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meruz · 3 years

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once again i am answering asks in a big compilation post. included is... gotham, patrick stump, tips about drawing backgrounds, tips about drawing in general, links to my faq, and infinity train

like.... the tv series? No... I’ve drawn dc comics fanart before, though. But it’s been years since I’ve been really into it. I like jumped ship like 10 years ago when the New 52 happened LOL.

AFJHDSLKGH I’m sorry I (probably) won’t do it again??

Actually full disclosure I have a truly cringe amount of p stump drawings/photo studies in my sketchbook right now LOL. He’s just fun to draw... hats, glasses, guitar, a good shape... but I don’t think I’ll rly post those until I can hide them in another big sketchbook pdf.. probably Jan 2022. Stay tuned........ (ominous)

(ominous preview)

These are all sort of related to backgrounds/painting so I grouped them together even though they’re pretty much entirely separate questions.... ANYWAYS

a) How is it working as a BG artist? Is it hard? What show are you drawing for?

I think you’re the first person to ever ask me about my job! Being a background artist is great. It’s definitely labor intensive but I think that could describe pretty much any art job (If something were rote or easy to automate, you wouldn’t hire an artist to do it) and I hesitate to say whether its harder or easier than any other role in the animation pipeline. Plus, so much of what truly makes a job difficult varies from one production to the next, schedule, working environment, co-workers etc. But I will say that I think while BGs are generally a lot of work on the upfront, I think they’re subject to less scrutiny/revisions than something like character/props/effects design and you don’t have to pitch them to a room like boards. So I guess it’s good if you don’t like to talk to people? LOL

A lot of my previous projects + the show I’ve worked on the longest aren’t public yet so I can’t talk about em (but I assure you if/when the news does break I won’t shut up about it). But I’m currently working on Archer Season 12 LOL. I’m like 90% sure I’m allowed to say that.

b) ~~~THANK YOU!! ~~~

c) What exactly do you like to draw most [in a background]?

@kaitomiury Lots of stuff! I really like to draw clutter! Because it’s a great opportunity for environmental storytelling and also you can be kind of messy with it because the sheer mass will supersede any details LOL.

I like to draw clouds... I like to draw grass but not trees lol,,, I like to draw anything that sells perspective really easily like tiled floors and ceilings, shelves, lamp posts on a street etc.

d) Do you have any tips on how to paint (observational)?

god there’s so much to say. painting is really a whole ass discipline like someone can paint their whole life and still discover new things about it. I guess if you’re really just starting out my best advice is that habit is more important than product. especially with traditional plein air painting, I find that the procedure of going outside and setting up your paints is almost harder than the actual painting. There’s a lot of artists who say “I want to do plein air sometime!!” and then never actually get around to doing it. A lot of people just end up working from google streetview or photos on their computer.

But going outside to paint is a really good challenge because it forces you to make and commit to lighting and composition decisions really quickly. And to work through your mistakes instead of against them via undo button.

My last tip is to check out James Gurney’s youtube channel because hes probably the best and most consistent resource on observational painting out there rn. There’s lots other artists doing the same thing (off the top of my head I know a lot of the Warrior Painters group has people regularly posting plein air stuff and lightbox expo had a Jesse Schmidt lecture abt it last year) but Gurney’s probably the most prolific poster and one of the best at explaining the more technical stuff - his books are great too.

e) Do you have tips for drawing cleanly on heavypaint?

@marigoldfool UMM LOL I LIKE ONLY USE THE FILL TOOL so maybe use the fill tool? Fill and rectangle are good for edge control as opposed to the rest of the heavy paint tools which can get sort of muddles. And also I use a stylus so maybe if you’re using your finger, find a stylus that works with your device instead. That’s all I’ve got, frankly I don’t think my drawings are particularly clean lol.

f) Tips on improving backgrounds/scenes making them more dynamic practicing etc?

Ive given some tips about backgrounds/scenes before so I’m not gonna re-tread those but here’s another thing that might be helpful...

I think a good way to approach backgrounds is to think of the specific story or even mood you want to convey with the background first. Thinking “I just need to put something behind this character” is going to lead you to drawing like... a green screen tourist photo backdrop. But if you think “I need this bg to make the characters feel small” or “I need this bg to make the world feel colorful” then it gives you requirements and cues to work off of.

If I know a character needs to feel overwhelmed and small, then I know I need to create environment elements that will cage them in and corner them. If a character needs to feel triumphant/on top of the world then I know I need to let the environment open up around them. etc. If I know my focal point/ where I want to draw attention, I can build the background around that.

Also, backgrounds like figure compositions will have focal points of their own and you can draw attention to it/ the relationship the characters have with the bg element via scale or directionality or color, any number of cues. I think of it almost as a second/third character in a scene.

Not every composition is gonna have something so obvious like this but it helps me to think about these because then the characters feel connected and integrated with the environment.

Some more general art questions

a) Do you have any process/tips to start drawing character/bodies/heads?

I tried to kind of draw something to answer this but honestly this is difficult for me to answer because I don’t think I’m that great at drawing characters LOL. Ok, I think I have two tips.

1) flip your canvas often. A lot about what makes human bodies look correct and believable is symmetry and balance. Even if someone has asymmetrical features, the body will often pull and push in a way to counterbalance it. we often have inherent biases to one side or another like dominant hands dominant eyes etc. you know how right-handed artists will often favor drawing characters facing 45 degrees facing (the artist’s) left? that’s part of it. so viewing your drawing flipped even just to evaluate it helps compensate for that bias and makes you more aware of balance.

2) draw the whole figure often. I feel like a lot of beginner artists (myself included for a long time) defer to just drawing headshots or busts because it’s easier, you dont have to think about posing limbs etc. But drawing a full body allows you to better gauge proportion, perspective, body language, everything that makes a character look believable and grounded.

Like if you (me) have that issue where you draw the head too big and then have to resize it to fit the proportions of the rest of the body, it’s probably because you (I) drew the head first and are treating the body as an afterthought/attachment. Sketching out the whole figure first or even just quick drawing guides for it will help you think of it more holistically. I learned this figure drawing in charcoal at art school LOL.

oh. third mini tip - try to draw people from life often! its the best study. if you can get into a figure drawing/nude drawing class EVEN BETTER and if you have a local college/art space/museum that hosts those for free TREASURE IT AND TAKE ADVANTAGE OF IT, that’s a huge boon that a lot of artists (me again) wish they had. though if youre not so lucky and youre sitting in a park trying to creeper draw people and they keep moving.. don’t let that stop you! that’s good practice because it’s forcing you to work fast to get the important stuff down LOL. its a challenge!

b) I’ve been pretty out of energy and have had no inspiration to draw but I have the desire to. Any advice?

Dude, take a walk or something.... Or a nap? Low energy is going to effect everything else so you gotta hit that problem at its source.

If you’re looking for inspiration though, I’d recommend stuff like watching a movie, reading a book, playing video games etc. Fill up your idea bank with content and then give yourself time/space to gestate it into new concepts. Sometimes looking at other art works but sometimes it can work against you because it’s too close.

Also something that helps me is remembering that art doesn’t always have to be groundbreaking... like it’s okay to make something shitty and stupid that you don’t post online and only show to your friend. That’s all part of the process imo. If you want to hit a home run you gotta warm up first, right? Sports.

I should probably compile everytime i give tips on stuff like this but that’s getting dangerously close to being a social media artist who makes stupid boiled down art tutorials for clout which is the last thing i want to be... the thing I want to stress is that art is a whole visual language and there are widely agreed upon rules and customs but they exist in large part to be broken. Like there's an infinite number of ways to reach an infinite number of solutions and that’s actually what makes it really cool and personal for both the artist and the viewer. So when you make work you like or you find someone else’s work you like, take a step back and ask yourself what about it speaks for you, what about it works for you, what makes it effective, how to recreate that effect and how to break that effect completely, etc. And have a good time with it or else what’s the point.

for the first 2, I direct you to my FAQ

For the last one, I don’t actually believe I’ve ever addressed artwork as insp for stories/rp but I’ll say here and now yeah go ahead! As long as you’re not making profit or taking credit for my work then I’m normally ok with it. Especially anything thats private and purely recreational, that’s generally 100% green light go. I only ask that if you post it anywhere public that you please credit me.

(and I reserve the right to ask you to take it down if I see it and don’t approve of it’s use but I think that case is pretty rare.)

a) @lemuelzero101 Thank you!!! I haven’t played Life is Strange but actually that series’ vis dev artist Edouard Caplain is one of my bigger art inspirations lately so that’s a really high compliment lol. And yeah I hope we get 5-8 too...!

b) Thank you for sticking around! I’ve been thinking about Digimon and Infinity Train in tandem lately, actually. They’re a little similar? Enter a dangerous alternate world and have wacky adventures with monsters/inanimate objects that have weird powers... there’s like weird engineers and mechanisms behind the scenes... also frontier literally starts with them getting on a train. Anyways if anyone else followed me for digimon... maybe you’d like Infinity Train? LOL

c) @king-wens-king I’M GLAD MY ART JUST HAS PINOY VIBES LOL I hope you are having a good day too :^)

a, b, c, d) yessss my Watch Infinity Train agenda is working....

e) aw thank you!! i think you should watch infinity train :)

#ask #trying this new thing where i tag people in the body of the post instead

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thecagedsong · 3 years

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Forgotten Light: Chatper 8: Boundaries

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 / 11

Chapter 8: Boundaries

Ronodin hadn’t returned, and said that he wouldn’t until tonight. Kendra had another day to whittle away. She read more in her book on the Fair Folk over breakfast, then sat in front of her crafting materials again.

Kendra had no idea if her medallion even worked, but at least it dried nicely. The wooden texture came through the paint, but that made it look functional. Like, hey, this is a wooden medallion meant to weaken my enemies, not be a high school shop class project.

Did she take woodshop class? Did she ever go to high school? From Ronodin’s story, Kendra probably had tutors. Why did she feel like she knew more about the American public school system than she did about monster hunting? Or even tutoring schedules?

Trying to figure out her past by evaluating what bodies of knowledge she possessed and what she didn’t left her with a headache.

Kendra refocused on the fabrics in front of her. She did okay with the medallion, maybe her body had remembered something her brain didn’t. Hopefully that subconscious knowledge would help her do what she wanted to make next: create a jacket.

Ronodin assured her that the clothes in her wardrobe were all hers, taken and given to Ronodin from her own closet for exactly this time. Pieces her family didn’t approve of and wouldn’t know to find missing. But old Kendra’s clothes…left a bit more exposed than she liked. Aside from also being mostly black and red, and she was really growing tired of those colors, the dresses were low cut at the top, and high cut around the thighs.

She looked sexy in them, but with Ronodin continuing to ‘forget’ that she had only met him two days ago, sexy wasn’t the look she wanted to wear. She’d start with a simple cardigan, covering up her shoulders and back, then see what she could do about altering hemlines.

Looking over the fabrics, she wished she had pink. She thought she liked the color. Pink wasn’t among the fabric options. There was more red and black, and white, silver, dark blue, green, orange, and dark purple.

Because it would clash horribly with the red and the black, she selected the pumpkin orange fabric. If she was enough of an eyesore, maybe she could convince Ronodin that they needed to pop into a shopping mall for a real wardrobe. Something she was comfortable with now. The orange fabric was a wool/giant hair blend, dyed with pigment from the Fala plant, that produced its own distractor spell to convince people that it was dead until they forgot what they were looking for.

Sewing was a lot harder than she thought, especially without a sewing machine. Did she do this by hand the first time? The needle felt so awkward, her stitches were uneven, she was approximating the designs in the book, but some of them had her folding fabric before cutting? What did it mean by grain? She tried to incorporate ‘make me look hideous!’ magic intentions as she sewed, imaging Ronodin cringing away from her, refusing to look at her in it, but it was a little hard when most of her focus went to not pricking herself.

Still, she wasn’t a quitter. Kendra had to undo a seam, because apparently clothes were assembled inside out, but by referencing the book every few minutes, and working through hand cramps, she managed to at least make the pieces stick together.

It was early afternoon when Kendra finished her uneven hems. Some of the tools in the basket might have helped her, but her books didn’t reference any of them, so she left them alone.

Holding up the final product, Kendra giggled. She’d done everything on larger estimates, figuring that her goal was to be covered and folds in fabric were easier to have than one side not fitting, and cutting down was easier than adding. The result could generously be described as an orange tent. Kendra had to see herself in the monstrosity. She rushed to the bathroom, passing Mendigo in the hall, and positioned herself in front of the mirror.

She slung on the cardigan over the black lace dress, and cracked up.

“Hi Ronodin!” Kendra waved to the mirror with both hands, one sleeve reaching halfway up her palm the other so wide it fell back against her elbow at the motion. The ruby necklace looked like it was suffering, trying to hide from her attempts at sewing.

“Oh, er Kendra, I see you tried sewing,” Kendra mocked in the mirror with a low voice.

Kendra twirled, then did an impression of herself with a higher pitch than normal, “I did, do you like it? I love it! I put soo much effort into it! I love the pumpkin look, don’t you?”

She imagined Ronodin’s face, the horror, the strain not to insult his girlfriend, and burst out laughing. Kendra couldn’t wait to see his face for real. She would insist on wearing this until he took her to the mall.

Kendra stopped laughing and frowned at her reflection. That really didn’t seem right. Even if she had arranged all of this herself, why would she arrange a hideout she couldn’t ever leave? If old Kendra had wanted to live a free life with Ronodin, why didn’t she pick a hide away that let her go outside? Her family couldn’t be powerful enough to search the whole world. If she had been able to pick anywhere, a remote island seemed like a much better hiding place than where she was.

Maybe she and Ronodin had had a disagreement over how long she should stay underground. He might be capitalizing on her memory loss to keep her extra safe; it’s possible Kendra had never intended for herself to remain sealed away. That seemed like something Ronodin would do. Slip in a little lie amongst the truths to save himself battles.

Well, wherever they were, Kendra wanted out. Now that she wasn’t dressed for a cocktail party, she would find her way to a window at least. She went back to her room, and decided to arm herself with the bow she had brought with her through the barrel, even though she didn’t have any arrows. She hadn’t had anything else on her, so she slipped on her shoes and went to the door that Ronodin usually walked out of.

She turned the heavy knob, but the door wouldn’t budge. Jiggled it some more, but didn’t move. She searched everywhere for a key, but couldn’t find on. What kind of front door could be locked from the outside?

“Mendigo?” Kendra called, and her puppet came forward. “Open this door.”

Kendra stepped to the side as Mendigo started straining his wooden hands at the door. He turned back to her and shrugged, showing his wooden fingers. Duh, no way could he get the grip he needed that way.

Should she order him to break down the door? These rooms were rented to them by their mysterious ‘host’, who apparently had Ronodin working like a slave. He probably wouldn’t appreciate her busting his door down. She decided against it until things looked more dire.

The last hasty, destructive action she had ordered had almost killed her fiancé. She would demand a key from Ronodin when he got back before resorting to property damage.

“Thank you Mendigo,” Kendra said, “Let’s see what else there is in this place.” Putting her hand on the wall to the left of the door, Kendra started walking, never lifting it. She discovered three different storage closets: one for cleaning supplies, one empty, one for linens. Kitchen, Ronodin’s bedroom (extremely frugal, disappointingly empty) (he had a couple of robes Kendra considered using to augment her own wardrobe, but decided that would send the wrong message), Library, bathroom, craft room, Kendra’s room, Kendra’s bathroom, Kendra’s closet, sitting room/front room, and back to the main door.

That was it. The entirety of her existence, done up in blacks, reds, and gray stone and drenched in blue firelight. Some of the carpets had cream accents, but that was it.

Kendra knew what kind of front door locked from the outside.

She wandered back to her craft room and picked up a canvas to draw. This was about passing time. Next time she wouldn’t let Ronodin leave without her. Kendra just needed to stay sane until he got back. Even if practicing her magic with nicer emotions would create a less effective item, she wanted something nice to look at. Something peaceful. An outdoor scene, and she’d try to work peace into it. It was for herself anyway, and she’d do it in blue and green and white, and it would look beautiful.

Unfortunately, Kendra couldn’t visualize what ‘outside’ looked like. She knew the sky was blue, it had a sun, and grass was green and flowers came in all colors, but the pieces wouldn’t put themselves together. Kendra had never seen ‘outside’, she had nothing but rote facts. She put her pencil to canvas anyway, figuring that if she drew the pieces, it would all come together eventually.

Her hand refused to move. It had no direction on what to draw. Were horizons bumpy or straight? What color blue was the sky? What did sun look like on plant leaves?

Glaring, Kendra started sketching her craft table, in front of her, with the wall behind it turning into prison bars. She’d seen those in her mad-dash self-kidnapping.

Sketching came easier than sewing or carving. Maybe because more art principals were known by the public, the curse wasn’t able to remove them as personal memories. It was nice to have something come together, even if it was only a picture of her cell.

When she got to painting, she ignored the descriptions of materials and focused on colors. Easier than before, she took threads of magic, threads of the flame from the candle inside her, into her hand and turned them to her own emotions, mixing with the paint materials. She wanted people to look at the painting and know that she was trapped. She wanted them to know the suffocation, and the feeling of crafting little trinkets while sun and stars roved the heavens unseen. Not being able to draw the sun or the sky. Not knowing what those looked like. Not knowing what anything looked like outside of six people, a puppet, and her prison. It was a nice prison, possibly one of the nicest in the world.

Kendra painted black beyond the bars. Even gilded cages birthed insanity.

#Forgotten Light #Fablehaven #Dragonwatch #Kendra Sorenson #I...may have been dealing with the initial pandemic claustrophobia when I wrote this #I'm just being dramatic #I'm at it again like an addict with pen

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ravenwritesstuff · 4 years

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Best Laid Plans (6/?)

Fandom: Frozen (modern AU, no magic) Pairings: Helsa, established Kristanna, Rapunzel/Eugene, lotsa frohana Rating: T for now, M later almost for sure A/N: Stop looking at me.

The multi-function table is loaded with pastries, fruit, and more bagels than Elsa remembers being in existence. Kristoff, Eugene, and Rapunzel all have their plates in front of them - Rapunzel's somehow the most full - and are conversing amicably with him.

The space is not large but it was designed to give an open, inviting feel. She had created it to make everyone feel welcome the second they entered the room and it seems her design has done just exactly that. She never once considered that could be a detriment until now.

“Elsa!” Rapunzel jumps up like she hadn't talked to her just moments before in the atrium. The rest of the eyes in the room track to her immediately. She does her best to ignore him.

“I don't recall having a meeting scheduled this morning.” She feels that she is dripping on the stone-tile floor. “You will have to excuse my tardiness.”

She doesn’t flinch meeting his gaze even as mascara stings her eyes. She bets it is running down her cheeks, too. To his credit he keeps his composure despite her rain-soaked appearance. Except not to his credit, because shouldn’t even be here. Of all the entitled bullshit she has ever encountered…

She crosses her arms and looks at her employees.

“Thank you all for entertaining our guest at the expense of your other tasks, but you may go now. I will take it from here.”

They get the point.

The trio are all gracious as they take their plates and leave (all of them grabbing a bit more from the generous spread before ducking out sheepishly). Elsa gives them her best facsimile of a smile as they exit. She shuts the door behind them with a definitive thud (though she knows that will do little to keep them from eavesdropping) before turning back to the root of this entire problem. The idea of her staff listening in makes her even more irritable. She hates being the center of attention.

Still, she turns and meets his gaze. “Mister Westergaard.”

He smiles. “Hans.”

He is seated on a cushioned bench that was custom built for the space. She half expects him to rest his elbows on the table and cradle his chin in his hands with his patronizing tone. She stiffens a bit, but tries not to acknowledge it.

She is a professional. She will at least see what he wants.

“I wasn’t expecting you.”

“You wouldn't let me take you to dinner so I brought you breakfast.”

She remembers their conversation after the dance, the granola bar she grabbed on the run, but also remembers her most ultimate truth and speaks the lie that must come from it: “I don't eat breakfast.”

“Everyone eats breakfast.”

“Well I don't.”

He scoffs, smile tugging at his wide mouth.

“Doesn't take bubble baths. Doesn’t dance. Doesn't date. Doesn't eat breakfast.” He rattles off the list and she feels her ears turning pink. Had he really listened that closely? “I know for a fact that at least twenty five percent of those statements is patently untrue. It makes me wonder about the other seventy-five percent." He dangles the bait but she doesn't take it. He shifts. "So if you don't do all of those things, what do you do?”

“I run this company.”

He nods his head slowly, keeping his clever eyes trained on hers. “And you are in charge of planning all of the events put together by this company?”

It is a leading question. She knows it. Doesn't want to feed into it, but is uncertain how exactly to skate around it.

“Anna and I are partners. Which of us take the lead on projects depends on what best fit our client's needs.”

He leans forward then, just enough that she can smell ulterior intent even as he assumes a professional posture.

“So your clients pick their point of contact. Interesting.”

She can feel him circling, and realization snaps his intent into place. She knows where this is leading, and a chill runs down her spine. If she had known he would be this persistent…

She presses forward, trying to correct her misstep.

“In part. The team at E & A Events all have a say as well. It is a team operation. We all have different, but equally important, roles.” She doesn’t like where this conversation is going, but she won’t surrender even as she drips on the floor. Even if she wants to shove him out the door and force him out of her mind and life.

“Equal but different roles, fascinating. I’d love to know more.”

She had practically gift wrapped that segue for him. Instead of getting him out the door she was helping him dig trenches. She could kick herself for it.

“The inner workings really aren’t that important or interesting to most.”

“Try me. Let's start with the big blonde guy. Christopher.”

“Kristoff,” she is just a little too quick, enjoying correcting him just a bit too much, and his eyebrow flicks in amusement. “Just Kristoff.”

“My sincerest apologies. Kristoff. What does he do?”

“He supervises and creates special builds for our events. Stages, tables, altars, set pieces… he also coordinates event set-up and tear down logistics and coordinates all parties involved in that.”

“Fascinating,” he says and she believes him. He seems to hang off of her every word and that makes her nervous. “What else? What about that Rapunzel girl?”

“IT, admin, and graphic design. She can build you an event website with sign up funnels all customized around a graphics suite she creates from your concepts as well as facilitate any paper needs you may have from invitations to menus.”

He hardly lets her breathe: “And Eugene?”

“Vendor liaison and customer service. He is excellent at negotiating with vendors to get you exactly what you want at a price that is fair for everyone as well as day-of coordinating.”

He had already gotten a front row seat of Eugene’s flair for customer service two days ago at Eric and Ariel’s wedding. She is certain he will pick up how far she is underselling each team member and the extent of what they do just because of that, but he doesn’t mention it. He keeps right on with his line of questioning.

“Anna?” He keeps it short, like not letting her pause for even a moment, like he is quizzing her.

Two can play that game. “As Creative Director she does whatever I don't do.”

He smiles then like he knows something she doesn't, “and you. What is it that you do?”

She has given these answers ten thousand times, has recited them all from rote already, knows exactly how to answer his questions but the words catch in her throat. She cannot help but feel she is walking into some sort of trap and she does not want to be caught. She cannot afford to, for either of their sakes.

She takes a breath. “I am Director of Operations and work closely with the designated point of contact to an event that is both seamless and completely authentic to the person or organization putting it on as well as manage several day-to-day operations.”

He leans back and rubs a hand across his chin. He smiles: “I like listening to you talk.”

Her brain scrambles. She does not understand what any of that has to do with anything. She stays professional.

“Thank you.”

“Tell me something else. Anything. Anything at all...”

The sensation of just being a specimen, like a bug under a microscope, makes her anxious. His eyes skate the length of her body and she is suddenly hyper aware of how her once shapeless dress now clings to each curve, how her eyes sting with the mascara leaking into them, how each inch of her body is still dripping on the floor. He seems to notice her discomfort with a sardonic glee, the fight she is waging to not tighten her arms over her chest and hide, to seem relaxed.

“I have told you all I can possibly think to tell you, Mister Westergaard. Why don’t you enlighten me about the specifics of what brought you here this morning?” She turns the table, done beating around the bush. She won’t be made to stand trial, barefoot, with clammy skin, in her own office. "Because if conversation is why you are here I can guarantee you there are much easier and better places you can find it."

His smile falls a bit, but he catches himself. That all too human crack bleeds through and she thinks she has hurt him. She steels her insides against remorse as his cool and controlled exterior snaps back in place.

His smile now wolfish.

“I am launching an initiative," he makes a broad sweeping gesture with his arms. "And I wasn't going to make too much of a fuss, but you all changed my mind.”

She expects him to continue but he doesn't. Instead he just watches her. She frowns.

"Mister Westergaard I don't know if I quite understand. We plan events - not initiatives. Perhaps you would be better served with a Public Relations firm or -"

"Those pieces are already in place." He smiles, just a bit crooked as if he has anticipated this rejection and has a counter prepared. “What I need is a party, and a good one, to draw the proper attention.”

She cannot help but wonder just what a man like this considered to be proper attention, but pushing against him isn’t getting her what she wants. So she leans in.

“Do you have a prospective date for this event?”

Normally these questions would be answered before she ever saw the client in person. Normally there would be boards and sketches and swatches of color and timelines and menus all laid out in coordinating binders for the initial presentation - drawn up from the initial phone consult. Her clients didn’t like wasting time. Neither does she, but here she is.

He tells her and it is all she can do not to choke on her own disbelief.

“That is only five weeks from now!”

“Thirty nine days to be exact.”

“Mister Westergaard - we have other clients, other events, that is hardly enough time to properly plan something of any size or scale.

“Please. It’s Hans,” he stands, smoothing the front of his tailored slacks as he goes and her mouth goes dry. "And you're starting to make me think you aren't interested in taking this on."

There is something a little too casual about how he stands, too relaxed, the drift of his eyes too lazy to be anything but sharply calculated. She can see it. She may not know him well, but she knows he isn’t one to leave something to chance. She didn’t bow to his charm so now he will prod her pride. It irks her to admit that it is working.

“It isn’t that at all.”

“Then what is it?”

She meets his gaze. The crisp lavender button down he wears brings out the green of his eyes and she knows if she was closer she would see the gold ring around his iris. Even with several feet between them she knows just how warm he would feel if she touched him, probably even warmer than she remembers with her rain chilled skin. She knows how he smells. The memory alone is enough to make her heart pound so hard that she is sure he can see her pulse in her throat.

He steps around the decadence-covered table and her calf cramps as she steels herself to not retreat.

“This is my job, Mister Westergaard.”

He comes closer, hands tucked into pockets. She stays, chin lifting.

“I’m aware.”

He stops a few feet in front of her, close enough now that all he would have to do is reach out and suddenly

Her words come out on a gust of breath. “I am not a challenge. This is not some sort of game.”

He cocks his head. “I’m not playing any game.”

She searches his face, warning bells screaming that there must be a lie, but all she finds is that blindingly sincere humanity that scrambles her thoughts.

“I have other events, other clients -”

“So is it a ‘no’”?

She swears he doesn’t move but he feels closer. The light in his eyes shifts and she cannot think. She cannot breathe.

She remembers what Anna said.

This is bigger than what she wants.

A client like Hans Westergaard could establish their company for life - and even if she has disconnected from the length of that concept she knows what it means for others. She knows the firm needs this as impossible and inconceivable as it seems.

“There will be some ground rules.” The fact she keeps the shake out of her voice is a moral victory.

His brow quirks. “You want to set rules for something that isn’t a game? Interesting.”

She feels his humor like a contagious warmth spreading through her chest and nearly chokes at the weight. This was not what she wanted, what she expected from today...

“Any relationship we have will be business only. I cannot take you on as a client if you do not agree to that.”

His wide mouth pulls to the side enough to be just shy of a smile: “Are you implying that I would engage your services for anything other than professional reasons?”

His words sends heat flooding up her neck despite her soggy state.

The same heat she sees in his cunning eyes, the same she knows she will feel if she touches him.

He is trying to fluster her and she knows it.

He is succeeding and he knows it.

She forces her calm: a skill she has mastered over the years.

"I am not implying anything. If we are to work together it is important we both handle ourselves in the appropriate manner."

“Of course. Absolutely.” He smiles, shifting his weight into a casual posture.

She knows she should ask about budget, about the theme, about the twenty five thousand things she clarifies with clients before even thinking about accepting them for their services - but she knows that this point none of that matters. At this point - all that matters is getting him out of her offices so she can think, work, breathe.

So she agrees, “absolutely.”

She takes the lead and extends a hand and he glances at it with a dark twinkle in his eye. He takes it is his and just as she expects his touch burns.

It is all she can do to not catch her breath as they shake on an agreement she can hardly understand.

She releases his hand as soon as she can, letting it sink back to her side as naturally as possible when all she wants is to yank it back and rub her palm on the cool damp fabric of her thigh.

But they need this.

This is something bigger than herself and her own comfort.

She has said ‘no’ to men before, has built those walls she has contrived to protect them from herself, but still those warning bells ring. Anna knows. She knows. This one is different.

But it is only thirty-nine days. What could happen?

The way he smiles at her across the space between them answers that question even if she chooses to ignore it.

[ previous ] [ next ]

#best laid plans #helsa #kristanna #fanfiction #rapunzel #eugene #tangled #frozen #raven writes stuff

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fuzethehostagehater · 6 years

Text

some fuze ships summarized

Fuze/Tachanka

T: points at picture of Fuze’s elite skin , you look just like your grandfather

F: you are my grand father

Fuze plugs his ears when he sleep because tachanka sings USSR anthem so loud while he sleep

Fuze in the morning will throw box of 7.62x54R and say, это день победы

Tachanka drives KV-2

что такое смартфон фьюз ?

wears nothing but Dp-28 mags to cover his important areas on wedding day .

they live in a nuclear bomb shelter or soviet era war bunker.

they go to a ISU-152 artillery restoration project in Volgograd together. Where tachanka was doing push ups at – 40 degrees topless so he can nail parts in without using hammer. while fuze blows up unexploded 152 mm shells.

is their song is белая армия, чёрный барон

Fuze/Kapkan

Fuze was driving to home from work when police officer maxim basuda stops him.

F:officer I am not drunk , I am doing 50 in 50 zone what’s the point ?

K:points speed gun at his heart , no sir you are going over 200 km/h

They go to the shooting range together :

Fuze:нож на потасовку с пушками ?

Kapkan: смотри и учись , нооб

Kapkan drives RC/XD from black ops games

Kapkan carries a nokia 3310

Wears a Traps are not gay t shirt on wedding.

They don’t live in forest inside a army tent

F: hey kapkan why do you carry a shovel on your back?

K: so I can dig a trap when I run out of ammo

F: you mean our grave?

Прорвемся – Любэ is their song

Fuze/Glaz

G: would you like a photo realistic portrait my good sir ?, that would be 1000 rubles

F: ok…

2 hours later.

F:You Photoshop this right?

Fuze draws a plan of his APM-7 cluster charge mk2 then he left the plan on desk and went to sleep

Next day he finds out that it is coloured in rainbow because the touch of colour was out of place.

they live next to Hazine art gallery in kazan

they go to shooting range where glaz draws smiles on steel targets with his Ots-03

детали, меня друг ,детали,

Glaz drives a ОБЪЕКТ 120 ТАРАН coloured in rainbow

Glaz has a iphone X in red colour.

Shinwha – sniper is their song

Wears a Ghillie suit at wedding

Fuze/Dokkaebi

F: so what’s this again ?

D: 보신탕 (bo- shin tang)

F: Delicious

They live in yeong san district south korea.

Dokkaebi has a CIA level untrackerable phone no one knows the brand of.

F: ОППА , dokkaebi what the blin I am at funeral.

D: what? Call me noona …. You 멍청이.

F:Where were you yesterday I was worried about you !

D:니가 나를 걱정해? Wow 처음듣는 얘기

Dokkaebi drives a smart fortwo , actually it drives for her.

Fuze tries to work on crafting better cluster bombs before being bombarded by

Kaokao talk ! kkao talk! Kkao talk! And decides to throw a phone out the window which ends up hitting hostage on the head.

Wears a snap back ,hanbok and Gucci glasses on wedding day but guests don’t really give a damn as they are too busy turning their phones off.

Their song is Beep Beep by SNSD

Fuze/AK-12 (T-doll)

True gopnitsa, doesn’t give a single fuck about life much. she sleeps 80% of the time and keeps her eyes closed.

They have no chairs in their house because they squat all day

Wears Adidas on wedding day.

Calls her sister AN-94 to pick them up and drive them home after their date but she is busy working so she can’t come. instead fuze decides to carry her on his arms bridal style back home while she raises middle fingers at other couples and gopniks that looks at them.

They go to shooting range together and this happens every time.

F: wtf 12… no aimbot!

12: гит гуд , дедушка

Drives a T-90A Vladimir

Reads girl x girl rainbow six siege smut in her free time. this is only time she opens her eyes.

uamee – AKM is their song

Fuze/Finka

FI:Takes the 6P41 lmg from fuze, ЭТО МОЯ ПУЛЕМЕТ !

Fu: Я первый его получил.

Tachanka jumps into room while soviet union anthem playing loud and yells

HAVE YOU TWO LEARN NOTHING ABOUT SHARING ?!!!

Fu:You see lena if you hold peestol like me you never be of shoot inaccurate for afraid of shooting fingers.

Fi:you can live without few fingers debil.

Finka wanted to boost her whole spetsnaz team with adrenaline when fuze starts singing

Пацаны - наркотик КАЛ,

В школе в коробке сдавал.

Наркота - отстойней кваса

Finka wears a hazmat suit to wedding before someone tells her to get out of here STALKER.

They live near the ZONE because such is life.

She Drives a Rkhm-6.

Their song if it wasn’t obvious is bandit radio from stalker.

Fuze/Vigil

F: I don’t see anyone around …. it should be safe for me to play north Korean pop

V: ARE YOU SURE ABOUT THAT ?

They go to shooting range together but fuze always picks up and hides few spent casings inside his pocket and watch as vigil panic try desperately to look for casings afterwards. then He acts like he found them and assures that everything is ok.

They live in meyoung dong district in south korea

V: I want to be a Korean batman

F:I ain’t gonna be your Alfred hwa chul.

Vigil fills fridge with san- nak ji where as fuze fills the fridge with холодец

Vigils wears a john cena shirt to a wedding before going you can’t see me cause my time is now!

V:되고파 너의 오빠가 될꺼야 두고봐 나의 마음이

F:what are you saying?

V:Do you know k-pop ?

Their song is Danger by taemin

Fuze/Jager

Fuze felt bad that the jager lost the acog sight which made him depressed for weeks. so he did the only right thing and gifted jager acog without magnification for him.

J: puts ADS on the ground / you can stop worrying about grenades now

F:you can start worrying about grenades now.

jager drives a T-V Panther

they live in a aircraft hangar near Berlin

they play war thunder together but results are that fuze wins and jager complains there is so much Russian Bias is in the game where as fuze thinks it’s only historical

their song is Rote Flieger

Fuze/Twitch

if you have few spare hours i love to tell you how this drone is master piece of design….. and fuze lets her go on for hours and explain what she did and what kind of problems she had to out come. before fuze asks why does it always get one shotted in the droning phase i must ask ?

they live in paris their house is full of weaponized baguettes and hostage torturing devices.

T:stay two steps a head of enemy

F:but your drone can’t jump.

when they go shooting ranges fuze wears two hearing protections because her call outs when she reloads is louder than artillery going off.

i don’t know what did i just write…

pictures belong to the actual quality content creaters o7 so get lost EU.

also if you ship fuze x ying pls fite me irl

#fuze #rainbow six siege #fuze is shippable as f #fuze ships #random fuze stuff

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lechevaliermalfet · 6 years

Text

Rise, and Escape – A Long Look at Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter

Quick note: This deep dive write-up was originally posted elsewhere in May of 2015. I’m polishing it for reposting here. In addition, for those interested, a while back I recorded a podcast-type thing for a project called Pause Menu Monologues, which was being done by an acquaintance of mine. Said monologue was derived from a cut-down version of this effortpost. For those interested, you can listen to that here. Now, on to the main event.

As I prepare to leave my current job for another with far better opportunities, it feels tremendously appropriate to talk yet again about a game premised almost entirely on the idea of escape.

I’ve written about Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter before, but it was requested that I write about it again. It was @squeemcsquee making the request, so I listened more than usual. I’m sure I’ll probably wind up saying a lot of the same things I said on the first go-‘round, but who knows?

Well, here’s something I didn’t say before this writing: When I first introduced her to Dragon Quarter, she got into it. Really into it. Given her relative inexperience with Japanese role-playing games, this was surprising to me; it’s so different from the usual run of JRPGs, especially as the genre stood in about 2003 or so when the game first came out. Contrarian that I am (at times), that’s part of what endeared it to me. But as she pointed out, the things that made it seem out of the ordinary to me meant very little to her. She didn’t have much “ordinary” to compare it against.

Unfortunately, watching her play it made me want to play it also. Part of this is the natural (and deeply unfortunate) backseat-driving instinct I have whenever I’m watching someone do something that I’m familiar with, but feel they could be doing better, and in fact, if they’d just let me have the controller for a few minutes, I could show them exactly how… But part of it was also just that seeing the game played really made me want to be playing it myself. This presented a problem, what with us having only the one copy. It led to arguments. Not, like, real arguments, but not exactly cutesy fun arguments, either. We did, at the time, have both a working PlayStation 2 and a backward-compatible PlaySation 3, so it was only owning just the one copy of the game that was really a problem. So the solution was pretty simple.

That’s how good it is. Dragon Quarter: The game so nice, we bought it twice.

Technically, we only bought the game once. I bought it when it first came out, back in early 2003. I played it for a while, and while it was pretty to look at, and it had good music, and the setting was interesting, it just didn’t come together for me. Despite this, I had no desire to trade it in. I had the feeling I was onto something good, though I couldn’t quite grasp it at the time.

I hadn’t had much experience with the Breath of Fire series then. I owned a copy of Breath of Fire IV, which was really the first game in the series that I even tried to tackle seriously. Having unwillingly skipped over the 16-bit generation (owning a TurboGrafx-16 and five games hardly counts), my impression of the series at that time could basically be described as “like Final Fantasy, only not quite as inventive”. It perhaps wasn’t a fair assessment, but I was basing this on the opinions of friends and acquaintances; I was unable to draw my own conclusions. Still, I liked Breath of Fire IV well enough, even outside of some positive personal associations, so I hung on to Dragon Quarter, feeling relatively certain that one day, I would get the itch to try it again.

As it happened, I did, a couple years down the line. The story and the characters were calling to me, and this time, everything finally clicked.

It probably helped that, around that time, I was beginning to become aware that JRPGs as a genre were becoming (or more likely, always had been) deeply conservative in terms of design, as well as character and story archetypes. Realistically, this has probably been the case since the days of the original Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, and Phantasy Star. But I got into these types of games in late 1998 with Final Fantasy VII; I was new to the genre in those days, so even things that were rote and by-the-numbers were fresh and new to me then. And in fairness, I’ve enjoyed a number of these types of games. But by this time, I found myself wanting games in the genre to branch out and do something new. So many of the mechanical mainstays of the genre, the “traditions” of JRPG design, began life as frankly clunky workarounds for technology that wasn’t really up to giving us a less abstract simulation of the expected features of a fantasy adventure: travel, exploration, fighting monsters, finding treasure, getting new and more powerful gear, and saving the world and any number of princesses. If you wanted to simulate all of these things on older hardware, you had to have a certain amount of abstraction. So you had your turn-based battles, your random encounters, and so on, and so forth.

By the PS2 era, the technology was rapidly growing beyond the need to adhere to these ancient abstractions for any reason other than nostalgia’s sake. It had been doing this for some time – Chrono Trigger jettisoned random encounters back in the mid-90s, but despite the universal acclaim that game received, no one seemed terribly interested in implementing any of its innovations elsewhere. Developers were, by and large, unwilling to grow out of those old ways. In part this might be down to the reluctance of their audience (or at least a very vocal portion of it) to part ways with those same traditions. But whatever the reason, the result was the same: stagnation. Or so it felt to me.

I wanted something that was different from the JRPGs I’d played before. Something that still offered the thought and planning that went into playing an RPG of any kind, something with a good story and interesting characters, but which went off the beaten path and did something different.

And so, in late 2004 or maybe early 2005, two years after I originally bought it, tried it, and hung it up for the foreseeable future, I started playing Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter again.

It’s an odd beast, this game, even when you look at it in the context of its own series. All the more so, really. The earliest Breath of Fire games got compared to the 8- and 16-bit Final Fantasy games, at least by most of the people I knew back then. Really, a more apt comparison would be to Dragon Quest, but I hadn’t played any of those games, and I was part of a group of friends who oddly lacked much experience with that series, so maybe nobody was in a position to make that particular comparison. With most of my friends, Dragon Quest (then known as Dragon Warrior due to trademark issues; I feel so old sometimes) was always “That game where you grind for hours and hours and then you finally say ‘fuck this!’ and go do something else, maybe play Final Fantasy or go outside or something, I dunno”.

Anyway, the whole series up to this point had been pretty standard high-fantasy fare, with the unique selling point being the main character’s ability to transform into a dragon. Most of the game mechanics beyond this were pretty straightforward. My experience with the series at large was pretty much limited to some time spent on the fourth game, and some time spent goofing off with ROMs of the first two out of idle and quickly satisfied curiosity.

One other consistent feature of the series is that the main character, the aforementioned dragon-transforming person, is always a young blue-haired swordsman named Ryu, and there is always a blonde, winged young lady named Nina who typically focuses on magic. Additional characters tend to be of all shapes, sizes, and species.

Dragon Quarter, by contrast, occurs in a future dystopia where humankind, having pretty much destroyed the environment through the use of biologically engineered weapons called dragons, has retreated to a single subterranean dwelling called Sheldar. There, they survive as best they can.

In this society, everyone is given a rank, called a D-ratio. On the surface of things, this ratio is a measure of one’s current ability and future potential, and places limits on their social standing, the kinds of jobs they can hold, places they can live, and overall determining just exactly how high they can rise in the world, figuratively and literally.

“Low-Ds”, that is, people with low D-ratios, live further down in this habitat. The air is worse, people’s lifespans are shorter, and there are occasionally monsters called genics that roam around down there. The people with high D-ratios live closer to the surface where the air is better and things are generally less dangerous. A nice touch is that, especially in cut scenes, the game is literally more hazy and grimy, visually, the further down you are. As you go up, the environments gradually become clearer and brighter. It happens bit by bit, so you may not notice it the first time through, but if you finish the game and start over again, the difference stands out.

One of the few story beats to be preserved is our hero: Ryu. Here, he’s a low-D ranger, whose job mainly seems to involve security and hunting down genics. His D-ratio is abysmally low: 1/8,192. His current job is the very highest he can hope to achieve. He’s partnered with another young man named Bosch, D-ratio 1/64. While Ryu is effectively at the very limit of how far he can rise in the world, Bosch is only at the beginning. A D-ratio as high as his means he can potentially qualify to become a Regent, one of the four rulers of this underground world. Bosch is basically just paying his dues here. He’s friendly enough to Ryu, in a condescending sort of way, which Ryu mostly just shrugs off. What else is he going to do?

While reporting for an assignment with Bosch, Ryu succumbs to a brief fugue, in which he has a vision. He sees the decaying remains of a giant dragon spiked to a wall. Despite clearly being dead, the dragon seems to talk to Ryu, mind-to-mind, though what it says to him makes virtually no sense at the time. Not long after, Ryu comes across the real thing, though it is very visibly dead and inanimate.

A terrorist attack splits up Ryu and Bosch, and shortly thereafter, Ryu runs into this game’s version of Nina, as well as a member of the resistance movement Trinity, named Lin. She seeks Nina for her own – or rather Trinity’s – purposes. The three form an unlikely but highly effective team. But allying himself with these two has its consequences, and by the time Ryu and Bosch reunite, circumstances have made them into enemies. Bosch is a good fighter, and he has plenty of allies with him, but Ryu refuses to betray his new comrades. Thankfully, his encounter with the dragon was no mere dream or hallucination. Unbeknownst to him, it has bestowed him with awesome power… and a deadline.

With every passing moment, the monstrous dragon power lurking within Ryu grows more prominent, threatening to overcome him. While Ryu is in control, he can transform into a bestial form capable of slaughtering even bosses within just a couple of rounds of combat. But drawing on that power accelerates its progress in overtaking him.

And so, with all hands turned against him, Ryu, Lin, and Nina have ultimately just a single option: Escape.

One of the things that I like about Dragon Quarter – one of many, many things – is the way that the game’s more prominent mechanics and its story are so closely intertwined.

The dragon power bestowed upon Ryu early into the game isn’t just a narrative device or story element, coming out only when dramatically convenient. It’s also a game mechanic, in the form of what the game calls a D-counter. This is a number, a percentage, that appears in the corner of the screen. As you play, it slowly ticks up toward 100 in intervals of a hundredth of a percent. Everything you do in the game causes it to increase. Everything. Every 24 or 25 steps will cause it to increase by one interval. Later in the game, this happens every dozen steps or so. Ryu’s special D-dash ability, which allows him to avoid enemy combat, causes it to tick up faster. Transforming, all by itself, raises the counter, and any actions taken while transformed increase it by whole-number percentages. It is literally overpowered. What I mentioned about crushing bosses in just a couple of turns was not hyperbole. I’ve done it. It’s basically my end-game strategy.

There is no way to drop the counter. Ever. There are no items, no spells, no techniques which will allow you to reset it or undo any of its progress. It just sits up there in the corner, slowly increasing and glowing ever more furiously as the number grows. The tension between the temptation to use it whenever you’re in a bind and the punishing consequences of that use can be exquisite.

When I first heard Dragon Quarter described as a survival-horror RPG, it didn’t make sense to me. But that’s mainly because I associated the mechanical elements of most of the survival-horror games I’d played with the more thematic elements of horror. And there are horrific moments and images in Dragon Quarter; the world of the game is not a happy place, and its maintenance is not easily or cleanly done. But that horror is mainly a consequence of the world-building; it’s not the point of the game.

The key here, I think, is the word “survival”. You might more accurately call Dragon Quarter a survival-RPG, except it’s basically the only one of its kind that I know of. It’s kind of hard to wrangle a whole genre out of that.

At their heart, survival-horror games generally “work” based on two principles.

The first is the fragility of the player character relative to other types of games, and relative to the enemies within the game. You are not the hero of a more action-oriented game, who can take maybe a dozen sword strokes straight to the face and just keep going, or who can withstand a hail of gunfire and duck behind cover for a few seconds while your shields recharge. Here, the player is reduced to a much more even footing with the enemies. Every bit of damage taken is a significant setback that needs to be planned around, either to prevent it or to deal with it when it happens. Every attack must be calculated. This is because of the second principle, which is resource management.

The in-game resources, both those which you use to preserve yourself and those you use to eliminate your enemies, are finite. So they must be spent wisely, frugally. Because of this, you are constantly required to take a measured, careful approach to any situation. You can never just blithely wander around; to do so invites disaster twice over. In the short term, you risk serious harm, leaving yourself vulnerable to future threats. In the long term, if you come out of the situation relatively unscathed, it’s generally at some expense of resources, leaving you ill-prepared for future encounters. Carelessness becomes indistinguishable from suicide.

This puts pressure on the player to play extremely well at all times by punishing mistakes immediately and brutally. As a result, some of the typical elements of JRPGs are missing.

There are no healing spells or techniques. All healing – whether restoring health or curing negative status effects – is accomplished by way of expendable (and frequently pricey) items. And you have to consider how often (if at all) you’ll be using some of these items, because inventory space is limited, and multiple items of a single type don’t “stack” very much before requiring another inventory slot. And, naturally, the usual economics of JRPGs are in full effect. Whatever you get for selling an item is a pitiful fraction of what it costs you to buy.

The game offers you the ability to use bait and traps to lure enemies into a position of compromise and get the drop on them, but even these need to be used sparingly. There’s hardly enough for every encounter.

Interestingly, the game knows exactly how difficult it is, and gives you something of a way around the problem.

As with most RPGs of any kind, Japanese or otherwise, you earn experience points, new equipment, and new abilities as you go through the game. In addition, Dragon Quarter also gives you what’s called Party XP. Basically, this is experience you can dole out to party members as you like to boost their levels.

Should you find yourself in a situation where you can’t progress without either having your party wiped or running the D-counter up to 100% (which, if it hasn’t become obvious by now, is an instant Game Over), you have the option to do what’s called a SOL Restart. This restarts the game from the beginning, but lets you keep all the equipment and skills you’ve learned, as well as any Party XP you still have. This gives you get a fresh start while retaining your improved gear, and the Party XP lets you give yourself a boost in the early stretches.

There’s also an option to restore a previous hard save along these same lines. Dragon Quarter allows “soft” saves anywhere, but these are temporary by design. Once loaded, these saves disappear. There are only a few “hard” save points, from which you can restore at will, and to which you will be returned with a SOL Restore.

If this sounds ridiculous for what is typically a long-form type of game, it may help to understand that Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter is only about eight to ten hours long from start to finish on a single play through, once you know what you’re doing. Even with a couple of full-blown restarts, you’ll be spending no more time on Dragon Quarter than any other game from the same time period. Less, probably.

Writing this now, I just about want to say that Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter was Dark Souls before Dark Souls really existed. There’s a certain similarity in that both games are more difficult than usual while still being relatively fair, and in the expectation that you will die, probably more than once, and that rather than being a tragedy, it’s simply an instructive part of the experience. Or in the case of Dragon Quarter, you’ll experience (probably more than once) a situation in which death is basically a given should you continue, and the smart thing would be to cut your losses and restart.

Dragon Quarter’s infliction of pressure extends even to the representation of the game’s characters and world.

Most characters have a skinny, almost emaciated appearance. Part of this is simple stylization, of course, but it still contributes to the overall effect. These people live a thin and narrow existence, it says, devoid of the expansive pleasures humankind was meant to enjoy. There is a grimness and a quiet desperation underlying it all.

The world itself is a fucking hole. Corridors in the lower areas are littered with random junk and debris; it’s best not to think what it might all actually be. The air is hazy and grimy, and things have a sort of cobbled-together look that just makes the whole place look cramped and dingy and uncomfortable. In these lower areas, everything looks like it’s about one stern look away from falling right apart. The upper areas are cleaner, more solid, but can seem so sterile and strictly designed as to be hostile. Dragon Quarter does a wonderful job of creating a world you want to get the hell out of as soon as you can.

It’s ironic, really. Most games, I play to escape from the troubles and stresses in my life. And most games oblige this desire. Even the ones that take place in barren wastelands tend to take place in gorgeously rendered barren wastelands that encourage you to examine every carefully tailored nook and cranny. They’re an invitation to exploration and adventure, and are “barren” or “waste” only as a matter of aesthetics.

But limitation and escape are the central themes in this game, and a world in which such themes are explored must be more than a background or a prop.

The world is limited in its size; an RPG with little to no detectable exploration, comprised mainly of tunnels and rooms, and a single clear direction and objective at all times. The player's inventory of supplies is likewise limited, in keeping with the surival horror influence. The player is frequently required to prioritize, and ditch whatever they aren't likely to use based on their play style. Care must be taken by the player to work within these limits.

Narratively speaking, the story also explores the idea of limitations. Ryu himself embodies these limits. His D-ratio is among the lowest of the low. His place in society, the ways in which he can define and express himself, how he can live – all of these things have strict limits placed on them. And this dragon entity, Odjn… As much as it much as it appears to be the key to his salvation, as much as it empowers him to break all barriers and overcome or destroy all opposition, it limits him as well. It puts a countdown on his life, ticking down the hours he has left until... well, until whatever horrific thing might happen when Odjn gains total control and breaks free.

And in the end, the characters decide to break free of these limits placed on them by the world by breaking free of the world itself, to smash through the ceiling of it and see once and for all what lies beyond its narrow, choking confines.

Dragon Quarter is a game about escape.

Ultimately, this is a large part of what interests me about the story of Dragon Quarter, what keeps me coming back. Rather than a big, trampling save-the-world epic, it’s about a group of characters who just want out. This is a smaller story, a “tiny tale of time”, as the game itself tells us in its opening narration. It’s huge in its implications for its world and its characters. It’s great in the scope of the ideas it asks its characters to contemplate. (It flirts with Gnosticism, which immediately grabs my interest). It that sense, at least, it does involve the end of the world, in one way or another. But the scale is smaller, and the characters strike me as being more real because of it.

Ryu, Lin, and Nina don’t want to fight anybody. There’s at least one memorable occasion where Ryu, surrounded by enemies, asks why they can’t just let him and his friends go. The character animations in Dragon Quarter aren’t spectacular, but they get the job done here. There’s something about the way that Ryu asks his question that seems to have layers. On one layer, he seems mentally, psychologically exhausted from the strain of all the fighting, and the toll all the deaths he’s dealt out has taken on him. On yet a deeper layer, he seems equally exhausted from fighting the thing inside him that threatens to take over and destroy him.

They aren’t trying to harm anybody. And it seems reasonable just to let them go, on the one hand. But on the other, there is the major problem that letting Ryu and company out of this subterranean pit will completely upend the social order – will end this idea of the world – purely as a side-effect of his escape. Because the underlying problem with Ryu’s world is a variant on the same problem that keeps people in dead-end jobs and abusive relationships long beyond the point when, logically, they should be getting out.

Fear.

The world of Dragon Quarter is, as previously stated, an absolute, utter shithole in purely objective terms. Even the people in charge don’t seem to be enjoying themselves much. And it’s because everyone seems to be in unspoken agreement that even if the current circumstances are awful, at least they’re familiar awful circumstances. It’s possible that things are better on the surface, but it’s just as possible that they aren’t. It’s just as possible that they’re far worse. This, at least, is the devil we know.

Even one of the main villains, the ruler of this subterranean nightmare, is ruled by fear. A thousand years before the story proper, he was given the opportunity to open this world to the surface. But he backed down. In his fear that the world above might still be the barren wasteland people left ages ago, he turned back at the final moment, sentencing himself and everyone in the underground to remain in it indefinitely.

There’s an anime I like quite a bit – it’s probably my favorite, really – called Revolutionary Girl Utena, and in it there is a bit of dialogue that is recited so often it’s practically a ritual. It goes like this:

“If it cannot break out of its shell, the chick will die without ever being born. We are the chick. The world is our egg. If we don’t crack the world’s shell, we will die without ever truly being born. Smash the shell, for the world revolution.”

This is actually a paraphrase from the Hermann Hesse novel Demian: The Story of Emil Sinclair’s Youth (usually just known as Demian), in which it’s put this way:

“The bird struggles out of the egg. The egg is a world. Who would be born must first destroy a world. The bird then flies to God. That god’s name is Abraxas.”

To go up, to go out, to rise, to escape: This is an act of tremendous faith.

#breath of fire dragon quarter #breath of fire #dragon quarter #rpg #jrpg #video game #deep dive #effortpost #longpost #gnosticism-lite

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thelmasirby32 · 4 years

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Easy for You

To Teach, One Must Learn

One of the benefits of writing is it forces you to structure your thoughts.

If you are doing something to pass a test rote memorization can work, but if you are trying to teach someone else and care it forces you to know with certainty what you are teaching.

When I was in nuclear power school one guy was about to flunk out and I did not want to let him so I taught him stuff for days. He passed that test and as a side effect I got my highest score I ever got on one of those tests. He eventually did flunk out, but he knew other people were rooting for him and tried to help him.

Market Your Work or Become Redundant

Going forward as more work becomes remote it is going to be easier to hire and fire people. The people who are great at sharing their work and leaving a public record of it will likely be swimming in great opportunities, whereas some equally talented people who haven't built up a bit of personal brand equity will repeatedly get fired in spite of being amazingly talented, simply because there was a turn in the economy and management is far removed from the talent. As bad as petty office politics can be, it will likely become more arbitrary when everyone is taking credit for the work of others & people are not sitting side by side to see who actually did the work.

Uber recently announced they were laying off thousands of employees while looking to move a lot of their core infrastructure work overseas where labor is cheaper. Lots of people will be made redundant as unicorn workers in a recession suddenly enjoy the job stability and all the perks of the gig working economy.

Design

We have a great graphic designer who is deeply passionate about his work. He can hand draw amazing art or comics and is also great at understanding illustration software, web design, web usability, etc. I have no idea why he was fired from his prior employer but am thankful he was as he has been a joy to work with.

Before COVID-19 killed office work I sat right next to our lead graphic designer and when I would watch him use Adobe Illustrator I was both in awe of him and annoyed at how easy he would make things look. He is so good at it that and endless array of features are second nature to him. When I would ask him how to do something I just saw him do frequently it would be harder for him to explain how he does it than doing it.

Programming

Our graphics designer is also a quite solid HTML designer, though strictly front end design. One day when I took an early lunch with my wife I asked him to create a Wordpress theme off his HTML design and when I got back he was like ... ummm. :)

We are all wizards at some things and horrible at others. When I use Adobe Illustrator for even the most basic tasks I feel like a guy going to a breakdancing party with no cardboard and 2 left shoes.

There are a number of things that are great about programming

it is largely logic-based

people drawn toward it tend to be smart

people who can organize code also tend to use language directly (making finding solutions via search rather easy)

Though over time programming languages change features & some changes are not backward compatible. And as some free & open source projects accumulate dependencies they end up promoting the use of managers. Some of these may not be easy to install & configure on a remote shared server (with user permission issues) from a Windows computer. So then you install another package on your local computer and then have to research how it came with a deprecated php track_errors setting. And on and on.

One software program I installed on about a half-dozen sites many moons ago launched a new version recently & the typical quick 5 minute install turned into a half day of nothing. The experience felt a bit like a "choose your own adventure" book, where almost every choice you make leads to: start again at the beginning.

At that point a lot of the advice one keeps running into sort of presumes one has the exact same computer set up they do, so search again, solve that problem, turn on error messaging, and find the next problem to ... once again start at the beginning.

That sort of experience is more than a bit humbling & very easy to run into when one goes outside their own sphere of expertise.

Losing the Beginner's Mindset

If you do anything for an extended period of time it is easy to take many things for granted as you lose the beginner's mindset.

One of the reasons it is important to go outside your field of expertise is to remind yourself of what that experience feels like.

Anyone who has been in SEO for a decade likely does the same thing when communicating about search by presuming the same level of domain expertise and talking past people. Some aspects of programming are hard because they are complex. But when things absolutely do not work you often get the answer right away. Whereas with SEO you can be unsure of the results of a large capital and labor investment until the next time a core algorithm update happens a quarter year from now. That uncertainty acts as the barrier to entry & blocker of institutional investments which allow for sustained above average profit margins for those who make the cut, but it also means a long lag time and requiring a high level of certainty to make a big investment.

The hard part about losing the beginners mindset with SEO is sometimes the algorithms do change dramatically and you have to absolutely reinvent yourself while throwing out what you know (use keyword rich anchor text aggressively, build tons of links, exact match domains beat out brands, repeat keyword in bold on page, etc.) and start afresh as the algorithms reshuffle the playing field.

The Web Keeps Changing

While the core algorithms are shifting so too is how people use the web. Any user behaviors are shifting as search results add more features and people search on mobile devices or search using their voice. Now that user engagement is a big part of ranking, anything which impacts brand perception or user experience also impacts SEO. Social distancing will have major impacts on how people engage with search. We have already seen a rapid rise of e-commerce at the expense of offline sales & some colleges are planning on holding next year entirely online. The University of California will have roughly a half-million students attending school online next year unless students opt for something cheaper.

Colleges have to convince students for the next year that a remote education is worth every bit as much as an in-person one, and then pivot back before students actually start believing it. It’s like only being able to sell your competitor’s product for a year.— Naval (@naval) May 6, 2020

What Resolution?

I am horrible with Adobe Illustrator. But one of the things I have learned with that and Photoshop is that if you edit in a rather high resolution you can have many of your errors disappear to the naked eye when it is viewed at a normal resolution. The same analogy holds true for web design but in the opposite direction ... if your usability is solid on a mobile device & the design looks good on a mobile device then it will probably be decent on desktop as well.

Some people also make a resolution mistake with SEO.

If nobody knows about a site or brand or company having perfect valid HTML, supporting progressive web apps, supporting AMP, using microformats, etc. ... does not matter.

On the flip side, if a site is well known it can get away with doing many things sub-optimally & can perhaps improve a lot by emulating sites which are growing over time in spite of having weaker brand strength.

Free, so Good Enough?

Many open source software programs do not do usability testing or track the efforts of a somewhat average user or new user in their ability to download and install software because they figure it is free so oh well people should figure it out. That thinking is a mistake though, because each successive increase in barrier to entry limits your potential market size & eventually some old users leave for one reason or another.

Any free software project which accumulates attention and influence can be monetized in other ways (through consulting, parallel SaaS offerings, affiliate ad integration, partnering with Hot Nacho to feature some great content in a hidden div using poetic code, etc.). But if they lack reach, see slowing growth, and then increase the barrier to entry they are likely to die.

When you ask someone to pay for something you'll know if they like it and where they think it can be improved. Relying on the free price point hides many problems and allows them to accumulate.

The ability to make things easy for absolute beginners is a big part of why Wordpress is worth many multiples of what Acquia sold for. And Wordpress has their VIP hosting service, Akismet, and a bunch of other revenue streams while Acquia is now owned by a private equity company.

The ability to be 0.0000001% as successful as Wordpress has been without losing the beginner mindset is hard.

Categories:

marketing

from Digital Marketing News http://www.seobook.com/easy-you

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words-thing · 6 years

Photo

I like this drawing. Again, I'm getting better. Diligence is paying off. It's now rote. I sit down, I draw. Only the slightest bits of doubt and hesitation. No choir of negative voices. Even if I'm not rendering all the details, I'm really looking at things. It takes time to fine-tune that skill. But, I'm not pushing myself harder and farther. Or am I? I don't know. Every time I sit down to draw I try to make it a little better than the last time, to look a little closer, work in a little more shading, a few more highlights, to take more care with my line work. It's hard to know whether or not I am plateauing. It takes an outside eye or the perspective of time to see. Or, perhaps, incredible introspective sensitivity, which I am not allowing myself to feel by keeping myself busy with projects and cocktails. Whether or not I am stalled, I'm enjoying the process. That is what matters. I am drawing again and happy with the results. I had the realization this week, while doodling, that I'm now better than I was when I was younger. I have finally surpassed my youth. What I'm doing is great. It's mature but still loose. I was constrained by immaturity. Back then I only got loose through drinking. Alcohol! It's such a great shortcut to turn off the language part of the brain and just work. But then there's the next morning. And the rest of my life. Sometimes I wish I could drink my way through the day making drawings and listening to music. But I've tried that and it starts to take its toll. Needing liquor to make work is a dangerous habit to develop.

My pry bar set is a recent purchase. I found myself using the larger of these bars at work all the time. I exaggerate the font because I was really using the larger bar all the time. It's the perfect size and shape for busting things open, splitting things apart, and basically wedging ones way into any situation. The other two are nice. I have, on rare occasions, in the museum, used either of them, but that's for situations that require a certain amount of delicacy. Otherwise, I'll just use the larger bar to rip shit up. They come in threes, so in purchasing the larger bar, I acquired its siblings. I chose the mature route and instead of stealing the bars from work, I bought my own. I'm reaching a point in this project where I'm encountering a lot of things to which I have no particular attachment. I like these pry bars. They are a well-designed, essential tool. But my history with them is short. Still, I managed to eke out a page of drivel on the topic. If you made it this far, thank you for reading.

#prybar #drawing #sketch #pencil #words #things #essay #writing

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flauntpage · 7 years

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Glass Half Full: Six Observations from Wizards 120, Sixers 115

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That went a lot better than I thought it would. I didn’t have the Sixers hanging tough until the final minute of a one-possession game against a top-four Eastern Conference team.

The irony is that those backbreaking last-minute turnovers weren’t committed by rookies– they were committed by two of the team’s more experienced players.

And the further disappointment is that one of those players, Robert Covington, was absolutely fantastic for the prior 28 minutes he was on the court.

That’s what it came down to, a pair of brutal deflections that killed off a really nice Sixers comeback bid in an entertaining season opener.

There’s a lot to like about that game. They played tough against a quality team on the road. Ben Simmons didn’t look like a rookie. Markelle Fultz played better than I thought he would. Joel Embiid was on the floor in the fourth quarter. Covington shot the ball like the second coming of Jerry West.

Still, I think it’s legitimate to feel dissatisfaction with the way that game ended. Nobody expected this team to win in Washington, but they were in a position to do it. They blew a halftime lead with a sloppy third quarter, pulled level with a small ball fourth quarter lineup, then shot themselves in the foot with a combination of mediocre interior defense and a pair of momentous giveaways.

1) Don’t call it a minutes restriction

Embiid played 27 minutes in the loss, which is about 10 more than what we expected coming in.

Post-game quotes from Brett Brown poo-poo’d the idea of calling this thing a “restriction,” and that makes a lot of sense considering the fluid nature of how the big man was utilized Wednesday night.

Brown:

“What I’ve said for the last few weeks is that the rigid, rote number of – pick whatever number you want – it’s a range. And it’s more of a plan that we have this year than a restriction. When you look at and feel the flow of the game, that’s where the variables come in. For instance, at the end of the third period, when I sat him in between the period where he came back in in the fourth, there was 24 minutes of, I’m told, real time rest. When you start judging the pace of the game and the rest in between, I’m always in consultation with the people behind the bench. At the end it produced this number. (It) doesn’t mean it’s going to be a regular number that we look at it. The game is fluid and there’s judgments within the range and plan. It’s not a rigid restriction number in the world we’re living in this year.”

Embiid has spoken ad nauseum about having a say in the decision-making process, and it seems like this is going to be a “play it by ear” type of two-way street situation. Eventually you just gotta take off the bubble wrap, roll the dice, and say, “screw it.” The Sixers did that Wednesday night.

That said, I think Joel tried to force it a bit. He finished with 18 and 13, but turned it over four times and missed four three-point attempts. It’s wonderful that he can do a variety of things at 7’2″, but I don’t want him passing the ball 23 feet from the rim. I want him in the low post using that rip-through move and getting to the foul line. He only shot four free-throws.

It almost felt like he was being a bit conservative and trying to pace himself so that he would be able to play in the fourth quarter. Nothing wrong with that, but there were some sequences where he was in a purgatory of wanting the ball but not necessarily needing it.

Case in point, a play like this where he doesn’t need to be bringing the ball up the court:

In that situation he was coming off a rebound, then ends up giving it away and scrambling to defend a game-tying three-pointer.

Again, it’s great that his game is so versatile, but he’s going to be at his best when he’s in the low post drawing fouls, beasting opponents, and mentally blocking out the entire “minutes plan” thing.

2) Playing “Small ball”

I put “small ball” in quotes because is it really a small lineup if it features 6’10” Dario Saric and 6’11” Ben Simmons?

I’m only half joking.

With Amir Johnson in fourth quarter foul trouble and Embiid resting, Brett Brown went with a Saric, Simmons, Covington, JJ Redick, and Jerryd Bayless lineup to start the final 12 minutes. That combination hit three straight three-pointers to turn an eight point hole into a one point lead.

This was one of those 3’s, a play where Simmons collected his own rebound and dished it out to Covington:

I froze the clip at the point of Simmons’ drive to the rim.

He has three defenders within two feet of him. Jodie Meeks and Kelly Oubre are also looking at him. Three capable shooters are all standing at the three point line. We’re talking black hole levels of gravity here:

My head tells me that the Sixers aren’t going to shoot the three-ball at this clip all season long, but one of Redick or Covington is always going to be an option. In this lineup, Saric and Bayless are also good for knocking one down. They should be able to quickly erase some deficits with this grouping out there, assuming they get enough stops on the defensive end without Embiid or Richaun Holmes or Johnson on the floor.

3) The final play

I thought they might go to Covington, but this is why you signed Redick.

It was nicely drawn up:

Redick –> Embiid –> Simmons –> screen for Redick

One of the wrinkles in this play is the fake backdoor screen that Bayless pretends to set for Redick.

When you rewind, you see Redick motion for his teammate in an attempt to sell the movement:

Credit to Bradley Beal for not biting on that misdirection and fighting through Embiid’s pick to contest Redick’s shot. He played it well.

One of the things I mentioned regarding Brett Brown in a season preview piece is that he’s going to have to prove himself in these close fourth quarter games. I think he got it right with the play design and decision to go to Redick. Should it have been Covington instead? I don’t think there’s a wrong answer.

4) Mid-range games, or lack thereof

A lot of preseason talk centered around Simmons’ and Fultz’s lack of mid-range shooting.

The entire team, by my count, was 4-13 outside of the paint in that 10 to 22 foot range:

Joel Embiid hit a couple of jumpers and T.J. McConnell had another. The team didn’t really need to knock down 15-footers last night because they were hitting from 23 feet with consistency. You see a clump of made shots down low, a bunch of three-pointers, and then no-man’s land in between. Modern analytics don’t value that two-point jump shot, but it wouldn’t hurt to knock down the ones you do take.

Simmons had 18 and 10 in his NBA debut without hitting a single shot outside of the paint:

The longest shot he attempted was a second quarter 13-footer.

It was the same thing for Fultz, who added 10 points off the bench.

He hit four shots at the rim and a sweet 11-foot floater in the fourth quarter. He missed an early layup and a 10-footer and had a pair of shots blocked by Beal and John Wall:

So that’s 28 combined points from your rookies on their NBA debuts. They did that with basically no mid-range game and a 4/8 line at the free throw stripe.

There’s obviously room to grow, but it looks like they’re going to be able to contribute right away with an already-elite ability to get to the rim and draw defenders.

5) Who gets the minutes?

Jahlil Okafor didn’t play a single minute in this game, so unless his Monday gastro-illness carried over to Wednesday night, I think he’s pretty much done in Philly.

Jah playing zero minutes is one thing, but Jah playing zero minutes while Embiid is limited and Holmes is injured is another thing. Okafor is a defensive liability, but I think he would have been able to eat up Washington’s second unit on the offensive end. The Sixers bench only scored 25 points last night. Johnson had only five on 2-7 shooting.

T.J. McConnell played 15 minutes and did not have his best game. Justin Anderson, who worked with the second unit earlier this week, didn’t even make an appearance. Nik Stauskas didn’t play. Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot was the preferred wing off the bench.

6) Hold that whistle

John Wall got a few calls last night, but he’s the star player on his home floor, so no surprises there.

This one got the most buzz online:

John Wall is a bad bad man! #NBATwitter #DCFamily http://pic.twitter.com/MxUKTYUISP

— FanDuel (@FanDuel) October 18, 2017

Charge? Flop?

I think it’s both. Wall does force the contact, but McConnell sells it a little bit. Charging and embellishment aren’t mutually exclusive, and I’m not accusing McConnell of taking a dive here, but you don’t always need to blow the whistle on every play. This doesn’t have to be Syracuse vs. Georgetown in the old Big East tournament. Sometimes you can let it continue.

Like I said earlier, it’s probably warranted to feel some disappointment about that loss. The late Denny Green would have been annoyed with the game’s final minutes.

“If you wanna crown the Wizards, then crown their asses! We let ’em off the hook!”

But I think we’ll wrap it up with some glass-half-full perspective:

The last time they played in an NBA regular season game before tonight: Bayless: 11/25/16 Embiid: 1/27 Covington: 3/28 Simmons/Fultz: Never

— Jessica Camerato (@JCameratoNBCS) October 19, 2017

Glass Half Full: Six Observations from Wizards 120, Sixers 115 published first on http://ift.tt/2pLTmlv

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