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tyrantisterror · 3 years

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I did a four part series of trivia posts when ATOM Volume 1: Tyrantis Walks Among Us! came out, and that was pretty fun! You can see that set of trivia posts here if you’d like. I thought it’d be fun to do another now that ATOM Volume 2: Tyrantis Roams the Earth! is out - just one this time, because a lot of the trivia I talked about with Volume 1 still applies.

I’m gonna divide this into two sections: non-spoiler trivia, for things that really don’t give a lot of plot points away, and spoiler trivia, for things that DO give away major plot points. I recommend not reading the spoiler trivia until after you’ve read Tyrantis Roams the Earth!, for obvious reasons, and will put the spoiler trivia under a cut.

Ok, let’s go!

- So if you read ATOM Volume 1, you probably noticed that the book is split not only into chapters, but “episodes,” which consist of four chapters a piece. It’s kind of a nod to how the series owes a great deal of its DNA to various monster of the week shows, with Godzilla: the Series and The Godzilla Power Hour being obvious influences. It also allowed me to pepper in some illustrations and cheesy b-movie style titles into each volume.

- The first “episode” of Volume 2, Tyrantis in Tokyo, pays explicit homage to the giant monster movies of Japan, perhaps even moreso than the chapters that came before it. Given how much Japanese media influenced ATOM - from tokusatsu like the Godzilla, Gamera, and Ultraman franchises to anime like Digimon and Evangelion (hell, the title of this episode itself is a tip of the hat to Tenchi Muyo by way of one of its spinoffs) - it kind of felt obligatory that Tyrantis visit Japan and pay his respects.

- Tyrantis in Tokyo also fits in a tribute to another staple of Atomic Age pop culture: Rock and Roll.

- Kutulusca, the giant cephalopod that appears in Tyrantis in Tokyo, is one of the oldest kaiju in this series, dating back to the first iteration of Tyrantis’s story that I put to paper back in 2001 or so. It’s changed a lot since then, but its fight with Tyrantis goes more or less the way it originally did.

- Old Meg, the giant placoderm/shark, and Nastadyne, the bipedal beetle, both owe their existence directly to Deviantart’s Godzilla fandom. Old Meg originated as a dunkleosteus monster I submitted to a “create a Godzilla kaiju” contest held by Matt Frank, while Nastadyne is based on a Megalon redesign I made during the “redesign all the Godzilla kaiju” phase of DA’s kaiju fandom.

- The second episode, Tyrantis vs. the Red Menace, gets dark as we visit the USSR, which had enough REAL horror with atomic power in its history to make creature features seem a bit defanged by comparison. It’s probably the episode with the strongest horror elements - ATOM’s always been influenced by Resident Evil, and this is probably where that influence shows the most strongly.

- It also features the first fully robotic mecha in the series, the mighty Herakoschei! Its name is a combination of “Heracles” and “Koschei the Deathless,” with the former part being added by its Russian creators to make it seem a bit more international as they offer it to the U.N. in hopes of gaining aid for a very extreme kaiju problem they’ve developed.

- Most of Tyrantis vs. the Red Menace takes place in the Siberian Monster Zone. Its name is a reference to the Lawless Monster Zone in Ultraman, which is such a cool fucking name I wish that I wish I could go back in time and steal it.

- The next episode, Tyrantis’s Revenge, is... full of spoilers, so we’ll move on for now.

- The penultimate episode, Tyrantis vs. the Martian Monsters, is a love letter to MANY different sci-fi stories that involve life on Mars, though the most prominent of them is of course The War of The Worlds (one of my top 3 favorite books) and its various adaptations. From its tentacles sapient martians, the tripodal leader of the titular monsters whose name includes the word “ulla” which is uttered by said sapient martians, the plant monster made of red vines, the cylinder-shaped spacecraft the Martian monsters are sent to earth on, the copper-skinned stingray-esque flying martian who shoots lasers from its tail, and the fact that every chapter title in this episode is a quote from the book, the H.G. Wells influence is STRONG.

- The final episode, Invasion from Beyond!, is shamelessly inspired by Destroy All Monsters, although there’s a dash of “To Serve Men,” Godzilla vs. Monster Zero, and The Day the Earth Stood Still mixed in as well. It’s also sort of a tribute to my first “published” bit of a kaiju fiction - a rewrite of Destroy All Monsters that included EVERY Godzilla monster that had appeared at the time, which my middle school self wrote back in 2002 or so for Kaiju Headquarters, a kaiju fansite I’m not sure exists anymore. Invasion from Beyond! is just as ambitious (but hopefully better executed) as my DAM Remake, with dozens upon dozens of different kaiju duking it out, earthlings vs. aliens.

- There were three different documents I made to outline the final battle of Invasion from Beyond! It’s the largest episode of the series so far and more than half of it is that fucking fight. My inner child is pleased, though, so hopefully you will be too.

Ok, that’s all I can share without spoilers. READER BEWARE WHAT FOLLOWS BELOW THE CUT!

JUST MAKING SURE you know that SPOILERS will follow from here on out. Read at your own peril! YOU WERE WARNED!

(I’m gonna start with lighter ones just in case you scrolled too far and want to turn back)

- There’s a number of explicit Spielberg homages in ATOM Volume 2, from a “we need a bigger boat” joke during a chase with a giant shark to the fact that Invasion from Beyond! opens with a group of people flying to an island of monsters to review whether or not it should get more funding.

- When Tyrantis appears in the first chapter, I snuck in modified lyrics of The Godzilla Power Hour’s theme song. “Up from the depths”... “several stories high”... “breathing fire”... “its head in the sky”... Tyrantis! Tyrantis! Tyrantis!

- The two rock bands in Tyrantis in Tokyo have real life inspirations ala Gwen Valentine, albeit a bit more muddled than hers. The Cashews are inspired by The Peanuts (see what I did there), while The Thunder Lizards are a mix of The Rolling Stones, the Beatles, Buddy Holly, and the Big Bopper. I wanted The Thunder Lizards to be more akin to the myth of a famous rock and roll band than the reality - less the real Beatles and more the Yellow Submarine cartoon version of them.

- The song The Thunder Lizards write for Tyrantis was written to fit the tune of “The Godzilla March” from Godzilla vs. Gigan, though ideally if someone made an actual song of it it would be its own song. I got the idea from Over the Garden Wall, which used the Christmas song “O Holy Night” as a a starting point for “Come Wayward Souls.”

- Perry Martin, UNNO reporter and peer of Henry Robertson, is a nod to Raymond Burr, with his name being a combination of two of Burr’s most famous roles: Perry Mason, and Steve Martin from Godzilla King of the Monsters (1956).

- Dr. Rinko Tsuburaya is a few homages in one. Her name comes from Rinko Kikuchi (who played Mako Mori in Pacific Rim), while her last name is obviously in homage of Eiji Tsuburaya. Her being the daughter of an esteemed scientist is inspired by Emiko Yamane from the original Gojira.

- Nastadyne’s Burning Justice mode is named after a similar super mode from various Transformers cartoons, though it’s more directly inspired by the Shining/Burning Finger super move from G Gundam.

- Martians sending kaiju to different planets via shooting them out of cannons (with or without cylinder spaceships around them) is another War of the Worlds shoutout. So is martians living on Venus after their homeworld was made uninhabitable, actually.

- Kurokame’s vocalizations are described as wails in explicit homage to Gamera. His name can be translated as either “black tortoise” (a reference to the mythical guardian beast Genbu, which can also be construed as a Gamera reference thanks to Gamera: Advent of Irys implying Gamera and Genbu are one and the same) or a portmanteau of the Japanese words for crocodile and turtle - “crocturtle.”

- Burodon’s name is just a mangling of “burrow down.” It also sounds vaguely like Baragon, who Burodon is loosely inspired by. AND, since Burodon is sort of a knockoff/modified Baragon, that kinda makes him a reference to various monsters in Ultraman!

- The final battle of Tyrantis in Tokyo is sort of a hybrid of the finales of Ghidorah the 3 Headed Monster and Destroy All Monsters.

- The Japanese kaiju teaching Tyrantis the art of throwing rocks at your enemies is both a joke on the prominence of rock throwing in Japanese kaiju fights AND the tired trope of an American hero learning secret martial arts from a Japanese mentor ala Batman, Iron Fist, etc. In this case, the secret martial art is throwing rocks at people.

- When introduced to Herakoschei and its pilot, we are told that the strain of piloting this early mecha is so intense that many pilots have died in the process, with the current one passing out on more than few occasions. This is of course a Pacific Rim homage - sadly, no one invents drifting.

- Herakoschei’s design is a loose homage to Robby the Robot and Cherno Alpha, because big boxy robots are cool.

- The Writhing Flesh and ESPECIALLY Pathogen are both hugely influenced by Resident Evil and The Thing. Giant body horror piles of raw flesh, tendrils, mismatched mouths and limbs may be a bit outside the main era of monster design ATOM homages, but they fit the themes and bring a nice contrast.

- I came up with Pathogen long before Corona but MAN it definitely feels different in 2021 to have a giant monster whose name is a synonym for disease driving other creatures crazy in a quarantine zone than it did when I plotted out the story in 2016.

- The chapter title “Hello, Old Foes” is a riff on “Goodbye, Old Friend”

- Minerva, the kaiju-fied clone of Dr. Lerna, is meant to be an homage to Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, which is a genuinely good giant monster flick. I am sure many of you will also believe I included her because I’m a pervert whose into tall women, but you’d be wrong! I included the seven foot tall Russian mecha pilot Ludmilla Portnova because I’m a pervert whose into tall women. Minerva’s inclusion was just coincidental, I swear!

- Since Promythigor is a play on the archetypal ape kaiju to contrast Tyrantis as a play on the archetypal fire-breathing reptile kaiju, their fight has a lot of nods to King Kong movies. Promythigor attempts the famous jaw-snap maneuver of Kong (with less success), J.C. Clark paraphrases the “brute force vs. a thinking animal” line from the King Kong vs. Godzilla American cut, and Tyrantis slides down a mountain to knock Promythigor off his feet in a reversal of Kong doing the same in King Kong vs. Godzilla.

- Tyrantis sliding down a mountain on his tail doubles as a Godzilla vs. Megalon homage.

- Though Promythigor is the archetypal Ape and Tyrantis the archetypal Fire-Breathing Reptile, I think it’s fun to note that in some ways, Promythigor is the Godzilla equivalent in their matchup, and Tyrantis the Kong. Promythigor has a slight size advantage, was scarred by humans performing unethical weapons technology, and is associated with violent explosions. Tyrantis is a good-at-heart prehistoric beast who humanized in part by his unlikely friendship with a human woman.

- Of course, in the context of the famous quote from the American cut of King Kong vs. Godzilla, they remain in their archetypal lanes. Promythigor is the more intelligent of the two (though not necessarily wiser), and Tyrantis is in many ways a brute reptile. Their battle is a rebuttal of sorts to the assertion that Kong is the “better” animal because he is closer to human. Promythigor’s near human creativity and emotions don’t make him the kinder/more benevolent monster, but instead fuel a very self-centered and destructive attitude that makes him the far more dangerous threat. On the other hand, Tyrantis, who is less intelligent, limited in communication with others by his reptilian mindset and instincts, and simple in his thoughts and desires, is nonetheless a sweet creature that is easily dealt with when others consider his animal needs and mindset. There’s a quote from Hellboy I love that probably sums up all of my writing thus far: “To be other than human does not mean the same as being less,” and that’s what the matchup between these two in particular tries to illustrate: the “less” human Tyrantis is nonetheless more benign than the “more” human Promythigor.

- Kraydi the psychic lizard began life as a soft sculpture I made of the Canyon Krayt Dragon from The Wildlife of Star Wars. The sculpture didn’t look much like the illustration, but I liked how it came out, and so I made it an original monster named Kraydi (see what I did there). Figuring out an explanation for that name in ATOM’s world was possibly the most difficult kaiju naming task in the series, but it worked out in the end.

- Kraydi and Promythigor having psychic powers is a result of my time on Godzilla fan forums in my middle school years. Most of the forums had OC kaiju battle tournaments, and SO many of those kaiju had a wide array of beam weapons and psychic powers just to win the tournaments by beam-spamming and mind controlling their foes into oblivion. There’s a special kind of rage you get when your original creation is beaten by “Fire Godzilla” because he has a genius level intellect and the power of unstoppable telekinesis. Kraydi began as (and still is I suppose) my attempt to do a psychic kaiju well, while Promythigor’s villainy being tied to psychic powers being forced on him is sort of my passive aggressive commentary on people foisting powers on a monster without any real thematic reason for them.

- Henry Robertson and Dr. Praetorius chewing out the laziness of people giving kaiju completely unaltered names of mythic beasts will probably be seen as a jab at the Monsterverse and/or the numerous writers in the kaiju OC scene who do the same, but it’s ACTUALLY a jab at my past self, who had DOZENS of kaiju whose names were just Greek mythological figures verbatim. There are dozens of kaiju named Hydra, Scylla, Charybdis, Chimera, etc., past me, try to make the names stand out! Oh wait you did. I mean, don’t pat yourself on the back too much, you still went with “Mothmanud” as a canon name and never came up with something better, but, like, good on ya for trying I guess.

- Dr. Praetorius takes his name from the evil mad scientis in Bride of Frankenstein, who basically has all the wicked traits that Universal’s Frankenstein downplayed in their take on Dr. Frankenstein. Ironically, ATOM’s Dr. Praetorius is a bit less evil than his fellow mad scientists in ATOM. I really like how his character turned out, he surprised me.

- Isaac Rossum, the pilot of the USA mecha Atomoton, is named for Isaac Aasimov, whose robot stories are to robot fiction what Lord of the Rings is to high fantasy. His last name is a reference to Rossum’s Universal Robots, which is where the word “robot” came from.

- The unfortunate pilots of MechaTyrantis in ATOM Volumes 1 and 2 are all nods to Jurassic Park. John Ludlow = John Hammond and Peter Ludlow, Ian Grant = Ian Malcolm and Alan Grant, Dennis Dodgson = Dennis Nedry and Lewis Dodgson.

- A good way to pitch Invasion from Beyond! would be “what if the staff and monsters were able to fight back when the Kilaaks tried to take over Monsterland?”

- Ok, here’s a fun joke that no one will get but me because it requires a very specific chain of logic based on some obscure and loosely connected nerd bullshit. There’s a rocker in ATOM’s universe named Sebastian Haff, right? One of his songs, “Darling Let’s Shimmy,” is referenced right before a mothmanud larva emerges from the ground in both ATOM Vol. 1 and 2. Ok, so, in the Bubba Hotep, an aging Elvis impersonator named Sebastian Haff claims he is actually the real Elvis Presley, having changed places with the real Sebastian Haff as a sort of Prince and the Pauper deal that went wrong. Got that? Ok, so, in UFO folklore, a common joke is the theory that Elvis didn’t die, but was rather abducted by aliens (or he actually WAS an alien the whole time - the whole “Elvis didn’t die, he just went home” joke in Men in Black is a good example of this). Ok? Ok. So, in ATOM’s universe, we can surmise that their equivalent of Elvis, whose name is Sebastian Haff, WAS abducted by aliens, and that his song “Darling Let’s Shimmy” is subconsciously influenced by his repressed memories from his time aboard the Beyonder spaceships, which is why it accidentally awoke a Mothmanud larva in Volume 1. There’s a lot of bullshit jokes I put into ATOM, but this is perhaps the bullshittiest of them all.

- One of the most common bits of feedback on ATOM Volume 1 I got was “I kept waiting for something to eat Brick Rockwell, he’s such an asshole.” And I had to smile and go, “Oh, yeah, guess he never got his, huh?” the whole time without letting on that he was going to die here all along!

- Dr. Lerna and Brick Rockwell’s nature as foils to each other is probably most apparent in Invasion from Beyond!, where both are given fairly similar situations - a nonhuman approaches them with a solution to a global crisis - and react to it very differently. I worry that some people may think they both made the same choice and got different results, and that that’s hypocrisy on my part, but I hope I wrote it so you can see how their choices and situations actually differ in key ways, and why their decisions, while similar on the surface, are ultimately very different, and thus result in almost opposite outcomes.

- So, when I planned out this book in 2016, I swear I didn’t know about the Orca from 2019′s Godzilla King of the Monsters. Having the plot hang around Dr. Lerna deciding whether or not to use a sonic device to rouse all the kaiju to save the earth was not INTENDED to be a Monsterverse reference - it came about from me looking at Pathfinder’s take on kaiju, who are all explicitly influenceable by music, and thinking, “Oh, wow, music and songs DO have a major connection with kaiju in a lot of media, I should do something with that.” Whem KOTM came out a few days after Volume 1 came out I realized I was kinda fucked here, because the comparison was definitely going to be made, but I’d also set this all up already and you can’t just change suddenly to avoid looking like a copy cat and make a good story, so... I dunno, I leaned into it a bit, but it is what it is.

- While most people will probably think they’re a reference to the Reptoids of UFO folklore, the Reptodites are more inspired by the Dinosapien of speculative evolution fame and, even morso, by the Reptites from Chrono Trigger. Me wanting to avoid the “lizard people control the government” conspiracy theory trope is one of the main reasons why Reptodites have this non-interference clause with humanity.

- Lieutenant Gray is a bunch of different humanoid aliens rolled into one - a little Hopskinville goblin, a little classic gray, a little this one weird alien with five-fingered zygodactyl hands, etc.

- There’s some Beyonder Mecha in this volume that are basically kaiju-fied versions of the Flatwoods Monster. The species that built them ALSO engineered the Mothmanuds, because connecting Mothman and the Flatwoods Monster is fun!

- Pleprah is, obviously, a one-eyed one-horned flying purple people eater.

- Tyrantis’s brush with death, in addition to being so very anime, was inspired by my dad outlining how mythic heroes often have to travel to the underworld/land of the dead before they can finish their journey. It’s one of the plot points that I’ve had planned for this series since middle school.

- I’m sure some will view it as hackneyed and corny, but as a person who’s battled with depression for decades, having Tyrantis’s choice to live be the big heroic turn of the finale was very important to me. Tyrantis incorporates elements of a lot of imaginary friends I made as a kid, and in many ways he’s kind of the face of my more positive side in my head. He’s been telling me to choose to live for a while, and while maybe to an outsider it may seem hackneyed, it’s just... very Tyrantis. He chooses life and kindness in the face of pain and struggle. That’s Tyrantis.

- Tyrantis’s powered up form is called “Hyper Mode,” which is another Gundam reference. Originally it was a lot gaudier and involved him turning gold like a fuckin’ Super Saiyan. I opted for something a little more toned down here.

- Also, speaking of KOTM references, I decided to make Hyper Mode Tyrantis’s final duel with Pathogen be a sort of foil to Burning Godzilla’s final bout with Ghidorah in KOTM. Instead of ravaging the city, Hyper Tyrantis’s pulse of energy rejuvenates his fallen allies, and as a result he is “crowned” not out of fear for his supremacy in the wake of killing a powerful enemy, but in gratitude for his kindness. See? Leaning into it!

- And now I can finally reveal that Yamaneon is ATOM’s equivalent of The Monolith Monsters - that is, a kaiju that is also a mineral. I took the “strange continuously growing rock” thing in a very different direction, though, as unlike The Monolith Monsters, Yamaneon is actually alive.

- At various points in the pre-writing process, either Promythigor, MechaTyrantis, or both were going to die fighting Pathogen. I ultimately decided to let them both live, with MechaTyrantis even getting his flesh and blood body back, because I think it’s more interesting and thematically consistent that way. They get a chance to heal their wounds by changing their ways.

- The Great Beyonder and Dorazor both almost didn’t make the cut, as I felt they didn’t have the same pull as villains that Pathogen, Promythigor, and MechaTyrantis did. But then I thought that could actually be the gag - build them up as the final boss, only to have Pathogen take their crown. I want to explore post-face turn Dorazor a bit more, though. We’ll have to see about that in a later volume.

- Volumes 1 and 2 make up what I call “The Ballad of Tyrantis Arc” for ATOM. I call it that because Tyrantis’s storyline in these two volumes was patterend after Chivalric ballads like Yvain the Knight of the Lion. Tyrantis, a heroic warrior who is kind but dumb of ass, learns of strange goings on outside his home and investigates. During his journey into the unknown he falls in love with a powerful woman, whose favor he tries to win. Through happenstance he is separated from his love and, distraught, wanders around fighting various foes to prove his worth, before finally returning to his love a better hero. Invasion from Beyond! could even be seen as a sort of Morte d’Artur, with Tyrantis and a bunch of other kaiju heroes (including Nastadyne and Kemlasulla, who are built up as Hero Kaiju of Another Story) take part in a huge battle that threatens their idealic kingdom (of monsters).

- Volume 2 isn’t the end of ATOM, but it’s designed to work as an ending if you want to tap out here. As a reader I feel a definitive ending is important, but as a writer I’m always tempted to revisit my beloved characters, so I feel giving closure while leaving a few doors open for possible future adventures is a good compromise between these positions. There will be more ATOM stories, some (but not all!) following Tyrantis and Dr. Lerna, but if you want to know that Tyrantis and Dr. Lerna get an ending and the resolution to their arcs such a thing promises, here you go. An ending, if not THE END.

#The Atomic Time of Monsters #A.T.O.M. Trivia

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hopeymchope · 3 years

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World’s End Club demo thoughts

As a follow-up to the ask I recently responded to, I downloaded and played through the demo for World’s End Club last night. It’s just a single level/chapter, and it didn’t take much more than an hour to complete it.

Overall, I really enjoyed it - primarily for how the “Game of Fate” unfurled across the first chapter. Said “Game of Fate” is the much-publicized Fake Death Game, and it centers around a setup that’s reminiscent of Danganronpa 3′s Future Arc. I’ll get into more detail much later after a Spoiler Cut, but suffice to say that everybody starts getting suspicious of one another immediately, and many betrayals occur in short order. The exact nature of how people would get knocked out of the game and why was what kept me most intrigued by the numerous cut scenes. Many people’s wristbands have rules that are tied in with other people’s rules, so there’s a domino effect of causality whenever someone is “eliminated” that quickly became my favorite part of the first chapter’s storytelling setup. Learning the reasons why someone suddenly teams up with a character they don’t get along with or why someone is eliminated for seemingly no reason? That’s a lot of fun.

Pielope the weird floating jester-like thing will be your Monokuma for the demo.

The characters are pretty thin as they are presented in this demo, but obviously it’s WAY too early to really know much about them. There’s even an end-of-demo twist that makes the characters’ behavior in this first level retroactively be even less revealing of their natures. The good news here is that everyone is well-voiced, and that helps them to be likable. Naturally, it’s particularly easy to grow fond of the characters who serve as a lifeline of kindness and sanity while the majority are betraying you.

Unfortunately, although most of the characters are voiced, there is one who isn’t: The protagonist that the player controls, Reycho. He’s one of those “silent protagonists” who isn’t silent at all; he talks, but the player simply never hears what he says. I’ve always disliked silent protagonists in games where everybody else is talking, so this just annoyed me, but it’s hardly a deal-breaker.

Perhaps he has laryngitis, and he’s communicating with surprising effectiveness by flapping his mouth and gesturing emphatically?

The first level consists more of cut scenes than actual side-scrolling gameplay, which is fine with me. Danganronpa games are similarly structured; you spend more time on the Visual Novel elements than on the interactive gameplay side, so this kind of balance is very much in my wheelhouse. Platforming is basically a non-issue in this chapter, and there were only three puzzles to solve in the entirety of the chapter, but hey, I liked them. One was painfully obvious, but the other two took me a little bit of thought. They’re far from hard IMO, but they took enough brain usage to make me feel good for figuring them out. The latest trailer reveals that future chapters will actually include boss fights (!), so that means we’re going to see some combat elements to the gameplay that aren’t even introduced in this demo. Sounds cool.

There are also a couple of “choices” you can make in the first level that can result in early Game Overs (with unique dialogue/scenes) if you do the wrong thing. If you’re a fan of games with multiple endings, I imagine that seeing all of the unique Game Overs could prove pretty entertaining, so this was another aspect I dug.

By the time the demo ends, there is still a ton of mystery around what’s happening in the game. That’s going to be the driving factor in keeping me invested, I suspect. Well, that and the voice acting. Both of those elements are what made me immediately wish I could go on to the next area.

If you want some kind of report on the technical aspects of the game, I can say that it’s got a cool soundtrack and the art style is appealing to me, but that stuff is subjective anyway. Character animations are frequently stiff and awkward, but who cares? If you’ve ever played Zero Escape’s latter two games, you should really expect that by now. :P And hell, the Danganronpa games aren’t animated at all most of the time, so let’s not act like we’re demanding some high-quality mocap in this sort of story. We’re here for the writing and characters more than anything, correct?

Now I’ll actually explain the setup of the “Game of Fate” so that I can complain a little about it. Spoilers for the demo/first level.

Here’s how the Game of Fate works in brief: The cast is trapped in an underwater building-type construct. Each member of the cast is wearing a digital wristband that tells them the “goal” of someone else in the cast. The only way to learn your own goal is to find the person wearing the wristband that states your goal. However, as soon as any one person accomplishes their goal, that person wins and "there can only be one winner,” so it’s probably in your best interest to keep your wristband hidden... if you assume that not winning means you’re automatically a loser. (Note that this is never outright stated by Pielope, although “there can only be one winner” could be argued as implying that the rest become losers.)

The winner gets a “magic key” that can unlock any lock, but it can only be used on a single lock before it “disappears.” Given that they are all trapped in this underwater prison, the obvious place to use the key is the exit door that leads to the surface. As for the losers who get eliminated by failing their goals or rendering them impossible, the cast is told that anyone who “loses” will die. But of course, the creators of the game have already spoiled us on the fact that this is a fake-out. In terms of in-universe logic, however, it makes for a frightening motivator for the kids.

The kids might have been too scared to spot them, but of course I, the player, immediately saw the loopholes here. 1) No one ever says or even implies that only one person can pass through the exit or anything. 2) People who simply don’t reach their goals first (but don’t render them impossible to complete) aren’t automatically called “losers.” Ergo, there is little reason why everybody wouldn’t immediately help one person to complete their goal so that they can all survive and unlock the exit, right? Just walk out the door together! Nobody manages to think of this, though. Alas.

In fairness... near the end of the level/demo, we are given some information hat could be seen as a retroactive explanation for why this didn’t just happen, and I was grateful for it.

#world's end club #world's end club demo #demos #tookyo games #video games #Kotaro Uchikoshi #kazutaka kodaka

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lilallama · 3 years

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(Sorry if I spell something wrongly lol) Idk, This is my opinion? Gryffindor, Jungkook. Hufflepuff, Taehyung & Yoongi. Ravenclaw, Namjoon & Jin. Slytherin, Jimin & Hobi??? I literally just searched the meaning of each house and just picked one based on the personality shown. Also, If you don't think this matches them, Sorry ;-;

[Don't worry, sweetie ^^. You don't have to apologise! 💕🍑]

Hoseok is a lot more two faced than I actually tend to show. The way he presents himself is mostly a mask. While he seems mostly calm on the outside, he's actually quite the opposite on the inside. Out of all the boys it'd be easiest for him to manipulate/influence Y/n (@bangtans-apollo Tae is quacking-) and he's aware of that. That's one of the reasons why they started the club 1. To protect Y/n, 2. The club concept came because it'd be easier to meet up and they would automatically get a clubroom and 3. Hoseok threatened to tell on them if they don't join, he'd make Y/n despise each one of them.

He is a strong leader (one of the Slytherin traits), I try to make him resourceful (but I am not myself so that might not shine through too much), he is definitely cunning. The whole ordeal with wanting to be with Y/n no matter what is pretty ambitious, I'd say. And lastly the traditionalism trait, he is very into tradition and has to keep his domestic fantasies with Y/n a secret. His parents raised him very traditional, he would hate it if (female) Y/n would ask him out first or would propose first and would at first frown upon his attention to (male or non binary) Y/n.

All in all Slytherin seems very accurate.

Now concerning Jimin; similar to Hoseok he too can be a two faced snake. He doesn't hide his true thoughts from Y/n or the boys, if anything he overshares sometimes (one time he started talking to Taehyung about some... rather inappropriate things concerning Y/n. That got his Y/n privilege taken away for a whole month). And despite practically pleading to be the "dumb bimbo" stereotype, he is surprisingly clever and intelligent. Before Highschool, before he made his first experiences with popular boys, he was a straight A's and B's student. Yet once he had his first boyfriend, he discovered that the people surrounding him typically preferred the dumb blondes. (He actually broke up with the captain of the football team for Y/n.)

He also sometimes displays ambitious, just in a whiney sort of way. Self preservation is definitely something. Unlike Taehyung, Yoongi, Namjoon or Jeongguk, he wouldn't let himself be killed for Y/n's sake. If Y/n were to be killed he would end up deluding himself into thinking a person who looks similar to them is them and would force Y/n's personality and style on them. Cunningness is 100% accurate. He's fake. He pretends to be a silly sweetheart who loves everyone but will spread rumours about you, blame things on you etc. and everyone believes him. His cunningness concerning Y/n is more whiney than anything.

So I do think Jimin fits Slytherin.

Namjoon was raised by strict parents who forbade him a tremendous amount of things and painted his world for him. It was engraved in his head, he was going to be the CEO of their company one day. Yet despite everything he still had a head of his own. Maye it was because if his high IQ that he understood that his parents weren't the only opinion in his life. Don't get me wrong, they still left him scarred (sadly literally, as his father once hit him bloody) and traumatised but not without a mind of his own. Ever since he was small creativity and originality was something he admired and loved. It was partly reason of why he fell for Y/n, their individuality, their mind, their heart, their soul.

We will not need to discuss intelligence, it's a trait he undoubtedly has. He is always willing to learn and showed interest in many different things before Y/n captured his focus. He is most likely one of the wisest members as he is aware of how twisted his love for them truly is (once again something I tend to fail at portraying) and tried to stop it when it started. But somehow that only made everything worse and by now he doesn't care anymore at all. When he was a child he used to be more openly curious than nowadays (as it caused him many punishments from his parents).

I feel that Namjoon would fit Ravenclaw.

Seokjin was spoiled all his life. His parents adored him, other kids adored him, everyone adored him. While he might've acted oblivious he knew that it's because of his money. Similar to Jimin, Seokjin changed when he entered high school. While he always was a pretty intelligent and well behaved student (still very arrogant though) he then became less concerned with studies and once made a teacher cry (that was before he met Y/n). He loves standing out as an individual, that includes making anyone change who crosses his path with the same outfit (not in school as they wear a school uniform. But outside, yes, he has that much power. Everyone knows Kim Seokjin).

As said before, Seokjin is far from stupid. He is a very intelligent individual but doesn't show the extent of his nolage. Instead aiming for a cool "Queen B" persona. He is witty with his comebacks (something I cannot write because I do not possess that superpower), he's quick with his words. He holds respect for people who are 60+ years old as he believes they've been through a lot in life already. These people have wisdom he could only gain by experience and that he respects (there is one very sweet lady that lives alone in a very big mansion a few streets away from his penthouse. He always visits her because he loves her genuine kindness. When he met Y/n she recently passed away and he saw a part of her in them).

Seokjin could qualify for a Ravenclaw.

Taehyung was raised by a very Christian family that he still cherishes very much. Because of their intense belief he was raised to worship. He never fell in love, so when Y/n crossed paths with his, he started showing love how he's used to it (Out of all the boys Taehyung is straight up insane. Something in his brain might be wired wrong, there is no explanation on why he likes them, on why he believed that's what love is because his parents treated him with normal, familiar love. So he is simply sick, there is no "saving" him. He's better of in a mental hospital). But he was always a very kind boy. Giving instead of taking, never wanting anything in return. Out of everyone, Taehyung was the one who welcomed new students and made tons of friends. But he grew out of it as his focus turned to art. He aimed to make his parents proud so he didn't have time for friends.

His loyalty is unlike any other. You could torture him half dead and he'd still forgive you, stay loyal to you, serve you. He is Y/n's servant. He works hard on improving his artistic abilities and also to maintain fairly good grades. For Y/n any labour he'd have to be put through would seem like a blessing. Another trait for Hufflepuff would be fairness and he surely is fair. As one of the least jealous members of the club he really only cares if Y/n's okay with what's happening or could get hurt (he always kets the other members have more privileges than he has because he believes it'd be not only greedy but prideful to want Y/n to hinself. He avoids any sin when it comes to Y/n, envy, wrath, pride, sloth, nothing will ever come near his modern day Jesus).

Taehyung definitely is a Hufflepuff.

If the boy who works two parttime jobs, to pay for rent, bills and food, cleans the shabby apartment by himself because his alcoholic mother is busy messing it up again, yet still treats his mother with kindness, only to be treated like trash by seven more powerful and successful guys in his school who all like the same person he does and still manages to maintain the position as intern and honour roll student at a prestigious school for roch people, isn't in Hufflepuff then I don't know what. This poor soul is incredibly sensitive and kind. He isn't judgemental (as he himself is used to people judging him). All round very sweet.

I think it's very clear that he's very diligent and hard working. He holds great passion for music and enjoys writing poetry, a very sensitive soul. Yoongi isn't someone to complain about something being unfair (cough cough Jimin cough cough) or try and steal Y/n away from them. His day dreams consist of imagining Y/n liking him back, but he is certain that would never happen (according to you guys, it seems a lot of you would pick Yoongi if you'd get to decide). Not only is Yoongi kind but loyal as well, he'd never imagine leaving anyone behind even his useless mother.

Yoongi is 1000% a Hufflepuff.

Jeongguk tends to be hot tempered, he goes from zero to a hundred in a matter of seconds. Everything in life seems like a challenge to prove he's better than others think (his father was a notorious serial killer who killed twenty one people yet got away with a ten year prison sentence and got released after six, ten months later Jeongguk was born). In truth he did not care for anyone else, only Y/n. So all tge chivalry he could muster was directed at them.

He is one brave guy who doesn't get easily scared (I guess living with as well as being a serial killer at sixteen years old desensitised him). Jeongguk is courageous just not in/for a positive way/purpose. He deluted himself into thinking that Y/n needs protection, HIS protection. He once attacked a teacher because they were helping Y/n with a question, that's very daring (more like stupid) just not in a good way. A (still not) more positive example of his daringness is when he wants to impress Y/n. He hung from a skyscraper for five minutes doing pullups, just to inpress them. One time he also jumped across his luxurious pool at home (and almost slipped, almost bashing his head in) just to prove that he can jump further than someone they talked about.

I could very much picture him as a Griffendor.

If you enjoyed reading my work, please consider reblogging it. Thank you for reading

#yandere bts #cooking club #hogwarts au #yandere jimin #yandere taehyung #yandere jungkook #yandere namjoon #yandere hoseok #yandere seokjin #yandere yoongi #harry potter au

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maxg-longform · 5 years

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Outer Wilds

A new frontier for the interactive experience

Moments in gaming which are truly ground-breaking are rare, and they are only getting rarer. A dual axiom of diminishing technological returns achieved by the jumps between console generations and the rampant predatory monetisation of the games as a service modal have had many despairing and looking to games that denounce photorealism and market trends for inspiration , in much the same way those in the art world despaired at the first cameras. As they could no longer make art more detailed technically, meaning and artistry moved from technique to statement. Why is it not photorealistic? The question posed today is the same. You could make a game that is an accurate reflection of life – or a biased reflection of a certain kind of life (Military-industrial complex funded shooters I’m looking at you) – so why have you chosen to instead create something with a particular art style? What is the combination of your narrative and design choices trying to say?

In the case of Far Cry 5, when particular attention is paid to the fact that the cultists are under the influence of drugs for the game’s entirety in addition to Obsidian’s claims that their new game concerning corporate exploitation of space colonies is written apolitically with empathetic and ‘good’ characters on both sides, the aim is all too often to actively stop you from drawing any meaningful conclusion at all, or at the very least to give the impression that there is nothing to draw.

What is the aim of this spiel then? In reality, you don’t need context to enjoy Outer Wilds, but only within the nexus of the modern games industry can you see why I’ve grown to love it so much. It also lets me talk about the game in more abstract terms without spoiling it – as it is very hard not to spoil it in talking about it, as knowledge is the only progression system within the game. The game itself, mechanically, is very stripped back. You have a spaceship to explore the solar system with, a spacesuit with thrusters for exploring each of the planets you can land on, and a translation device, which allows you to understand the language of an ancient alien race which inhabited the solar system many years prior. The story orients you as the first of your race to explore the stars with this new translation device. Explorers has previously visited each planet in the solar system, but contact with them has been lost, and they cannot translate the language there. Your objective, insofar as you are given one, is to find them and learn about the ancient aliens. In an age where open-world games have quest markers and some, such as Skyrim, have a spell which paints a trail on the ground in the direction of the next objective, the handhold-free nature of Outer Wilds is charming and arresting.

Whenever you discover anything important, it is stored in your ship’s log at the back of your small spaceship. In a way, it reminded me of Morrowind, one of Skyrim’s forebears, with the journal giving hints as to where you ought to look, but no real help beyond collating what you already know so that you can easily reference it in future. You are free to explore any of the planets at any point, and follow any lines of inquiry you see fit. In a lesser game, this would lead to a disjointed narrative experienced so out of order that it would give Tarantino a headache. However, this leads me into talking about the level design. I could not laud any higher the way in which the planets are designed. Every planet has a dynamic twist to it you need to learn in order to be able to understand how to access information on it and each planet has areas that require you to piece together learnings from around the solar system in order to access. In every sense, the game rewards exploration and understanding as a means of progress, rather than giving you new tools and telling you how to use them. This is evident in each of the planet designs – which I will briefly explain in the order I visited them (there is no ‘proper’ order).

Giant’s Deep

A swirling, green water planet with four islands, which are continually tossed around by an endless stream of cyclones which make the planet hard to navigate. The pole is protected by a ferociously large cyclone and a strong current prevents underwater exploration of a porous, but fiercely electromagnetic core. The sheer size and oppressive atmosphere is compounded by the strong gravity making it almost impossible to jump, incentivising careful exploration.

Brittle Hollow

A hollow planet built around a black hole and beset by fiery meteors from its volcanic moon. With an inhospitable surface, much of the challenge comes from discovering how others adapted to these conditions previously, and how to use the gravity of the black hole to navigate a planet that slowly falls apart and disintegrates as the game goes on due to the constant meteor bombardment.

The Wanderer

A frozen comet with an elliptical orbit that takes it within a lethal range of the sun, and covered in mysterious ‘ghost matter.’

The Hourglass Twins

Two planets orbiting each other as they orbit the sun. One starts as a bare rock with many caves to explore; the other as a perfectly round desert planet, with absolutely zero to explore. Then, a large column of sand starts flowing through space from the desert planet ‘Ash Twin’ to the bare one, ‘Ember Twin.’ This means areas of each planet are only accessible at certain times, and you need to beware of the sand level when exploring caves.

Dark Bramble

A planet consisting purely of thorny branches wrapped around a core that pulses with white light. Enter the hole, and caverns that bend the laws of space and time fill massive areas within. A Tardis of horrors, this planet scared me like no jump scares could. A truly eerie vibe – a memorable and haunting level unlike anything I’d ever played before.

While every one of these planets is in its own way unique and memorable, as are the moments when you discover how to access parts of them you couldn’t before – the best example of the game’s genius comes in the form of a location known as the Quantum moon. Before you go to this location, there are three pieces of key knowledge you need. Without them, you shouldn’t even be able to land on it. Nevertheless, I accidentally managed to land on it early in the game. However, because I hadn’t yet solved how to get into the tower of Quantum knowledge on Brittle Hollow, I didn’t understand how to access where I wanted to go. The moon has a secretive ‘Sixth Location’ you wish to explore, but every time I tried to leave the control room, the way was blocked by rocks until the moon moved back to one of the five locations in our solar system. It wasn’t until a few hours later, when I was following a different lead on another planet that I figured out how to avoid the rocks, and also where I needed to go once I had made it out.

The game is filled with eureka moments, and the lack of handholding makes you feel like you have genuinely accomplished something when you solve a puzzle. For example, I discovered a much quicker shortcut to a key area called the Black Hole Forge. The game doesn’t penalise you for this; much of the beauty of the game comes in the journey. Translating the alien scriptures in each area contains hints as to the overarching story – which I won’t in any way spoil, except that it is moving, inspiring and heart-breaking in equal measure – but also contains deeply personal stories about the people who made these structures, these homes, these technologies. The tension among the clan as they tried debated their plans to achieve what they came to our solar system for. The romance and feeling amongst those who worked on their projects. The jubilation of breakthroughs and the let-downs of defeat. The struggle for life and the joys of overcoming the hostile worlds of the system. The heart-wrenching story of the Quantum moon. All pieced together in bitesize chunks, out of sequence, displaced. Abstractions anthropomorphised because we don’t know enough about them to truly contextualise them. You never even find out what these aliens looked like. But you discover their hopes, their aims, their dreams and their death – as you, the traveller from an antique land, stare at the vast and trunkless legs of stone.

Rather purposefully, I have been abstract in my descriptions and generalised the experience. In a game where knowledge is the means of progression, and real detail would be a spoiler, and its best to come into this game blind. So, I’ve chosen to focus on the feeling the game instils in you. It has a charming art direction, understated yet distinctive music that complements every area perfectly and a real warmth and passion that oozes from every pixel. In a world where every new innovation is immediately copied and run into the ground by every game in the same genre – the camp clearing from Far Cry 3 is now a chore in every vaguely open world game- or climbing the conveniently placed towers to gain map vision a la Assassin’s Creed – or that very same game series doing its very best Witcher 3 impression in Origins and Odyssey – there is an incorruptible heart to Outer Wilds. There will be games inspired by it, no doubt, but there won’t be other games that weaponise knowledge in quite the same way, or use it to explore the same themes. It’s a game about futility, about facing death but choosing to explore and challenge yourself and improve and, most importantly, to enjoy the little things and cherish the detail, to find pieces of light in that endless, futile dark.

Games like this have always been few and far between, and are becoming even rarer now. That’s why it’s essential we cherish games like Outer Wilds. There is no formula for creating a masterpiece but when a game really connects with you, you know it, you feel it. My list of favourite games I’d consider a masterpiece is quite incongruent – SSX 3, Tony Hawk’s Underground, Assassins Creed 2, Halo 4 to pick out a few of the rather different ones – but Outer Wilds has topped all of them, and I only spent around 12 hours with it. It strips gaming back to its essentials, while bringing new ideas to the table and presenting them in charming and arresting ways. You will never have another 12 hours like it. Its heart, soul and message are inimitable, and I sincerely urge you to open up to it and give it a try.

10/10

Played on Xbox - the game is available through Xbox Game Pass

@CoreLineage on twitter

#Outer Wilds #Outer #Wilds #Outerwilds #Space #Sci-fi #adventure #skyrim #morrowind #witcher 3 #games #gaming #review #game review #thinkpiece

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neatlarryfics · 6 years

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AUGUST 2018 FIC REC

1. Always Come Back To You: “I’ll do it,” Harry offers brightly. No one even blinks. “I’ll do it?”Louis sighs irritably. “Shut up,” he orders, tossing a pillow in the general direction of Harry’s face. This is a terrible time for jokes, especially Harry’s lame, old people ones.Not that it was an old people joke. Just that most of the time Harry’s jokes consist of knock-knocks or terrible puns. The type of jokes old people like, Louis’ pretty sure. His nan always finds them hilarious when Harry tells her one.Harry bats the pillow out of the air without even blinking. “Be reasonable, Lou,” he says in his most reasonable voice.Louis is perfectly reasonable, thank you very much, and he’s also frustrated and upset and tired and he really wants to punch something. Maybe he should have held on to that pillow a little longer.“You’re not gonna fucking do it,” he snaps. “That’s the last thing I need.”

2. Given A Chance: Five years after One Direction took their last tour, the last thing Louis Tomlinson ever expected to happen while on a tea run at the local Piggly Wiggly was to run into his ex-boyfriend and ex-bandmate Harry Styles.The odds of them ever running into each other again had to be super slim, right?Wrong.What happens when you mix ex-boyfriends with a large serving of Small Town America? Will Louis and Harry be able to set aside their differences, or will Louis be able to stay breezy as fuck in the wake of Harry’s arrival?(or, the one where Louis and Harry run into each other five years after One Direction ends and learn how to love each other again. Featuring: Reggie as the overweight labrador, Niall as Louis’ last grip on reality, and Nowheresville, North Carolina as the setting for Louis’ worst nightmare to come true.)

3. Turning Page: “What’s your name?”“Harry.” He draws the word out slowly, hesitantly - like he’s not sure about it. The guy knots his hands behind his back. “Harry Twist.”“Right,” Niall says, eyes lingering suspiciously on Harry before looking back to Louis. “You wanna buy Harry a drink?”Louis lets his eyes drip back to Harry, to his wide eyes and the way his shoulders curve down. He really is pretty – Louis will be the first one to admit it and the last one to ever say it out loud. Louis almost smirks and his lips twitch as he tilts his head, “Not particularly, no.”-AU: Harry Styles tries to get lost in a place he’s never been. Louis Tomlinson has been perfecting the art of being lost for years. What they don’t expect to find is each other.

4. Try Not To Remember (Rather Than Forget): Harry hadn’t left, not really. He had been right there the entire time. And that’s what had made it worse, knowing that his body was within touching distance but his mind, everything that made Harry Harry, was lost somewhere Louis wasn’t able to reach.He hadn’t left, but that’s what it had felt like most of the time. Just as if one day Harry had up and left him.(Or the one where Harry wakes up.)

5. Every Arrow That I Aim Is True: “I can see you don’t believe me,” Harry says, pretending to be stern. Louis chuckles a little but doesn’t get out of the bed. “Anyway, I texted Liam and told him you’re with me. He said to stay here as long as you need, and he’ll deal with the show over there until you want to come back, all right?”Louis doesn’t say anything again so Harry whispers, “Just stay here with me for a while, yeah? I’ll take care of you.”Louis is quiet. He never picks his head up, but Harry can see the pillow move from where he’s nodding and his fingers tighten around Harry’s. “Yeah,” Louis says. “Yeah, all right.”

6. CAROLINA (Given A Chance): “Harry Styles is on TV!” Niall yelled from the living room.Louis sighed and climbed out of his bed. He started talking before he was even fully out of his room. “What the hell is a Harry Styles?”or Louis will swear on his life he doesn’t know a Harry Styles, but that won’t explain why the lead single off Harry’s album, “Carolina”, is most definitely about him.

7. When It’s Late At Night: Louis has zero interest in an ex-boybander turned solo artist when his appearance on the show gets announced, but that's exactly who he gets stuck with when Harry Styles shows up at the Late Late show to promote the release of his debut album. For an entire fucking week.OrThe Late Late prompt that we all need to get through this excruciatingly hard time.

8. Can’t Fool Me: “I hate frats,” Louis repeats for what feels like the millionth time.“Yes, I’ve heard, once or twice or every day for the past three years,” Liam says. His careful tone reminds Louis of how his mom always sounds when one of his siblings is on the brink of a tantrum.Louis glances speculatively at Liam’s frat brothers, who are still huddled together and chatting, with the exception of the one who’s looking in Louis’ direction. Maybe Louis shouldn’t rule out a tantrum. While making a scene wouldn’t actually free him from fraternity nonsense in the future, it would at least be entertaining.AU where Louis hates fraternities and would never be into a frat boy. And one of these things is definitely not a lie.

9. Baby We Could Be Enough (I’ll Make This Feel Like Home): “Did you clean the table?” Harry asks Louis once Rose is done speaking, now occupied with trying to see if she can reach over and touch Harry’s hair from where she’s sat. At Louis’ nod, Harry frowns. “You didn’t have to do that. You’re my guests here, I could’ve dealt with it later.”Louis just smiles easily, though, adjusting Rose on his lap so that she’s facing Harry better. She manages to tug on a loose wave of hair, and she makes a noise of triumph that both Louis and Harry smile at.“I don’t mind,” Louis murmurs to Harry, even though he’s looking at Rose. “This one here seemed very excited to talk to you.”And, okay. Harry can’t help but think of how domestic this feels, all of a sudden.[harry is a photographer who's trying to find his place. louis is a single father with a smile that feels like home.]

10. No One Does It Better: Harry's an alcoholic and Louis is a bartender. The first time they meet isn't the first time they've met.

#sorry the picture is blurry i made it on my phone :((#i hope you guys enjoy this!!!#also just wanted to point out that obviously these didn't all come out this month #they're just fics that ive read recently and loved or have been heavy on my mind recently #like the no one does it better is super old but i cannot stop thinking about her #and im sure some newer members of the fandom havent read her yet and thats a CRIME #anyways #enjoy this #nat speaks #masterpost #larry stylinson fanfiction #larry fic rec #larry fics #larry stylinson fics

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unimpressedperson · 5 years

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Jackpot | pt. 2

(Found this picture in @youthstuffs , thank you for posting it)

Genre: Fluff and Crack, I guess…

Warnings: None

Pairing: Kim Namjoon x @taesbetch , Kim Namjoon x Reader

Word Counting: 4.7k

Synopsis: Nya spent her whole life in Las Vegas, she would never imagine that local knowledge would ever be useful. However, her vision changed when Kim Seokjin appeared and introduced her to a few friends, film producers, whose needed guidance through Las Vegas underrated places for a movie. She agreed in working for them, and in that moment none of their lives would ever be the same. What happens in Vegas, not always has to be kept in Vegas.

A/N: Heeeeeeeey Nya!! Finally the second part is on! Late, but not gone. Guuurl! It’s a bit more romantic chapter, yet I used it to discuss LGBT culture more further. I’m really proactive in the LGBTQ+ community and want to talk about it, since I feel a lack of queers characters with voice, personality and opinion on oneshots and fanfics here. Since it’s not properly turned to that public, I tried to mingle the storyline a bit. Hope you enjoy it :) forgive any grammar mistakes.

- x - x - x - x -

It was 3 a.m, whilst some cities around the world were down to nest and rest, Las Vegas wouldn't stop. Nighttime is their time. Everything worked after midnight, entertainment would never lack after midnight. Clubs, bars, pubs, casinos, diners, stores, nothing stopped when moon reached its peak.

Therefore, Nya defined “Paris” as the last stop. Everyone was tired and almost falling asleep. Jungkook bought new underwear at a Walmart, but decided to keep on using his new skirt. Namjoon and Yoongi took a short nap whilst being driven to “Paris”. Hoseok chugged two cans of Red Bull and feeling like his blood turned into electricity, at any moment he could grow wings and fly, or float like a balloon.

Paris was a Drag Queen club. Specifically Nya's favourite. A few from her favourite childhood memories were made there. Sequins, feathers, leotards, wigs, astounding makeup, gorgeous dresses, pump music, lip syncs, dances and fun, a whole lot of fun and caring people looking after a very young Nya. No one would ever understand completely the bond she shared with most performers inside there. They raised Nya.

The cab dropped them in front of a bright purple building, windows fully painted in black, a glass door allowing outsiders to see blinking lights, a woman dressed in suit and tie as door guard, even though a velvet rope could be seen, there was no waiting line.

Nya got closer to the guard and after a few minutes of talking, which neither one of the sleepy men registered, they were allowed in.

Ok, let’s begin with saying what’s a Ball, then the story can keep going.

A Ball organized by and for drag queens is outstandingly different from a School Ball. According to the most entertaining and famous documentary about drag queens in late 70s and 80s, as known as Paris is Burning, Ball is basically a competition where drag queens put together looks based on a previously defined theme. Sewing, glueing, buying and creating, everything can go. There is a runway to catwalk and judges, also they perform lip syncs (some even are included and count points, something in RuPaul’s Drag Race style). The winner receives a trophy or money as prize.

Nya was a clever woman, so she chose specifically a day where Paris had a Ball happening. Nothing screams queer culture as a ball.

When the group got in, a loud music by Nicki Minaj blasted from every sound box, colourful flashlights and spotlights were focused on one corner of the room, where a table covered with a silk fabric, three drag queens (Hoseok recognized one of them as being Jasmine Masters) as judges. One competitor was catwalking with a revealing outfit completed by a tiger leotard, knee-high black boots, a straightened blonde wig and a mixture of pink and black makeup. Stunning.

While Nya marched animatedly going straight to the backstage, Namjoon, Yoongi and Jungkook now were wide awake again. A lot of colours and people, all sort of wearing the most creative clothings ever saw. Some of them weren’t even in drag.

The backstage consisted in thick velvet curtains, hiding from the public's eye a mess of sparkly accessories and huge wigs, clothes and heels, some of them higher than Nya's calves. Observing everything through openings, a person tall and clearly important, with well sewed dress and expensive shoes, exhaling respect from all pores covered in layers of make up.

— Guys, this is the first, the best and the only Honey Dejour. - Nya hugged tightly someone dressed in a black and sparkly long gown, huge jewelry around her neck and wrists, high-heels, a brown wavy wig, arched high brows, black cut crease, a lot of golden highlighter and red lipstick. She held the smaller woman and kissed the top of her head, nodding at them right after. - Those are the people I’m guiding today, Kim Namjoon, Min Yoongi, Jung Hoseok and Jeon Jungkook. They are film producers, aunt. They want to film here and are willing to pay for it.

— Hi guys, nice to meet you. Hope no one here is banging with my kittygirl. - Honey had a very bass voice, which intimidated them, except for Hoseok. - Just kidding, she could really make the use of some dick. She’s been single for a very long time.

— AUNT! - Nya looked to the ground flustered.

— Nice to meet you, Ms.Dejour, I’m Min Yoongi. What exactly is happening tonight? - Yoongi questioned, still astonished by everything around.

— Tonight we are hosting the annual “Glamour Awards Ball”, and I’m the hostess. In a few minutes I’ll go there and announce the next category. - Dejour was almost two heads taller than Yoongi, which wasn’t small himself. - By the way, I loved your skirt… Namjoon?

— Thank you, and no, I’m Jungkook. - He shook hands with Honey.

The group kept a small talk, Honey having fun with them. Namjoon and Nya were lost watching the queens catwalking with stunning leotards. He was curious about her life, and looking for a way of asking what’s been bugging him the whole night.

— Nya, if it’s not crossing the line between professional and personal talk, how do you know that many people? - The purple-haired man asked, trying to sound chill.

— Well, it’s not professional, but I don’t care. - Nya turned to him, but looking at his neck, not straight on eyes. - I know them because of my father. See, not everyone can live off of their dreams, and my daddy was one of those people. He was a genius comedian, kind of like an underground Jerry Lewis. I never got to meet my mother, so I was raised by him and most people you guys met tonight. Also, I lived my whole life in Las Vegas so it’s something like my neighbourhood.

“Whilst my father did his stand up sessions, sometimes he dropped me with friends. Most times it was here, in Paris. Honey Dejour is basically a mother. If I’m someone with so many connections it’s because I had a gypsy life. During day at school, ‘cuz daddy worked as bartender in Caesar’s Palace, comedy at night shift. He never reached the big casinos popularity level and gave up, but he was so funny. Never had his thunder, though. That’s why I want you guys to help my friends, so they won’t give up as well.”

— Whoa. It’s quite personal, thank you for sharing. - Namjoon smiled at her, showing dimples and a bright set of teeth.

— You shared a bit of your life with me as well. - Nya felt her heart melt a little everytime Namjoon smiled, specially at her directly.

They kept staring at each other, getting closer, as if a magnetic force attracted them. Hands touched and pinkies intertwined, but before they could kiss, Jungkook pulled Namjoon’s arm and yelled gladly.

— HONEY AGREED IN HELPING US GET IN DRAG!

— Great, but what does it have to do with me? - Namjoon raised one eyebrow already sensing the danger.

— You are getting in drag too, dumbass. - Yoongi grunted, a bit thwarted. Apparently Jungkook convinced him of accepting, not something voluntary.

— Oh Lord, give me strength. - Namjoon felt zero comfortable with the idea of using high-heels.

— Stop praying! You are an atheist. - Hoseok said, also pumped up like Jungkook.

— I don't see why dragging me up would be necessary. - Namjoon shrugged shoulders, not looking straight at anyone. - It should be something only for those who really want, and is capable of living it fully.

— How can you direct and show emotions from something you never tried? - Nya touched his shoulder lightly. - Maybe feeling like Moonchild for a while will help you to understand its essence.

— In other words. Don't knock it till you try it. - Yoongi, still not fully into the idea, tried to drag his friend to it. Perhaps, some motivation would bring them to the joy of snatching new experiences.

Namjoon still took a while to accept. Honey went and announced the next category before going back and receiving a half hearted smile from Kim Namjoon. Don't knock it till you try it, his brain repeated incessantly.

— I will do it, only for the experience. - He shook hands with Honey Dejour, as if making a business deal. - Hopefully I'll a pretty lady.

— With your body structure, I can make Liu Wen beg you for exercise tips, baby. - Honey blinked and pulled Namjoon by the hand previously shook.

- x - x - x - x -

“Category is… Streetstyle Drag” - Honey Dejour announced and the crowd applauded, some cheering, others singing and dancing to the song playing. Hoseok spinned like a ballerina, body straight and firm, spine erect, right leg tensioned enough to gather force and balance, whilst the left stood in a hook shape, arms in first position. His muscle memory never failing in reminding how to move. Jungkook received his idol title, but it doesn’t mean he was the only one aiming for that. Jung Hoseok tried and failed, no agency accepted his appliance tapes.

Although, art was a passion. Regardless of what type. Hoseok lived a whole life of drama, repressing, gargantuan levels of conservatism, a tall and skinny bisexual boy who spent his free time dancing, defying every narrow-minded in Gwangju and their stupid retrograde thoughts. The count itself had always been perspiting art and conceiting themselves for something their citizens fought, died and conquered over 30 years before, however when living off dancing, singing, painting or whatever, went from the core and not only a job, the reprimand could lead people into killing themselves.

Hoseok spent a lifetime of frustrations. When his last video for YG Entertainment was sent back with a denial e-mail, he decided to try another types of art. Working part-time as a street dance teacher and spending every coin received with art supply, he met a cinema student interested in painting: the rich and underestimated Kim Taehyung.

Jung would never forget how ethereal Taehyung seemed to be, on his expensive brown coat with fur, tight jeans and white Chuck Taylors. The lights formed a halo around his head, making the brown strands shine. What a first impression. By contrast, Hoseok with a plaid blue shirt, t-shirt stained with tint, sweatpants and overused Nike Airshots, gave a very endearing vision of him.

Once they finally began talking to each other, then it never stopped. Taehyung and Hoseok got along very well, similar interests made their bond grow stronger everyday, also Jung understood some aspects of Kim which no one even tried.

Taehyung was rich, therefore had everything but the essential: happiness. Nothing expensive bought was ever with his own money, every ounce and dime belonged to his family. Decided to drop off his parents command, Kim began working as an art teacher and even gaining only a few Wongs per week, living off of it felt amazing. Independence felt amazing.

Hoseok understood why buying cheap art supply and eating Cup Noodles made the younger man feel fulfilled, and decided to help, moved from his parents home and rented a small apartment with Taehyung.

It took them only a few weeks until they were making out on the couch, but a few months to definitely engage in a relationship. Hoseok and Taehyung attended the same college, and after graduating, keep on living in Korea, specifically in Gwangju, felt like a waste of time.

Moving to London was the last time Taehyung touched his inherited money.

Hoseok and Taehyung met Yoongi during a LGBT Parade in London. They got along pretty well, even both clearly representing the total opposite in comparison with Yoongi’s personality. They were fun and talented, after speaking to Namjoon, hiring them seemed the right thing to do.

Writing a script about LGBT folks, searching about Queer culture and being able to experience it, every single second of it felt like a dream to Hoseok. His younger self would never imagine walking in heels, dress and being characterized as a drag queen. Living in Gwangju limited his perception of world, but now, staring at himself in a mirror and checking how his eyeliner was lit, impossible situations felt like lack of vision. He envisioned Moonchild afterall.

Regardless of how happy he felt so far, Taehyung being there would only improve it all. However someone had to stay in London and take care of business. Their democratic way of deciding stuff (a.k.a rock, scissor, paper) established that Kim Taehyung, Park Jimin, Jade and Emerson were the ones chosen to stay.

Spinning again, Hoseok felt how every fiber from the fabric held his figure, anchoring himself to reality. He was wearing a mid-length light-blue dress, a flowy kind of fabric, white high-heels and pantyhose. Of course he tucked (something no one imagined he knew how to do, except for Taehyung and Jimin, who were there when Jung did it for the first time and, of course, showed up at their living room looking like an eunuch), covered his eyebrows with glue and powder. Practicing what was learnt during 10 seasons of RuPaul’s Drag Race.

Whilst Hoseok was having an internal realization, Yoongi gave up on dressing up and decided to use his own clothes, but still kept the wig and makeup. He was looking good with black eyeliner, mascara, contour and purple lipstick, also the curly, long black wig really made him taller.

Jungkook tried to fit himself in a corsage, but failed, so kept his skirt and put on a white cropped, plus a pair of 10cm high heels. He indeed looked good, makeup on point, killing eyelashes and a long black wig (“Do I look like Park Bom?”).

Honey Dejour wasn’t lying when she promised to make Namjoon look pretty, but Nya could never imagine how gorgeous the result would be.

After a lot of work, Namjoon showed up in a long red dress, topped with a silk kimono and red heels, making the already tall man look like Empire State Building. Honey decided to make him embrace his facial shape, so a short black wig was chosen. Every trace and detail planned to highlight his features.

— Damn it, Namjoon! I think I’m attracted to you! - Yoongi exclaimed.

— Shut up, Yoonji. - Namjoon felt his face getting warm, glad that all layer of makeup made him look unfazed. - By the way, now I’m Sailor Joon.

— Did you just name yourself after Sailor Moon? C’mon sis, I’m the nerd one! I’m Sailor Kook! - Jungkook protested profusely.

— Why are you guys fighting? There are plenty of Sailors in that cartoon. You guys can both be Sailor Joon and Kook. - Nya rolled her eyes in a condescending way. - I’m sure Yoonji and Jay Hope agree with me.

— Since you named me, now I’m your drag daughter. - Hoseok giggled and wrapped one of his arms around Nya’s shoulder. - Hi momma!

— Only over my dead body! - Honey showed up, carrying brown paper bags with their clothings, throwing them at its respective owner. - I’m your drag mom, Jay Hope. I built you, I reclaim you. And Jungkook, you are Scarlet Kook, Sailor Kook sounds like a brand of breakfast cereals, and I’m for sure not hosting a Cap’n’ Crunch realness Ball.

After discussing and complimenting each other’s look, Honey Dejour decided they should catwalk as well (“I didn’t sweat and put four grown men in drag for nothing. I gotta exhibit my work”). So she pulled Nya outside the backstage, bringing a chair with her, the woman was now a judge. The music stopped because a new category was about to be announced.

— Category is… - Honey stared straight at the backstage. - First Time in Drag Realness. I introduce my newborn daughter, Scarlet Kook!

When “Sissy That Walk by RuPaul” began playing, Jungkook walked from behind the curtains, hips swaying from left to right, feeling himself again and being applauded. Of course, his legs were tense, and visually speaking, he looked a bit insecure up on high heels, yet Jeon Jungkook nailed his catwalk, loving every second of it: the lights, the cheers, the feeling. At the backstage, his heart pounded against ribcage, almost climbing its way up to his throat.

— Every mother has a rebel daughter. Oh believe me, I have a whole bunch of them. - The music was lowered so Honey could speak. - Now, please applaud my other newborn daughter, Min Yoonji!

The music got louder again. Yoongi opted for not strut, fearing the fall and how humiliating it would be, mainly with so many eyes focused on him. Why did he agreed on it anyways? Even not being a proper catwalk, the way he walked down and stopped in front of the judge’s table fitted his description: a rebel daughter. The cheers flustered him, yet it was a nice experience.

— Please prepare your hearts and hold your wigs, ladies, ‘cuz my daughter ain’t here to play. - Honey Dejour smiled bright to a camera taking pictures around and got back to her role as hostess. - I give you… JAAAAAY HOPE!

“Crazy In Love by Beyoncé” began playing and Hoseok left the backstage channeling his inner diva. Hips swaying, one foot after other, wig moving with the wind. Jay Hope was fierce, gorgeous and confident. The dress flowing and spotlights making everything almost divine. Walking down the runway and being applauded brought a pack of mixed emotions.

Jung Hoseok felt loved and accepted.

Not that his friends and gay community in London never loved him, but for the first time being bisexual, enjoying arts and being his grinning, delicate self felt truly right. Hoseok hated stereotypes and how people assumed stuff about him out of his preferences, so for a good part of his days on earth were wasted trying to prove ‘em wrong. Yes, I’m bisexual and date another man, but I don’t do ballet and don’t use skirts. After walking down the catwalk, all his pre-concepts about being LGBT in a mutable world changed.

Why prove everyone is wrong, when they are clearly right? They are right, but it doesn’t mean it’s wrong. They are wrong for thinking it’s right to reduce people based on their sexuality, hobbys, abilities, etc.

As Lady Gaga said in Born This Way: “Don't hide yourself in regret. Just love yourself and you're set. I'm on the right track, baby. I was born this way”.

In the end, getting in drag proved to be more than just a costume, or a persona, it was a whole political statement.

Jung Hoseok was loving himself.

After arriving back behind the thick curtains, Hoseok felt tears stream down his face. Moments of output, everyone should have one of these. It’s amazing to finally realize and accept something about yourself, once you do it, regardless of what it is, then other aspects of your life slowly adapts to your new vision.

— Last, but not least, I introduce you my newborn daughter. - Honey grinned slightly at how Nya’s face lit up with expectation. - She is tall, she is gorgeous, she is smart and she snatches hearts. I give you… Sailor Joon!!

Perhaps Honey planned it beforehand while teaching Namjoon how to tuck (by the way, he felt like his balls were in his stomach, but still found it a useful skill). In the moment she finished speaking, “I Am The Best by 2NE1” began playing and Sailor Joon decided to try walking in the rhythm. Halfway through the runway, feeling his legs shaking and sweating dumps because of how much effort was put only in walking.

Kim Namjoon, a grown ass man, empathized with babies learning how to walk.

The heels were high and hard to keep stead, his legs were long and couldn’t be seen under the dress, so Namjoon could only feel them touching each other. Beside not being able to see where he was stepping. Is that the right equation to a concussion? Absolutely.

Even lasting only a few minutes, it felt like hours of walking and when Namjoon finally attained himself to the judge’s table, his legs somehow tangled on each other and his fall was almost epical. If Homer witnessed Kim Namjoon nosediving from the top of 12cm high heels, he would probably write a rhapsody about it. A tall building being demolished, that’s what watching him hitting the cold hard ground felt like.

Namjoon saw his legs going up and suddenly his head crashing against the wooden floor. Everything blacked out for a few seconds, maybe of embarrassment or because the fall was actually titanic. Honey and Nya showed up to help him getting on his feet again and also guided him to backstage, where Jungkook wrapped an arm around hyung. The woman also sneaked behind him and found a chair under piles of fabrics, sitting him down and watching the way Kim propped his head back and covered his face with one hand, mouth still tasting like blood.

— I want an alcohol beverage and pretend I don’t exist. I’d really appreciate if everyone respected my final demands.- Namjoon babbled, still feeling his mind spinning. - Also, some ice would be great.

— Let me grab the drink and some ice. - Yoongi wisely offered, since he was the only one not wearing heels.

Five minutes and not a word was spoken. Honey Dejour had to stay and announce the winners from every category. Everyone stared at Namjoon looking like he fought with his heels and was defeated. Still ashamed and cursing at himself for what occurred. Yoongi emerged from the crowd holding a glass with whiskey and ice in a plastic bag.

Sipping on the whiskey and holding the bag of ice over the new wound. Heels left aside, he wanted to burn them, but since it belonged to Honey Dejour, only taking off seemed decent enough.

After half an hour, Yoongi, Hoseok and Jungkook went outside to party, leaving Nya and Namjoon alone. Still silent, absorbing the fall, the rise and the whiskey.

— How’s your head? - Nya asked, sitting on the ground beside Namjoon, one of her hands leaning over his clothed knee.

— I haven’t had any complaints. - Namjoon replied grinning, still a bit grumpy, but the alcohol was soothing his pain away. Or was it the ice?

They stood there, smiling and silently appreciating each other’s company. Even though the song was making his head latches a little, he would never ruin the night for everyone else. Staying there and drinking something was good enough. Also Namjoon had zero intention of leaving the backstage, not after almost staining the wood with his brain and blood.

Namjoon’s hand slided from his chest and reached for Nya’s one. They held hands and stared at each other for a while. She wanted to kiss him, but making him fall again would be cruelty [ha, pun intended!]. Odds seemed to be at her favour, ‘cuz after a few more seconds, himself bent down, the fingers previously intertwined, now holding her chin lightly and their lips connected in a liplock.

Fireworks! Party! Confetti! Nya wanted to jump and punch fists in the air, but enjoying the moment felt more appropriate. Slowly, lips opened and tongues connected, however, Namjoon’s position wasn’t quite comfortable so he got back up, but smiling at her. Dimples, those dimples!

They instinctively stood on their feet, the bag of ice being left aside. His cold hand made Nya feel goosebumps, but her arms still wrapped around Namjoon’s waist, whilst his hands held her face. They kissed once again, now actually losing themselves and allowing mouths to open, tongues to tangle and hormones flowing freely.

Such a romantic moment, which was interrupted by Yoongi, Jungkook and Hoseok coming back cackling. Namjoon and Nya separated, pretending to be doing nothing, however Min Yoongi saw and looked at his friend with disapproval.

— What time is it now? - Nya questioned, hands stucking on her back pockets.

— Almost six in the morning. - Yoongi checked his phone quickly, and stared at Namjoon again. - I think it’s time for us to conclude the night and head back to hotel. I’m exhausted and Sailor Joon is probably needing some pain killers. We can go check thrift shops during afternoon.

— I agree. - Nya saw Jungkook and Hoseok pouting.

They returned the outfits to Honey Dejour, traded phone numbers (business still was a priority) and left, stopping a cab.

- x - x - x - x -

The group arrived at the hotel. Hoseok and Jungkook went to their shared room, Yoongi and Namjoon did the same, but the humour was catastrophically different between both groups. One was tired and sleepy, the other was tense and in verge of a discussion.

The rooms were big. Two double beds, cotton fiber bed sheets, fluff pillows and thick duvets. There was a bathroom, one wardrobe filled with towels, shampoos, conditioners, soaps (both liquid and bar). The television was big and connected on internet, so the lodgers could watch Netflix or Youtube.

Namjoon entered the bedroom and headed straight to the bathroom, bringing a towel and his pajamas. Taking a long time and leaving a trade of steam out of it, he laid down under the duvet, but Yoongi told him to stay awake. Apparently they had something to talk about.

— Man! It’s not right! - Yoongi yelled at Namjoon. - You can’t date someone, not while we have the fucking rope ready to hang us!

— What? Now I can’t make out with someone? It’s not like I’m proposing to Nya! We kissed! - Namjoon was sitting on his bed, using Ryan pajamas, ready to sleep, but still arguing with Yoongi. - We met in person 12 hours ago, I'm not in love or obsessed with her!

— You are not in love with her YET! Beside, I would extract your brain through the nose and yeet it in a trash can if you somehow fell for someone in 12 hours of wandering around Las Vegas! - The man felt really frustrated, his temples almost visually pulsing. - You can fuck with every single human being around Las Vegas, and I wouldn’t care! I’m not your dick! But Nya is our guide, she is working for us! Also, you are getting attached, but know pretty well how things will turn! - Yoongi was also sitting on his own bed, common white pajamas and wet hair. - You are not the kind of guy who dates someone! You have affairs and get tired! I know you for a decade, man! I’m sick of seeing you dumping people and becoming grumpy! That project we are searching for places to film is important. It can save our finances! But if you get involved now, the break up will probably happen one week before we start filming. Everytime it happens, the movie becomes shitty because of your humour! And Kim Namjoon, I swear, I won’t allow you to ruin this. Not this time! Not after your dramatical break up with Barbara and the critics detonating our movie. Hoseok and Taehyung worked way too hard on that script, only for your horny ass not pay a jot attention to it!

— Go fuck yourself, Yoongi! - Namjoon had nothing to say. Yoongi was right, he knew it, but would never admit it. Never in a million years.

— You fucking know I’m right! - Yoongi pronounced harshly, drops of spit flying from his mouth. - If you end up getting into Nya now, you are going to make a shitty movie after breaking up! You surrender yourself easily, and I don’t care most times, but after our last movie, we need to have you 100% focused.

— I’m focused. I was the only one not punchy! I accepted to be dressed up! I’m 100% into the project! I could marry and divorce someone, that it wouldn’t affect how I’m going to direct! - Namjoon was now spitting too, with rage and frustration. - You, Min Yoongi, are not the only one worried sick about finances and hating the idea of possibly working for some cocky entrepeuner with a big company.

— If you for yourself don’t stop hitting on Nya, then I’ll end it myself. - Yoongi assumed a gloomy expression, his body language screaming discomfort, with a hand covering his face, legs moving incessantly and ears getting red. - I ain’t gonna allow you and your romantic ass to ruin my career, business and life.

— You are preposterous. - Namjoon whispered in disappointment and laid down again, covering his head with the duvet, finishing their argument in the most childish way possible.

To be continued...

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theonceoverthinker · 6 years

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OUAT: Out of the Past - Dead in the Water

Hi! So, while we’re on our break between Seasons 2 and 3 of the OUAT Rewatch, I wanted to do a brief little lookback at a couple of the show’s pieces supplementary material. I can’t promise how many I’ll get to during this break specifically, but this is something I’ve wanted to do for a while and honestly, it’s a fun way to fill the time, so I’ll get to as much as I can!

If you don’t know, Once Upon a Time had released three novels (With hopefully more on the way!) and two comics that fill in some non-necessary gaps in the series and timelines. To start off with I want to talk about the comic “Out of the Past.” While it’s not chronologically first...I honestly can’t reach the other one. That’s really why I’m going for it first. XD

Here, we follow four non-connected stories starring Rumple and Belle, Killian, Regina, and Jefferson. What’s so interesting about this comic as a whole is that each of the four stories is not only distinct in their locations and characters, but in their art styles, giving way to separate tones for the different stories. I’ll do my best to link to artwork as I write these up for that reason, and believe me when I say that every part of this comic thrusts you into...a whole new world! XD (The puns can NEVER be escaped!) Additionally, each of the stories has a new original character that closely connected to someone in the main cast! I’ll explain as we go, but I generally like all of these characters. They meld into the world of OUAT brilliantly while still being memorable in their own rights.

I won’t be giving these grades like I normally do for the episodes, but rather, I want to examine the stories, the use of characters, the art, and the writing. If you want to read them for yourselves, they’re available all over online (Hey! Maybe if we buy the comics, we’ll get more of them!!!) and here’s a link to the Killian comic!. While there are a risk of spoilers up ahead, I’ll try to keep things as conceivably vague enough as I can for someone who hasn’t read to follow along.

The stories of the four pieces were created by Kalinda Vazquez and scripted by Corrina Bechko. Kalinda is a regular writer for the show while this is Corrina’s first and only bit of work for the show. Overall, I think they both did a good job, but I’ll get into that as I talk about the individual pieces.

Today, we’re going to be looking at the first piece from the comic, “Dead in the Water.” It’s Killian-focused and a pretty interesting piece! Why? Well, let me tell you!

Anyway, let’s get grooving! Join me under the cut for my review!

Link to the comic! Thank you so much to @misspo0ky for uploading the piece in it’s entirety!

Our first comic follows Killian Jones. Not long after after becoming a pirate, Killian and his crew get lost in a nasty storm. Desperate, they take refuge in the Leviathan Shoals, a seemingly safe haven with a terrifying reputation for both a deadly sea beast and mists that -- as Killian’s first mate Lewis states -- “cloud the mind...induce visions, madness...even drive men to MURDER!” Killian looks prepared to handle everything, but when he gets to the shoals, he sees the one person he never expected to: Liam, seemingly back from the dead!

What’s very interesting to me is the placement in Killian’s life they chose to focus on. Killian’s lived an extensive life to be sure, but to zero in on the point between losing Liam and meeting Milah is so bizarre to me -- not bad at all -- but given that so much of his life was spent in Neverland, one would think we’d see more of that or even just his childhood. Still again, I’m not complaining and I really like what we get!

But anyway, let’s talk story! I’d say this story is simple, and it is -- Killian and his crew get stuck somewhere, they find someone, and then they get out -- but I’d be lying if I said that’s all. Liam’s existence in this comic is ambiguous. It’s explained, but against the exposition that Lewis -- Killian’s first mate who is framed here as something of a moral compass -- provides, it’s unclear just how much Liam can be trusted. It makes the conclusion (which I won’t spoil, but I think it’s pretty obvious) equally ambiguous and thus hit a very emotional note upon further reflection. And the implications of this on Killian’s mindset throughout the rest of the series is just utterly heartbreaking! They story itself is decently paced (I’ll talk more about that in a moment), the world of the shoals is quite interesting and spooky, and the practicality of the plot elements come together well. ALSO, I love the fact that we finally get to see Killian interact with his crew members aside from Smee for an extended period of time. Killian may not always make the right call, but he definitely has good taste in crew members. Lewis is very smart and honest and you can tell just how much he cares for Killian. My only problem with the story is the pacing at the climax of it, namely when Killian has to make a certain decision. I won’t detail it for those who haven’t read, but given both the weight of the decision on a personal level to Killian and the convictions that Killian spent the past few pages on feeling so strongly about, to not have at least a panel of him processing or thinking about the decision before he goes against those convictions just feels poorly paced. Additionally, I feel like a bit more Liam in this comic -- like through a flashback with Killian -- would’ve brought home the weight of the decision more so that it could be as ambiguous as the ending. As it stands, Liam isn’t made to be nearly as likeable as he was in “Good Form” (The only Liam episode released at the time of this comic’s publication) and it makes the ambiguity of his appearance falter.

The art for this piece is so unique! Designed by Pascal Campion, “Dead in the Water” has two focuses in its art style. During the opening, to accentuate the danger of the storm, the art is much grainier and more detailed. The brushstrokes are far more visible in the environment outside the characters and while not without detail, there is more of a focus on the basic shapes for the characters. When we get to the shoals however, the art style completely changes and it persists until the end of the comic. It’s very minimalist and well-filled in. If I didn’t know any better, I’d swear it was made on a computer because I can barely make out a single brushstroke! There’s also a rather transitional shading between the environments of the comic. When Killian, the crew, and Liam are on the water, a cooler color palette is used (Blues, greens, and purples) while the shoals use a warmer palette of yellow, reds, and oranges. That said, the exact colors used flip back and forth from shade to shade without much in terms of rhyme or reason and while I like it, it’s not the most consistent style of art. It’s pretty to look at, but I do wish there was a touch more cohesion to the style.

Overall, despite my complaints, this comic still draws me in like a fly to a light. I think it comes down both to seeing Killian actually being a captain and the ambiguity of the ending as a whole. Stories like “The Lady and the Tiger” have a way of sticking with me, and if you like something a little less than clear, but in a good way, you will probably like this!

Thank you for reading this review and to @watchingfairytales for inspiring me to take on this re-read! I hope it’s okay that I’m jumping the gun a bit with the comics! XD

Next time, we tackle a piece of the tale as old as time!

See you then!

Operation Rewatch Archives

#ouat #once upon a time #killian jones #liam jones #watching fairytales #jenna reads ouat

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gold-from-straw · 6 years

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Writing Process tag game

Tagged by @gothyringwald! Thank you ^_^

1. What are your favourite genres and/or styles to write in?

I recently discovered I actually LOVE magical realism. I really like world building like that. But most of all I like writing about people and relationships, so within that, anything really

2. What was the last writing project you finished and felt successful with?

I get a total buzz from finishing anything, often because I’m super excited about starting on the next thing! I think Wicked Boys, though - it’s just the first draft that’s finished, but I’m really pleased with how it turned out. The Forest Hotel, as well, I finished that quite a while ago but I still feel really positive about it, which is unheard of for me lol! My friend has finished the front cover art, so hopefully I’ll be able to publish it soon! But the most surprising success was Nature of Trust, because it’s STILL gathering hits and kudos like crazy, it didn’t slow down after I finished uploading, and I can’t even quite figure out why?! I feel like I hit on some magic formula there and I’m fascinated lol!

3. If you have a WiP how do you feel it’s going? What stage are you in?

Oh dear, hold on people. So I’ve got 2 original novels that are about 1/3 the way through. One of them I recently got enthusiastic about again, but I nearly cried when I re-read the first few chapters. They were shit. I’ve convinced myself to move past that - that’s a problem for second draft Lyndsay - and just write the damn thing.

I’ve got a couple of first drafts that need transcribing so I can upload them - Wicked Boys, which is my current baby, Golden Prince, and Living the Dream (shit, I need to be writing that like now, so I can upload tomorrow...)

I’ve got a Drarry novel which might ACTUALLY turn into an epic re-write of the entire HP series, oops. I’m only on book 1 as well, so... it’s getting there?

There’s a short story I promised my daughter, too, I should really prioritise that...

Oh, yeah, I forgot about Zero Degrees! I have a few extra chapters to add, and a bunch of edits, but I’m hoping to publish that next year

I have too many WIPs!

4. What are your favourite places to write?

I write my first drafts in notebooks (literally because I like buying pretty notebooks...) so I actually end up writing in some lovely places, like a hill where I walk my dog! My dedicated writing place is in a golf club cafe I go to after my karate lesson (random, know), they make the best BLT baguettes, and the old dudes there tease me and ask me when I’m going to write a book about them

5. Do you prefer to write with long hand or type? Or some other method?

If it’s something long I usually write in a notebook, because I kinda like having physical evidence of the VOLUME of shit I write! Also I really like pretty notebooks. Also also, it forces me to finish a first draft - I can’t edit as easily as I can on a laptop. And then when I type it up it forces me to second draft it, I spot things that don’t flow better than if I was just reading through

6. Do you remember your first character? If so can we meet them?

Yes! I used to write stories and pass them around my school, and the first one I wrote was about a girl who lived as a stowaway in a container ship like some pre-teen phantom of the opera on the fucking ocean! I actually don’t know if I ever finished the story, but she was trippy. First story I know for sure that I finished was about a bus crash where one girl nearly dies and her body is taken over by an angel so she can heal. It’s mostly from the POV of the boy who had a crush on her and who goes slightly crazy noticing the similarities and differences between this girl’s character before and after. I mean that was trippy AF too, I’m not even sure what was going on there... I was clearly a little edgelord already...

7. Where do you get your inspiration?

I really don’t know, half the time. Daydreaming. Something will set me off and I’ll take tangent after tangent until BAM, I’m re-writing the story of how my great-grandfather walked half way across Kenya with a donkey and a wooden leg, only now he’s gay and he and his Masai friend rescue a kid from an abusive household.

8. Do you outline a story before writing it, or does it all live in your head until the first draft gets put down?

So much outline. The reason being, I have so many random ideas that if I started all of them I’d go crazy. So instead I have a book full of tangled mind-maps (my header photo is an example), and once they’re outlined there, they can hibernate for years before I get started, but they don’t go away. If I just let them live in my head I’d lose them! I also have a book dedicated to doing character notes, like backstories and random bits of info that will probably never make it into the story but which give me a good idea of who the person is before I try to write them - otherwise they tend to be a bit two dimensional. @salamanderink gave me that idea by asking me loads of questions about some of my Zero Degrees characters!

9. Where do you go/ What do you do when you’re feeling stuck?

I just leave it alone, write something else or absolutely nothing. I don’t try to push it any more. I think I used to, because I was scared of losing momentum, but now I’ve got this backlog of ideas, I know that if I ever run out of inspiration at least I’ve got starting points for loads of new ones! I don’t know if that’ll change in the future, but it seems to be OK for right now. I sometimes change and do a bit of drawing for a while instead, that usually loosens me up

10. What got you started writing/doing Art? (Because I always love origin stories)

I’ve kept a diary since I was 6 or so, on and off, but consistently since I was 11. That just sort of turned into me writing stories, somehow. I remember writing in my diary ‘nothing interesting ever happens so I’m going to write down my daydreams until I get a boyfriend or something’. Then IDK, some of the kids a couple of years below me in high school found some of my stories, and asked if they could share them around, and I started sewing them up to hand out - I’ve still got all of them! Some of them were fucking dark...

We had a talk by an author one day, and he asked if anyone wanted to be a professional writer. I put my hand up (and got teased by the assholes in my class afterwards, because apparently the boys in my class were actual baby boomers and didn’t think writing was a real job - like mate, you’re 15, what do you care?!) but this dude looked at me with a super intense expression and said ‘never stop writing’. So I didn’t. And I self-pub my original stuff, and get my regular dose of validation on AO3, and writing is my most effective coping mechanism. Tadaa!

Tagging @slytherinvalues, @turned-her-brain, @salamanderink, @elizabethhollowswriting and @soz or whoever else wants to do this and needs to procrastinate as much as I do ;)

#writing about writing

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castielartandcomics · 6 years

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OKAY. THE TIME HAS COME FOR THIS POST TO BE MADE. Even if it will be just a bunch of projects and me talking about them, it’s something I’ve been willing to do since a lot of time, mostly for a bit of self-esteem and to let you know that I’m actually working on stuff.

Since this will be a long post with some pictures, everything is under the cut! >:3

Honestly, I could start with a list of all the reasons why I haven’t been posting much, but the main reasons are low self-esteem and little to no time to do my stuff. School has been killing me slowly in the latest times, so the main reason why I post so little it’s actually academic work, nothing more and nothing less. ... this being said, let’s begin from what is REALLY interesting. >:3c

Gastertale

First of all, YES, I’m still working on Gastertale! And I’m extremly sorry for the long gap between the pages: the next page IS done, I just need to add dialogues, but I still haven’t for the simple reason that I don’t want to publish it only to make you wait other three months for another page. Hopefully soon I’ll return to have a bit of time, and at this point I’ll make pages more often and way better. I’ve improved a lot in this months, and despite there will probably be a little gap of style too between one page and another, I think I’ll be able to give you something more! My objective when I’ll restart to post it is to make at least one page a week and give a bit of a regular schedule, but about regularity it’s something that we’ll have to see (again, academic work). But hey, at least I’ll try to make you wait less than three months for the next page! </3

Plus, to confirm that something IS actually done:

preview, WOHOO!!

Sonic Humanitymorph & Sonic Battle Remastered

Basically. I want to draw more Sonic, and I want to draw him with a purpose. It’s... kind of a long story, but I’ll make it short for you because I don’t want to annoy you with melancholic and dramatic stuff (?). In a few words, I want to build new memories with Sonic and company, since my first memories are... kind of lost. I literally grew up with him, yet I remember little to nothing about his stories and about me in that period, and it’s something that makes me suffer a bit. SO! I’d really love to build new memories and honour a hero I’m really fond to, and I’d love to make this with you all! Since I also noticed that you really like my human!Sonic characters, so-! /)u(\

So, basically, the ideas are: MORE human characters. I still have your suggestions, I simply didn’t have the time to think about them, but I will surely do it! I’d love to make a lot more of the characters, if not all of them! And together with it, also another thing inspired by @slightly-gay-pogohammer‘s adaptation of Rayman “I’m Only Human”, which consist in adaptations of some of my favourite Sonic’s games, but in human form. And with some basic differences of course. I’m already working on it - my idea is of comics (as you could imagine, since I’m writing this on my art blog) but with a “much faster” style that will let me publish pages with a pretty fast rate (gotta go fast). Basically, sketches, and my sketches are very clean so the result should be pretty good. I’m working on Sonic Battle (which name will be Sonic Battle Remastered), which... SOMEHOW is still one of my favourite games of ALL TIMES, but in the list there’s also Sonic Riders Zero Gravity. And for the otheeerrrssss... well. I’m open to suggestions? :3

Rick and Morty: Kattebel

Remember him?

Rick I-T2B2, my personal interpretation of Rick Sanchez. WELP, I made him with a story in mind - and I actually thought of this verse’s versions of Morty, Summer, Jerry and Beth, even if I still haven’t drwan them because, again, freaking academic work. I’m tired, guys. What I have in mind with them is telling the story via comics, but in a slightly different way. I have little images with them, nothing that can be considered a full episode “worth” of a classic comic adaptation, that I think would be pretty cool if done in the simplest way, like a series of images without the need of making a full page. ... I’m not sure if I explained myself correctly, but in two word: SIMPLER STUFF. I’d love to make them, mostly because it’s a little and fun way of exploring this verse and its dinamics more than with just drawings of the characters. After all, I do want to tell you stories, and I should start to actually do it FOR GOOD, even in the simplest of ways! ... despite... yes, I actually have a more complex comic with Rick I-T2B2, about the “origin” of the condition of him and Morty (and by reflection of the whole family). So I think you can expect something bigger here too, despite it will be a MUCH shorter comic!

DEPONIA LIKE THERE’S NO TOMORROW

[FINGERGUNS] LET’S TALK ABOUT DEPONIA. First objective: actually finish the games. I have them since... a lot, and I still haven’t finished them for-- well, you know by now. An objective is surely to finally play the last two chapters and cry my eyes out, but we’re here for art, so here’s my project with Deponia:

first, drawing it more. Like... a lot more. I have many little ideas for illustrations and many others for little sequences that I think are pretty funny that I’d LOVE to do. I just need to DO THEM. Also, I have a whole lyricstuck in my mind with the Deponia series, and I’d love to make it! Or at least try, I’m not used to lyricstuck. But they’re so good,, Then, I have two projects comic related: one is... little stories. Pretty much it. Something probably of no more than five-ten pages long per story, little missing moments that might be interesting. And angsty, maybe, probably, I’m not sure. The other is... adaptation. Yes, at this point you might have noticed that I love adaptations. It’s just a little idea, but I’ve always found (probably because I’m a comic artist tbh) that the Deponia games would be... really good in comic format. And mostly for training I thought, “hey, I might try some!”. An idea would be of making the whole series as a comic, but I’m not really sure I can do it - but I’m pretty sure I can make little parts of it! It’s a project I had in mind for quite some months by now, and I remembered about it some days ago since I was looking in my folders and...

a WIP was found. Ten points and a biscuit to whoever guesses the scene. This will probably be mostly training, unless things change or something very cool happens. I lowkey dream sometimes that they’ll hire me, but. It’s just a dream. On the other hand, I might open suggestions for scenes to adapt in the games! uvu ... when I’ll finish the games.

Left 4 Dead 2

Am I late?... naaah. You don’t even have idea of how many ideas I have for this fandom, and all in comic form, just to make my life easier. I have no idea of when I might make these, but will probably be sketchy, pencil stuff, and I will enjoy every moment of them. Boy, I love these characters. I want to tell stories with them,

Oxygen Not Included

I HAVE. A STORY IN MIND. And it will be long, angsty, harsh and tragic probably. I don’t have any WIP nor I can tell many details at the moment because,, I guess it would be spoiler? But, it will be an experiment and something that it’ll be interesting for me to try! All that is needed to understand is,, when I’ll be able to make it, honestly-

And for something less comic-y: references

Because I realized I often post sketches, but not actual references of my OCs. I mean fullbodies fully coloured, with palettes and objects and STUFF. It will be a pretty funny thing for me to do, because the versions I’ll give you of my OCs will be slightly different from the “final” version I’ll show you when I’ll be able to tell you their story - because YUP, I’m working on those too, but for now it’s still a very big work in progress, so I’m still not ready to show you stuff. ;3c But basically, an objective of mine is references. Make those darn characters references with nice palettes and cool stuff, so that you’ll actually have,, at least some more infos than a black and white sketch. ... and a good reference in case you want to draw them? I don’t know just,, dreaming a little bit,, I’ll make the references for the OCs I’ve published (so most probably the ones I’ve put and will put more on @mcmentics, because I’ll surely add someone else in there soon), and after making Leda’s reference sheet (because Gio requested him to be the first >:3c) I might put it “to the vote” to decide in which order make all the others. <3 ... or simply go and make them all with the order I want. I don’t know. Let’s see what the future will offer us. <3

And those other projects?

SECRETS (?) But actually, I have told you just the main projects I have. Some (many, actually) I’ll keep as a secret for now, some are just too vague to make a post about it. But, another project is surely to livestream more! Again, I’ll need to see when I’ll have some time, but as for now I’m starting to have some free moments for myself, and I’d love to share them with you! >:3

AAAAND okay, this post got really really long. </3 Sorry, I thought I would have been much faster, but I had so much to say, haha- I’m sorry if something isn’t explained very good, I’m a bit tired after waking up at 5am for academy (and it’s 10.30pm now so,,), but in case something interests you and you wish more infos, my inbox is always open!! <3

Have a wonderful day/afternoon/evening for now, and hopefully,, I’ll start to make something BIG soon! :D Thank you for reading! <3

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jeremy-ken-anderson · 7 years

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Anticipate/Neutral/Dread

Going through the anime, it’s curious to see my baseline gut reactions to what’s next on the docket. Maybe this is just my own way of seeing things, but I often have an aversion to anime I’ve been watching - maybe I know it’ll demand a kind of emotional investment (It wants my fucks, and I have so few fucks to give; can I really afford to spend them here?). Like exercise, it’s quite rare I’ll get into a show and be unable to watch while it’s showing. I’m generally okay once it’s playing, no matter how bland or how over-the-top. But here are my responses to a bunch of what I’m watching now.

Ranma 1/2 is neutral. I’ve seen and read the whole dang thing - all of it. So it’s very relaxed, and has the occasional nostalgic moment as I see a scene I’d forgotten (remember the science club guys who try to kill Ranma during his first battle vs Ryoga? I didn’t), but it isn’t going to show me anything actually new.

Aldnoah Zero is interesting because it fluctuates. It has episodes that hit and others that miss, because it’s a drama. Sometimes the drama is affective (yes I spelled that correctly) but nonetheless induces the desire to avoid the series, because I’m just not in the mood to spend emotional energy on that kind of thing, you know? Other times it gets self-obsessed with how clever its science is and forgets to make the narrative carry our mood at the same time. Coming up on the end, I’m interested to see the last 2 episodes, so right now it’s in the “anticipate” category. But it did have several episodes where I twinged and went, “really? More of this?” before holding my nose to gulp it down (metaphorically).

Hell Girl is probably going to be lightly dreaded every episode. As I said yesterday, it’s not aimed at being a fun show to watch. Interesting, artful, frequently badass...but “fun” isn’t the aim. And as a show focusing its camera on cruelty it’s a little more taxing than most.

Hayate the Combat Butler conversely will probably never be a nuisance, unless I get two seasons in and they suddenly run out of budget (I remember Ranma had a cringeworthy season or 2 where they farmed out the animation to a cheaper studio and you could really see it). This is the longest series I’d never seen any of before I started this binge, at 103 episodes. I like it!

Hyperdimension Neptunia is almost constantly in the dread category. The mix of kiddie, saccharine, and sexual seems...basically like there’s no target age that doesn’t assume something’s wrong with the viewer. It’s got great comedy, a reasonably interesting story, and lovely animation. So...I wish it weren’t subtly repulsive?

Blessing of the Campanella is very similar but somehow just slightly less offensive to me. I’m neutral toward it, as a series. Somehow it reminds me of Winnie the Pooh: So sweet and kid-friendly that not quite enough can happen to keep me invested for a whole episode. Actually, the opening theme song also reminded me of the Indigo Girls’ cover of the Winnie the Pooh theme.

Sailor Moon is neutral. Some of this is from its age; If something’s offensive then, as with vintage animation, I can sort of shrug and say, “Yeah, it was a product of its time.” I haven’t quite seen all of this, but I have seen a lot before. It’s quite a blast to see some of the weird quirks (For the first 2 episodes, Jadeite’s theme was this weird jazz number. They changed it out for something more sinister from E3 on), but there’s enough that’s samey about the “monster of the day” format that I can’t really be champing at the bit for the next ep of Sailor Moon. At least, not yet (I’m in Season 1). I’m willing to give it time to grab me. I mean, a lot of people agree that Star Trek: TNG is an okay show for 2 seasons and only becomes a GREAT show somewhere in the middle of S3. Also it’s so weird seeing the original S1 opener, with only 3 Senshi.

Dream Eater Merry is...neutral, I guess? By rights I should be SUPER into this series. The visuals are clever and well-crafted and moody, and the story has this adjacent dream world that seems like exactly the kind of thing I’d love. Somehow it’s just not coming together. It’s so busy selling mood that it’s just a little unfocused story-wise, and the dreamlike quality of the visuals is constant/random, which means it can’t be used to help draw attention to important details.

Black Bullet is also neutral. It feels so obsessed with copying clever ideas from the big hits that it failed to commit fully to having its own identity. Those ideas are clever, so the show’s pretty fun to watch, but it feels less distinctive than, say, Bleach - even though Bleach followed a lot of very predictable plots (and the super-speed vs swarming mass fight was a near-direct copy from Gaara v Lee). It’s also got this tone issue where it wants to be a light harem comedy and a grimdark Attack on Titan style “last of humanity” story and...can’t. Sorry. They undercut each other, and doing both in the same episode just makes both elements feel weak. They don’t feel like people trying to maintain a light harem situation to deal with the pain or ignore the terror; They feel like people who are in a light situation, until the writers bring up the imminent threat of death again. It’s clumsy.

Because I Don’t Like My Big Brother At All is dreaded. Every time. It’s started resorting to punching down, in its comedy, and it started off in a bad place since it’s...y’know...about a girl’s obsession with the idea of underage incest? It’s had some laugh-out-loud humor, but it feels like it’s getting weaker over time as they have to reach farther afield for new jokes.

The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-Chan is anticipated every time. I’ve been ticked at characters here and there but it’s always been because I’ve cared about what’s going on. The narrative is strong and the visuals and sound design aren’t just gorgeous but supportive of that narrative.

Monogatari is also a fave. It’s got that supernatural element that I was talking about being a green flag for me re: Dream Eater Merry, and it has the unique series identity missing from Black Bullet. It’s stylized in a way I’ve...only really seen when watching episodes of Monogatari. In a world where people say “there are no new stories under the sun,” that’s worth a lot. The story moves super-slow, but the banter moves lightning-fast, so you (or at least, I) don’t have time to get bored by the broader pacing. And the different opening for each issue really investigates the interaction between opening song and viewer’s understanding of story - especially the way it changes in the final 5 episodes of S1 (the song stays the same but the animation shifts, as new info has come to light).

Cowboy Bebop is one I’m not allowed to dislike. Fortunately I love it. I think it was episode 6 or 7 it had a commercial-cut image that said, “The Work, which will become a genre of its own, will be called Cowboy Bebop.” And I was like, Yeah. They earned that. It’s gorgeous, with art and sound and editing/direction that all holds up decades later, and moreover I’ve never seen it. It’s all new to me.

The Asterisk War is a harem show and kind of a fluff piece, but it’s fun and I do consistently want to see the next episode. It earns it with good, believable multi-note characters and world-building that feels coherent rather than patched-on-as-necessary.

Black Cat is the reason I started writing this review...thing. I dread it and I don’t know why. Maybe it’s the emotionless male lead? It’s only been a few episodes, though, so I’ll let it go and see how things progress once the band actually forms up (something the opening sets you up to anticipate).

#anime #review

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readerdye · 7 years

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@farseersfool tagged me in this wonderful questionnaire! Thank you so much!

RULES: Answer all questions, add one question of your own and tag as many people as there are questions. (I can’t tag anyone today, but please do this if you’re interested!)

Long post after the cut

1. coke or pepsi: After that commercial the other day, Coke.

2. disney or dreamworks: Dreamworks, I think. They have How to Train Your Dragon and Kung Fu Panda and Shrek! But if Disney keeps creating stuff like Moana, I might have to switch.

3. coffee or tea: Coffee, probably, but I can’t drink it. If I do, I’m wired and bouncy and awful. So I’m trying to switch over to tea.

4. books or movies: Definitely, definitely books. I can manage movies sometimes...but only if I can fidget and talk straight through it. Even TV shows are hard to sit through for me.

5. windows or mac: Windows, because I can play more games.

6. dc or marvel: Okay, so the Captain-America-Nazi thing was ATROCIOUS. But Marvel has those tiny, cute franchises like Patsy Walker AKA Hellcat and Squirrel Girl and nonviolent superheroes, and I like that trend. So I’ll go with Marvel, provided I don’t read any of the big-names anymore.

7. xbox or playstation: PlayStation for life. (Sadly, though, I don’t have a PS4 and am therefore behind the times. RIP Horizon Zero Dawn)

8. dragon age or mass effect: Dragon Age, definitely. I haven’t gotten around to playing Mass Effect.

9. night owl or early riser: Being a night owl is the Worst Possible Thing for a depressed kiddo to be, and yet. I’m trying to switch to early bird, but it’s not working for me.

10. cards or chess: Cards, definitely. There’s a lot more variety in what you can play, and I just like the feeling of shuffling.

11. chocolate or vanilla: Vanilla. Not a huge chocolate fan.

12. vans or converse: Ahahahahahaha you think I buy name-brand shoes. That’s hilarious. I’ve been wearing the life out of the same pair of sneakers for two years, and I don’t even know what brand they are. Payless brand.

13. lavellan, trevelyan, cadash, or adaar: Oooh. I feel like Lavellan is more central to the plot and can interact more meaningfully with Inquisition’s setting, but I really, really loved playing an Adaar.

14. fluff or angst: Fluff fluff fluff. Too much stress and I have to put the book down and step outside to breathe.

15. beach or forest: Beach, and now I’m landlocked. (sigh)

16. dogs or cats: Cats. Dogs are cute, but they don’t know when to leave you alone. Cats get personal space and kind of live their own lives.

17. clear skies or rain: I loved the torrential downpours back in Houston, but now that I’m in Colorado, clear skies are SO nice. Not too warm, perfect for relaxing outside (I say from my computer chair).

18. cooking or eating out: I order way too much take-out, I’ll admit that. I really love and miss cooking, but it’s hard to muster the energy.

19. spicy food or mild food: Spicy! Well, it depends on the type. If you’re just chopping up 85 jalapenos for fun, then no thank you, but an Indian curry will get me every time.

20. halloween/samhain or solstice/yule/christmas: Solstice/Yule/Christmas is more family-and-friends-ish, so I like it a little better. I’m not a very spooky person.

21. would you rather forever be a little too cold or a little too hot: I’m guessing this is excluding the possibility of wearing jackets or short sleeves to correct for temperature, right? Eesh. I’m rarely ever too hot, so I guess too cold, since at least I’m used to that.

22. if you could have a superpower, what would it be: Shapeshifting yes please! I’m with you, Rowan.

23. animation or live action: Animation. It’s just fun! And the art choices are so interesting to me (I can’t draw a stick figure, but I like seeing other people who can).

24. paragon or renegade: Haven’t played Mass Effect, but my understanding is that Paragon is kinda the lawful good choice and Renegade is more chaotic, right? I’m sadly lawful good. So paragon. (And I’ve also heard that renegade is racist, so no thank you. Although I’ve also heard that renegade is passionate about defending their friends...)

25. baths or showers: Baths are my relaxing “calm down everything’s okay” treat to myself.

26. team cap or team ironman: Um...as far as Superhero Rules go, I really loved Ta-Nahisi Coates’ article about this: Iron Man is the logical choice. Right? You can’t have superheroes running around exempt to all rules. But Cap is the heart-choice, because if you knew a rule would hurt your best friend in all the world, and you didn’t feel he deserved that punishment, you’d fight. In my head, Iron Man, because giving superheroes free reign is a recipe for disaster. BUT I think situations have changed: for better or worse, Marvel is very America-centric. So the one registering the mutants would probably be our president. Which would be Trump. So now I’m Team Cap. (Don’t get me wrong. Both superheroes are intolerable.)

27. fantasy or sci-fi: Fantasy...but it’s a tough call! I love my cyborg-futuristic-alternate-planet-space-operas SO much that I might have to switch that answer soon. Some really cool things have been happening in sci-fi lately.

28. do you have three or four favourite quotes? if so what are they: “You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.” - Mary Oliver, “Wild Geese”

"If the ocean can calm itself so can you. We are both salt water mixed with air.” - Nayyirah Waheed, “Meditation”

29. youtube or netflix: Netflix. There’s more of a quality guarantee.

30. harry potter or percy jackson: Harry Potter. I really love the diversity in Percy Jackson, but I hit them too late to appreciate the jokey style of humor.

31. when you feel accomplished: When I write and everything flies around and connects inside my head. It hasn’t happened for a long time.

32. star wars or star trek: I’ve been told I’d like Star Trek more, especially old-school philosophical Trek, but I don’t know enough about it to say.

33. paperback books or hardback books: Paperbacks are my preference, but I get so many hardbacks from the library that my preference is switching.

34. horror or rom-com: They’re both actually really tense (interpersonal conflict stresses me out!). But maybe rom-com, since I can sleep afterwards.

35. to live in a world without literature or music: I get to pick? I’m actually going to go with a world without literature, because then we could all return to oral storytelling and ballads, and because if I couldn’t hum then I’d never do the dishes.

36. pastel colours or dark colours: Dark, but actual colors: not just black, but maroon and plum and navy blue and the like.

37. tv shows or movies: Movies...? TV shows are doing such marvelous and interesting things, but I never, ever finish them, because I can’t binge-watch to save my life and I always find something else that needs doing.

38. city or countryside: I grew up visiting my grandfather’s land, and I loved getting up early in the morning when the sky was all misty and the world was quiet. Then I moved to a Tiny Country Town and realized exactly how wonderful-but-awful that kind of place could be. I’m glad my still-there friends are turning it into a better place, but now I prefer the city.

39. if any other zodiac sign could describe you, what would it be: I remember everyone posted the What Zodiac Thingamajig are You lists for a while, and Virgo was always something like “glaring over your spectacles,” and Pisces was “You’re a nice fluffy bunny who daydreams too much and flakes out and sometimes cries because flowers can’t sneeze.” So Pisces, I guess?

40. if you could only listen to one album for the rest of your life what would it be: ahahaha, you think I listen to albums.

41. cinema or theatre: Theatre! Much more interactive, especially tiny theaters where the performers are right near you. I can’t focus on movies (the screen maybe?), but I just end up staring at theater slack-jawed.

42. if you could be any fictional character’s best friend, who’d you be: So many of my favorite characters have such difficult lives.

43. smiling or smirking: Smiling? I can’t really smirk.

44. are you an ‘all or nothing’ type or are you more consistent: All or nothing. I’m trying to develop consistency.

45. playlists or your whole library on shuffle: Whole library on shuffle! My mom swears by playlists, but I want to always be surprised.

46. travelling or staying at home: I like traveling. Really truly honestly: I’m used to uncomfortable sleeping situations, and for some reason all of my road trips have ended up being bizarrely in-depth and soul-searching. Plus I like seeing new places.

47. books or fanfiction: Books, but I still love fanfiction and applaud those who write it!

48. If you could live in a fantasy world, what world would it be: One of those integrated-fantasy worlds, where it’s just like ours only fey creatures and divergent multicultural myths have been added in. I’d really love to wait behind a centaur at Starbucks.

49. your favorite cartoon: Steven Universe, but I just discovered Phineas and Ferb and it’s delightful.

50. name the weirdest five songs on your itunes, current or past: Let’s see. “The Pirate Ninjas from Dino Island” was egregious. Mrs. Burch’s science songs (please tell me someone remembers). Some bagpipe cacophony. Everyone says “No Blue Thing” was weird but it was my favorite for YEARS. And there’s this song from Amelie that starts with aysynchronous piano notes, tosses in a bunch of snapping and whistling, ties in accordion music, and ends on a music box. I don’t remember the title, but that one was odd.

51. a favorite song that starts with the same letter as your name: Last name work? “By Yon Bonnie Banks.”

52. the last inanimate object you named: my House Squid! Its name is Herman.

Thank you for this again! I won’t tag anyone this time...I’m still too sporadic on Tumblr, so whoever wants can do it. But thank you again!

#reader writes #long post #thank you!

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funface2 · 5 years

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How a joke about the milkman inspired Psychonauts' best level – PC Gamer

The Milkman Conspiracy started, as many great things do, in a Thai restaurant. Or maybe it didn’t. Tim Schafer can’t remember exactly. Somebody—perhaps him—came up with the phrase ‘I am the milkman, my milk is delicious’, and it may or may not have been during a Double Fine team meal. “I wish someone had said it at the restaurant, because their milk was delicious,” he says.

Either way, those eight words unified ideas that had been buzzing around his head for a conspiracy theory-themed Psychonauts level. It’s how most levels for the zany platformer started: Schafer brought the concept, the artists re-imagined it, the designers dreamt up the gameplay, and then the world builders and programmers brought it to life. So how did The Milkman Conspiracy go from a simple, silly phrase to one of the most beloved levels in a beloved game?

How did The Milkman Conspiracy go from a simple, silly phrase to one of the most beloved levels in a beloved game?

Schafer has always been fascinated by people who genuinely believed conspiracy theories, and wanted to know what was going on inside their heads. “I loved the movie Capricorn One when I was a kid, on faking the moon landing. Just the idea that someone would think [it was true] was so funny to me, in the same way some people think flat earthers are funny now, but I find it very sad, because it’s just a symptom of how scary and misleading the internet can be,” he says.

He drew up a chart of conspiracies and linked them all to a central character, Boyd. Some of the theories were famous, or taken from movies. Some were inspired by office chats, others by a homeless man named Doug, who lived on the streets nearby. “We’d pay him $10 a week to sweep our driveway,” Schafer says. “He had ups and downs. Certain days he thought the government was trying to do things with him, and some days he didn’t. It was interesting to talk to him… trying to get inside of his head was very inspirational for the level. I still see him around the neighbourhood.”

Psychonauts was an exercise in dealing with mental illness in a comic way—the team were conscious of never “punching down” and wanted players to empathise with the characters, Schafer says. For Boyd, that meant showing the problems he’d been wrestling with: Being fired from a string of jobs and having an alter-ego implanted in his mind by Psychonauts villain Oleander.

That alter-ego was, of course, the Milkman.

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Visually, Schafer imagined Boyd’s mind world as a giant spider’s web, with Boyd’s house at the centre. He also wanted it to give it a retro, ’50s spy vibe, and thought a suburban neighborhood would be the perfect setting: Relatively mundane on the surface, but hiding a dark secret. He gave the concept to his artists.

Art director Scott Campbell tells me he wanted to emphasise paranoia, and he drew eyes and binoculars popping out of trashcans, mailboxes and bushes to make the player feel like they were being watched. He also came up with the G-Men, who kept an eye out for suspicious activities.

“I based their outfits on the classic ’50s G-Men detectives in their overcoats and hats, reminiscent of the Spy vs Spy comics in Mad magazine and every single TV show from that time period,” he says. “I just loved that spies always wore those overcoats and people were supposed to not notice them in hotel lobbies or on park benches with their newspapers covering their faces, with just their eyes showing.”

Campbell says the team found it funny to simply give the G-Men a single object as a disguise, and have them act out what was clearly the wrong use for that object. It’s why you see G-Men using red stop signs to hammer in imaginary nails, or playing a bouquet of flowers like a guitar, and it’s the root of much of the level’s humour.

Schafer recalls the initial magic of the level coming from a drawing by concept artist Peter Chan. “Suburbia is supposed to look mundane, but what if it was all just vaulted up against the sky? He had this drawing of the roads bent and twisted in the air, like [Boyd’s] thinking was twisting back on itself and illogical.

“And I was like, ‘woah’, the programmers were like, ‘woah’.”

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Schafer knew instantly that was the road to pursue, but he still had no idea what the gameplay would look like, so he brought in lead designer Erik Robson. Up until that point in the game, the team hadn’t used the player’s inventory much, and Robson was keen on an adventure game-style level where players combined items in their inventories to solve puzzles.

Those puzzles would be themed around the G-Men guarding certain areas, and the players would have to carry the right item to blend in. It fit well with Clairvoyance, a psychic power that let protagonist Raz see through the eyes of other characters, which had come from Schafer’s research into psychic abilities.

The trick, Robson tells me, was to make every possible item and Clairvoyance interaction entertaining, including failures. The team knew players would try to combine seemingly unconnected items, or try out their powers on inanimate objects, so they created a huge spreadsheet of every possible interaction, filling each box with a new idea.

“We know we have to have something fun for if I use the clairvoyance on the feather I’m holding, for example,” he says, “We knew those interactions would all be possible… it ends up being a situation where a bunch of creative people have to brainstorm and come up with fun solutions, and hopefully, that ends up being entertaining for a player.”

Sometimes those interactions would be simple: When used on a keypad, Raz is seen as a giant finger. But others would require more time and effort, and one of the brilliant things about Double Fine was that three designers were allowed to take three days to come up with the right concept.

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All the things that seem like antagonists, in the level, are… like an immune system trying to understand an alien body in its midst.

Designer Erik Robson

The Milkman Conspiracy ended up much larger than originally planned, partly because of the team’s relative gravity tech. The programmers came up with a way to flip gravity as you moved between the twisted, spiralling streets that Chan had drawn, and the camera would react in kind. It worked brilliantly, and the level naturally expanded as Robson took players off in different directions.

The sprawling design also fit into the theme, he says. “Broadly, the goal of every Psychonauts mind level was to express the personality of the character in whatever way possible. I think there was something appealing about it being an open-air maze. That’s a weird contradiction that seems consistent with Boyd: ‘I’m lost, but I can see everything. I see my goals, but I can’t suss out how I’m going to get there.'”

In the end, Robson feels Milkman sprawled too much. “There’s maybe two or three of those ambient houses when there should really only be one. As a level designer, my proclivity is to make things too big, so there might be a bit of guilt kicking in there.”

Robson also wishes the team could’ve better expressed Boyd’s inner turmoil throughout the level. The opening sequence, where the player uses Clairvoyance on Boyd and sees the conspiratorial scrawls he’s made on the walls of his house, is an example of when it worked, because it gave the player a sense of what was to come while revealing something about Boyd’s character, Robson says.

“All the things that seem like antagonists, in the level, are… like an immune system trying to understand an alien body in its midst. And that alien body is the what the Milkman represents, this thing that is there and buried, but he can’t get rid of, and he knows something bad is going to happen as a result. There are a bunch of things I think we did get, the sort of confusion and how nothing is quite what it seems, the open-air maze. But I think that would have been cool to kind of drive that emotional point home better.”

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Partly because of these niggles, Robson says he’s never thought of Milkman as a standout level. But he says it’s one of the funniest, and Schafer’s writing undoubtedly brings the whole thing together. Simply written down, the jokes—”The most pleasant sewers can be found in Paris, France”—have almost zero impact. But their deadpan delivery works so well in the context of the level, and the ultra-serious G-Men talking about how “rhubarb is a controversial pie flavor” as they try hopelessly to blend in with their given roles proves to be hilarious.

That was only possible because writing all the dialogue came last. After the designers and gameplay programmers had finished, Schafer would assess every piece of the level, and write dialogue based on all the work that came before. “That was the most solid foundation for the jokes to get layered on top,” Robson says. “Half of my memory of Milkman is playing it without any of that dialogue, so that stuff still almost feels like a sort of recent edition. And then after you’re done with the level, six or eight weeks later, this dialogue appears all of a sudden in the game.”

Schafer tells me he wanted Erik Wolpaw to write the dialogue, but Wolpaw ended up being too busy. “So I ended up writing all the G-Men dialogue myself and I’m so happy I did, because it was so fun,” he says. “It’s just that matter of fact, straight-laced: ‘Who was the milkman? What was the purpose of the goggles?’

“We just happened to be talking about pie a lot, about people thinking rhubarb can be dangerous if you cook it wrong. You can poison people. So it’s a very controversial variety of pie—being able to sneak stuff like that in was really fun. It was really relaxing to write in that flat tone. ‘My helicopter goes up and down.'”

It’s those jokes that I, and many other players, remember best about The Milkman Conspiracy. But for Double Fine, it carries its own legacy: a reminder that “no one person makes a level”, Schafer says. “I didn’t think of the twisting roads, and I didn’t think of the way the G-Men functioned. But I still feel like the ideas that I cared about are in there, and each department got to contribute an essential part of the level. Any one piece of that, you took it away, and it’s not the same,” he says.

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freakflagbyiana · 5 years

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Why your Fantasy Hair costs so much

For years, it has slowly come to my attention exactly how much I've been undercharging which is a common problem with fantasy hair artists. There are several major factors contributing to the cost of fantasy hair services: the time it takes, the experience of the cosmetologist, the expense of quality chemicals, and the hair you're working with, the canvas (as it were) for the art that is fantasy hair. I want to talk about this multi-layered problem, the dilemma facing fantasy hair artists in general and those specifically in Austin. Part 1 : The part that applies to all fantasy hair artists In general, it's difficult for any visual artist to know what they're worth, which is one of the reasons I felt okay about trading art school for beauty school - in the latter, you at least have ballpark idea what you were worth upon graduation AND there is more demand for your art. But fantasy hair is complex and, as such, is far closer to visual art than to a flat-priced service like a haircut. Haircuts vary in price due to factors like tools used or hair length or whether a shampoo and style is included. In the landscape of fantasy hair, however, the sky is the limit! You can get a single fantasy color allover, a multi-hued wave design, tiny rainbows on every single strand or a pixelated hair design that reveals a pikachu when you comb it a certain way. (This exists!) Throughout my career, I've struggled with finding a consistent pricing structure. At my last salon, the owner would often point out that I was undercharging, but it was something I found difficult to recognize for myself given our price structure and internal, non-competitive pricing conventions. Now that I'm running the business myself and in charge of my own pricing, I’ve been able to see how vastly I was underpaid. I desperately needed to develop a fair and consistent pricing structure - one that could accurately reflect the cost that goes into each individual fantasy hair creation... Good fantasy hair is demanding, a single sitting fantasy hair service takes double, triple, quadruple processes, unlike say the single process of dying your hair black. The processes multiply both the time and the amount of chemicals needed compared to your standard, single process permanent color. Like any quality ingredient, good hair chemicals are expensive to begin (sidebar: a LOT of corporate research has gone into pushing the limits while maintaining the integrity of your hair, see Olaplex, and stay tuned for a future blog on that very subject shortly). On top of this, many of the best canvases for fantasy hair are people with lots of thick hair. Much of the time, I’m using 10 ounces of bleach or more on a person before we get to the fun fantasy color part. One head could easily take 20 ounces of lightener/color. To put this in perspective, fantasy color tubes come in 3 ounce tubes, which means I can easily need 4 tubes for one person’s head - the overhead cost adds up very quickly. I adore doing complex color layouts, but the more complex, the more time it takes to create. An allover color melt of 3 colors can easily take 4-5 hours, more if you need color correction underneath that. What many people don't realize is that expecting all of that to be done in a single sitting is expecting A LOT. I’ve had experience with these kinds of single session hair transformations, while maintaining hair integrity, for 20 years now. I generally know what’s possible in a day and what is going to fry your hair. And when no one else can do it, I probably can. That's why I have earned the title of Hair Wizard. I enjoy doing single day transformations but the majority of people who want fantasy hair don’t understand the true expense (in money or time) and in many cases can’t afford what a one day transformation should cost ... and that's where my sympathy used overpower my need to make a living and I'd undercharge. This became scary to me personally because of some real life issues I had to face over the past few years. I found myself suffering from severe neck and back problems because of the physical strain of my job, but I din’t have the resources to afford a chiropractor. The vulnerability I was facing forced a long-needed decision to update my pricing structure. After consulting with other artists, I chose to start pricing by the hour - as a colleague advised me, it's the only way to make the pricing totally transparent and fair. Pricing hourly allows people to choose up front how much they want to do (and pay for) at once. This opens up options particularly in situations when people have requested a complex service then told me they cannot afford the quoted price. If you cannot afford the entire transformation in one day, an easy solution is to break it up into multiple appointments a week or two apart. If you're planning it for going out of town, then book your hair appointments as far in advance as your plan your plane tickets so that there's not this sudden panic to get your rainbow hair done in one day. Charging hourly allows both me and clients to choose how many hours of my effort they want to spend on their hair. While planning ahead may not be the most exciting thing in the world, it is MUCH better than attempting to do it yourself and messing it up. Or, worse, going somewhere you think is going to be cheaper, having them mess up your hair, and then paying more to have an experienced artist like myself fix the color and correct hair damage. Beautiful fantasy hair like is like every other luxury good or service - you get what you pay for. Would you sit down for a meal at Uchi without having the money to pay for it?

Would you spend a whole day picking out a Porsche and then be shocked by the sticker price?

Would you order a craft cocktail and expect it to cost the same as a can of Lone Star beer? What I do is the craft cocktail of hair. I use top shelf ingredients, I take the time to do it properly, and the result is going to taste better than what you could achieve at home.

Part 2: the part that applies specifically to Austin, Texas Here I’m specifically addressing the “ATX Demographic” - What do you really want from your hairdresser? There are a few reasons why I’ve had many people migrate to me and stay for years. Skills aside, I don’t push products, and I don’t trick you into living a higher maintenance hair lifestyle than the one you want to live. In fact, I’m more likely to tell you you’re washing your hair too much, and if I do recommend a product, it’s because the integrity of your hair needs it, like medicine. Like I’m a doctor, your hair is sick and here’s the prescription if you want it to stop breaking off. You don’t even have to get the medicine from me, I just want you to get better. But throughout my entire beauty school and career, I've always heard the same thing, "HALF of your income comes from selling retail products!" Uh, no. No one here wants to use products in their hair every day. My haircuts last a really long time because I have to structurally engineer a magical way to get your hair to "do that thing" with zero products and styling, as per the request of my clients. The reason why? THE CLIMATE. We have nine months of 100 degree summer days with high humidity swamp weather. Its literally too fucking hot to bother. No one wants to wear a bunch of pomade or mousse in their hair because after 5 minutes of walking outside it will be dripping down their face. Or, you’re swimming all the time anyway. Another reason is TIME. 99% of my clients would rather sleep in for an hour than style their hair in the morning. I'm not complaining, because I'm from here and I GEDDIT, because all of the above applies to me, too! I love being able to put a lot of products and effort into my hair when I feel inspired or for a special event, but I don’t have the time or energy to do it every day. And if I did do it every day, I’d have to wash my hair that often, which I passionately preach against as it overly dries out your scalp. And if I, a professional hairdresser, don’t have the time or inclination to do all of that every day of the week, I know that the vast majority of you are not going to either. I always say that fantasy hair is “passive effort” in your hairstyle. People can roll out of bed and get compliments on their disheveled hairstyle when they have fantasy hair, which (while not impossible) is less likely to happen with their natural haircolor. Since fantasy hair is a high dollar ticket item, it’s unrealistic to expect these same people to spend $100 more on products and 2 hours of styling their hair every morning. It would be cool, but it’s not the climate we live in. So, here are the products I can retail in Austin: shamp/cond, curl creams, dry shampoo, deep conditioners, heat protection, color/toning assistants (like purple shampoo or UV protection), various stuff for flyaways (like a water wax or hairspray), various stuff for texture (texture spray or hair powder). Now, given the MASSIVE amount of stuff available in our industry, that's an incredibly short list. I know Freakflag has a limited selection of retail right now, but even if I was fully stocked on all those things, I might sell one or two products a week if I'm lucky. My point being.... In Austin, with my specific demographic, retail does not realistically supplement my income. You want your hair to be healthy enough to have pastel hair and still look good with minimal products? You want your haircut to be structurally engineered so that you can sleep in another hour? You want a hairdresser that doesn't give you a product sales pitch at the end of every appointment? All of that means my prices have to make up for the lack of product pushing I'm doing. Part 3: The revolutionary part Let's talk about tipping! One time I lightly complained about an occasion where people didn't tip for a $200 service, I don't normally complain about people but I wanted to use my frustration as an opportunity for advice from other service professionals. I found the best advice from an unusual source - legendary producer Tony Visconti, who chimed in with his two cents on the subject: "Only Americans have to have this anxiety about tipping. Everywhere else in the world service people earn a living wage." Very true, I've known this for a long time since I was married to a Brit in my early 20s. But this little reminder inspired a revolutionary moment of epiphany - I realized I was my own oppressor, but I can also be my own savior. Thus, I restructured my pricing to include 15%-18% gratuity on services. (I rounded down from 20% for nice even numbers.) There is still a tipping prompt at the signature stage of Square checkout, but the percentages are 5%, 10%, and 15% so that you can tip additionally if you deem me worthy, or you can walk away without doing any math at all and still know you contributed to my service. Math-free, guilt-free. I’ve had this structure for about a year now and it is so much easier! The concept of the single serving size mini salon was already revolutionary to begin with. It minimizes drama, provides a private experience, and allows a much more customized environment that is perfect for specialized artists like myself. I hope this tip-included idea catches on amongst my fellow independent contractor cosmetologists and maybe someday we can change the outdated concept behind tipping in the service industry as a whole. Hopefully this gives you a better understanding of the secret world of fantasy color and fantasy hair artists.

#FAQ #freakflagbyiana #fantasy hair #prices #beauty #ATX #Austin Texas #art #artists

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mynameisdreartblog · 5 years

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Architectural Styles 3

Libra: Umayyad. I've made a mistake when ordering… something and I put the wrong number at the end of the address. That wouldn't be so much of a problem if I lived like a normal person within normal circumstances, but that's not me; I live in Helltown, Greater Syria [Hebrew: עיר גיהינום] (which is just the rural zone), and now my package has gone to a nearby bandit fortress. If we go off a stereotyped assumption, they probably don't take too kindly to visitors. [,,,] Of course, we shouldn't make assumptions about their way of life, but their outward appearance is telling me that I'm not welcome: what with the pillars adorned with the still-bleeding heads of their fallen enemies, the rabid guard dogs gnawing at the rotting flesh of their hind legs, the sheer number of artillery aligning the scouting posts, and the spooky flag with skulls on it. It's definitely scary, but it's still where they sent my work, which consists of King Tut's carcass that they send to us to decontaminate before they send it to European countries to exhibitionism… I wasn't supposed to tell you any of that, but you're welcome. […] Ugh, I'm gonna have to do this, otherwise the Egyptian government will never trust us with anything ever again. So, I need you to come along with me, Enoch, and we'll confront it together… Alright, <Yellen knocks on the giant steel door of the fortress.> ᴴᵉʸ, ᶜᵃⁿ ʷᵉ ᶜᵒᵐᵉ ᶦⁿˀ [,,,] Whelp, that didn't work. Let's just abandon our current condition, travel east, and start a new life as telemarketers… Oh. «Hello, shit-lickers! Why have you come to my fortress, disrupt my routine, and demand for my space?» Uh… yeah, I'm here to tap your mom! «What? You are not allowed to tap my mother!» Well, I'm gonna do it anyways, and it's gonna be a threesome with Enoch right here! «W-wow, that makes me so angry; it makes me wanna… wanna throw something at you!» Yeah, throw your most expensive and heaviest object at me, why don't you? «Yeah, maybe I'll throw this sarcophagus at you!» Please do!

Cancer: Mar del Plata. I remember when they told me that they loved me, and I could recall everything in that moment: the texture of the bus seat, the feel of the air against my skin, exactly how itchy my hair was, & the view outside of the window. I could recall everything I saw gazing outside: everything so nice, cozy, & bucolic. Everything was so nice, and the common life was almost artistic to look at. Time almost ceased to expand (as to the false notion that it moves forward), and it felt like this was made for me <this is the point where Great God Plan by Sd Laika plays: a great art pop song that really captures this moment.> […] That moment seemed to've struck a deep nerve somewhere in my brain, and the only way I can describe it is that it's akin to a nostalgia for a place I've never lived in, and it wasn't even off the gulf of San Matias… the grassland outside of the bus strangely reminded me of the clear waters, the skeleton of the bus reminded me of my own home with a couple of loose nails and all, and the window reminded me of the limited view I had with my newborn eyes. […] It felt I was drowning, but it was a pleasurable version of it: I didn't mind the surrounding fluids overtaking my space, as I believed it benefited me at the time. I could be mistaken, but maybe it was some sort of reconciliation for when the Atlantic waters caved in and flooded the depressions that shaped the land bordering the gulf. As I'm saying this, I can vaguely remember it happening, but I don't know if that was me: I was born in extremely rural Cordoba (that's what my mom always told me at least), but yet this is so familiar to me as if I lived in Viedma. […] Still, I was so moved by it that… that, I was woken up by what sounded like a car alarm, and the smell of fumes. Time was still stopped and you could sense a look of extreme unease in my eyes. Tall, skinny, & dark as ash with claw-like fingers, and in its path were phallic-shaped footprints that warned of arcane lust: it arose out from behind her and edged closer towards the bus… fun memories.

Virgo: Brutalism. «Nicknames: Honey Badger, The Crow, The Sheriff. That zoology class was the treasure trove of nicknames. Some of the nicknames that came outta there were Black Widow, a girl who sat in front of us who was still into the emo scene. There was something going on with her where she was chill for a while, but she'd flip out at any minor inconvenience. We had another one called Foghorn Leghorn, and she was someone who was just insanely loud. She could be upstairs and we'd be downstairs with the door open and we'd just know instantly that she was talking. […] Now, we have Shorty Shorts: a dude who was incredibly short, and had that body type that those dudes in the 40s had where you couldn't tell whether they were fat or strong. Every time he went to the gym, he'd just have shorts right up to his waste, so that's why we called him that. […] Lastly, we have Dr. Ben, who was that person who seemed to've swapped identity every month or so. We got along well with him, but he got his nickname 'cause he was in organic chemistry with, my buddy, Alyosha. And this was the kind of stuff he'd do specifically: picture us in the cafeteria and I'm getting cereal. Alyosha would bump into me and act like he didn't know me and he'd become very aggressive for an act. Alyosha, for the first four years he taught science, he hated all of that paperwork. So a student came up to him with an exertion forum, and he took it and literally burned it with a lighter due to how much he hated signing those papers.» […] «"You know how many doctorates that guy has? And do you know how many you have? You have zero, and that dude had several, so I think I'm gonna trust that dude over you." And that's how the nickname Dr. Ben was born.» Wow, that was such a cool story, prof. Domovoi. It was so cool, in fact, that it made me wanna get up, leave the classroom unnoticed, contemplate my possession of reading comprehension, and return back also unnoticed. It's been two hours, please let me leave.

Sagittarius: Palladian. When I was eleven, I went to a summer camp for aspiring stage performers, and they said to keep away from red wine and stick to strong spirits. I guess it's just assumed that anyone who goes on stage is an alcoholic, but I had some fun times there. You know, I was forced to go through it because I told my parents, once, that I wanted to pursue acting, and they interpreted that as the leeway to send me to a camp where I learned only the first couple of lines to eleven of Mandela's… wow, he did a lot of speeches. […] Truth be told, I think they were excited in any semblance to see me finally express interest in something that isn't just body improvement or the listening to the same indie album over and over. When I was young, I thought I was gonna be a runner: I did half a decade of running and it all got me were wicked spider veins before my middle-aged years and incredibly strong nostrils. […] But for the miserable time I was at summer camp, I portrayed myself as an American mobster named something typical like Tony: I had a button-up with Hawaiian patterns and everything. I made sure to get everything I needed to be Tony Chemical (badass name, huh?): tinted shades, a comb that dispenses oil grease every time I use it, breath mints to cover the smell of alcohol, and arcade machines. Yeah, didn't all of those gangsters back in the day have arcade machines? That was the cool, illegal thing they all engaged in, right? They were like, sold on the black market for tons of bucks. […] But I'll tell you: the one thing I didn't have that left Tony's character incomplete was the tattoos — they were the key to sealing the pact and unleashing Tony Chemical onto this world as the criminal star she was born to be. […] I can see how it was a great distraction from the years of hard labor that I would inevitably be pushed into, but for the while, it was fun drinking all the red wine they explicitly told me not to drink, and then making the alcoholism part of Tony Chemical's character. She's called Chemical because of all the alcoholic chemicals in her body!

#Zodipunc #Zodiaccupuncture #Libra #Cancer #Virgo #Sagittarius

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topicprinter · 6 years

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[TL; DR: Amazon is very strict about ToS. Create a content rich site. Drive traffic. Specifics: search WHAT WORKED further down this post]So ... it's been over a year since I applied for an Amazon affiliate account. Back then,it was easy to get access to the Product Advertising API, which is a must-have if you are using any of the Amazon plug-ins to grab the latest deals and current prices off Amazon. All you had to do was ask, and they'd let you create your PAAPI keys right away.My first affiliate account was deactivated because I didn't bother getting the word out and so had zero sales after 6 months.Right. Lesson learned ... these things expire.Then I threw up a website that used the PAAPI with a plugin, so the store was FULL of products. I focused on a single sub-category (Painting, Drawing, and Art Supplies), because, being an artist myself, I decided that would be a good niche to focus on. Also put up another site in the photography supplies niche.Did some social media posts (FB, Twitter, Pinterest, IG). Got a bit of traction, but not huge. Started talking with someone who has a bunch of Im businesses, and he strongly recommended outsourcing the daily posting, multiple times a day, etc.So off I went to TaskBullet, set up an account and bought their biggest bucket as it was most bang for the buck. Requested they assign a social media manager with experience driving traffic. Watched as the lady assigned to my account fumbled through the posting over 3 months. Results: page likes, post likes, followers, but no sales.Lesson learned: don't outsource what you don't understand. Be very clear what your expectations are, from the get-go. Pull the plug early if the outsourcing isn't getting you the results you expected.I decided my best bet was to handle the Amazon account and all marketing for it myself, so that I could learn and also control my results.Then I got ridiculously stupid back in July. My affiliate account was under my corporate ID (same postal address, different credit card , corporation name on the account, but my own name as the person in charge). I decided it would be okay to purchase for my personal account using the corporation's affiliate ID. Also had a couple of friends purchase items using the same affiliate ID.Result: Amazon, in their wisdom, reviewed the account, noticed the personal purchase and totally disabled the account. No explanations offered, but the cause was pretty obvious.Lesson learned: don't ever try to double-dip. Amazon is not dumb, they'll shut you down as soon as they notice.By this time, Amazon had changed the rules of the game: PAAPI access is now granted only to those who have got those magical 3 initial sales and had their account officially approved by Amazon.That means, if you have a WP plugin throwing new exciting finds from Amazon on your website, that website now has blank pages where the products used to appear. So I now had two websites (the art supplies one and the photography one) sitting around looking really dumb.What to do? I threw up a random blog site, put some "posts" on it: basically, glorified copies of the items on Amazon. Put in a disclosure at the bottom of the page stating that I'm an affiliate. Asked my friends to buy, they did.Result: Amazon shut down the account. No explanations offered.Lesson learned: I had NO idea why they shut it down, although their comment of "not really original content" was a clue. Googled "get approved for Amazon affiliate 2018". Learned that they actually want to see a successful blog site, with actual content, not just copy-paste from the items for sale at Amazon.Also learned three other key details: 1) it's against Amazon's ToS to use their product images on your site (I'd just assumed that was fine, because those were obviously the best images ... bad mistake). 2) they want that affiliate disclaimer to be very prominent, not just in the page footer! 3) they want to see a site with steady traffic!DUH, That last one should have been obvious even to a noob! Created yet another affiliate id using the same credentials as before (Amazon lets you do this, no issues).[What worked] Okay, back to the drawing board. Revamped my blog starting on Oct 7.I added a new page titled Affiliate Disclosure to my blog, and made sure every blog post had a big, bold affiliate disclosure at the bottom and a link to that affiliate disclosure page for additional details.I went through all of my posts and changed out the Amazon images for photos I'd either taken myself of my art and photography supplies, or relevant photos from royalty-free image sites like Pixabay.comWrote new articles in an actual blog post style, telling people what I do, how I use these tools, comparing one against the other, etc. By this time, I had about 10 posts active on the blog, all with links to multiple items, not just one item per post as I'd previously done for my original spammy "blog site".Realized I still had no traffic other than my friends (one friend had clicked through on a blog post and purchased some crayons for me) ... so, on October 9th, I started doing boosted posts on FB and IG with very low ad budgets, no more than $2 to $5 per day.Continued creating new blog posts as I found new discounts on Amazon or rediscovered art supplies I use and love. The blog became a way to journal my love for art! Another friend purchased an eraser off my blog. Again, a very low-priced purchase. My friends aren't dumb, either!1 week in, I realized that my ads were working. My FB page has over a 100 followers now, and I've run enough boosted posts and ads that FB converted my pages to a business account (something I'd intended to do and never got around to doing).Just about the 10-day mark, I noticed a new sale on my Amazon Affiliate report ... and it was NOT anything on my blog! So that means someone actually bought something from Amazon within 24 hours of clicking through from my blog to Amazon (Amazon affiliate links are cookied for 24 hours if no purchase is made after a link click, or for 90 days if your buyer actually buys your advertised item after clicking your link).That was a week ago today. And that was my 3rd sale. I continued with the boosted posts so Amazon's reviewer would continue to see traffic hitting my page.This morning, Amazon sent me an email telling me my account was approved.All told, it took me almost 3 weeks on this latest attempt, including cleaning up my blog and driving traffic to the blog.Lessons learned: 1. Really follow Amazon's ToS. They'll shut you down with no warning and no explanations for any infringement. 2. Create real content, not just spammy copy-paste reviews. 3. Drive consistent traffic. This can be free traffic if you are good at the social media game, or just plain paid traffic. I've spent a total of $94.39 over the three weeks: I was doing a bunch of split tests, so, although each individual ad was only $2 to $5 per day, it adds up!Could you get this done faster? Heck, yes, if you have high quality blog posts, and you can drive more traffic quickly, it may only take a week to ten days. I'm happy enough with my slower pace, as it allowed me to understand better why some things work and some don't. I'm still no paid traffic expert, but I now have a solid understanding of how to tweak things to make my ads work.If you try following these steps, do come back and let me know what your results were!

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