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theonethatyaks93 · 5 months

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Huge Announcement!! (I'm Taking Animaniacs/Pinky and The Brain Fic Requests!) (Please Read for Information!)

Hello to all my Animaniacs friends and Pinky and The Brain acquaintances!!! After much consideration and a 5-month-long hiatus from fanfiction writing, I've decided that it's time to get back on it! I have multiple Pinky and The Brain fanfics being planned out right now, but while I compose more things for you (including the next chapter of "When He Loved Me" which is back by popular demand), I want to announce something to all of you that I hope will go over well.

With the Animaniacs reboot concluding earlier this year, and the fandom slowly winding its way down the obscurity route, I wanted to do something to keep the fandom chugging. I've actually wanted to do this for a few months, but now seems like a great time to start this little idea. So I've decided:

I'm Going To Start Taking Requests for Fanfics Here On Tumblr!!!

That's right!!! You guys will have the opportunity to submit fanfic ideas/prompts to me that you've always wanted to see in the community. I'm going to be making a second blog, where I will be accepting requests for fanfics and will be posting them onto Tumblr directly. I will also make these prompts available on AO3 in a compilation fic where I will also be mentioning the ask in the notes. I want to mainly focus on Brinky, Yax, and of course, the Warner Siblings and their dynamic. The blog will (maybe) be titled NarftasticFicRequests (TBD as official name) and I will be accepting both Pinky and The Brain, and Animaniacs writing ideas. I think that this is a great prompt to encourage me to write and to keep these fandom spaces alive and well. I don't have the intro ready yet for the new blog, heck I haven't made the new blog yet, but wait to see it pop up in the next few weeks. However, while the introduction hasn't been made, I am going to set down a few ground rules/boundaries here right now:

There will be absolutely NO 18+ content allowed. There are a ton of fics out there with mature labels that you can find; you don't have to look hard. I do not feel comfortable writing that stuff yet. Don't ask for smut of any kind because you will not get it, I guarantee that. The farthest I'm willing to go is deep kissing (i.e. tongue) but I'm only willing to do that for Pinky and Brain exclusively, since it doesn't seem to bother the fandom that much. I WILL NOT do that stuff for Yakko and Max because it doesn't sit well with me since they are so young. If deeper, more aggressive kissing is involved in Brinky fics, the tag: mildly spicy mice, will be used to indicate this. It won't be in every fic, I promise. :)

2. NO WARNERCEST REQESTS!!! That will get you promptly banned off of both my blogs for the foreseeable future. I HATE THIS SHIP SO MUCH THAT IT HURTS. This also ties into the no 18+ content label mentioned earlier. Do not ask for this.

3. Fic requests may take up to a week or more to complete. It will depend on the ask itself and the story ideas I compile together. I'm very busy with other life things and stresses that it will be difficult to find the time to work on these. I will optimize weekends for fic writing to my best ability, but I will let you guys know if I'm taking a break. When I'm taking a short break, the ask box will be closed temporarily, but it will be re-opened.

4. Other ships such as Billie x Julia, Wakko x Louie Duck, and Dark Pinky x Future Brain will be accepted if you request them. If these take longer to make, it's going to be because I haven't written for these ideas before and I will need time to make sure everything is done decently. I'm also accepting AU ideas such as gender-swaps (I have a really good idea if y'all want to see a gender-swapped Pinky and Brain) . However, parody ideas will be extremely risky to request since if I haven't seen the material, I can't make the parody and if I have seen it, I might make a whole fic based on it rather than just a simple one-shot.

5. If your request takes longer to complete, it's likely because I am working on a fic for AO3, most likely my Christmas/Winter fics, or a tedious multi-chapter. Don't think I've abandoned your request; I will get to you ASAP after I'm done with whatever project I'm on.

6. Certain things that are banned from the askbox: mean comments, smut requests, Warnercest, non-Animaniacs/PaTB requests, harassment of other individuals. Certain ships, such as Warnercest and Brain x Julia will not be allowed either due to personal and emotionally scarring reasons.

7. Last thing: Enjoy it!!! Make requests that are angsty, silly, fluffy, sad, or happy! Think about what you've always wanted to see in a fanfic, or an idea that you would enjoy seeing my take on. Just make sure to follow my rules and boundaries so we can all enjoy this as a fandom.

I'm really excited to get this started!!! It will take a while to put everything together. Stay tuned for an announcement that the blog is up and that you can start submitting requests. Look out for the new blog as well, and the intro post that'll contain the official rules and a little more about the blog. Once again, I'm extremely ecstatic to start taking your requests, and I might even post non-requests on the blog as well. I know this might seem a little late since the reboot is over, but I sincerely pray that this new blog can continue to keep the Animaniacs/PaTB fandom alive, at least for a little while longer. I hope that you guys get some ideas for requests while this new second blog takes shape. Hoping it'll be up by the end of next week. Fingers-crossed that this ideas doesn't blow up in my face!!! See y'all soon!!!! Narf!!!

-theonethatyaks93

#animaniacs #pinky and the brain #animaniacs fanfiction #get those requests ready!!!#more updates to come soon as I get the blog ready #please do not request fics on my main blog wait until I get my second blog out #that being said get ur requests ready!!! im excited to be contributing more to the fandom space #hope everyone enjoys this idea!!!

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chayscribbles · 7 months

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chayscribbles’ monthly writing update ☆ august/september 2023 double feature

☆ STATISTICS.

words written: 4273 in august; none in september BUT that's because i did a lot of revising

projects worked on: Gemini Heist in august; Andromeda Rogue in september, then procrastinated so hard i ended up writing a few paragraphs on Third, Secret Wip

proudest accomplishment: i compiled all my AR1 beta feedback without giving in to the urge to set the book on fire and also myself

books read: Network Effect (Murderbot Diaries #5) by Martha Wells

☆ GENERAL COMMENTS.

so basically i started off august decently solid, working on gemini heist while andromeda rogue was off being torn apart by the betas. (i'm joking. it didn't get torn apart. i think you guys were being way too nice actually.)

and then all kinds of shit hit the fan in my personal life all at once in mid-august. both good and bad. it was a lot.

anyways the first half of september was spent recovering from all that, BUT i took a week off work mid-september to catch my breath and also get back into writing, and it was really good for me.

on another note! i am very seriously considering making an etsy shop for some of my art, because as much as i loathe the thought of monetizing my hobbies, we are living in a cost of living crisis, and i don't wanna be in my ice water soup era forever, ha. anyways stay tuned. (and if you think it would be a good idea/you think yourself or others would be interested in buying things PLEASE LET ME KNOW. EXPLICITLY. because otherwise i will assume no one cares and the idea will fizzle out.)

more specific wip-related comments + featured excerpt below.

☆ COMMENTS: ANDROMEDA ROGUE (draft 2 editing)

i went through all the beta comments during my week off and while i am glad it doesn't look like i'll have to do any more BIG rewrites, editing sucks and i want to give up.

☆ COMMENTS: THE GEMINI HEIST (draft 0.5. okay fine it's draft 1 but i feel better about myself if i call it draft 0.5 okay)

honestly when i was working on this feels sooo long ago i don't even remember what there is to say?

i hit 20K at some point in august. i think.

OH YEAH i "finished" act 2/7. the quotation marks are because i absolutely did not finish it, i only finished writing all the main plot-relevant scenes and skipped anything else. which means there's like a whole chapter and a half that haven't actually been written bc they're probably gonna be exposition or character building stuff that i haven't figured out yet and i'm hoping will be easier once i know what actually happens in the rest of this story. (reminder that i am a plantser.)

anyways i suspect this wip will be going dormant again for a while as i focus on getting AR ready for publishing. (sidenote it's been over a year since i started the GH draft and i feel like i've done fuck all on it besides come up with useless lore and make extremely specific playlists. world's slowest writer. the playlists slap, though.)

☆ FEATURED EXCERPT.

uh have this random snippet of Euna about to pop off!

Somewhere far, far, away, Leo was shouting, “Just get your ass out of there, Li!” but her voice seemed muffled in Euna’s ears, blocked out by the rage that had been steadily mounting ever since that guard shot her arm and ruined the fight for her. All she could hear was the blood rushing through her own ears, the buzz of the guard’s electrified gauntlets, the crackle of the electricity in her own hand. She reared her good fist back and slammed it into the guard’s face. Their nose made a sickening crunch against Euna’s knuckles. Blood flowed down over their mouth and chin as they staggered back, but Euna wasn't done. Her right arm, still spouting sparks, swung into the side of their head, finally bringing them down. Before they could get up again, Euna dropped on top of them, pinning them to the ground with her knees on their chest. She grabbed their shoulders and yanked their upper body off the floor, preparing to slam them down one last time— Purple light surrounded her. For a frightening second, she couldn’t move. Then she was thrown off the guard and dragged, upside-down, through the air towards the exit.

☆ TAGLISTS. let me know if you want to be added/removed to any of them.

general taglist:

@nicola-writes @dgwriteblr @the-orangeauthor @onomatopiya @quilloftheclouds @ashen-crest @writeblrfantasy @celestepens @stardustspiral @pepperdee @extra-magichours @avi-why @lefttigerobservation @chazzawrites @bardolatrycore @innocentlymacabre

andromeda trilogy taglist:

@bebewrites @nicola-writes @dgwriteblr @the-orangeauthor @onomatopiya @akindofmagictoo @quilloftheclouds @nora-theteawriter @ashen-crest @corpsepng @writeblrfantasy @toboldlywrite @celestepens @stardustspiral @pepperdee @cheerfulmelancholies @extra-magichours @writeouswriter @cilly-the-writer @lefttigerobservation @rose-bookblood @drowsy-quill @chazzawrites @cynic-and-chief @enchanted-lightning-aes @aesa @outpost51

gemini heist taglist:

@florraisons @akindofmagictoo @cream-and-tea @nicola-writes @memento-morri-writes @antique-symbolism @rose-bookblood @afoolandathief @pepperdee @avi-why @zonnemaagd @chazzawrites @analogued @enchanted-lightning-aes @innocentlymacabre @kahvilahuhut @celestepens @cilly-the-writer @extra-magichours @onomatopiya @outpost51

#chayscribbles writing update #wip andromeda trilogy #wip andromeda rogue #wip gemini heist

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stopscammingartists · 7 months

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I find it funny glip still screams about how the farms has besmirched their little cult despite the farms is basically dead and barely kicking, meanwhile this blog and youtube accounts are more active. Also more and more youtubers are covering obscure infamous internet people so the walls they set up are slowly going to fall. I foresee a fairly big commentary channel covering this hopefully.

It's easier to get people to look the other way if you claim your detractors are just transphobes being transphobic and not, a collective of people you have hurt over the years finally speaking out and unbiased content creators looking at the facts and going 'holy fucking shit'.

Just look at this disclaimer Riiser put in the corner when reading the Bex/Kasaran discord logs.

Because, yeah, there's just no sort of 'feelings talk' that can get around how shitty Kas treated @hexcryingwolf here. It's transparently manipulative and a transparent final attempt to regain a once dedicated member of the group.......yknow, like a cult would do.

The main reason people got together to make floraverseisacult.com is because a lot of the history and the extent of the depravity these people have done are so scattered and complicated, that it's hard to really fully grasp how fucking bad these people are.

There's no getting around the complicated nature of these stories and all of the many different names involved throughout the years.. but having most of the stories compiled in a single place makes it easier to approach. Both Insomiac's video and Riisers documentaries are great for this end too, arguably even better. Since it's easier to sit and listen to a video instead of reading that giant ass website.

I agree with you, I think other content creators might want to cover this. It's become feasible for them now that the information has become accessible and only becoming more-so with time. I know of a handful of youtubers that has expressed interest in the topic in private.

I want to talk about something a bit personal, so I'm putting it under the cut.

You want to know the real reason I maintain this stupid blog I started in 2016? Because I see Glip and others doing this time and time again. I have had people come to me to tell their stories of what these people have done to them time and time again. I have been a shoulder to cry on and a platform used to publish ones story and obtain closure time and time again. For both the named stories that are public, and some that are not and never will.

I have actually been secretly friends with Vinnie for I think two or three years before they left (Before anyone asks, no, we did not talk about Floraverse stuff during this time.). One time they approached me wondering if we where still friends because they had a disagreement with a shared friend of ours. I wasn't there and haven't even heard of this disagreement. I had to reassure them that my friendship with them is wholly independent of their friendship with our shared friend. Wondering all the while what the fuck did these people do to Vinnie that would give them the idea that this was normal to begin with. I later asked our shared friend what happened, and they didn't even register the incident as a fight and was fine with Vinnie. It was a minor disagreement about fucking weed.

It was a small thing, but it really stuck out to me then and even now. How these people warp the perception of healthy relationships to the point where all the people in their grasp are regularly walking on a pile of eggshells, glass and molten rocks and think it's normal to be this way.

Since Vinnie is now out I asked about this, and yeah, they had something like this happen to them where a lot of friends in Floraverse cut them off at once because of something wholly unrelated to them. As in like, when all of Vinnie's Floraverse friends cut them off because they became close with Jolly (something wholly unrelated to them) it was actually the second time they have collectively did this to Vinnie. Pretend to be surprised with that one.

I am so, so, so fucking glad that this is being treated with the seriousness it deserves by unrelated parties. No one should have to go through this.

#floraverse #glitchedpuppet #forbidden flora #forbiddenflora #pengosolvent #fox flux #foxflux #forbiddenflor #glip

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carriagelamp · 2 years

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I haven't done one of these in ages... mostly because I've been kept way too busy to read much or even think about compiling what I did get around to reading orz But I have had a chance to read at least a few fun things this year so far and decided to round up some of my favourites!

Asterix and the Griffin

I finally read the newest Asterix comic. My main takeaway: it wasn't one of my favourite Asterix stories, but none of the new ones have been, but I do think it's one of the best by this new team so far. The finale was beautiful! Also, I hate Papercutz and would fistfight them in an alley.

The Complete Brambly Hedge

I read this back in January and it was so soft and sweet. I love these sorts of children stories, and the art was stunning. Honestly, I kind of feel like I need to buy this one. Any story about tiny little guys living in a big world is a set up for me to fall in love, and this one came complete with cute little mouse house cutaway diagrams!

Carry On

I was super skeptical about this one to start with, the Harry Potter satire just felt... way to heavy-handed, but when it finally clicked... boy did it ever click. I think this ended up being my favourite book that I've read this year so far, I am completely smitten with Simon and Baz, they were excellent protagonists and the audiobook I listened to did excellent work.

Critical Role: The Mighty Nein Origins: Caleb Widogast

I listened to a few episodes of Critical Role and enjoyed it, but never managed to stick with it, instead I mostly absorbed this series through dashboard osmosis. Still, I knew enough that reading the comic was a real treat. The art was beautiful, and poor Caleb really had a rough go...

Failed Princesses v5

The latest volume of Failed Princesses. Me and my brother are hooked, though as he put it you could cut the drama with a knife. In a good way. Bless these useless lesbians.

Heartstopper v1-3

I started watching the Netflix show, so obviously I had to go back and reread the first three books! And finally get my shit together and order the fourth in... Continues to just be cute as anything. Would recommend both the graphic novels and the show, they're both acting as a balm for my soul.

Kiki's Delivery Service

Did you know the Ghibli film was based off a children's novel?? Because I sure didn't! I bought this on a whim when I saw it in the local bookshop, and it's adorable. It fits that common 20th century kidlit genre where you have a main character going through little mini adventures/experiences in each chapter. The first book is almost a one to one with the movie, though it diverges at the end. Still, for a kid's novel, it was a delightful, quick little read.

Modelland

This is an actual nightmare that me and my girlfriend were reading outloud to each other for a few months. We finished it in January, but at what cost. I have never read anything so absolutely off the wall fucking weird. I have no idea what Tyra Banks was thinking and I'm not convinced she knew either. Way more fun than it should have been, it was captivating in the same way as a car crash.

Mr Popper's Penguins

A classic kidlit novel I had always meant to read and just had never gotten around to. Finally knocked it out in a day, and found it very charming. I can see why it's stuck around in our collective conscious.

The Outbursts of Everett True

I had seen comics of this floating around on tumblr for a while and finally decided to pick up a copy and read it. Despite how old the comics are, it really does tap into a timeless secret desire to just kick the shit out of people who mildly inconvenience us. Is it serious, or take itself seriously? Absolutely not. Have all the jokes aged well? HECK NO! But there was enough that felt VERY relatable and satisfying that I definitely though it was a worthwhile read!

The Purple Smurfs (and two other stories)

I had never read any actual Smurf comics, which feels odd given how big it was a few decades back. It was an enjoyable comic with very pretty art, though it reinforces, once again, my desire to feed Papercutz to rapid ladybugs. Why are they the only game in town for Smurfs comics?? These are classics, I'd thought they'd be everywhere!

Spiderwick v1-3

I've been working my way through the Spiderwick books this week, since I hadn't read them since I was a kid. They really are superbly written little novels. They never try to tackle too much in one book, and ensure what they do is imaginative, slightly horrifying, and accompanied by the most gorgeous art you can imagine. I'll never forgive the movie they'd attempted, because this series was a work of art.

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princess-stabbity · 1 year

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the main reason i haven't been posting much lately is i got pathfinder: wrath of the righteous for my birthday and it's eaten my brain. i suggested amy play it, and offered to compile a mini guide, based on the immense amount of walkthrough reading and trial-and-error i have endured to get the most out of this clunky but enjoyable game. this is that guide. feel free to read or reply with your own tips, tho technically i'm just posting this here so it won't get lost in our messages.

in order (so you can know where to skip to) we have

general tips

mods

combat tips

crusade tips

general build tips

party build tips

chapter 1 tips

chapter 2 tips

chapter 3 tips

chapter 4 tips

general story tips

the secret ending

general tips

if you want a more detailed and spoilery guide, check out neoseeker or search the pathfinder_kingmaker subreddit (which is the main source for neoseeker's guides). the wiki kinda sucks.

the toybox mod is highly, highly useful. it's basically a dozen mods in one: it lets you get achievements with mods enabled, changes the dumb alignment system, allows polyamory, lets you cheat stuff into your inventory, respec characters on the fly, hear dialogue interjections from absent party members, etc. i strongly recommend it.

save like crazy. good god, the backtracking i have done.

owlcat's sense of pacing is real weird. like apparently in kingmaker they completely reverse the usual rpg logic and you need to do main quests before you can kick it with side quests (...usually). wrath of the righteous is a little better, but still kind of weird and uneven. i'll try to give headsups in the story tips section, but if in doubt, check if there's a lil red hourglass symbol in the journal. that means you need to do that before the main questline is done. they also usually warn you if a main quest is a point-of-no-return for the chapter.

the alignment system is...pretty dumb, imo. as i understand it, "good" and "evil" choices actually pull you towards neutral good and neutral evil, so you can end up like a guy i saw on the subreddit recently, who ended up losing his paladin powers while being explicitly praised by an angel for "pleasing heaven." bc it knocked him into neutral good. anyway, this is why i strongly recommed turning on toybox's "fix alignment system" setting, which should make it work the way you'd expect it to.

have at least one companion with high perception (pets are great for this, and every character rolls independently so more is better) and keep your finger on that tab key, brother. there are hidden shinies every goddamn where.

the puzzles are plentiful and most of them are very bad and annoying. i don't recommend bothering trying to figure them out yourself, just look up a solution. i say this as somebody who usually rawdogs bioware's tower of hanoi obsession.

while resting in the field, there are roles that call for one character to have high lore (religion), one to have high stealth, one to have high knowledge (world), one to have high knowledge (arcana) OR (iirc) lore (religion), and two to have high perception. one character can't fill multiple roles at once. that said, the knowledge rolls are optional (crafting/buffs), and the perception roles won't be needed if stealth does well enough. main takeaway being: try to keep at least one character with you that has a high religion score, and one that has a high stealth score, so you can rest peacefully.

if you see a nice item in the shop, it will probably be available in later acts. i busted my ass trying to buy shit early, in case i lost access to the vendors who sold it, but i've found most things are available again later from a different vendor. there are exceptions, but like. don't worry too much. the main upside of buying stuff early is that in some cases, it allows you to get two. main ones to look out for, off the top of my head, are the icy protector and red salamander rings. you can get two of those. broadly i'll say that, if you're debating what to buy in chapter 1, start with hawke and joran's stock.

when you leave an area, a prompt comes up that allows you to snag all the loose gear left on the map. you can sometimes use this to get around weight limits by dropping stuff and picking it back up via this menu, right before you leave. that said, buy bags of holding as soon as you find them.

"bulk selling" allows you to gather all the vendor trash in one go, which saves a lot of time and helps show what is, in fact, vendor trash. which is smth i struggled with a lot, early on. sell those giant spider legs, they ain't used for shit in this game.

in general, if it ain't unique and you're not using it, sell it. i've even sold some uniques i know i'll never use, like that diadem only usable by kineticists.

mods

unity mod manager

toybox. strongly recommend turning on "fix alignment," "allow achievements," and "no jealousy"

modfinder. a tool that lets you browse, search, (un)install, and update mods from both the nexus and github quickly and easily.

won't bother linking them all (should be able to find them in modfinder if you're interested) but for extra subclasses, feats, etc, i use tabletop tweaks, expanded content, and tome of the firebird. i find it kind of tricky and glitchy, but visual adjustment 2 allows changing portraits and character models. respecmod allows you to fully respec characters, rather than being restricted to respeccing them from the level you recruited them at (e.g., you could make seelah not a paladin, or choose new hexes and spells for ember's first 3 or 4 levels).

note that when updates hit, your mods may need to be updated, and since they get baked into your save, you can be SOL if a mod you're using is broken by an update and been abandoned by the author. so maybe don't be like me and download like 4 different class content mods. (that said, in my experience so far, mod authors have been very fast at updating for patches. the toybox dev in particular is quick as hell, thank christ.)

combat tips

the difference between life and death in this game is buffing. try to get a grip on what buffs do or do not stack, and which ones can be cast in advance so you don't have to spend a turn on it. some good ones in my experience: mage armor, protection from alignment, resist/protection from elements, all the stat buffs (e.g. cat's grace), magical vestment, barkskin, haste.

pets are god. dogs, wolves, and velociraptors are especially great, because they can trip enemies (w/o needing to select the "trip" feat), which makes the enemy lose a turn (they have to spend it getting up) and opens them up to bonus attacks from all party members in melee range (attack of opportunity). mounts (esp horses) also rock because their AC and health essentially act as a barrier, so make 'em as chunky as possible. investing in better stats (via the boon companion and/or mythical beast feats) is recommended, esp if you're multiclassing.

don't forget to buff pets! i give them all mage armor and magical vestment, just as a baseline, and if a tough battle is coming i also use bull's strength/cat's grace and uh. animal embiggerer. whatever the name is, i forgot and don't feel like looking it up. both camellia and nenio should be able to get it. oh, barkskin is good, too, i have lann cast his on his pet, since he's rarely on the frontlines and has great AC. magic fang, esp the improved version that lasts for hours, is great.

scrolls are fun and easy to use. they can fail if your character doesn't have a high enough "use magic" skill, but there's no skill check if it's a class spell (i.e., one their class can learn, not necessarily one they already know). this basically means you get a free casting of that spell, no spell slot required. arcane int-based casters can also learn spells from scrolls (tho you lose those extra spells if you respec and will have to learn them again).

scrolls are also good for having access to cures for some of the nastier debuffs, especially in chapter 1, where you don't have access to a cleric unless you rolled one yourself or specced lann into it. buying some emergency remove blindness and restoration scrolls are recommended.

potions can basically act as a free spell, just like scrolls, but with the added bonus of not requiring any "use magic" skill. so have your fighters and rogues etc glug away

crusade tips

the key is to recruit either chief ageboya or setsuna shy as your general (and, if you create a second force, recruit whichever of the two you didn't pick first). place melee units to stand guard in front of archers, and use the archers + your general's scorching ray/fireball to wreck the shit out of enemy units before they can even reach your melee lines. once they get healing spells and some ranks in master of maneuver (+1 unit per army) shit really pops off.

don't accept heavy losses. reload.

never feel like you have to fight an enemy army that isn't marked green. just wait.

bite the bullet and give irabeth that 7k for extra soldiers, it's worth it.

my fav units so far are hellknights, clerics, shieldbearers, and any kind of archer but especially marksmen and mongrel archers. pick up more of these units often.

army get strong from more guys + the general leveling up

it can be difficult to figure out a good rhythm for moving your party vs moving your armies, but you pick it up after awhile. basically, have your army move until they run out of points, then send your party wherever they need to go. once the clock at the top of the page hits midnight, take control of your armies again to hit "continue" so they continue moving. switch as often as necessary to get everybody where they need to be.

when building outposts, start with the engineering workshop (lowers costs for all subsequent buildings), then start placing a supply cart in basically every outpost you've captured. inns can generate income, but only if you place them before/instead of garrison buildings.

i would also recommend saving the left block of space in drezen for the 4-square buildings, and building stuff like hospitals and apothecaries in the lower block of space, leaving the main block for military units and buff buildings. but that's just me.

don't feel like you have to wipe every enemy off the map. due to the way morale mechanics work, it's good to spread battles out a bit.

in chapter 3, it's better to spend funds on buildings and mercs than trainable troops (e.g. footmen, archers, light scouts). try to have a decent number of forts built up by the end of the act.

save a few decrees that boost morale for a rainy day. just in case.

there's a limit to how many forts and bastions you can have, so think strategically about which ones you want to upgrade. having the ability to teleport to different parts of the map can really help cut down on travel time (assuming you want to).

you can save while on the world map (tho only one save per in-game calendar day for some reason), and it's a good idea to save before entering drezen, because often scenes in the citadel will trigger automatically when you load in.

general build tips

i recommend tabletop tweaks and respecmod. the former adds some good content from tabletop (the pet feats in particular are great), and respecmod allows you to fully respec your companions (goodbye, subpar class choice and un-respeccable character levels!) or respec your main character without having to fully remake them from scratch and lose their 'biography' section. i can grab the relevant settings for you if need be (took a lot of trial and error to get a handle on that).

dexterity is king. high dex builds are generally much sturdier than armor-based ones. part of why cat's grace is arguably the best of the stat buff spells.

point-blank + precise shot are basically necessary for everyone except strict melee characters. even spellcasters have to take these as soon as possible, because many spells count as ranged attacks and frankly you don't have enough slots early on not to use a crossbow anyway.

due to an exploit, lots of people take the crane style feats to buff AC. it goes dodge -> improved unarmed strike -> crane wing/riposte/etc. i don't really think they're necessary on normal difficulty (and tabletop tweaks might remove the exploit by default? haven't checked) but it's good to know.

another very good feat chain is weapon focus -> dazzling display -> shatter defenses, especially if you decide to go with the trickster mythic like i did and get the persuasion 1 trick, or have a skald or dirge bard in your party.

the outflank teamwork feat is also fantastic. mostly for melee fighters, but if you have a feat to spare on a ranged fighter, you may as well (iirc they can proc but not benefit directly from it). make sure to get it on pets, too, including mounts (they count as being in range with their rider at all times!). pets need 3 int to choose teamwork feats, so either give them all a boost to intelligence, or wait until you have a +2 int tiara and keep it in the inventory to put on them for levelups (as i do).

archmage armor and abundant spellcasting are very good mythic abilities for spell casters. you probably want to prioritize them. note that archmage armor only works if YOU cast mage armor on yourself (e.g., don't have a party member do it for you), but the bonus still applies if it's via potion or scroll.

cleaving shot is a great mythic ability for ranged characters. it's free AOE.

if you get tabletop tweaks, there's a short feat chain that's smth like nature spirit -> animal companion, which is a pretty low-cost way to get an animal companion without multiclassing. go wild. who needs to fit thru doorways.

combat reflexes and ever ready mythic ability are excellent choices for melee units, especially with trip and outflank. extra attacks of opportunity basically let your melee units say "oh no you don't" when enemies try to run past them to hit your ranged characters.

if you want to plan future builds, you can always save, then use toybox to grant yourself full levels to plot out the possibilities. i did that a lot.

party builds

seelah: a lot of people say seelah is a mediocre tank, but there's actually a pretty easy way to fix that: a tiny dip in oracle. i leveled her up as a paladin until 5, when she gets her horse, then took a level of oracle and chose nature mystery, which gives her access to an ability called "nature's whispers," which lets her use charisma rather than dex for AC. ta da! as a bonus, there's an "extra revelation" mythic feat option, so i also grabbed her the one that gives boosts to nearby animals. now she's one of the strongest members of my party. for the oracle curse, most people would rec wolf-scarred face, but i don't like that for story reasons, so i chose the one that affects her movement speed, because she's on her horse 24/7 anyway. "pranked" is also ok. if you don't use tabletop tweaks (or turn the fix off in settings) you can also take a dip in scaled fist monk, to stack the charisma AC bonus (i didn't).

camellia: pretty solid all-rounder, generally best as off-tank and skill monkey. i recently respecced her original subclass from spirit hunter to shadow shaman because i think it makes more sense, and paired with a two level dip into alchemist vivisectionist, i think i've finally got her in a good place after trying out a pretty subpar build. that said, straight shaman is not bad for her; general strategy is to give her iceplant hex and the icy protector ring to boost her armor early on, then have her slap on some buffs and go melee with her rapier.

lann: i recommend either giving him only one level of his default class, or, perhaps better yet, fully respeccing him into crusader cleric and/or demonslayer ranger and/or wandering marksman hunter. it makes more sense in-universe imo, and it's more useful (zen archer monk has some abilities that are kind of neat, but by endgame they have accuracy issues that weigh them down). i went ranger and it's been pretty swell, but i think next time i'll make him a cleric and give him "impossible domain: animal" ASAP so he can get back the sweet, sweet velociraptor buddy i gave him (true MVP of the party).

wenduag: sadly can't give too much advice here, but i've heard that mutation warrior + throwing axes turns her into an absolute beast. (note, however, that it takes a stupidly long time to get good throwing axes 💀 baby need CARNAGE)

woljif: haha sneak attack go brrrr. generally focus on self buffs (e.g., mirror image) and stuff like grease and haste and he'll do just fine. as long as another character is flanking the same enemy, or he's behind his target, he can dish out good damage, and sense vitals can fill the gaps in-between. that said, despite the name, i don't rec having him go arcane trickster, they're more of a blaster class. "slippery mind" rogue ability is a good idea, along with sneak attack debuffs.

ember: my baby. my joy. light of my life. against murder but very good at it! i personally leveled her as a mystic theurge (YOU get to be an oracle! YOU get to be an oracle! everybody gets a dip in ORACLE!!!), but that has devolved into a very delicate balancing act of spell selection, so you'll probably just want to level her as a pure witch, or witch with a minor dip in loremaster (so she can get, say, greater command, a spell available to oracles and clerics). pop that ring of the red salamander on her, give her weapon focus: rays and a few fire-based feats, maybe some enchantment ones to give her some very in-character non-violent CC options, and she's good as gold. pay attention to the description of hexes. some of them, like evil eye, are reduced to a single round if the enemy saves...which means, if you follow it up with a cackle each round, you can keep them debuffed forever, save or no save. protective luck and fortune are also great if you use toybox and toggle the option to have cackle extend for 10min out of combat. you can have ember buff-cackle-buff-cackle each party member to get universal advantage for hours.

nenio: ok look. scroll savant is not a bad subclass, i am told. but i highly recommend instead fully respeccing her as an arcanist brownfur transmuter. it makes just as much sense for her as a character, and they truly are the best buffers in the game. i am terrified to go anywhere without her now. she can juice all the stat boost spells, AND she can share "range: personal" buffs like shield or hurricane bow (tho i've recently learned seamantle doesn't work, i assume as an oversight 😑). she's effectively a spontaneous caster but can also learn spells from scrolls. as with vanilla nenio, all her lore and knowledge scores are crazy high, she can use basically any magical device (hello, spare wands!), and can take feats/gear to boost her illusion caster level to "fuck you, die." i'm telling you, brownfur transmuter nenio is the blueprint.

daeran: the king of healing. also an extremely solid buffer. honestly just go full oracle, maybe give him a second mystery. i went "bones" because, as a dhampir, i need the mcfucking help. it turns out animate dead is great for throwing meat(less)shields to buy time and protect squishy caster types. truly the backbone of the party.

sosiel: i used "impossible domain: animal" to give him a nice horsey, to keep him safe, since he is basically a dex-free tin can. "community" is also a very popular additional domain choice for him, since "guarded hearth" is apparently a good buff (can't say, have only remembered to use it once). keep him with glaives, there are a lot of good ones and the specialization is free, so...

regill: this little man slays. that said, you're way better off leveling him some more as an armiger, or dipping into cavalier, than giving him more levels in hellknight. i gave mine beastrider so i could put him on a smilodon, purely because that's fucking metal, and he rages around murdering shit. generally you'll want to give him two-handed weapon feats (to continue specializing in his weird hammer thing) and finesse stuff, tho you can compensate for his low strength pretty easily with the "enlarge person" spell, if you want to skip weapon finesse.

arue: honestly op. unless you really wanna try respeccing her from start as a bard or smth, just let her do her thing. "instant enemy" and "ranger's bond" or w/e it's called let her give good damage buffs to the whole party. ranged dps queen.

greybor: personally, i lightly respecced him to use throwing axes, but if you want to go vanilla, crpgguy on youtube has a solid build to check out. if you want to go with my build, keep him a slayer but choose ranged perks (except manyshot), two-weapon fighting, and weapon focus/specialization throwing axes. oh, and same recs as woljif for rogue abilities. i recently got him the ability to damage constitution with his sneak attacks and it's glorious.

chapter 1 tips

when you get to kenabres, an invisible timer starts counting down to a big, tough battle. you'll want to a) put it off as long as possible, and b) prep for it. online sources and my own experience leave the exact mechanics of the countdown kind of a mystery. best guess is that it relies on number of rests, so try to go as long as you can without them. some quests fail or change if you don't do them first, so try to do the following before the battle procs:

recruit woljif in the basement.

recruit ember in the market square.

scout the tower of estrod and kill the enemies there, if you can. this may or may not buy you time, i'm not sure.

meet prelate hulrun and settle the issue between him and ramien (i suggest showing hulrun the sword, and strongly suggest bringing ember).

go to the burning library (there's checks here for perception, lore (religion), and persuasion (diplomacy) you'll probably want to pass.)

as for prep: generally gain as much experience as you can so you'll be as strong as possible before it procs. grease and to a lesser extent create pit are useful for choke points and are available to both woljif and nenio, and can be bought or crafted into scrolls beforehand if need be. just remember you have no access to selective metamagic yet, so try to keep your own guys from slipping around all silly by either having them attack from range behind the trap, or stand in front of it (i went ranged, even for seelah). besides the very obvious chokepoints the game makes you aware of, you can also lay these down at the enemy spawnpoints by the ladders (though you will affect the allied soldiers, too, so keep that in mind). focus on the alchemists; every other enemy is secondary. kill or disable them as quickly as possible.

chapter 2 tips

if you saved the disciples of desna in kenabres and sang along with them in act 1, then solve the (pretty easy) puzzle at the altar of desna at the base of the lost chapel, you can recruit a very useful companion early. look for them in the drezen prison.

chapter 2 is less time-sensitive than chapter 1, but you get a lil reward if you finish it within 2 months. not too hard, imo

try to put off moving the camp to just south of drezen, because a whole bunch of shit kinda pops off at once.

pay attention to nurah. pop into her tent a few times. a high perception skill will get you far.

the only things really worth grabbing in leper's smile are the robe of silky veil (you can use savescum with quicksave to look for it without losing time) and the halfling in the crevice.

honestly i recommend cranking down the difficulty for a lot of the lost chapel quest because the game is keeping track of npc casualties and those motherfuckers pop like grapes if you don't nerf the shit outta enemies, even on normal difficulty. one fight in particular i kept having 3-4 out of 5 immediately die in the first round, even when i got a good initiative roll and came out the gate with controlled fireball. very frustrating experience.

to stop the constantly reviving undead in that one cave, you need to grab the interactable object near the center of the area.

chapter 3 tips

at the beginning of chapter 3, immediately head south, towards the chapel, and keep going until you get two not-so-random encounters.

then head towards molten scar (just south of greengates) with seelah to get a time sensitive quest done.

take arue to wintersun. (probably take someone with a good lore (nature) skill, too. and somebody with fire spells. dear god. you will need so much fire.) don't feel like you need to complete the whole map in one go, you WILL have to come back at least once for one of the side quests.

blackwater has a lot of tough combat. prep for electricity damage.

chapter 4 tips

still in it, so my advice at this point is just to start with battlebliss. the story flows more naturally that way, tho they don't tell you that.

you can turn the fleshmarkets into a tarantino movie, but buy the shit you want from the vendors first. or don't, and cheat it into your inventory via toybox. up to you. if you need the funds, returning to the midnight isles dlc can help.

as it turns out, you only get the one chance to free suture, so if you wanna do that, don't be like me and go "oobh i got plany off time"

general story tips

don't be a buzzkill at daeran's party by making him work. try to keep things fun, and tell him you think he can change or that he can trust you. he likes it if you banter playfully with him, and will interject during a lot of quests (i particularly enjoyed his comments in the grey garrison).

lann's mostly straightforward from what i can tell, but you can miss some of his content annoyingly easily. :/ make sure to check in with him every now and then (i feel like his dialogue updates more than any other companion so far, but there's no notification from the game when that happens, so you just have to swing by and talk to him to see). and take him camping with you, if you want to romance him. there's also no indication of this from quest markers or anything, but at one point he'll ask you to meet him back at your home base, but when you arrive, there'll just be a note in his usual spot. look for him by the local tavern. (not sure if this is romance-specific, but just in case)

wenduag has a massive humiliation kink

don't be judgey of greybor, and pay him what he's worth (or more, if you've got the money and are feeling generous, like i was). make sure to have at least 12,500 gold on hand when you go on the hunt with him, or you'll lose the chance to recruit him permanently.

bring your favs to the desolate hovel! the combat isn't hard, and there are some juicy character moments. kicking myself for not bringing ember, because i bet hers is great (thanks to toybox, i did get to enjoy a cute bit of dialogue between her and daeran).

the secret ending

i'm gonna try to lay out the requirements with as few spoilers as possible. if you don't wanna know, just skip this. i may be missing some stuff, or including some stuff that isn't strictly required, but this is my best understanding of it, distilled as much as possible.

note that unlocking the secret ending does not mean you have to actually choose it.

choose the crossbow in the prologue

keeping the purple stone knife is advised but not required

pick up every midnight bolt you see, and only use them against demon lords. (if you don't get a "new" crystal, you wasted the bolt on an invalid target and need to reload.) apparently if you use one on the big bad himself, you need to grab the crystal as quickly as possible or it'll disappear?

finish your mythic questline all the way through. don't choose the "legend" mythic.

help the storyteller collect elven notes

don't reject the idea of learning from demons

do not enable auto-crusade

research the sword of valor (first available in chapter 3), the crystals (first available in chapter 5), areelu's drafts (not sure, probably 5), and the records of pulura's stargazers (maybe as early as 3 for angels, 5 for everybody else) via crusade management

grab the book, accept its power, find a way to put it back together

have high perception, ask areelu about suture (not an option in the first convo with her, i think this is in chapter 4)

tell hep she shouldn't have trusted her dad

in the secret lab (not on the first visit, since they weren't there when i got there), click on the crib, drawings, and textbooks in that order, which will give you gloves. take said gloves.

pour the secret sauce over the summoning circle in the lab. kill the demon outside the summoning circle for convenience's sake

save the library

the ending date is important. enter the final area between 16 and 21 gozran. doesn't matter what year.

don't waste time examining areelu's wards, launch directly into "stop! listen to me!"

#i say 'mini guide' but actually this is very long! don't say i didn't warn you!

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randomvarious · 9 months

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Today's compilation:

Rock 'n' Roll Hits of 1958 1999 Rock & Roll / Doo Wop

OK, well, this actually turned out to be a little bit of a surprise for me. Had this CD of hits from 1958 consisted of all original versions, I would've listed nearly all ten of its songs as highlights. But none of these tracks, as it turns out, are actually original versions; they are, in fact, re-recordings, which are, more or less, a bane of pretty much everyone's existence.

Re-recordings are just cheaply made imitations of original versions, usually done by an original artist when they're past their prime, and whenever anyone hears one, they're typically made upset by it, because it doesn't sound nearly as good as the original version that they remember. It's sort of like ordering your favorite dish from a restaurant that you haven't been to for a while, and then finding out the hard way that the chef changed up its ingredients. The dish still has the same name, but once you take that first bite, you realize that something's off, and then you're disappointed that you can't enjoy that same meal that you came for in the first place 😑.

And yet, I was prepared for this to happen. The cheap and generic album art template and the phrase, "10 big hits by the original artists!" are both dead giveaways. See, when you run into enough of these oldies releases, you know what careful language to look for, and that sentence there, rather than saying something like, "original hits from the original artists," really tells you all you need to know: that these are re-recordings.

But listening to re-recordings can also be like watching The Room; you know it's atrocious, but you get a big kick out of just how atrocious it actually is.

So, I was really all set to trash this whole thing, and then have some fun by singling out the absolute worst re-recording of them all, but then I came across what basically amounts to a four-leaf clover: a good re-recording 😮.

Lloyd Price's rendition of "Stagger Lee" here is definitely not as good as its infectious original—in fact, that original just might be my favorite hit of all from 1958—but it's still pretty decent. The audio quality's definitely not spectacular by any means, but whenever Price recorded this one, he clearly still had enough vocal chops to do it, which is not something that you can really say of most other re-recordings. Of course, he sounded a lot spryer in 1958 than he does here, and perhaps that's why the tempo's a bit slower now too, but on this he still has soulful passion, and his grizzliness feels charming rather than piteous. His backing vocalists also lend to the overall goodness of the song too, especially their repeated "ba-da-ba-da-ba-da"s that they rhythmically sing in tandem with the horns and drums. On the original, those "ba-da"s only appear a couple of times, but on here they're way more constant, and they really end up enhancing the track, overall, I think; as does the sax 😌.

So, with this CD, I was actually prepared for what some might think is the unexpected, but what I wasn't prepared for at all was something that should be even far more unexpected, and that is a genuinely good re-recorded hit. I can honestly probably count on one hand the amount of times that I've actually managed to run into one of these things over the years, so you should all consider yourselves lucky to have been able to bear witness to such a rare event, because this is real Halley's Comet stuff here, folks 🌠.

Highlights:

Lloyd Price - "Stagger Lee"

#rock & roll #rock and roll #rock #doo wop #classic rock #oldies #music #50s #50s music #50's #50's music

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lunapwrites · 2 years

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5 Movies, 4 Songs, 3 Essentials, 2 Books, 1 Quote

Hoo boy. I've got some major thinking to do on this one hahaha. In the meantime, thank you to both @signifiquint and @bluesundaycake for the tag! <3

Movies - I normally forget these as soon as I finish watching them, so let's see how I do here. In no particular order...

1- Don't Look Up: I am annoyed by how much I liked this movie. I watched it while I was super sick over the winter and just lay there on the couch having existential dread for eons after lol. But it definitely stuck with me.

2- The Last Unicorn: When I tell you that this movie meant a ton to me though. Just a staple of my childhood, pure nostalgia.

3- OK look I know it's not the point of this exercise but I can't separate them: The Lord of the Rings Trilogy extended edition because momma didn't raise no quitter. I absolutely adored the books. The soundtrack was gorgeous, the set design and characters were amazing, and I may or may not have been a little obsessed with both Liv Tyler and Dominic Monaghan sooooooo yeah. Also, Billy Boyd had NO FUCKING RIGHT tearing my heart out and flinging into the fires of Mount Doom like that but okay.

4- The Mummy: [helpless bisexual noises]

5- The Hunchback of Notre Dame: Speaking of animation that I absolutely loved... this movie was just absolutely gorgeous. The soundtrack still hits like a truck.

Songs - yo you're really gonna make me pick four, huh? Fiiiine. Here's some things I've been listening to recently.

1- Control - Mannequin Pussy

2- Fast Car - Tracy Chapman

3- #41 - Dave Matthews Band shut up

4- The Old Witch Sleep and the Good Man Grace - The Amazing Devil

Essentials (not including partner or dogs bc that's cheating.)

1- Music

2- Art supplies

3- My irresponsibly vast tea collection (incl accoutrements.)

Books - Look I haven't been very good about reading actual literature recently so uh. Here's my favorites from when I was a kid, minus LotR.

1- The Red Fairy Book - compiled by Andrew Lang (my mom had this and I absolutely adored stealing it from her. It's a compilation of a bunch of different fairy tales and is the only place I've been able to find Dapplegrim, which was one of my favorites.)

2- The Crystal Caves - Mary Stewart. (Also one of my mom's. This is the first of the Merlin Trilogy Stewart wrote -- tetrology if you count the Mordred one. This one was one I read and reread a lot.)

Quote - "The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.' - Haldir, The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R.Tolkien.

That definitely didn't take me an hour hahaha it did. Anyway! Always feel weird about tagging folks but uhhhhh @allalrightagain, @broomsticks, @deathcabformoony, @bluestringpudding, @black-sparroww, @inmyownlittlecorner5 @greyeyedmonster-18.... and anyone else I missed who hasn't already done it and would like to join!

#tag game #lp watches #lp listens #lp reads very infrequently #lp has a lot of tea

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themildestofwriters · 2 months

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I have nearly, oh so nearly finished the first part of the first book of my The Sith, Zero rebuild, which goes under the dubious title of "The Saga of Zero: Fall Into Darkness."

Not sure "Fall Into Darkness," works as a subtitle, but I wanted something that references the fact that this is a book about someone being pulled into a place of, well... darkness. Louise quite literally lands herself in slavery, and it is not a happy book.

Regardless, first part is mostly done. It's like... mostly drafted, and the most I need to do is write the religious hymns, prayers, liturgy, and blessings for the religious service proceeding the Summoning ritual. Then, I gotta rewrite the prologue (probably), which'll now start following Omiras (or whatever I name him) as he receives the alert about the anomalous event, rather than starting from the perspective of the anomalous event. I feel it'll give me a good way of getting his character properly established. It'll be easier to set up the slavery angle, too, rather than just dropping that fact in at the end, while also giving me the option to do some exposition about how slavery works in the Empire (among other stuff, especially the core changes I'm making to the Star Wars universe). Then it's just a massive editing spree over the entire document to get everything up to snuff.

Part two is trickier, because I've got half of it done, it's just that I am struggling big time for the full reveal about the slave element. Louise hasn't got any idea what's going on because of the language barrier. Outside of that, she has a week to learn the language before she gets put to work, and the chapter where she gets put to work is the moment she realises what's going on. The problem is that I don't know how to write that, and it's just a pain, lol. But once I get through that, it should be relatively smooth sailing from there, through the chapter or two compilation of important moments of Louise's time as a slave, ranging from her interpersonal relationships with the other slaves, her rebellious streak, and the punishments she receives for these rebellions. Part two then ends with the arrival of the Sith, Louise's supernatural acquisition of language, and a dinner where she *finally* gets the full picture of what's going on.

I haven't written much for part three, but I do have a very good idea of how things go. It starts with a New Year's chapter where she and the other slaves get to have some time off and celebrate together, before getting right into things next chapter. Pirates come for Louise, people die, the Force Awakens, and Louise is set to start training at the Sith Academy. Final chapter, like the prologue, will be from someone else's perspective, Kirche, a classmate (and bully) watching her perform the Summoning ritual, watching how it goes wrong, and watching vanish, the chapter ending with the after Summoning dinner, a rendition of House of the Rising Sun in Old French, and some introspection.

Doable, but difficult. Writing religious liturgy is hard, especially for a Norse Pagan inspired religion influenced by Catholicism. The transition in part two, when she learns that she's a slave, is just difficult. I'm not sure if she should figure it out herself, of if it's believable that she'd refuse to acknowledge the possibility. She is just fourteen and from a privileged background, after all. As someone who writes linearly, I can't write much else until I finish that part.

Once the book is done... book two is going to be interesting. First off is the question of how, exactly, I'm supposed to write three years in one book, and I'm just not sure how I'm supposed to write this in a way that isn't just a massive mess.

Three years, six trials, two trials per year, plus the Imperial holidays, festivals, national events, national news, as well as Academy training, events, and student-run parties. Oh, and Louise's own religious practices. Somehow I've got to fit all that in, on top of interpersonal interactions, in a single book.

Of course, I could split it. Two books. Three books. I even have a good climax for the first part (her third or fourth trial) which takes her to the Tomb of Ludo Kressh, where things take a turn for the psychological horror. The issue is, I'm not sure how I'd wind up balancing things. A lot of things Louise would wind up doing would happen in her first year, so part one would be bloated with all these events, and part two would be left floundering with little except training, trials, and a party. It is doable, though. If I just balance things right, it could work.

Maybe Louise enters a sort of depression state in part one once she realises the reality of being a slave-caste acolyte? She doesn't engage with the wider Imperial culture, because she doesn't have the energy, because she is angry and resentful toward the Empire, because too much time is spent training and catching up. Maybe she even lapses in her religious practices. Then, after her time in Kressh's tomb, part two starts, and she comes out more willing to engage with the Empire and rekindle her religious practices. She attends events, goes to parties, tries to live in spite of the world around her. Hmm... whatever the case, I'll be a lot more loosey-goosey with the OG's plot structure.

If I do end up splitting it in two, I'll need to figure out epilogues and prologues for both. The first prologue would be Kory, an acolyte in her coterie. Basically builds up her as a character, the perspective of an Imperial-born slave, while also giving the reader a perspective on Louise from the beginning of her training as a Sith. All prologues are just my way of giving the reader a look at Louise from an outside perspective, while also expanding upon a character and the world in a way that couldn't be explored in any other way. Omiras's slave operation, Kory's life as a slave, details Louise would miss.

Epilogues on the other hand, are looks into the world Louise was taken from and deal with the aftermath of her vanishing. First epilogue is an outsiders perspective on Louise's summoning, her vanishing, and the immediate aftermath. Second epilogue would be another character, unrelated to (but also related to) Louise, and looking at the world from another perspective, looking at the aftermath of Louise's summoning from a distance, and delving into a sort of meta plot that's developing back home. This'll follow Tiffania, a jacked not-Scotswoman living in the wild forests of flying not-Britain running an orphanage with her famed theif of a sister, except it turns out Tiffania is actually the long lost half-elven niece of the not-UK Royal Family during actually-Cromwell's anti-monarchist reign, and also she's one fourth a messiah.

Second prologue (for part two) would probably be... Quorian Dorjis, who is a Jedi imprisoned on Korriban, who Louise befriends. I'll have to move his quest line up to book two (somehow), but it'd be a really interesting perspective to look at, being able to see how a Jedi (drugged as he may be) looking at Louise. It'll also be a great way of introducing the Jedi perspective, which I've made wholly foreign to how I present the Sith perspective. They're not mirrors of each other, but alien in how they view the Force.

Second epilogue... I think it'd have to be Louise's mum arriving on a manticore to throttle the Headmaster for losing her daughter. Or I might make it the first epilogue of part one of book two. Either or, Louise's mum's perspective is a must have because not only does Louise have a complicated relationship with her parents, but her mum is a complicated woman, too. It'll definitely be the hardest of the alt. POVs.

Book three (of four, if I split the second book) will be the shortest, and also introduce the idea of doing much of the following books as shorter works that are done in five to ten or so chapters, rather than the fifteen to twenty of the previous ones. It's a simple thing, adapting one of the Flashpoints from SWTOR, the Black Talon. It'll open with Khem Val's perspective as a POV, and end with... hmm... I'm not sure. It's far enough away that it won't matter if I don't figure it out, but it is still important *to* figure out. I could either look back at a previous POV, but I also feel it's too soon to do so.

As it stands, new characters I could look at are... Tabitha, a classmate of Louise who Louise had a crush on, but is also a black ops agent working for a foreign kingdom (which is ruled by her evil uncle); Henrietta, Princess of Louise's home nation and Louise's first and oldest friend; Pope McDongcopter (fandom nickname), who is the Pope and also a dick (and also one fourth a messiah) who plans on invading actual modern day Earth with muskets and magic; Louise's sisters, who are Louise's sisters, one who acts like a bitch to hide the fact that she cares deeply, another who is just... you know, terminally ill; King Joseph, who is Tabitha's uncle, evil, and also one fourth a messiah, and is the power behind actual-Cromwell on not-Britain; and... yeah. That's about it so far. Those are the important players on Louise's homeworld.

Regardless of who caps it off, I think book three (four) is where I start posting the fic online. Weekly or bi-weekly, with a week break between books. It's not the last book, but it is where I'll probably be like "Okay, I have enough content to justify finally publishing this reboot!"

Book four is going to be the Dromund Kaas plot from SWTOR, but with heavy focus on Louise finally being able to just live life as a proper civilian in the Empire. I want to just explore Imperial life, and how it works, and Louise'll be a great method to do so. I mean, sure, Sith politics remains a pressing issue, but I feel like it's the first time she can just *breath*.

Prologue is probably Darth Skotia or Zyira (Louise's room-mate from the Academy). Both have great perspectives to look into, though only one is plot relevant. Epilogue... refer to previous epilogue discussion (i.e. I don't fucking know).

Then, after that, it'll pretty much be an episodic series of books. I mean, that's the general plot structure of SWTOR, each planet having its own plot, so why not make each planet its own book? Short five to ten chapters worth. Can't be bothered mentioning who is prologue and epilogue, but yeah. That's basically the plan for the Saga of Zero.

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lord-of-dragons-2007 · 10 months

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Hey guys sorry that this is a bit of a week, hope you like it!

(Ranger base 2004)

Messogog's forces had tightened their grip on Reefside and the surrounding areas and preparing to move out and start conquering the world, the evening started to grow into the later hours of the night. Billy had devoted himself on the task of trying to retrieve the Tommy of this time and the Dino-Thunder team from the past, while Hayley surveyed Messogog's forces using satellites and analyzing footage from cameras around town. They needed to coordinate an attack to at the very least delay Messogog's advance to Angel Grove so they had some space to work and try to bring the team back to full power, the looks of things didn't look good. The only positive thing that developed from all of this was that Hayley had already compiled a list of targets for the Rangers to hit in small teams to divert Messogog's forces away from the real targets of interest.

"Hey guys, hows it going?" Jason asked curiously as he strode into the command center,

"Well I've identified some targets for you guys to go hit tomorrow." Hayley answered which delighted Jason on some level, at least they were going to cower in this fortress for much longer,

"I think I've a way to bring back Tommy and the others, but its not going to be easy." Billy replied after Hayley. Jason sighed and thought about what Billy had just said, he rolled his eyes and then looked at his friend with a deadpanned expression,

"I'm almost afraid to ask, but what exactly has to be done to bring back Tommy and the others?" He asked questioningly,

"Well we need to build a device that will be able to reach back through the rip in time and and provide a sort anchor for them to climb and fight their way back through out time without getting lost in time." Billy started to explain,

"Billy..." Jason pressed for him to get to the points,

"Well its two things actually one, we need to go back to the original scene where the rip in time occurred. We have the exact location pinned down, its in the heart of where Messogog's forces is camped out. Luckily they haven't discovered the rip in time and haven't started messing with the fabric of time, though getting through all of those Tyrano-drones and monsters isn't going to be easy." Billy explained getting to the heart of the tricky parts of this plan, Jason winced when he explained where they would have to go at some point and then wondered what it was Billy was holding back from the plan. Hayley looked at Billy and the look the two exchanged made Jason feel even more ill-at-ease,

"And Two?" Jason pressed again,

"And two, we need the object that started this whole mess and set everyone to that point in time. Tommy's old Green Ranger power coin." Billy finished,

"Bill?" Jason asked,

"Yeah?" Billy answered,

"Where did Tommy's coin get to after they vanished?" Jason asked curiously, though he figured he knew where it was at by now,

"Well from what I can piece together, the creature that sabotaged Elsa's weapon took it and...Presented it, to Messogog, as a trophy." Bill answered, finally everything was out in it totality. Jason could have been knocked over with a feather at this point, things were definitely not looking good at this point, Jason didn't know what to say. The revelation of what they had to do and where they had to go to get their friends back and save the world seemed impossible

"Well, ummm, we've faced the impossible before right?" he asked Billy weakly trying to put a positive spin on things, though Bill wasn't as optimistic as his friend was,

"Should I go tell the others?" Jason asked curiously,

"No, lets let them rest for now. Hearing this will only keep people awake, we'll need to be rested and at full strength tomorrow if we have any hope of making any of this work." Billy answered back to which Jason just nodded his head. Jason massaged the bridge of his nose and just lightly shook his head at the information he just received, things had just gone from bad to worse,

"I'm gonna go get some sleep." Jason said quietly as he turned his attention back to his friends,

"We'll be calling it here in a bit as well." Billy replied, speaking up for Hayley who had almost nothing to say at all, everything was already spoken for and the room held a thick but somber tension. Jason left the command center and went to find a room he could claim for himself and his wife and try to rest as best he could for the night.

(Ranger Command Center 1994)

The day for what remained of the dino rangers of the future went as it had the past couple of days, they sat around the command center bunker with nothing to do or talk about and just watched as Kira rested, not sure if she could ever come out of her coma. They were both so worried about her and were still so distraught that Conner was gone too, everything was happening so fast, and there was still so much to deal with that Ethan and Trent were just in shock, they were numb to what they were feeling. They needed to be ready to act when moment came when they were needed or when it was time to go back home to their own time, so there wasn't time now to mourn over Conner's death and worry too much if Kira never came out of her coma, they would have to deal with the emotional baggage they were undoubtably carrying at this point when they got home and everything was calm again.

It was about noon when Kira finally groaned and moved from when she or rather the will of the gems had her move and carry out their assault on the villains on the moon base,

"Kira?" Trent called as he rushed to her side with Ethan close in pursuit, Kira groggily opened her eyes and blinked away the sleep in her eyes before she slowly sat up in the cot,

"Easy there." Ethan said as he quickly put his hand on her back to help steady her, it was hard to believe that she had staged some assault on the moon palace in her condition, then again it was the will of the dino gems that made her go and gave her the extra strength she needed to carry out the task,

"I'm ok…" She trailed off as she held her head in her hand for a moment to try and shake the dizzying feeling she was having,

"Hey, how are you feeling?" Trent asked worriedly,

"I'm ok, just a little sore, and a little worn." Kira replied groggily, slowly the cob webs were starting to clear,

"What happened? Where are we?" Kira asked the two men curiously, then the two began to fill her in on the events that had transpired since she was unconscious. When the guys had finished talking she looked at the dino gem in her hand, it was slightly larger than it was before and now it had a brilliant red layer of red embedded in the yellow gem. As she looked at it, the gem emitted a soft orange glow in contrast to the intense glow it emitted the night before, as it glowed Kira was the only one to hear the soft roar that gem sounded off. It was a combination of the tyrannosaurus that use to be Conner's dinosaur and Kira's Peteradon , both creatures/powers now resided in one gem,

"So no one really knows what I did when I flipped out?" Kira asked her teammates quietly as she desperately tried to remember the events of the night before, the only thing that came to her were little bits and flashes. Nothing coherent enough to piece together why the gems would take her there, though it didn't leave much to the imagination what they wanted,

"No the only thing Zordon could pick up was your modified energy signature on the moon inside the bad guy's lair." Ethan answered, Kira had a feeling what she did and all she could do was look down at the gem and wonder what was going to happen next? Would give her double the power than before or would it backfire on her and seriously injure her? Unfortunately for her and the others they couldn't play it safe right now, things were moving too fast and things were too loose right now to deal with it. They would have to cross that bridge when they come to it.

(Angel Grove High 1994)

Tommy was on his way to his next class after lunch until his communicator went off, luckily there was no one around. He straggled getting to classes because of this reason, he quickly looked around to make sure there was no one around. He ducked into an empty doorway and brought the communicator to his mouth,

"I read you Zordon." Tommy spoke into the communicator,

"TOMMY, KIRA FORD IS AWAKE AND LUCID NOW." Zordon informed,

"That's great news I'll be right there." Tommy answered with a hushed excitement in his voice, he terminated the communication and looked around quickly too make sure there was no one around. When he was satisfied that he was alone he pressed a button on his communicator teleported away to the command center in a streak of green and white energy, at that moment Bulk and Skull had just rounded the corner in time to see just the green and white energy streak upward and away from the school,

"Hey Bulky did you just see what I just saw?" Skull asked his rotund friend,

"See what? You were like five steps ahead of me." Bulk replied annoyed at the question, Skull looked back at his friend and looked over his round frame for a moment,

"Yeah, maybe you should lay off the double orders of chili fries." Skull said as he looked where the green and white streak was, Bulk however wasn't very amused with Skulls comment and scowled at him for a moment or two before he slapped him upside the head,

"Come on, if I'm late to Mrs. Applebomb's class again she'll give me detention again." Bulk said as he started to drag Skull by the leather vest he wore, and away the two bullies/mooks went, stubbing down the halls to the appropriate classroom.

(Ranger Command Center 1994)

Tommy appeared in the command center and quickly ran off to the bunker where his future team was hunkered down at, and he saw her, he saw Kira sitting up and talking with the boys. He was unable to contain himself he flung his arms around her in a tight hug and didn't let go for a long time, Kira at first shocked the sudden burst of emotion from her teacher but then relaxed into it gently and hugged him back just as tight. Thinking about what had happened she was afraid she would never see her friends again, that she'd never get to see or do anything again, she was happy to be alive and up and around again. The boys just looked on the scene, not seeing the weirdness in that their teenage teacher was hugging their teammate like they were never going to see each other again, they just saw two friends happy to each other again, happy to see that almost everything was going to be ok,

"You scared the heck out of us, don't ever do that again." Tommy whispered with a shaky voice, he wasn't one to show much emotion let alone shed any tears, but this was something different. Time had done wonders to let him show some emotion when the time warranted for it,

"Sorry, Dr. O, I didn't mean to." She whispered back, Kira on the other hand didn't have any problems wearing her emotions on her sleeve. She let a few tears fall from her eyes being hugged by the strong arms of her mentor. She had been in a coma, controlled by the dino gems, God knows what else when she was under the gem's power, she was lost in time where she didn't belong, and to top it all off she lost the love of her life. Everything grading on her had finally broken the dam of the emotions she and undoubtably the others were holding back, it took everything Trent, Ethan, and Tommy had to keep from breaking themselves, they needed to stay strong for her, for each other. They needed to be ready to work when the time came for it and from everything that was going on they would need to be ready. Finally Tommy pulled back from the hug and just smiled at Kira glad to see she was still alive and was going to be ok, he knew that even if they still had a mess of problems and things going bad around them at least this gave them some glimmer of hope that everything was going to be ok,

"Kira its going to be ok, I promise, I know a lot has happened. To all of us, but things will get better, we will get home." Tommy said confidently as he directly into Kira's tear filled eyes and was talking to not only her but to the other two boys in the room,

"What about Conner? Everything wont be ok for him." Kira choked out quietly, Tommy didn't have much to say on that, he knew that both Kira and Conner had started a little something recently. However, nothing could be said or done for the fact that Conner was gone now, there was nothing that could be done for him. Tommy looked down for a moment and then back up at Kira,

"I know nothing can be said or done can change whats happened to him, I miss him too. He is a true hero, he sacrificed everything to keep the people he cared about, the people that loved safe." Tommy said quietly, "I know a lot has happened and we're all holding back emotionally on the things we need to deal with, and there will be time to deal with and sort things out emotionally. There will be a time to properly mourn and honor Conner, but right now we need to put our feelings aside and be ready for whatever comes next. We still need to get home and….Theres something Zordon isn't telling us, and I think whatever it is is huge, because he always tells us whats going on." Tommy explained to them which made everyone look at each other,

"You're right Dr. O" Kira replied taking another labored sniffled breath as she wiped her tears and nose,

"We have to be ready." She said trying to steel herself as best she could, her bravery and strength in the face of everything, from all of them made him proud. It gave him hope to keep fighting on, there was nothing that could stop them now.

At that moment the sirens sounded off an attack,

"Come on." Tommy called out as he rushed for the door to see what it was that had triggered the alert, for some reason Tommy did like where this was heading, he had a very bad sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. Something just told him that this was not going to be a good day, the only thing he could do was just square his shoulders and face it head on.

#paradox rangers in time #chapter 16 #power rangers fan fiction

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petsdogworld · 11 months

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addtocart="false" new-window="true" nofollow="true" alignment="aligncenter"]View on Amazon[/amalinkspro] For added protection and comfort, these stainless steel clippers have a non-slip rubberized grip. The clippers' blades are much more lightweight and narrower than those of clippers made for larger breeds since they are specifically designed to handle smaller nails. Unfortunately, the clippers do not have a safety guard, which could help mitigate the risk of cutting into the quick/kwik, making them a poor choice for a beginners. 3- IOKHEIRA Dog Nail Clippers [amalinkspro type="cta-btn-css" ctabtn-id="" asin="" apilink="https://amzn.to/3fSGeUL" addtocart="false" new-window="true" nofollow="true" alignment="aligncenter"]View on Amazon[/amalinkspro] Vets and animal trainers suggest these ergonomically crafted clippers. They're built to keep you warm as you clip away, so they're great for beginners. The non-slip rubber handles can give you some leverage, which is important when cutting through thicker nails. The blades are made of three and a half millimeter thick stainless steel and are designed to keep their edge for a longer period. The safety guard can keep users from cutting their nails too short, which can cause pain and bleeding. The free nail file is ideal for filing down sharp nails or jagged edges, making it an excellent free nail care tool for all pet owners. Conclusion The importance of trimming your dog's nails once or twice a month is critical, as long nails will easily snap. If this occurs, your dog would be in excruciating pain before it recovers, which may take a long time if your dog is active. It may also result in an infection or an ingrown nail. It would help if you kept your pet's nails neatly clipped and short with proper nail treatment, preventing them from catching on your clothes, the sofa, furniture, and other surfaces. The nail clippers you choose should also be based on how relaxed you are with them and how much experience you have. If you're a novice or your dog is nervous about getting its nails clipped, here's what you can do. You'll want to make sure the clippers you buy have a sturdy blade design that allows you to cut through even the thickest nails quickly and easily. Clippers with ergonomic, non-slip handles that are easy to grip and sharp stainless steel blades are the perfect option. You can also make sure that the clippers' blades are the right size for your dog's nails. Must Read : Best Dog Nail Clippers for Black Nails https://petsdogworld.com/best-dog-nail-clippers-for-thick-nails/?feed_id=352&_unique_id=6482230a76b5b #dognailclippersforthicknails

#Grooming #dognailclippersforthicknails

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