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passable-talent · 4 years

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within the world of markiplier lore... set during the events of A Heist with Markiplier.

this fic is based off the brilliant and fascinating comic by @iiipeashy , using his character insert for the canonical y/n. this will all make a little more sense if you’ve read the comic, so please do... good shit!!!

I got permission before I used it! and if you’re at all interested in the additional backstory (more than I go into here), DEFINITELY check it out. fascinating plot, FANTASTIC art, and FOOD for all of us damien lovers out there. all the love @iiipeashy !!

Griffin knew that making a deal with Mark was akin to making a deal with the devil, but he didn’t realize just how bad it would be.

He should have known when Mark mentioned Damien that any reunion wouldn’t be the one he wanted, but he couldn’t help but take the deal anyway- if Mark could get him out of the mirror, wouldn’t the price be worth it?

Whatever the price may be?

Living in the van was annoying, and dealing with Mark even moreso, but ultimately, the job wasn’t so bad. He was out of the mirror, and he could walk again, live again.

You wouldn’t think you’d miss the sound of footsteps. You do.

Being used as bait, though, wasn’t quite as appetizing. Griffin hadn’t known what Mark meant at the time, but he would come to.

Thirty-one different endings for his little choose-your-own-adventure. One of them even involved Wil, which was quite a shock, but ended up being quite nice, to see an old friend again. Even if he wasn’t the same as when Griffin had seen him last. Thirty-one different endings, and it took weeks, agonizing weeks to film them all. Finally, though, Griffin was filming the last one- number thirty one. This time, he was going to be ‘murdered’ by the sewer cult, faceless figures that Mark conjured up, or roped into his game, just like Griffin. He knew the script, he knew the turns he had to make, he knew what he had to show to the camera strapped to his chest.

But things started going off script.

Immediately, Griffin’s head started pounding, and he looked down, shutting his eyes tightly to try to regain his balance. When he looked up, his surroundings had changed into a old hallway, one he swore he recognized, but he couldn’t place from where.

It was obvious that this wasn’t something Mark planned. That wasn’t Mark’s style- confusing Griffin like this would just lead to more takes, which would lead to wasted time, and Mark didn’t care for wasted time. Whatever this was, it wasn’t Mark’s doing.

A clank from his left made Griffin flinch, and turn, and the sight before him was something that rattled him to the core. On this bleary, colorless brick wall, an ornate frame, lit by a single light- with Mark’s personal chef pictured within it, his eyes scribbled out. Griffin’s head pounded, an echo punching through his skull, of the chef’s words, one of the last times Griffin had talked to him.

“I thought I told you to stay out of my kitchen!”

The phone that Mark had given him as a prop vibrated in Griffin’s pocket, and he fished it out immediately- it wasn’t even supposed to be on. But from an unknown number, he read an unsettling text, his eyes straining to pick out the words on a bright screen against his pounding headache.

Aren’t you tired of it?

Tired of what, Griffin begged to ask, but the dark hallway and the pounding headache made him drop the phone to the side, hoping to focus on one problem at a time. Another clank, this time from his right, forced him to turn, this time to see a photo of the butler, who disappeared from the mansion before Griffin was shot.

“Master would be so displeased! If only he were still alive!”

Every word rocked its way through Griffin’s head, splitting it open with a headache like none he’d experienced since... since he was put in the mirror, actually, all those years ago. When Damien and Celine left him there. The forced expulsion from his own body as it was taken by the siblings had driven a nail between his two temporal lobes, and he hadn’t felt pain like it since. Until now, that is. What was going on?

Another text, and Griffin lifted the phone again, focusing on the words as quickly as he could through the blurriness of detail around him. He didn’t need his glasses anymore, not since he’d gone in the mirror, but with his headache, the pixels of the letters blended together.

Don’t you feel like you’re running in circles?

Well, yeah, but wasn’t that Mark’s point? Who was texting him, anyway? How was this possible? The phone wasn’t even meant to be on.

A light to his left made Griffin look over, and he found a portrait this time of the detective- Abe, his one-time partner. He was an oddball, but Griffin wished him the best... didn’t Wil shoot him?

“I knew I shouldn’t have trusted someone so god-damn gorgeous.”

Once again the phone vibrated, cutting through his splitting headache, which pounded through every echo of every word that Abe said, the sound swirling around him. It wasn’t from some speaker, but it wasn’t inside Griffin’s head, either. It was some combination of the two, hallucination, yet, experience.

No one seems to question it.

The end of the hallway was approaching fast as Griffin stumbled down it, and the last painting within the room was of Wil, his old friend. That weekend at the manor was all the time Griffin had ever gotten to know him, but he felt fondness for him, for all that he went through. Besides- he was the only one who was as willing to fight for Damien and Celine as Griffin was, when everyone else was ready to leave. He not only had his eyes crossed out, but also, the pink mustache was drawn large and curly over his face. Wilford Warfstache, as he had become. Griffin’s eyebrows turned up, his headache making him squint, but still feeling regret at the fate that Wil had suffered, descending into his madness.

“I thought that it was about time that we got to know each other. Far from the prying eyes of...”

The noise continued, but Griffin fought through it, reading the last text he received, this one making four. And he didn’t even know who’d sent them.

But I thought you’d see through it.

All that was left was a door at the end of the hall, and Griffin pushed through it, hoping to find an end, or at least a reprieve. He wasn’t so lucky.

“...anyone else.”

He emerged into a black room, vast yet confining, the whole of it impressing a feeling of both claustrophobia and vulnerability onto Griffin. Spotlights clicked on, leading him forward to one final painting- of Mark himself. Now he was sure that Mark wasn’t behind this.

“But it’s not about me... it’s about you! And who knows... I could be dead tomorrow.”

The eerie laughter and crumbling of the portrait made Griffin cringe away, as though the words he was hearing was putting him back into the mindset he’d had, so long ago, when he didn’t understand Mark’s villainy, nor any of the supernatural forces pushing and pulling at both Griffin’s destiny, and everyone else that Mark surrounded himself with. Griffin hadn’t known, that night, that he was speaking the truth of his own future, through a plan he was acting out. He was always acting.

“Same snake... different skin.” Griffin found that these words didn’t come with a headache, and shut his eyes tightly to push away what he felt, in that moment. Because he would recognize that voice anywhere. That voice, that he’d first heard when they were roommates in a university, and again when they were both trying to make a career in public service. That voice, that belonged to his husband, who chose him to be the district attorney shortly after being elected as mayor.

Damien?

“Always spinning his yarns, his webs... his lies.” Griffin whirled to his left, finding that familiar figure, but instead of the peaceful and honest expression he was so used to seeing on Damien’s face, instead he saw an eerie smile, and Griffin’s eyes fought against the red and blue shift of Damien’s figure in front of him. When a duplicate appeared, like a shadow, with it came a sound that slammed against Griffin’s ears, the force of it almost knocking him sideways.

“I always thought that you were... t̵̮͊r̶̯͒ả̶̮p̴͚͠p̴̗̋e̶͚͐d̵̗͒ in his games.” The sounds continued, always accompanying some terrifying change in his appearance, like he wasn’t really supposed to exist in the three dimensional world.

“Perpetually p̷̙͑l̵̠̋u̵̻̾ṇ̷̋ḡ̴̲i̸̠̍n̸͎̈́g̸̓ͅ down the rabbit holes of his stories.” There was something about this that seemed familiar to Griffin, the way that Damien’s words echoed around him, and back, but deeper, darker.

I am, Griffin tried to say, but found that when he opened his mouth, no sound would come out, and Damien didn’t even react as though he’d tried.

“Helpless,” Damien said, and Griffin tried again, trying to say the same words, I am, I am trapped, but nothing would leave his throat, as though someone had flipped the ‘off’ switch on his voice box.

“Lost.” Damien’s words now seemed only to mock Griffin as he lifted one hand to his throat, and tried again, to force out any sound he could, but he just couldn’t.

“I̸̠͛ ̵̦̏k̵̪̉n̵̩͌o̷͈̐ẅ̷͇ ̴̠͛t̷́ͅȟ̴͕e̶͑ͅ ̴̢̇f̶͎̌e̷͚̊e̸͔͘l̴̝̃i̵̻͗n̴͚̊ḡ̶͍,” Damien growled, his glitching and shifting intensifying, hammering more pain through Griffin’s skull, worsening his feelings of helplessness, because he couldn’t cry out in pain, like the pain itself was shifting between dimensions, just like Damien’s form, just like Selene’s voice.

“Perhaps I̶̬͆'̴̹̉m̵̠̕ the crazy one,” Damien suggested, and finally Griffin realized where he had felt this particular pain before, where he had seen such shifting and glitching.

When Selene brought him to that... shadow realm.

“Perhaps we’ve met a hundred times already, and you simply don’t remember it.” Griffin gripped at his throat again, not moving and yet keeping pace with Damien as he walked, trying to just break through to him- this tortured being who he was once married to.

Damien, he tried to say, but he couldn’t make a sound, and Damien continued on, apathetic, indifferent.

“Perhaps you’re tired of me repeating myself, over, and over, and over, and over, a̸̡̓n̶̠͋d̶͓͌ ̸̭̀ō̵̪ṿ̸̊è̶̡r̷͋͜ ̵̱͗ă̸͕ğ̶̠ä̶̟́í̶̹n̵͚̑.” Every echo and screech and ringing in the massive and yet confining room felt like a needle into Griffin’s brain, and he gripped his throat tighter, his other hand trying to put pressure onto his head, as though it would help.

Damien, please-

“Maybe you just miss my pretty face.” Damien’s eyes went dark, and Griffin found himself on the verge of tears, the powerlessness of his position breaking him down. Damien was in pain- and he didn’t even talk as though he knew who Griffin was. Didn’t he?

“It doesn’t matter. People like you only want one thing.” A red shift beside Damien let out a scream, making Griffin flinch backward, his chest feeling so heavy.

Damien!

“And it’s disgusting.” Damien zipped around, his form reappearing closer to the table he now stood behind, and reached down to pick up a wine glass full of something that didn’t really look like water. “You want answers.” He looked down, losing that eerie smile, and Griffin wondered briefly what such a break in his expression could mean.

“Well,” Damien lifted the glass, and the higher he raised it, the more black the liquid inside became. “Games were always ẖ̷̎ḯ̸͜ș̴̈́ forte.” He paused to drink, and phased for a moment, his stance changing.

“But allow me this one moment of self indulgence.”

Damien, please, fucking hear me-

Griffin was thrown backwards, smacking his spine against the wooden back of a chair, and he realized he was sitting in front of the warden’s desk from the prison set. His vision shot around, trying to pick up any sort of clue, but then it landed on the box, in Damien’s hand. That damn box.

“So much trouble, all for something so small.” He phased into the warden’s chair, sitting across from Griffin, and looked down at the box.

Griffin tried to scream. But he couldn’t.

“Do you really want to know what’s inside this box?” And truthfully, Griffin couldn’t care less. He didn’t care for the silly little setpiece that Mark had conjured for his delusional, rabid fans. Maybe he would have been curious, once, but not with his tortured, lost husband in front of him. Not now.

“The truth. Not the lies he’s told you. The truth.” Griffin ground his teeth together, the hand on his throat still clutching on as though if he squeezed hard enough he could hit the ‘on’ switch of his own voice box.

“Well, I know how much you love good games, and all.” He shifted around, and Griffin’s eyes struggled to keep up with wherever he ended up, the movement throwing his headache against his temples.

“Throughout this... heist, I’ve hidden codes. Several codes.” The symbols blinking behind Damien made a cold realization sink into Griffin’s skin.

Damien wasn’t even talking to him.

“Find them all, and...”

Griffin wasn’t even there, to Damien. He was a vessel to speak to Mark’s audience.

“You’ll get your truth.”

Damien had no idea that he was so close to Griffin, so close, all of this was to talk to the audience, not Griffin. Did Damien even know that Griffin was alive?

“But that’s all I’m gonna give you.”

Out of the void surrounding Griffin came sounds, like the room around him was falling down, crashing to the floor. Rumbling, and Damien was fading away, his expression no longer angry, but fading into quiet sorrow.

No! Griffin tried to yell, and he tried to hold on, but whatever or whoever was pulling him out or pushing him away was too strong for him. Damien faded from his vision with screeching and rumbling and creaking...

And when he opened his eyes, he was on the steps of the museum, at the beginning of the ‘heist’ script.

“No,” He murmured, his voice hollow, and the triumph of hearing his voice again was trumped by Griffin’s soul-consuming anger, sadness, grief, that he’d seen Damien again, but didn’t get to speak with him, and now he was gone, and Griffin had no way back. He fell to his knees, letting the same word rise to a scream of anguish, of defeat, as he looked up at the colorful, happy windows of the closed museum.

Damien had called out, and he’d reached Griffin. And he hadn’t even known it.

Griffin’s resolve hardened, his heart hardened. Any fondness that he may have still been grasping on to for his old friend Mark was gone, and he vowed that he’d destroy Mark.

For what he’d done, for using Griffin to lure in Damien, for everything.

He was going to destroy Mark.

-🦌 Roe

thank u, @iiipeashy , for singlehandedly restoring my motivation to write, if only for an afternoon

#reader insert #y/n #damien x y/n #damien x reader #wkm #wkm damien #wkm y/n #wkm darkiplier #heist with markiplier #a hiest with markiplier #a heist with markiplier #heist darkiplier #heist damien #heist da #wkm da #who killed markiplier #angst #spoilers

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peace-coast-island · 3 years

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Diary of a Junebug

Coffee dates and teacup rides

The Traveling Fika is here and I'm living the dream! Coffee, tea, pastries, and chilling out - living the ideal life. I've always wanted to see The Traveling Fika so imagine my joy when I heard that this year one of the stops isn't too far from the campsite.

There's a big traveling library, an assortment of coffee and tea stands where you learn about the food and drinks, a chill out tent, teacup rides, and fun games. The event will be here for a week before going off to their next stop so we'll have plenty of time to try everything out.

In the past few days I've been learning so much about tea and coffee and various pastries. Learning fun facts about each while enjoying them has been an experience and easily one of the biggest highlights of The Traveling Fika. Surrounding myself with book, coffee, and all things cozy and aesthetic - what more can I ask for?

There's something about coffee dates that brings people together, which is why I like hanging out at cafes. Daisy Jane and I have been going on little coffee outings, trying new stuff and scribbling in our notebooks. I've been trying to develop my art style after hitting a slump and so far these coffee dates have been helping out a lot. Meanwhile, Daisy Jane's hard at work making new products for her shop. It's fun, just the two of us hanging out and making art.

In an unexpected surprise, we ran into some old friends from home. They were only going to visit for a couple days to check out the Fika but since there's the camp, they might as well extend their vacation a bit. It's been forever since I've seen Neil as I haven't gotten a chance to talk to him or the others at Minnie and Emmaline's wedding.

As of a month ago, Neil and Bernard have tied the knot. They've been best friends for years, since Bernard's aunt was hired as a caretaker for Neil's sister Nettie. Hard to believe that Nettie's been living at home for about fifteen years now. Before that, she had been living in a home for mentally disabled people, a run down place that has long since shut down.

I was surprised to see Nettie tag along, even staying at the camp for two nights. She's come a long way since leaving the institution - I remember that she was barely able to speak or was even allowed outside the house. I'll admit that I was a bit scared of being around her, not fully understanding why someone not that much older than me will never grow up to be like everyone else. It wasn't easy for everyone to adjust to the change but in the end Ms. Song made the right call by bringing Nettie home.

Neil says that everything's been going well. Nettie's volunteering at a school for disabled kids in Lilac Villa and the kids really love her. Bee has been a great deal of help for Ms. Song as it's not easy being a parent and a caretaker so having someone care for Nettie is a huge weight off her shoulders. She and Bernard came to live with the Songs after Mr. Greene walked out and they've been a family since.

A while back when I was talking to my mom she mentioned that Mr. Greene had passed away. I didn't know him that well but he always came across as distant and strict. He was a good piano player though. Neil used to look up to him a lot, music being the main thing they bonded over. He was unable to adjust to living with Nettie, so he moved out. Neil had considered taking his offer to live with him but he couldn't see himself leaving his mom and Nettie.

For a few years they worked out an arrangement for Neil to visit his dad every other weekend. Later Nettie tagged along for a few hours and for the most part everything went all right. There was talk about whether or not his parents were going to reconcile - Neil was on the fence about it, not exactly sure how he felt about them getting back together. But all hopes of that went away when his dad lost his temper on Nettie over something trivial and then took it out on Neil when he came to her defense. After dropping off Neil and Nettie, he also handed over the divorce papers and that was the last time they ever saw him.

Interestingly, it was his death that gave Neil and Bernard the push to get married. Neil said that with his dad gone, it felt like a huge weight had been lifted off everyone's shoulders. He and Nettie have come to accept that he was never coming back, though his departure hung over them for a long time. To his surprise, Nettie was handling the news remarkably well.

As we've learned over the years, Nettie is very perceptive. She's sensitive with a big heart, the way she sees the world never ceases to amaze me. Nettie is a lot more aware than we give her credit for, which can be a blessing and a curse. Neil and Bernard weren't sure how she would feel regarding what happened or even understand the concept of death, and yet she understood in her own way. As I've heard people say over the years, that sweet Nettie Song really is something.

Nettie's one of those people who really throw you in perspective. You like to think you don't hold any prejudices or preconceived notions towards a certain group of people, but the truth is, whether we like to admit it or not, we do. Growing up with someone like Nettie helped me understand that people like her are human beings. She's her own person, capable of her own opinions, dreams, and aspirations.

Now look at her, living out her best life. Nettie can't live independently but she can stay home alone for a couple hours as long as she has clear instructions and a set routine. She can also go out into town with friends and run simple errands. I didn't get a chance to hang out with her at the wedding as she didn't stay too long but it was a nice surprise to see her there, talking with others and congratulating the happy couple. Daisy Jane and I had been meaning to visit her but on the day we decided to drop by, we had just missed her as she and Bee were at the school in Lilac Villa.

It's been nice running into Neil, Bernard, and Nettie. Bernard and Neil always wanted to go to The Traveling Fika while Nettie followed where they went. Since it's a pretty chill event we don't have to worry about Nettie getting overwhelmed or worn out. She's been enjoying the teacup rides, where you can sit back and relax to lo-fi beats or watch videos about fika. Sometimes Nettie would join me and Daisy Jane on a coffee date, making lovely collages with whatever she had on hand. She has this gift to turn any scrap of paper into an aesthetic piece of art, it's amazing to see what she comes up with!

Neil and Bernard are enjoying the married life, though not too much has changed. They're still living at home as they have no reason to move, at least for another couple of years. Bernard started grad school last fall so he's been super busy with his studies. He also volunteers at the school with Nettie once in a while. Meanwhile, Neil has been giving piano lessons at the community center, taking over from Elly after she retired last year. He says he's enjoying it, though he still feels a bit intimidated trying to fill in Elly's shoes.

Nettie stayed for a couple days and went back home with Bee this morning. She had a lot of fun at the campsite, exploring the scenery and chasing butterflies. Neil said it wasn't until a few years ago when Nettie was able to leave home for a couple days and be fine. I remember when Nettie would rarely leave the house - part of it due to stigma, another because up until then she had been isolated from the outside world. Nettie rarely talks about her time at the institution - in the few times she mentioned it, most of her memories are of the people telling her what she can't do, which upset her a lot as she became more aware that she was different.

Seeing the three of them having a good time together, it brings me such joy. Nettie led an impromptu arts and crafts session with a collage art challenge where you're given a blind bag with random bits and bobs - much like what she does at the school. It's fun seeing what everyone comes up with. Neil played some tunes on the piano while we sang along and he got inspired to write a couple songs. Bernard did some fishing and managed to catch a king salmon at the creek. At night we'd hang around the bonfire telling stories and enjoying the starry sky.

Today's been pretty chill - coffee dates, teacup rides, and camp activities. Neil and Bernard are enjoying an afternoon picnic near the mountains and plan to meet us at the Fika in a couple hours to watch a lecture on coffee, which looks super interesting. Then tomorrow we're gonna go for a hike in the forest trail and back to the Fika to drink more tea and coffee.

#animal crossing #animal crossing pocket camp #Diary of a Junebug #headcanon ramble

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bookenders · 5 years

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11/11/11 Tag Game: Rounds 24, 25, 26, and 27

Tagged by the wonderful @corsairesque, the lovely @azawrites, the stellar @sunlight-and-starskies, and the incomparable @inexorableblob - thanks!

And @inexorableblob, thank you for letting me rewrite the end of The Great Gatsby. It was very cathartic.

Rules: Answer 11 questions, write 11 questions, tag 11 people!

Bilbo Taggins: @aurumni-writes @quilloftheclouds @aslanwrites @starlitesymphony @writingonesdreams @waterfallwritings @cataclysmic-writer @ren-c-leyn @timefirewrites @minusfractions @ink-flavored - and if you like the questions and aren’t tagged, feel free to answer them! And tag me so I can see!

My Questions:

How many licks would it take for your OCs to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop?

What are your favorite smells?

What’s the book you’ve read most recently? What did you think of it? What impressed you? What would you have done differently?

What are your thoughts on mugs?

If your OCs had a comic book series/graphic novel about them, what would it be called? What would be on the cover? What would the art style be?

Can you draw a bear?

Do you do any other kinds of art? Are you ever influenced by other kinds of art? What about other areas like science or mathematics/other disciplines?

Have you read any craft books or writing advice books? If yes, how have the helped or hindered you? Which would you recommend? If no, would you ever consider reading them?

What are your favorite kinds of narratives? What narrative structures do you prefer to write and what do you prefer to read?

What’s your favorite recipe?

What are some signs that make you consider setting a project aside vs continuing with it?

As always, answers under the cut!

@corsairesque‘s Questions:

1. Do you create playlists for your stories or characters?

I do!

Here’s a detailed post about how I make them.

This is Mel’s from H2H.

This is Gemma’s from H2H.

This is one for the story I recently posted.

And I have one for each WIP on my WIP page! (Mostly, I’m still working on Fish Food’s.)

I actually have folders in Spotify for my characters and stories. Each one gets a playlist.

2. What is your stance on endings that don’t end with some hope?

Sometimes a story needs to have a certain ending to have an emotionally satisfying conclusion. I don’t think hope is absolutely required for an ending. I’ve ended stories without hope because that’s how the story ends. If I wrote it to conclude with an upturn, it would’ve been disloyal to the narrative. Like life, not everything ends happily, or with a positive outlook.

If you want it from a more technical perspective, there are three sorts of endings: positive, negative, and neutral. They can mix and match, but these are the three base ones. I tend toward neutral or positive-neutral endings. The best story I’ve written so far has a negative-leaning neutral ending because it concludes with a loss that does not promise hope. Positive endings are not necessary for a narrative, or for a conclusion.

Sometimes you need to write a hopeful ending. Sometimes you need to read a hopeful ending. And sometimes you need to read or write something that ends on a down-note. I know I have.

So, TL;DR, there is no ending hierarchy. It all depends on the reader and the writer, what they need, and what the story demands.

3. What author would you love to hear feedback from on your WIP?

Of literally anyone? Dead or alive? I mean. I’d love to hear what Flannery O’Connor would have to say about my short stories. I try to do a remix-version of her moments of grace in each of them.

4. What is the genre of your WIP(s)?

I mention these on my WIP page!

Most of my short stories are literary and contemporary fiction. My longer projects tend toward low fantasy.

5. How do you come up with new ideas for your WIP(s)?

I don’t have a method or anything for idea generation. My brain works in the background while I’m doing other things, so I’ll be washing dishes, or brushing my teeth, or writing something else, and an idea goes HI HELLO WHAT ABOUT THIS HUH? and I scramble to write it down.

Most of the time, my story ideas come from cool sentences I think of while observing. That sounds super weird and nerdy, but it’s true! When I’m bored or need to occupy my brain or just sorta feel like creating something spontaneous, I’ll look around and figure out how I’d write about a certain thing in the vicinity.

Some examples of this from my phone notes:

“Laughter echoing through a cave, bouncing off the walls, the gift of hearing it over and over until it fades like gentle waking”

“Cheeks baked pink from the flush of her modesty”

“The last remnants of home, the dirt hidden beneath their fingernails”

“Headlights flicker between the gaps in the barrier like a slipstream of stars”

Ya know, stuff like that.

Sometimes, if I’m stuck while writing and need a thought, I look at the plot and think up complications for my characters to face. That’s how I figured out how to make Lithium 100% more plot relevant. I thought, okay, so she has this role right now, what can I add to make her stand in the way of X plan while also being an asset to Y? And boom, idea generated and problem solved.

6. What do you use to keep all your writing on? (Scrivener, Google Docs, good old pen and paper…)

I use Scrivener for all my main writing. I have a ton of phone memo notes for ideas on the go. I have a notebook full of random stuff for when I’m blocked and need to hand write something.

I also answered this further down!

7. What gave you initial inspiration for your WIP(s)?

H2H: There was a publisher who had a call for shapeshifter stories, and then I missed the deadline so I decided to try for a zine instead, then I got rejected, so I made it into my own thing.

AOPC: I needed to flesh out a piece of my homebrew DnD world, so I started worldbuilding, then it was my turn to turn in a story to be workshopped in my writing class, so I wrote a thing set in the village about the tribe and it all spiraled out from there.

FF: I had an errant thought about the script that hero and villain stories follow and wrote a thing about what would happen if one of them decided to deviate from it and BOOM the plot hit me like a semi truck.

Almost all of my short stories start with a sentence I think sounds really cool, a tone I want to try to capture (ex. the feeling of standing inside an old cathedral), or the ending moment of a character arc (I tend to work backwards).

8. How long have you been working on your WIP(s)?

I’ve been working with Heart to Heart since November 2018. I started thinking about Fish Food like 3 months ago I think? And I got the idea for All Our Painted Colors 3ish years ago, but it started as a short story that I thought about expanding about 8 months ago.

My writing process starts with a long period of thought percolation before I write anything definitive down.

9. What was the first thing you came up with for your WIP(s)?

H2H: The fact that the main character is an apothecary who uses recipes from historical documents to brew things and lives in a small town, and that their love interest changes shapes in some way.

AOPC: That the tribe is a society based around body paint, art, preserving their personal history, and stories. But mostly paint.

FF: The hero danging over a pit of hungry piranhas and asking the villain a question that throws off the whole “death threat” vibe.

10. Have you considered Hogwarts houses for your characters? If so, what are they?

Answered this for the H2H cast here.

As for the Fish Food cast:

Iron Will - Hufflepuff

Overseer - Ravenclaw

Nightmare - A Hufflepuff who asked to be in Slytherin and the hat said “yeah okay”

Lithium - Gryffindor

Babylon - Slytherin

Sparkplug - Gryffindor

11. What do you find easiest to write? (Description, dialogue, etc.)

Interiority! Free indirect discourse! Unvoiced character brain thoughts! Which I guess means description?

Writing dialogue sucks old car tires!

@azawrites‘ Questions:

what’s the best part about your writing style? I like how I build up to emotional punches. It’s like walking up a ramp, but in a literary way. And at the top of the ramp you either get a gut punch of feels or an ice cream cone.

do you write on the computer or on paper? I do most of my writing on my laptop because my hands can’t write fast enough to keep up with my brain. My typing is way faster. If I’m having trouble getting an idea down, or the tone of the writing lends itself to being handwritten (idk how to describe this, but sometimes words just gotta be scribbled, ya know?), I’ll hand write it in pen. I don’t use pencils anymore because I wasn’t allowed to in college and it kinda stuck.

what are your favourite books and why? Oh, no, there are too many. So I’ll just say my top book: The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien because of how it deals with stories and grief and remembering, the fact that it’s a story cycle (which is very cool), and the way he writes - it’s beautiful and sad and messed up and poignant. I love it.

why did you start writing? I’ve answered this before, but there was never really starting point for me. It’s just something I’ve always done.

why did you continue writing? Because I had too much fun to stop! I also get creatively constipated, I guess is how I would phrase it, and need to have some sort of narrative outlet or my brain gets really mad at me.

where do you usually write? Pretty much anywhere, but most often at my desk. I think I need a taller chair, though...

can you describe your favourite piece (written by you) in one sentence? Let’s get authory with this one: The teacher hands out the tests, multiple choice this time, but when the stapled packet slides across your desk, there’s something odd about it, something that brings the war to life inside your head, a long-forgotten voice that speaks the souls of the soldiers and tells their stories from the annals of history. Or: A multiple choice test about WWII that tells the story of 4 men from Company B from enlistment to the end of their campaign.

what’s one cliche/trope you overuse, but still like anyway? It’s a trope when it comes to my own writing, actually. Person Sits Alone in the Dark and Contemplates. I love it, I abuse the hell out of it, and I will never stop.

what music do you listen to when working on a WIP? Depends. I have a go-to Writing Flow State song, playlists to help me get in the right head space when writing certain characters, and playlists that help guide the tone of a story. I can never listen to movie or video game scores because the association of song and cinematic moment is too strong for me.

have you ever dreamed of a fictional character? Uh, I have the occasional nightmare about Kokopelli? Does that count?

what’s one thing that makes you automatically dislike a book? Overly pretentious first person POV prose (and I don’t mean purple. I mean a character who - honestly and without a hint of satire - thinks like a writer from the 1920s who just discovered what “paid by the word” means and believes they’re the wisest human being in the universe and everyone who doesn’t agree with them is the basest of idiots - barf). Gratuitous female violence. The use of the word “loins” outside of an animal context. Everything about The Beginners by Rebecca Wolff.

@inexorableblob‘s Questions:

Which of your characters could you write as twice their current age? Oh, man, I think writing Iron Will in his forties or fifties would be really cool. It’d certainly give the story a new commentary twist.

Which of your characters could you write as half their current age? (I’m not gonna cheat and say Mel, I promise.) I think writing a 30yo Treena would be very cool. However, writing a 13 or 14yo Lithium who is just learning how to use her super powers would be WILD.

What big city would your characters do best in? London? New York? Tokyo? Mexico City? Rio? The Fish Food characters would all do best in New York or London, since they’re very close to Conover. Lithium would prefer Rio, though, and Babylon would lobby for everyone to move to Tokyo. The H2H characters would do best in Mexico City or London, depending on who decides to take charge and teach everyone the local customs.

What would your characters do if they were in a small rural community that was attacked by underground worms? This is giving me too many ideas for H2H. Gemma would be a little bit furious, since she hates having to get rid of animals, especially when they’re invasive. If the worms just minded their own gosh dang business then everyone could live in peace. If we’re talkin’ normal sized worms, like worm-sized worms, then Gemma would develop a pesticide that wouldn’t kill them, but force them to the surface where they would then be stunned by whatever weird solution Mel comes up with. Then the town would have a Worm-Off, where the person who collects the most worms wins free pie for a year, courtesy of Harry’s. If we’re talkin’ DnD-style Purple Worms, like Beetlejuice worms, then Mel would take over. She’d help organize an evacuation and steal Oz’s gun, just in case. Then she’d do some spoilery things with Gemma assisting.

What is the worst place where you’ve ever wanted to write? Probably while I was taking the math section of the SATs. Kinda inconvenient, brain, thanks for that. Other terrible places: mid job interview, in the middle of an empty street at midnight, anywhere I’m sitting where I have terrible posture, watching a slam poetry event in a very crowded bar, etc.

What’s the most uncomfortable subject you’ve ever written about? I’ve written a little bit about hate crimes and loathed every second. I’ve written a character actively contemplating suicide (he was a WWII soldier) and that was not fun at all. I mean, I also wrote a paper about sexy (somewhat graphic) wlw poetry for my Sexuality class, which a lot of people would be uncomfortable with, but I thought it was a very good collection. Go read Marilyn Hacker’s stuff, it’s good.

If you had to change the ending of any famous novel, which would you pick? The Great Gatsby. We don’t end with the green light, screw the green light. Gatsby wills all of his possessions and wealth to Nick and Nick becomes the next James Gatz. But this time around, he pines for the man who was killed in the pool just below his balcony while pretending to love Jordan, who finds out and amicably marries him because 1920s. She then uses Nick/Gatsby’s money to purchase an automobile manufacturing company and makes cars in every color but yellow. (Gotta maintain that color symbolism for F. Scott, I guess.) Nick discovers Gatz’ old bootlegging and illegal activities buddies and starts up a criminal empire. He and Jordan become the biggest, queerest, most spiteful and angsty crime bosses in New York. Nick makes it his life’s mission to take down false accusers, vigilante style. The car manufacturing company is what they use to launder money. Daisy divorces Tom because they’re both terrible people. Daisy takes her daughter and moves to California. Jordan sends Daisy’s daughter money secretly, about a hundred dollars a month. The last line is something about how Gatz was always reaching out and chasing green, but because of him, Nick is steeped in dark, bloody red. I would then write a sequel about Nick and Jordan and their crime empire that spans the East Coast. God, I hate this book.

If you had to change your life, what would you change without regret? Start therapy way earlier, 100%. That would have saved me a lot of nonsense.

If the end of the world where scheduled a week from tomorrow, what would you do? Would you tell anybody? Everybody? Keep it a secret? Assuming this was legit and the end of the world was actually happening, I’d probably try to tell some big-shot geologist or something, hoping they spread the word. Other than that, since debt won’t be a thing, I’d take the people I love on a killer trip around the world.

What would you do if a wizard offered to cast one spell for you, but your worst enemy got the same spell? Hmmm. I’d ask them to cast the Self-Realization spell, so they would instantly become aware of the effect their actions have on others and know exactly how terrible they’ve been to other people their whole life. Maybe then they can be a better person. My anxiety makes this spell ineffective on me, since it’s already there! Thanks, brain!

Which would you choose, never eating in the same place, always eating the same meal, always eating with the same people, or never eating with the same people? I’d choose always eating with the same people. I like frequenting restaurants I like and eating different things. I don’t think I could deal with only eating the same thing/off the same menu forever. And I have bad social anxiety, so constantly eating with new people would probably short-circuit my brain eventually. A good meal in good company is pretty great, though.

@sunlight-and-starskies‘ Questions:

What is your favorite genre of music? I’ll always be a rock fan at heart. Right now, I really like folk rock and any kind of music that sounds like it has history behind it.

What are your favorite words? Illustrious, shimmer, soliloquy, incarnate, bound, and many more. Also most Yiddish curses.

Describe your ideal vacation. Somewhere cozy where I can explore and chill at my leisure. A week of artsy events in the city. Exploring landscapes in the country.

If you could have any fictional creature for a pet, what would it be? Why? Pegasus! I can ride and they can fly. We’d make an excellent team, and where we’d go, we wouldn’t need roads.

Which fictional universe would you live in if you had to live there for the rest of your life? Logic dictates the Star Trek universe, since I’d probably be an average civilian. Post-scarcity society? Sign me the hell up. My heart, however, is screaming ROHAN.

Favorite childhood toy? Uh... I honestly can’t remember.

What is your aesthetic? Good smelling old books with doodles and notes in the margins, a pile of unfolded clean clothes on a chair, a stack of handwritten papers perched on the corner of a desk, the smell of breakfast cooking when you wake up, the immediate “woops” shock the moment you trip over something you should’ve moved earlier.

Tell me a random fact about your current project or you. About me: I have a birthmark that kinda sorta looks like an elephant. About Fish Food: The Coalition knows what happened to Hydrophase. So does Sparkplug.

Are you an early bird or a night owl? Night owl, all the way. I like the idea of being a morning person, though.

What is your favorite food? Pasta! Or any kind of Asian food.

What is your happiest memory? Oh, geez. Ummm. When I was little, I would curl up in my grandpa’s armchair and eat Burger King breakfast sandwiches on Saturday mornings.

#about me #writeblr #my process #tag game #11/11/11 tag #11/11/11 tag game #writer tag

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artdjgblog · 4 years

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Innerview: Richard Noggle / Larryville Life Feb. 2012

Image: DJG (via Michael Bay action film generator)

Note: Questions on art and a forthcoming exhibition.

01) Can you give us a general sense of your style and techniques as an artist? And who are your influences? And could you please incorporate one of those "my work is like _________ meets ___________" comparisons that critics love so much?

My style typically consists of whatever mood/feeling I'm in or whatever sorts of things I've got to work with around me. I guess there are some consistencies as I keep coming back to found objects, collage, scribbles and junk. Range of like-minded artistic kin stretch from my grandma to folk art to Henryk Tomaszewski to Seymour Chwast to Ray Johnson to Basquiat to Saul Steinberg and even Pee-wee Herman, Dr. Demento and Jim Henson. Daily influences include a mixture of intuition, conversation, observation, humor, stains on teeth, animals, anxiety, faith, layered language, worlds interacting with worlds, things that look better weathered, markings on pavement and beyond blah-blah. I watch a lot of movies too. It's hard answering the "comparisons" question as I'm not always on the outside looking in. What do you think? I've had some people compare the found object work to Robert Rauschenberg. That's a pretty tall order though. I never really think about that stuff. Steve Brisendine of Art KC 365 kindly put me at, "He isn’t just in touch with his inner child; the two of them must hang out on a regular basis, playing with scissors, magazines and construction paper…Some of his creations…are meticulously assembled. Others look as though they were fueled by half a box of frosted cereal, washed down with a two-liter bottle of something sugary and caffeinated." Can I just say, "My work is like the Garbage Pail Kids meets Ren & Stimpy."? 02) Your newest First Friday exhibition in KC is titled "Mouth Breathing at the Wick to the Apocalypse." What is the show about and is it going to convince us (or convince us even further) that the world is ending in 2012? I was actually quite anxious titling it this, but I kept coming back to it/it kept coming back to me. And it extends further than just the 2012 stuff. There's a lot to chew on and this title just works for the times and within my own body of work. It's definitely a conversation stimulator. The following is what I wrote for Chad Thomas Johnston's web site (@Saint_Upid). Actually, this one was slightly revised for my own blog: Every living thing has a date of expiration. When that date comes, I believe, is in much bigger hands…as well as with a personal healthy dose of daily walk and decision. And Lord knows we’re all trying to put the wicks out to something we have to face, large or small, Earth or individual. We love to control, alter, even bring about more things in the process. Let’s all truly breathe and make space instead of picking up the pace and filling up out pants. Put the hand to the mouth…you’re still breathing. All of this also goes towards those who stand around waiting for things to happen on an individual level. I don’t know, life is about balance. I struggle every day. People are so focused on 2012 predictions and doom ‘n’ gloom when life is still in the now. For those wishing to sidestep the recent holiday cheer, there was even an “Armageddon Week” during Christmas on the History Channel. Yeah, fascinating, but let’s not over do it. If this is our last official year, then let’s just take one long holiday! Who knows? I don’t think any man truly does. But, when that day comes we will be there with the cameras rolling, breathing heavily, awaiting to capture and recapture a thing that we’ll either be too dead to see or won’t have the grid or battery power to reconnect with. Let’s find the art and beauty in the rubble that is the now. This all sort of fits into my exhibition title “Mouth Breathing at the Wick to the Apocalypse.” It also just speaks for the body of work I’ve been creating the past year, perhaps many years. I don’t aim to alarm or hoover heavily. If anything, the spirit in the art is quite jovial and optimistic. Per usual, I want people to have a soak and smile. Some of the ideas initialized in a 2002 sketchbook I did as a janitor as well as writings over the past half decade. In the end, it just has a nice ring to it, don’t you think? 03) We've been examining some of your pieces over at the gallery on @Saint_Upid's site and Chip, quite frankly, doesn't "get" some of it. Can you explain that Fox Food 2/ bunny piece to him? I've been saving up each week's grocery store ad papers. I like to cut out the meat and various food chunks and make animals. I've got a fox and a rabbit. The fox is titled "Fox Food No. 1" and the rabbit is "Fox Food No. 2." So, eventually the rabbit gets eaten by the fox. Get it? 04) What other projects do you have in store for what may well be the last year of humanity's existence as we know it? I made a life-size bison (on paper) outlined in grocery store meat ads and splattered with coffee. He'll be at the exhibition hiding in a corner. I've also got a snake on a board made out of chewed up Dubble Bubble. My jaw is kind of sore this week. I think that's it for the gum art. There will be a few others in the show too. Other projects in the coming months? Well, I'd like to knock out another music video this year. I'm trying my hand and patience at stop motion animation. Emphasis on "trying." I'd like to have a 2nd exhibition at 1819 Central this year. I'm thinking of doing a photography show, but I'll just see what art I make between now and the fall. Ultimately, I'd like to make some money on this art thing. We'll see. I'll also have a piece in the forthcoming Middle of the Map Fest art show in April. I still need to make that one. 05) We know you are a huge movie buff, since we talk movies with you on Twitter quite often. What's the best off-the-beaten-path film that you've watched recently that our readers should see and then talk pompously about at the Pig while pretending like they discovered it themselves? Uh, Transformers? I watched that and Take Shelter recently. Michael Shannon could destroy a Transformer by staring at it...sure to be an Academy Award favorite. 06) When are you going to make a Larryville visit and drink a PBR with us? I don't have the street cred to call it Larryville just yet, but maybe I will after I come hang with you guys? Lawrence used to be a short hop, skip and a jump traveling to concerts in my youth. It helped that I rarely drove then. At 33, Lawrence seems so far away from Kansas City. One of these days though... 07) Bonus Round--Do you have a favorite show from your Lawrence concert-going days? Some of my most well-lit memories of Lawrence concerts would be the "game day" excitement building up to and then wedging in-between band equipment in the Elevator Division van. I was their live-in art director and it was a treat to tag along. It was an adventure on the road as well as lurking in the shadows of the Bottleneck, Replay and Granada. The sleep on the ride home was the best I'd get. Those trips would destroy me now. My most memorable concert moment in Lawrence would have to be meeting Elliott Smith in the Granada back alley after his show. We shook hands and both said, "Thanks." at the same time. Also in the alley were The Flaming Lips who happened to be in town, and previously on stage performing "Don't Fear the Reaper" with Elliott. What a way to end it. I was sad the day Elliott smith passed away and still am. Oh yeah...before that show my eyes hadn't quite adjusted to the indoor lighting and I waved an excited hi to some old friends upon entering the venue and immediately tripped over two people sitting on the floor. Another high ranking concert moment was seeing The Sleepy Jackson open for The Polyphonic Spree at Liberty Hall. I had no idea who they were and they completely blew me away. 08) How familiar are you with the Lawrence art scene these days? Any favorite artists working in our fair city? I'm a tad familiar with the Lawrence art scene. Notably, those running/making art at Wonder Fair. Great guys/great artists. I need to get out to Lawrence more often these days. I enjoy your fine city. Though, being a Missouri boy you may have to check my MU Tiger fan badge at the Lawrence border. 09) We've noticed that KC has a strange new event called Hot Tub dialogues, in which the audiences pays to watch artists sit around talking about art in a hot tub. Would you don your bathing suit to participate in such shenanigans? This is new news to me! And weird at that! Especially the audience pay part. I don't think I'd be up for such an event unless said hot tub was a time machine. I'm also a bit of a nevernude and still barely sticking my toes in the Kansas City art pool as it is! 10) There's a very controversial public art event currently generating a lot of controversy in Lawrence. Lice chickens will be exhibited for a month in spots around town, letting people "get to know them, the they'll be killed and cooked for a community project at Percolator art gallery? What are your initial thoughts on this project? Like the hot tub talk, this is weird and new local art news to me! I really am out of the loop/pool. Growing up on a farm in rural Missouri, I knew many of my animals before they were butchered. I guess, like anything, it's a matter of public opinion. If you're not comfortable with it, then don't attend/support? Is this commentary on the whole local/get to know your food and where it comes from thing? Very interesting. I don't quite understand the need to make it into a public art event. Seems like something destined ftp stir the poultry pot, so to speak! I guess I need to know more about this. Thanks! -djg

#innerviews

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redsoapbox · 4 years

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Mitch Tennant’s Track-by-Track Guide to Head Noise’s Debut album, Über Fantastique

Mitch Tennant, singer/songwriter & keytarist with electro art-punks Head Noise, was kind enough to write this guide to the band’s recently released debut album Über Fantastique, especially for redsoapbox.

1. KINGDOM OF CROOKED MIRRORS

We had a lively debate at Head Noise HQ over which song to open the album with, either this track or the one that follows. We eventually decided on “Kingdom of Crooked Mirrors” to kick-start the debut as we think it encompasses all things Head Noise and has a great splattering of our influences in a catchy, oddball pop song. The title of the track comes from a 1963 Soviet fairy tale film and is loosely inspired by Lewis Carroll’s “Through the Looking Glass”. The song reflects our own mantra for creative passion and is also a look at an outsider’s perspective for abstract art and trying to make sense of the senseless. It’s like Alice In Wonderland without the drug references. Ignore the evils of the world and just let the childlike magic speak for itself.

2. 200,000 GALLONS OF OIL

I was on my lunch break one day surfing the web and a pop-up article came on-screen about fuel, oil refining and other industrial processes that I had very little interest in. However, the title of the piece “Pipeline Spills 200,000 Gallons of Oil” really jumped out at me. I wrote it down and put it aside with my collection of other alphabetical oddities that I type up on Notepad. A little while after, Wayne sent me an electropop demo with a bouncy, squelchy bassline which I felt matched up to this wording perfectly! The title of the song has some sort of political or eco-warrior ring to it but it’s always a surprise to people who question what the song is about, and we say “Uhh… It’s just about oil?” What kind of oil do you want it to be? I’ll leave that up to you, but here are some suggestions: vegetable oil, or maybe oil to slick back your hair.

3. JAPANESE BATTERIES

One Christmas, my partner gifted me an Otamatone, which is basically a screwed-up Theremin/Stylophone synth-like device that is in the shape of a musical note, however it looks more like a giant sperm! It’s become a popular instrument on Youtube for fashioning unusual sounding covers of songs, such as Boney M’s “Rasputin” and A-ha’s “Take on Me”. I was totally amazed by the packaging - it had a little Japanese man with fluffy hair, the inventor of the instrument, looking off into the distance, not unlike some surreal propaganda poster art. The song is, basically, a homage to this strange instrument, and it’s played on the track, not long after the first chorus, just to show off the unusual noises that it makes.

4. ANATOMICALLY CORRECT SHUFFLE

This is a song where I feel the bassline really helps to give the song a danceable bounce, that’s why the title of the track has “Shuffle” at the end of it. This is the first of the collaborations that we have on the album. Wayne sent me a demo he was working on with some bass being played by his friend “Monkey” (who I still haven’t met yet) under the working title “Monkey Jam”. When we started putting the album together, we were coming out of that mad scientist stage persona from the Microwave EP run of shows, so I had a whole lot of science stuck in my mind. I thought we’d go gung-ho as a farewell to the bygone days of false nerdy scholarship with a classic Head Noise sound to it. The lyrics for the song are like an amalgamation of a botched surgery, unusual ailments and chronic nightmares. Luckily, we have Brill onboard to give it that fun little jaunty undertone on the synth, to help keep us sane and avoid any potential lobotomies.

5. MYSTERY LIQUID

This is another Notepad scribble title that I just had to make into a song! When you hear songs about drinking, it’s usually either a fun affair (a drunken pub singalong) or a dark, cautionary tale (alcoholism), so we were looking to meet in the middle between jolly and sombre. I was influenced by Spike Jones & His City Slickers and their song “Clink! Clink! Another Drink”, especially for its humorous look at binge drinking from a 1940s perspective. It seems so harmless and funny, but it’s much more morally twisted if you look at it from the outside. With a bassline from our good friend Connor Llewellyn of Math Rock band “Common Spit”, the song turned into more of a fast-paced rocker with some added spoken word and Dada inspired lyrics from Cat Daczkowski who also plays in Rock band KASIA. I really liked her vocal style as it reminded me of Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth’s unique and unbothered singing approach, so we NEEDED it on the album somewhere.

6. AIRSTRIKE 4000

When I was young, I used to love my Sega Megadrive games console! I played games like Streets of Rage, Golden Axe and Desert Strike, but I got bored easily with Desert Strike because I wouldn’t always know what to do. I wanted to write lyrics that broke the fourth wall too, so the song starts out as a homage to a made-up Sega game in the style of Desert Strike. Then I get bored about halfway through and changed the theme of the song, just like when I was 8 years old and trying to play the bloody game before turning it off to play Sonic & Knuckles instead. It’s a Lo-fi retro Rock vs Synth song with some amazing guitar wobbles/shrieks from Brill and some wicked retro sounds darted across the duration of the track.

7. NITRO

When we were lucky enough to support “Public Service Broadcasting” last year at the Muni Arts Centre in Pontypridd, we wanted to go all out with a wacky elaborate stage show. We roped in our good friend Mark Strange to help us put together some surreal extras in the set such as a puppet show and a battle royale with Mark dressed up as a Ninja Turtle. We wanted to create our own little ‘introduction song’ for this show for when we walked onstage akin to Devo’s “Corporate Anthem” instrumental. So, Wayne put together our own track to help introduce the band as Mark walked out dressed in a lab-coat to inspect the equipment before we came on. There isn’t much else I can say about this track really other than performance is key! We decided to give the song a promotion from introduction song to intermission song which now sits about halfway through the album. In fact, that’s why it is called “Nitro”, it’s just an anagram of “intro” but with some dynamite flair!

8. SHRUNKEN HEAD

We used to open the live set with this song. It’s a song about idiocracy within the musical world, not too far off “Cherub Rock” by Smashing Pumpkins. The song is stacked with surreal imagery, which also includes a reworking of the “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream” phrase from Science Fiction writer Harlan Ellison as a pre-chorus. I think it’s important to have passion in what you do creatively, and you shouldn’t allow others to mistake that devotion for egotism. I went to “Ripley’s Believe it Or Not” oddity museum in Blackpool a couple of times over the years and I got to see a real (or ‘real fake’, you be the judge?) shrunken head in a glass case. Rhys Jones plays some cool guitar lines on this track which is like a mix between Egyptian rhumba and the live dissection of a squirrel. It is an interesting song and we like it very much.

9. INTRUDER-ESQUE

Have you ever had those nights when you’ve gone to bed and looked over at the other side of the room in the dark to see the blurred black outline of a wardrobe or a hanging coat? In a sleep-addled state, this can be terrifying and can lead to “sleep paralysis”. I thought it was an interesting subject to pick up on. We gave the outro to Lloyd Markham of Psych-Electro band Deep Hum to use as his personal synth playground and we love it! I think the entire track captures the vibe of uneasiness that you can get in a sleep-deprived state when you don’t entirely feel safe, with an unknown threat lurking in the shadows.

10. I EAT CANNIBALS

An old friend of mine said the Toto Coelo song “I Eat Cannibals” sounds like something Head Noise would cover, so we just went off and covered it. I think it goes a little hand in hand with “Shrunken Head” and its voodoo vibe. The track features fantastic backing vocals by Miss Cat Southall, singer extraordinaire! I’m a fan of bands who re-work covers to suit their own sound. We always have an unusual cover in our back pocket if things start to go pear-shaped! We’ve previously recorded songs by Sonic Youth and The Bangles.

11. MR. EVERYWHERE

This is a Rocker Wayne had been working on for a little while until we decided to give it more context and “beef” so to speak. It’s basically a punk song that’s been shaved down to a shouty rock song, with a little bit of synth here and there. The song’s lyrics simply reflect how busy we felt after we released the Special Effects EP and how being in a band can be a lot of stress as much as a lot of fun.

12. NO PHOTO | NO FILM | NO TELEPHONE

On a trip to Venice, I stopped by St Mark’s Basilica to see the famed “Horses of Saint Mark”. There was a sign near them saying “No Photo, No Film, No Telephone” which made me laugh. Anyway, the track was inspired by a warning sign, but is about the overuse of modern communication technology and the brief escape that we get from these devices. It’s crazy to see how much the world has changed in 20 years, so we summed it up quickly with a fully Electronic Pop song featuring a fun shout-a-long chorus.

13. COMPLY

Someone said to me recently “music has been intrinsically linked to politics since like forever!” and even though there is some truth in that statement, I refuse to believe that it is the most important reason for someone to enjoy listening to music. This is my own attack against people who like to moan and whine until they get what they want, whether it is logical or not. It’s our own protest song which protests protest songs. We’ve made sure the song is happy and upbeat, because ignorance is bliss, eh?

14. GAMMA GUTS

The spiritual successor to our single “Microwave”, in fact, it’s a loose sequel of sorts. I have a fear that there isn’t enough science behind the use of microwaves. I imagine that there are some harmful side effects, but it scares me to think that we might not have a clue. The song is split into two parts - the first is a goofy little Electro Rock song about the digestion of nuclear materials and then the second part is an electronic instrumental, orchestrated by the band Massa Circles. There are some beats donated by John Barnes and some shouts by Anthony Price too. The song reminds me of Eric Clapton’s “Layla” because it starts off as a fun Rocker and ends with an emotional instrumental akin to side 2 of David Bowie’s Low album. This is one of our favourite songs to play live at the moment because it gives us free rein to experiment musically.

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Visit the archives section to read the album review.

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pardontheglueman · 5 years

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Head Noise / Uber - Fantastique

For the best part of 18 months Aberdare’s Electro Art-Punks Head Noise (Mitch Tennant Vocals & Keytar), Wayne Basset (Synths & Guitar) and Jordan Brill (Synths & Guitar) have been working away on their debut album Über-Fantastique, a record which they describe, in typical Head Noise fashion, as a ‘bombastic, electropop fever dream’. In a detailed, track-by-track guide, Mitch Tennant talked to Kevin McGrath about the record they are about to unleash on an unsuspecting Welsh public.

1. KINGDOM OF CROOKED MIRRORS

2. 200,000 GALLONS OF OIL

I was on my lunch break one day surfing the web and a pop-up article came on-screen about fuel, oil refining and other industrial processes that I had very little interest in. However, the title of the piece "Pipeline Spills 200,000 Gallons of Oil" really jumped out at me. I wrote it down and put it aside with my collection of other alphabetical oddities that I type up on Notepad. A little while after, Wayne sent me an electropop demo with a bouncy, squelchy bass line which I felt matched up to this wording perfectly! The title of the song has some sort of political or eco-warrior ring to it but it's always a surprise to people who question what the song is about, and we say "Uhh... It's just about oil?" What kind of oil do you want it to be? I'll leave that up to you, but here are some suggestions: vegetable oil, or maybe oil to slick back your hair.

3. JAPANESE BATTERIES

4. ANATOMICALLY CORRECT SHUFFLE

This is a song where I feel the bassline really helps to give the song a danceable bounce, that’s why the title of the track has "Shuffle" at the end of it. This is the first of the collaborations that we have on the album. Wayne sent me a demo he was working on with some bass being played by his friend "Monkey" (who I still haven't met yet) under the working title "Monkey Jam". When we started putting the album together, we were coming out of that mad scientist stage persona from the Microwave EP run of shows, so I had a whole lot of science stuck in my mind. I thought we'd go gung-ho as a farewell to the bygone days of false nerdy scholarship with a classic Head Noise sound to it. The lyrics for the song are like an amalgamation of a botched surgery, unusual ailments and chronic nightmares. Luckily, we have Brill onboard to give it that fun little jaunty undertone on the synth, to help keep us sane and avoid any potential lobotomies.

5. MYSTERY LIQUID

This is another Notepad scribble title that I just had to make into a song! When you hear songs about drinking, it’s usually either a fun affair (a drunken pub singalong) or a dark, cautionary tale (alcoholism), so we were looking to meet in the middle between jolly and sombre. I was influenced by Spike Jones & His City Slickers and their song “Clink! Clink! Another Drink”, especially for its humorous look at binge drinking from a 1940s perspective. It seems so harmless and funny, but it’s much more morally twisted if you look at it from the outside. With a bassline from our good friend Connor Llewellyn of Math Rock band "Common Spit", the song turned into more of a fast-paced rocker with some added spoken word and Dada inspired lyrics from Cat Daczkowski who also plays in Rock band KASIA. I really liked her vocal style as it reminded me of Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth’s unique and unbothered singing approach, so we NEEDED it on the album somewhere.

6. AIRSTRIKE 4000

7. NITRO

8. SHRUNKEN HEAD

9. INTRUDER-ESQUE

10. I EAT CANNIBALS

11. MR. EVERYWHERE

12. NO PHOTO | NO FILM | NO TELEPHONE

On a trip to Venice, I stopped by St Mark's Basilica to see the famed “Horses of Saint Mark”. There was a sign near them saying “No Photo, No Film, No Telephone” which made me laugh. Anyway, the track was inspired by a warning sign, but is about the overuse of modern communication technology and the brief escape that we get from these devices. It’s crazy to see how much the world has changed in 20 years, so we summed it up quickly with a fully Electronic Pop song featuring a fun shout-a-long chorus.

13. COMPLY

14. GAMMA GUTS

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juggieheadcoopers-blog · 7 years

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Friends With Benefits (Part 2)

(Part 1)

AU: Jughead never went to Riverdale High and never became friends with Betty and the gang the way they were supposed to. Archie, Jughead, and Betty were close in middle school, but once they parted ways and Jughead followed in his father’s footsteps of becoming a Serpent, their relationship was never the same.

Note: I have plans for a part 3 and possibly a part 4 if you guys want it, just let me know!

–

Betty glanced up from the heavily pencil-marked notebook paper resting on the mahogany desk, the exasperated eye roll resting patiently behind her eyelids threatening to take over as she squinted at the scribbles and lines in front of her.

“Jug,” Betty called to the leather jacket-less boy standing by the floor to ceiling window with a wooden pencil tucked behind his ear. “You have got to be kidding me.”

“What?” He feigned innocence as he turned away from the view overlooking the courtyard and took a step closer to the golden-haired girl sitting hunched over one of the massive desks with a look of annoyance written all over her face.

“I know you don’t expect me to read this chicken scratch,” Betty mumbled, shoving the paper in his direction and leaning back in the rolling chair with an irritated huff.

“Bets, it’s been scientifically tested that brilliant people such as writers have significantly worse handwriting than most people in their age and gender demographic,” Jughead pointed out, placing the paper back in the center of the desk with a sense of pride overtaking his expression. “Don’t diss a literary genius for his hastily executed penmanship when he chooses to spend his time creating eloquently crafted stories instead of taking his time with his handwriting.”

“I’m pretty sure that test had numerous inconsistencies,” Betty teased, pushing herself out of the chair and taking a few steps closer to Jughead to place a delicate hand on his chest. “Besides, you’re just making excuses for how you can’t handle writing with plain old pen and paper instead of being in front of your laptop to get a story done.”

“Oh really?” Jughead quirked an amused eyebrow down at her as she sidestepped his attempted embrace and hopped up to sit on the desk behind him in one swift motion. “If that’s the case, then maybe you should give me a handwriting lesson. Since you’re such a pro and all.”

“You know, that’s not a bad idea,” Betty agreed, pushing him back with one hand as he attempted to close the gap between them. “And after that I’ll teach you how to reign in the egotistically asinine backtalk you’ve gotten so good at lately.”

“I’d like to see you try,” Jughead teased, reaching up to gently pry her hand from his chest and taking it in his grip. “Seems like you could learn a thing or two about that yourself.”

“Is that right?” Betty raised a challenging eyebrow at him as he positioned himself between her legs dangling off the edge of the desk, leaning in so close that the tip of his nose brushed against hers as his hands slid down her arms to rest comfortably around her waist.

“Definitely,” he breathed, her arms snaking around his shoulders as their lips finally met for a soft, but passionate kiss.

As Betty’s legs wrapped around Jughead’s hips and his hands slipped underneath her knitted pink sweater, the gentleness disappeared and the passion took over the way it always did when they were together. Just as they adjusted their body weight to lean back onto the table, a booming knock coming from the front of the room startled them into sitting upright, nearly kicking a stack of dictionaries onto the tiled floor from the unexpected movement.

“Knock, knock!”

The couple pulled away from each other and Betty flung herself off the desk, reaching out to steady herself on Jughead’s shoulder as she struggled to regain her balance.

“Cheryl!” Betty gasped, frantically pulling down on the hem of her crumpled sweater in her attempt to straighten it out as much as possible. “What are you doing in the Blue and Gold room?”

“Fear not, my significantly less attractive and far less remarkable Lois Lane and Clark Kent,” Cheryl greeted them with a fake smile, her ruby red lips glowing an ugly shade of burnt orange in the harsh fluorescent lights of the classroom. “I haven’t come to take over your little craft corner of a newspaper room in the valiant effort to put it too far better, far more interesting use just yet.”

“Okay, then why are you-” Jughead started to ask, but was promptly cut off by Cheryl shoving a perfectly pointed fingernail up to his lips in her attempt to quiet him.

“Wait a minute,” she smirked, tossing her long red hair behind one shoulder and taking a few more steps into the room. “That’s exactly why I’m here. The River Vixens need a better locale to prepare for football games, sans the repugnant odor the girl’s volleyball team leaves behind after their practices. Your sorry excuse for a newsroom will make for an adequately sized dressing area don’t you think?”

“Forget it, Cheryl,” Jughead shot back. “How could you possibly think that we would give up the Blue and Gold room so your cheerleading squad can primp and polish yourselves to scream at a bunch of football players from the sidelines?”

“Because you Southside garden snake,” Cheryl snapped, her eyes narrowing to glare in their direction as if they were scum on the bottom of her overpriced designer shoe. “I have dirt on the two of you that would break a certain ginger-haired stallion’s heart if anyone were to leak such information over to his side of football field.”

“You don’t know anything,” Betty muttered, her fists curling up into two angry balls as she felt the overwhelming fit of rage bubbling up inside of her that was all too familiar.

“Oh don’t I?” Cheryl fluttered a set of dark lashes at Betty as she reached into her leather handbag to pull out her phone. “Then showing Archie this picture of you two locking lips borderline NC-17 style would be acceptable?”

With one click of a button, the image of Betty wrapped up in Jughead’s arms blinked onto the screen, the intimate moment thought to have been shared only by the couple, showing much more than either of them would have liked anyone else to witness.

“You were spying on us?” Jughead gaped at the redheaded deviant in complete and utter disgust. “Cheryl, that’s low even for you.”

“No, what’s low is that wench of a friend of yours, Veronica Lodge, thinking she can take over my squad a get away with it,” Cheryl spat, tugging the phone away from their view and sliding it back into her purse for safe keeping. “Scoring the Vixens a new dressing room will win the girls back from her villainous talons once and for all. Then all will be right with the world yet again and we can all move on with our lives.”

“There’s no way Principal Weatherbee would go for this,” Betty reminded her. “The school has set aside a budget for the newspaper, not to mention that it counts as credit hours for-”

“Oh, he’s already signed off on it,” Cheryl informed them, a devious smirk creeping onto her lips as she took in their bewildered expressions with a sense of accomplished delight. “Mommy promised to fund the next three school-sanctioned events if he agreed. The only glitch is that he can’t forcibly remove you from the paper and ask you to give up your credit hours. That’s against school policy. But I assured him that all it would take was a little persuasion on my part and-”

“You mean blackmail,” Jughead corrected her, his voice so low that it nearly came out as a vehement growl.

“Call it what you will,” Cheryl sighed, pulling at the sleeves of her dark red mini dress and smirking unapologetically. “But regardless, it seems as though you have a tough decision to make. Risk the friendship with your BFF of nine plus years by revealing the betrayal of epic proportions or relinquish your rights to the Blue and Gold for good.”

“Forget it, Betty,” Jughead whispered, turning to her with concerned eyes and a deep-set frown. “You don’t need the room to run a newspaper, we can ask your mom if we can use the Register’s resources and-”

“Au contraire,” Cheryl crooned, taking a step closer to Betty to place a firm hand on the wooden surface of the desk in front of her. “No more Blue and Gold room, no more Blue and Gold. Mr. Weatherbee’s rule. It was a dying art form to begin with. He decided it was best to cut his losses in the long run, if you were to sign off on it of course.”

Betty whirled around to face Jughead with pleading eyes, the hopelessness in her expression giving him the urge to reach out and comfort her, but knowing better not to.

“You have 24 hours to make your decision,” Cheryl announced. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have fabric to buy for the velvet lounge chairs I’m planning to put in that corner over there. The decor in this place is seriously depressing, I can’t wait to work my magic. Later, losers.”

With one last flick of her luscious locks behind her shoulder, Cheryl turned on her heel to make her grand exit out of the room, leaving Betty and Jughead to stare opened-mouth at one another as they tried to comprehend what just happened.

“She can’t do this, Bets,” Jughead told her, reaching out to place a reassuring hand on her elbow. “We won’t let her.”

“She’s a Blossom, Jughead,” Betty reminded him. “They have all the power in this town and in this school. We don’t have a choice.”

“Yes, we do,” Jughead assured her. “We tell Archie about us before Cheryl can.”

“We already talked about this,” Betty mumbled, backing away from his touch and crossing the room to stare absentmindedly at the cluttered bulletin board displaying various school news and activities. “Telling Archie isn’t an option.”

“Let me get this straight,” Jughead muttered, his brows furrowing together in confusion as he tried to wrap his head around what she was saying. “You would rather give up the one thing you’re most passionate about in order to keep our relationship quiet from the person who cut me out of his life as a result of something my father did, than end all the secrets and lies once and for all and just come clean? Is that about the gravity of the situation or did I miss something?”

“You don’t get it, Jug,” Betty whispered, the tears beginning to spring up in the corners of her eyes as she lifted her chin slightly to meet his gaze with an agonized whimper. “Archie was there for me when Polly left town and I was at my lowest point. I owe it to him to be there while he’s going through everything with his Dad. I’m telling you, it’s just not the right time.”

“Are you sure it’s not something else?”

Betty knitted her brows together, shaking her head in confusion as she wracked her brain for any information that would hint at what he could have been referring to. “Like what?”

“Like you’re ashamed of being with a pile of Southside trash like me,” Jughead spat, the words falling off his tongue as if it were physically painful to utter them.

“Of course not, Jughead, you know I could never think that,” Betty assured him, taking a few steps closer to place her hands on the smooth skin of his cheeks. “I love who you are, every part of you.”

“You’re just not in love with me,” Jughead concluded, wrapping his hands around her wrists and pushing her away. “Maybe that’s it. Maybe you can’t feel anything real for the boy from the wrong side of the tracks so you keep him close enough to get in his pants but push him far enough away to avoid feeling a real connection with him.”

“That’s not true and you know it,” Betty breathed, the hot tears welling up in her eyes and beginning to fall onto her cheeks as she struggled to keep herself from screaming or collapsing into a heap on the titled floor or simply running away from everything altogether.

“Well it doesn’t matter anymore either way,” Jughead muttered, his expression hard and stony as he held up his hands and backed away from Betty entirely. “I’m done. I’m done with the Blue and Gold. I’m done with this friends with benefits bullshit. And I’m done with you.”

“Juggie-”

“We could have had something special, you and me,” Jughead informed her. “We could have had the real deal. But you chose keeping your friendship with Archie over keeping anything with me. I hope you’re happy with that decision, Betty. Because now you have no boyfriend, no newspaper staff, and no newspaper. Congratulations.”

With one last disappointed glance in her direction, Jughead crossed the room in just a few bounding steps and left the Blue and Gold room for what could have been the last time, slamming the door shut behind him so hard that the plaques hanging on the wall by the chalkboard shook in protest. Sliding down the hard surface of the desk where she and Jughead had just shared an intimate moment together not ten minutes ago, Betty let the tears come hard in fast as she wondered how, and if, she would ever be able to fix this.

#bughead fanfiction #bughead #juggiecoopfanfic #betty and jughead fanfiction #betty and jughead #betty x jughead #betty cooper #jughead jones #riverdale fanfiction #requests

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8emmy · 7 years

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The Austen Experience

Summary: Nesta is no doubt, Mr. Darcy.Nesta's sisters kindly gifted her a two-week vacation at Austenland, a full immersion of romance that must have been written by Jane Austen herself. Knowing that each guest has their unique romance plot she doesn't see how serious one of her love interests are and how real his feelings may be. Based on the movie Austenland (sort of).

Chapter 1: "I must learn to be content with being happier than I deserve."

Nesta sat waiting for her sisters to arrive at brunch. The Archeron sisters have made the weekly habit to meet up every Sunday to catch up with one another. All so busy with their own personal lives, Elaine made sure that her sisters would not drift too far apart. they were still family.

Nesta was early seeing that it was her turn to pick the restaurant she had picked the closest one to her apartment. It was her birthday lunch the only celebration for the woman's twenty-seventh. She really hated her birthday almost as much as actually trying to make friends.

While waiting for her sisters Nesta was scribbling in the margins of her tenth copy of Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice". Her mother had given her her first copy of "Pride and Prejudice" for her eleventh birthday. It was three months before her mother got deathly ill and five more months until her death. Since then Nesta was in love with Jane's fictional world, and most of all found friendship and love through fictional characters which were much easier to handle than real friends.

Nesta was at the part where Mr. Darcy was talking about dislike dancing when her Elaine made her way over to the table. "Nesta," she greeted with a large smile.

Elaine looked like she glowed, she was the prettiest of the three sisters. Rounded face with brighter and softer eyes, she was pretty, much prettier than the sharper featured Nesta. "How does it feel, birthday girl?"

Nesta stood up accepting the short hug from Elaine before both sat down. Nest replied while putting her book, using her pencil as a bookmark, back into her bag, "Like twenty-six. Maybe a bit more stress but that's work."

Elaine rolls her eyes playfully, "Any other plans to celebrate the big day?"

"No, not really," Nesta takes a sip of water watching as Elaine opens the menu. "Most likely reading more manuscripts, maybe read a book that isn’t crap for work.”

Elaine hums flipping through the menu. She runs an elegant finger down the rows of food options, stopping here and there to read the description. "Do you have any suggestions? Everything looks so good."

Nesta shrugs picking up her own menu to skim through. "The Lavender Pancakes are good. Or the Shrimp Sour Cream Omelette." Nesta suggests before asking, "How's running dad's flower shop?"

Elaine doesn't look up from her menu. "Good. being that it's close to Valentine's day I have been seeing a rise in revenue, I actually had to hire a part-time delivery boy to actually get the orders out."

"You hired someone?" Nesta asks a bit coldly. She knew that the flower shop never really made enough for the family after their father decided to quit his more well paying job after their mother’s death. The flower shop gave the family enough to rent a one bedroom apartment and barely enough for food and other necessities, like their father’s hobby of gambling. Their father used his daughters as free labor and sent Nesta at the age of fifteen off to deliver flowers on her second-hand bike, a job she happily gave to Feyre when she got older.

“Just seasonal. Just for this month. It’s just hard for the larger wedding and event orders I’ve been getting. I might actually hire him full time if the city hall charity banquet goes well.” Elaine, however, was much better at the business than their father. She was gifted. Her bouquets were beautiful. She’s slowly making a name for herself in the city as the place for all things flower.

“That might be good,” Nesta says as the waiter comes over with a pitcher of ice water. He refills Nesta’s glass and asks if the ladies were ready to order, Elaine said they’re still waiting for one more. The waiter nods his head and leaves.

“Yeah, it is. And he has a van, he says that once he’s in a full-time employee he will sell it to me and we can get it painted with the logo and use it as the company vehicle.” Elaine finally looks up to Nesta with a bright smile.

“That will be much easier for them than your tiny little car,” Nesta says. From the corner of her eye, she can make out Feyre. Her hair has been pulled back into a bun, the young twenty-four-year-old was accompanied by a larger man. The Archeron sisters are tall, all around 5’11” but this man must have been 6’4” he towered over Feyre as he opened the door for her.

“Feyre invited someone,” Nesta says to Elaine. Elaine looks up and like a whip turns to the door then back to Nesta with a puzzled face.

“He’s tall.”

“He’s a he,” Nesta says watching like a hawk as the two weaved through the tables with the same waiter with the water pitcher taking them to the table. The man had dark hair styled heavily with gel to keep his wave from falling in front of his face. He wore a large smirk talking to Feyre who stops to whack him every so often with a large blush that only made the man chuckle.

Elaine casually turned to look too. “He looks like he might be better than he-who-must-not-be-named.”

“That we know of. He-who-must-not-be-named looked like a normal, not an abusive asshole when we first met him.” Nesta pointed out. Elaine nods her head picking up her glass taking a sip of water.

Feyre made it to the table. The waiter placed another chair next to the empty space next to Nesta, placed a new menu, then filled two glasses of ice water before refilling Elaine’s. Feyre smiled nervously. “Happy birthday Nesta.” She says with her arms open, in one of her hands there was a gift bag. Nesta got up and gave Feyre a quick hug then sat back down looking at Feyre expectantly.

“Oh… this,” she gestures to the man beside her, “is Rhys, he works at the place I been hired to paint for. Rhys this is Nesta and Elaine. Nesta and Elaine this is Rhys.”

“Hi,” he says looking at Nesta right in the eyes than to Elaine who, not surprisingly, had a warm smile waiting for him.

“And you're here because?” Nesta asks still looking at Feyre but addressing Rhys.

“I’m her ride, she’s working today so I offered to drive her up. Much easier than the bus route.” Rhys says following Feyre’s lead to take a seat. Feyre took the seat next to Nesta, while Rhys sat beside both Feyre and Elaine.

“And you couldn’t pick her up after brunch?”

“I invited him to grab something to eat. He was already in the area helping me grab supplies and load his car. And thank you again.” She says to Rhys.

“You don’t need to thank me, you’re buying me lunch.”

“And paying for gas,” Feyre says, Rhys rolls his eyes and opens the menu.

They all order in awkward silence.

“I got you something,” Feyre says lifting the bag she brought and passed it to Nesta. “I know you don’t like gifts but this one is special if it helps I got a huge discount on it.”

Nesta opened the bag pulling out the tissue paper seeing a brochure at the bottom. She picks it up. Elaine moves the bag off the table.

Nesta looks at Feyre puzzled. “There was no envelope big enough for that thing other than the ones you get at the post office. Open it,” Feyre says. She was at the edge of her seat. “Elaine and I both chipped in to get it for you.”

Nesta looks and sees Austenland, she opens the brochure to be addressed as a guest. She reads the entire thing and looks up at Feyre then to Elaine. “This is too much.”

“No. It really wasn’t. You see I’m actually doing some art pieces for them. That’s where I met Rhys. And being an employee I got a discount.” Feyre says with a nervous smile. “We just thought because you love Jane Austen and you need a vacation that this would be perfect.”

Nesta looks at Elaine that was too busy looking at her glass than at her older sister. “I don’t really know. It’s two weeks and full immersion, no internet, no cell phones.” Nesta flips through the book. She actually was thankful for such a thoughtful gift.

“You have the days, and you said it yourself that your job is forcing you to take your vacation days, and this would be more fun than being held up in your tiny apartment,” Feyre says.

The waiter comes back with coffee and birthday mimosas. He tells them their food will be done shortly. Rhys takes his coffee pouring a creamer and two small bags of brown sugars provided from the table. Nesta takes a sip from her mimosa. “When is it?”

“Next week. Enough time for you to talk to your work.”

“Okay.”

Elaine looks up with a smile, both younger sisters were happy that their sister liked the gift.

The rest of the brunch was spent eating, Rhys trying to talk to all the sisters, Feyre and Elaine more than happy to talk about Game of Thrones, and Nesta was just eating ignoring the new guest.

After they all paid Feyre and Rhys said their goodbyes heading out towards his car. Rhys' hand placed on Feyre’s lower back guiding her through the crowds. Elaine gave Nesta a large hug and turned the other direction to her car. Nesta was left alone at the lights ready to get back to her small apartment, the brochure was in her purse.

Making it into her apartment she opened the closet next to her door hanging her coat and putting her shoes away, closing the door she put her purse on the door handle of the closet. Locking the door she walked into the large space where her queen was caged in by two large Ikea shelves. She picked up a hair tie that she left in a small bowl on one the shelves that she used as a bedside table. Tying her hair up she walked towards the window to her desk and her large arm chair. She fell into the seat with a deep relaxed sigh picking up a manuscript that she had left open on her desk and picking up a red pen she began to read.

#acotar fanfiction #acotar #AU #austenland #austenlandau #nessian #feysand #firstfanfic #innercircle #janeausten #pride and prejudice

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terriblevalveartandocs · 7 years

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About Valve OCs and the blog

This has been on my mind for a while.

This blog never got a satisfying end in my books, and I’m sure for other readers as well. Even though closure is a myth perpetuated by mainstream media, I will make this post to try to rectify past mistakes and general truancy of this blog. I have my own suspicions that most of my readers are dead (considering all of the porn bots are now starting to follow me), so I write this post in the darkness of the night into the void that is Tumblr. Read my cry if you care.

Firstly, this blog will never update again. There are multiple factors that have led to this blog’s extinction and I think they’re important to address

Motivation

This blog took up a large chunk of my life back when it was active. Don’t get me wrong, bad art still gets me to cringe and I find myself on occasion still pining over weird ocs and art styles on Deviantart. However, maintaining it as a blog with daily updates became a chore for me along with promising critiques of ocs and such. I’ve come to discover that I can’t do what I love as “””work”””. While bad art still remains a passion for me, I don’t see myself continuing this in blog format.

OCs have changed

The OC market has changed. Base art has definitely taken a downturn in the past few years and you’re more likely to see people hand-drawing their ocs or writing them out. Thanks with the culture of memeing about bootleg fandom ocs (This is my own original character blonic, donut steels) , it seems that people are more drawn towards creating their own worlds and characters rather than shoving their mary sue into their current fan favorite content. These are good changes in terms of originality for artists and writers in my opinion.

However, a lot of the formats for OCs have changed as well. There tends to be an emphasis on their sexuality and race in OC culture now. I don’t consider that a bad thing but I’d rather not poke that hornet’s nest of gender identity and race of fictional characters. What used to be the standard straight, bi, gay has expanded into other territories that I am unfamiliar with and now we have more ocs outside of the standard white chick but with Japanese last name because the creator really likes naruto. Again, this just seems to be the trend and I think my last few revival posts kinda show them.

Valve as a games publisher

LOL when’s half life 3???

Valve has definitely moved from being a game developer to a digital distributor. Steam definitely seems to be their focus outside of Hat/Weapon Skin collecting and online gambling (and also their weird consoles/controllers???). Not that I would continue this blog if they released more content (They published another update to the TF2 comic, can’t wait for that to get updated in a year).

Along with this slump of their own original content, this has led to a slump in original characters for their franchises. There are not as many fan ocs and art isn’t being produced for their franchises (except maybe with comic updates for TF2 and nostalgia for old games).

This blog was created at the optimal time imo with L4D2 still being fresh, TF2 still having an active userbase, and Portal 2 giving some great content in terms of creative material.

Also I’m not interested in reviewing Dota 2 art and I don’t think there are enough Counterstrike ocs.

Negativity

I don’t know if this blog was a source of positive or negative energy. On one hand, I was ridiculing people’s art without much hesitation and not acknowledging how much time and effort that might have been put in by the artist. But on the other hand, it provided laughs for people during its duration and gave me a creative outlet in terms of humor, arguments, and writing. I think I did my best to avoid any harassment for these artists by removing any watermarks that might lead any rude reader to them, but I’ll never know if they suffered any bullying. Obviously I’m not going to put this on my resume as work experience but I like to think that this blog help think critically about their content, regardless of what role you played on the blog be it me, a submitter, an observer, or the subject. Maybe if some supreme being questions why I started this blog in the afterlife, I can tell them I did it for the lolz.

In the end, I think I did more harm than any general good for the world and nobody will really understand that weird pain if I try to repent for it publicly. I don’t know of any key examples of this (or really remember because I haven’t done this shit in years), but I do apologize if I ruined anyone’s ambitions for writing/drawing.

I’m glad there is a stronger hugbox mentality for artists who aren’t very good and I embrace that style of encouragement. I guess my only concern is veering too far into that and just embracing everything as perfect and awesome and never improving. Criticism has its place in society.

Perhaps the real lesson is that who the hell gives a shit about what you post on the internet. Why should you give a stranger any control over how much your art is worth? However, this also gives the argument into determining if any of your art is worth anything based on your preconceived notions on your art’s merits since you are only a stranger to me. Why should you tell me that your art is valid and equal to anything else produced when it looks like you drew it with your tablet pen stuck up your ass?

Maybe we all just need to learn to stop giving invisible voices the power to ruin our emotional states and work on our self satisfaction.

Growing up????

I wrote most of this blog like a million years ago. It was a stronger part of my identity and a part of a community in a way of similar blogs in the same style. But I don’t really relate to the content as much I used to. Valve games are still near and dear to me, but they’re more nostalgic than my current flame and muse. I feel the same happened to other blogs in the same vein as mine. Perhaps also age and the changes of time led to our own focuses in our own lives than looking at the scribbles of some stranger on the internet. While it’s still one of my internet past times, it is not my main focus in life to critique bad art (unless it starts paying serious dosh). I just don’t relate to the words and passions anymore. In a way, this is my own cringe that artists produce when they’re young on Deviantart. It’s kind of funny in a weird way.

This blog will continue to remain up but I’ll probably move into another blog of some sort (I accidentally made this my primary blog and I can’t delete it). It sort of became my main lurking blog and I guess its time that I make a less weird not ghost blog (I’m probably confusing a lot of the people that I follow with my constant hearts and comments).

I guess I wanna say thanks for all of the people who followed this blog and its contents. I probably wouldn’t have continued for very long without followers so you’re all to blame for this negative impact I’ve made on the world (jkjk). I like to think we’re connected with our mutual spirit in improving how we create things and wanting to see improvement in others. I think this blog helped me see the dumbest of things and not be afraid to say it was dumb and I hope it did for you as well. I also hope it brought you laughs in the content that was displayed or the humor I attempted to convey. It did genuinely warm my heart whenever I got a heart, reply, reblog, or messages to keep up the work. It kind of makes me sad to think that I left rather abruptly, but better blogs have died quicker and quieter. Simple fact of life really. Thank god my ego keeps me in check to constantly remind people of my existence.

To any artists out there, bad art is a fact of life. You do not come out of the womb knowing how to do two point perspective and 3d shapes. You mess up doing 3d shapes each any every time until you get it and then move on to the next thing you’re not good at. There’s a common TIL leddit post about how Michaelangelo burnt all of his old works so nobody would know how bad he was when he was starting out. I don’t know how true that is, but that’s not a great mentality to have for your art. Seeing that bridge between your former self and current self is important for seeing self growth in your skills. Plus you won’t have those juicy likes and comments on instagram when you do the art redraw and show how far you come like how can you skimp on that you dingus.

All of the great content creators right now love showing off the shitty art they did as kids because it gives them a sense of progress in their work and their accomplishments and continues to drive them in their own works. (unless you’re rebecca sugar and drew ed edd and eddy shipping porn lol). Heck, some of them even take the stuff that was once cliche characters and expanded on them in their own Original Universe Donut Steel. And thanks to their own Original Universe Donut Steel, now tens of thousands of impressionable young artists can look at it and say “that’s awesome, but it would be way better if there was my own character...”.

OCs are weirdly one of the ultimate ways of fan expression where you enjoy the content so much you wish you were part of it. Even though it’s very disjointed and out of place, it’s usually done in a place of love for the franchise or the characters. So for those of you that are doing that still, keep at it I guess.

Fan art is sorta in the same way where you enjoy something so much that you want to replicate the style/themes/characters in your own or the content’s style. While not as extreme, it’s still in the same place of love and people generally like that more than original shit anyways so continue to make it so I can buy your posters at anime conventions without supporting the original creator lol.

If you want to harass me further for my sins against budding artists, I guess I’ll link my personal blog if anyone actually asks me. I also wrote this at 3 am so it is extremely unedited and awful but it’s the most “pure” for my usual diatribe. Consider it my first OC for the blog.

Good night, good life, and farewell.

#valve #terriblevalveartandocs #wow this dead blog finally got an obiturary #that's right grandma decided to haunt this blog and repeat this blog post to those who enter #came back from the dead to remind you i'm dead #but this is on my own terms death ahahahah #there go my dreams of being tumblr famous #i love all of my ...*looks at smuged handwriting* smefty hundred followers #NOW I CAN SLEEP #this was actually part of my repentance for church that my pastor assigned me #now i can get into heaven where i belong #also the real reason i stopped updating was because i was in prison for 3 years for cyberbullying #i hurt too many bronies feelings #thankfully i'm back and i ended up joining a brony prison gang #guess what my cutie mark is #why do i still think i'm funny

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mystech-master · 7 years

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Zaun Q&A Tidbits

Piltover one here

Piltover got a reddit Q&A, now it’s Zaun’s turn.

link here

question asked by fan

answer from rioter

Q: What made you decide to join Zaun and Piltover into one super-city and what inspired this direction?

A. This had been in the works for a long while. I know early discussions on the two cities idea were meant to emphasize the differences and similarities of the two cities, while ramping up that connection and conflict through being so close together. They have no choice but be aware of each other every day, and it allows us to delve into ideas about what a symbiotic relationship looks like when not everyone is happy about it. It felt different to all of our other regions, it heightened possibilities for conflict (and therefore drama), and meant we could play very different Champs off each other pretty easily. Regions need to have natural hooks for storytelling and provide opportunities that other places don't. After all, if your new city just does the same as another on the other side of the world, why does the story world need it?

Q. Is Twitch still a resident/champion of Zaun?

A. Yes! He will eventually be getting some bio and story love too

Q. I recall some concerns about Zac's parents being deceased in the new lore; what made the team decide to "Uncle Ben" them?

I feel really bad about it; they were cool people who did the right thing, and raised Zac responsibly and lovingly. Those teasers with their scribbled notes on them were really sweet; there's one where they call him cute that makes me smile. Them getting killed in the lore update really guts me, honestly.

At the least I wish one of Zac's parents lived, to be his Aunt May rooting for him. Does Zac really have to be Batman, and not Spiderman?

I do like Ekko's lore, where he explicitly isn't an orphan, so I can't complain that everyone has dead or missing parents, but still, I feel so bad about Zac's plight.

A. Hi, the thinking behind that was that with them still alive, teaching Zac right from wrong, he didn't really have anywhere to go as a character. Was him being good a product of their guidance or something coming from him and what he'd learned? Now he has to embody the goodness he wants for himself by himself, and that's a much more interesting story space...

Q. Any pre-existing characters served as inspiration for Viktor? Parallels with Doctor Doom are plenty in my mind.

How far has he progressed in terms of his evolution? Does he still need to breathe/eat, has he augmented his cognitive abilities?

It's strongly hinted that he does still have shreds of humanity about him. Is there any part of him that holds any regrets on where he is and how he got there? Or is he completely satisfied with his current existence?

How do you think he feels about Zaun? Characters like Ekko/Blitz/Zac/WW seem almost inseparable from the city, what does Viktor think about it?

Edit: Can he remove his mask? There are mentions of smiles in his story but all we see in the game is his mask. Is it removeable or grafted into his skin?

A. I was inspired by the real-life scientists who worked on developing local anesthesia. Some of them experimented on their own bodies to see if the anesthesia worked before trying their techniques on patients during operations. That mentality felt very much true for Viktor, who wants to make humanity better and would never intentionally hurt someone - he would absolutely test a new method on himself if he thought it might be dangerous or hurtful.

Viktor has performed many modifications to his own mind and body, but neither his body nor mind are entirely machine - right now he is a hybrid, though he is constantly upgrading and tweaking his mechanical parts.

I don't think he feels regret - what would be the point? I'm sure like anyone he has made decisions that he would have changed in hindsight, but he doesn't dwell on these. He uses the knowledge he gains from each experience to move forward and do better in the future. I do think Viktor is happy with his current levels of mechanical modifications, and has eliminated many problems from his life through his experimentation.

Like many of the characters from Zaun, Viktor is very much a product of his society. He has been able to use the ingenuity, freedom, and boundless resources of the city in order to create progress and experiment in ways beyond what anyone had yet accomplished. He is not limited to the rules and regulations that held him back in Piltover - here in Zaun, he can do what no one thought possible.

I've always seen the mask as something he can remove and put back on as needed (i.e., to take a sip of sweetmilk).

Q. I love what you did for Viktor. He's oddly enough "human" and despite augmenting himself with cold steel he's surprisingly warm. He's very sympathetic despite his methods being rather questionable at times.

A. Glad you liked the Viktor story! :D I had fun trying to imagine what it's like to have have such a strange, logical distance from emotions. And yeah, I definitely don't see him as cold - he can still empathize with others, but he isn't swayed by what he sees as unnecessary emotions like fear.

Q. Can i ask do you think Viktor is a scientist before a machine herald because he shows signs of sympathy

A. Interesting question. I would say he is both; they are not mutually exclusive. Viktor very much values science and the scientific method - he teaches Naph to ask questions that dig deeper into a rumor, and to value primary sources as evidence above hearsay. Viktor also believes humans have certain weaknesses of spirit that machines do not have, so he's still very much a "machine herald". Through augmentations, Viktor has done his best to rid himself of what he sees as useless and harmful emotions, but he still has empathy for others (as is hopefully evident in this story).

Q. Is Zaun's design and style based off of any real cities?

A. Not wholesale, but all of our work is derived from a lot of real-life references mixed in a particular combination (that will feel like Zaun if you get a sort of rough formula down). There's plenty of Victoriana and Art Deco references, but we don't tend to reference the entire art movement, because that can be too broad. For Zaun's case, we specifically looked at the industrial design in that era and took design cues from it and translated that to architecture instead.

We also kinda think of things like symbolism and how shapes 'feel' to people. For instance, Zaun has a lot of struts and vertical elements. Narratively, we can explain that by saying it's bare metal, it's rough, unpolished, it's the Zaunites' way of building sturdy platforms out from rock. But visually, having struts and vertical elements brings us to a specific industrial era and sets the visual tone of the place as well. So we try and capitalize on these feelings and associations to create the mood of the faction as well.

Response to ^: So Zaun is 1930s New Jersey but in a big canyon?

Response to ^: That's a really good description. We'll go with that. :) It also has strange mechanically augmented people and mutant rats

Q. Would Warwick ever attempt to hunt down Dr.Mundo? How would it go?

So, since Viktor is a misunderstood "Villain", would you say Jayce is a misunderstood hero? It seems like he's really arrogant and only cares about the glory.

A: Ooh. That's an interesting idea.

I'd like to think that Jayce has legitimate heroism within him, but he just needs to stop thinking he's better than everyone else and start focusing on how to work with people.

Q. I have to know, in Viktor's colour story, did he choose to assist Naph solely out of a desire to test and see the results of his fear-suppressing chip mixed with an expectation of a future evolution; or was it derived as well from his lingering human impulses to uplift and grant agency to the downtrodden?

I'm honestly not sure what to, or even what I want to believe of him. The candid nature of Viktor both in his bio and Emberflit Alley really caught me off guard.

A. This isn't the first time Viktor has used the fear-suppressor - he's certainly not using Naph as a test subject. I think Viktor witnessed an inequity when he saw Naph bullied outside his door, knew exactly how that he could help, and fixed the problem. The whole reason Viktor developed all his mechanical augmentations is not just science for science's sake - he genuinely wants to help people and make the world a better place.

Q. to the artist: how did you make sure that each others style matches and do you guys have a end picture in mind or start and see where it takes you?

A. Great question! The team has a central idea of what each faction feels like and we try to boil it down to key phrases and also key shapes. We used words like "Industrial", "Claustrophobic", "Pipework", among others, for Zaun. We spend a lot of time gathering reference and trying out different shapes until we hit upon a palette that represents Zaun. Circles, curves, repetitive struts, holes punched in metal. This way, any artist who works on Zaun has a body of research and a database of sorts to work from.Generally, I don't think we have an end picture in mind that's very clear. We have this general idea of how it should feel like, but we don't really know what it'll end up looking like until we go through an iterative process and finally land an image that 'clicks' and excites everyone.

A2. In addition to what u/riotwhren said about structures, In term of style itself you can compare Piltover and Zaun : in the case of Piltover, a lot of the architecture and shapes tend to be geometrical and symmetrical , a bit like American Art Deco style, Whereas in Zaun, their ability and craft of metal enables them to do a lot of round shapes, tubes, and intricate flowing shapes quite reminiscent of the Art Nouveau metro gates in Paris.:)

Q. What were your inspirations for Zaun? What was the in-house sorta guidelines for what made Zaun? Also, incredible work on the stories - Zaun feels like a living, breathing place and it makes me feel a lot more connected to the champions and proud of Ekko for fighting for it.

A. Hmmmm, I think the key thing we kept repeating over and over again in meetings, both narratively and visually, was... "We need to make it livable. It can't be too dire with no hope whatsoever, it's gotta feel like someone might actually want to visit it".

And of course, the color green. Before we really delved into exploring the visuals, all the green in Zaun was conceptually all from goo and toxic poisons. But we wanted to make it more livable, so eventually the idea emerged that we could represent the green with the cultivairs, and also moss on bricks and stuff instead of neon goo. That way we kept the green but also made Zaun feel more livable.

Q. will you keep making lore in perspectives of citizens/people who aren't the actual champions?

A. Most certainly, yeah. It's fun for us (and hopefully for you) to see the world of Runeterra through the eyes of people who aren't mega-badasses. Like how reading Tales of the Mos Eisley Cantina made the Star Wars trilogy feel much bigger and deeper.

Stories about characters who aren't champions allows us to delve into the world in ways the champions can't (or don't often). It broadens the world and keeps it from feeling 'small' by virtue of so many champs all being involved in the everyday lives of people.

Q. Hello! I am a lore aficionado, and have read and loved every champion's lore, and would like to know more about Warwick, and why you decided to remove Soraka from his lore when she was a very prominent part of his two previous lores. His new lore is still excellent, but it hurts to see such a major player in his lore tragically torn from her spot in his story and character. :(Sincerely, A Warwick main.

A. Partly it was so we can make Soraka her own woman/celestial, partly to give Singed and Warwick's relationship a bit more focus and dynamism. Though we like to include relationships in the origins of our Champs, it's best to do so when those relationships amplify the core of who the Champ is. Personally, I think it was a good move for all three Champs.

Q. Why are u trying to blur some champions identities if u don't have an exact idea of what they are? I'm talking about Janna (also happened to Amumu and Rammus in the past) I mean we are supposed to know exactly what they are, what s up with this ambiguity?

A. Personally, I don't find Janna's identity all that ambiguous -- she's got some mystery, sure (as magical things should in order to feel properly magical, in my opinion), but she's assuredly a physical manifestation of faith and hope from sailors who prayed for fair winds. Which is why her superpowers are summoning wind and hugging sad gay boys.

Q.--- If you'll indulge me a little further, Noxus's "Conquer and patriate" seems very similar to the Roman Empire's way of running things. Would you say that Noxus's control over Valoran is roughly equivalent to the Roman Empire's control over Europe? And furthermore, does Demacia actually pose much of a threat to Noxus, or do they function more as a "stubbornly unconquerable defender" rather than a political rival?

A. Yep! Noxus is similar to an ancient Rome or ancient Persia. And "stubbornly unconquerable defender" is an accurate assessment for Demacia!

Q. A question to help better visualize the city: what sort of fashion do Zaunites wear? What are the differences between each societal class in their dress (i.e. what do the rich vs. poor wear?) And lastly, is there any sort of 'people of Zaun' type concepts anywhere? As I recall, there was at least one concept image for Piltover's people! Thanks!

A. We do have people concepts, but I'm not sure when we're getting them on Universe. In terms of fashion, there are definitely differences between the classes -- among the lower and middle classes, lots of rolled-up sleeves, layers, and various mechanisms to keep the toxins out and your feet dry. Among the upper classes, brighter, vibrant colors (because $$$), and there's less need to have protective elements in your clothes, so more refined patterns and cuts. In fact, I'd say the rich chem barons would pride themselves on looking nicely presented when riding one of the lush elevators up and down the city.

Q. Does Blitzcrank have any hextech going on in him, or is he entirely steam powered?

A. Blitzcrank does not have any hextech within his core - he's made from a bunch of discarded golem parts originally powered by steam, but Blitz reconfigured his own mechanics in order to help others. So you might say that he's fueled by the power of LOVE. <removes tinfoil hat>

Q. Has Ryze, in his travels throughout the years, ever been involved with Zaun in some way?

A. I'm sure he's passed through at some point...

Q. Is there any form of police or anything of the sort in Zaun? half of these guys hunt people at night just for the lulz

A. The Chem-barons are the kind of unofficial law down there, keeping their patches secure and keeping things - more or less - safe. It's not good for business when things get too out of hand, but it can. And when it does, the retribution is swift and brutal. Also, if things get too out of hand down there, the Pilties might come down...

(Also if you look on the reddit page there is a huge discussion, too huge for this post, where the Rioters actually ask why people liked the Journal of Justice so much and why they got rid of it. Go check it out if you’re one of those butt hurt people who hate the new lore).

Q. Why the change for Mundo? Why change him from being a scientist who became twisted from his own experiments to being 'lol idk he's purple'?

A. Because his original lore had a massive amount of crossover with Singed both in terms of narrative detail and tonal space. It also just didn't really mesh with his personality ingame, which is much more jovial and darkly comic.

Q. So Blitzcrank is a self-learning AI, but do computers exist in Valoran? if not, is hextech magic enough to this kind of processing?

A. Piltover and Zaun does not have mass production or the factory system - everything they create is made by a talented craftsperson who has studied for years. So all creations are unique, one-of-a-kind bespoke creations, meaning no computers. Blitzcrank doesn't have hextech within his core, he's a steam-powered golem who modified his own mechanics and became sentient in order to make a greater difference in Zaun.

Q. why zaun is full of criminals ? was it a good place in another time ?

A. Not everyone is a criminal, there's a lot of awesome people in Zaun, but harsh times can lead to harsh responses from some.

Q. What exactly is the relationship between Jinx and Ekko?

A. It's complicated.

Q. And what's the relationship between Taliyah and Ekko?

A. I'm not aware there is one...? Though the kid from Shurima might have passed through Zaun in her travels and I suspect they'd have found kindred spirits in one another.

Q. Is Mundo's tongue purple or blue?

A. The blue in the splash is from the potion he drank.

Q. What kind of relationship do Zaun and Noxus have? Does Zaun regularly supply weapons to Noxus, or does it try to refrain from getting involved in that age-old Demacia/Noxus conflict?

A. Zaun/Piltover trade with Noxus and it's an amicable (as far as any relation with Noxus goes) but the empire is now beginning to see that maybe, just maybe, there's something to this new-fangled technology that's coming out of these two cities.

Q. Does Viktor know about Orianna and if so, what does he think of her?

A. I'd be surprised if he didn't know about her, and he likely thinks of her as some inventor's folly, not yet realizing that there's more to her than a simple clockwork automaton.

Q. How did Zaun become so toxic and poisoned, it was a normal City like Demacia before anything, wasn't it? :D

A. There was a catastrophe in Zaun's past that sank it into canyons and cliffs that ripped through the landscape, which together with the chem-tech researches that have happened since...well, that's not a good mix.

Q. Any chance of Zaun being completely free from all the gas and poisonous filth? :D

A. I suspect their are chem-alchemists working on that very thing right now.

Q. Were there any inspirations you guys drew upon in the making of Janna's new backstory? I've always wanted a Miss Peregrine-type character in League, so I couldn't be more happy with her new lore, personally <3

A. Kiiiiiind of? We mainly just beat our heads against a wall for a couple weeks until we came up with something that we all liked. We sort of realized after the fact that she's slightly Neil Gaiman-y -- a god who was forgotten and then came back as more people started believing in her again.

#reddit #lol #league of legends #zaun #q&A #zac #viktor #blitzcrank #ekko #jinx #the secret weapon #the machien herald #the boy who shattered time #the loose cannon

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ecotone99 · 4 years

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[RF] Scholars Don't get Time to Play

I had a dream about a book which contained these great tales; ones of fantasy that filled me with a sense of wonder and amazement. I was filled with joy living within the world of magic. Eventually this dream came to an end, but I still have bits and pieces of memories from this experience, nothing life changing or anything just a certain fondness for this world I immersed myself in a few nights ago. Now, I know that isn’t much of an introduction but it left enough of an impression on me to bring me to share it with you. As for me, my name is Theodore Rosebell, I usually go by Teddy, and yes I do agree my name sort of carries a resemblance to the late president Theodore Roosevelt and sure I guess my parents choose my given name somewhat influenced by that, but I assure you it is for the most part nothing more than a coincidence. I attend my local college, currently majoring in liberal arts, so there’s nothing much of interest there. I turned 21 not too long ago and all in all, life is well, bland, boring. But I guess that is what made me so intrigued by this dream I had; for a short amount of time I lived in a world that was positively well, awesome one could say. Where do those days go where childhood was filled with nothing but the most spectacular sights and playtimes? I guess I have gotten old, and… I miss it. I am at the age where my job and credentials are far more important the games I once played with the neighborhood kids. Time changes all of us, it is inevitable, and looking back on your life can make it seem all too short in some ways, and much too long in others. Now I could ramble on about my inner monologue but there is somewhat of a story here, I promise, is it interesting? Well I don’t know, you can make of it what you’d like, I enjoyed it for one, take from that what you will. Well enough didle daddling, let’s just get on with it, shall we?

That morning I woke up to my alarm, took a shower, and got dressed. Simple, and indifferent to any other day at first. I left my apartment and went off to class, I had English lit. Until 10 and then I'd be free until noon. I arrived to class and sat down in the lecture hall, prepared for the almost guaranteed-to-be-boring lecture on the impact of Ibsen's style in the late 19th century. Kathy Mayes sat next to me, her pen scribbled down notes on her papers quite often, I however barely moved much for that hour. The class was dismissed and everyone shuffled out of the room, most accompanied by friends or such. I went down to the café for a quick snack before my next class. As I sat in a booth, I looked out the window while sipping on my drink, and watched birds as they passed by and flew overhead. The birds have the right idea, flying free out there, not too much in the way of their life anyways up there. The clock only read a quarter to eleven so I decided to take a quick walk around town to see what might catch my interest.

I strolled down the streets to the nearby park and wandered around, taking in the foliage and greenery. I kept walking along and found myself looking down at a field from the top of a hill, there were sounds of jubilant laughter from children running up and down the hill and some even silly enough to roll down it. Grass stains were visible on several their scrawny little knees, dresses and shorts were in a flurry of happiness and joy. So different was their colorful and fun-filled life from my bleak, boring horizon, they were a sunset and I was all but clouds. I missed what they had, and I held regrets for myself, not cherishing the time when I was the boy running through the grass on a hill. “When does one grow too old for play” I thought to myself, it seemed strange that for some reason I had placed this rule upon myself that was suddenly unable to run on the hill as they did. It dawned on me that I was nothing but a silly fool, if a grown man wanted to have some play, surely there would be no harm would there? Was I worried to be cast a sour glance from a child’s mother? That’s nothing short of ridiculousness, I am very well allowed to do as I may please. I walked slightly further to a pass that was strewn with trees, finding my own little section of hill to play with to my heart’s content. I stopped at the foot of the hill and gathered my wits, I took a deep breath and lurched my foot forward prepared for the coming rush of excitement. And I ran down that hill! I was jolly as could be, a young adult playing like a giddy schoolchild, wind rushing in my face and eyes that shown with laughter. I came closer to the bottom of the hill and as the ground became flat again my foot fell awkwardly and a dull pain came about my ankle. I hobbled over to a nearby tree and sat down along its trunk, a great grin spread about my face as I swept back my windblown hair. How long it’s been since I twisted my ankle, since I’ve gotten a cramp in my side while running like the wind. Hand cramps from long study sessions were the only ails that plagued me in recent memory , but this wasn’t so bad, a fun change of pace. Upon retrieving my phone from my pocket the time showed about half past eleven. My next class was world studies and the thought of sitting in a stuffy classroom for another hour didn’t appeal too much to me. I picked myself up off the ground and made my way back home.

I resided myself back in my quarters and went to take a short nap, that day I dreamed again of magic and wonder, worlds beyond my grasp. Some things are a little too out there and probably beyond my reach, but a few things here and there made my life they much more interesting and exciting. This day wasn’t magical at all, nor was it life changing or really even that extraordinary, but that’s not exactly the point. I had fun today, for the first time in a while really, but I guess even scholars have to time to play.

submitted by /u/Armada-of-Amulis [link] [comments] via Blogger https://ift.tt/2R5xFsu

#Blogger #Story

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thomasroach · 5 years

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Lucah: Born of a Dream Review

The post Lucah: Born of a Dream Review appeared first on Fextralife.

The following post is this author’s opinion and does not reflect the thoughts and feelings of Fextralife as a whole nor the individual content creators associated with the site. Any link that goes outside of Fextralife are owned by their respective authors.

Dropped into a striking world of nightmares, will you be able to fight your way through? Better yet, will you be able to figure out what is going on? Lucah is a 2D brawler with a striking visual style, but is that art style all the game has or is there a good brawler here? Read on to find out.

Lucah: Born of a Dream

Genre: Action-RPG, hack ‘n’ slash Developed by: melessthanthree Published by: Syndicate Atomic LLC. Release date: July 17th, 2017 Platforms: PC Website: https://ift.tt/2kUyLJv

youtube

Game Features

Striking colors and evocative linework elicits an impressionistic sense of ambiguity and tension.

Mix and match over ten different Attack Mantras to create an endless variety of unique combos.

Befriend Familiars and use their ranged elemental magic to turn the course of battle.

Personalize your character with Virtues like slow-motion dodges, stunning parries, or vampiric attacks.

6-7 hour campaign thick with secrets, branching paths, and alternate play modes.

A haunting electronic soundscape binds Lucah into a singular experience of self-discovery through struggle.

Story and Setting

This is going to pain me a little to say, but it needs to be said. The story you get in your first play-through is the most obtuse, edgy, edge-lord nonsense that has ever cut it’s way onto my monitor. The reason why that pains me to say, is that I think there’s a really good story here, but after that first play-through I have no desire to find out more. I have rage-quit out of many games in my gaming history. Even Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night (which is my personal GOTY so far) caused me to ALT-F4 out several times. This has always been due to bugs, mistakes I make, ridiculous difficulty, and so on. Lucah is the first game that made me rage quit over story.

On your first play-through, this game doesn’t explain a single thing. Not a single thing. You are constantly moving to areas and interacting with character without any context what so ever. At first this was interesting but it rapidly grew aggravating, especially when it was combined with the unrelenting edginess on display. It was a never ending parade of me either rolling my eyes in exasperation or furrowing my brow in confusion. None of this is worthy of a rage-quit though.

The rage-quite came when I started a new game+ which started with the game deciding to give me a massive 5+ minute text dump. By the end of it I didn’t know everything, but at last I had context and it just made me snap. Now? NOW you’re going to give me context, after 5+ hours of utter confusing and exasperation? Heck. No. You should have given me this from the start.

The truly frustrating part of this is from that massive text dump, this seems to be a really interesting world. There does seem to be reason for what the heck is going on. But that initial presentation for me is just so horrible, I can’t bring myself to continue playing to find out more. I’m done, and that is truly sad.

Audio and Visual

All it takes is a single glance at a screenshot, and you can tell this game has a very unique art style. The hand drawn, neon colored scribble art style is quite striking. They also have done a good job of animating the scribbles as well, so everything moves in a pleasing way. For the most part this aesthetic serves the game well, but there were a few areas where this causes problems. It can be difficult to tell what is background vs foreground, and at times I wasn’t sure what I could and couldn’t interact with. I never really felt that it interfered with combat, though there were a few times where things felt really busy.

The audio in the game also works really well. It’s nothing that’s going to set the gaming world on fire, but it fits the game very well. Never at any point did I want to reach for the volume controls, and there were several points when I would pause for a moment and note the music. The sound effects are good as well. Every action, strike, and hit has a good sound effect that makes the game feel quite responsive.

Gameplay

The mechanics of this game are good, though it relies a little heavily on reaction-parries for my taste. This also contributes to why I have no desire to complete a second play through, as if you can’t parry consistently you are heavily punished. There is something about reacting to a random action in a perfectly timed button-push that just messes with me. For crying out loud I can’t consistently parry Iudex Gundyr, and I’m sure that statement made some of you point and snicker at me.

Make no mistake, I am not accusing the game of having loose controls. In fact, there is one boss that has a very fixed attack pattern, and once I learned that pattern I was able to wreck it with parries. That was the only time though that I managed to do something like that.

There is also a very good variety of combos available here as well. As you explore through the game you’ll find Mantras, or attack styles. You can mix and match these Mantras to form two custom combo sequences you can switch between at well. Combine that with a variety of Virtues, or passives, and familiars for special attacks, and you get a game that lets you create a combat style that suits you perfectly. Close or far, quick or slow, you can really customize your fighting style here. Which is good, because that’s all you really do as this game at its core is a brawler.

There is one thing though that I wish to praise this game for, and praise it loudly. To all developers who make action games – take a look at this game’s option menu, this game does it right. It gives the player complete and absolute control over the difficulty of the game. You want to make the game a little easier? Turn the speed down by 10%. Want to make the game a little harder? Turn the speed up 10%. Or make the enemies hit harder, or hit lighter, or turn on infinite items, heck give yourself infinite life.

It’s your game, enjoy it how you want to and because of this, I was able to enjoy the combat in this game far more than I was able to enjoy combat in Sekiro. A brutal test of frame-perfect precision, or a gentle (and darn confusing) walk-through an interesting world, you decide.

Replayability

Assuming the nonsense with the story didn’t utterly sour you on the idea of a second play-through, there is definitely lot here that is worth taking a second look at. You can almost look at your first game as a 5 hour-ish tutorial and the reason I say that is there is a corruption mechanic in the game. As you explore it goes up and if you die, it goes up even more. Nothing to stress over in your first game, unless you screw up and leave your game running for three hours which I don’t recommend doing by the way.

On New Game+ however, the corruption meter goes up much, much faster. To counter this, every fight you have is scored. Do well, don’t get hit, get off a bunch of parries, and you’ll get a lot of points which directly translates into corruption reduction. Don’t do well, and you’ll regain very little corruption. This mechanic, combined with an optional, and brutal, dungeon gives this game a lot of staying power past the first play-through.

Pricepoint

If all you’re looking for is a decent 2D brawler that gives you a lot of options for tackling enemies, then this game will be a very good buy for you. Between the custom combos, the scoring system, and the hard optional dungeon there is a lot here for $15. If you’re looking for a good story, I have to put a massive caveat emptor warning up. As I said earlier, I think there’s a really good story here, but it’s deeply marred by bad presentation.

Final Thoughts

I realize that I’m being a bit petulant over the presentation of the story, this is largely because I’m so frustrated over such a botched presentation of what could have been an interesting story. Ignoring that however, there is a good game here. A striking art-style, good music, and a combat system with a level of customization that is rarely seen. If you are interested in 2D brawlers then this is a good game to pickup.

If you enjoyed this review be sure to read next Bloodstained: Ritual Of The Night Review and Attack On Titan 2: Final Battle Review – Reclaiming Territory.

The post Lucah: Born of a Dream Review appeared first on Fextralife.

Lucah: Born of a Dream Review published first on https://juanaframi.tumblr.com/

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tinyworldsbackup · 7 years

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Picoworld: How I found my game's artstyle

How I experimented with finding a good look for my game Picoworld.

Time to draw on my photos

When starting to make Picoworld one of my first ideas was to use my photos to make the ingame art! They would just fit so well with the idea of having this very real, tiny world. Adding something magical to the normal. And people seem to enjoy it!

I've experimented with this style for 2 other games so far- LEAVES and Our Little Island (which are actually 2 of my favorite games I did so far). An issue I head with Our Little Island was that I used static photos as background - yet motion is so important if you want a world to feel alive.

Screenshot from "Our Little Island" - only the drawn objects where animated

Luckily you can also record video with my camera, which I did yesterday and it also seem to work with the engine I'm using to make the game (Unity).

#element-7a02c611-27ce-4a75-82ef-fb8c8e44d99c .colored-box-content { clear: both; float: left; width: 100%; -moz-box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-box-sizing: border-box; -ms-box-sizing: border-box; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: #c9f8a9; padding-top: 20px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-left: 20px; padding-right: 20px; -webkit-border-top-left-radius: 0px; -moz-border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; -webkit-border-top-right-radius: 0px; -moz-border-top-right-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; -webkit-border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; -moz-border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; -webkit-border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; -moz-border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px;}

TIP: TRY OUT THIS STYLE YOURSELF

All my photos on this site can be used freely for non-commercial use - when giving credit.

I also published a free cover photo pack, which people used before to draw over it.

Just load the photos in your program of choice and start painting!

If you want to have a character feel more like "it's in the world" consider things such as lighting.

Sometimes I make some parts of my sprite transparent to "fake" light bouncing back from the surroundings.

Here is another little drawing I did for inspiration (if you want to try this style out yourself.)

Another experiment: flower worlds

I also did another experiment to find an artstyle. This was more for fun really, as I'm fairly certain by now I want to use the "photography" artstyle.

I made those little monsters and the world with plants I found on my travels here in Scotland (currently doing an exchange semester). I have the habit of drying some plants I find on the way in my pocket notebook :)

#element-5a0a014c-4557-430a-9d05-fafa19f4af5b .colored-box-content { clear: both; float: left; width: 100%; -moz-box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-box-sizing: border-box; -ms-box-sizing: border-box; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: #c9f8a9; padding-top: 20px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-left: 20px; padding-right: 20px; -webkit-border-top-left-radius: 0px; -moz-border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; -webkit-border-top-right-radius: 0px; -moz-border-top-right-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; -webkit-border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; -moz-border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; -webkit-border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; -moz-border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px;}

TIP: HOW I PRESS FLOWERS

I carry a pocket A6 notebook with me at all times to note down ideas and do little scribbles.

This notebook is also great to press flowers with! It's a softcover one, but it still works pretty great.

I just put the plant parts in between some of the last pages.

That's it for this update on Picoworld, thank you for your interest! Subscribe to my email thing if you want to keep updated on the game.

#element-9ee29003-447d-42c6-8545-f07e44d32b0c .colored-box-content { clear: both; float: left; width: 100%; -moz-box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-box-sizing: border-box; -ms-box-sizing: border-box; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: #c9f8a9; padding-top: 20px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-left: 20px; padding-right: 20px; -webkit-border-top-left-radius: 0px; -moz-border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; -webkit-border-top-right-radius: 0px; -moz-border-top-right-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; -webkit-border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; -moz-border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; -webkit-border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; -moz-border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px;}

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This post originally appeared on www.tinyworlds.org. Click here to read more nature posts.

#IFTTT #Rick Hoppmann - Blog

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symbianosgames · 7 years

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The following blog post, unless otherwise noted, was written by a member of Gamasutra’s community. The thoughts and opinions expressed are those of the writer and not Gamasutra or its parent company.

TL;DR: At the bottom.

I'm Jeffrey Nielson. I’m an independent developer coming from a game artist background, who recently started working solo. Now, I'm in the late stages of finishing my second self-directed project, Nova Drift. I'm no expert, but I've had some success, so I want to share some of what I've learned for aspiring small / solo developers, clear up some misconceptions, and also talk about how I got here and what I'm working on now.

Disclaimer:

There are many strategies and approaches to game development. This one is just mine. Also, when I say that solo game development is "working for me", I don't have nearly enough data to know that it will continue to work for me. Having said that, I can say that based on my checkered career, there isn't really a particularly stable place to be in games. Anyone can bomb, and even huge, successful game corporations can lay you off without warning. Because of this, you might as well be doing what you love, whatever that is. In any case, I hope that some of the lessons I've learned benefit you.

(Skip it if you like!)

I started playing around with pixel art in MS paint when I was around 10 years old, mimicking the art style from Genesis JRPGs I loved. At 15, I joined my cousins and their programmer friend who were making a ridiculous shooter-platformer called "Worminator" I'm still amazed we were somehow able to create and distribute (for free) a finished game at this age, given how quickly random collabs tend to go sour as adults. They would later create the sequel, Worminator 3 (yes, they skipped 2, it was that good) I played around with RPG Maker, and later discovered Game Maker. After college, where I studied art & design, I worked for a few game companies creating art and animation in a wide range of styles. I met PixelJam Games during this time, after sending them fan art for one of my favorite indie games. To my great surprise, they offered me contract work as a side job. They would later become my foot in the door to independent game development. Meanwhile, my primary employer's company was bought by Facebook game giant Zynga, and I was swept up along with it. Despite having less-than-no interest in those types of games, I decided to go with it and see what it would do for my career. It ended up being incredibly valuable. I learned from talented and brilliant people, became a far better artist, and most importantly, figured out what I wanted out of life.

Gear Shift

My greatest revelation was that I never truly wanted to be an artist. I didn't carry sketchbooks like the others, practice, or show off personal works. I wrote down ideas and made little games. Art turned out to be a means to an end: to create games. I never considered learning to program because I had been encouraged to be an artist all of my life. I had assumed it was my only entry point to the video game industry... and programming seemed incredibly inaccessible. Once I knew I wanted to be more than a small cog in the machine, I had to try. So, after two years, I put in my resignation. I worked with PixelJam for a few years on many small projects, benefiting greatly from their years of experience both thriving and struggling in the industry. I continued to practice coding with GameMaker, until one day Miles Tilmann of PixelJam suggested I try my hand at it full time for one of their clients. Unsure of myself, I reluctantly accepted.

Last Horizon & Nova Drift

The game was a gravity-based "planet lander" game titled Last Horizon. I drafted a design for the game and got to work prototyping it. Rich Grillotti, PixelJam artist, handled the artwork. For the first time, I had nothing to do with the visuals of a game! The game was meant to be a small browser game, but we soon recognized its potential, and it ballooned into a year long desktop & mobile project. It was really difficult. I had to solve a lot of problems I'd never encountered before, and lost faith a few times. However, to our surprise, the game was a hit on mobile! With the revenue split only four ways, we did alright. I started to wonder just how small a team I could manage. An earlier project of mine, Nova Drift, still interested me and I decided to make it my full time job & first solo endeavor, utilizing PixelJam as a publisher and hiring Miles for audio. Two years later, it’s nearly finished.

Be versatile, know your weaknesses.

The common advice I see given is to specialize in a field that can get you an entry level job, such as art, writing, or programming. This still makes sense, but if you want to work alone, you're going to need to be far more versatile. The trick is to practice by creating (just make something-- anything! As soon as possible!) and determine what your strengths and weaknesses are. Games encompass a huge number of specialized fields, and most people simply won't have time to excell in all of them. Once you know your weaknesses, you can design with these deficiencies in mind, or hire help to fill the gaps. In my case, I had a very strong art and animation background, and a fascination with design. By the end of Last Horizon, I was a pretty solid programmer-- but I'd never had a chance to learn about audio, marketing or production. Now that I'm self directed, those are the areas I contract out, or fill with partnerships. One more thing bears mentioning, and I might start some arguments here, but I believe it to be far easier to be an artist or musician who learns to program than the other way around. Most people can learn to program well enough to create a game in a few years, but developing the arts can take most of your life. My advice is start early, hire out, or both.

Don't underestimate what you can accomplish.

I put off learning to code in earnest for decades. I thought it was "for another kind of person". It’s not. It’s intimidating, but you can learn it piece by piece.

I recommend working for companies before going independent.

...Especially if you plan to work solo. This is for many reasons: First, there is an incredible amount to learn from the success and failure of other people. I can't overstate this: Failing a lot is really, really important. It's a lot better if they're failures you're witnessing, or at least still getting paid for, than failures that burn through your savings. Second, the contacts gained from doing so are too valuable to miss out on. You can benefit from these for the rest of your career. Moreover, working for companies hopefully provides you with a decent amount of startup capital so you don't have to rely on begging, borrowing, or crowdfunding (which is unreliable at best).

“The master has failed more times than the beginner has even tried.” - Stephen McCranie.

Networking and building contacts early will benefit you in the long term.

They’ll help you get eyes where you need them, cross-promote, and they may know how to solve problems you do not. I made quite a lot of mistakes in this regard. I resisted Twitter and Facebook networking for years, relying on my employers and producers for networking. I failed to direct thousands of DeviantArt followers to my social media for future endeavors. I waited way too long to create Reddit presence and credibility. I never blogged or wrote about what I was doing. Thanks to my producer, I’m OK, but had I done this we’d have two pools of resources to tap!

Beyond the internet, make as many meaningful connections as you can.

Attend conventions, talk to people, attend events, or work in shared dev spaces. Always remember to be polite, giving and gracious. People are far more likely to help you or care about what you're doing if you show genuine interest in them, too. Most of all, do not underestimate yourself or the strength of your passion. The most important contact I have ever made, PixelJam Games, was made by sending them fan art. This small gesture quite literally changed my life. I was hired, creatively galvanized, and relocated to a new state. There, I met my wife whom I’m now traveling the world with while making video games (she is an elementary school teacher, employed by an international school). PixelJam taught me most of what I know about running a business, empowered me to work solo, and continue to be my most valuable business allies and dear friends. I’m not saying that slinging fan art is going to get you your golden ticket, but don’t underestimate the power of a bold initiative and a little fearlessness.

“Luck Is What Happens When Preparation Meets Opportunity” - Seneca

Make things, whenever you have time.

Anything that aligns with your passion and your goals. In doing so, you can let your work do the talking for you while you're networking. I got my first game job by showing the art director a little pixel art shoot 'em up game I had created in GameMaker. He told me, "This is the most fun interview I’ve ever done". Even if your first creation is hot garbage, it shows great character to have finished the thing on your own impetus.

Write down all of your ideas, even the bad ones.

Scribbles, diagrams, ideas that are nothing more than titles, your spouse’s bad ideas, everything. Archive all of these, make a collection. You'll find uses for some of them later, and others will coalesce into a greater idea.

Rapid prototyping! Get your hands on it!

Prototype ideas often to find out what works and what doesn't. You really won't know until you get your hands on it in action. Game Maker Studio is an alternative to Unity, and a good tool for prototyping if you're still getting the hang of coding or come from an art background. In fact, I still use it for professional development today. If you have any doubts, look into the great games it’s produced. It’s also great for weekend game jams. (These are awesome for getting reinvigorated during long projects).

Better yet, get other people's hands on it.

When we design, we are sort of in a vacuum and take things for granted. Testers will reveal fundamental problems with your game very quickly that you didn't consider. It may not be easy, but I recommend keeping silent as they play and avoid helping. You won’t be there to help your players once the game is out. Recognize that these frustrations are places where the game fails to convey what is needed of the player. Keep notes. Do this early. Fundamental flaws are not something you want to discover at the 11th hour.

Above all, keep things simple.

The tradeoff for complete control is that you have to be incredibly conservative with scope and features due to lack of manpower. Because I'm designing and programming as well, I can't spend all day polishing a painterly masterpiece. Instead, I choose a simple and stylish aesthetic which allows me to rapidly create art and execute ideas. Undertale is a good example of this working well, as is Super Hexagon, Geometry Wars, and Spelunky.

Don’t make your “masterpiece” your first game!

You should try to keep your first few projects very, very small. Maybe even attempt the tiniest crash course to get all of the problems out of the way. What you do NOT want is to encounter every inevitable hang up and brick wall on your grandest, favorite idea, losing your valuable momentum. That game should be your third or fourth, maybe.

Plan, but not too much.

Nobody's estimates are accurate. Just know that it will take far, far longer than you expect it to. It's very easy for a 3 month game idea to turn into several years if you aren't careful. As you develop, you'll often find that your game starts to deviate from your original concept. This is fine; the game informs its own design. Where you need to be alarmed is when the game idea begins to proliferate, considerably larger than you had originally planned. This is called "feature creep", and depending on your restraint and financial situation, it can either bury a project or improve it. Plenty of people have written on this subject, so I'll keep it short: Decide how much you want to allow your project to grow over time, and be strict about it. One thing I do recommend planning for is systems you plan to port to. Look ahead of time at all of the requirements for getting on things like iOS and Android’s Google Play. Saying these platforms are fussy is… putting it mildly.

Don’t over do it.

Inevitably, as you develop, your skill as a programmer will grow immensely from sheer repetition and immersion. You may be faced with the urge to constantly correct mistakes, over-optimize, and even rip things apart and start over. I suggest not doing this. Instead, get it working well, but accept that your early work will inevitably be below your standards and look forward. Do it right in the next game. Unless it's ruining the performance of your game, that imperfect code won't make a huge difference and it's more valuable to complete the project, start building your audience, and begin earning revenue. Also, be careful not to overreact to feedback. Oftentimes, people know something feels off, but they give the wrong reason why. Trust your instincts and solve the problem the best way you know how.

Simple Ideas.

Did I mention to keep it simple? You should keep it simple. It probably won't work, but you can try, and each time you will get better at it.

Live cheap.

Unless you're very solvent to begin with, the full creative control that solo dev allows you comes with a heavy demand: live and work cheaply. I won't get into the basics such as housing, food, lifestyle, and material possessions, but of course these are important. The big one is staying small: by definition, employees and employers are out of the picture, but that doesn't mean you won't have partners, such as publishers, or work with contractors. In fact, I suggest you do, but keep it to the absolute minimum. I've seen many games (and studios!) wither and die because overzealous creators struck too many deals and split the pie too many different ways, beyond the game's capability to generate cash. Another way this happens is over promising during desperate Kickstarter campaigns. I'll go over this more, later. A big company wants to grow, you should want the opposite: become as lean as physically possible. In doing so you can be agile and focus on our strength: creating a uniquely cohesive product in the way only a lone visionary can. So, generally speaking, if you can do it yourself well, do it. However, be willing to pay generously to hire out work you can't do well. If you can't compose music or write, paying for that could make a huge difference in the reception of your game… and paying well for it means getting it done right, and quickly.

Be cautious about cutting people in.

...For reasons other than money, too. There are many ways people you don't know well can throw you a curve ball, or even kill your game. Look for and learn to read red flags. Ask yourself: Do they have a library of creations to verify their skill and follow-through? Are they earnest and forthright with you? Does it seem like they're trying to sell you something? Are they promising impossible or unlikely things? Is there anyone you trust to vouch for them? Have you protected yourself legally? Just... please be careful. Listen to your gut. I've seen a lot go wrong, and I’ve experienced it, too.

Consider working abroad.

I totally get that this isn’t an option for most people, but if you can manage it, it’s possible to have significantly lower living expenses and still earn globally. (I’m living in Thailand at the moment, where a fairly comfortable life is cheap). If you can’t do this, you don’t have to live in Palo Alto / Seattle / Austin...

Auxiliary Income

Crowdfunding: Use it, don’t need it. These are powerful tools that should be wielded with great care. Platforms like Kickstarter are wonderful, but they're often misused. People rely on it, get caught up in the hype, become desperate, and make too many promises. In the end, many cannot deliver, run out of money, or delay and delay until they’re vaporware. Bottom line: Definitely use it, but never need it. I personally won't ever create a kickstarter campaign until I know for certain I can deliver my product without it. It's great for having extra funds to survive the long stretch, maybe add some nice new features, but I firmly believe that if your game cannot survive without being crowdfunded, it should not be created in the first place. It's too great a risk, because we can never predict what won’t go as planned. The resulting time, morale, and energy sink from a failed campaign can be devastating, and a backed campaign that cannot follow through is even worse.

Backers can’t read your mind.

If you do run a campaign, consider the following: Take nothing for granted. Your game idea may be crystal clear in your head, but if a stranger watches the video and doesn't understand what the game is, they won't be backing it. Remember, you’ve been in a vacuum with the game for a long time. Everyone else has not. Make sure a lot of people see your trailer and provide critical feedback. Show it to hard-ass devs and ask them to be brutal. Show it to me. If you've planned properly, you've budgeted time to fix it.

Don't just prepare your kickstarter page, prepare the update material, too. Get an early start on screenshots, GIFs, press kits, social media, etc. This is all easier if you're fairly late in your game development and already have a lot of information and visuals to work with.

Above all, be honest and as transparent as possible with your backers. They will appreciate it, and it will generate faith in you. If they believe supporting you will reflect well on them, they will be far more likely to help you spread the word and get more backers. I hear Steam early-access and Patreon can be also great sources of income during development, but I haven’t tried them.

Self Promotion

It’s OK to ask for help. Getting used to this was the hardest bit for me, as I tend to prefer hiding in the shadows to the spotlight. You have to do it, and there's nothing wrong with it. Despite what you may instinctively feel, it's pretty hard to get annoyed at an earnest self-promoter, provided they're only asking once. Again, people are far more likely to help you if you show genuine interest in them, too. Start a conversation, talk about what's important to them. Ask them for a signal boost if they're into what you're making. Don't ask for money, and don't ask to trade promo, that's a bit weak. I recommend using Facebook, Twitter, maybe a blog if you enjoy it.. Having a separate Twitter and Facebook for work and personal can be useful. Good hashtags to use are #indiedev and #gamedev. Post a lot, show your passion, and as long as you're respectful and your product is good, people will help you.

Don’t go crazy.

Bear in mind that working alone, creatively, can have some psychological tolls. When you work for years on something important to you, it's easy to give in to doubt and anxiety. The longer you work on it, the greater it seems to need to be to live up to that. You keep raising the bar, but whenever you do, every aspect of the game has to rise up. Distraction, too, can become a constant problem to the developer who disengages with their creation. It can get bad.

Some things you can do to counter this:

Move around. Work from cafes, outside, or in shared work spaces in cities.

Don’t make your sleep-zone or gaming-zone be your work area. That separation helps you relax during off-time.

Take advantage of your flexible schedule. If it works for you, occasionally break up your work day and enjoy the daylight outside.

Get and give feedback from developers you trust, who are also making awesome things. I’m always surprised how much this small thing matters and inspires.

During the drag of a long project, take days to work on something else. Game jams, or new ideas. (I make nerdy charts and skill trees for future games)

You should love it.

Let’s face it, if you can make a game, there are much easier ways to use your talents to make lots of money. If you’re in this field, it should bring you joy. If that’s not happening, and it’s not on the horizon, you should reconsider the path you’re on.

If you made it this far, awesome. Thank you for listening. I’m happy to answer any questions you have in the comments. Ask me anything! Also, please take a look at my game in the link at the bottom, and if you’re into it, spread the word.

TL;DR:

Work for a company first, earn some coin, exp, and recruit allies.

Try to become versatile, and don’t underestimate what you can learn.

Determine your strengths and weaknesses, and know how to fill in the gaps with help.

Spend good money on things you can't do well.

Start building an online following ASAP.

Write all of your ideas down, bad ones too.

Create, a lot. Good things, bad things, just create.

Get people to test early, because you're in a vacuum and take things for granted.

Don’t try to make your first game your masterpiece.

Plan, but not too much.

Don't over-optimize or start over, instead do it better the next time.

Finish projects and don't get ahead of yourself.

Everything you make increases your residual income, brand strength, and freedom.

Keep your business as simple and as small as you can.

Be careful who you sign on with and what you sign up for.

Live cheaply.

Don't "feature creep".

Crowdfund for extra money, or use early access but never rely on these. Avoid the "cycle of need".

Promote and share often, don't be afraid to ask for help, but don't be annoying either.

Care about what other people are doing and they will care about your work.

Master solitude, self-doubt, and distraction.

Love what you are doing, and if you don’t, change course.

Nova Drift Kickstarter and Trailer

#IFTTT #Blogger

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