#i tweaked some of the wording for clarity (i changed it in the original too) but otherwise it's basically the same

[saferincages]

(you might say we are encouraged to love)

I received an ask requesting I make this response its own post in full (which of course I don’t mind doing!) so here it is:

An anon in the original post asked why, “Anakin/Vader is seen as interesting for women,” and that could be a bit of a loaded question, but I think there’s a definite rationale behind it. The way it was phrased made me think of a post I saw which addressed the fundamental split between Anakin and Vader as seen by certain audiences, why Anakin is treated by many derisively because there’s an element of the “heroine’s journey” that happens in relation to his arc and the struggles he goes through. It’s here and it’s really interesting in its entirety. “The constant barrage of degradation and trauma and unfairness of a system that benefits at your expense and refuses to validate you for it. And some of that he might have been able to reconcile by “growing up,” the same way a lot of us learn to come to terms with social fuckery, but Anakin doesn’t get the space to do that. He gets a giant bundle of unaddressed trauma and psychological issues and handed a kind of ambiguous destiny about needing to save the entire universe.” <- Imagine the burden of that, and they put it on a child and then give him zero structure to cope with it.

I’m also going to add this comment from that post because I think it’s worthwhile to note: if someone makes you angry and you show anger with your very own face you are weak, you have lost face, you have shown yourself vain and driven by a selfish, animal, irrational, feminine urge to defend yourself; but if you show anger without a face, if you show it unpersonally (the less it’s connected to direct accusation or a specific ill), especially in order to execute a role, then you suddenly appear to be the one in the position of strength, because you can no longer be directly accused of selfishness. The more you can cloak anger in the guise of necessity, the more you meet the societal expectation to be dispassionate, rational, always controlled - the more justification and legitimacy and power to you, even though this mode of anger is often more destructive than the first. This dynamic, assuming it exists as I’ve hypothesized it, is why I think Anakin codes as feminine to many, while Vader appeals to a certain masculine ideal.

Basically, the gist of it is that the emotional turmoil, the trauma, the way he’s exploited for his talents or what he can provide others, the way his agency is stripped repeatedly from him again and again tends to not be the way “male” hero journeys are told. It’s feminine coding (unfortunately) for those themes to be explored. For those emotions to be plumbed and portrayed with a substantive sense of sorrow and helplessness in the central male hero - it is not the “macho” standard. Why they thought they’d get a macho, unyielding masculine power trip from Anakin Skywalker remains a mystery to me, this is the same series where its original hero, Luke (who is his son! of course there were going to be essential parallels and contrasts between them), purposefully throws his weapon away and refuses to fight, and is characterized by his capacity for intrinsic compassion rather than any outer physical strength (even Han is much less of a “macho” guy than dudebros tend to make him out to be - not only because he’s unmistakably the person in distress who has to be rescued from capture in ROTJ, he has a lot of interesting facets that break down that ‘scoundrel’ stereotype, but I digress other than to say I love the OT, and the subtle distinctions in Luke, Leia, and Han that make them break the molds of expectation). SW fundamentally rejected toxic masculinity and the suppression of emotions from its inception, Luke’s loving triumph and role as redeemer only happens because he refuses to listen when he’s told to give up on his friends or on his belief that there’s good in his father, his softness is his ultimate strength. Anakin was never going to be some epitome of tough masculinity, and George Lucas knew exactly what he was doing crafting him in that way. The audiences who wanted Bad Seed Anakin from the beginning didn’t know how to reconcile this sensitive, kind-hearted, exceedingly bright kid, with their spawn of the Dark Side notions, and I think, unfortunately, far too many then either rejected him completely or refused to understand what the central points in his characterization are about.

The fact that this narratively would have made no sense (if Anakin had been “born bad,” then there would have been no miraculously surviving glimpse of light for Luke to save - I’ve said this before, but imagine how profoundly essential to his true self that goodness had to be for it to even exist any more at that point, after all he’d suffered, after all he’d done. the OT tells us more than once what a good man Anakin Skywalker was, it’s part of what makes the father reveal as powerful as it is - if we hadn’t heard the fragments of stories about Luke’s father, it wouldn’t be nearly as shocking, but we KNOW he was a hero, an admirable man, a good friend). I can’t fathom how tricky telling the prequels had to have been to that extent - the audience knows what will happen in the end, it’s a foregone conclusion, we know he will fall, we know Vader will be created, we know the Empire will rise (though that would have happened even if Anakin had remained in the light, which is a whole other discussion). So the question became, who is this person? What influenced him? What shaped his destiny? And that ended up being a far more complex and morally fraught and stirringly emotional story than just “badass Jedi becomes badass Sith lord.”

That talented, highly intelligent boy is taken in by the Jedi after he has already developed independent thought and very intricate emotional dimension - the argument that he’s “too old” to be trained is because he’s not malleable enough to be indoctrinated the way Jedi usually treat the children they take. They may blame this on his attachment to Shmi, but she’s not the problem (if anything, had they not been so unfeeling and rigid, and had they freed her and allowed her to at least stay in contact with her son while he was training because it was a special case - they’re the ones who stick that “Chosen One” mantle on him, you’re telling me they couldn’t make an exception? but no, because they put that weight on him and then never help him carry it and constantly undermine it and question and mistrust him - Anakin would have been stronger in his training, and he would never have fallen to the Dark Side at all. There are so many moments, over and over, where his fall could have been averted, and everyone fails him to the bitter end, when he fails himself). 

And so he is traumatized, due to years of abuse and difficulties as a slave, due to having to leave his mother behind because the Jedi would not free her, due to being told to repress his emotions over and over again when he is, at his core, an intuitive and perceptively empathetic person (he wants to uphold that central tenet of his training - “compassion, which I would define as unconditional love, is central to a Jedi’s life”), yet he’s made to feel he is broken/wrong/constantly insufficient. He’s wounded by abandonment issues and lack of validation and the human connection/affection he craved, and he develops an (understandable) angry streak, he’s socially awkward due to the specific constraints/isolation of a Jedi’s life and due to the fact that they tried to stamp out what made him uniquely himself, which makes him continually conflicted with a never-ending pulse of anxiety (see absolutely ANY moment where he breaks down emotionally, and you’ll see him say something to the effect of “I’m a Jedi, I know I’m better than than this,” “I’m a Jedi, I’m not supposed to want [whatever very basic human thing he wants, because they make him feel like he can’t even ask for or accept scraps of decency]” - they fracture his sense of his own humanity, Padme tries to validate those feelings but that Code is a constant stumbling block in his mind). He is troubled by fear and the constant press of grief (I would argue he has PTSD at the very least), and all around he’s met by mistrust and sabotage. 

Male heroes shouldn’t be treated as infallible in their own narratives (none of them are that, as no character of whatever gender/origin is, as none of us are), but at the very least we usually see them treated with respect by others. Anakin often gets no such luxury. He’s treated the way we frequently see women treated, and that treatment comes from the same rotten core - the idea that emotions are weak, that expressing them makes you lesser, that crying is a sign of deficiency, that fragility of any kind cannot be tolerated. Anakin is even the hopeless romantic in this situation - Padme, while gracious and warmhearted, is much more pragmatic and tries to reason her way out of her blossoming love for him until she’s of the belief that it doesn’t matter anyway because they’re about to die, and she wants him to know the truth before they do. (I’d also like to note that the closest people to him all speak their love aloud when they’re at the point of death - Shmi when he finds her bound and tortured with the Tuskens, Padme in the Arena, Obi-Wan watching him burn on Mustafar, and how unbearably sad is that? even though his mother had said it before, even though he got to hear it many times again from Padme - and it’s her last entreaty to him - we shouldn’t be pushed to the brink of death to express it). Anakin is the one gazing at her dreamily and tearing up about it and professing earnest, dramatic love in front of the fireplace (idc what anyone says about the dialogue, the way he expresses himself is entirely sincere, it’s the rawness of that sincerity that I think makes people uncomfortable bc it’s unexpected), she’s the one who talks about living in reality. She, too, has been taught to guard and temper her emotions from her time as a child queen and the years she’s spent navigating the murky political waters of the Senate, but she’s become adept at it, unlike Anakin. If anything, they’re the only person the other has with whom they can be truly genuine and unafraid of exposing the recesses of their hearts, they’re the only safe place the other has, it’s no wonder they give themselves over to that, and the fact that they do is beautiful, it’s not wrong (which I have more cohesive thoughts on here and it was the underlying thesis of my heart poured into the super long playlist for them too /linking all the things). They see the joy and spirit in the other that no one else ever sees, and they make a home there.

Anakin becomes an esteemed general not only because he’s awesome in battle and strong in the Force and a gifted pilot and a skilled leader (all of which are true), but because he shows those around him respect, and great care. So, yet again, there’s a subversion of what might have been expected. No one is expendable to him. He views the Clone troops as individual human beings. He mourns their losses (many of the Jedi, with their no attachments rhetoric, allow the Clones to be used without much hesitation or thought for their status as sentient beings born and bred and programmed to die in war, but Anakin was a slave. He comprehends their status more than anyone else could). Anakin is a celebrated hero to the public, and in private is being chewed up by fear and uncertainty. Anakin is devoted to and completely in love with his wife, but has to keep it a secret. Anakin still craves freedom that even being a Jedi has not afforded him, because of their rigor. Anakin still desperately has to scrape for even the bare minimum of approval from the authority figures around him - even his closest mentor and friend, Obi-Wan, while they are irrevocably bonded and care for each other in a myriad of important ways, often doesn’t understand him and dismisses his feelings, refuses to advocate for/stand up for him when he needs it, or tells him to calm down. I’m surprised they never tell him he’s being hysterical when he gets upset, but the connotation of being told to “calm down” when angry or sorrowful or frustrated is something most women can identify with all too well. His desperate desire to protect Padme as everything begins to curl and smoke and turn to ash around him has a very clear nurturing aspect to it underneath the layers of terror and frustration and building paranoia - all he really wants is to be able to protect and care for his family, all he hopes is to save them and have a life with them away from all the war and the political in-fighting and the stifling Order. He’d quit right that second but he needs help due to his nightmares, and no one is willing to give it to him. (Except, ostensibly, Palpatine, who has been grooming him and deftly manipulating him and warping his perceptions since he was a child, all under the guise of magnanimous, almost paternal, care. Palpatine is brilliant in his machinations, perfectly cunning in his evil. He knows exactly how to slip in and break people, and he plays Anakin to the furthest extreme. I’m not saying Anakin doesn’t have choices, he does, and he makes the worst possible ones, but Palpatine pulls the strings in a way that makes him feel that he has no agency - and in truth, he does have very little agency throughout every step of his arc, marrying Padme and loving her in spite of the rules is one of the only independent choices he ever makes that isn’t an order, a demand, a fulfilling of duty - and Palpatine poises himself as the answer to all the problems, if Anakin does as he’s told. He’s been hard-wired to take orders for too long. He is so damaged by this point, and so distrusting - Hayden said something once about how Anakin is still very naive in ROTS, even after what he’s been through in the war, he’s still so young and unknowing about many things, and then his naivete is shattered by complete and utter disillusionment, and that shock is terrible and incomprehensible for him, so he clings to the one source of power he’s given, and it’s catastrophic). He is haunted by grief and impeded by fear of loss, and it drags him into an abyss. We watch all of this happen with bated breath, we see everyone fail him, we see every moment where he could have been helped, we see every path he could take if only he had the ability to stand up for himself and had been given the tools to cope with his psychological and emotional baggage, we see that he very nearly turns back, up until the death knell at the end. We know it’s coming from the moment they land on Tatooine and meet him and decide to make him a Jedi. We know, and we still hope for it to turn out differently. We know, and it still breaks our hearts.

I don’t want to make blanket statements about typical male viewers vs. typical female viewers, that’s too dismissive of a stance to take, but on a seemingly wider scale, I don’t think many of the former (especially the ones who were either older fans or who were teenagers themselves at the time) were as interested in political nuance and a tale of abiding love and a young man burdened with more than should ever have been put on his shoulders. Since the question was basically “why does he appeal to women,” (and not just cishet women) I imagine that the answer to that varies greatly depending on any one perceptive outlook, but has a similar core in each case of us wishing we could help change the outcome, even though we know we can’t, and of wanting to understand his actions and his pain, wanting to see his positive choices and his goodness validated, wanting to see him learn healthy strategies, wanting to see his love flourish, wanting to see him freed from the shackles he drags with him, from childhood to Jedi to Vader. The crush of the standards of society and expectation on him may speak to many. He is never liberated (until his final moments of free breath). His choices are either taken or horrifically tainted. His voice is drowned out by those more powerful around him. His talents and intelligence go largely unrecognized. His good, expansive heart is treated like a hindrance. The depth of his empathy and love is underestimated - and that, in the end, is important, because that underestimation, ending with Palpatine, becomes the Dark Side’s ultimate downfall and undoing. Vader may literally pick up an electric Palpatine and throw him down a reactor shaft, but that physical action is the final answer to a much more complete emotional and spiritual journey. He throws him down and the chains go with the slave master, and for the first time, certainly since before he lost Padme, his heart is unfettered, his love is reciprocated, and he is offered a true voice, a moment of his true self, a sliver of forgiveness, before being embraced again by the transcendence of the light. It is his act of rebellion, it is his own personal revolution, his final blow in the war. The entirety of the arc hinges upon him in that moment, Luke has been valorous and immeasurably valuable, but he’s done all he can do - the final choice is Anakin’s (and it’s such an interesting case because where else have we ever been able to fear and appreciate a villain, and then totally transform and re-contextualize him?). He is in that moment, indeed, the Chosen One.

All these facets are fascinating to watch unfold if you’re willing to be open-minded and heartfelt and sympathetic to the journey, if you’re willing to dig into the complex depth of his pathos.

I remember seeing AOTC as a teenager, and my love was Padme, she was where I was invested, I identified with her, I loved her kindness and her bravery and her sense of honor and justice, I loved that her femininity did not in any way diminish her and was an asset, I loved that, while she takes charge and has the fortitude to rush headlong to the rescue, while she can fight and tote a gun and blast a droid army as well as anyone, her superpowers are her intellect and her giving heart and gentle spirit. I totally get why Anakin holds onto the thread of hope she gives to him for all of those years, and why he falls in love with her as he does, but since I felt a lot of the story through her eyes, I understood why she was drawn to and fell in love with him, too. He’s dynamic and a bit reckless, he’s courageous, but he’s vulnerable and needs support, he’s deeply troubled but also radiantly ebullient at times (the scene in the meadow where she’s so touched by the carefree joy he exhibits, how it delights her and takes her aback, because she’s almost forgotten what it is to feel that, she’s almost forgotten other people could, and here he is, warm and teasing and spirited), he is often guileless, especially with her, he’s fervent and loving in a way she’s never seen or experienced, and that love is given with abandon to her. Who…wouldn’t fall in love with that? It’s a gravitational pull. AOTC impacted me in certain other personal ways as well, I was trying to understand some nascent hollows of grief (Anakin losing his mother as he does was very affecting and heartwrenching for me, at the time I’d lost my grandfather to whom I was quite close, and I’m also really close to my own mom, so his woe had an echo to me), but that vision that I specifically had of their love, the way I interpreted it (which I may not have had words for at the time, but I certainly had the emotional response) was a dear and formative thing.

I talked about this here, but to rephrase/reiterate, by the time ROTS came out, my life had shifted completely on its axis. I was still young, but my much dreamier teenage self was being beaten down and consumed by illness, and I was angry. Anger is not a natural emotion for me (guilt and self-blame tend to be where I bury anger), and I really didn’t know what to do with it. Everything felt unfair and uncertain, like there was no ground at all to stand on. I hurt all the time, literally and figuratively, I was in constant pain. I was lonely and frightened and sleep deprived and often had nightmares (this is still kind of true lol, as is the physical pain part). Padme was still my heart and touchstone - as she remains so to this day in this story - but suddenly I understood Anakin in a much more profound way, one I’ve held onto because he’s important to me and I love him. I felt his rage, his anguish, his desire to do something, anything, to somehow change or influence the situation, to rectify his nightmares, to cling to whatever might make a difference, might save him from being drowned in the dark and from losing everything that made him who he was as a person. Seeing him try and knowing he would fail was devastating, but also…relatable, in an abstract way (obviously not the violent parts, but thematically, I felt some measure of what it was to scramble up a foundation that is disappearing beneath you, that your expectations and dreams of what your life would be can vanish in disintegrating increments). All I wanted was for someone to help rescue him, because all I wanted was for someone to help rescue me. All I wanted was the hope that things could turn around - and there is hope in ROTS, despite the unending terror and tragedy, it’s never entirely gone, because Star Wars exists as a universe with the blazing stars of hope and love ever ignited at its center - but still, it was a very personally rooted emotional exploration for me, and I only started to deal with my own floundering anger when I saw how it might consume the true and loving and softer parts of me if I didn’t hold it back. (A few years later, I went through this again in an even worse way, and the source of that rage and despair was someone I cared for, and once I got through the worst bleak ugliness of it, there were a couple of stories I returned to in an attempt to gain newfound solace and comprehension, and Anakin and Padme were in there. My compassionate, hopeful heart was being torn by that fury, and I clawed my way back up from the brink of it because I knew I could die, not even necessarily figuratively, it was…a bad time, if I didn’t find my way out. Anakin’s story is a tragedy and a fable and a kind of warning - we should not deny or suppress our emotions or our authenticity, but we also cannot let it destroy us - and then ultimately his lesson is restorative, too, that we never lose the essential part of our souls, that we must allow ourselves to feel. Balance indeed). 

As consistent and transparent as my love for Padme has always been, my Anakin emotions are actually so close and personal that I intentionally avoided ever exposing them for actual years, it’s like…basically in the past month that I’ve ever been truly honest about it on Tumblr, because exposing that felt like too much, but I don’t really care about keeping it quiet any more, and that’s very cathartic. 

I myself am an incredibly emotional person, and I don’t believe that Anakin’s emotions are negative qualities, which I meant to underscore. In fact, his open emotions are an exquisite part of him, and it’s the Jedi who are wrong for trying to stamp that out, when his emotional abilities are part of what define him in his inherent goodness and his intellect and strength. He has an undying heart. For he and Luke both to stand as male heroes who represent such depth of feeling is really special, and vital to the story. Anakin is the most acutely human character in many respects, in his foibles and his inner strengths, in his losses and his longings and his ultimate return to his true self - that’s why we feel for him, that’s why we ache and fear for him, that’s why we rejoice for him in the end.

Other people could speak to the Vader part of it much better than I can, Vader’s an amazing and very interesting villain (the fact that, as Vader, Anakin is much more adhered to the Jedi code and way of thinking than he ever was as an actual Jedi, for example - he has an order to him, he is much more dispassionate, he is very adamant about the power of the Force - is endlessly intriguing, because he’s such a contradiction). I use this term for a different character, but I’m going to apply it here - Anakin is a poem of opposites. He is a center that can serve as either sun or black hole. He is a manifestation of love and light and heroism, he is a figure of imposing power and cold rage. He’s the meadow and the volcano. The question then becomes, how expansive are we? When we’re filled with the contradicting aspects of ourselves, how do we make them whole without falling apart? When we do fail, can we ever do anything to fix it? And the answers again will vary by individual, but to my mind - we’re infinite, and thus infinitely capable of, at any point, embracing our light, even if we’ve forgotten to have faith in it, and while we may not be able to fix every mistake or right every wrong, we can make a better choice and alter the path. The smallest of our actions can ripple and extend and are more incandescent than we know. That’s what he does, against all expectation. In the end, he is an archetype not only of a hero (be that fallen or chosen or divine), but of a wayward traveler come home, a heart rekindled, a soul set free to emerge victorious in the transcendent light.

In the final resonance of that story for me personally, I love him for being a representation of that journey, that no matter how long it takes to get there, how arduous it is - that things we lose can be found again, that with the decided act of compassion, pure, redemptive love can be held onto, that the light persists and that, even when it flickers most dimly, refuses to be extinguished, and can at any point illuminate not only ourselves, but can shine brightly enough to match the stars in the universe.

I hope this is at all cogent, here’s a gif for your patience ♥

#anakin skywalker #darth vader #sw meta #star wars #okay to reblog #(of course! <3) #this is so long i'm so sorry for anyone who's now seen it twice but i didn't want to ignore the very sweet message i got #(which i am honored by thank you for even asking and caring and being patient enough to read this spiel omg) #i tweaked some of the wording for clarity (i changed it in the original too) but otherwise it's basically the same #bubble wrap around my heart #* #encouraged to love #anyway i love him #and i love luke so much and that's a vital component here #luke's faith and kindness and important heroism exists for a reason #luke sees the truth and the good and he doesn't let it go and his spirit does not waver and is brightly right in the end #don't you dare try to tell me anakin wasn't always fundamentally good in the truest and most luminous parts of his heart #to do so is to not only undermine anakin but to invalidate luke and padme and i won't stand for that #i could write one of these for luke but i think he's getting really good defense from sharper minds than mine in many cases #i could write one of these for padme but she's also been getting quality recognition lately #so as far as any defense goes this is the best my exhausted little brain can do and i hope it does justice to the story in some small way #i'm so ill and out of it that i have no idea if this makes sense even after copy/pasting it and fixing it up but itried.jpg #long post for ts

[the-dreadful-canine]

Thank you v much for the tag @noire-pandora, @oxygenforthewicked, @emerald-amidst-gold and @dungeons-and-dragon-age I appreciate you all~ 🥰

On this fine day, I bring a snippet of the gang having a sweet moment at the tavern (but then I throw angst in the end because I am built like this).

Cw for: gambling, drinking, mentions of blood, ptsd, mild panic attack (it sounds really bad omg)

Balanced on the back legs of her chair, Elizabeth hid a soft smile behind a sip of her cup’s contents. The well-fed fire burned merrily on the hearth, bathing her chilled skin and the tavern in flickers of gold and orange, enhancing the homey atmosphere its patrons created. Scouts, Chargers and members of the Inner Circle alike gathered, piling around a couple of hastily pushed together tables.

Groans of defeat and pleased laughs filled the air, fistfuls of sweets, coins and the odd piece of clothing changed hands at the end of another round of Wicked Grace.

Following the self-assigned role of fire keeper, she eased the chair’ legs on the floor, turning back to the flames. It burned low, so she fed it a new log. Reaching her will outwards, Elizabeth called out to some of the curious *kindlings floating above the table, coaxing them to feed on the offered wood.

“Kadan, please.” The sudden baritone rising above the hushed gambling made her head turn, and she watched a coatless Dorian caught on his lover’s embrace. He had his nose in the air, arms crossed and eyes closed, a clear dismissal to whatever Bull tried to convince him of.

Finding his reasoning ignored, Bull let go of his lover with a sigh. Who was more than happy to return to the table and take a healthy gulp of his glass. With less grace than the usual he bent halfway under the thing, returning moments later with a triumphant expression. Whistles and hoots followed the clinking thud of his shiny boots being dropped over wood, and more than one pair of eyebrows rising at the rare bet.

“Deal me in, rogue.” Dorian spoke, managing to appear somewhat regal even while hastily tucking his now much colder feet under himself.

“You sure, Sparkler?” Varric drawled, eying the expensive item “That’s quite the pretty thing to risk.”

“And it’s about to look prettier surrounded by everyone’s piles of coins I’ll win this round.”

“A brave claim for someone clad only in a shirt and breeches.” Taunted Josephine from over her hand of cards. The ambassador perched like a golden dragon on her chair, her loot spread around her. “This will be a pretty addition to my collection.”

“You, Montilyet, shall rob me of no more items,” he scoffed, “for I have picked up on your tell.”

“A lady has no tells, Pavus.” She retorts swiftly, sipping from her wine with a smile like the cat who ate a canary gracing her face.

“Oh but she does.” called a voice from the door, a series of disheartened mutters rising from the table when the owner revealed herself. “If you know where to look.” she smirked, eying the offered footwear. “Now Mister Tethras, if you will?” Leliana spoke, roosting smoothly on a chair and motioning for Varric to deal her some cards.

Elizabeth nearly snorted on her drink when a chunk of the table suddenly decided to skip the round in a wave of half-baked excuses. Wise decision. But her favorite necromant’s wisdom had drowned somewhere around his fifth serving of liquor and he grew bolder, teasing the new rival, and she shook her head.

How in the Void Dorian still had enough clarity of mind to play Grace was beyond her. Their shared taste for the spicy, embrium-infused drink meant they were sharing a bottle this night; she was barely half her second cup and already her body started to feel all kinds of woozy. But then again, her ability to hold her liquor was never anything to boast about.

A fond smile made way to her face when the laughing and voices of other companions joined the growing banter. They were precious, these moments of peace where they could all come together and enjoy each other’s company. Even if for a few hours, they could ignore the ever-looming presence of the falling skies and rising evil magisters.

Much too often the hearth provided a melancholic light devoid of warmth and drinks not for loosening and unwinding with friends. The burning found at the bottom of the cup was a way to numb down the senses. To forget the days on the battlefield. To hope their bloodstained souls would not stain in crimsom their sleeping hours.

Something cold and sticky seeped on her thigh, and only then Elizabeth noticed the shaking hands. The spilled red liquid trailed down her fingers to pool on the rug, like blood pouring from a gaping wound. She closed her eyes and held her breath, willing her mind to settle. But it was too late. The homey smell of burning wood and roasting meat wafting from the kitchens twisted, and the stench of smoke and scorched flesh filled her nostrils instead. The laughing voices, warm and friendly grew louder, too loud. They bled and mixed into each other until all she heard was a cacophony of horrified screams of the uncountable lives she had to take just to survive.

A gentle, firm tug at her hand, pulls her from the edge of the vortex inside her mind and she reopens her eyes, blinking away the blur of unshed tears. Pale blue stares back at her, the familiar depths filled with so much empathy and understanding and it feels like an anchor; one she allows to ground her.

She can’t hear his words at first, but works trough the calming exercises until his blessedly monotonous and unwavering voice returns to her. The rest of the tavern’s voices and noises following soon enough.

Once awareness returns Elizabeth notices the rug she’s sitting in, the walls of the attic a familiar sight. She has no memory of getting there, but is thankful all the same. The boy in front of her gets up from his crouch, tugging her to her feet with a strength that never ceases to surprise her.

“Come.”

“Cole,” she tries pulling her hand out of his, but the spirit refuses to yield his grasp “thank you for coming to my aid but, really. I’m alright. I’ll be alright.”

“You are hurting.”

“Well, once you reach your thirties, you’re always hurting somewhere.” She jokes, trying to lighten the mood, but Cole sees right through her act, and although his face wears the usual neutral expression, his eyes scream his disapproval. With a sigh, she gives in, allowing him to drag her down the flights of stairs to the floor level.

“I can’t make you forget. They can help.” He says with a ghost of a smile once they reach the last step of the stairs. And then he’s gone.

There’s no time to feel awkward for standing alone in a dark corner, Varric’s finding her in a heartbeat. He calls out to her then, a wide grin on his face, warm brown eyes glimmering from something more than being on high spirits.

“Stop hiding, Stabby!” the table perks up at the mention of her nickname. More eyes and smiles turning to greet her “You’ve got too little alcohol and way too much dignity left in your body, you’re making us all look bad!”

The giggles and assorted noises of agreement wash over her like a warm cocoon, and weight she wasn’t even aware being on her shoulders slowly melts away.

Maybe Cole was right, she thinks - hopes -, while walking to the table. They could help.

* I tweaked Elizabeth's abilities based off her origins. She's from Earth not Thedas, and so I gave her earth-like magic: her 'magic' comes not from the Fade, but from borrowing from the elementals in the ambient. The kindlings mentioned in the scene are that, smol fire elementals attracted by the flames of the hearth.

#wip wednesday #i had this scene come to me at 2am and you can bet i got up to write it down before i forgot it #oc: elizabeth montes #dorian pavus #the iron bull #josephine montilyet #leliana dragon age #cole dragon age #varric tethras #cw: alcohol #cw: blood #cw: ptsd #cw: panic attack #my writing #mgit #modern girl in thedas #cw: gambling

[illwynd]

writer tag game

Tagged by @philosopherking1887! TY!!! :D

Repost and tell me how you draft as you write. Do you write in order? Do you start with something particular? How fully formed does your writing come out the first try? How many drafts do you go through? Tell me about your process because I’m curious!

For me this really depends on the length of the thing. For a short one-shot I will tend to just write it all in one or two sittings, and in most cases it doesn’t need a full-on draft process; I’ll tend to let it rest for a bit after the first draft is down, then come back to it a few days or weeks later to see if it all still holds up and feels good, if there are any bits that need to be expanded or changed, any awkward phrasing, etc. My first go at these tends to be pretty solid and often doesn’t need more than a polishing. There are a few short things like that that I’ve come back to later and decided it didn’t hold up, and occasionally this resulted in me scrapping it and doing a complete rewrite of the idea from scratch, maybe keeping a few paragraphs that I particularly liked, then rinse and repeat. But that’s relatively rare for me.

Longer multi-chapter things... that’s where it gets more complicated. I still tend to write roughly in order (helps me keep things straight in my head lol, particularly in terms of emotional arcs), but I also don’t let gaps stop me. When I’m writing something long, I need to get enough down on the page right at the start to keep momentum going. So what often happens is I’ll do a complete draft of the first few chapters and then continue, jotting down as much as possible in semi-outline form to lay out not just the specific plot actions but also how the characters feel about it, segueing into prose or bits of dialogue whenever I have the words for it. When the flow trickles to a stop, I’ll then set it aside, and when I come back to it I’ll basically do the same thing again, going through from start to finish, filling in the gaps from the first time with more prose and dialogue, stitching scenes together and revising what’s there as I go. Depending how long and involved the story is, this can take only a couple passes or dozens. And then when I have a complete draft, I’ll set the whole thing aside to look at it with fresh eyes after a bit and make sure it doesn’t suck, rewrite any parts that do, tweak things for clarity, polish up phrasing, all that stuff. 

It also depends how plotty it is (the first few chapters of I remember a shadow had less of a process than the later chapters, since they were originally just an excuse for me to write a bunch of a particular pr0n dynamic that I was craving lol), how bolt-of-lightning it is (October is relatively short I guess but it was neat writing something that length in a few days, basically without stopping, and needing to make very few adjustments afterward), and also how... idk... challenging the concept is. The first half of Dead Wings got completely rewritten at least 4 or 5 times over several years, but when I finally got it right, the rest pretty much flowed and got finished in a matter of a couple months.

The only time I posted a longfic serially while writing it... I have no idea how I even managed that. It’s really not how my brain likes to do things. Too much pressure to have the whole thing figured out upfront and to never have to go back to an early chapter and change something. But it was an interesting experience anyway.

I guess another fun fact to mention is that in some cases I like to write the first draft in longhand. This is useful to me for two reasons: sometimes it just flows better like that, and also when I’m typing it up that can sort of be my first revision pass. But it means I have a ton of notebooks filled with very rough first drafts of my fics XD

OK so tagging... @rynfinity, @gorgeousgalatea, and uhhhh anyone else who wants to answer but hasn’t been tagged by anybody :D? :D?

#i guess we do a meme #writing meme #maybe i will go write now

[inventors-fair]

Three Cheese Commentary: An exercise in utility

I really shouldn’t complain about contests being popular with people.

Still, what a way for the year’s contests to start. A heckuva lot of entries for a very hard prompt makes me feel good, in an odd way. I have a hypothesis that the clarity of directions and the examples provided were enough to make it feel as though there was a low barrier to entry. It’s interesting and kind of my fault that a lot of mythic legendary creatures found their way in. Ah well. Lessons learned.

If you’re reading this, I want to give you a little hint: we love hard decisions. If your cards really are brilliant, if you do your best to improve with each and every entry, if you listen to the commentary and submit the best possible card, then our jobs as judges would be nail-bitingly hard. And I love that. I love having to sigh wistfully and move a card from “winners” to “runners-up.” I love praising cards that contest for coolness in their spaces. In short: you don’t have to listen to us specifically because, well, we’re not professionals, but if you tweak the tweaks and polish on your polish, then—well, the goal is that you grow as designers and in your understanding of the game. And that you’ll have fun along the way. 

For every card, I’m going to converse with the intent, talk about where improvements can be made and what might have gone wrong, and then go through wording nitpicks (another part of what makes cards hard, heh. You gotta do design AND cost AND flavor without committee). Cards with JUDGE PICK are personal favorites that for whatever reason either didn’t meet the criteria for winners or just tickled my fancy despite being some kind of not-there-in-certain-ways. Or maybe they just got pushed out of runners-up because of space. See? Hard decisions.

Let’s talk about some cards:

@aethernalstars — Anurid Matriarch

Intent: The Matriarch feels like a casual build-around-me keyword card with some connection to the Anurids of Dominaria. There are only two frogs with reach (and none with first strike) to date but this isn’t supposed to be a tribal card, is it. Not like that, anyway. Giving keywords those ups makes sense. Token generation is pretty solidly GW, giving them flying is WU, sure. First strike to double feels distinctly white. I imagine this card as a casual build-around-me or a token generator. Five mana for a 1/1 token ain’t bad.

Improvement: I have no idea what this card really wants to be. First strike doesn’t see anything outside of white, and reach doesn’t see much inside white. Or blue, for that matter. The flying makes sense for blue but this whole card doesn’t feel cohesive in terms of colors or identity. I did my Anurid research and I don’t see any precedent for this. Frog beasts are cool but… Well, this card answers the question of “why” with “just because.” I don’t fully understand the niche it’s trying to fill or the environment in which it wants to exist. If you’re gonna make a Frog build-around-me, lean into that. If you’re gonna make a keyword tribal card, focus on just one. If you want to make it color-balanced, look at what everything could do together for a flavorful feel.

Nitpicks: Flying comes before double strike.

Amarinthe — Rashmi, Enlivened Artificer

Intent: Temur has a pseudo-foothold in Kaladesh mechanically, so I’m not surprised that Rashmi’s here doing her thing. Giving your cards Jump-start is interesting, as UR has a sort of flashback mechanic, plus the lands from the graveyard work into green quite well. What I really like is the way that the Crucible effect interacts with jump-start. That’s pretty cool design chops. I can see this in a supplemental Commander sphere or even as a Standard mythic for a three-color archetype. It doesn’t seem exceptionally broken on either front. From a purely mechanical perspective, I think you made an awesome card.

Improvement: This card perhaps feels RUG, but it 100% doesn’t feel like Rashmi or a druid. Elves can be artificers on Kaladesh, and that’s not an issue, but you call her an artificer, you type her as a druid (which yes, was her original type when she was more druidic), and you give her a primary ability that’s got basically nothing to do with artifacts or druidic principles. The lands work great with the druid part, but the flavor could be sorted out. I would take out “jump-start” as a keyword and just work in the wording “you may cast from your graveyard” etc., make a new character, and flavor them appropriately. The flavor text should complement the mechanics; as it is, I’m not certain.

Nitpicks: “jump-start” should be lowercase, but it doesn’t really matter if you do end up taking it out. 

@arashisann — Yurlok’s Conflux

Intent: With Yurlok being a new commander hotness, I can see the intent of this card as a Jundian standard/supplemental addendum. The lava flow makes mountains, then the second ability...represents something predatory? And the last is Jund destruction. The R>B>G makes sense there.

Improvement: I don’t know if this card is necessary salvageable as-is; you might be better off making two or three separate cards if you want to show this character. When making a saga, you have to tell a story in a limited form, and it’s hard, absolutely! You represented the lava flow in the first ability quite well, and I do like that a lot. The creature and artifact sacrifice isn’t indicative of anything that I can follow story-wise. Reading the wiki I understand the way that you might want to represent the Thrash dying or Esper being invaded. I don’t believe this is the way to do it. With the very last sentence not doing anything when you’re sacrificing anyway, I don’t believe the best card for you is a saga at all. How could you tell this in an instant or sorcery card, perhaps? The moment that Yurlok comes over the Esper border?

Nitpicks: “non-Mountain;” the land type should be capitalized in both parts, see Quicksilver Fountain. The ability should also be one word. As I mentioned, removing the counters doesn’t do anything mechanically because it’s sacrificed after resolution. Check the MSE Discord if you want to get your text fixed, BTW. I know how frustrating that can be.

@askkrenko — Etherium Restoration

Intent: You know, even without Ed being there, I’m getting a Bruna-ish feel. That’s not a bad thing, it’s just that UW expensive returning stuff kinda has those associations. The fact that the creature is being restored with etherium though is pretty awesome, and you know what, that alone (the return plus the re-artifacting) is a great way to convey what Esper does and wants to do. 

Improvement: The aura and equipment stuff doesn’t grab me, honestly. What do auras have to do with Esper? And the only equipment that I could find that fit was Mask of Riddles. So I’m going to stop here because the obvious answer is that you’re exploring new story design space for what Esper might be. I respect that. With the information we have now, it’s middle-of-the-road. My vote would be to make this (3)(B/W)(U) and make an argument for UW reanimation to artifice overall, then completely drop the aura/equipment part. Plus, gotta say, I know the flavor text is a pop culture thing but you’re messin’ with my favorite plane! Show some respect! /j

Nitpicks: If you do keep that second part, “Aura” and “Equipment” should be capitalized.

@bread-into-toast — Krofor, Corpse Hauler

Intent: It’s a nightmare insect? I’m down. Even without that particular piece of art I can see how people might be afraid of a giant bug. This is pretty evidently a Commander-geared card although I can see how casual brewers might want to throw it down in a combo match and do some graveyard hate. GW graveyard exile and black ability scavaging is pretty cool, so I can see where your intent was with that. Good catch putting “Nightmare” first, too. I almost suggested mixing it around. I like how aggressive this card can be.

Improvement: Firstly, Corpse Hauler is literally another card which already had a self-evident mechanical ability to get creatures back to the hand. Even if it’s an homage, I would distinguish it; besides, it’s not so much “hauling” corpses as it is eating them. Presumably. “All abilities” is a bit of a slippery slope, too. Activated abilities is one thing, but all abilities whatsoever? I’m uncertain if that’s design space you want to tap into, but don’t pull the trigger. My main issue is that you have the activated ability cost “X and W, B or G.” I understand what you were trying to do but that that point you might as well just have it be “1X.” There wouldn’t be anything stopping you from making that mana already. In short, rectify the name to fit flavor, change the ability cost, and be wary of weird interactions with abilities.

Nitpicks: “Lifelink” and “Vigilance” should be lowercase ‘l’ and ‘v’ respectively. The X in the rules text of the activated ability should also be spelled out and not a mana symbol. You can change this in MSE by highlighting, then going to the star next to the bold/italic toggle and turning it off.

@col-seaker-of-the-memiest-legion — Sevala, Exiled Naturalist

Intent: I read up on what happened with Selvala after the events of the first Conspiracy set, and I see how you set off to mimic that, but then I saw the note about the Timeshifting, and yeah, I guess that works.. The green landfall, the red flashback and the white Path come across well. I suppose this is more of an eternal-themed card, although I could be wrong.

Improvement: Yeah, technically there’s nothing stopping you from having a noncreature card as a partnerable card. I’m trying to be diplomatic about the implications, though. Okay. So Selvala’s white aspect was introduced in the first Conspiracy set as she was heavily connected to the citizens of Paliano and worked as a community diplomat against the establishment. She forged a stronger connection to nature and thus became more green in her overhaul of the city. Path to Exile is not in her wheelhouse. She does not exile; she parlays, communes with creatures, seeks out new futures. What exiling magic does she have? What judgement? It doesn’t exist in her character, nor does the redness. Frankly landfall doesn’t really fit her character as well. The point is that even if a character could have a partner that’s a concept (which is antithetical to the mechanic as a whole), the spell you have chosen contrasts with Selvala instead of complementing her. And what does she have to do with flashback anyway? To improve this card, completely restart the conceptual process.

Nitpicks: The character’s name is misspelled. 

@deafeningsandwichpeach — Ilharg, the Craze-Boar

Intent: Ha, I get it. I’m going to go out on a huge limb here, because I mean as much as I like all of this I get the feeling that either the name or art came before the full concept. Nothing wrong with that, because ultimately the card is good. SO. Either this is designed for a Timeshifted set where something really awful happens to our poor Boar God, or, well, something really bad DID happen to him somehow. I’m not sure what the land return represents flavorfully but it’s fine mechanically. The creature return as well is BR and I’m down for that, strong as it is. This card evokes the colors in a way that makes it slightly different than Jund; maybe it’s the art but I’m getting Innistrad vibes from him, the madness returning, the pain going on inside his head. It’s neat. Again, massive stretch though, let’s be real.

Improvement: And with that in mind, I wouldn’t have made him Ilharg. Honestly, this should’ve been a new character, and I would have been a lot more generous. I don’t really get what Ilharg as a whole even in an alternate timeline has to do with lands returning considering that he’s a big ol’ nasty city destroyer. Mechanically, this card needs to cost like EIGHT mana. The card you return from your graveyard to the battlefield stays there, and with a big enough graveyard you don’t have to worry about getting things from your hand anymore. Turns 1-4 dump all your creatures, turn five get the best of them if not earlier? Pretty busted in any format. For eight mana I wouldn’t complain.

Nitpicks: “up to two land cards,” not “lands.” Question: why isn’t he a God?

@deg99 — Radiant Return (JUDGE PICK)

Intent: Black reanimation, white attachment, red hastiness. All the colors are definitely there! There’s something Mardu-not-Mardu about this RWB card, and I think I like it. I could see it as a standard card, definitely, or as a commander staple for a really interesting commander. I’m honestly not sure exactly what kind of deck would really appreciate this card right now! Keskit/Akiri? The Auras part is a little more interesting. Ardenn/Vial...Smasher? The fact that it defies current archetypes but still makes sense is very cool to me. I also wonder what a standard expansion in which RWB auraquipment is an archetype would look like now.

Improvement: A little flavor text could make this work one degree better. It’s really on me that  you went into the future with this card, isn’t it. There’s no major improvement to be made besides that. Consider contextualizing for future contests, perhaps? When necessary, anyway.

Nitpicks: “Return target...to the battlefield, then attach any number of Auras and/or Equipment you control to it...etc.” Don’t need the trigger.

@demimonde-semigoddess — Seaglide Whaler

Intent: A pirate’s life for me! So we got an aggressive tempo-y pirate person with a decent couple of sharpshooter abilities. Blue sirens are certainly reasonable, as are Grixis pirates. I like the notion that it has to attack to “survey” and then take whatever shots it makes. I don’t think Ixalan could have had this card but honestly the future is a place where anything could happen.

Improvement: The problem with these colors is that in practical terms, the second mode is strictly black and yet can be played in an Izzet deck. Hybrid is a weird mistress. As much as these abilities might neatly tie into the three colors, hybrid makes deck construction nearly impossible. You can have a pinger in UB or a Fatal Blow in UR, both of which are either severe bends or breaks. Making this a straight UBR 3/1 flier could have been okay, perhaps, or having on-color activations, but as it is now, hybrid makes things hard. Consider looking at a Venn diagram between UB and UR to consider more appropriate abilities?

Nitpicks: Kathari Bomber implies the second mode to be “...damage this turn and sacrifice Seaglide Whaler.”

@dimestoretajic — The Dark Tendril

Intent: Sultai skulk-lord could be a fun card to open and build around in limited, and a BUG defender-y deck could have some fun application. I like how you’ve made the new character and sort of done another take on treefolk.

Improvement: For this contest, I don’t feel a strong color balance in this card. Skulk was a weird black/blue centered mechanic, sure, and green assigns the toughness, but… This feels like it’s trying to make skulk look cool rather than address the issue that skulk was just plain not a good mechanic. I get where the color weight is supposed to be but the whole thing is shadowed by that underlying desire. If this card had just been “Creatures you control can’t be blocked by creatures with greater power” and the other stuff, on a name/type that was more resonant, then I think it could have been a stronger contender. I don’t understand the world in which “The Dark Tendril” lives. I don’t understand why it’s a treefolk. I would get rid of naming skulk, make the type more apparent, and give the character some character.

Nitpicks: Three-colored cards really should have a gold border, not a hybrid one. Also, promo frames tend not to have flavor text (with exceptions for cards with no rules text like Memnite).

@driftingthruthecosmos — Ulti, Sudden Conjurer

Intent: I like that triggered ability because it’s got some smooth flow over it. GU has its flash aspect, but black also likes destructive instants, and then the Disentomb-effect fits nicely into a payoff that feels black for sure. I also like how you’re using the three colors to push the card into a really neat 3/3 aggressive creature. Flash and deathtouch literally only show up together in these three colors but not together—and here you are changing that on a powerful legend!

Improvement: But the fact that she can only return creatures with flash is kind of a bummer. Sure there are plenty of cards that could work with her, and having some Ambush Viper casual tribal wouldn’t be too bad, but it’s still limiting. I would have implied that she works with flash, or let players work with flash, without being so specific about it, and I feel that the card would be improved with implied flash tribal over explicit in this case. Additionally, what on earth is that last ability doing? Each end step, you have to sacrifice a creature or lose one of your potential targets for her trigger? I have the feeling that you may have been too cautious to push power levels here. If you want to limit her, have it be “Whenever you cast your first spell during each opponent’s turn…” or something, and axe that last part.

Nitpicks: “unless you sacrifice a nontoken creature.” Full stop, you can never sacrifice creatures you don’t control so adding “you control” is redundant.

@dumbellsndragons — Gorvax, Lich of the Horde

Intent: It’s a Mardu zombie orc wizard. At this point, you’re already doing something right for the Timmies out there. The first ability has Tainted Remedy plus some crazy draw after that, and oh man, it’s begging to be punishing. “I’m gonna Heliod’s Intervention you. Deck yourself. Runeflare Trap. Molten Psyche.” But also, that second ability? You can Bolt during an opponent’s turn and turn it into a one-red-mana Ancient Craving. For mythic, to build around? I honestly think that that’s perfectly fine. And insanely powerful.

Improvement: There’s weird stuff going on, but the hard part is that I don’t know if there’s things to improve. Giving your spells lifelink has Jeskai precedent, but it’s not NOT black. Doing a little digging, I can see that there are indeed zombies and even liches on Tarkir, but only in Sultai… But there’s no reason that the Mardu wouldn’t have them, right? Hm, maybe “Victory or Death” gets muddled here. Wizard, though, that’s a sticking point. And frankly, the whole “Lich” thing. I don’t see the lichiness in the abilities or the wizardry in the Mardu. You know what would be dumb fun? Ditching the Mardu aspect and making this WUBR. Wouldn’t fit the contest but what a friggin’ commander.

Nitpicks: None!

@emmypupcake — Knight of Summer’s Vigor

Intent: I was surprised to see that there are actually quite a few green Knights. It makes sense, of course, considering both Eldraine and Bant and Selesnya. So yeah, an elf knight who makes more knights? This is a powerful card with some crazy abilities if it gets out of control at all, but the color restrictions and the lack of substantial evasion ensure that it’s not busted out of the gate. The name’s pretty good, too! Oh, Knight of New Alara...

Improvement: For this contest, I don’t feel color blending as much. Tokens with GW and knights with R(W) are fine, yeah, but aside from that, the colors of the tokens and the general feeling of the card isn’t enough to really excite me. I do want to see a set in which this card could exist, perhaps, with multicolored knights and elves and whatnot. I don’t have any real improvements for this card; I just don’t think it stands out against some of the weirdness. Keep it around and add some flavor text. Consider: what would you like for this set to be? In what world would these knights exist? Why is summer important?

Nitpicks: “Whenever,” not “when.” See Pollenbright Wings

@evscfa1 — Estrid, the Unmasker

Intent: The Commander sets with shard Planeswalkers did give us a lot to work with but not a lot of extra stuff, so it makes sense that people might pick up on them for the contest. White auras, exile, and taxing all make sense mechanically. I feel that this is more standard than supplemental, a little weirdness for the way that the specific tokens and all would want to work. I don’t mind that part, honestly. Bringing Estrid back would be fine by me, even as monocolored. 

Improvement: Because, well, this is a mono-white card. The +1 creates white Auras (that don’t do anything, so that’s an issue), the -2 is close to Generous Gift, and the -8 is an enchantment-oriented Hum of the Radix, like a twist between Sphere of Safety and Aura of Silence. None of these abilities feel anything but white. The emblem is arguably UW, but not by much. With Auras that don’t do anything and a color identity that doesn’t mechanically contribute to the card, I feel that you can either keep her and buff some of the abilities or try to make her feel more in line with the contest, which you don’t really have to do at this point. I’m also worried about the name and the ability tie-ins. Estrid doesn’t “unmask” at all, does she? She’s a mask user, not a revealer of truth or any of the things “unmasking” would imply. Why would she make a False Mask? Is this some alternate storyline? If so, I don’t really understand what changed, or why.

Nitpicks: “*Its controller” in the -2, “*get an emblem” in the -8.

@fractured-infinity — Rhythm of Death (rare)

Intent: Red (/black) gains first strike, black (/green) has deathtouch, green (/red kind of) has lure. Everything’s coming together in a kind of keyword soup, so that’s all well and good! In limited someone who opens this will be very, very happy to make people cry. In casual Commander, it’s sure to help make negotiations.

Improvement: In terms of this contest, yeah, this isn’t really buttering my radishes. It’s there, it’s pretty standard, and it makes sense. There are two cards that have first strike and deathtouch and four more that can gain it naturally and all but one are in those colors. And that wouldn’t be a problem if this card was presented differently. I’m ignoring the art for now because it’s actually distracting here. What is the “rhythm?” Is something being given the rhythm? What’s repeating, cycled, constant? What about a rhythm gives the creature these abilities? Change the name, flavor it up, get some text in there, and use blank art. 

Nitpicks: “Enchant creature (lowercase) >> Enchanted creature has first strike and deathtouch, and must be blocked if able.” Take that with a grain of salt, though. Protective Bubble might have it say “Enchanted creature must be blocked if able and has first strike and deathtouch.” Or you can cut the middleman and make it two lines: “Enchanted creature has first strike and deathtouch. // Enchanted creature must be blocked if able.”

@gollumni — Exotic Wings

Intent: It’s interesting that we have two back-to-back “must be blocked” cards (hm, no shorthand?) in a row, both Auras no less, but very different. I like your flavor use with the wings being a status symbol, bright and glittery, and therefore turning the creature into irresistible prey of sorts. Aura colors are good, and the solid green effect is in there as well. The mechanics fit a pretty standard-ly powerful draft uncommon that can be used for beating down when necessary. 

Improvement: I’m 90% sure that right now GW doesn’t get flying by itself anymore, or at least very rarely. Pollenbright Wings and Shield of the Oversoul exist, so I’m on the fence. Maybe I’m biased with recent printings, but for two mana I’m not sure it’s what GW would need. That said, I’m sure there’s dissent and arguments to be made, and yes, I know its full color identity includes blue; this is pragmatic. I think this could have been solidly WUG with another buff, perhaps, but that just would have made it favorable for this contest and honestly it’s up to playtesting to see if those colors need a cheap flying aura. But the wings. The flavor. I… So these wings belong to birds, naturally? Who is summing this enchantment for mating? This is some kind of buff or boon that most any creature could have so in what world is some enchant-o-mancer giving “do me” wings to Mx. Passerby?? But, this may be just a quirk of the game, yeh?

Nitpicks: None!

@hiygamer — Etherium Replicator (JUDGE PICK)

Intent: Major kudos for making my look up Prototype Portal and seeing that my gut was wrong and that you DID use the right wording! This is a super-Esper card, more than any of the imprinted cards and honestly a great use of the art. Thopter Foundry is a great card but this one isn’t a bad use and would kind of make sense. Now, I’m not going to put this in improvements, because I want to ask a question: could this card be just plain UW? Possibly, but also consider: this card could be just a straight-up artifact as well, and it feels better how it is now. Why? Because the black invokes a different feeling. It invokes consumption, recycling, progress, larceny, calculation. It’s a very blue side of black. And it also feels, well, Esper! Its an established use of theme!... Honestly it’s probably more that. But I like it anyway. I’d say my bias was showing but none of the winners necessarily invoked Alara straight-up so thpt.

Improvement: There are mostly just wording errors. To be honest, if you’re getting something big, could this card be three mana? That’s probably pushing it, but worth testing. Multicolor custom cube time.

Nitpicks: “enterS the battlefield” (tense), “artifact or creature” (instead of the other way around), and most importantly: “Create a token that’s a copy of A CARD exiled with Etherium Replicator” etc. Because you can copy the ETB trigger and/or use shenanigans to exile other cards.

@hypexion — Ferrari, Sharp Scrapper

Intent: Well if my eyes don’t deceive me, it’s another Esper card! And an artifact-y card? Hm, artifact-enchant-y card. It’s easy to see the designation between colors, with self-mill and the lifegain going into black but leaning towards all three colors, the second ability being straight Disenchant, and the last one being an interesting UB pseudo-reanimation on the cheap, which is super interesting and aggressive. I can see this card intended as either a standard staple or being used as a supplemental planeswalker face card. There’d be a heavy amount of artifacts and enchantments for sure, probably artifact creatures.

Improvement: Did I miss something? When did WUB start caring about enchantments as a multicolor wedge identity? Alela and Zur have their thing, sure, but are those the baseline now? I’m more head-scratching and 0% mad, honestly. As a flavorful card, though, I’m not sure what you’re conveying exactly. So they get rid of stuff and they’re happy when they find garbage, but sometimes they want to scrap things they don’t like, but then they can recreate some of your garbage? Let’s back up and say that this card isn’t a Scrapper and that they’re an artifact/enchantment person. In the most general sense, I don’t really feel a harmony of ideas. The card feels one-note, like there’s very little to do besides abuse the -2 ability and maybe the -1 to get rid of some big thing on the table. The +1 exists to serve the -2, and the -1 feels like it’s trying to be protective for protection’s sake. I don’t know why this character does the things they do through the card. As utility planeswalkers become more abundant, the things they do have to be more resonant; imagine a fully-built world and put your card in the middle. No card is a metaphorical island.

Nitpicks: I think (maybe) that the +1 could be: “Mill up to three cards, then you gain 3 life for each artifact and/or enchantment card milled this way.”

@i-am-the-one-who-wololoes — Corpse Spell

Intent: I think you made this very apparent. As a counterspell, it does the job well, and then it lets you get an idea for free! The choice of casting a noncreature spell is particularly interesting, as it plays into this weird and not-really-that-common theme of transfiguration. Obviously polymorphing appears in blue and red but it feels black because of the flavor you’ve chosen to convey. That’s a great job.

Improvement: The big mechanical thing is that I would 100% make this let you case an instant, sorcery or creature instead of just a “noncreature spell.” These colors don’t really feel like they could transmute a creature into something that’s not an idea or, well, a corpse, and it really seems as though that’s the idea you’re going for. The big flavor thing, though, is the name. I really and truly don’t know what you’re trying to convey. Now, I’m aware that English isn’t your first language, and that’s a barrier that I’m not sure how to cross for this kind of criticism. “Corpse Spell” seems like a playtest name. As a concept, this card is great. As a submission, I’m still having to extrapolate a lot; most importantly, it doesn’t tell me how the caster is using the magic to turn a creature into something else. Work on telling that story, and when possible, use native speakers to help get ideas across.

Nitpicks: I think the wording would be: “Counter target creature spell. You may cast target noncreature card with converted mana cost less than or equal to that spell’s converted mana cost  from your graveyard without paying its mana cost, and if that card would be put into your graveyard this turn, exile it instead.” Because if you exile it as it resolves and it’s, like, an artifact or planeswalker, what’s the point? Hence my note about instants/sorceries and maybe other creatures.

@ignorantturtlegaming — Draxys, Scourge Eternal

Intent: This card absolutely fits the elemental shell. It feels to me like a standard or CMR-style bomb mythic that hits the table and kinda goes nuts. I mean, it wouldn’t be your commander probably, but in Conspiracy-style? Man. Multiplayer draft, that’s what I mean. It gets cards, it gets counters, it deals damage, then Blitz Hellion-s away. It does indeed feel like a blend of all the crazy things that come in these colors, and you did that much very well. It’s not broken, but it’s powerful, and it’s repeatedly monstrous (not the mechanic, lol) with the fear that it’ll return (until someone Doom Blades it, but that’s the game for ya). Great feeling of a massive beautiful monster.

Improvement: Really, the one thing I would do to improve it would be to consolidate the second and third triggers into “When Draxys enters the battlefield, draw four cards, put four +1/+1 counters on it, then it deals 4 damage divided as you choose among any number of creatures and/or planeswalkers.” No, wait—why not make it an 8/8 and just have it draw cards and deal damage? Because of its massive cost, you’re not gonna play it and then activate Wheel of Fortune in the same turn unless you’re playing some crazy massive game, and then it just shuffles away anyway! So, my suggestion would be to make this one massive bomb when it hits and really get the Timmy out of it.

Nitpicks: None!

@jsands84 — Quarrel, Tariff Enforcer

Intent: The colors are obvious enough, right? A sphinx (blue) based on taxing and punishing (white) to make your opponents lose life (black). Couldn’t be simpler. The color weight is reminiscent of standard cards like Ultimatum cycles but heck, we’ve seen weirder commander cards in the past. I like the fact that even though the color weight is really heavy, the keywords support that kind of aggression without being too overbearing like we’ve seen in other chase rares and mythics.

Improvement: That said, I don’t think it needs that weight at all. 3WUB would have done the exact same and it wouldn’t have looked awkward. Why would it need that weight in the first place? Well, perhaps if it entered the battlefield with an amazing immediate effect. And this card, well, it doesn’t. You have a great eye for flavor and the fact that a legendary (read:uniquely adept) sphinx is enforcing the tax laws of the universe? 10/10. But it doesn’t need that kind of punishment, especially considering, like, the effect really doesn’t come up outside of vintage. So yeah, reduce the weight.

Nitpicks: In the flavor text, “their” referring to the universe is kind of an odd pronoun. With most cases IIRC the concept is objectified instead of personalized, see Aether Adept. (Also there aren’t many cards with ‘universe’ in the flavor text, surprisingly.)

@justincase-1012 — Startling Wisp

Intent: Illusions are almost entirely blue (and one of only two illusions with zero blue in its box is Esper-centric, funnily enough) so that’s all interesting, but this is definitely breaking from the artifact theme and going for color flavor. The fact that it is the one doing the startling is somewhat black, but the discard definitely is. Because of the narrowness of this ability, I feel that it’s intended to be a draft/standard oriented card as opposed to eternal breadth. A 1/1 flying indestructible spirit in these colors is honestly pretty fair and ghostly!

Improvement: This card is too narrow to be common but definitely too specific to be rare, and that narrowness really is...weird. It doesn’t just require noncombat damage, but it requires noncombat damage from creatures. Why? “The next time a source would deal noncombat damage to you or another creature you control this turn” would be perfectly reasonable. Also, why the next phase? Just have it say “Then, if ~ is on the battlefield, return it to its owner’s hand.” The timing doesn’t feel necessary. And honestly, I don’t find this card “startling” much. It’s alluring, certainly, but not startling. Consider renaming and tightening the focus. Too narrow and things just get ugly.

Nitpicks: So you do need “this turn” as I said above, and then looking at other printed oracle text: “that damage is dealt to ~ instead” etc. etc. 

@kytheon4-4 — Surrak of New Atarka

Intent: Surrak was a three-color monster the last time we saw him, and he’s back in action now and reclaiming his colors. This is definitely meant to be a commander of sorts, hyper-aggressive with some awesome combat to boot. The first ability’s Gleam of Battle is really aggressively costed here but it makes sense in a timeline when he’s reclaimed some kind of new unity. And of course, the callbacks to both Tarkir timelines is there and well and good. Color-wise, your choice to then go ahead and make a future new timeline is really interesting and I can feel that sort of “new ‘Naya’” blood pumping in Surrak’s veins.

Improvement: The first damage trigger is great, if pretty pushed for Naya colors. The second clause is… Well, call it a “winmore” if you want, but it really is a winmore. Big creatures are big and that’s okay, but if they’re that big and dealing damage, then an indestructible counter is kind of adding insult to injury. And frankly, why not combine these all into one trigger, so that the Gleam ability is just a little less pushed? Whenever the creature deals damage, THEN it gets a counter, and IF it’s four or greater THEN you draw a card, and THEN if it’s eight or greater, something weird happens.

Nitpicks: None!

@mardu-lesbian — Contentious Pair

Intent: A white Soldier, a red Goblin, and a deathtouch counter, and yep, the gang’s all here. Token-making in red and white is pretty standard, a little less for BR and more heavily in the white part of WB, but all the same there’s nothing wrong with that appearing in the three-color combo. It’s interesting you went for a post-Conflux kind of deal with Alara...wedges? Really unique. This is most definitely designed to be a common card for a standard expansion, meant to be drafted and whatnot. It implies a lot about the potential future!

Improvement: I’m unsure how you came up with these colors and creature types. Bant, the shard of soldiers, and Jund, of Goblins, do have one shared color: green. But then this card would have been what, white-green-red? And that’s problematic in another way, and I get that. As it stands, though, this feels heavily weighted towards BR and less towards white, and honestly, this feels definitely uncommon. You get two bodies at instant speed, one of which will most likely destroy an attacking creature. Instant deathtouch isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and it’s been in standard for a bit. The bodies and potential permanent deathtouch when you have an empty board is what raises the complexity. My flavor question: why are they contentious? Makes me feel like we’re seeing the start of the story more than a split-second moment; this card might feel better as an uncommon sorcery.

(Also, I’m just imagining them coming over a mountain at instant-speed during combat, and the soldier and the goblin are just talking about their differences and the goblin is showing off their poison dagger when a beast just WHAMS into them and they both instantly die as the soldier looks on in shock and horror. I do love it when cards tell weird stories.)

Nitpicks: None, I don’t think.

@misterstingyjack — Galtiber, Segovian Titan

Intent: Ah, the memes. Well, still, 1/1 tribal is an interesting take on the whole build-around-me dealio. I can honestly say I’m unsure where this card would fit, but that’s not a bad thing. It feels build-around me, but could it work in a limited environment? You’d need a higher as-fan of 1/1s or tokens, and that’s not a bad thing. Honestly, this card doesn’t feel too bad. He’s a protector and he makes them all work together. It’s a neat little design that captures the diligence, unity and edification of these citizens.

Improvement: I really can’t think of a place where this card would see play, though, and the issue is? There’s no real way to improve that past putting this in a pretty bonkers set where it can either go nuts or be mediocre. There are a lot of cool things you can do with this card, but where does he fit? Segovia is a weird plane and designing for it is hard. I love this card and would love to build with it but the fact is that it’s just going to be weird. I’ll put this in nitpicks, but there’s wording issues. Additionally, talking about the character by name in the flavor text is a little off-putting to me. I’m sure it’s happened before but the story feels like a moment being described more than a character.

Nitpicks: “Creatures you control with base power and toughness 1/1” is the correct way to word these things, Iiii think.

@morbidlyqueerious — Ricantha, Ribbon-Dancer (mythic) (JUDGE PICK)

Intent: As much as this technically could be someone’s general, I like this card as a standard-legal mythic, like Kethis or Yarok. It’s surprisingly easy to understand while being quite powerful in its own way. I wouldn’t call it a Voltron card so much as I would call it a control bomb, certainly for limited. The white-blue deals with the tapping, more the blue with the freezing, and the alluring aspect and keywords fill in the green. It brings a lot of the multicolored feel even with a monocolor activated ability. 

Improvement: You know, the flavor almost outshines the color aspect. Looking back I do see the intent, but I’m also mostly seeing an interesting take on the dancing and the enchanting aspect. They’re vigilant, they ‘tie down’ the creatures, and they make other creatures follow them. Honestly, this is a case of “right card wrong contest,” where you made a great card to convey the specific act of ribbon-dancing and a dance leader so much that it overtakes the intent of color. The jokingly biting way of saying this is that you didn’t pander to me as a judge enough (/s). I don’t know about reach; first strike, maybe, to show their agility?

Nitpicks: The combat trigger should be one sentence, see the oracle on Kamigawa snakes.

@mtg-ds — Majak, Revival Instigator (JUDGE PICK)

Intent: Now I wouldn’t call this a gimmick card but I would say that there’s a lot going on here, again, with the flavor. Sacrificing each other creature actually feels white in a Cataclysmic way but with a black edge of making all the zombies. Hasty zombies fills in the red and plays into the instigative aspect, and man, getting everyone out onto the dance floor? I’ll admit that this card is kind of silly with the art, but there’s something unusually cathartic about it. He enters, turns them all into zombies, makes them dance, then whenever someone else dies they join the dance, and when he leaves the music stops. Like, it’s kind of brilliant, how the zombies can’t dance without him. As a flavorful card for a supplemental set I think that you did a fantastic job.

Improvement: My first small note is that the art is again really distracting, and like, I understand that that might’ve been the purpose but “zombie dance party” out of context feels a little unusual, and the name “Revival Instigator” is a touch on the nose. But those are small concerns next to the fact that this card really could have been black/red and wouldn’t have made that much of a difference. Could’ve even kept the Cleric typing. Again, I need to also say that this card is downright fantastic mechanically, but just not quite white there for the purposes of this contest. Keep this card as-is, maybe make him a Human IMO. I don’t have any significant improvements.

Nitpicks: None!

@naban-dean-of-irritation — Tamakoma, Spectral Shiver (JUDGE PICK)

Intent: Clever clogs, I looked up that name and it is indeed fitting! Very clever you are, just as clever as giving the UB flash ninja ETB feeling that strikes fear into the heart of those who don’t know she’s coming. White’s got the spirit flash and indestructible, black’s got deathtouch, flash, AND indestructible, and blue’s got the ninja feeling. Something tells me this would totally be a supplemental card unless Kamigawa goes three-colors, but to be honest I get a MH1 vibe more, and that’s okay too. Major kudos for making me double-check cards like Ambuscade Shaman for this weird wording.

Improvement: I can see how this card would be white flavorfully; I think its just precedent working against you. Because of the way that black has been encroaching upon indestructible in the past couple years, this card could just be blue-black and fit into the ninja feeling just as well. I personally like the white spirit aspect. It’s just not as present here as I would have liked for this contest. Great card, no mechanical improvements.

Nitpicks: I don’t know if “the hollows of the night” are, like, a thing? I don’t know, just as a writer it reads weird to me. One day I’ll be accredited and that won’t seem like such a jackass comment too.

@nine-effing-hells —  Llanlaia Rywh, the Inmost Eye

Intent: I like your take on elves here, using the focus and mood to turn the ordinarily green elves into some warrior monastery funky stuff. I’m getting the sense of a cave world, or some kind of twisted plane where expectations are thwarted and the different races of Magic have to find their own kind of way around. Definitely a face card for the tribe in whatever set it’s based in. 

Improvement: There’s no blue and black here, or at least I’m not feeling it mechanically, and for this contest that’s the most important thing. Giving a Runed Halo effect on a pump is really darn powerful, and to have this dismiss any damage or removal at instant speed is definitely powerful and definitely white. The concept of looking within for meditation is a bit blue, sure, but I don’t see that expressed on this card as much. I do have some major presentation issues. The name is almost completely unpronounceable, so consider shortening it and cleaning it significantly. The flavor text is also in need of shortening and edits. “Look within to look around.” With a hint that the elves are blind, boom, you’re golden. So: name change, flavor paring, and consider that this card feels overall white. That said, for flavor and balance reasons for this card, keeping those colors is fine. Also consider that this is a really damn powerful beater.

Nitpicks: None that I can tell.

@partlycloudy-partlyfuckoff — Everlasting Forefather

Intent: Here’s the thing: I’ll get to stuff in the ‘improvements’ section but mechanically, this card is really interesting for a number of flavorful reasons. Three-mana 4/3 with mentor is perfectly powerful in these colors, that’s great, flavorfully fine as a forefather. Creating two spirits upon death, awesome, those are the embodiments of his students and ideals, and most importantly, play into the embalm, where his zombie can teach the spirits after death and makes for great flying beaters, AND that Zombie token will make more spirits in remembrance. The use of flavorful mechanics gives it an interesting edge even if all these individual mechanics could be in mono-white.

Improvement: One, I would personally make this a warrior, but that’s super minor. Two… I can’t think of any reason outside a custom set where you’d have three non-evergreen mechanics from three different sets and two different planes on the same card. It feels like a custom card, not in the sense that it’s at all thoughtless or amateurish, because it’s not, but because there’s no way of making these pieces come together in a meaningful way; it feels like you’re removing the restrictions on what can go together for the sake of it. MH1 did have some mechanical mashups and we’ve explored that before. This feels like a bit too much for what we’re looking for. Honestly, for a custom multicolor cube or w/e, keep this card. But you might also want to consider MSE or having someone render for you, because with the VERY necessary rules text, this one takes up a lot of text; no room for flavor, and no need, ‘cause you do it all naturally anyway.

Nitpicks: Mm, none, I don’t think!

@reaperfromtheabyss — Glorified Minddrinker (JUDGE PICK)

Intent: This is definitely asking to be in a standard/draftable set as a tribal beater. You give it evasion, you use other vampires/warlocks to mess stuff up, you get in, and you drink. BW vampire lifegain meets the milling, and there you have it. What I really like is the fact that it’s “any card,” like Bloodchief Ascension, but that feels blue, because they’re drinking from the mind and not just the body, and I dunno, I REALLY like that kind of neat flavor niche. I also love how this makes a really roundabout already-exploited infinite combo with Sanguine Bond and Mindcrank, both of which are halves of other better combos.

Improvement: Mechanically, there’s nothing to improve here, except you might want to consider some kind of evasion. I think there’s just the nitpick of having “Glorified” in there without any understanding of what makes this creature glorified or why. A snippet of flavor could have helped with that, and with only two abilities. I don’t know, this one just didn’t pop to me for some reason. It’s a perfectly fine submission, and it just needs a little more pop.

Nitpicks: None! Nice and clear.

@shootingstarhunter — Storm Key

Intent: I find it interesting that the mana made from sacrificing is red but the abilities have a central Riku-like fascination. This feels like a supplemental card for sure, although I’m sure there are standard shenanigans. It would require a set in which RUG/Temur has an artifact theme and in which giving things storm is on the table. I have the feeling that in a genuinely competitive Maelstrom Wanderer deck that this card could turn a possible win into a guaranteed win. It’s there to help big things be bigger, but without a win-more feel, and I like that.

Improvement: In terms of this contest, it lacks elegance in its cohesion. The flavors don’t necessarily blend as well as they could. There’s a lot of rules text that emphasizes the separation rather than blending it together. My suggestions: Make it just cost RUG, no generic, reword the first ability to be: “When ~ is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, add R for each spell you’ve cast this turn,” and the second ability to “5, T, Sacrifice ~: When you cast your next instant, sorcery or creature spell this turn, copy it for each spell you’ve cast before it this turn.” And then add reminder text about targets and permanents. A tiny bit more flexible and less text, and you can add in some flavor. Personally I don’t really get the “Key” aspect. It feels more like a big machine of sorts.

Nitpicks: Remember to capitalize “Sacrifice” in the ability costs. Second reminder text should be “You don’t choose new targets for the copies.” I think, there’s not much precedent. Check the MSE Discord for tech help in getting your name/type text straightened out if you’d like.

@snugz — Erratic Polymorph (JUDGE PICK)

Intent: This does feel very wild, more of the Temur frontier or even the Ketria triome. Either one of those sets getting a return could have this, or a supplemental draft set on that world, or a commander product aimed at those timelines. This card’s pretty flexible in that sense! The red lack of control over twisty magic is definitely evident, with the green bear and the blue otters as representative of those sides of the wild. I like how you took blue’s natural sense and made it river/forest oriented. Big boys and little boys do different kinds of cool damage. I can dig it! (Although I’m more inclined to bears than otters myself…)

Improvement: I wouldn’t call this “elegant” as a primary adjective for its color balance, even though it’s very neat still overall. The obviousness of green being bears and blue being otters doesn’t take away from the fact that both of them make sense. The long and short is that I don’t have card improvements, and this card’s just for a different contest.

Nitpicks: None-zo

@starch255 — Dopplicant

Intent: Very clever, I see. You used white’s enchantment base for the card type even though it’s a strictly red and blue ability. Copying any spells is on the table now with Lithoform Engine so that makes sense. This could be in just about any set with these colors, and you know what, that’s perfectly fine. Jeskai, Raugrin (ugh), or otherwise, there’s cool stuff happening.

Improvement: With a vague name and flavor, it’s easy to have this card be a thumbs-up mechanically, but what...exactly is it? It’s name makes me think of the creature Duplicant, which is fine, makes sense, although it’s not a creature here like any of the other “-cant” cards. I just can’t place it, which is obviously a presentation thing over a mechanical issue. For the Fair, presentation is somewhat important, and also contextualizes your cards. It might just be a “me” thing to keep in mind for when I’m judging, so don’t take it personally at all. I think the idea is sound and all we need is polish.

Nitpicks: None~

@stormtide-leviathan — Jeskai Confluence

Intent: Like the confluences of C15, this is a charm-like modal spell with three pretty standard modes for the colors: blue draw, red damage, white erase. I can see this being part of either a standard return to that other timeline or as part of a “clan clash” supplemental set for sure. 

Improvement: In the main post, there were examples like Shattergang Brothers that were posted as technically fine but not elegant. Totally separating your colors and abilities was part of that, breaking the cohesion. Unfortunately, charm effects were most definitely part of that area. I know that Magic design space isn’t eternally open, and I hate to say this, but because this card uses 2/3 abilities already found on the printed confluences and only minorly changes the damage, this feels somewhat derivative. I would go back to the drawing board and look at overlap rather than individualization, what the colors could have done together to make a card that creates something unique.

Nitpicks: There should be a period after “once” instead of an emdash.

@thedirtside — Twisted Design

Intent: I think that with Tezzeret being who he is and with the cool trend of colored artifacts, this card could absolutely find play in a variety of places. It feels almost like a story card, someone’s terrible (well, twisted) creation. That much is absolutely apparent. The counter/exile is definitely blue and black-ish but I like how the theft kind of ends up being red as well and the artifact typing helps with that. Flavor text is pretty okay too. Short, simple.

Improvement: That...second ability. Are you choose a card as part of a cost? I’m no rules guru but I’m almost certain that you can’t do that. And it doesn’t specify the speed, so you can basically pay the (very fair) cost to exile the spell, but then very unfairly get it back anytime you want. Why random, too? What if that spell has other random restrictions or no legal targets? There’s a lot to unpack from that with no printed precedent because, to put it bluntly, it doesn’t work within the rules. I really like the idea of having a card where you can somehow steal, twist, or morph their spells into new nightmares or futures. Work with that idea to make something URBy that, well, works rules-wise.

Nitpicks: It took me a bit to find your source photo with your source link (X), and I don’t even think that blog’s using proper permission. Here’s the gist: if you can’t find the original photographer, either go stock or don’t use art, OR find a source that’s more easily traceable. Pretend that you’re someone who has to find the source working backwards.

@walker-of-the-yellow-path — Ziziphus, the Lotus Eater

Intent: I could never be like him, I could never talk like that. Also, thank you for making this explicitly commander-based, heh. Food tokens are interesting, and I can see the token art already as well as the kind of person you might imagine Ziziphus to be. Oddly enough, they feel Therosian, considering the “lotus eaters” in the Odyssey, and that’s not a bad thing I suppose. Food’s sort of in the green area, with blue-white profiteering, and the general combat lull sort of encapsulating the whole GWU-ish control feeling. Turbo-fog ahoy.

Improvement: Competitive commander gets shut down pretty easily and casual commander becomes almost instantly unfun. It’s an instant-speed everyone-gets-it nigh-uncounterable Pacifism array that’s flavorfully understandable but puts a target on you as the one person to kill if anyone wants this game to ever end. I understand the top-down design but it’s impractical and I don’t see a game where this being your commander would make the gameplay better. So like Gwafa Hazid, consider your design: what would entice people to take the food? What’s the payoff? How often do you want this to happen to improve gameplay without causing staleness? Is food where you want to go, using lifegain to then further prolong the game?... Oh. Oh, someone can also just lorus-ify Ziziphus itself and then nothing happens in this version. That’s something to consider.

Nitpicks: The name’s really similar to “Sisyphus” in pronunciation. I was distracted.

@whuh-oh — Tainted Lightninghorn

Intent: Some day, I think we’re gonna get a five-color Lightning Blankemental kind of card, and I can’t wait for it. So yeah, it’s an aggressive predatory insect elemental with nasty sauce, and I feel this in a supplemental set for sure. 

Improvement: So as an uncommon, it’s already pretty pushed, too much so. Ball Lightning set a precedent, and it’s a rare for a reason, honestly. That much power even for four mana with the abilities you’ve given it is a but much. For this card, most importantly, I need to be as clear as I can: The interaction between deathtouch and trample is an unintuitive quirk of the game. They do not belong on the same card with zero restrictions, especially not on an uncommon. Sometimes it’s okay to just make a cool card because it’s cool. I like my weird cards, I like my weird interactions. Forcing them feels like choosing indulgence over good design. I’m not feeling the uniqueness of the colors, I’m not feeling the flavor (why does lightning leave decay?), and I’m not feeling the gameplay. Where do we go from here? I think this general concept is fine for a personal set or a supplemental concept. Contextualize it for that area, look at environmental answers, and then see if you want to play with what the colors do.

Nitpicks: I’m 90% sure it’d go “Deathtouch, haste, menace, trample.” Also, I’m sure someone pointed out the whole flying-without-flying thing for the art, that’s very mildly distracting.

@wolkemesser — Murmurs of the Bosk

Intent: Yeah, this is very much a Lorwyn-inspired card, and I’m happy for that. Both the treefolk flavor and the permanent return are green, returning to the battlefield is white and black, and the white enchantment plus toughness matters (also in green) gives this card a magnificent flow of feeling, the trees returning. I can see this in any set, but especially a standard return to Lorwyn, and yet it could have a home in several cool recursion decks! It’s a nice little addition for both lovers of slow return and for treefolk fans.

Improvement: This card was going to be a runner-up or even a judge pick, but the severity of nitpicks grew until I realized that there were just too many problems to give it full commendation. I’ll put the revised wording in the ‘nitpicks’ bar and get to the big ones: the name, and the flavor text. The name is obviously an homage to Murmuring Bosk, right? That’s understandable, but the name is literally so close that I can’t think of anything else. The difference between being honoring and being derivative is enigmatic at times. This particular case is more evident. And the flavor text is almost completely ripped off from Doran’s card itself. Literally, it keeps the order and adds four words that don’t add sense or depth to the character. For future submissions, keep that in mind. As a mechanical suggestion, you could just have it be the greatest toughness without targeting, and it does need to target the card in the graveyard.

Nitpicks: “At the beginning of your upkeep, you may return target permanent card with converted mana cost X or less from your graveyard to the battlefield, where X is the greatest toughness among creatures you control.”

Join us tomorrow, for a new contest, and a brush...with DEATH.

- @abelzumi​

#mtg #magic the gathering #custom magic card #commentary #three cheese blend #inventor's fair #long post

[taylorswifthongkong]

Aaron Dessner confirms: folklore is Taylor Swift’s goth record. Or, at least, it’s her most gothic record. It’s also a few other things, depending on your mood: an unofficial Big Red MachineDessner and Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon started Big Red Machine in 2008 as a loose musical collaboration. They released their official self-titled debut LP in 2018, and this year released “No Time For Love Like Now” with Michael Stipe. collaboration (Big RED Machine); a spiritual companion to The National’s 2019 album I Am Easy To Find, specifically its accompanying Mike Mills film, also shot in black-and-white and emphasizing a more natural setting; or just Swift’s attempt at a headphone record, one that, even if you don’t buy into the Taylor Swift mythology, rewards multiple listens as you pick up on all the intricacies of each song and realize wow, this is where the In Rainbows influence comes in. Dessner is the one to thank for all these little details.

The National multi-instrumentalist spoke to Vulture over the phone from upstate New York a few hours after the surprise release of Swift’s eighth studio album. (“A pretty wild ride,” he admits, sounding tired yet happy.) He was clear that he can’t speak on behalf of Swift’s lyrics, much like he can’t for The National frontman Matt Berninger’s either, or the thinking behind Jack Antonoff’s songs. (Here’s a cheat sheet: Jack’s songs soar, Aaron’s glide.) But Dessner was game to speak to his specific contributions, influences, and own interpretations of each song on folklore, a record you can sum up by two words that came up often during our conversation: nostalgic and wry.

“the 1″

“the 1” and “hoax,” the first song and the last song, were the last songs we did. The album was sort of finished before that. We thought it was complete, but Taylor then went back into the folder of ideasMany of Dessner’s songs started from him sending files of sketches from a folder of ideas to Swift, who then replied with updated files of her ideas and additions. Swift also would start some songs by sending voice memos to Dessner, who would then flesh them out or write music to it. Dessner would also send files to his brother, Bryce, and other collaborators to flesh out the music; he sums up the process as “sending files around.” that I had shared. I think in a way, she didn’t realize she was writing for this album or a future something. She wrote “the 1,” and then she wrote “hoax” a couple of hours later and sent them in the middle of the night. When I woke up in the morning, I wrote her before she woke up in LA and said, “These have to be on the record.” She woke up and said, “I agree” [laughs] These are the bookends, you know?

It’s clear that “the 1” is not written from her perspective. It’s written from another friend’s perspective. There’s an emotional wryness and rawness, while also to this kind of wink in her eyes. There’s a little bit of her sense of humor in there, in addition to this kind of sadness that exists both underneath and on the surface. I enjoy that about her writing.

The song [began from] the voice memo she sent me, and then I worked on the music some and we tracked her vocals, and then my brotherOn bringing in fellow The National member, Bryce Dessner: “My brother lives in France and that’s where he and his family were in lockdown. I would send songs to Bryce for him to add orchestration, and then he would send them back. He would compose to them and then I would have people record them over here remotely.” added orchestration. There are a few other little bits, but basically that was one of the very last things we did.

THE MEANING OF FOLKLORE

We didn’t talk about it at first. It was only after writing six or seven songs, basically when I thought my writing was done, when we got on the phone and said, “OK, I think we’re making an album. I have these six other ideas that I love with Jack [Antonoff] that we’ve already done, and I think what we’ve done fits really well with them.” It’s sort of these narratives, these folkloric songs, with characters that interweave and are written from different perspectives. She had a vision, and it was connecting back in some way to the folk tradition, but obviously not entirely sonically. It’s more about the narrative aspect of it.

I think it’s this sort of nostalgia and wistfulness that is in a lot of the songs. A lot of them have this kind of longing for looking back on things that have happened in your life, in your friend’s life, or another loved one’s life, and the kind of storytelling around that. That was clear to her. But then we kept going, and more and more songs happened.

It was a very organic process where [meaning] wasn’t something that we really discussed. It just kind of would happen where she would dive back into the folder and find other things that were inspiring. Or she and William BoweryDessner explains of the one unknown name who pops up in the folklore credits: “William Bowery is who she wrote ‘exile’ with, and ‘betty.’ He’s a singer-songwriter.” would write “exile,” and then that happened. There were different stages of the process.

Okay, but is it A24-core? [Laughs.] Good comparison.

“cardigan’”

That’s the first song we wrote [in early May]. After Taylor asked if I would be interested in writing with her remotelyOn folklore being recorded somewhat on-the-fly: “I prefer records when they have an element where the paint is still wet. We’re allowing some paint to be human and raw, so [collaborations were] not hired out too much. That was important to me, and that was important to her, too. That is definitely different from her past records.” and working on songs, I said, “Are you interested in a certain kind of sound?” She said, “I’m just interested in what you do and what you’re up to. Just send anything, literally anything, it could be the weirdest thing you’ve ever done,” so I sent a folder of stuff I had done that I was really excited about recently. “cardigan” was one of those sketches; it was originally called “Maple.” It was basically exactly what it is on the record, except we added orchestration later that my brother wrote.

I sent [the file] at 9 p.m., and around 2 a.m. or something, there was “cardigan,” fully written. That’s when I realized something crazy was happening. She just dialed directly into the heart of the music and wrote an incredible song and fully conceived of it and then kept going. It harkens back to lessons learned, or experiences in your youth, in a really beautiful way and this sense of longing and sadness, but ultimately, it’s cathartic. I thought it was a perfect match for the music, and how her voice feels. It was kind of a guide. It had these lower register parts, and I think we both realized that this was a bit of a lightning rod for a lot of the rest of the record.

THE NATIONAL’S INFLUENCE ON SWIFT:

She said that she’s a fan of the emotion that’s conveyed in our music. She doesn’t often get to work with music that is so raw and emotional, or melodic and emotional, at the same time. When I sent her the folder, that was one of the main feelings. She said, “What the fuck? How do you just have that?” [laughs] I was humbled and honored because she just said, “It’s a gift, and I want to write to all of this.” She didn’t write to all of it, but a lot of it, and relatively quickly.

She is a fan of the band, and she’s a fan of Big Red Machine. She’s well aware of the sentiment of it and what I do, but she didn’t ask for a certain kind of thing. I know that the film [I Am Easy To Find] has really affected her, and she’s very much in love with that film and the record. Maybe it’s subconsciously been an influence.

“the last great american dynasty”

I wrote that after we’d been working for a while. It was an attempt to write something attractive, more uptempo and kind of pushing. I also was interested in this almost In Rainbows-style latticework of electric guitars. They come in and sort of pull you along, kind of reminiscent of Big Red Machine. It was very much in this sound world that I’ve been playing around with, and she immediately clicked with that. Initially I was imagining these dreamlike distant electric guitars and electronics but with an element of folk. There’s a lot going on in that sense. I sent it before I went on a run, and when I got back from the run, that song was thereJust how fast of a songwriter is Taylor? Dessner marvels, “It’s almost like a song would come out like a lightning bolt. It’s exhilarating. The shared focus, the clarity of her ideas, and the way she structures things, it’s all there. But I think she works really hard when she’s working, and then she tweaks. She keeps going, so sometimes things would evolve or change. By the time she actually sings it, she’s really inside of it. She doesn’t do very many vocal takes before she nails it.” [laughs].

She told me the story behind it, which sort of recounts the narrative of Rebekah Harkness, whom people actually called Betty. She was married to the heir of Standard Oil fortune, married into the Harkness family, and they bought this house in Rhode Island up on a cliff. It’s kind of the story of this woman and the outrageous parties she threw. She was infamous for not fitting in, entirely, in society; that story, at the end, becomes personal. Eventually, Taylor bought that house. I think that is symptomatic of folklore, this type of narrative song. We didn’t do very much to that either.

“exile” (ft. Bon Iver)

Taylor and William Bowery, the singer-songwriter, wrote that song initially together and sent it to me as a sort of a rough demo where Taylor was singing both the male and female parts. It’s supposed to be a dialogue between two lovers. I interpreted that and built the song, played the piano, and built around that template. We recorded Taylor’s vocals with her singing her parts but also the male parts.

We talked a lot about who she thought would be perfect to sing, and we kept coming back to Justin [Vernon]. Obviously, he’s a dear friend of mine and collaboratorSo, is folklore secretly a new Big Red Machine album? Dessner coyly offers, “I mean, you might not be far off the truth there, but I think I won’t say more.”. I said, “Well, if he’s inspired by the song, he’ll do it, and if not, he won’t.” I sent it to him and said, “No pressure at all, literally no pressure, but how do you feel about this?” He said, “Wow.” He wrote some parts into it also, and we went back and forth a little bit, but it felt like an incredibly natural and safe collaboration between friends. It didn’t feel like getting a guest star or whatever. It was just like, well, we’re working on something, and obviously he’s crazy talented, but it just felt right. I think they both put so much raw emotion into it. It’s like a surface bubbling. It’s believable, you know? You believe that they’re having this intense dialogue.

With other people I had to be secretive, but with Justin, because he was going to sing, I actually did send him a version of the song with her vocals and told him what I was up to. He was like, “Whoa! Awesome!” But he’s been involved in so many big collaborative things that he wasn’t interested in it from that point of view. It’s more because he loved the song and he thought he could do something with it that would add something.

“my tears ricochet”

This is one of my absolute favorite songs on the record. I think it’s a brilliant composition, and Taylor’s words, the way her voice sounds and how this song feels, are, to me, one of the critical pieces. It’s lodged in my brain. That’s also very important to Taylor and Jack. It’s like a beacon for this record.

“mirrorball”

“mirrorball” is, to me, a hazy sort of beautiful. It almost reminds me of ‘90s-era Cardigans, or something like Mazzy Star. It has this kind of glow and haze. It feels really good before “seven,” which becomes very wistful and nostalgic. There are just such iconic images in the lyrics [“Spinning in my highest heels”], which aren’t coming to me at the moment because my brain is not working [laughs].

HOW JACK ANTONOFF’S FOLKORE SONGS DIFFER FROM DESSNER’S

I think we have different styles, and we weren’t making them together or in the same room. We both could probably come closer together in a sense that weirdly works. It’s like an archipelago, and each song is an island, but it’s all related. Taylor obviously binds it all together. And I think Jack, if he was working with orchestrations, there’s an emotional quality to his songs that’s clearly in the same world as mine.

We actually didn’t have a moodboard for the album at all. I don’t think that way. I don’t really know if she does either. I don’t think Jack … well, Jack might, but when I say the Cardigans or Mazzy Star, those aren’t Jack’s words about “mirrorball,” it’s just what calls to mind for me. Mainly she talked about emotion and to lean into it, the nostalgia and wistfulness, and the kind of raw, meditative emotion that I often kind of inhabit that I think felt very much where her heart was. We didn’t shy away from that.

“seven”

This is the second song we wrote. It’s kind of looking back at childhood and those childhood feelings, recounting memories and memorializing them. It’s this beautiful folk song. It has one of the most important lines on the record: “And just like a folk song, our love will be passed on.” That’s what this album is doing. It’s passing down. It’s memorializing love, childhood, and memories. It’s a folkloric way of processing.

“august”

This is maybe the closest thing to a pop song. It gets loud. It has this shimmering summer haze to it. It’s kind of like coming out of “seven” where you have this image of her in the swing and she’s seven years old, and then in “august” I think it feels like fast-forwarding to now. That’s an interesting contrast. I think it’s just a breezy, sort of intoxicating feeling.

“this is me trying”

“this is me trying,” to me, relates to the entire album. Maybe I’m reading into it too much from my own perspective, but [I think of] the whole album as an exercise and working through these stories, whether personal or old through someone else’s perspective. It’s connecting a lot of things. But I love the feeling in it and the production that Jack did. It has this lazy swagger.

“illicit affairs”

This feels like one of the real folk songs on the record, a sharp-witted narrative folk song. It just shows her versatility and her power as a songwriter, the sharpness of her writing. It’s a great song.

“invisible string”

That was another one where it was music that I’d been playing for a couple of months and sort of humming along to her. It felt like one of the songs that pulls you along. Just playing it on one guitar, it has this emotional locomotion in it, a meditative finger-picking pattern that I really gravitate to. It’s played on this rubber bridge that my friend put on [the guitar] and it deadens the strings so that it sounds old. The core of it sounds like a folk song.

It’s also kind of a sneaky pop song, because of the beat that comes in. She knew that there was something coming because she said, “You know, I love this and I’m hearing something already.” And then she said, “This will change the story,” this beautiful and direct kind of recounting of a relationship in its origin.

“mad woman”

That might be the most scathing song on folklore. It has a darkness that I think is cathartic, sort of witch-hunting and gaslighting and maybe bullying. Sometimes you become the person people try to pin you into a corner to be, which is not really fair. But again, don’t quote me on that [laughs], I just have my own interpretation. It’s one of the biggest releases on the album to me. It has this very sharp tone to it, but sort of in gothic folklore. It’s this record’s goth song.

“epiphany”

For “epiphany,” she did have this idea of a beautiful drone, or a very cinematic sort of widescreen song, where it’s not a lot of accents but more like a sea to bathe in. A stillness, in a sense. I first made this crazy drone which starts the song, and it’s there the whole time. It’s lots of different instruments played and then slowed down and reversed. It created this giant stack of harmony, which is so giant that it was kind of hard to manage, sonically, but it was very beautiful to get lost in. And then I played the piano to it, and it almost felt classical or something, those suspended chords.

I think she just heard it, and instantly, this song came to her, which is really an important one. It’s partially the story of her grandfather, who was a soldier, and partially then a story about a nurse in modern times. I don’t know if this is how she did it, but to me, it’s like a nurse, doctor, or medical professional, where med school doesn’t fully prepare you for seeing someone pass away or just the difficult emotional things that you’ll encounter in your job. In the past, heroes were just soldiers. Now they’re also medical professionals. To me, that’s the underlying mission of the song. There are some things that you see that are hard to talk about. You can’t talk about it. You just bear witness to them. But there’s something else incredibly soothing and comforting about this song. To me, it’s this Icelandic kind of feel, almost classical. My brother did really beautiful orchestration of it.

“betty”

This one Taylor and William wrote, and then both Jack and I worked on it. We all kind of passed it around. This is the one where Taylor wanted a reference. She wanted it to have an early Bob Dylan, sort of a Freewheelin’ Bob DylanBob Dylan’s second LP, released in 1963, features some of his most stripped-down acoustic folk songs, with plenty of harmonica. To this day, its lyrics still cause debate. The album’s famous cover, shot in New York on Jones St., is one block away from Cornelia Street. feel. We pushed it a little more towards John Wesley Harding, since it has some drums. It’s this epic narrative folk song where it tells us a long story and connects back to “cardigan.” It starts to connect dots and I think it’s a beautifully written folk song.

Is ‘betty” queer canon?

I can’t speak to what it’s about. I have my own ideas. I also know where Taylor’s heart is, and I think that’s great anytime a song takes on greater meaning for anyone.

Is William Bowery secretly Joe Alwyn?

I don’t know. We’re close, but she won’t tell me that. I think it’s actually someone else, but it’s good to have some mysteries.

“peace”

I wrote this, and Justin provided the pulse. We trade ideas all the time and he made a folder, and there was a pulse in there that I wrote these basslines to. In the other parts of the composition, I did it to Justin’s pulse. Taylor heard this sketch and she wrote the song. It reminds me of Joni Mitchell, in a way — there’s this really powerful and emotional love song, even the impressionistic, almost jazz-like bridge, and she weaves it perfectly together. This is one of my favorites, for sure. But the truth is that the music, that way of playing with harmonized basslines, is something that probably comes a little bit from me being inspired by how Justin does that sometimes. There’s probably a connection there. We didn’t talk too much about it [laughs].

“hoax”

This is a big departure. I think she said to me, “Don’t try to give it any other space other than what feels natural to you.” If you leave me in a room with a piano, I might play something like this. I take a lot of comfort in this. I think I imagined her playing this and singing it. After writing all these songs, this one felt the most emotional and, in a way, the rawest. It is one of my favorites. There’s sadness, but it’s a kind of hopeful sadness. It’s a recognition that you take on the burden of your partners, your loved ones, and their ups and downs. That’s both “peace” and “hoax” to me. That’s part of how I feel about those songs because I think that’s life. There’s a reality, the gravity or an understanding of the human condition.

DOES TAYLOR EXPLAIN HER LYRICS?

She would always talk about it. The narrative is essential, and kind of what it’s all about. We’d always talk about that upfront and saying that would guide me with the music. But again, she is operating at many levels where there are connections between all of these songs, or many of them are interrelated in the characters that reappear. There are threads. I think that sometimes she would point it out entirely, but I would start to see these patterns. It’s cool when you see someone’s mind working.

“the lakes”

That’s a Jack song. It’s a beautiful kind of garden, or like you’re lost in a beautiful garden. There’s a kind of Greek poetry to it. Tragic poetry, I guess.

source

#aaron dessner #the national #joe alwyn #article #folklore interview #folklore promo #folklore #quote #track by track

[wondersbeyondcompare]

Twisted Wonderland OC: Majid

Wow, this was long overdue, but I finally got his basic profile together (・・;) Here, have some doodles I made of him just to get his design consistent 😆

*EDIT: I managed to get more of his backstory stuff together as well as make some minor tweaks to other parts of his profile, so I’m reblogging this again just in case anyone was interested in an update!*

***

“Don’t you dare try to wake me... You’re no diamond in the rough after all...”

Full Name: Majid Shahin

Name Meaning: Majid (“Glorious”); Shahin (“worthy of a king”) [Somehow remembered his parents giving him his first name before their disappearance; chose his last name from a bakery he was fond of back then]

Dorm: Scarabia

Year: 1st year

Birthday: May 12

Age: 16 years

Height: 5’10”/1.78 m

Place of Origin: Land of the Hot Sands

Voice Headcanon: Komatsu Shouhei

Personality: Usually seen sleeping at the entrance of the Scarabia dorm as if he were some kind of underpaid security guard (which he technically is, but he doesn’t take his job too seriously, much to the annoyance of Jamil who gave him this task in the first place). If he’s not sleeping, Majid acts mildly annoyed with everyone he meets. He acts a bit kinder towards people with a good heart or those he’s interested in observing. Majid can fulfill most tasks that are asked of him, and, of course, there has to be a bribe, but the type of bribe involved depends on the person. If a person has good intentions behind the task they’re asking of him, Majid will ask for something that is relatively easy for them to acquire; if the person has bad intentions, however, the item he asks for becomes much harder to get. However, even Majid can’t clearly define the line b/w “good” and “bad”, so sometimes his requests just depend on how he feels throughout the day. If a person tries to offer him something that doesn’t meet his standards, he will shut them down. Hard. There are times Majid will help out other people on his own initiative, but this is very rare and something he adamantly avoids doing.

He likes things like money and expensive objects, but he acts more like a collector of these items rather than actually using them as a status symbol/showing off his wealth. Somewhat like a hoarder in that aspect but this may also just be a habit he had formed while growing up. Also fond of observing certain people in order to understand their motivation behind their actions, but, honestly, if he had to choose b/w this hobby and sleep, he would much rather choose the latter. 

Likes: Naps, money, expensive items, lava lamps, honesty, warm weather, sand sculptures, his magical abilities, being secure, golden jewelry, meat, puzzles, magic carpet rides, some sweets

Dislikes: Liars, cowards, passive aggressive people, directly interacting with people in general, cold weather, whenever his Scarabia upperclassmen drag him into their shenanigans

Background: 

Majid doesn’t remember much from his childhood, but the absence of any kind of support system (both financially and emotionally) left him at a disadvantage while growing up. He would often spend his days roaming the streets in search of necessities, relying on both resources given to the homeless from certain establishments or resorting to stealing from vendors behind their backs. The orphanages in the area were far too few and poorly maintained, so Majid tried his best to avoid being picked up by the workers there in order to at least keep his freedom by staying out on the streets. 

Although the young boy was often found alone, he did at one time manage to make some friends with some of the other children in the area, tagging along on their little adventures throughout the town. This was the one time he felt like he belonged somewhere; where he was surrounded by people who actually wanted him around as much as he did with them. Unfortunately, this feeling led Majid to become overly dependent on the group, sometimes purposely delaying their adventures just so they could stay together a little longer. He didn’t really think of himself as selfish for doing this nor did he see it as something wrong. But eventually the group became fed up with these delays once it began to cause troubles with their families back home. They kicked him out of their group, admitting that they only let him join in the first place because they and their parents pitied him since he was the poor, annoyingly clingy orphan with nowhere else to go. At first Majid couldn’t believe them, desperately denying to himself that what they were saying wasn’t true, that maybe they were just saying this out of anger and everything will right itself in the morning. 

And that was when, at the worst possible time, one of his powers revealed itself to him. The ability to see into other people’s hearts. It wasn’t as if he heard an otherworldly voice telling him if they were lying or not, but rather it came as an overwhelming epiphany. He sensed every bit of their frustration with him, their anger at his actions, as well as the brutal honesty behind their words, all in a new kind of clarity. Majid couldn’t bring himself to respond at that moment, not even after they had long left him behind. Once he snapped out of his stupor, the boy tried to compose himself by carefully sorting out his thoughts and feelings about the situation, but it was no use. He felt numb. And he was alone again. Perhaps this time, for good.

Majid tentatively tested out this new power on various people around town, seeing all the different kinds of malice people held in their hearts. From lying shopkeepers to narcissistic “do-gooders”, everyone had their own hidden agenda, and young Majid could see it all in a frighteningly clear display. He developed a distrust in other people because of this and habitually used his ability whenever he felt like someone was lying to him. He became better at theft, now having less guilt while taking from the vendors because, well, they were “bad people”, so why should he care about hurting them? He was one dishonest person among many, so he wasn’t worried about spoiling the rest of the bunch if they were all rotten in the first place.

Majid didn’t start developing his other magical abilities until this one day when he caught sight of a parade marching through town. After pushing his way through the crowd, he watched in awe at the procession of dancers, musicians, exotic animals, and, at the very end, the smiling young heir of the Land of Hot Sands, just barely keeping his balance on the camel he was seated upon as he showered his excited subjects with golden coins and jewelry. Rather than becoming impressed with the parade itself, Majid admired the respect the heir was given. He knew that this respect was mostly due to the latter’s high social class, so Majid decided to aim for some other goal that would allow him to be viewed favorably by other people. To stick it to those who only saw him as pitiable and useless. In short: he wanted to become rich. 

He learned how to use his power (as well as other abilities he discovered along the way) to his advantage and often offered to do favors for people in exchange for money or other expensive objects. It was slow going, but he accumulated a lot of wealth over the years, with his living spaces resembling that of the inside of the Cave of Wonders in Aladdin. The floors were littered with gold coins, glittering gemstones, ornate vases, and many more riches beyond compare. 

Majid prided himself on his wealth at first, happy with all that he could attain with this kind of lifestyle, whether it be items or connections with those in the upper social classes. But he slowly found himself becoming bored. Majid did think of giving some of his wealth away, yet somehow he couldn’t bear to part with it. It may have been selfish of him to keep it all to himself, but this was all he had; one of the few great accomplishments in his life.  That and he had a general dislike of other people. Majid never found the need to get close to others since his ability could more or less tell him whether they were trustworthy or not. However, this led to him being unable to form any meaningful relationships with anyone else and left him feeling a whole lot lonelier than he wanted to admit. Sort of like an empty feeling in his gut that never went away. Since nothing seemed to satisfy him, Majid would often find himself sleeping his days away. The life he was living at that moment wasn’t fulfilling to him at all, so why bother staying awake all the time? He could afford to laze about a little bit too.

He stumbled upon the Night Raven College by chance… If chance involved being forced into a black coffin and carried off to the middle of nowhere only to awake in some strange castle headed by a sketchy man with a crow mask. Majid was reluctant to join at first but became intrigued at the prospect of a “magical academy”. A place where people had abilities similar to his… Now that didn’t seem boring at all. (Of course, his opinion changed upon meeting Kalim and Jamil, but at that point it was too late to back out of his enrollment 😂)

Majid does try to live up to Scarabia’s overall resourceful attitude, but he often just uses this as an excuse to find the easy way out and “conserving his energy for more important things” by sleeping all day. He’s not easily interested in his surroundings or the meaningless things people seemed to indulge in during their everyday lives. Deep down, Majid wanted something special. He didn’t know exactly what it was, but he knew it had to be something irreplaceable and brought him fulfillment. A diamond in the rough.

Powers: 

Sand Manipulation- Can create and manipulate sand; can generate sand storms; can also create quicksand out of regular sand which, if he becomes angry enough, can become strong enough to drag a person’s entire body under

Seeing Into Others Hearts- Uses this ability to figure out a person’s intentions behind their actions; won’t give him exactly what a person is thinking about, but will give him overall *ahem* vibes that come from within them (can sense if a person is lying to him through this ability); his eyes glow a little brighter when he uses this

Summoning Through Scarab Beetle- Not really a power of his own but rather a spell that was cast on his scarab beetle bracelet by his upperclassmen who became angry at him for constantly slinking out of his dorm duties; the beetle resides with the dorm leaders, Kalim, and Jamil; whenever the two halves of the beetle are joined together, Majid is teleported to wherever the beetle is; leads to some pretty rude awakenings for Majid

Lava Manipulation- Can’t actually create lava but can create an illusion of it being there; people can see and feel the effects of the lava he “creates” but it can’t physically hurt them; mentally on the other hand… that’s a different story

#tried to base his powers off of the cave of wonders scenes in aladdin #but i didn’t want to give him too much power b/c 😤 that would only inflate his ego #adding another rich kid to the dorm 😔👌 these darn rich people i swear- #fun fact: he wears sunglasses during school hours so he can try to get away w/ sleeping in class #mostly during lectures #would work if only he could avoid the accidental face plants onto his desk when he nods off lol #twisted wonderland oc #art #my art #my post #Majid

[jcdenton40]

The Visitation

For what was supposed to be the most monumental event in the history of human civilization it was actually pretty anticlimactic. No giant mothership; no shadowy figure emerging from the mist; no tense standoff with guns drawn... Hell, we never even saw him coming.

The morning of 12/12 was really just like any other, other than the fact that there he was, standing outside the White House, just waiting for us to show up. We found out later he'd actually arrived before sunrise and had been waiting out there for exactly two hours and twenty-nine minutes before anyone saw him. Not that he was trying to hide; he was just too polite to even try knocking.

If it had been some kind of crazy giant alien ship, I'm sure he wouldn't have had to wait so long. But right there next to the bushes just a few yards outside the front door to the White House was the most basic landing pod you could possibly imagine. At least we all assumed it was just a landing pod; we didn't find out until later that it was his actual ship, which he'd actually used to travel the entire 32+ light years from his home planet even though it was nothing more than a tube, barely big enough for him to fit in, with no apparent means of propulsion or external features whatsoever. And even later, when he showed us the interior, it was just completely empty; no apparent life support systems, no avionics, no control systems, no instrumentation, nothing.

And I wish I could say it was due to its hyper-advanced stealth technology or some kind of undetectable cloaking device that it was out there for so long before anyone saw it. But even if it did have something like that (and we still don't know if it did), that really wasn't why; as crazy as this sounds, it was just too small, and came in too fast, for any of our systems to even detect it on its way in. And by sheer coincidence, it just so happened to land in a "dead spot" where the security cameras could barely see it. It still should have been spotted right away, sure. But I saw the footage myself and can't say I would have spotted it either.

As for the lack of a "tense standoff" (or any standoff), the fact that he spoke perfect English had a lot to do with that. That plus the fact that he looked just barely humanoid enough that the Secret Service guy who first saw him thought it must have been a guy in a suit.

We later learned that his perfect English was actually due to the translation device attached to his mouth (which appeared to be his mouth). It turns out he knew how to speak and understand English with complete mastery—learned from nothing but the TV and radio transmissions they were able to pick up from halfway across the galaxy—but their species was simply incapable of actually speaking in any way that a human could actually understand due to the inherent limitations of their vocal systems, and physical inability to reproduce enough of the sounds necessary for human language. The perfectly understandable assumption from that, of course, would be that they had already evolved far beyond vocal communication (i.e., to telepathy). But no, they still spoke with each other with words, more or less like we do.

He later explained that their vocal limitations were a fairly recent development, at least from an evolutionary standpoint; it was just a few thousand years prior that they had vocal capabilities much like ours, with the capacity to speak countless native languages, some of which were quite similar to English. But at one point they had decided to standardize upon one global language, and it was from then onward that as their language continued to evolve over time, so did their vocal systems. Eventually, through a combination of evolution and bioengineering, their species came to be uniquely and perfectly suited for the reproduction of their one language with near-perfect clarity, though at the expense of all other potential languages.

Oddly enough, their language (and language in general) was one of the things he was most interested in talking about. Not how to speak it per-se, though he did teach us some of that (fortunately the limitation only went one way, and we were able to at least reproduce the basic sounds well enough to say words and phrases that he could understand—just barely). Rather, his primary interest was in sharing some of the features that their language possessed, possibly with the idea that we might someday decide to incorporate some of those elements into our own.

One of the things he spoke about at-length was how their language had gone through several "redesigns" throughout its history, where its vocabulary, pronunciation, and even its most fundamental rules were altered and simplified in order to enhance its efficiency at conveying information as accurately as possible while eliminating virtually any possibility for misunderstanding (or misrepresentation).

From the way he described the process, I can't say we have anything comparable when it comes to written/spoken languages, though I suppose the closest analogy would be the way computer programming languages go through intentional revisions over time, or the way that computer operating systems might be rewritten and revamped dramatically from one version to the next while fixing bugs and improving efficiency.

One of the first things they did, in in the earliest of their "major" revisions, was something which made their language unlike any on Earth: the complete elimination of homonyms (different words that sound the same), homographs (words that are spelled the same but mean different things), and synonyms (different words which share the same meaning).

Think about that for a moment; what they did was essentially recraft their entire language in such a way that every single word was unique in spelling, pronunciation, and meaning. And not only did this require the modification (or outright elimination) of most of the words in their entire vocabulary, but it also necessitated the creation of an almost incomprehensible number of entirely new words in order to serve the same functions as those which had been eliminated due to lack of uniqueness, but were not redundant to any "surviving" words.

On top of that, a smaller (yet still fairly vast) number of new words was also needed for cases where a word with multiple definitions was standardized to its primary (now, only) definition, but where no surviving words could accurately convey those eliminated definitions.

And adding even further to this herculean undertaking was the simple linguistic inevitability that in order to maintain the uniqueness of every single word in an entire language, you would need to use some combination of longer words (both letters and syllables); more letters that can be chosen from; more possible spoken sounds, accents, and intonations; or, in their case, all of the above.

To use an example from English, let's take the words "so", "sew", and "sow". All three are homonyms since they're pronounced identically, but "sow" also has an additional pronunciation which has a different meaning (a female pig, as opposed to the act of planting seeds), while "so" has one pronunciation but two different meanings (either to emphasize the extent of something, or as a conjunction).

Thus:

1. "Sew" would be eliminated and replaced.

2. Only one of the two definitions of "so" survives while the other must be replaced.

3. The female-pig definition of "sow" can remain (due to its unique spelling and pronunciation) while the planting-seeds definition must be replaced (due to its non-unique pronunciation).

The final tally: two words survive, one word eliminated and replaced, and three new words created.

But there's also another, less drastic option for #1: Since the spelling of "sew" is already unique, you could keep its spelling unchanged and simply modify its pronunciation to something unique (e.g. "soo"). And that's exactly what they did, where practical, to keep as many of their original words as possible, or at least as familiar as possible, either with just a slight tweak to the spelling or by appending an extra syllable.

But in most cases a simple "tweak" was simply not an option, due to an inviolable rule that they established before even the first change was made: None of the changes to any words could violate their universal, standardized rules for spelling and pronunciation (and this rule was retroactive as well, thereby requiring a rejiggering of all previous words which violated these rules).

This meant that they couldn't simply change the spelling or pronunciation of words arbitrarily, nor could they, in most cases, change one without that directly impacting the other. And by imposing this rule on themselves, they dramatically limited the number of options available for modifying existing words—at least not without adding more syllables.

Thus for all of their linguistic genius, it didn't take long after this first phase was implemented (which, almost inconceivably, they were able to complete within just a few years) that they ran headlong into a fairly serious problem: Their language now required vastly more syllables to be spoken, and vastly more letters to be written, in order to convey the exact same amount of information as before.

But this was something they had fully anticipated, and out of necessity had planned to address in their second major revision which came a few years later, now that the vast majority of the population had become fully fluent with what was essentially an entirely new language.

It was at this point—after putting up with several years of extreme linguistic inefficiency (during which they suffered tremendous losses in global productivity, albeit with the lowest unemployment levels in their recorded history)—that they finally implemented the solution via the Second Revision. To do so, they borrowed a concept which was also straight out of computer languages (including our own): a concept known to us as "single instruction multiple data" (SIMD).

The basic premise of SIMD is that you take a frequently-used combination of computer instructions and replace them with a new  which performs exactly the same tasks; then, any time you need to use that same set of instructions, you simply use the new one which does all of the exact same "work", but in a single step.

In their case, they did the same thing but for words, taking their most frequently-used combinations of words (even in some cases fairly complex concepts) and "grouping" them into a single new word which conveyed all of the meaning and nuance of what would have taken multiple words and far more syllables to convey. And not only did this solve their problem, but once the Second Revision was completed they found that their speaking and writing/reading rates were actually even faster than ever before.

Since then, they've continued to implement even more of these "grouped" words over time (based on real-world frequency of use) and in some cases even created grouped words which contain previously-grouped words. So far, the most densely-grouped of these go three "levels" deep, though there is theoretically no limit to how many "levels" of meaning could potentially be consolidated into a single word.

These First and Second Revisions were clearly the most significant, both in effect and the sheer magnitude of their undertakings, but it was actually the Third Revision which I found most interesting; it was then that they implemented two features which had, to some extent, always been present in their language, but not in the universal and standardized way that it would eventually become.

The first was what could be considered a complete integration of mathematics into their language. Which actually sounds more complicated than it is; essentially they established clear grammatical rules which stated that any time there is a potential range of conceptual values to what someone is attempting to communicate, that value must be quantified—not just with vague words like "few", "many", or "most"—but numerically, with an actual mathematical value, every single time.

And this rule applies even to situations that we probably wouldn't even think of as being mathematical in nature. To use some examples from English, let's say something will "protect" you, or "prevent" you from being harmed; does that mean it offers total protection and prevents harm completely? Or just partially? And if just partial, at what point of the infinite points along the spectrum do you qualify as being "protected" vs unprotected?

Or how about a more common example; if you express that something "doesn't work", does that mean it's completely non-functional and isn't working at all? Or just that it's not functioning at a level of performance that you would consider acceptable?

Situations like these simply do not exist in their language since in every potential instance, the available words that they can choose from have either been firmly established as expressing absolutes, or there would always be an expression of quantification accompanying it to eliminate ambiguity.

But that doesn't necessarily mean that a precise number must always be given, even when a precise number isn't warranted, or simply isn't feasible. Because that's where the second feature comes into play: if the numerical value conveyed is intended to be just a rough estimate, that would also be directly incorporated into their syntax, thereby pairing every numerical quantification with an indication of confidence/precision. So if you want to say, "most", i.e. "more than 50% but less than 100%", you can still do so; or you can just as easily convey "somewhere in the 55-65% range", or "exactly 70%" and do so while using far fewer letters and syllables than it would take in any human language.

And it was soon after they came up with this idea that they also very quickly realized it would be equally useful in non-mathematical contexts, as a general "confidence" indicator in order to express whether something is being stated as absolute fact, as pure opinion/speculation, or anywhere in between.

Once all of these features were implemented (subsequent revisions did occur every few years, but they were far less wide-ranging in scope), their intended effects became very quickly realized; virtually all misunderstandings, miscommunications, and the inevitable conflicts and pseudo-disagreements which inevitably arise from them became a thing of the past. He was very careful not to overstate his point here, and made clear that arguments remained plentiful throughout their society; however, after these changes such arguments only occurred as a result of actual disagreements, not just people "talking past" each other or simply saying the same thing in different ways.

Just think: How many times have you seen two people arguing over a particular idea or concept where they were clearly operating under different definitions, and thus it was entirely possible that they did not even actually disagree on the matter being discussed?

And how many pitiful arguments have you seen in your lifetime which essentially consisted of nothing more than one side saying, "Not all [noun] are [adjective], but some are!", and the other saying, "Some [noun] are [adjective], but not all!"

Too many. And it is exactly those kinds of pseudo-arguments which simply never occur in their society, since their language has essentially been inoculated from the toxic effects of such rhetoric.

And perhaps most importantly, once these first three Revisions were in place, propagandistic bad-faith misrepresentation and rhetorical sleights-of-hand became, if not impossible, far more difficult to attempt and far easier for anyone to see. With every word having one clear-cut meaning, equivocation fallacies became, quite simply, impossible; after all, how can you try to exploit the fact that one word has multiple definitions in order to mislead, when there are no longer any words with multiple definitions to exploit?

Just take a moment to imagine where might our state of scientific progress be today—and whether the 21st century Science Riots would have even occurred—had our language been like theirs? Or just imagine the ripple effects throughout history if just ONE of our words had this feature, i.e. the one which has been exploited through equivocation more than any other, with at-times devastating consequences, i.e. "theory"?

Anyway, enough about that. It was after almost a full month of discussing nothing but their language that we eventually moved onto other topics like their culture, beliefs, and philosophy.

And at this point I know exactly what you're wondering: What was his take on "war"?

I guess you're wondering how I knew that. Well, we actually had some surveys done in those first few days after he arrived (all conducted via third parties, of course) just to get a feel for what kinds of questions the general public might eventually have, and maybe even get some ideas for questions we should ask him that we might otherwise have not considered (which turned out to be hopelessly optimistic; the grand total of useful ideas we got from those surveys: zero).

But one of the common threads that came up over and over—being the first mention in almost 100% of the surveys—was this notion that he (or any hypothetical alien visitor) would find the very concept of "war" to be utterly preposterous, possibly even to the point that he would be completely baffled that such a thing could possibly exist.

Unfortunately that wasn't anything close to the reality, for reasons which should have been fairly obvious. I mean, sure, on his home planet his species no longer practiced anything remotely resembling "war", and hadn't in countless generations. But certainly they had engaged in war throughout much of their recorded history, and had even come close to global self-annihilation on multiple occasions.

But even if that hadn't been the case, he revealed to us that war is something which virtually every single advanced alien civilization they have ever observed or encountered had clearly engaged in on a frequent basis, in the past if not currently, thus making it one of the most universal of all societal concepts.

The only exceptions? He said there were actually a handful of civilizations throughout the galaxy–though these were vanishingly rare–where the entirety of their archaeological and recorded histories had absolutely no record of war. But, he noted, in every one of these cases their histories also had suspicious and clearly unnatural "gaps"–just total voids where it's as if literally nothing happened for years, decades, even centuries. Most likely, they concluded, these histories were either systematically erased in order to hide something in their past, or that everything prior to those points–all history, all archaeological evidence–had been completely annihilated... most likely by war.

Oh, and speaking of those surveys? The second most common response, regarding human behaviors that an alien might be baffled by: laughter. And when we told him about that, and asked if their species has anything like laughter? Well... he laughed (not that we knew that's what it was at the time, we actually thought we had pissed him off).

It turns out that laughter (or the alien equivalent), rather than being some kind of nonsensical, bizarre quirk of human behavior, is also virtually universal among alien civilizations. He explained that its evolutionary value in any kind of social/communal society is so great that they have never observed a single advanced species which doesn't possess it. Essentially, he confirmed that our theories about the purpose of laughter are correct: originally evolving as a means to indicate that an apparent threat actually isn't one (or that an apparently dire situation isn't as serious as it appears to be), then eventually evolving to become a means for establishing rapport, bonding, and trust.

As for something which wasn't universal, but would actually make their culture unique among Earth societies? Well, how should I put this... Are you familiar with the Stanford Marshmallow Experiment? It's one of the oldest of all psychological experiments, which in its original form presented each of its participants (all children) with two options: Have one marshmallow now, or wait 15 minutes (while that marshmallow sits within reach), at which point they would be given that marshmallow plus another one. Just a simple test of delayed gratification, to see whether the kids were able and willing to forego immediate reward for the prospect of double the benefit. And as you might expect, about one-third of the kids ate the first marshmallow right away, about one-third tried waiting but eventually ate it, and about one-third waited the full 15 minutes and were rewarded with two.

Which sounds pretty mundane, maybe even fairly ridiculous as far as experiments go. But the interesting part is what came later–far later–as they tracked the progress of these children throughout their childhoods, and in some cases even into adulthood. And what they found was that the last set of kids–the ones who were willing to wait for that second marshmallow–turned out to have significantly better test scores, better grades, better health, and even, as adults, more-successful careers than the other kids, whereas those in the first group fared these worst.

So what does all of this have to do with him, and his culture? Well, imagine a society in which every single person–kids and adults alike–fall into the latter category, but to the greatest theoretical extreme imaginable. So not just a society in which procrastination and short-term thinking no longer exist, but one in which present and future have essentially ceased to have any meaningful distinction, and where every decision made–from the grand to the day-to-day mundane–is based on the pure calculation of total benefit, from now until eternity.

This was a natural progression over the course of their civilization's development as they became more and more forward-thinking over time, but it wasn't until what could be loosely translated as their "Renaissance" that they fully completed this philosophical transformation on a complete societal level over a period of just a few years. And the effects of this transformation became immediately evident, with dramatic improvements in crime reduction, health (particularly addictions, which were virtually eradicated), productivity, education, scientific advancement, and general happiness.

It was then a few decades after that, perhaps as an inevitable consequence, that they went through a Second Renaissance–one which also involved the near-total dissolution of another distinction, this time not between present vs. future but between the well-being of self vs. the well-being of others.

Essentially it was during this time that they came to the society-wide realization that there is ultimately no moral justification to put your own interests above those of anyone else's, particularly since—as he put it—the person you happened to be "born into" was ultimately decided by sheer chance, and you could just as easily been born as anyone else, past or present, living or dead.

Which isn't to say that every member of their society places everyone else's interests on perfectly equal footing with their own; as he explained it, it is simply not possible to know anyone's needs and desires better than you intimately know yours, and thus they still consider society's interests best served by doing your best to fulfill your needs and desires, and to strive for personal improvement to the fullest extent possible. And nor was it the case that this caused them to become some kind of collective "hive mind" where they lost all sense of individuality; if anything, the degree of freedoms and the range of avenues for complete self-expression/realization available to each member in their society went far beyond anything ever observed on Earth.

But the effect of this Second Renaissance was at least equally profound as the first, as all decision-making became pure cost/benefit analyses of what would result in the greatest total benefit, whether to the individual or society at large. And this was achieved through no coercion, and without even any change in laws (in fact, a tremendous number of laws were ultimately eliminated since they no longer served any purpose).

And it wasn't long after this Second Renaissance that they began reaching out to the other civilizations throughout the galaxy that they had previously just observed from afar, and began sending out emissaries in their speed-of-light ships, like the one they sent to visit us.

You know, it's funny... As I'm recording this, I can't help but think about all the time I've spent arguing with crackpots online, ridiculing and debunking the biggest, craziest conspiracy theories: That the Moon Landings were faked. That the Mars Landings were faked. 9/11 was an inside job (or faked). The 2020 Election... But the 12/12 Visitation is the one I never touched. Go back and check out my social media archive and my entire posting history if you don't believe me. And here I am, 32 years later, not debunking a conspiracy, but confirming the biggest one of all.

So why am I doing this? I'm not sure, really. But I think more than anything else, I just feel bad for how much we did him wrong. He was completely up-front with us, right from the beginning: He didn't come here to share anything about their technology—just their culture, beliefs, and way of life. And he was 100% clear that this was for our benefit, not theirs. He even clued us is in to the fact that of all the alien civilizations they had ever monitored, the only ones that had ever suffered total irreversible extinction did so as a result of their own technologies gone awry (or, in a few cases, the technologies of other planets' civilizations, if you know what I mean).

Of all the rest–even those which faced extinction-level events on a scale that our planet has never even seen in its history (gamma ray bursts, direct comet strikes, even in one case a micro-black hole which tore right through the center of their planet)–all of these civilizations managed to survive, and in some cases eventually recover.

As for us specifically, he said our current level of technological progress is already far beyond what they would consider our capability to responsibly handle, and thus anything they could possibly contribute to that technological progress—no matter how seemingly benign such technologies may be—would only serve to further increase that divide and further magnify our chances of complete self-annihilation.

And we were OK with that stipulation at first, or at least we pretended to be. After about six months with him, during which he shared everything he could (or would) for 24 hours a day (one thing I forgot to mention earlier: he had no need for sleep), we eventually exhausted things to ask him about. And yet after all that, we still knew no more about their technology than we did on day one.

Even his ship was a complete non-starter. Had it been anything even remotely similar to our own, I'm sure we could have reverse-engineered it, or at least gleaned something from it that could have put us light years ahead of any other county on the planet. But there was absolutely nothing about it that had even the slightest corollary to what we currently have, or had ever even theoretically conceived of. It was basically the equivalent of taking the most advanced supercomputer on the planet and sending it back in time to the Stone Age. Or to an ant colony.

Maybe someday we'll be able to unlock its secrets, but my guess is we're at least hundreds of years from even having a chance at cracking its most basic functions (at which point, maybe we'll realize it really was just a landing pod).

So of course, it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone what we did next. Now, I say "we" loosely, since I certainly had no say in it. Which I'm sure might seem incredibly self-serving at this point, but all I can give you is the truth: The day we got everything we could out of him and he refused to divulge any more secrets, we finally resorted to what we've always resorted to. Enhanced interrogation techniques. Coercive interrogation. Learned helplessness. Torture.

And do I even need to say that this turned out to be one of the biggest mistakes of all time? First off, it didn't work; months of almost non-stop torture using every method we could possibly come up with, and we got nothing more out of him. He was completely unfazed, and not because it didn't hurt him; some of the... methods we used sent his biometric readings off the charts. He was clearly experiencing tremendous physical distress, vastly more than any human could conceivably handle.

But no matter what we did, he just took it. And if he even cared, he kept it completely internalized. Just completely stoic, from beginning to end. Even his demeanor and attitude towards us never changed; after all of that—45 days of almost non-stop agony—he still wanted to tell us more about their language. And he was still just as polite as that first day waiting patiently outside the White House.

It's always been rather amusing to me... Of all the many believers in the 12/12 Visitation, how many wildly different, even completely contradictory reasons they've come up with for why it would've been kept under wraps all this time.

Either, "It would cause a total collapse of the world's organized religions", or "It would cause unprecedented numbers of people to turn towards God, and away from The State".

Either, "It would cause mass chaos and a total breakdown of society", or "It would cause everyone to unite behind our common humanity, and thus end all war and conflict which would cause a total collapse of the military-industrial complex".

The truth is, it wasn't originally anyone's plan to keep it under wraps. Some of the details, sure. But we all figured we would make the big announcement eventually. We even commissioned a task force of some of the brightest minds on the planet—under the guise of a purely hypothetical scenario, of course—and they all came to the same general conclusion: Of all the possible reasons for why a government might keep an alien visit a secret, those fears were pretty much completely overblown.

Realistically, they figured, there would be no mass chaos, no mass peace, no collapse of religion or of society or really anything else just because an alien decided to come visit us. A hundred years ago maybe that would have been a different story. But after everything we've seen in our lifetimes? I think we could have handled it. And all of the experts did too.

But how the hell could we have revealed him to the world after all that? After everything we did to him?

And I still can't help but wonder... What if it was all a test? I mean, clearly, in a figurative sense it certainly was—and one we failed horrifically. But what if it was actually a test?

I just can't get past the question of why they would even bother sending a representative in-the-flesh, instead of just some kind of A.I. or digital representation or even just a recording with all of the information that he shared with us.

Were they just trying to see how we would treat him?

And if we had treated him humanely, and respected his stipulations (as any reasonably-civilized people would have), what then? Would he have opened up to us with their technological secrets? Would he still be sharing them with us today? And more importantly, would we still have—metaphorically speaking—our souls?

Ultimately, I suppose this is all fairly moot anyway, given what's coming next. By our calculations it's just five days away, give or take a day. And all I can hope for at this point is that some of us make it, and that maybe what I'm recording here makes it through. And maybe someday we can recover, countless generations from now, and maybe they'll give us another shot.

But if not, I can't say it wasn't deserved.

Photo: "they are alien" by son.delorian is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

#alien #conspiracy #coverup #linguistics #short story #scifi #sci-fi #science fiction #language #conspiracy theory #ufo #ufology #writing #fiction

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Quick Take: Audiovector R 3 Arreté & SR 6 Avantgarde Arreté

After moving to a much larger living space last summer, it became apparent that my fondness for large-scale orchestral music combined with the volume of my listening area (a 26’/8m long open space with 12’/3.7m ceilings) were going to be an insurmountable challenge for my current speakers, a rotation of the Silverline SR17 Supreme and Audiovector SR 1 Avantgarde Arreté. They actually both do an admirable job - the Silverline has the body and tone of a much larger speaker, and the little Audiovector is shockingly capable of energizing the space. But physics are physics, and as they say in the car business there’s no replacement for displacement. One simply needs to move more air in a larger room. And thus I’ve been on the hunt for a bigger, full-range speaker that can retain the virtues of my beloved monitors - the speed, the focus, the purity and lack of distractions - which is no easy feat, and generally requires a considerable jump in budget. There are many big speakers under $10k that can play plenty loud but in my experience they give up too much in the process. Which leads me to these two contenders from Audiovector, a brand that I discovered only a couple years ago but immediately latched onto. Could they deliver the big sound I was seeking without compromise? I took advantage of a work trip to California to visit the crew at Audiovision SF and give them a listen.

The Audiovector R Series

I was excited to see Audiovector announce a big update to their “SR” line last fall, with the SR 3 floorstander, SR 1 bookshelf, SR C center channel and SR S subwoofer all transitioned to “R” models. (I admit, I was also a little crestfallen given I had recently purchased an SR myself, but c’est la vie). Similar to in the car industry where technologies from concept and flagship cars trickle their way down to models you and I can afford, the R series incorporates ideas and learnings from Audiovector’s most recent top models - the R 11, R 8 and SR 6. Visually the differences are fairly subtle - they retain the same proportions and “boat” cabinet and sport the same basic driver complements - but look more closely and there are actually too many changes to enumerate here. Some highlights to me:

The Arreté models boast a number of features taken straight from the flagship R 8: their latest-and-greatest AMT tweeter; a carbon-fiber back plate to eliminate interactions with crossover magnetic fields; and “Freedom Grounding,” which purports to reduce distortion by grounding the driver frames directly to earth via a dedicated cable.

The woofer has a new cone material, still utilizing carbon fiber but sandwiched with an artificial wood resin, giving it a distinctly glossier finish.

While the enclosure looks nearly identical, it’s said to be a new construction that’s measurably stronger and more inert.

The “Avantgarde Arreté” top-model designation has been shortened to just “Arreté,” a welcome simplification (the old name was a mouthful, and easy to confuse with the lower Avantgarde model).

The base “Super” model has been dropped, logical given the QR series is covering the more affordable end of the market.

The honey-toned American Cherry finish has been replaced by Italian Walnut that’s much more amenable to current interior design tastes.

So why isn’t there an R 6? I have an email out to Audiovector CEO Mads Klifoth about this, but Antonio @ Audiovision thinks it’s probably a few years away, as the SR 6 Avantgarde Arreté was updated a couple years ago to a 2.0 version that incorporated some of the technologies that made it into the R line, and being a much more complex design it’ll take some time to improve on it with the latest tricks. This gave me a bit of pause considering a purchase now, but as you’ll read later the SR 6 remains plenty compelling in the here and now.

The Setup

My previous demos of Audiovectors at the shop utilized a Chord DAVE DAC feeding either Chord or Naim electronics wired with Nordost. This audition retained the DAVE, but with an interesting new wrinkle - a Gryphon Diablo 300 integrated amp (USD $16,000) wired with Audience FrontRow cables. I was pretty excited to hear the Gryphon as I’d read great things about it, and their mega-buck systems at shows always impressed. (Incidentally, I hear after pairing with Naim for many years, Audiovector now demos with Gryphon a lot in the EU.)

The Diablo integrated impressed, combining unflappable grip and composure with musical body and flow. Plenty of high-end integrateds claim to be as good as separates, but more often than not you're still left with a nagging feeling of compromise, often in terms of the range of dynamic and tonal color, the scale of the presentation and the blackness of backgrounds. The Diablo's performance in these areas was stellar and up there with some of the better separates I've heard. I could hear just a trace of that Gryphon darkness I've heard at shows - not a lack of brilliance or extension, but a very slightly chocolatey midrange and darkened soundstage that’s quite nice if a slight deviation from neutral. And while I hadn’t heard the Audience FrontRow cables before, I’m intimately familiar with their sibling, the Au24 SX line which are my current reference cables. I heard the purity and naturalness I’ve come to expect from top-flight Audience wire, and they seemed to take off a trace of the edge I’d heard prior with the very detailed Nordost cables. I would call this a substantial upgrade (or at least one more suited to my tastes) from the previous front-end, having a deep, organic presentation with lifelike scale that was immersive. From the first notes, I could tell this was going to be a good session.

Listening to the R 3 Arreté (USD $9,999)

I nestled in the GamuT Lobster chair and got a good hour or so listening to my usual assortment of tracks via Tidal/Qoboz streaming - Magdalena Kozena Mozart Arias, Lisa Batiasvilli Prokofiev Concertos, Saint-Saëns Carnival of the Animals for two pianos and ensemble, Mahler Das Lied von der Erde, Francois Leleux Telemann oboe solos and some Ella Fitzgerald and Carly Rae Jepsen thrown in for good measure. I was most interested in that new resin/fiber mid-woofer, said to be more detailed and articulate than the outgoing unit. The carbon fiber unit in my SR 1 Avantgarde Arreté is clean to extreme but just slightly dry, so I was hoping for a bit more body and resonance with voices and orchestral instruments. 

Quick impressions:

The new woofer definitely has a subtly different tone, sounding less dry and bringing out tonal complexities better. It’s just as fast but it supports the leading edges better with a bit more body. It also sounds better damped, taking off a bit of crispness in the upper midrange that can sometimes be heard in the old unit. This really helps out bring out more of the beauty of vocals and wind instruments. 

The tweeter is a similar upgrade, being slightly sweeter and more articulate. It too also sounds a tad less dry, giving flutes a bit more fluidity and harmonic fullness.

The updated drivers and cabinet, as well as the Freedom Grounding system, make the speaker sound exceedingly free of distracting distortions and noises, even more so than the SR series.

The slight dip in the crossover region around 2.8kHz that both @mgd-taww​ and I have heard in the SR 1 (and that I have measured in my SR 1) seems a bit smoother in the R 3.

The bass was huge for a speaker of this size - it could really pound out a full orchestra and bass guitar line with weight and gusto.

Overall the midrange was more relaxed and expansive than what I heard from the prior SR 3 model (the hyper-tweaked Avantgarde Arreté Raw), with a similar fullness in the mid-bass but noticeably stronger output at the bottom end and a much bigger overall presentation. Antonio described it as an evolutionary upgrade over the SR 3, but I felt the many little changes added up to a substantial shift (and improvement) in the overall presentation. It sounds less uptight and clinical than the old model without losing the trademark Audivector speed and incisiveness.

So all in all, a very nice upgrade that makes me excited for how the R 1 would improve on my SR 1. But was I sold? This is where things get a little tricky... the R 3 is no doubt a compelling speaker - fast, detailed, polished and packing a big punch. But similar to when I auditioned the SR 3 before deciding on my smaller SR 1, I felt I heard some trade-offs of adding an extra woofer and larger cabinet to a super precise monitor design. The SR 3’s slight loss of lower midrange clarity vs. the SR 1 is still there with the R 3 - it sounds bigger and fuller, but not as tightly focused. While the extra bottom end is great and results in a much more complete tonal balance, to my ears tones below 250Hz (where the extra woofer kicks in) didn’t quite seem to match the blazing speed of the midrange on up. I liked a lot about the R 3, but I wanted it all, without any compromise whatsoever.

And so...

The SR 6 Avantgarde Arreté (USD $24,999)

Antonio listened to my assessment, and suggested the big-brother SR 6 might hold the answer. At 2.5x the price, it wasn’t originally on my list, but as he had them all set up behind the R 3’s I figured what harm could come from giving them a listen... (famous last words)

Wow. I had heard the SR 6 before, when Mads Klifoth demo’ed them on a visit to the store, but this was my first time sitting down for a serious audition. And it became immediately clear what happens when you give a top-notch designer and firm more than double the budget to build a full range speaker. It had all the speed and purity that I loved of my SR 1, but with even more clarity and resolving power. It then took that speed, and extended it all the way down the frequency spectrum. Every instrument in the orchestra, from the celli to the clarinets to timpani, had the same startling presence and completeness of tone. This is probably the closest I’ve come to feeling like I had the speaker wires plugged directly into my ears.

The weight and scale was impressive, but what really shocked me was listening to Francois Leleux’s solo oboe. The recording is nothing remarkable, made in a church by a small label. But for the first time, I could clearly make out precisely where Leleux’s long tapered notes ended, and where the echo of the church began. It was uncanny, and I had to bring my wife, an oboist, in for a listen the next day. She observed the same: “Wow, it’s so clear. I can hear all his breathing and where his notes begin and end. And I can also now hear all this extra nuance and phrasing in his playing. Dammit.” (She’s always hard on herself when she hears what the best musicians in the world can do with their instruments.) We moved on to the slow movement from Brahms Symphony No. 1 (Berlin Philarmonic/Rattle), a recording we know inside out, and she noted how she had never heard the orchestra with such realistic weight and size, and how this changed the entire balance of the recording to be far more realistic, as you’d hear it in the hall (as in, harder to hear the oboe solo!). She listened some more, and despite knowing the hefty price tag, she couldn’t help but remark “this is really nice...”

And just to make sure it could have fun, I pulled up Carly Rae Jepsen’s Julien (from Dedicated) and heard the track as I’ve never heard it before. The SR 6 sucked me into a soundscape so vivid, it felt like I was being pulled inside the mix, rather than listening to it from the outside. I was engaged, stimulated, bouncing around in my chair. This speaker (not to mention the rest of the system) can definitely boogie, and I could have happily sat there for the rest of the week going through all my favorite tracks.

So, yeah, a $25k speaker model sounds better than the $10k one. Shocking. But it was a clear illustration of how at a certain point with high-end reproduction, you just need to expend a lot more money to get to the next level of realism. It’s diminishing returns for sure, but how sweet those returns are.

It did leave me wondering what an R 6 with the new woofer and all the latest trimmings could sound like. The SR 6 better integrates its midrange with the woofer than the R 3, but it has just a hair of the same dryness that the new resin woofer in the R 3 ameliorates. Not to over-generalize, and a clever designer can massage away much of this, but the material of a cone tends to impart its distinct texture to the sound - untreated paper can sound dry and papery, plastic woofers tend to be plasticky and mushy (examples: early Devore speakers, countless monitors from the ‘90s using the Seas polypropylene cones), metal can be hard and ring-ey, etc. Treated paper tends to be a nice compromise by damping the break-up modes, carbon fiber can also be good (example: Role Audio speakers) but can lean a little dry and mechanical. Dynaudio was onto something when they developed their magnesium-silicate-polymer (MSP) cone - they’re distinctly less dry than paper and carbon fiber, while being much faster and crisper than plain poly cones, and are used to great effect in their Esotec woofers (Example: Silverline SR17, and of course Dynaudio’s own line). I would say the carbon fiber woofer in the SR series is just a tad on the dry side, while the new resin version moves it about halfway between the old woofer and Dynaudio Esotec without sacrificing speed, which to my ears is a very nice place to be. That said, the SR 6 is a considerably more refined speaker than the R 3 and the overall completeness of the design far outweighs the nuances of the driver material. I think I read online somewhere that the R 3 could now give the SR 6 a run for its money; my experience most definitely did not concur with that assessment!

So to sum up: the new R series’s numerous tweaks seem to make an appreciable difference in character and musicality, the R 3 Arreté is impressively fluid and big-sounding, and the SR 6 Avantgarde Arreté is still a killer speaker in its current form... so much so that it’s jumped to the top of my list of potential reference speakers for my new room. I’ve got my eyes and ears on it...

Huge thanks as always to the Antonio, Taylor and the entire Audiovision SF crew for their hospitality.

#quick take #review #audiovector #hifi #speaker #loudspeaker #gryphon

[kierongillen]

Drafts: How the hell do they work? While I brainstorm and mess around a fair bit pre-writing, once I've got the Thing fully put down it feels like throwing large chunks into or out of it would cause it to break. Any advice?

Starting the day with this. Excuse me if I’m rusty.

This question is making me muse about how Hemingway’s “Writing is rewriting” interlinks with Vonnegut’s Bashers versus Swoopers. I suppose it would make Hemingway a swooper, but I can’t picture him as one. I digress.

Like most things in writing, there’s various modes and various scales. Let’s go from biggest to smallest.

(I immediately question my order, of course.)

Biggest is just throwing it all out and doing it again. Total rewrite. This avoids structural problems by simply rebuilding from scratch. This is a lot of work, but occasionally necessary. 

Then there’s localised throwing out and doing it again. What purpose does this scene serve? If your write a scene that serves the same purpose, you don’t need to touch the rest. I talked about an example of this in The Wicked + the Divine 24. My first draft had Persephone leave a fancy party, then Amaterasu followed and a kiss. The core information was identical. It was dead and terrible. I came back to it later and re-did it, and worked out more connective tissue. Persephone’s already outside the party (remains the same) on a ledge (obviously loaded, but also adds to the aura of otherworldliness) smoking (back to the worldy) watching a display of fireworks shaped like her dead friends (theme and visuals). Amaterasu leaves the party, we have a similar conversation, and a kiss in a much more interesting sort of situation. Structurally, these are the same scene.

I also think of one of my very early gigs at Marvel where Warren Simons got me to rewrite the first scene of my Beta Ray Bill comic for him three times. First time basically Bill turned up to Thor and tried to talk him into hunting down Galactus. Second time Bill turned up to Thor and tried to talk him into hunting down Galactus, except this time it’s on some kind of thunderound mountain. Third time Bill turned up to Thor and tried to talk him into hunting down Galactus, during them saving a coastline by punching a tidal wave (which as well as being obviously a superheroic beat, also set up the theme of What To Do About Natural Disasters and as they saved a whaling vessel What About Unintended Consequences Of Good Acts). I don’t think Warren asked me to do a rewrite that like after that. I kind of got the point of the genre I was working in.

I would also note if you’re thinking structurally, you can both collapse and expand scenes. If the point of the scene is “they go somewhere and have an argument on the way:” you could do that as a whole scene or you could do that as a panel of them driving and a single caption, and a single expression. Less can be more, especially if you’re working in a form (like 20 page comics) where space is a zero sum game. To have one scene longer, you need another to be shorter. Choose your poison.

(If I were to guess, It sounds like that you’re having trouble separating your specific execution of a scene from the structural purpose of a scene. I may be wrong, but this may be a useful line for you thin to think along)

The use of the word “break” is also interesting. There’s no problem in breaking things. Broke things can be fixed. Rewrite a scene? What needs to be reworked to do what the story requires. And, just as importantly, you can decided to change what the story requires. Maybe the element you liked is actually a darling that has to die for the better purpose of the movie.

(DIE 5 had a rewrite where I inserted a thematic scene at the opening at the cost of some detail about a different part of the backstory. Both scenes actually the same purpose in the issue, but coming from completely different and contradictory angles. I decided that the information in the original take could come to the reader down the line, and saved it for the second arc.)

You know people say “film is made on the editing table”? Basically the argument is that it’s only be selecting and arranging the specific shots that the specific movie you’re watching exists. It’s also worth noting that shots can be taken from whenever, re-arranged whenever. Hell, record new dialogue. Hell, in the modern say, you can fix it in post, tweaking lips, etc.

By which I mean, if they can do that in film with a medium far less mutable than the prose we write stories or scripts in, clearly that sort of editing is much easier for us too. Tweak a panel. Does this increase the meaning I want? Great. If not, don’t. 

Your first draft is your most obvious draft. A second draft can tweak to make it less obvious.

And, finally there’s just a basic second draft which is just a surface polish. Punching up dialogue. Increasing clarity or whatever.  Shine the script!

Oh - it’s also worth noting that comics have a unique advantage as a medium. As in, you can do a lettering draft after the comic has finished. If a panel is clear just via expressions, you can cut dialogue. If it’s not, you can add them. If an artist adds something in the art (or inspires in another way) you can add something that nods towards it. Put it like this: all comics are dubbed.

(It’s also worth noting some artists object to rewriting after the pages have drawn. Check in with them before you do it.)

That’ll do. I’ll post now, in first draft state, as I am, SHAMELESS.

#writer advice

[musclebodybuilders]

The Biggest Muscle Building Fallacy in Bodybuilding

I’ve just read yet another article about bodybuilding which only shows more evidence that writers of this sport or hobby are only too happy to regurgitate the same old tired out information that’s useless at best and a complete crock of doodie at worst. Frankly, I’m getting a little sick of it. And I don’t like seeing other natural bodybuilders spin their wheels by latching onto pseudo-scientific malarkey that only keeps them groping in the dark for something that works. You’ll probably be surprised to find out which widely-embraced and beloved theory I’m prepared to debunk. No, it’s not the one about muscle being incapable of turning into fat or fat turning into muscle. I think even your average five-year-old knows that by now. Neither is it the one about muscles not growing directly from workouts but rather from recuperating between workouts. I have non weight-training, nerdy friends who already have that figured out. No, this is about the much coveted, yet completely erroneous “muscle confusion principle”. For clarity, let’s look at some common assertions that this silly concept hides within: “You need to ‘shock’ your body by changing your routine.” “Once you do a routine for awhile, your muscles get used to it and stop growing.” “You need to change your bodybuilding exercises to keep your muscles guessing.” “Muscles won’t continue to grow unless you keep them ‘confused’. Let me straighten this out: Muscles don’t need to be confused, baffled, perplexed, puzzled, bewildered, disconcerted or befuddled. They also don’t need to be “shocked”. What they need in order to continue growing is to be systematically overloaded and recuperated. Let me repeat that: Systematically Overloaded and Recuperated. Here’s another piece of startling information. In order to systematically overload and recuperate your muscles, you could feasibly use the same exercises in the same sequence for the next twenty years. I’m not saying you need to or should – only that you could. You could do it and keep gaining muscle mass as long as you know how to accurately and unremittingly overload and recuperate your muscles. To check the validity of my claim, simply apply your rational faculty. Why would your muscles need to be “tricked” or “confused” in order to grow? Although they might be connected to neuro-transmitters present in the nervous system, they’re not equipped with little micro-brains that need to be fooled. Simply put, they’re made out of actin and myosin; two proteins that need to be broken down in order to start the process of recuperation that possibly leads to compensatory size increases. Notice I used the word ‘possibly’. If we break the tissue down and don’t allow enough recuperation to not only repair the damage done but also build compensatory strength and size, our muscles simply won’t grow. They’ll stay the same size or even worse, become a little smaller. That’s what can happen from extreme over-training. Where did “Muscle Confusion” Originate? The stimulus that started and perpetuates the muscle confusion lie is another common phenomenon and myth in bodybuilding: the “pump”. This is a phenomenon because it really occurs; people do get a feeling of expansion in their muscles after working them. It’s a myth, however, from the standpoint of believing that this sensation represents evidence of muscle growth. A pumped sensation in a worked muscle is caused by a back pressure of blood flow and lactic acid in the capillaries. It has nothing to do with inter-workout recuperation and compensatory tissue growth. Therefore, regardless of whether a change in our workout routine causes us to imagine or actually feel a better pump, it’s not an indication of real progress. But the facts haven’t stopped it from feeding the muscle confusion myth. People will swear up and down that their change of routine has given them a better pump and a subsequent resumption of progress. My objections are only proven correct when these individuals possess muscles that haven’t grown at all six months or a year later. Why “Muscle Confusion” can hold you back Frankly, too much adherence to the muscle confusion principle can cause feedback confusion. If we change our exercises and routine too often, we won’t accumulate enough feedback to tweak our volume strategy and put it in to the momentous gaining zone. I’ve seen people change their exercises every week. I’ve even been one of those people (years ago). Would you like to know where all that “muscle confusion” got me? Absolutely nowhere – nadda - Zilch! I had good workout pumps. But I experienced no gains at all from massive confusing and befuddling of my muscles and entire body. Some people maintain that they need to change their bodybuilding exercises once in a while to alleviate boredom. That’s fine, as long as it’s not so often as to hamper the ability to read feedback and make adjustments that lead to actual gains. Personally, I never get bored in the gym. There’s something so exciting about seeing continuous muscle growth happening naturally and right on my formerly hard-gainers body. It blows away any fleeting sensation I might have once gotten from merely changing an exercise in the name of… “confusion”.

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#bodybuilding #build muscle #body building #gain weight #muscle building #weight training #strength training

[myfriendpokey]

flat pak

i went to now play this last weekend and had a good time! there was a flatgames room, and a panel, and the latter made me think about some nightmarish circumstance where someone was questioning me about what the point of these things was. the three posts below are all pseudo-answers i sketched out.

1. i like how sexless videogames are, and how bad at representing humanity in general, i like that even hyperviolent games have this wistfulness about them, as if the only way they can grasp the human body is as it comes apart - in some provisional, stateless shape contained in but seperate from the game systems, a ghost, like those mysteriously elaborate and collisionless death animations the enemies in old shooters got before dissolving into goo. or as if they hoped the exuberance of their own approach was enough to break the carapace of the format and let something, anything, seep in from the outside....

the little guys in videogames are a gentler convention, but they're always on the verge of the same dissolution - the sketchiest of outlines, of features, a ball, a shape, with eyes and feet. like drawing yourself with your eyes closed - the crudest and most temporary kind of projection or self-fashioning. staring nervously and chomping as it waddles through the maze, eating things, breaking apart instantly when it bumps into someone, and given an equally temporary name such as walky or go-go. i love this dorkiness, this daydream of the body as a soap-bubble, so alienated that the slightest recognition feels like intimacy.

2. flatgames are 'flat' in the sense of projecting a multi-level videogame hierarchy into a single plane; the archetypical flatgame gesture is being able to walk across the textboxes. rather than systems they represent collections - collections of effects treated as independent of the wider process they'd ordinarily portray, which can then be grouped and moved around seperate from that process. so it's a personal, subjective format in the sense that the new groupings sort of mirror the groupings produced when various external effects are flattened into single moments of subjective experience, of memory. but it's also a personal format just because it's easy to use - because in many circumstances it's easier to just drag and drop text around rather than create a universal system that handles when and how it'll be displayed, as in all those unity horror games that have gui elements just sort of hanging around in space for you to bump into. and i think this is something that kind of grinds interestingly against the idea of videogames as inherently systematic, inherently good at portraying systems - like, in what way are they systematic when it's become easier NOT to be systematic? at what point do those "systematic" features become a mannerism, while the very easiness of bad game design means it starts to cleave more rigorously to the contours of actual material life and practice, to the way we really use computers rather than the ways we'd like to use them?

this is not to say systems don't exist. but their relationship with even the most system-y videogames is weird - to what extent are these games exploring a system rather than expressing a sense of systematicity, an aesthetics of system not dissimilar to those of puzzles, criticism, and the mystery novel? on one hand we know that a lot of systemic elements are hand-tweaked by developers in order to feel less jarring to our  impression of the whole (dice rolls being the most common) - on the other we know from previous twitter threads about exactly these kinds of  "cheats" that they can outrage players who learn they exist. which suggests it's not any specific quality or experience associated with a game system but the idea of systematicity itself that's being sold -- as indeed with the famous "100 hours of gameplay" tag, which does not express a type of content so much as a promise that this content has been regulated and formatted in ways which allow it to be sold in this very matter-of-fact way. the idea of systematicity as a deliberately conveyed aesthetic impression feels worth investigating, particularly given ten million youtube videos with names like "gun-shot teen DESTROYED with Logic" and "univeral reason under attack: why braingeniousmasculinist should be unbanned from club penguin" - evidently the impression of sanguine impersonality and indifference to the merely "personal" is a highly popular and profitable one online....

in a more material sense, too, we can query this systematicity. a videogame with handdrawn paper graphics is obviously not "de-mystifying" the process of making games, since the physical object had to be digitalised and cleaned up and  imported and processed before it could be used. one of the stranger things in videogames is that naivete is a technological affordance - i can use crude handdrawn graphics because the computer has enough memory not to force me to compress it all into 8x8 sprites (unless i really want it to, as with deliberately limited bespoke engines). but at the same time it really is de-mystifying, because it emphasises the extent to which game development takes place at the intersection between multiple different areas of digital technology (not to mention human labour).  3d model textures can be paintings or photographs or heavily treated, processed combinations of the two - the photographs or paintings used can be original or purchased from various weird economies of commercial asset packs - the artistic coordination of those assets can take place over skype or similar with the reference of multiple other digital image files, scavenged from online to give an idea of the total look. i don't mean to suggest that these multiple intersections are so complex that they cease to be "systematic" - but i do think that grasping it as a real system also means coming to terms with the ways in which it can be structurally unsystemisable, like fredric jameson's description of globalization as "untotalizable totality". when the most important features of the discrete operations of a computer are that they take place at a scale and speed no human can replicate, recasting exactly those operation into a human scale can confuse more than it clears up [much like this post].

thinking about videogames more generally as revolving around not an inherent systematicity but rather an image of / desire for the same, around that imagination of systematicity which is bound up with consumer technology as a whole. i feel like at each moment in history this systematicity has some privileged form of social identification associated with it: i've lost count of the pulpy books i've read which had some villainous saint-just analogue, maybe one obsessed with clocks or measuring things, who imposes some cruel and rigid revolutionary "system" on the basically warm and laissez-faire vassals below... system as political imposition. but medieval writers might have connected the same sense of systematicity more immediately with that of the kingdom of god, with the underlying structure which makes those warm laissez-faire moments possible to begin with. sometimes system appears in media as bureaucracy and ritual, sometimes it's as a challenge to bureaucracy and ritual, galileo's "and yet it moves" or those movies where someone comes up with a brilliant new way to win sports matches or sell sub-prime mortgages against all the prevailing wisdom. on the basis of this extremely rough idea, what could we imagine being the privileged form that systematicity appears in the everyday today? not capitalism or high finance, which while systematic can also be too broad or naturalised to appear so in this immediate way...  not politics, not the internet.  but maybe ON the internet, and for me "system" appears most visibly online in the question of personal information and how it's tracked. all those notifications of websites using cookies clicked through, terms and amendments to terms scrolled past, online shopping histories suddenly reoccuring by ads for the same products you looked at appearing in the background of another site - all these are re-impositions, re-appearances of systemicity through the vague fugue of internet experience. and which pop up in the more public sphere as an ominous black site, with the full scope or implications sealed away behind byzantine layers of corporate procedure and nondisclosure. the sense of system here is one of intransigence, blockage - it's divorced from the idea that knowing the system would give one the power to change it, because here the system is exactly what makes that knowledge impossible in the first place. maybe that sense of the failure of systemic knowledge is connected to the world depicted in flatgames, in which that knowledge no longer exists - niall moody's "the craigallen fire" contains historical information and real places, but the words hang eerily across the digital picture as if unsure how to relate to it, as if coming from a long way away. but the movement away from representational systematicity is a move towards material systemicness, in the clarity and concreteness with which flatgames approach their own practice, so maybe we should consider this withdrawal as strategic - as an effort to build new systems, rather than being pulled into the daydream of the old.

3. part of the pleasure, for me, in making flatgames, was the sense of feeling able to postpone indefinitely some kind of mechanical reckoning - the feeling of being able to use pacing and visual structure to ward off the dread that any minute now i'd have to settle down and make a real game. in a weird way it connects to what i enjoy about very fussy, technical games - grinding in an rpg means deferring the point at which you actually have to begin playing the rpg, both in the sense of being challenged and in the sense of actually having to sit down and learn all the systems, just as savescumming your way through megaman 3 is to giddily skate around the dread prospect of actually playing megaman 3. there is no point where you have to work out what happens if you die or walk off the map, there is no point where you have to say to the player "okay, you have to focus now". the horror of paying attention and the joy of not having to! a moment of those moralist rituals held in temporary suspense, as if time itself has frozen and you're free to walk among it, underneath paused mechanisms that would ordinarily be crushing you... and the awareness of that suspense somehow makes your own delicacy greater, as if one of the machines you wandered through was your own life, and you could hover precariously inside it... a soap bubble, the merest bug-eyed phantom, newly christened something like walky or go-go....

[image credits - street fighter iii: second impact - pippols  - space fantasy zone - marchen veil - bandits 9)

#flatgames #writing #vg. #pippols

[aion-rsa]

Archer Season 12: Casey Willis On Sterling And Cyril’s Emotional Breakthrough

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

This article contains spoilers for Archer season 12 episode 5.

Archer has a fascinating relationship with change. Major elements like the show’s genre have transformed, but a constant through the years are the characters and their relationships with one another. The series has made it clear that these character dynamics are quite toxic in many ways, some of which have left the characters looking for ways to grow. The most recent seasons have prioritized the cause and effect nature of Archer waking up from his coma and returning to work, which has left everyone feeling very raw and vulnerable, including Sterling Archer himself. 

Archer’s latest episode, “Shots,” dresses itself up as a playful night of liquor and laughs, but it becomes a deep look into Archer’s poisonous effect on his friends, specifically Cyril. Archer EP Casey Willis and producer Pierre Cerrato deconstruct the emotional entry and its significance in the season, putting together the glorious “Pampage” sequence, and if those were really the origins of “Sploosh.”

Archer Season 12 Episode 5 – “Shots”

Written by Matt Roller “Sex, drugs, and monster trucks! Archer and the gang celebrate another barely successful mission.”

DEN OF GEEK: With this being the half-way point of the season, were there any sort of goals or expectations in check for this point in the season, or was it not thought about in such a precise way?

PIERRE CERRATO: We are definitely thinking about how we are telling the story across the entire season. It may feel like a standalone episode, but I can’t really slot this episode anywhere else in our season. We needed to feel that the gang had been on a few missions and could use a break. We also needed to expand on Lana and Robert’s relationship a bit. And we really needed to Weekend at Bernie’s two different characters. That was a must.

There’s a bit of a bottle episode mentality with this installment when it begins and a lot of the entry is contained to the bar. What was the agenda in scaling things down here and was it ever smaller in nature?

PIERRE CERRATO: For the first half of the episode it may feel like there isn’t a ton going on narratively and we are just hanging out at a bar, but there are some nuggets in there that will come into play later in the season. While those early scenes may feel small in scale, hanging out in a populated bar comes with its own difficulties. We have to design and layout every individual character that is present at the bar and make sure they are engaged in just enough activity to feel natural, but not enough to take your attention away from our main action. Once we enter the rave, the scale of the episode gets pretty big.

There’s a self-aware nature to this episode as the characters reflect on the rut that they’ve found themselves in and the predictable nature of their dynamics. Why did this feel like the right time to ask these questions?

CASEY WILLIS: This episode was always planned to fall in the middle of the season. It was a great time for the characters to reflect and take stock of their situations. We also planted a lot of seeds for stories that will pay off in the second half of the season. And it was great to have Sandra, with her outside perspective, act as a cheerleader for the team at the start of the episode. However, by the end of the episode she realizes the team is a mess.

The brewing personal drama and stress with Lana and Robert continus to carry over and be present. Talk on that a little and why having that as a throughline through the season rather than them being entirely broken up or on healthy ground?

CASEY WILLIS: We wanted Lana and Robert’s relationship to get more complex and a bit messy this season. Is it because Archer is back in the picture, or is Archer just shining a spotlight on some behaviors Lana ignored in the past? This is a season long storyline and we are very excited for everyone to see how Lana and Robert handle these hiccups.

Lana seems to regress in some ways in this episode while she searches for clarity. Can you elaborate on that a little bit?

CASEY WILLIS: We wanted Lana’s story to contrast Archer’s in this episode. We also wanted her and Sandra’s story to connect to the previous episode and just show Lana having some fun. So many times Lana has to play the “wet blanket” role in an episode and it’s nice to see her cut loose. In fact, it’s Pam of all people who tries and fails to stop Lana from partying with the Prince! When Pam is the voice of reason, your party is off the rails.

The most moving material from this episode is Archer’s resolve to “fix” Cyril. This is a major aspect of the previous season, but why did it feel important to readdress it here and go so far as to resolve the problem?

CASEY WILLIS: Last season we saw the decline of Cyril and while Pam tried to rebuild him, Archer and Cyril’s relationship was much more contentious. Archer and Cyril had some great moments though, especially in last season’s Aleister episode. We wanted to show Archer’s growth and him realizing that he does care for Cyril in his own twisted way. Also, we wanted to show Archer having fun in situations we normally don’t see him in, while also showing a glimpse into Cyril’s free time.

Where is Archer’s head at during the end of this, does he actually feel remorse, and will he be closer with Cyril moving forward at all?

CASEY WILLIS: I think he grew a bit, but he isn’t emotionally mature enough to share that with Cyril. We purposefully had Archer undercut all the progress he made when Pam called him. Then we further rubbed salt into the wound when Archer used Cyril as a step-stool. It’s just Archer’s way of showing affection.

The neon visuals during the “Pampage” dance party look gorgeous and are a serious highlight. Was it difficult to construct that scene?

PIERRE CERRATO: Our team went above and beyond to answer the call of the “Pampage.” It was a very complicated sequence. The script outlined four different areas in the warehouse that Pam takes the gang to. We needed to figure out what it would look like if there was a rave, a bare knuckle fight and a punk band playing while a monster truck is crushing cars in the back. Everyone did a fantastic job with that specific scene, and it took us a long time to get through it. If you take a closer look at the whole episode, you’ll realize just how many beautiful set pieces there are throughout. For example, the game store, the planetarium, Ding Dong’s strip club (the logo is my personal favorite), etc. Our artists, designers and animators are pretty incredible across the board.

CASEY WILLIS: Just a quick side note. We never really promote Archer merch because we are so focused on producing the show, however, when creating the “Pampage” shirts that Pam and the gang wore in this episode, we thought it would be great if FX would sell them. For anyone interested, they’re available soon via https://shop.fxnetworks.com/collections/archer.

This episode also seems to provide the origins of “Sploosh.” Did it feel time to provide some context there?

CASEY WILLIS: Is it the origin or did Lana just think it might be the origin? I am of the opinion that “Sploosh” has an organic origin from deep in Pam’s past. Sploosh, the bouncer, was probably bestowed that nickname by Pam, but I doubt he is the origin of the word.

It’s not just specific to this episode, but there’s some really nice staccato jazzy music that’s present throughout the season. How did this season’s sound come about?

PIERRE CERRATO: We can thank our amazing composer, JG Thirwell. He has been working with us since season seven and prior to that, we used needle drop for all our music. It worked well, but you can’t beat having an original score and developing a musical language with someone as talented as JG. 

We had a phone call at the beginning of season 12 to go over our plans and share some musical ideas. We knew that Fabian was going to be a season-long villain, so we made sure to give him his own themes. We usually temp the music in our edit and when JG gets it, he’ll put his spin on it. If we use something that he has composed for another episode, he’ll tweak it to match the new timing, add extra instrumentation or anything else he feels would work for the scene. We don’t really go back and forth too much. We’ll generally do a round of notes and we’re good.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Our writers’ room walkthrough for Archer’s 12th season will conclude with this season’s eighth and final episode.

Our breakdown of Archer’s 12th season premiere and previous writers’ room walkthroughs on earlier seasons are also available. 

The post Archer Season 12: Casey Willis On Sterling And Cyril’s Emotional Breakthrough appeared first on Den of Geek.

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#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

[klaralachmanphotography]

Self portrait Mixed Media

Google drive link:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1afCprP5MXBjSjcWkgj9Cfkcu-VOWBgmb?usp=sharing

For this assignment, we were able to express our creativity to the fullest. Self-portrait mixed media means that there should be different techniques put to use in the execution – both manual and digital. As part of my research, I looked at the previous student’s work as well as on the internet. I have found many amazing pieces of artwork and here are the ones that had inspired me the most.

https://www.toptal.com/designers/visual/hot-design-trends-photoshop-tutorials

I really liked the glitch effect and later used a tutorial featured on this site to achieve a similar effect on my own photograph.

https://www.toptal.com/designers/visual/hot-design-trends-photoshop-tutorials

(photographs from Google)

Our self-portrait was also supposed to represent our personality and signature style. The initial idea I had in mind was to take the photograph, edit it in photoshop/lightroom, and then print it out for some manual edits. I intended to paint over it, glue on some newspaper, and then take the photo again in some interesting location. Unfortunately, the printer we have at home only prints in black and white and the local place with a photograph printing machine is closed due to the lockdown so I had to improvise.

Firstly, I set up a DIY studio in my room using the same good old lamp as for my A to B assignment, but this time I used a different blanket. Also, this was shot during daylight near the window so I didn’t need any artificial lighting whatsoever.

Here is some behind the scenes of setting up the scene. I used little clips to secure the blanket on the lamp and on a little nail in the wall from one of my pictures. I then mounted my Sony a6000 camera to my tripod, put my 50mm f/1.8 portrait lens on, and began shooting. I used a self-timer and my Camera’s built-in remote control that I can access via my phone which enabled me to stay in position and to only change my poses. On the picture below, you can see the exact camera settings used.

Here is the tree of my favorite photographs already edited in Lightroom. 

There wasn’t much editing needed, I just increased the clarity, contrast, and tweaked some of the color hue values. By using the brush tool, I made myself stand out from the background. And also no, I am not naked, I am just wearing a strapless top because I felt that clothes covering my shoulders would only distract the focus from what I had in mind.

I ended up choosing the first photograph and imported it into Adobe Photoshop. By following this tutorial https://youtu.be/G2BzkQGCFjY I created my desired glitch effect which I absolutely love. Because the assignment should be mixed media I also added some typography and I felt that it complimented the photograph really well.

After having a feedback session with Claire though, I was told that maybe there could be more of the ‘mixed media element’ and that made me think of how could I achieve what I first had in mind without having to print out my photograph. I came up with an idea to cut out letters from an old newspaper that would create the word distort instead of typing it digitally.

I took this photograph of my paper letters and removed the background in Photoshop.

I added some digital tape that I had already created for my website and I thought that it might look good and more ‘handmade’. I have made so many versions of this task and couldn’t decide which one is the best. Originally, I wanted to have a bright painted background but changed my mind later on. Here are some examples of how it went. I used different Photoshop brushes (both wet and dry styles) and experimented with different colour styles. There are two additional ‘distort’ signs with different blending mode options settings. As I have discovered during the process, blending mode can make a huge difference and completely change the feel of the whole design, so from now on I am definitely going to use it more than before.

This piece was one of the very first attempts and I felt like it was a little too much, because the red drew the attention from my face. Something I have learned is that it’s never good to have too many focal points in one design.

I got rid of the red but I still felt that the photograph didn't stand out enough.

I removed one of the signs, but then I realized that the background might actually be the problem, and even though I love it, it might not compliment my photograph in the best way. After many hours of trying different versions and a few mental breakdowns, I decided to try a more minimalistic approach.

These are my final two photographs and in the end I decided to go for the black version as I feel that it’s more interesting.

Here is the photograph already exported from Photoshop, I am really happy with how it turned out, and although the process wasn’t easy it was definitely worth it.

Here is the link to Google Drive where I uploaded the full sized final photograph.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1afCprP5MXBjSjcWkgj9Cfkcu-VOWBgmb?usp=sharing

thank you for reading

K

[inventors-fair]

Mechanical Commentary: All across the spectrum

People went pretty far with this one, honestly. There were a lot of overlapping mechanics and ideas that were related, but across the board, there was a mix of flavor and pure gameplay that came together in an interesting way. 

I think that if I had to give advice for doing this contest again, I would encourage everyone to keep it SIMPLE in their card submission choices. What is the best example of your mechanic, not your card? What’s the best choice for how this mechanic can work and be grokable? Contests like this aren’t about showing off the coolest thing or the most radical notion. No, they’re about proof of concept, presenting that concept, and creating clarity above all else. Unless we’re asking for a contest in which you make a confusing card, clarity is pivotal in all things.

@cas-420 — Flayed Alive

This card by itself is very good, probably an uncommon but very good. My main concern with the mechanic is that it can either only exist on reactive instants OR be in a set where life loss is a key concept. That’s what I’m not a fan of. Losing life during your own turn doesn’t come naturally to Magic. Some mechanics require support and certain environments, like, say, modular, or constellation, but “having artifact creatures” and “playing enchantment cards” are things that more or less happen in the game already. So, I would consider this a cool one-off card, but Agonize as a mechanic feels too narrow.

@dabudder​ — Drownyard Crawler

This is the reason why Ikoria introduced ability counters, besides being a design experiment. Memory issues with this card are crazy hard. If you have multiple copies of the same creature, and one of them is viral, how do you know? Swap places like magic cups, and it becomes impossible. Conceptually and flavorfully, this ability is fine. I won’t call it reinventing the wheel, but I don’t dislike it. There are a couple wording issues. I would change “to a creature” to “to another creature,” and I would have it say “Creatures with viral have skulk and “Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player, draw a card.”” in quotes. I like how this makes combat more complex.

@dancepatternalpha​ — Arkelas, Ruler of the Lost

I don’t really understand what ephemeral’s place as a mechanic is, but I think I’m seeing the set you’re trying to build around. I imagine there are a few cards that would also interact with exile? And as the game went on, the more cards exiled created more powerful effects? I can see it. Ephemeral doesn’t make me tingle with excitement, but I can’t be harsh with it. I think I understand where you’re coming from, and I feel that a common or uncommon submission might have been more favorable.

@deafeningsandwichpeach​ — Bursting Beetle

FEWER, NOT LESS. Ahem. Sorry, that was harsh. But there are a couple wording issues. “Swarm X (When this creature enters the battlefield, if you control fewer creatures than each opponent, create three tapped 1/1 green Insect creature tokens.)” Fewer words, easier to grok. Not a bad mechanic. Feels reactive, though, less of a choice and more of a “I’m gonna hold onto this card because it’s a little useless otherwise.” It’s worth tweaking, though. I love token mechanics. Maybe this card could have been five or six mana.

@demimonde-semigoddess​ — Blood Remora

Ey, a fishy! Ooh, an evil fishy. An evil fishy with one big issue: if it deals combat damage to an opponent and there are no other targets, it has to target itself. And that’s my main issue. “Whenever this creature deals combat damage to an opponent, you may attach it to target creature that player controls. It can’t attack or block as long as it’s attached this way” could work? Might have a couple memory issues, but that’s not a major issue. You can just move cards around. It’s not a bad mechanic, but it’s a little hard to parse at first glance.

@dimestoretajic​ — Strike From Above

So, this is the conflict between “simple” and “exciting.” Everything about this card is more or less exactly understandable. But the name, the mechanic name, and the flavor text don’t feel as inspired as they should be. I don’t get a sense of quality from them. It’s an intangible aspect, and I’m sorry because I know that sounds like a real jerk way of putting this, but: for future cards, consider the world, the story, and what the card would look like once you open it up. I don’t get a sense of MTG from this card yet. Instead, it feels like a concept. That’s fine for personal reasons, but as a submission, I’m not excited. Airstrike itself I wouldn’t keyword as a mechanic. This card would be better without that aspect.

@emmypupcake — Aftermarket Additions

 Great name, great flavor text, great ability name... Super limiting. The as-fan of artifact creatures in this theoretical set would have to be hella huge, like Mirrodin-block big, and I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing? Maybe you could batch it into “charge, haste or +1/+1 counter”s so it could interact with noncreature artifacts? Wait, this also works for vehicles. Man, this is probably a cooler mechanic than I thought originally. Call it a B- for relying on a specific sub-category of cards. A+ for badass bikers.

@fractured-infinity​ — Thunder Hammer

This mechanic was real close to being a runner-up. Quickdraw would need a bit of flash interaction to really make it worthwhile, though, and a strong equipment/aura theme as well. Could it work with auras? Would it make sense, or are you going for a wild-west-ish theme? Kind of? The card itself is good limited fodder and equipment tribal goodstuff for commander, I suppose. Not a fan of the name or flavor text personally, but it’s simple enough to make sense. Green and “thunder” don’t always go together, y’know. In my opinion. Which is not always a good one.

@ghost31415926535 — Storm Fleet Rapscallion

Plunder: a fine mechanic. I like the artifact synergy. Now, let’s go over the wording issues.

You forgot a card type in your submission. That’s a big one.

“When” should be capitalized.

“Treasure” should be capitalized.

“Tap” should have just been a symbol T followed by a comma. Was this what you meant? It wasn’t entirely clear.

There should be a period and an end-quote at the end before the paren.

@gollumni​ — Nayan Cataloguers

I kept reading this as “cartographers.” My fault, not yours. Anyway. So, I can see this is based off explore. Honestly, it doesn’t really...feel as good? Partially because it’s similar in both mechanic AND flavor, and partially because you’re forced to put the card on the bottom of your library. I would also have it say “Reveal the top card of your library. If that card’s converted mana cost is greater than this card’s, put it into your hand.” I think that groks? 

@i-am-the-one-who-wololoes​ — Dragons’ Secrets

I would not have made this spell modal. Honestly, I would have picked a simpler submission in general, but I don’t dislike this card. It feels a little cheap and it’s an insane storm enabler. What if the modes were together for both of them, and the mana echoes did the same? DM me if that doesn’t make sense. In general, mana echoes isn’t a bad ability. This card is wordy and cluttered. I like how you went for “converted mana cost.” Makes sense, good in limited, I think.

@ignorantturtlegaming​ — Underground Network

Too much. I would much rather you have submitted just a common Wurm with burrow and some flavor text instead of this card, and even then, I’m not a fan of burrow as a mechanic. Why the alternate cost, plus the counters, plus the upkeep, plus the status effect? It’s all grokable individually but together it’s too much to keep track of for one mechanic. And what does “during each player’s end step” mean? Can you do it at instant-speed? Should it be a trigger? Why is it each player’s end step instead of just yours? There are a lot of questions this card raises that I don’t think it answers satisfactorily. 

@juggernaut-is-a-metalhead — Embercoil Serpent

So out of the two cards you submitted, I felt that this one was the best designed. There are a couple questions I have. One, should mono-red be able to have this? Yes, I know it’s hybrid, but if a mono-red deck could play it, would it? It’s a pretty powerful ability, a la Scrying Sheets. Two, I assume that the number after Dig refers to the number of untapped lands you have to sacrifice, and I think that it’s pretty cool in the late game, but why not just have it be “you may cast this spell from your graveyard by sacrificing an untapped land in addition to its other costs” instead of a number? I feel it could have worked better that way. Also, Udon is adorable!

@kavinika​ — Iron Guardian

That’s a cool character asset. They should put that in a game! So, I would have made this a keyword action ability word instead of a keyword ability, personally. Like, “Craft — You may pay (4) and sacrifice an artifact and a basic land rather than pay this spell’s mana cost.” Would that have made the last ability weird? I don’t know, I don’t think so, but. Wait, no, it wouldn’t have, they had clash things in Lorwyn that worked the same way. Not a bad concept. Pretty flavorful for artifact creatures and other artifacts. 

@koth-of-the-hammerpants — Wanderwood Warden

I love alliterative names. I don’t love angels without flying, but that’s a “me” issue. So, for this card, I like obscure, but I don’t like the darkness counters. I think that the face-down stuff works well on its own. And I would change “obscured cards” to “face-down exiled cards” so it could work with other cards from Magic’s past. I do like the gist of your flavor text, and I like this card and I like obscure. I wouldn’t call this one a stellar example, and I would have submitted a more straightforward card, but that’s just me being pedantic. Speaking of pedantic, “its owner’s,” not “it’s.”

@misterstingyjack​ — Time Mage’s Teachings

I’m going to be pedantic again, yay. My issue with this card for this contest is that, well, it’s not a new mechanic. Technically, everything on this card could exist within Magic’s rules text as-is and wouldn’t add anything new to the rules. We were looking for a new NAMED mechanic. I thought that was evident, but I suppose not. This card’s great, so keep it around for that, but it technically is not eligible. Personally, I would have also made it uncommon for limited purposes.

@nicolbolas96​ — Gitaxian Surgeon

Combining Phyrexian mana, permanent control, AND infect onto a single card, two of which exist within the same mechanic? Let’s take a step back. Phyresis, besides already existing as a card, is a cool concept to bring to the table. As a mechanic, permanent control of any creature, including your own, turning it into a 5/5 with infect, is bonkers. If this existed with any number, then 1) it would be useless half the time considering it has to target things with specific mana costs and 2) it would be busted beyond belief. I think that this card would be fine with the exile cost as a singular card. I don’t think Phyresis is a mechanic worth exploring for the time being.

@nine-effing-hells​ — Phlogiston Burst

Good on you for making me look up a word I didn’t know! This card is... Definitely uncommon, that’s for sure. But hm. I don’t DISLIKE Overchannel. So, in theory, you can exile three random cards and two red cards to cast it for free? Okay, maybe it’s common, forget my previous rambling. It’s an interesting take on Delve that isn’t broken, and this one was pretty close to being a runner-up. I worry about free stuff, but the hand isn’t an infinite resource. It’s probably fine. I’ll give this card and mechanic kudos. A rare one might break a format, but remains to be seen, y’know?

@nvijork​ — Grenzo, Fist of the Queen

I love the fact that you did your own art for this! So, locks are interesting. They’re a little bit of a non-issue in the late game, but I’d have to really play with them to see just how frustrating they are. I think there’s plenty of room for exploration and I think that this card (which IMO should be rare) is a...fine example? Not blowing my socks off, and you could have shown an example of something that happened when you had multiple locks or that triggers based on locks or something. Keep this mechanic around. I like it. Bad news: in the story, Marchesa actually fired Grenzo. So is this an alternate universe, or do I have to get out my Story Correction Rod of Spanking?

@partytimesdeluxe​ — Stringplayer

Like kavinika’s crafting, this is a mechanic that definitely needed to be a keyword action ability word. “Crescendo — Whenever a creature enters the battlefield under your control, if it has the greatest power among creatures you control, gain control of target creature.” The mechanic is probably fine, I’d love to see it played in limited, and the potential play with multiple crescendo triggers would be so much fun. Not bad, but the wording on this specific card as presented could use work.

@real-aspen-hours​ — Drag Away // Umbral Kidnapper

If your MSE is acting up, feel free to message me on Discord or Tumblr and tell me so we can help you out. So, my main concern with this card is that I’m not sure if you’re submitting abduction counters as your new mechanic, or if you’re submitting Twist as your new mechanic; I’m going with Twist. It’s not bad! Someone’s going to correct me, but I think that in this instance you would use “return” instead of “put.” Again, correct me if I’m wrong. I think that it’s a cool way to turn instants and sorceries into permanents. I won’t call it the most flavorful or mind-blowing mechanic in the world, but I like it. I don’t see why you can’t put the exile clause on the flip side instead of on Twist where it won’t really be remembered. Also, the second side should have “those spells” — see Haldan, Avid Arcanist.

@reaperfromtheabyss​ — Dark Reprise

I think it should be “This spell costs” instead of the name, but aside from that and a period at the end of the sentence, it’s fine enough. There really isn’t much to say about this card. It’s a fine example and I like how the name creates flavor without flavor text. The mechanic and card don’t excite me enough to give it a place, but I mean, this is probably the safest example you could have gone for, and you know what, I can respect it.

@shandylamb​ — Fidi, Alluring Lamia

I love the uncommon legend, heh. As a mechanic, I don’t really like siphon. I don’t like how there’s a number attached instead of just “exile it and gain 2 life.” And I don’t like how it’s only cards from a graveyard. Why can’t you siphon cards from player’s hands and libraries and the battlefield as well? It would be so cool to, like, have powerful cards that suck away hidden power and turn the world into your vampyric victims. Instead, there’s...this. It gave me inspiration, but I wouldn’t call this one a slam-dunk.

@teaxch​ — Vyne Rowe Vagrant

You know, this mechanic is making me think of Adamant, except...different. And I’m leaning a little more towards Adamant, although I can see this card’s properties. The problem that comes up is that this card doesn’t feel tailored to a limited environment, nor does it feel tailored to Commander. Dedicated feels like a mechanic based solely around constructed environments, and I don’t know if I like that? It’s a build-around-me card without the big payoff. As a card, and as a concept, again, I don’t...dislike anything about it. But the mechanical feel is off. It’s not something that I feel like I’m attaining or that I’m synergizing with. I’m not sure exactly how to explain myself here, and I’m sorry about that, but I hope that the contrast is enough to make some sense.

@tmstage​ — Precise Pikeman

Handsome feller. Lol, and he fells indeed. I think this should be a replacement effect, like, “If this would deal damage to a creature with toughness 6 or greater, it deals double that damage instead.” I’m gonna side with your own personal feelings as you submitted this one. It’s not a fantastic mechanic, because it’s just so crazy limiting in what it requires to work. I think that as a single card without Tankbuster it would be fine.

@walker-of-the-yellow-path​ — Grand Annex of Elesh Norn // Elesh Norn, Voice of New Phyrexia

Technically, and I say this being a giant ass, this isn’t a new ‘mechanic.’ It’s a new card type and it would add things to the comprehensive rules, but it’s not a mechanic. Doesn’t matter, it’s worth commenting on anyway. I don’t hate it! Every part of this card by itself is pretty cool. I personally don’t like how it only requires one creature to attack, and I don’t like how the vault abilities aren’t static like a changing enchantment could be. Y’know? It feels like a saga more than it does an artifact. Again, this card is cool and would be great in a custom cube, but I would make some changes before adding vaults to a set.

~

Thank you all for your entries! New contest tomorrow. Spooky. Or not.

#mtg #magic the gathering #custom magic card #entries #commentary #new mechanic #inventor's fair

[trenttrendspotter]

“Just move daily!” With Nancy Trent

By Dr. William Seeds, Dr. Seeds, An orthopedic surgeon on a mission

Nancy Trent is a writer and speaker, a lifelong health advocate, a wellness influencer, a globe-trotting trend watcher, and the founder and president of Trent & Company, a leading health, and wellness PR firm. Nancy is an investigative reporter turned PR guru with seven books under her belt, continuing to spot and spark trends wherever she goes. Today, she is running publicity and social media campaigns for 50 different lifestyle clients across various industries.

Thank you for joining us! Can you share your “backstory” with us?

My father was tremendously influential in my outlook. He was an early health enthusiast and the first person that anyone in our family or neighborhood knew who took vitamins, ate healthy and exercised daily.

At an early age, I began to exercise with him every morning and started eating what we thought were healthy foods.

He was a vegetarian in college and that inspired me…he also learned about yoga there and we had fun trying asanas we saw in books.

I loved jogging and hiking and when I went to school out West. I made friends with others who had similar interests.

Soon I was writing about healthy subjects for local papers and magazines while studying journalism in school.

When I graduated, I began my career as an investigative reporter and wrote seven books on health and fitness before transitioning into public relations.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career?

As a part of one of my early promotions, I was given the opportunity to introduce a major pharmaceutical product. As soon as I discovered the drug had more side effects than impact, I told my boss I didn’t want to work on it because it was bad business. He accused me of being immature and unprofessional. I quit the next day and decided to start my own business focused on real health.

When I was first working on healthy products it wasn’t the sexy, cool industry it is today. I had to educate people to be open to health-oriented brands and learn to talk about what they were interested in.

I am so grateful that people are realizing that if they want the most out of life, they have to increase their odds by taking care of themselves, physically, mentally and spiritually.

What were the main lessons or takeaways from that story?

Do what you believe in… there’s probably a good reason why YOU believe in it.

Hard work pays off no matter what anyone tells you…there is no such thing as an overnight success…results are never easy…trust me, overnight successes take a long time.

Never do anything that makes you feel uneasy or queasy…listen to your instincts.

Can you share a story about the biggest mistake you made when you were first starting?

I worked really hard for people who didn’t have the patience for PR and who did not care about the product or campaign as much as I did. While I kept working for them because I believed in their product, the effort and passion were not reciprocal. PR is a collaborative effort and mutual respect is non-negotiable.

Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

Work with passionate and compassionate people that are in it for the higher good. They will inspire and appreciate you to be the best partner and do your best work.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are?

My first account was Blue Mountain Arts Greeting Cards, founded by Susan Polis Schutz, America’s best-selling poet. Although she thought some of my creative ideas were crazy, she trusted me, she appreciated how hard I worked, and my optimism. I would never let her down and she knew it. I still work for her on some of her amazing documentaries.

Can you share a story about that?

It’s public knowledge that Susan had depression issues. I never questioned her…I thought her moods were because she was an artist and I respected that. I had no idea of the pain she went through until she wrote about it in Depression & Back and made a documentary about it; The Misunderstood Epidemic: Depression. Sometimes when she didn’t feel up to talking to a journalist, I would take her interviews for her over the phone. Reporters would tell who they thought was Susan that she sounded like me, and I acted like I was surprised. When I spoke to the reporters again as myself, I would tell them that I was honored to sound like an artist as accomplished as Susan. She sold more poetry books than any other author. Amazing!

Ok perfect. Now let’s jump to our main focus. When it comes to health and wellness, how is the work you are doing helping to make a bigger impact in the world?

There isn’t a major wellness trend that our agency hasn’t been involved in.

We’ve been a part of the mainstreaming of trends that changed the way we care for ourselves. From spa-ing, juicing, alkaline and plant-based eating, probiotics, and greening, we have had the pleasure of turning innovators into category leaders.

We helped create the fitness craze that started in the late 80s with the Reebok Step, the Body Bar and the Spinning Bike with Johnny G.

We were at the forefront of the plant-based movement starting with the China Study, Vega Plant-Based Protein and Quorn MycoProtein Meat Substitute.

Before that, we spread yoga in all forms from gurus like Gurmukh to organizations such as Kundalini, Hot Yoga and the USA Yoga Federation. We handled the press for the national yoga championships and helped the Brahma Kumaris open the first meditation museum.

We started the juicing revolution with Jay Kordich, the original Juiceman Juicer which we launched more than 25 years ago and continued later for our work with Earth Bar and Organic Avenue juice bars.

Can you share your top five “lifestyle tweaks” that you believe will help support people’s journey towards better wellbeing? Please give an example or story for each.

Movement — Any exercise keeps your equipment in better working order. Just move daily!

Supplementation — When we were first asked to promote a probiotic, I laughed my head off at the idea of ingesting bacteria…famous last words. Probiotics, prebiotic, medicinal mushrooms, glutathione, resveratrol, polyphenols, electrolytes — you need to take them all because you are not getting them through today’s foods no matter how healthy you eat.

Plant focused diet — I like eating and you can eat more vegetables than anything.

Prevention –Active people tend to focus on recovery, but prevention comes first.

Embrace stress — Stress can be good for you — You are not a lump, you are alive, a seed breaking through the ground. How you embrace stress is the issue. I see it as a mild cardiovascular work-out. It’s fun juggling too many things. Stress is a byproduct of productivity. You just have to keep punching.

If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of wellness to the most amount of people, what would that be?

I already have but now I really am committed to getting people obsessed on prevention, aging healthfully and living more purposeful lives. If you love what you do you don’t work a day of your life.

What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why?

Actually, there are things everyone always tells you that don’t apply to entrepreneurs.

1. Work-life balance doesn’t work for everyone — It never worked for me and I hope it never does. I thrive on the intensity of the experience. Before I started my business when I first started my business and to this day. I work like a rabid animal. I am breaking inertia. I am getting people to do things they don’t want to do because ultimately it will be a better choice. Your brain has to always be on because you never know when that great idea will come. I rationalize that balance is going from one extreme to another. I work hard but I am with my family and friends, laugh, listen, learn, exercise and eat with the same intensity.

2. It’s okay to use your magnetism — It’s a great equalizer. It makes it more fun to be you when you feel good about how you look, and it makes it more fun for people to work with you. It also gives you power and clarity to make decisions and not be a victim…never be a victim!

3. Live below your means — Enjoy what you do but don’t get too caught up in the money you make. The most successful people I know live way below what they can afford because they are not doing it for the money. They are on a mission. Restauranteurs that eat up their profits, clothing designers that put all their money in clothes, that’s crazy! An entrepreneur’s payment is their idea of becoming everyone’s idea.

4. You’re always going to have to work hard — Every successful entrepreneur says you have to invest massive work…work around the clock…I never met a truly successful person who didn’t work insanely hard to build something substantial…not that they didn’t love it but you just can’t help yourself when you are on a mission.

5. Let yourself be vulnerable — You have to be open to new ideas and that means being really open and giving them time to germinate. Sometimes you let in bad ideas or bad people. But being open prohibits you from acting on the signs right away. It’s up to you to absolutely insist on learning from every mistake. If you don’t learn it could happen again.

Sustainability, veganism, mental health and environmental changes are big topics at the moment. Which one of these causes is dearest to you, and why?

Environmental focus — in case you haven’t noticed it…we are in trouble and a lot must be done quickly. We don’t have time to put our toe in the water. We have to jump in. Technology has a lot of answers and we have to start changing now. Meat uses more energy than plants, apparel is the most polluting industry in the country so stop buying so many clothes. Don’t use so much plastic. Really work on your personal plastic footprint. Do something…anything…and you will start doing more…

I also hate how hard it is to be healthy in this world and how our world gets infused with more and more junk…the food we eat, the information blasted at us, air and water pollution, the plastic in our ocean, our thinning soil… We must redecorate the world to be our own personal garden of Eden. It can be whatever as long as you really LOVE it.

As seen on Thrive Global

[theseventhhex]

Azar Swan Interview

Zohra Atash & Joshua Strawn,

Photo by Angelle Leigh Breaux

Azar Swan’s latest release entitled ‘Savage Exile’ is as much of a reflection of the band’s personal experiences as their professional ones. Unlike previous Azar Swan records, which had been collaborative in the sense that both band members had usually contributed something substantial to each song, ‘Savage Exile’ is more starkly divided between songs which Zohra Atash wrote, performed and recorded almost entirely herself and those where Joshua Strawn did the same. The album is a journey rather than a message, one made in the belief that truthful art made is still a dagger in the heart of pervasive evil. The album’s title refers both to the exile of “savages” and the savagery of exiling, as well as the need to create a home when all the forces around you don’t seem to care if you’re homeless. When people don’t have a sanctuary, they create one in their mind. ‘Savage Exile’ is not intended to be an easy listen. It’s both comfort and wound, blood as balm and evidence… We talk to Azar Swan about overcoming restrictions, using logic and downtime…

TSH: How do you feel your creative partnership has evolved in the lead-up to ‘Savage Exile’?

Joshua: I guess the evolution of our creative partnership has been organic, but it does feel different than before. Previously, Zohra would write a bulk of the demos and send them to me and I’d add my two scents with my production capacity. But now things feel even more collaborative than normal...

Zohra: Yeah, I think we have different ways of expressing ourselves. However, I could never do this without Josh. The collaboration factor is so important between us. It’s not about who plays what, we are very much a team.

TSH: What sort of ideas were you passing along to each other for this current release?

Joshua: Zohra was sending me videos of horrific plane crashes, but not in a distasteful way, she’d had an unfortunate experience which lead her to looking into this. All in all, most of the songs were written before Trump and Brexit. We were mainly obsessing over this fragile space, where you feel vulnerable and everything could fall apart.

Zohra: Yeah, so I was fascinated by pilot aviation in duress, in particular how when a plane crash is about to happen how the pilot and passengers react to the problem. I had this fascination with the way that people interact in those final moments when you know you’re going to die. It’s unlike a car accident and you even have time to pray. I looked into this because I had a fire scare in my building, which lasted for like 45 seconds. I was fortunate that a neighbour let me in to his house because I thought I was going to die. It was really bizarre, the thoughts that went through my mind. I fell to pieces without any survival techniques.

TSH: Did you decide early on to sequence ‘Shock’ as the album opener?

Zohra: Yeah, it was definitely intentional. We wanted to open with intensity and I really like how the song has a disruptive narrative as an opener. For that one, Josh was soundtracking textural parts of my voice to give it more of a cinematic feel. We were trying to find a natural way to express my voice without steeping on toes and bringing to mind the styles of other female vocalists.

TSH: What are the origins of ‘Territorial’?

Joshua: Well, the original version of ‘Territorial’ was completed a while back and it was mostly mixed too, but Zohra went back to the drawing board with that one. She decided to start again, much to my frustration, haha! The original was very was hooky and less pop-oriented. Nonetheless, I like how Zohra came back with a weird, twisted and dark throbbing version that you hear now.

Zohra: With this one, I wanted to convey what my favourite artists do, where the words are falling out of their mouths as they are singing. I wasn’t interested in making it simple ear candy to enjoy, so I purposely annoyed myself with this song ... and I hit a block. I just really wanted to compose a complexity with this song and find the cadence of the lyrics to the melodies. It took me a year to get this one right. In that time I almost lost my voice. I definitely had to go into a focused headspace to get it sounding musically satisfying.

TSH: Josh, you must have been very impressed seeing Zohra dedicate herself in this way?

Joshua: You know, I’ve made many records in the last 10-15 years and I’ve done a lot of different collaborations with various musicians. However, I’ve never seen somebody re-write music quite like Zohra with this record, haha! Regardless, I admire her dedication. Zohra can be so meticulous with her re-tweaking - it really is fascinating to see. It was frustrating for me initially, but I really feel that she nailed the end product.

TSH: Did you feel liberated having pushed your boundaries to excel with this record?

Zohra: Only now! I normally hate it when people use hyperbolics when they talk about creating music, but this album really was difficult and like a birthing process for me. It was tough for me to get out of a frame of mind where I wasn’t doing analysis paralysis. I really wanted to make this body of work something that was not an overthought, which lead to me chasing my own tail with constant overthinking. I was so focused on forming art that would move me, alongside expressions that come from an honest place. I’m just glad that I got there in the end.

TSH: How did you overcome the restrictions that you encountered with this record?

Zohra: To be honest, I thought I was going to lose the few people I had around me in life that relied on me. I had held up this record for over a year and I had this constant fear that if I didn’t make music no more, I’d go crazy. It got to a point where I was so deep into it and at the same time being surrounded by such awful political and personal issues made me really weak and put me in an emotional place. Once it was done, I was really thankful to Josh, who I’d made wait for so long. We had a timeline worked out and I messed that up, which is a serious issue in a partnership, but I‘m so grateful that Josh was supportive towards me the whole time.

TSH: You’re both very vocal about the injustices in America and lobbying for positive change. How do you stay upbeat amidst the bedlam?

Zohra: We’ll always be proponents for using logic in every situation. You have to be aware of the world around you - baby steps and patience is the only way to remedy the deep primordial fear we have of one another. It’s not as simple as just loving each other, it takes understanding. I believe a great deal of positivity will come into play if we use simple logic. Overall, I just feel that interacting with people helps. I mean not everyone is an awful YouTube commenter.

Joshua: For me, it’s been encouraging to see people I follow who have good political minds and are good political writers making positive steps and offering great advice amidst so much chaos in America. After all, everyone goes out into the real world and acts different to what they do on the internet. Also, I recently found myself thinking about why we are so bad at talking to one another these days. I went into this headspace and obsessed over technology and the history of the internet. I soon discovered how a lot of political philosophers are dealing with technology and the internet, which gave me some clarity. I do feel that I have a better understanding of where problems stem from and I feel like I can walk out into the world with a better understanding of what life is about.

TSH: Did you guys find out if Azar Swan Avenue in Las Vegas really exists?

Zohra: Haha! Well, I chose the band name before this was even discovered. Azar Swan is definitely an original name. But yeah, this neighbourhood is right off of Rhiannon Court. Oh, and they never offered us one of the houses, haha! It’s all really strange and funny to me.

Joshua: It definitely exists. I know someone who went past and snapped a photo of it.

TSH: What’s downtime like for you both?

Zohra: I tend to make sure that I don’t allow myself to be in a state of constant rumination and mulling over anxiety. So I stay positive and surround myself with loved ones.

Joshua: Well, I have a four year old daughter and I like to go camping with her at his time of year. My life consists of being present and responsible as a parent. It can be difficult to compartmentalise art and the frustrations of the world with family life, but I’ve managed to create switches that I can turn on and off which help me.

TSH: What’s the Azar Swan ethos for future plans?

Zohra: Our music has to be something that is useful to us in the making of it, because if it’s not, then it’s not going to resonate at all. The idea of being able to creatively traverse in a way that’s respectful to our art remains essential. Art can be such a healing expression and to be able to sing is truly great for the soul. Josh has always been there for me and the trust I have in him musically has been so integral.

Joshua: I’m really excited because I feel the field is really open for us to explore. I love that this record is an evolution and extension of our artistic intentions. Looking ahead, we can satisfyingly go into completely different and experimental directions with future music. We don’t know where we’ll end up next, but the door is wide open for us to discover new possibilities.

Azar Swan - “The Golden Age of Hate”

SAVAGE EXILE

#Interview #Azar Swan #Zohra Atash