and faithful Soul Cycle. Thanks to all the readers who supported it.

Now that we’ve got the more complex, layered, I don’t to say inaccessible story, but there is a curve you’ve got a surmount to get into Nethereal. I think you’d agree it’s kind of a tough nut to crack. You have to figure out how to approach it. I chalk that up to, one, being the first book in a series that tells a rather complex story, and that’s just how the story is. I mean, I simplified that thing as much as I could. And two, Nethereal is the midpoint of the whole saga.

I do at some point plan to go back and do a four book prequel trilogy that explores the life and times of Almeth Elocine and his rise and fall. We see him in the prologue of Souldancer and he shows up one more time in that book. Then he shows up a couple times in The Secret Kings near the end. Really, as has been hinted, everything is really his fault. The Guild itself, the purge of the Gen and other non-human races, and their defeat. It’s kind of all on him, which will be made clear. Nethereal is very much the echo of what he did before he got to Kairos at the beginning of Souldancer. I think he’s my most compelling character. You’ll get to see a bit more of him in The Ophian Rising. He’ll actually get to see him take the field and do stuff this time, so there’s a little tidbit for you. We’re going to examine him, but that’s not my next immediate project

So again, we’ve done the heavy stuff, we’ve done the more literary stuff, and you guys have been good. It’s time to give you a treat:

The next project is giant robots.

Let’s have some fun. Let’s get in our giant mecha and let’s blow up some space colonies. Let’s shoot the big laser straight down the middle of the approaching squad of enemy mechs and just watch them blossom in sequence into Christmas lights.

Like Macross or Gundam?

Remember when Nick Cole and Jason Anspach first launched Galaxy’s Edge? Before they had the title, they just called it #StarWarsNotStarWars. This is #GundamNotGundam. I say Gundam all the way. I mean, I like what I’ve seen of Macross, but I’m a Gundam fanboy. I love it so and I’ve got to be really careful because Bandai is super uptight even more than Disney about protecting their IP. I will probably not be able to use #GundamNotGundam in marketing. I’ve already got five books outlined for it.

There has already has been a short story published in that universe It’s called “Anacyclosis”.

Is that the story hosted on Sci Phi Journal?

Correct. So anybody who wants a foretaste of what’s coming next can go check that out. There’s quite a bit of the lore of that series contained in that story. It’s a good jumping on point.

Earlier this summer, you released a novella, “The Hymn of the Pearl”. Could you tell us a bit about it?

Anyone who signs up for my newsletter–which you can do through my website Kairos at BrianNiemeier.com–gets a free copy of my first novella “The Hymn of the Pearl” for free. It’s been described as a sort of historical fiction but in a version of Late Antiquity that never was. There are two competing magic systems practiced by two competing orders of priests. It deals with the fate of humans and gods and how they can’t be created or destroyed, just moved around. There’s a redemption story. There’s an attempt to start a war. It’s good, clean, wholesome fun.

Is this a setup for a future project or is it self-contained?

Right now, its self-contained. I do have ideas where I might go with it. There’s enough demand for an entire series. I have had people who’ve read it saying how much they want a sequel, but just as many have told me, “No, no, this is perfect as it is. I wouldn’t want to see you cheapen this with a sequel. I wouldn’t want to see you water it down.”

Let’s just say that there might be a sequel to “The Hymn of the Pearl” someday, but it’s on the back burner. I’m going to focus on my mecha series next.

* * * * *

Thanks again to Brian Niemeier for his time and for writing the genre-bending Soul Cycle series.

You can get the final book of the award-winning Soul Cycle today, and complete your collection by picking up the other captivating books in this supernatural space adventure series.

An Interview with Brian Niemeier, Part II published first on http://ift.tt/2zdiasi

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