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eternal-reverie · 5 years

Note

Ventus, Skuld, and Ava for the character meme?

Ooo alright I’m going to try my best to be more concise!

Ventus

First impression

I think the first time I saw him was in the kh2 secret ending?? Everyone thought “Roxas!” so that’s not unique It was jarring to see this happy go lucky attitude that Sora usually has… in this Roxas lookalike. Then actually playing BBS, I remember finding him very sweet but disappointed he wasn’t as interesting as Roxas? Or to put it differently, his storyline did not seem as compelling as Aqua’s and Terra’s within the same game. This lasted for several years, I did not understand the hype behind him until….

Impression now

khux really cemented in my love for this boy. It felt so odd to see him placed so far in the past but now some things make more sense for him? We briefly see his self-doubt when MX exhorts him to use the darkness and I’m so glad that we see that again in khux in full force. His imposter syndrome is pretty relatable and whatever will happen to his new friends here in khux should strengthen the case of his fear of losing friends in BBS. I don’t know, just the idea of a boy his age intertwined in the heart of a war conflict is really compelling.

Favorite moment

I was going to say when he forcibly unfreezes himself to save Aqua or the moment when he wakes up to save her again in kh3. Those were epic, but my hands down favorite moment is when he opened his arms up to embrace chirithy at the end of kh3 ;~:

Idea for a story

Chirithy sharing stories of Ven’s time in the dandelions to Aqua and Terra would be cute and possibly mind-boggling for those two. Or just a story of him catching up with chirithy after this whole time.

Unpopular opinion

My unpopular opinion was Ven not being able to hold a candle to Roxas but my stance is different now. I guess my unpopular opinion could be that Ven is absolutely not the culprit behind Strelizia’s death??? I mean look at him. He’s a literal baby.

Favorite relationship

This might belong in the above section but I feel like the rest of the union leaders are the better friend group for him rather than Aqua and Terra??? Maybe it’s because they feel more parental while the union leaders feel more like peers? It’s strange to say that since he’s closer to Aqua’s and Terra’s ages than the more apparent age disparity between the other union leaders and him. Ephemera’s and Skuld’s welcoming a friendship towards him really made an impression. Brain and Ven is pretty fascinating too with how brusque Brain is towards him about being assertive.

Favorite headcanon

Ven is the kind of kid to collect things. Just out of pure fascination and sentiment. He goes through a rock phase, feather phase, stamp phase, etc things like that where he carefully finds the containers to put these items to cherish and study. Those items represent moments he would hold dear, like a small rock that Terra accidentally tripped over and they would all laugh or a coin Aqua gives Ven to buy a snack with, but ends up not spending it since it was so shiny. So all these things have a heavy sentimental value to him, and if someone were to take it away or deem it as junk, he would get really upset.

Skuld

First impression

A NEW KH GIRL!!!?!?! WITH LONG BLACK HAIR???? that i could possibly cosplay one day??!?

After that initial impression, she fell under the radar for me since khx was hard to get into back then. But once khux came out globally, she became easier to see and get attached to since she does hang out with player more than Ephemera.

Impression now

I love her strong convictions and I can never tire of looking at her design. I really want to draw her more often.

Ȋ̴̩̘͆͋̑ ̶̡͚̫͛͘͘ẇ̷̧̖̺̻a̴̫͊̍̾̚ń̵̓ͅt̵͔͍̩̅͜ ̷͇̭̏̊͜n̵͎͎̈́̈̽̄̒ó̷̟͕͙͖ͅt̵̮̒h̶̰͖͉̤͑̀̑̃̚į̶̤̤͍̩̈́̈́n̵͈̮͙͕͊͘͝͝g̵͔͕̞̙͗̕ ̸̼̫͇͖̼͊̐̿̾b̶̛̻͖͙̠̯́͝ȧ̶͙̤ḓ̷̽̾̆̕ ̵͔̰̐͆̚t̷̹̬̿̃ô̸͉̻̺ ̵̡̃̐͊ͅẖ̴̻͂̂͑ͅą̶̡̭͇̣͌͘p̴̰̮̐̒̿p̸̻̆ȩ̸̦͍̌n̵̲̦͉̬̰̓͌͊ ̵̧̻̟̭̃̑̈̒͜t̶̘̼̊̓̊ǫ̷̦̎ ̵̙̩̪͎̄͊̄ȟ̸͇̥͉͘ͅͅẽ̶̠̝͂͝r̷̼͑̿̌̕

Favorite moment

She absolutely had her moment when she descends from the light and player calls her a goddess like yo what other character carries that divine energy besides her??? ok maybe strelitzia but that’s a sad example

2nd favorite moment: her conviction against the shift pride rule. She had a firm opinion and wasn’t going to be swayed. Respect.

Idea for a story

Skuld is a great planner and organizer, to the point of pushing herself being so busy as a leader. One day she’s sent off with Ven to look for additional materials for Brain’s experiments but really it’s just a guise for the other union leaders to organize an appreciation picnic for her :D She’s at a loss for words, Then, Ven let slip that it was all Ephemera’s idea which he denies, distributing the credit to everyone else. They have a picnic among the dandelions with lots of sandwiches and pastries, all of which are her favorites.

Unpopular opinion

I don’t think i have any!

Favorite relationship

Skuld with Player is honestly my favorite thing to see. She’s there through the thick and thin for them. Her friendship with Ephemera is so interesting as well since they were in a party together. I miss seeing their interactions.

Favorite headcanon

If you ask her nicely, she’s totally down with doing your make up. She had a lot of practice achieving beautiful makeup looks. She’s those kind of people that are really put together and radiate positive energy, that one can’t help but try to emulate.

Ava

First impression

The foretellers were revealed such a long time ago it feels. I think Ira and Ava stuck out to me the most, the former because I love unicorns and the latter for the pink color scheme of her foreteller outfit. She seemed like the most approachable foreteller since she hung out Ephemera that one scene.

Impression now

She seemed like a straightforward character, always striving to do what’s right but right now I have a lot of doubts. Her clash with Luxu starting the war…her not being present in the kh3 eplilogue. She’s just so hard to grasp now??? And with the new screenshots of her with Brain…

Favorite moment

Her fawning over the chirithy in the test tube MoM kept!

Idea for a story

This is so simple but I want to see her ordering dinner with the other foretellers. Just dinnertime conversation ranging from official talk to annoying things that happened that week for them. Aced gets all worked up and so to mitigate that Ava requests the waiter to bring a candle-lit cake to the table. Once the cake is brought over, the whole restaurant bursts into singing happy birthday, since it is someone as important as a FORETELLER right there. Aced becomes so confused that he forgets what he was upset about and just hesitantly accepts the cake. Gula tries and fails to hold back his laughter. Ira and Invi are late to react, but they join in laughing soon after. After everything calms down, Aced demands who did this, but Ava just gives an innocent smile.

Unpopular opinion

I don’t have any for her either. I guess I’m just tired of the fact that she has the bigger union? I’m just biased since I’m in Unicornis 😆

Favorite relationship

Her relationship with Gula is so tender ;~; and her relationship with MoM is so intriguing. His manner is much more serious whenever he interacts with her.

Favorite headcanon

In her spare time, she like to make trinkets, charms and jewelry to give as gifts to wielders in her union. They often don’t expect her unique gifts.

#khux #kh #kingdom hearts #ventus #skuld #ava #foreteller ava #asks #this took a really long time too x_x

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the-canary · 6 years

Text

Pastel Colors - B.B (12/15)

Summary: If only the cute teacher would stop pestering you for a pen.(Library/Teacher AU! Reader/Bucky Barnes)

Prompt: you’re always asking me for a pencil because for some damn reason you don’t know that there is a whole store for stationary—happy birthday here’s a gift card to that store. wait, you work there? what the hell?

Masterlist

A/N: This is for @bithors writing challenge. REVELATION CHAPTER! On so many things will finally be revealed and I hope you don’t get ya heart broken along the way. 2 chapters + epilogue to go! <3 There is still time for drabble request too!

Feedback is always appreciated.

Rebecca tells Bucky to wait two weeks, that’s all the time she needs to have everything set in motion. If it had just been her telling him all this, James doubted he would have gone through with such a plan because he knows what goes on in said amount of time and he would rather have a good memory of his early birthday party than one where you potentially crushed his heart -- like that old Simpsons episode that used to scare him so much. However, a grinning Pietro is sitting across his coffee table and him being here, the person that knows you best, has to mean something, right?

It is due to the simple fact that James decides to wait. At least if it doesn’t work out, he’ll have a week away from you to tend to his broken heart through that yearly conference that he always goes to -- truly like Orion and Diane. However, his sister and Pietro won’t leave until he answers that one question, the one that has been boggling their minds since they put two and two together.

How exactly did you fall in love with her?

With a lovestruck grin, James starts a little tale because he had been in love with you since before he even saw you.

James Buchanan Barnes came to this dingy high school during one of the worst times of his life. He had lost his fiancee to a trusted coworker because she was “feeling lonely”. His job was fulfilling but without this other half, Bucky Barnes lost some deep part of himself -- one that told him it was all worthwhile, so he ran. He ran back to New York with Steve and Peggy welcoming him until he got back on his feet again. Hell, Steve even recommended him for the teaching position at the high school he worked at, without many options, James accepted it though his heart was never fully in it throughout the whole hiring process.

It isn’t until his first day sometime before winter break ends and he is bringing in his stuff into the empty classroom and James see the little welcome basket on his desk, that he starts to feel something warm and welcoming after such the emotional drought he had been through.

He pauses and clears away the plastic wrapping only to see the basket full of sweets and school supplies -- the all too familiar bee logo his father made looking back at him. He has to sit down and stares at the casing with longing, reminding himself of how he hadn’t seen his parents or sisters since moving back. James didn’t want to disappoint them, but god looking at all these pens and stationery make him want to go back. He wonders if the person who made this (maybe Steve) knew that. His eyes get a little misty, as he finally notices a card envelope with a flower motif.

Welcome to our school, Mr. Barnes!

I was in your shoes not that long ago, but I hope you feel welcomed here! Everyone always says: “we’re lucky to have you”, and with someone like you we are. But that’s not the point, sorry. Our school’s motto is: If you want support, you must offer something in return. Now, that could be taken in a bad way, but to me, you being here is making our teachers and students stronger. You’ve got our back and we got yours, ya know? It’s a little family here, even if you don’t see everyone! So, even when you’re weary or tired, maybe even about to give up, remember -- I got you.

I hope you have a great first year.

And in the darkness of his classroom, James has his heart stolen by a few words.

Two weeks. Rebecca tells you to wait two weeks before moving forward with anything. You’re a little confused by her sudden demands, but after getting Pietro’s advice you wearily agree to. However, you didn’t think that you were going to stop seeing James all together either. It feels like that moment all those months ago, but worst because you can’t help but look at the door every time it opens, hoping that it's him. The library was silent, no more laughs at lunchtime or geeking out over the VR tech, and for the first time in your life the building you loved couldn’t stop the loneliness you felt deep inside your heart. That’s when you knew --a week in-- that James was it for you.

“Hey Lib, are you okay?” Michelle asks the 2nd Tuesday without seeing James, after lunch though she decides to stay behind and skip. Usually, you would shake your head and give her a note for when she needs it, but this time nothing -- just staring blankly at your desk. Her voice breaks you stupor for a moment, as you give her a sad smile. Then, it clicks.

“What did Mr. Barnes do?” Michelle asks in accusation, as you shake your head. She frowns, not entirely sure what to do besides grabbing your laptop and pushing it in front of you.

“You know what’s the best advice you can get from a teenage girl?” she states, while grinning and feeling slightly accomplished when you crack a smile at her own self deprecating comment.

“What?”

“Shop ‘till you drop,” she grins and the two of you end up surfing for new clothes and stationery from different countries until the end of school, and while you feel a little guilty, you can’t help but feel a little better.

Here’s the thing, every early March for awhile now, the adult Barnes kids celebrated James’ birthday early because soon afterwards he would be traveling to different science and space conventions that he was invited to. This year was a little different since their parents were on a cruise and their younger sisters, due to various reasons, couldn’t attend. This left a very bossy Rebecca and William to deal with everything with some side help from Steve and Peggy, but this also allowed her to set-up the stage for your inevitable confession.

The problem was that you didn’t know that James was her older brother, so it had been struggle for both her and Pietro to convince you to go when you clearly didn’t want to date the man, especially when you clearly loved someone else. It had been a hassle to get everyone gathered in Washington Market Park (with the traditional party set up around an old wooden bench with starry tablecloths and plates since everyone was going to bring something), Rebecca knew the memories that felt special for Bucky in this particular area and she wanted to make him happy again. What she didn’t expect is how early you would get there and just how pretty you would look in the late spring weather, as you give her a bashful smile, wearing a blouse and long skirt with a stylish pair of shoes. It seems like Michelle’s instance worked out in the end.

“He’s just gonna die, when he sees you like this,” Rebecca smiles, as you stand in front of her and give her a confused look. It was now or never,she thought with hope and worry in her heart.

“Becca, I don’t know your brother,” you explain, unsure of where this is all going, “I thought--”

“You do know my brother, sweetie,” Rebecca tries to soften the blow, as she looks into your panicking eyes, “Please don’t be mad, but do you know what the ‘B’ in the store’s name stands for?”

“Bumble bees?”

“Close. More like the Barnes children are all busy little bees ,” she smiles, thinking about her childhood and what her father used to say whenever all four of them used to run around this very same park on special outings. She signs, ready to devastate you but in the best way possible, “Rebecca Barnes is my maiden name, and I run Barnes’ Stationery.”

You’re quick to put two and two together.

“Then, you knew… all this time?” you ask, voice quivering and shock running through your veins, though there is a little part of you that doesn’t want to believe, but you know Rebecca you never lie to you, “Does James know?”

“No, he doesn’t know… this was all my idea,” she explains, noticing the shaking in your hands as the panic gets the better off you and your throat dries out at the moment. She hopes you’ll stay, but your next words don’t shock her either.

“I can’t do this.” you whimper and even though you know she had the best in mind for you --for James-- you can’t do it like this -- you aren’t ready for the pain, “I gotta go, Becca.”

“Please,” she tries to plea softly, but you have already let go of her hands and run off.

At the same time, Steve, James, and Peggy are all early for this time honored tradition and are walking in the opposite direction and get to see some of interaction going on between you and the younger Barnes, as Bucky watches you walk away with a very distressed Rebecca just standing there trying to take some deep breaths. Peggy looks at the two in a way that they know she means business before heading over to the expectant mother. James stands dumbfounded at the situation and how pretty you look before Steve finally decides to step in.

“Go get her!” the blond yells, as Bucky jumps out of his daydream after seeing that you have gone deeper into the park.

Steve pushes him to get moving, as Bucky nods and starts running down an all too familiar path, too high on his personal emotions to realize it has started raining. It reminds him of how when he’s always at the end of his hope, Steve somehow manages to save his ass -- Bucky really owes that punk too much.

“Oh, are star pens popular now?” Steve questions, as they sit in together during lunch though Bucky is busier grading some quizzes, looking at said writing utensil, “The assistant librarian has one just like yours.”

“Who?” Bucky stops everything and looks at his oldest friend, who obviously didn’t know that James had been looking for the person that written the note all those months back. He had struggled and searched, moving from Natasha to Ms. Hill, thinking one of them knew about the stationery store or even wrote like the little note he had locked up and safely kept in his desk drawer, but no such luck. James had given up.

“Mr. Philips’ assistant. Sweet woman, if not a little shy,” Steve explains, as blue eyes widen, “She tends to hide in the library a lot, but you can always see her running around, doing errands for him.”

Bucky’s heart staggers and stops. He knows he has to meet this woman, and he wishes with all his heart that it’s her.

James stops running as the rain starts falling a harder, finding himself in an area of the park were there are splattering of old gazebos here and there. He runs a cold hand through his matted air, as he looks every which way that he can searching for you, worry that you might get sick or injured due to the rain burning within in his chest. He walks around a bit more, looking into every gazebo he passes until he sees a figure sitting in one near the lake. Bucky starts walking a bit faster, though he wants to stop and admire how beautiful you look today, taking in the fact you had dressed up in a long, dark skirt and flattering blouse just for him.

Steve is right about one thing, the library assistant is a tough gal to catch though he was sure he had caught glimpses of her here and there. He had even meet Mr. Philips and though he was a quiet man James could tell there was a stern aura to him, that he knew well enough they wouldn’t get along if he ever crossed the library.

He knows you have those stars pens that Becca carries, hell even the little bag you carry had the familiar bee logo -- the one he knows to make like the back of his hand. It has to be you, but when will get the chance to say something, even a simple thank you. He gets his chance early one morning, half way through his first year. James gets in way earlier to work than he should, but it was one of those nights where his thoughts wouldn’t let him sleep -- he was tired and a mix of all other negative emotions that he still refused to acknowledge. He signs the roster without another word to the office secretary, though he hears an unfamiliar voice that has him perking up for a moment.

“Good morning,” is all she says softly. The morning sun is swans and heavenly behind her and James is awestruck. She clutches her books a bit closer than before as she gives him a tight but sweet smile before heading out of the office. This is it, this is the one person he had been searching for months now.

This is her, and James falls in love completely. But, he also knows he’s still not in a good place.

However, now wasn’t the time for reminiscing. Right now, James needs to make this happen, this longing and love that has haunted him for 3 years a reality, and that started by calling out your name. He runs a hand through his wet hair as blue eyes watch you shivering for a moment, as you move to the other side of the gazebo, though he doesn’t stop walking towards you until he has you backed into one of the pillars. There are tear steaks on your face and while he wants to hold you, he knows that won’t help his cause.

“What did Becca tell you?” James asks hesitant, unsure of how much of his feelings were told to you by Rebecca, even though he doesn’t want to think of his sister as that type of person. However, she tended to push things to far at times when she wanted to get things done her away.

“Today, that you’re her older brother,” you explain while playing with the buttons of your new blouse, “Before that you had run back home, bad fiancee. You weren’t doing well back then...she’s was trying to get me on a date with you some time ago though.”

You laugh weakly at the last part, still unsure of how to merge the image of Becca’s deadbeat brother to James’ handsome visage. Maybe, love did really make you blind? However, James only frowns because he had been in bad place for a long time and it wasn’t until everything settled down that he finally did get help -- your note had been a great support during that time. However, he didn’t go to counseling and all those sessions due to the ideal image he had of you, it was for himself -- because James was tired of what he wasn’t, falling in love with you and what he saw every chance he could in those 3 years was part of the process. Everything, including his sister and your best friend melding had brought him to this point.

Now, if he could just fucking confess.

“I--I--I…” you take a large gulp of air, as you break his train of thought. However, first thing is calming you down of whatever lead to this panic attack, though he knows it is surely related to him.

“Yeah, but that was a long time ago. First, ya gotta calm down, doll,” he admits and steps forward, placing his hands on top of yours and rubbing circles on your palms; he’s secretly happy you don’t turn him away at this point, “Take it easy, one step at a time.”

You take a deep breathe, gaining all the imaginary courage you have and grip his hands tightly. Your voice is a little sore when you begin, as curious blue eyes stare at you -- wondering if you are going to reject him like he always feared you would.

“I-I hated not seeing you these past few weeks,” you confess, as Bucky stops breathing for a moment,“I’ve known for awhile now, but it took that time for me to realize I’m falling in love with you.”

“What?”

“I know you love someone else,” you don’t let him speak, as everything comes out in a rush due to your fear. Your eyes close as you let it all out, “But, I’m in love you, James Barnes.”

“I’m sorry to disappoint you, sweetheart,” he’s surprised, and you’re ready for the killing blow, as he lets out a lovesick sigh. Truly content that everything is finally falling into place, “There’s nobody else, but you. Been in love with you since Day 1.”

“What?”

“I love you -- just you, have for a long time now,” he murmurs softly, blue eyes full of adoration meeting yours as he brushes your bottom lip with his thumb. You’re dumbstruck as you open your eyes and a faint, weary giggle leaves your lips. He smiles, placing his forehead on top of yours, the rain drowning out anything else, as you press a hand on his cheek with a shy smile on your lips.

“Literally, two fools in love, huh?” you question with a teasing uptick in your voice, as he laughs. His bubble of happiness soaring even higher, as he places his cold hand around your waist and you don’t push him away, eyes equally loving as his own.

“Yeah--” James begins to say, but the emotions and dizziness that come with such a confession make you a bit bolder than usual, as you move your hand to the back of his neck and pull him -- his lips crashing into yours as he lets out a little gasp of surprise.

Bucky catches up quickly, as he tightens the hold on your waist, pulling you closer to his body heat that you can feel through his wet clothes. Soft and slow, memorizing every part of this moment, James rubs small circles onto your wet shirt just above your waist, as you whimper and put your arms around his neck bringing him in as close as you possibly can -- because it’s not enough, it’s never going to be enough . And you two stand there, kissing and laughing for a good long while, enjoying the simple bliss of it all.

The stars, and everyone else in the party later on, lets out a collective sigh as these two fools in love, finally become lovers indeed.

Part 13

#kumis5kchallenge #bucky barnes x reader #bucky x reader #bucky barnes fanfiction #bucky barnes fic #bucky barnes fluff #bucky banes fan fic #bucky barnes teacher au #bucky barnes library au #series: pastel colors #fabiola trying to write

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ciathyzareposts · 5 years

Text

Missed Classic: Spellbreaker – The Chase

Written by Joe Pranevich

You’ve heard the classic story: boy meets girl, girl meets boy, boy and girl happen to be levitating rocks on a Tron-esque grid? It’s classic. If I have to say one thing about Spellbreaker, it is not afraid to have interesting and difficult puzzles. And despite the number of times that I have been stuck in this game, I’ve nearly always managed to get myself unstuck by looking at the problem in a different way. As we approach the end of the game, the overall picture is coming into focus. Connections are forming between the areas that the cubes take us, but I wish I did not have to spend the first half of the game feeling like I was playing a text-adventure version of Quantum Leap. Oh boy…

One other thing: this game is long. I’m ending this post at just over 18 hours in, making it the longest Infocom game by far and that does not include any of my time replaying from scratch last entry. The only longer game in this marathon is mainframe Zork which clocked in at roughly double where I am now. No actual Infocom release has taken me more than twelve hours to win. If they had planned to make this the “grand finale” of Zork, I think they succeeded under that metric at least.

Let’s play!

Wow. That looks complicated.

Two Dead Ends

We ended last week having just solved the octagon maze and with a new cube in-hand. I blorple it to end up in “No Place”. It is a lot like a place, except the room description says that we’re not in a place and my brain has no idea how to process not being any place, except somehow there are also exits east, west, and south, presumably to places. The mind boggles, but I head east first. That me to a vault filled to the brim with treasure. Could it possibly be the vault we discovered at the end of Zork III? The only exit from the vault is a locked door with a complicated mechanism although it’s strange that it is locked from the inside. I cannot seem to interact with it in any way. Is there a puzzle here or just a locked door? Rezrov is not powerful enough to open it.

I start to sift through the room for things I might want, but anything I pick up is listed as “treasure” in my inventory without distinction. I can teleport out with no problem, but doing so transforms the “treasure” into “junk”. I either need the treasure and therefore need to exit through the vault door to keep it as-is, or perhaps all the treasure really is an illusion… maybe even the door? I’m not sure where the we are going with this one, but there doesn’t appear to be anything for me to do here right now.

Restoring back to “No Place”, I discover that west is the typical broken exit that we have with each of the cubes while south leads me to a very strange plain.

The 1980s were truly a special time.

Imagine, if you will, a plane with intersecting lines moving in all directions. There are hovering boulders sliding on the lines from place to place. I cannot follow the lines or go any direction at all because the ground is too slippery for walking. Even magic seems to be broken here as spells just fizzle out. I can’t cheat by using the magic carpet either. A green-eyed boulder is nearby and I can talk to her, which is somewhat surprising because she’s a rock. She tells me that I’m not as odd as the last person that visited her. Could that be the assailant from the beginning of the game? I point out a brown-eyed rock in the distance and she says simply that he’s not as pretty as she is. This increases the total number of vain green-eyed talking boulders in adventure games to… one. The good news is that the she’s willing to give me a ride in exchange for some food. All she wants is something high in phosphorus.

Unfortunately, I don’t have any and cannot proceed this way. With repeated attempts, I am unable to find anything different in any of the areas that I already explored. There’s no way through vault door, nor is there anything else I can do on the plain. I am stuck.

A Whole New (Boring) World

I expect that this game is very difficult to follow in written-out chunks every week or so. I’m taking very good notes which I need to be able to sit down and write against later and I’m still having difficulty keeping the whole game in my head. I am especially confused about places where I experimented and then gave up. Did I do that in my current save? Did I not? I don’t remember.

I have a note from last time that I’m not satisfied that I did the correct things with the carpet, either in the way that I bought it with the opal or in what to do with it afterwards. So I head back there and play around. It turns out that you can haggle with the vendor and talk him down to 500 zorkmids. This involves “offering” him different amounts starting from high to low and if you get it just right he’ll agree to 500 after a few tries. In my case, I found that if I started with 300 and increased my offer by 50 each time, he eventually comes down that amount and I can pay using my coin, saving the opal for a puzzle later. I feel better about this solution overall.

What should I do with the carpet? I know that if we fly up from the bazaar, we discover that we’re in the mountains that have the roc’s nest and the guard’s tower. I didn’t map it before, only explored it more or less at random. I’ll take a more structured approach this time. Unlike typical exploration, we have altitude to contend with. I find four separate levels to explore: “above”, “high above”, “very high above”, and “dizzyingly high above” the ground. Any further up than that and it is always the same text, while any lower than that and we crash or land but either way results in death. You can keep going higher and you never seem to die of asphyxiation, but maybe I just wasn’t patient enough. For my part, I concentrate on “above” since we need to be able to see things below us to land on them. I do head up and explore a bit higher, but unless there is a castle in the sky or similar, it is all empty air. I can come back if I get stuck again.

When Aladdin sang his song, he expected more interesting terrain.

There are an infinite number of empty rooms stretching in all directions. Just as before, I locate the bird’s nest and confirm that the guard’s tower just four rooms east. I do not find any way back to the bazaar, the mountain at the beginning of the game, the ocean, or anywhere else. Even so, this is everything I need for a new idea:

I am going to race the roc.

Whenever I come up from the bazaar, the roc is already at its nest. But when I teleport to the oubliette and climb my way up on the ice floe to the guard’s tower, the roc is circling and not at its nest. What if I climb out then immediately jump on the carpet and head west? I try that and it works! I beat the roc home and find the nest unsupervised for the first time in the game. Unfortunately, I arrive just as the egg is hatching and if I stay for more than a couple of turns, the hatchling kills me. I memorize my spells in advance so I just land, grab the cube and the carpet, then “blurple” myself away. I am not going to be a snack today!

Portrait of Belboz from Zork: Grand Inquisitor

Third Dead End

Using the Roc’s cube takes me to the “String Room” with exits to the south and east. Naturally, only one of the exits work but the other takes me to the “Enchanter’s Retreat” where the retired Belboz and other former leaders are retired to a life of quiet meditation. Why aren’t they helping since everyone else is a frog? I guess they figure I have it covered. Belboz, my mentor from the first two games, is there and we can ask him a bit about what is going on. He tells me that someone had visited him a few days prior, impersonating me, but that he knew it wasn’t me because he did not know things that I would have known. So he asks me a question: “Of the Neuromancers, who is the best known?”

Of course, I have no idea, but I do have the manual and the several trading cards that came with the game.

Oysters and fish are not vegetables.

I answer “Berknip” from the cards and he seems relieved that it is me. He hands me an iron key. I ask him about the cubes and he makes them sound impressive, as if the knowledge of them can make or unmake the world, but nothing else I ask seems helpful. I try the key in the vault and that is not the correct place to use it. I’ll have to keep looking.

I am stuck again except this time I do not even have notes that I missed something along the way. I explore more with the carpet. The solution turns out to be going through my spells to see which ones I haven’t used yet. I’ve created frozen icebergs, shrunk giant snakes, put a statue to sleep, repaired a hut, grew out some ragweed, animated a statue, and blew away fog. The only two spells that I haven’t found uses for yet are “yomin” to read minds (although that did provide some hints) and “snavig” to transform into an animal. I try to find things to transform into.

A Fishy Solution

It doesn’t take me that long to find an animal that I can transform into: a fish. If I use the “water” cube and take a splash landing into the ocean, you end up where I fought with a grouper to capture a message in a bottle. That grouper is still there if you return. After hiding my stuff in the zipper, I try “snavig” and am able to become the fish. Swimming down, I discover a cube at the bottom of the ocean. Unfortunately, the fish still eats my cube and I lose all of my stuff because everything sinks. I have to find an alternate approach.

Instead of stashing my stuff in the zipper, I drop everything I am carrying in the Water Room itself. I memorize “snavig” and “blorple” so I can get back, but I take the dive into the ocean unencumbered. That still doesn’t quite do it because the fish will steal the water cube if I am not careful. I can transform and eat it myself, but there doesn’t seem to be a way to regurgitate it back out. I eventually settle for also taking the smoked fish with me and feeding it to the grouper as soon as I see him and before I transform. He ignores the now-sinking cube and apparently is not above a little fishy cannibalism. Survival of the fittest, right?

Casting “snavig” takes a few tries and I restore several times to get a casting that works on the first try, but I manage to swim down to his nest. Unfortunately, I cannot pick up the cube while in fish form and I previously learned that eating it was a bad idea. Eventually, I take the wait-and-see approach. I stay underwater until I transform back into a human, immediately grab both cubes, and swim to the surface. I make it just before I run out of air and now I have a new cube! I’m making this sound a bit easier than it was; getting the timing right took trial and error.

“Don’t try it, Anakin! I have the high ground!”

Hot Lava!

The new cube takes me to the “Light Room” with one good exit, to a volcano. Immediately after I arrive, a fragment of lava falls at my feet. It is too hot to touch, but I can freeze it to pick it up. There doesn’t seem to be anything else to do here so I take the rock back to the strange bounders that I found at the beginning of this section.

Feeding a rock to the boulder is exactly what I needed to do. The green-eyed boulder now allows me to ride her and I can follow the tracks on the plain. Each time I do, the distant brown-eyed rock (which I now see has a cube on its back!) also moves. It’s a bit of a dance, made more difficult because I can’t quite seem to find a way to speed up the green-eyed rock or catch all the way up to the brown-eyed one. He seems to be avoiding us. I try randomly for a long time, but I do not stumble on the solution. Time to get analytical! I ignore my brown-eyed friend and map out our environment:

It’s a document icon!

What I find is a collection of 15 rooms, with north/south or east/west tracks between each room with one exception, a diagonal line in the upper-left corner. I thought initially that going over the same track too many times would rub it away, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Although we can make some good guesses, the text doesn’t quite let us know precisely where the brown-eyed rock is at first, only whether it is near or far and in what general direction. Once we have the map drawn and printed out, I put counters down to track where I am and where I think the brown-eyed rock is.

I continue to play with this puzzle, but it’s not deterministic. If you save and restore, the rock can choose to move a different way after the restore. But no matter how hard I try, the rock is very effective at always staying a few squares away and there is really no way to trap it. The best you can do is figure out its exact location using the process of elimination.I look for ways that we can block off exits by dropping things onto the track, but that doesn’t work. I try to get close enough that maybe I can jump across even if it isn’t in the same square as me, but even when I get it on a diagonal I still cannot leap across.

Just to give you an idea how to work out where it is, from the start I tried these directions:

I go south and the brown-eyed rock goes north

I go west, it goes south

I go east, it goes south again

I go north, it goes south again

At this point, I am 100% certain that it is in square D4 and I am back in B2. But what good does that do me? Not much except getting us into known spots which allows me to know his exact location for the rest of the puzzle. The trick is obviously something to do with the northwest corner. I thought at first there might be a hidden room, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. I try very hard with dozens of restores to force him to go on the diagonal so that I can catch him, but that doesn’t work. If I go on the diagonal, I still cannot catch up to the brown-eyed rock because I can never get there when it is anywhere close enough for it to matter. He seems too “smart” for me, even when I save-scum.

In the end, I take a hint from the blog and find that I am on the right path. By heading over the diagonal, I’m essentially taking two moves instead of one and this subtly changes the dynamic between the two stones. It doesn’t solve anything immediately and if the brown-eyed rock doesn’t make a mistake, it doesn’t matter one iota. But… I do that and he eventually moves towards me when he shouldn’t. I guess my strange movement disrupted his algorithm. With that, the gap is closed and I am able to successfully maneuver to bump into him in a few turns. As soon as we get close, he is mesmerized by the green-eyed rock’s beauty and I can just jump across and grab the cube. I guess she wasn’t just vain after all.

With that, I will end our session for this week. We had some great puzzles this time and I am ashamed that I needed to ask for help on the rocks when I probably would have noticed the brown-eyed rock doesn’t play perfectly after the diagonal slide. My desperate hope is that I can wrap this very long game up next post. I’m having fun, but it’s still time to put this one to bed.

Time played: 6 hr 30 min Total time: 18 hr 20 min Inventory: 11x white cubes (“earth”, “soft”, “water”, “air”, “bone”, “change”, “noplace”, “string”, “light”, and an unused one), zipper, magic burin, knife, spell book, pruning shears, gold box, bottle, opal, compass rose, magic carpet, iron key Spell Book Contains: caskly, throck, blorpie, yomin, rezrov, frotz, gnusto, malyon, jindak, lesoch, espnis, liskon, tinsot, snavig Score: 415 of 600 (69%)

source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/missed-classic-spellbreaker-the-chase/

#retro games #dos games #retro #crpg #adventure #amiga #oldcomputers #8bit #16bit #blog #repost

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littlemisssquiggles · 6 years

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Voltron Musings: I just finished S7 and while I say it’s another epic season for the books that I greatly enjoyed, if there is one thing I didn’t like about this season, it was the shipping. The so-called ‘shipping hints’for this season were all over the place and it honestly drove me up a wall for the most part.

This is more of me just ranting here as I just finished the last season so if there are any grammatical or spelling errors, don’t mind them. I just wanted to get this off my chest as the emotions that this new season left in me are still fresh in my mind.

Let’s get this out of the way. I’m a Klance shipper. Liked them since season one. However I’m not one of those, let’s say, overly passionate Klance shippers to put it nicely, who want these two to be endgame so badly that they would go to great extremities to make it possible. I’m more of the humble Klance shippers. While I would love it if Klance became endgame by the series conclusion, I also wouldn’t mind if other non Keith and Lance ships became endgame if done properly.

The key phrase is ‘done properly’ and by that I mean done in a way where the pairing has been given focus and development so that by the time it does come to fruition, it’s done in a way that feels natural and as a viewer, you would feel satisfied because you’ve been watching the relationship grow over the seasons.

I don’t want to be that person who complains about their ship not getting enough screen time or about ships in general, but this season left me so confused about what the show-runners are actually legit doing in terms of handling romance or potential pairings for the series endgame.

For the first time in the entirely of me following Legendary Defender, I genuinely found myself annoyed at the shipping throughout this current season. Normally from my past observations, a Voltron season seems to hone in either one or two ships and its generally the ships we’ve grown accustomed to over the course of the series. However this season was all over the place to the point that I found myself yelling at my screen going ‘Voltron. Pick one! Pick one ship to focus on. I can’t handle all this multiple ship hints’.

I’m going to very blunt here and call it like I saw it. What the literall QUIZNAK are the showrunners doing with the shoe-horned Allurance and even worse, the potential of Keith & Acxa. What is this?

After 6 seasons of Allurance being one-sided without dropping any hints of Allura returning Lance’s feelings, you’re going to wait til the 7th---the second to last season in the series as well as the season after the season where Allura had a romance with another male character who ended up breaking her heart---to suddenly drop hints of her possibly liking Lance romantically. NOW YOU WANNA DROP HINTS OF ALLURA LIKING LANCE! WHAT! Not in the seasons before but now…near the end…after she literally just broke up with her last love interest.

Oh and this was also AFTER going several episodes within S7 without dropping a single sign of Allura liking Lance until the 9th episode.

Whaaaat?

I don’t….I don’t understand.

I may be a Klance shipper but I don’t hate Allurance. I actually wouldn’t have mind if Allurance was endgame. But the way how the series is handling their relationship now is…I dunno. I expected better y’know what I mean. The Allurance shippers might be happy and celebrating right now but…I dunno, you guys deserved better for your ship.

This is exactly what I feared they would do for the Allurance ship. I feared they would make Lance look like the rebound guy for Allura after Lotor and they did just that. One of my concerns for this season is that instead of addressing Allura responding to learning of Lance’s feelings for her and the two probably talk about it, they would suddenly have Allura hint at suddenly start showing a romantic interest in Lance after 6 seasons of showing her mostly annoyed by Lance’s advances--- including the last season where she was shown to have feelings for Lotor only to have her heart broken.

Nevermind that 4 years has passed in the space timeline. Since the paladins weren’t aware that so much time had past since their fight with Lotor in S6, it’s almost like everything happened in the span of minutes rather than years.

This is probably just my own opinion but Allurance deserves better, man. Don’t even get me started on the Acxa and Keith thing. WHAT?

Y’see…neither of these ships would’ve been terrible if the series had taken its time to actually build up these two ships a lot more than they did to begin with. For the majority of VLD’s runtime, Allurance has been a one-sided ship while Axeith is practically non-existent and also kinda one-sided.

Seriously, who got the hint of Acxa liking Keith? I know they had a connection from that one time Keith saved her back in S3 I think and that one other time they met in another season---I can’t even remember when but…that’s it.

Y’know what’s strange, I noticed an odd parallel with Keith and Lance this season. Anyone else noticed that whenever Lance and Keith’s main hetero-ships were brought up, it was usually by another character pointing out to the two in question only for them to react all indifferent about it.

With Keith and Acxa, it was by Ezor and Zethrid (who are apparently an item now. Good for them I guess) only for Keith to react all impatient because he’d rather be fighting than addressing the thought of him sharing a relationship with Acxa.

Next up is Lance when his sister, Veronica brought up the idea of Allura liking Lance back only for him to respond incredulously, brushing it off as Allura only being nice to him because she cares for him as she does for everyone else.

Y’know what’s funny? If this statement had been said to Lance by another character like three seasons ago, he probably would have reacted all excited and even more eager to make moves on Allura now that the possibility of her liking him back was on the table.

I feel like this season has spent more time reflecting on Lance getting over his feelings for Allura than showing him still feeling the same way.

One episode in particular that boggled me was ‘The Feud’. In that episode, when the paladins each had to chose someone to save, the irony is that Lance chose Keith of all people saying something along the lines of ‘him being the future’. Adorable but also kind of an odd thing for Lance to say about Keith.

What I actually found odd is that Lance picked Keith and I’m a Klance shipper. He had the chance to save one paladin and instead of picking Allura who we all know he cares deeply for---he picked Keith.

Don’t get me wrong, as a Klance shipper I’m happy that our boys picked each other. I just found it kind of odd that Lance would pick Keith cause I would have expected him to choose Allura and show it as a sign of how much he cares deeply for her by picking her to be saved.

Overall, this season left me very confused as to what the showrunners are doing in terms of ships. For the Klance shippers, we got some really nice A+++ hints of our boys interacting this season which I loved. Always good to see this two bonding and this season really established how far Lance and Keith have come with trusting each other. They really are like Black Lion and his right hand Red Lion now. Really dig that. But as for the romance, I am confuffled.

I really like Allura and to some extent, even Acxa as well (despite forgeting her name 100% of the time). They’re both terrific female characters and were very awesome this season. I also really like Lance and Keith. But honestly right now it feels forced what they seem to be doing for these boys and girls in terms of pairing them up as ships.

Their was even a point when I thought they might be hinting at something between Keith and James Griffin (who is awesome by the way, I love all the new young cadet pilots. They were another great new addition to this season). I know Griffin is the same kid who Keith fought in his flashback. But I honestly thought they were going to do something intimate with those two.

Maybe I need to remove my shipping goggles whenever I watch Voltron. I’ve been gazing through them for so long that now every time I see the series hone in on a connection between two characters, I automatically think it might lead to something romantic or at least deep. I dunno. I’m confused guys.

We got one more season of 13 episodes I believe to tie things together and…I really wanna see what these showrunners are gonna do with what they set up now. It’s going to be interesting to see how this series concludes especially in the romance department to say the least. Until then, see you guys in S8.

~LittleMissSquiggles (2018)

#voltron #voltron legendary defender #klance #allurance #voltron ships #voltron season seven #voltron musings

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