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amindofstone · 3 years

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Match up No. 13

glasses-and-bandana-s hat gefragt:

Hi, I was wondering if I could ask you for a match up if you don't mind? 👉👈

My name is Nille, I'm 20, bi and I use she/they pronouns. I'm a college student in 3D animation 😊 I'm a pretty passionate person and hiding my emotions is not smth I'm good at or like doing for that matter. Aside from that, I try to be more laid back and relaxed. Being the mom friend, putting myself aside and stressing over everything for 6 years was enough for me 😅😂 I'm naturally curious and I try my best to be kind and helpful.

I like learning languages, all art forms (making and history), traveling and baking. I am a MASSIVE movie nerd, especially when it comes to animation.

I don't like my dad, feeling lonely, being underestimated and the snob mentality we have towards animation in the West (I can and will fight ppl over it).

As for a short physical description: I'm 1m69, have an hourglass figure and I'm as pale as a sheet of paper. My hair is a dark brown pixie cut and my eyes are green/grey. Oh and dem freckles lol.

Thank you a lot for your time and energy. Please take your time (not just with this request, but with all of them), your health goes first 💕 Take care and thank you once more 💕

~quartermera

a/n:

Hey! How are you doing? I hope your doing good. First of all I apologize for making you wait for so so sooooooo long. It´s just that I had a lot to do for college and was really worn out after I was done with the biggest exams I had. I am really sorry. Like I really felt bad when I started to work on your request and that of the others. Thinking about the fact that I still have a lot do finish makes me actually want to cry… AnYwAySSSS. That’s not the point. Thank you so so much for requesting. You seem to be a great, creative, super nice and fun person. Therefore I really hope you will like with what I came up with. But if not let me apologize in advance. Tell me when your disappointed or if there is something you do9n´t like. I will work on it.

Other than that my dear requester, happy reading!

Match up rules can be found HERE.

Warning(s): Maybe grammatical or spelling mistakes since English is my third language and I´m still improving in every aspect (Please have mercy on that.)

!!! Please do not steal my idea or work. Credit me if this is shared or published in any other platform or any other way. Please respect me as the writer and my work. Picture is not mine. Credits to: please tell me when you know who made this beautiful masterpiece so I can give credits and tag them. Found it in google pictures(?). Thank you in advance. !!!

- I´m gonna be honest with you. I was struggling. Like struggling real hard. Like was sitting in front of my laptop with a picture of Shanks and Ace in front of me while trying to figure out who to choose. But then Luffy popped up at some point but then vanished only to be replaced by Sabo. He at some time vanished too and I was back at wondering if I should take Shanks or Ace. But then I thought about Vivi and I was getting nervous. BUT. A FTER A MENTAL BREAKDOWN. I MANAGED TO CHOOSE! And here we are my dear. I will be pairing you up with Bartolomeo.

- ….

- No! Jokes aside now. I´m pairing you up with Ace. XD

- You were part of the Whitebeard pirates since a year now. You enjoyed every single day o sea while living your best life.

- You got along with every crew member, no matter if there were male or female. You were one of the youngest members and one of the most loved one. Not gonna lie you sometimes were even called Pops little princess. The way he always called you to sit next to him during meals was always adorable. But everyone understood why. You were a chill and cheerful young lady. You were easy going and sweet. You always tried your best to help wherever you could. There were a lot of days in which you did the least liked tasks what always got Pops to get mad at the boys for making you do it. But you never cared. You enjoyed and liked being helpful.

- You took care of every crew member. Mostly when some of them came back from a missions /fights. You loved all of them and always genuinely showed it what made everyone appreciate and respect you for being with them.

- And whenever you did not help out any crewmate you would be hanging out with Ace.

- Ace. That reckless and sometimes clumsy man was the best part of being out on the sea as a pirate.

- They say that a princess would never leave her comfort zone voluntarily. For nothing and no one. But if it´s a person that is able to make them forget who they are and treat them like a normal human being, they would drop anything and anyone to be with them.

- And exactly this was the case. You were part of the royal elite on a island that was located at the first half of the grand line. You were an intelligent and open minded young royal, that was liked by the civilians but hated and despised by the royalty for being hard working to achieve your dreams and fulfill all of your wishes. They didn´t like the fact that you did not make others work for you while you did nothing but enjoy life as a royalty. (Not gonna lie I was inspired by a character of another anime I recently started. XD). They wanted you to follow the words of the elders and simply focus on your appearance so the prince can fall in love with you.

- You hated your life there. You hated your family. You hated the norms and values they lived there. The only thing you wanted was to get out and live your life as a normal human being when Ace appeared out of nowhere and dragged you around the island in hope to find a good restaurant that served good meat.

- This might sound ridicoulus but that was your first encounter. Your first encounter with a man that did not bow in front of you, placed a kiss on your knuckles, made you tons of compliments and had a stupid conversation about the weather.

- He came up to you and asked if the old grumpy looking man was botheting you and if you wanted him to punch him. He was ready to fight the stranger for a stranger. But when you told him that the grumpy man was your father he shrugged his shoulders and just repeated his question. His beahviour made you laugh and you told him that as much as you wanted him to be punched in the face he still was your father. So you asked for his name and lead him around the park you currently were at. But the poor man got bored and made you lead him to the market so he could eat.

- Whenever you would think about your first encounter with him you would be smiling and thanking the gods for sending you such a good hearted and nice man. A man that slowly and with more days and weeks passing turned into your boyfriend who turned you, a well mannered and raised royal into a navigator of one of the strongest pirate crews.

- Ace never held you back from doing what you liked or wanted to try. In fact he always encouraged you to keep doing that and always made sure no one was bothering you.

- There was one think you really appreciated. And that was his habit of always being around you. No matter what the circumstances were. There was a party? He always made sure to keep an eye on you. The whitebeared pirates were docking on one of their islands? Ace would be holding your hand and show you around. He would go out to eat. He would always drop by at your cabin to ask if you wanted to join him.

- Ace knew that you didn´t like being alone since you were always left alone by your family so he alwys tried his best to accompany you.

- As much as you loved and appreciated him, there was one thing that always and forever will be overwhelimg to you. and that’s the fact that the most energetic and reckless man was able to fall asleep in a blink of an eye. Like you could be talking to him and look away for a second just to find him snoring on the ground when you searched for his eyes. Like WtF! How is he able to sleep on the ground so peacefully?!

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revthepunchbear · 4 years

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A Debt Owed, A Debt Paid

It had all started with a chill down her spine and a feeling of overwhelming dread, like death was peeling away at her. She’d nearly thrown up, right then and there, which wouldn’t have been the worst part of the night by far. There was a point that night were she was withering from the inside out as magic was sucked from her, those very forces that bound her together ripping away to see her hemorrhaging blood everywhere.

At that point, she hadn’t even known why it was happening. She’d only known that she’d seen malevolent forces on the Other Side, spiraling around their safe house in Elwynn. The Harbinger had been there too and that terrified her more than anything. That desperate feeling that she had to do something surged through her as the body of Eilithe had been drug from the house, Xavier pushing himself to the limit to contain the madness within.

Once, twice, three times Reveria tried to pull the soul back into Eilithe’s body only to find it harder and harder to do each time. The druid was panicking, Eilithe’s soul had never been so hard to guide. It had to be the malevolence around them, it had to be those spirits coming for her that were making it so hard. In her desperation, she’d called on the only one she thought could remedy the situation. Cut palms, brands traced in blood on the dirt and upon her face, the pleas for help sounding out in Zandali.

“Mama, hear me. Your vessel needs you. I invoke the promise you made and bound to me. Mama, I have nothing else.... I have no offering of payment. My debt is yours. Please... Answer me Mama.”

Ghostly, spidery limbs had torn from Reveria’s mouth, searching for purchase anywhere they could as a flood of widow spiders poured from the druid’s mouth. Those spiders formed together, weaving the shape of a trollish woman in a tattered ballroom gown. Eight spidery limbs jutted from her back as she looked down on the nearly crying Reveria.

“What ya doin’ Zin’ulwembu? Can’t ya see she be castin’? Ya only hurtin’ her more, fightin’ her like ya is.” There’d been many more words, Reveria had begged Mama Zarenyen to help Eilithe and the loa had, in no small fashion. The insanity had been quelled, though Mama’s actions may have see An’Set hurt, it was still a small price to pay to end the insanity within the safe house. However...

Mama had come from the safe house and over to Reveria, cupping her chin in her hand. Her gaze had held a smile but there was the undeniable undercurrent of a threat. “I be comin’ tah collect ya debt. Ya best not hold out on Mama, Zin’ulwembu.” Those words haunted the druid, even as An’Set asked about them later. She’d brushed it off, offering an explanation. He’d chided her, and all she had to offer in return was “What else was I suppose to do? You were getting your ass beat.” He hadn’t been able to argue that.

That night had ended in a much better place, Reveria and An’Set had snorted some of their favorite drugs, ran around acting like fools yelling at the top of their lungs, yodeling, bothering their friends, and more. The night didn’t truly even end there, as An’Set carried Reveria off into the teahouse, slung over his shoulder, where they rutted away the rest of the night and into the morning in drug fueled ecstasy, ringing in their new year in style. The thought of the debt that was owed, slipping from her mind in those moments.

-------------------------

A day or two passed, Reveria had managed to avoid anything too straining or stressful. Zelphryin had returned, which had been less than pleasing to her but she’d managed to coax him into taking her and Eilithe to the spa. They’d yet to go but she was in no particular rush. This night she sat up, alone, in the great room, sipping on bourbon as a fire crackled and flickered in the fireplace. An’Set was in bed, as were all her children.

She was lost in thought, right up until the tapping of the glass of the floor to ceiling windows sounded out. So lost in thought was she that she nearly jumped out of her skin. She managed not to spill her drink, setting it down quickly as she looked with wide eyes at the window. Standing there, with that telltale grin of hers, was Mama Zarenyen, beckoning Reveria with a lone finger.

There was a sense of relief, yet also a pang of anxiety as Reveria’s inky hues took the loa in. She stood, slowly, the long shirt of An’Set’s that she wore, flapping about her thighs as she walked to the rear door. There was no doubt in her mind that Mama would have been inside, were it not for the wards Eilithe had helped the druid place. Outside, Mama turned and began slowly walking through the large backyard as Reveria joined her. A grin spread Mama’s lips, her short tusks popping out just a bit as her spidery limbs draped about Reveria’s figure. "Zin’ulwembu... Walk wit me...We be havin’ tings ta discuss.” The druid’s arms crossed against her chest as she walked along, not as though she had much of a choice in the matter. “What is it you want, Mama?” The loa chuckled, low and dark, canting her head as she slowly led Reveria along. “Ya sound so suspicious, Zin’ulwembu. Mama can’ jus’ want ta talk at ya? Spend some time wit her vessel?”

Reveria narrowed her eyes and looked over to the woman, peering at her searchingly. She seriously doubted that Mama was just here to talk, the fresh debt springing to the forefront of her mind. Still, she was willing to try and play along. “Well, I just didn’t think you were here for that. What did you want to talk about?” Mama wiggled her fingers at Rysh’Vhek as the massive spider skittered from the jungle. “Ya chil’ren be lookin’ strong an’ hel’ty. Ya man, he be a surprise. Love be a surprise in general doh, so dat ain’ bein’ all dat strange. Ya life be prosperin’. I been seein’ ya wit ya trainin’ too. Zulfie got ya becomin’ quite dah little witchdoctah don’ she?”

There wasn’t much for Reveria to say to all of that. It was clear that Mama had been watching her life of late, which hardly surprised Reveria. “Eilithe is a good shan’do. She teaches me well. It was rocky there for a bit but I stopped trying to do things on my own. The harder things at least.” Their path led them into the jungle, the scent and smells of it something Reveria recognized from a time long passed. The jungle slowly became strewn in the webs of large spiders, the telltale cocoons and husks of their prey laying about or hanging from trees.

All the while the pair had talked until they arrived at the center, a circular wall of webbing that rose up to the ceiling of the jungle, with a circular altar of bones and stone laying in the middle. She’d been here before, long ago to strike a bargain that she’d regretted. Tonight though, there was no sense of ominous foreboding, just a loa that was acting almost motherly to the druid. Once they stood before the altar, Mama released Reveria and began to walk in a slow circle about her. “So now we come tah tha real biz’ness... Ya be owin’ Mama a debt zin’ulwembu. An’ Mama been tinkin’ real hard on what dat gonna be paid wit.” Reveria’s brow furrowed but she remained silent, ready to speak up if it had anything to do with her family. Both fortunately and unfortunately for her, it did not.

“Ya be my vessel but ya don’t know nut’ting bout takin’ dat form, do ya? Ya had dreams of it doh, I know ya have. Mama seen dem dreams cuz she caused dem dreams. Ya dreamed ya was dah spidah... ya dreamed ya was dah eighth eye... it been comin’ for a long time. ya been feelin’ dat urge, dat pressure, when ya go tah shift. When ya tink ya shiftin’ tah dat lovely saber... Dere be a part ah ya dat tinkin’... In dah back ah ya mind... Dat da saber ain’ right no more.” She paused in her circling to lay a hand on Reveria’s left shoulder.

“Dah time has come. Ya debt gonna be startin’ ya transformation intah Mama’s vessel more fully. I be takin’ ya saber. It gon take time but ya be findin’ soon dat ya gonna be stuck in dah middle, wit out a form like dat... until ya be masterin’ dah spidah. Dere gon come a day... Dere gon be times... Mama gon take ya vessel and use it for herself. Dat be dah price.” Reveria looked on, all but helpless as she processed the desire of Mama. She was about to become an actual vessel. She would lose control. Who knew what Mama would do? The thought terrified her,

“Fine... Fine...” All she could do was keep telling herself it had been worth it, that her sister’s life and soul had been worth it. That her husband’s life had been worth it. “Dat’s alright, Zin’ulwembu. Every’ting gon be okay~” The way she said it, the way her voice carried a veiled malicious tone, Reveria had a sense of dread in her stomach but this was the price and she would pay it. Mama’s hand began to feel hot, so hot... Like a red hot cattle prod, leaving Reveria screaming in the jungle as a matching brand, another widow, formed on her left shoulder. The skin sizzled and cooked, the druid howled, and Mama Zarenyen laughed.

“Dere, dere Zin’ulwembu... Mama takin’ care ah you like she always done...”

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Tagging @eilitheduskbringer @kurel-andiel @velerodra-valesinger @theshalthera @xavier-sunshadow

Art by @kazeco1986

#rev #reveria #mama #debts owed #debts paid #dead sun harbor #WRA RP #wyrmrest rp #writing

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vaguely-concerned · 5 years

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Temeraire let’s read: Crucible of Gold AHOY!

- lol I’m glad hammond is back, he is phenomenally funny. I do love me a bureaucrat character who won’t let trifling things like dignity, morality, politeness or common sense get in the way of their job

- it is a CRIME that Tharkay had to leave before he got to see Laurence all sun-bronzed and casually dressed and golden haired and relaxed, I wish to petition the universe itself on his behalf to correct this injustice

- hahaha shen li is the best; a buddhist dragon would be the greatest party pooper among her own kind

shen li, serenely: attachment to material things can only bring suffering

literally every other dragon, dripping bling from every available surface: um actually

- . . . without the clinging stink of murder and treachery which seemed to have by slow octopoid measures attached itself to his life. laurence I understand where you’re coming from on this but you have served colonial britain since you were like twelve. this has been an extremely slow process of waking up to smelling dem roses (fatherhood changes your perspective on your life situation I guess)

- awwwwww laurence finally studying some more chinese while temeraire helps him... no no this is just rain on my face yes I know I’m indoors it’s just me and lady allendale sitting here with our arms around each other crying about our boy reading poetry of his own freeish will

- oooh I really like how novik writes the way hammond talks -- it can be hard to write a character who constantly breaks up their own dialogue and interrupts themselves and continually couches their words without it being hard to read and annoying, but she really nails communicating that he’s a) completely graceless and with no dignity but also undeniably intelligent, b) definitely a Diplomat but not a total weasel, if only by a hair, c) hilarious

- pour one out for laurence’s civilian beard with me guys, gone too soon and dearly missed (and again tharkay didn’t even get to see it! this continues to be the greatest tragedy of these books let’s hope he grows it out again later when they’re all settled down.)

- . . . These were distinguished from the others mainly for their having had less time in their careers to demonstrate a lack of initiative or skill, so he could have some small hope of uncovering some previously hidden talent. OH MY GOD LAURENCE the straight up savagery

- DAD!LAURENCE!!! DAD!LAURENCE!!!!!!! (aaah it’s so interesting that when he gets a bit more stern you can definitely see sides of his father peeking out, but he deeply remains his mother’s son -- he’s acting from a place of affection, feeling of responsibility and concern for their futures, not the weird controlling shit lord allendale routinely pulls)

roland is such a teenager at this point oh my god. also laurence’s whole speech to demane about respecting her boundaries and agency... *chef kiss emoji* and ALSO demane is so sympathetic in this still because who HASN’T wanted to dangle some asshole over a cliff for being a creep to your friend/crush... they’re all good and perfect and I love them actually

- ...I’ve managed to put it out of my mind in the last few books but with the allegiance going down like that I keep remembering there were so many actual children onboard and now I feel ill

being an adult and realizing the full fuckedupedness of these things sucks haha

- 1) the description of seeing the ship sinking from underwater is hauntingly beautiful and 2) as I have said many a time before, thank god for demane

- see this is the other side of the coin of these books making you care so deeply about the characters; I know that no important characters die in this book but I am still so fucking stressed out by all of this D:D:D:

- well well well if gong su’s ludicrous competency wasn’t suspicious before it certainly is now, I guess china trains its spies well in the culinary arts haha

- I mean uh. what a way to symbolically and literally sever laurence from his former life and former self, I guess. you’d be hard pressed to do so more explosively at least

- something extremely bad happened to granby, we can tick that off the list

- I feel like the prose and writing in general is super improved in this one? it feels sharp and purposeful in a way the last few haven’t quite been

- He hoped Riley would be mourned; Riley deserved to be mourned ahfksahsdajklhsajkfhaslkjfhsakjdfhdaslkfhakj pain :(:(:( I’m so sorry laurence and I didn’t even like the guy. I can’t believe that the first thing this madman does after trying to secure their survival as best he could is writing letters -- on dragonback!!! hands stiff from cold so he can only work in five minute increments!!! -- to make sure riley’s memory isn’t blackened how can he be like this

- emily roland is so smart and capable and amazing my heart is blooming with pride

- iridescent feathered dragons... holy shit this is awesome

temeraire has a little feather envy tho and also maila casually eavesdropping so he can chat up (literally) hot babes... I know they’re prisoners of war and everything but this is all pure unadulterated gold

- oh temeraire darling no have no fear hammond has no self respect whatsoever, that will not be what stops him

- I can’t believe laurence is actually taking time to tie himself in knots over not following perfect procedure around his officers’ future career options while they’re FUCKING MAROONED with a bunch of asshole sailors fkdfhsjdh

- GET YOUR DIRTY FUCJING HANDS OFF DEMANE OR I’LL CHOP THEM OFF FOR YOU YOU SWINE

sipho is like eleven and a nerd and ready to run at all these grown men armed just with a branch PAIN

- granby’s unending exasperation at laurence not knowing all the stuff that seems self-evident to him having grown up with dragons fksjdhfskajd

- aw laurence finally having a little dad talk with roland ;____; and demane has proposed to her repeatedly and she would agree in a moment under other circumstances ;________________; and it never even occurred to me that that’s why she was so upset about him taking on his own dragon but of course that would fuck everything up if that’s what she was planning OH NO ;_________________________________________________;

laurence confirmed for boytoy & hideously embarrassed about it flasdfsdkjhfksd

“But I don’t want someone I want, if I can’t be sure of seeing him one week in the year” crack crack goes the sound of my heart breaking

I hope they find a way to solve this eventually :(

- really interesting what a clear view emily has of roland and laurence’s relationship tho, considering he’s basically her father figure -- like there’s clear affection, physical attraction and camaraderie there but it never feels particularly romantic & they both have other shit to do. (and laurence knows it too on some level, considering his main emotion when she refuses his proposal is relief lol. it really shows off this central conflict he has where like... he has a very clear idea of who he feels he should be and managed to convince himself he was for a long time, and what that man wants and needs (namely very little, emotionally) and is loyal to. aaaand then there’s the person he actually is, who’s been fighting his way to the surface since temeraire showed up in the very first book and sort of woke him up by giving him something he actually loves and values with all of himself and can’t compromise on. proper gentleman/navy!laurence feels like he has to do what society deems decent and marry roland to be a good person, actual!laurence seems to know that what they already have isn’t wrong or immoral in any way as long as they’re both happy with it. ugh I love him and I hope his last remaining character development includes realizing that who he really is is not only acceptable but actually a better man than that imagined perfect self ever could be and how many people love him for who he is already A N Y W A Y onwards)

- the incan dragons continue to be dope as hell

it’s super interesting how they’ve grown to value people -- and not just one special person, like british dragons, but whole groups of people -- over gold and jewels. like the tendency is there in dragons from other cultures; temeraire loves The Bling but would still easily prioritize laurence and his crew over it. presumably some of it is cultural and some of it must stem from the sheer trauma of losing so many people within a few centuries, which is basically living memory for a dragon (which makes it equal parts sympathetic/heartwarming and juuuuust on the edge of being too creepy and possessive haha).

- jeez this book is doing a good job at showing what a haunting fucking sight it must be to enter a land where like. 90% of the people are dead in plague and their cities stand abandoned

- fhasdklhfaskljfhs hammond going full diplomat on the dragons squabbling... he truly is something

and laurence apologizing to demane because he was out of line and he is a fellow captain now T_____T lord allendale could never

- haven’t had a lot to say for a while because I’m just so entranced with the world building and stuff haha, I find the irl history of this area super interesting as well

- ambassador iskierka........ what a time to be alive

poor poor poor granby hahahaha

- if these books were named harry potter style this one would be ‘william laurence and that time he tried to put off wearing his ceremonial robes for as long as humanly possible’

- granby being good at drawing but having atrocious handwriting is such a good little character detail, novik is just so expert at nonchalantly plopping them in

- temeraire is being haunted by a green-eyed monster the size of a continent huh lol fair play to maila tho, he’s given it his sleazy all right from the start

I can’t believe gong su invented dragon ice cream solely so temeraire could eat it out of a tub over this... the real mvp

- awwww granby <3 I’m glad there’s some actual canonical queer rep in this series as well (as for the technically not stated straight(heh) out in canon... listen my friends if you can come up with any kind of heterosexual explanation for normally extremely sensible tenzing tharkay gazing at his friend and thinking shit like ‘in the fading light he was a statue gilded by sunlight’ and ‘it was a pang not unmixed with pleasure to look on him, as ever’, you are free to try to come at me with it but I won’t believe you lol. also laurence has the most potent disaster bisexual energy of any man in modern media even if he hasn’t quite caught on to it himself)

tbh I know it’s mostly in desperation but they should come up with some new kind of medal to give granby for having this particular Talk with william laurence, one of the most awkward men to ever walk this earth... braver than any us marine etc.

- temeraire and iskierka in this scene STRONGLY evoke dirtbag teens sneaking off to make out in the backseat of a car or something god bless

- ...I guess you can’t fault the empress for siding with the dude already crashing like a natural catastrophe over his own home continent and who is eyeing the other six like a starving eagle would a pack of mice. all the europeans suck but I guess it’s sort of her best bet to ally herself with the biggest bully on the playground, especially since forces in her own court would be hard pressed to do anything about the situation. respect sister & congratulations granby lol

- hahahahahahaha leave it to hammond to be forcibly adopted by a dragon

poor churki tho she’s a grownass adult and she only has one weird coke-addled diplomat and three basically adolescent dragons to work with here

- GRANBY SETTING SOME BOUNDARIES FINALLY I’m so proud of him ;__; this book really does have a lot to say about dragon/human relations huh

- LETHABO!!!!!!!!!!! man i’m so happy she’s doing well, she fucking deserves it and she’s doing good work

- laurence has evolved to his ultimate form of give-no-fucks-do-some-good laurence and hammond was not prepared lol

“You forget yourself, Captain Laurence,” Hammond said . . .

“I forget nothing,” Laurence answered . . .

im crying b/c he literally has forgotten before but remembers himself at the end of victory of eagles b/c of tharkay and and aaaaaaaaaaaaaugh here he is refusing to do the dirty work he’s handed once more

- lily and maximus! this is not a drill it’s the good good kids back at it again. also temeraire’s phenomenally misplaced sense of superiority re: his reaction to kulingile growing bigger than any of them fkshdfksahdfkj

- berkely <3

- poor harcourt :( ah well she’ll survive it tho he wasn’t that important it’s not like she lost her dragon lol (I honestly can’t feel that bad about riley considering y’know how he was not only chill with but actively for the institution of slavery)

- YOOOOOOO GONG SU! and temeraire is so happy they’re going back to china aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah I love this (laurence’s stammering outrage at this reveal is also highly entertaining “he STAYED in my father’s HOUSE!!!!!!!”)

- man that entire last battle scene was so cool in the context of the rest of the series; the sheer effort and ingenuity that went into avoiding a bigger battle and slyly aiding the only worthy cause in the situation (the tswana and freeing the slaves) is so satisfying, especially after VoE

- holy shit I really enjoyed this one! It had a good balance of travelling/character moments and giving us time with the culture and characters of the Inca and their dragons, as well as driving the overall plot forward splendidly! I also feel like we got some more meat to the laurence POV (in hindsight it feels like it was mostly temeraire POV in tongues of serpents, which is fine but I do love our golden boy and his slow burn character development too)

on to blood of tyrants! I don’t know anything about this one except a) amnesia and b) some Very Important Lines I’ve already picked up along the way, I’m not sure I’m prepared (as a trope amnesia can be pretty hit or miss for me, so it’ll be interesting at least!)

#temeraire #meta #his majesty's dragon #yes hello I am back on my bullshit

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damnit-samnit · 6 years

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Preview -- Evocation: Demon!Might x Reader

Hey everyone! I’m working on a spooky request for @sinspritz I wanted to post a preview since I’m behind on my Oct Prompts because I’m terrible. This will eventually be NSFW but, for now, enjoy the ~build-up~!

You sat on the floor of your darkened living room, scrolling through the pages of a demon-summoning manual you had conveniently downloaded off a torrent site. You wondered if the witchy masters of yore ever imagined their books would not only survive a couple centuries unscathed but would also be scanned and uploaded to a virtual--

You stopped yourself -- these guys were out summoning demons to do their dark bidding, they probably weren’t sitting around speculating about future generations and their technologies. Clearly on the verge of becoming distracted again, you quickly flipped up the pages, looking for the symbol you had been fixated on for the past several days.

The book went by a couple of names but you had been calling it ‘Goetia.’ You had stumbled upon it thanks to a Reddit post, of all places, in the comments of a video showing two cats hugging. Yes, that’s how you found the grimoire. How you went from cute cats to demons? Well, that’s just a benefit of the internet.

Supposedly, it was a phonebook of sorts, a listing of demons that the once great King Solomon summoned back in his day. Interested, you had read up on each of the 72 demons listed, all conveniently given titles to show their importance in the realms of hell. Some of the rare ones were kings. Others were dukes or presidents.

They each had a job -- rather, a benefit. For example, Buné, a duke, could make you wise. Then there was Buer, a president, who could heal men and bestow familiars.

The downside?

Buné was a dragon with the heads of a dog, a griffin and a man. While lion-headed Buer’s body was made up of five goat legs. That way, he could walk in every direction.

But most, apparently, could take on humanoid appearances and those were the ones you drifted toward summoning.

Right. The Summoning.

You had decided to summon a demon.

Maybe it was the skeptic in you that made the decision so easily. There was no back and forth fretting -- you had opened the book, saw what they were offering and decided to go for it. Best case scenario? You were bestowed powers and riches. Worse case? It didn’t work and you wasted money on a bunch of useless incense and candles.

Well, horror movies also told you there was the possibility of some scary demon haunting or being dragged to hell, but none of the online resources you looked into mentioned that. In fact, they kept mentioning all the figures in the Bible that supposedly called on demons for help and guidance.

And, honestly, was a demon really going to appear in your apartment?

This wasn’t the first time you had looked into the ‘dark arts.’ As a teenager you had dabbled in witchcraft, trying to cast spells with half-used Yankee Candles in your bedroom. Spells of love and money. None of which ended up coming to fruition.

Enough about your childhood escapes -- you were getting distracted again.

It was demon summoning time.

You had settled on Marchosias. He was a Marquis, which seemed much more approachable than a King or President of Hell. Though he took the form of a demonic wolf, he could become a man if requested. He didn’t have the power to give gold or make you wise. Instead, he was more of a companion -- supposedly a strong fighter who would be very loyal to the person he was bound to.

Not only that -- he didn’t seem bad. According to the stuff you read, he was a fallen angel that hoped to return to heaven one day.

And a demon that wanted to go back to heaven probably wouldn’t fly off the rails.

You were supposed to pick an incense smell and candle colors that were associated with your demon of choice but, unfortunately, you couldn’t find a simple online list dictating what demon like what. So you improvised. A wolf that spit fire probably liked a fire-smell, right?

As for candles, why not a light blue? It brought up connotations of airiness and lightness. Of heaven.

You were trying to be respectful -- that’s what all the guides drilled into you. Don’t treat the demon as some servant, treat them with respect.

A pentagram was drawn onto the hardwood floor of your apartment with sidewalk chalk, the candles blazing at each point of the star and a print-out of Marchosias’ seal sat beside you.

Visualize the seal perfectly.

You stared long and hard at the paper, enough so that, when you closed your eyes, you could see an almost negative of the picture in the red-black darkness of your eyelids.

A few more times you did that -- the back and forth of memorizing and recalling.

Then, you began.

You had to recite the demon’s prayer while visualizing the seal. It was a lot easier said than done -- you hadn’t memorized the prayer and were reading it aloud from your phone, glancing between it, the seal on the floor and closing your eyes to better… reach out.

Marchosias.

You felt the hair rise on the back of your neck rise and you shivered it away, assuming it was just a draft wafting in from your open windows. It was a chilly night out. You should have closed them before you started all this.

Marchosias.

You finished the last line of the prayer, taking a quick glance at the seal before closing your eyes once more and waiting.

Marchosias.

BAM.

You jumped, head swirling when a door in your apartment slammed shut making your heart skip a beat.

But it was a door, you told yourself with a sigh. Just your bedroom door. Probably blown shut by the wind, it had been a blustery day. There were no dem--

Thought vanished from you.

You had turned your head.

You sat, frozen.

Eyes wide.

There was…

There was something there.

Oh god.

There was something there.

Oh god.

It was standing in your living room, outside of the pentagram you had drawn, smoldering black eyes fixated on you.

Deep-colored skin. Horns.

Oh god.

A fear you had never experienced before seized your entire being, a coldness settling and freezing your limbs and lungs. Breathing was difficult. Horror.

So much horror.

You had summoned a demon.

A demon.

How was it real?

Please be a dream.

What do you do?

Run.

You couldn’t run. You had summoned it. It was there now. You had opened a door.

Oh god, you had to send it back.

Respect, that’s what you had to show. Resisting the urge to burst into tears or run from the room, you focused on breathing. Your loud, sharp snivels filling the room as you worked up the courage to speak. To communicate.

“T-thank you for answering my summon,” your weak voice said, an octave higher than normal. To your absolute dread, the creature moved. Shifting. The gaze of the eyes growing in intensity now that you were speaking to it. “It’s appreciated but you are no longer needed. Please leave, Marchosias.”

The creature tilted his head at the mention of the name.

And then--

A smile.

It wasn’t leaving. Its large body was shifting a cracking -- as if its jointed had been fossilized from inactivity.

“You are not needed, Marchosias,” you said, panic gripping you fully once you realized it wasn’t just moving. It was walking toward you.

Nothing.

With a terrified gasp, you scampered backward and to your feet, running. You were heading in the opposite direction of it, slamming and locking your bathroom door shut behind you as you stepped into the tub, pressing your body against the plastic of your shower.

What had you done?

#spooky scary demon man #comes creepin' down the stairs #you done goofed #with your half-assed demon summoning #all might x reader #mywriting

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madnessatdawn · 5 years

Text

GODDAMNIT ITS BEEN A WHILE Time to scream about Dragalia lost for the next couple of posts cause I got things to say. Now for those that don’t know, dragalia lost is gacha game. Not only can you get playable characters, you also get dragons. And they can range from that’s a dragon, that's a dragon waifu/husbando in varying degrees, and “we’re gonna label this a dragon, even though they hardly bare any resemblance to the creatures in question”. That’s just how Dragalia rolls So lets play a fun game, I picked three unique dragons that have something in common with each other from the game. I’ll show you a picture with a little description of each of them. So your job, dear reader, is to figure out what they have in common before the end of my post. You probably wont get it right all things considered but whatever. Okay Here we go!

Maritimus - The Beloved Mascot This adorable Fluff ball is Maritimus and he runs a famous children's choir in the world of draglia. He is a fashionista at heart and rocks that big bell, his kids gave him, with pride!

Long Long - Kung-Fu Master Yes he looks like panda, no he is not infact panda. They actually have pandas in dragalia, he’s just a dragon that looks like panda. As his title suggest he’s a martial arts master that studied under an ancient tribe of people. He is also a dad that who worries for his son.

Ṋ̸̣̜͔̞̪͈ͅY͏̠A̵̻͉͚̮͇͘͞R̸̞̪̣͢͡L̶̢͙͈͢A͏̨͓̹͎̩̺͔̻ͅT̬̹͜͝H̸̩̩͉̦͙̣̠̠̟͝O̡̼̙͚ͅT̴̡͕̘ͅȨ͈̺̰̰͖͖͢P̳͍̳̜̲̭̟͘ ̷̴͎͉͕͠-̯͎̪͓́͡ ̸̨̲̘Ţ͟͏̺̦̰̳ͅh͍̪̭E̢͙̫͠ ̧̰͖͝C̛̬̯̪͕r̬̬̗̞Ą͍̪w̭͎L̨̼̟͕͙̞̬̘ḭ̻̩̜͖̪ͅŃ̴̘̻͉̰̭̗g̡̥̥͚͇͔̗̠̱ ̝͍C̗̠͞h̢̼̲A̮̩̣̩̖͇̰o̮̠̲̬͇ THEY ARE NYARLATHOTEP THE\ EMISSARY OF THE ANCIENT ONE. A BEING THAT CAME BEFORE THE GREAT GODDESS. THEir WORDS ARE FOREIGN AND STRANGE ONLY THE ONES THAT GAZE TOO DEEPLY MAY DECIPHER THEIR SPEECH . THEIR PURPOSE UNCLEAR. THEIR NAME BELONGS TO MANY THAT OWE THEMSELVES TO THE ABYSS. TO UNDERSTAND IS TO BE THEM AND TO BE IS TO UNDERSTAND THEM.

Now yes One of these things is not like the others, One of these things just doesn't belong!

Is what you are probably thinking dear viewer but nay they do indeed have something in common other then they fact they're all apparently “dragons”. Now I didn’t rig this and no you don’t have to look up dragalia lore to figure it out either. What they have in common is just real clear for the first two then on Nyar.

You see, they all have the TOE BEANS.

LOOK AT THEM PAWWS!

Now just showing paws isn’t gonna back up my claim. Since dear Nyar has his paws down. But you see Dragalia lost is a 3d gacha game. So I can grab a screenshot of him with those footies raised high SO WE CAN SEE DEM BEANS BEHOLD BEANS

YES the devs of this game decided to give this eldritch abomination, pink squishy toe beans. Which is hilarious to think about because there is a dragon in this game who is just a fusion between a tiger and dragon. Yet he has no beans to squish. oh yeah fun perk in this game you can give the dragons stuff to make them like you more, one gift is bread. So you can just give the eldritch horror a giant loaf of bread after you have finished trying to full body squish their toe beans.

#Dragons #dragalia lost #dragalia lost their goddamn minds #i love this game so much #i'll be screaming more about nyar later cause #damn if there isnt' a lot to unpack here #You say theyre a nightmare of the abyss I say their just a weird cat

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autumnfanfiction · 5 years

Text

Hey Gran Gran, how you feeling?”

She was there every day like clockwork with her grandmother making sure she was being taken cared of and also providing her with some company. When she found out her Gran Gran Dolly was sick, she used all her finances to find the best doctors money could buy to cure her, to nurse her back to health, but every doctor she came in contact with said it was too late. She didn’t want to listen to that nonsense so her last resort was to bring her to New York and see if she would receive some good news and so she could be closer to her. But like them all, there was no such luck.

“Mi feel good Anna, alive actually. Mi could go for eh good time right bout now.”

“Good time like what Gran?”

“Eh maybe goin’ ta one of dem clubs, no? Mi may be gettin’ up dere in age, but Gran can still do di dutty.”

Robyn laughed. She loved being with her Gran because she didn’t behave like one whose life was sealed, signed, and delivered to death. These moments made her feel like everything was normal if only, it was really like that.

“Gran I don’t think the men would be ready for you.” She said softly

“‘Course not Anna. What makes yuh tink dem boys could last a moment wit mi?”

She giggled. “They wouldn’t Gran.”

Robyn held her Gran Dolly’s hand and felt sadness overtake her once again. How would she be able to brace herself and say goodbye to this woman? Gran Gran Dolly had outlived all her family members and how she was able to do that would only be something God could answer. Robyn was grateful though because her Gran taught all she knew, but once she learned she had fallen to an illness, it seemed her heart hardened, and she was mad at the world.

“Anna.”

Robyn snapped out her daze and looked into the eyes of her Gran and was almost brought to tears. Her eyes were so full of life and seeing that made it much harder for her to ever come to terms that the woman that had raised her all her life once her Mother died giving birth to her would soon leave her. She couldn’t come to terms with it, and she refused to.

“We neva talk bout how mi gon die soon––”

“Gran it’s something I rather not talk about. I just want to spend time with you and laugh and hear all the stories you’ve told me like when I was younger. Thinking about that just makes me sad and I don’t,” she coughed and held her chest feeling the emotions creeping up on her. “I don’t want to think about you dying because it’s hard to imagine.”

“Don’t make it any less true, Anna.”

She shook her head, tears wanting to cascade down her face but she wanted and needed to be strong. “I guess it’s because you don’t seem like you’re dying soon. It makes it hard to digest when it seems you could live another decade and be fine and in good health.”

“Anna dere is a reason mi still livin’ and mi tink it’s ‘bout time mi tell yuh befo mi pass.”

Robyn’s eyebrows furrowed but she said nothing, wanting to listen intently on what it was she was about to be told. “Mi been havin’ dese dreams ‘bout yuh and yuh future––”

“Gran I don’t think I have a future seeming as though I’ve been cooped up in this hospital for months with nothing positive coming out of it.”

Dolly looked at her granddaughter with frustration. “Anna stop it dis instant! Mi will not spend mi remaining months, howeva long dey may be hearing yuh pity yuhself. Mi don’t wanna ear it yuh ear?” Robyn nodded and softly apologized. “Now as mi was sayin’, God showed mi a vision of yuh and soon yuh life will turn fa di betta. A young man Anna, God will bring somebodi into yuh life, and he will love and cherish yuh.”

Robyn sat still for a moment. Love? From somebody other than her Gran? She found that laughable, but she couldn’t deny the curiosity she had of learning more about her Gran’s vision, so she remained silent and kept her protests to herself for now.

“Him was di most handsome ting, Anna. Mi saw him; tall, freckles, and as yellow as corn,” Robyn laughed trying to imagine what Gran was describing, and she couldn’t shake the gut feeling of happiness she had, that maybe this was real and she would have somebody else long after Gran passed away. “Trust, Anna. Jah has a plan, alweys do yuh just need ta ave faith.”

“Gran,” She paused and looked into her eyes. She looked so happy and excited so she decided she wouldn’t deny her Gran the happiness she had of delivering this to her. She didn’t really believe this because God had punished her and what did she do to deserve this? She really didn’t know so she doubted God would grace her with somebody to love and that would love her. Who would want to love somebody that wouldn’t last long anyway? Yeah, she didn’t believe it, but she would go along with it for the sake of her grandmother.

“I promise I’ll try to be open.”

“Dat is all mi ask Anna, dat is all mi ask.”

Chris was out mingling with all the doctors and nurses joking with them trying to keep himself from falling into a sunken place. Truth be told, everyone in the hospital loved him because he was so charismatic and carefree it was tragic that somebody like him with a beautiful spirit was and could possibly be withering away right before their very eyes. Nevertheless, there was no need for pity because he didn’t ask for it nor did he act like he needed it, so they didn’t offer it to him.

As Chris was telling one of his many corny jokes to the staff that would entertain him, he saw a figure out of the corner of his eye leaving a room. The figure was a woman, and it might have been a glimpse, but she was beautiful. Beautiful and he had never seen her before, which piqued his interest because he’s met everyone on his floor, at least he thought until he saw her.

“Nurse Sandy, who is that woman over there?”

“Oh, that’s one of my patients,” The bubbly nurse said then smiled. “It’s really not my place, but she could use somebody like you around, and that’s all I’m going to say.” She acted out zipping her lips and throwing away the key and Chris laughed before she walked off.

His attention went back to the mystery woman. He chose to take a trek down the hallway and see if he could find her room. Each room he passed made it clear it wasn’t hers, and all that was left was the last room at the end. He leaned his head forward and caught full sight of her sitting on her bed.

“She’s more than beautiful.” He mused to himself. Her look was solemn, and for some reason, it made him sad that she was. To him, someone whose features that were as delicate as hers shouldn’t be creased with sorrow. Even though he felt that way, he was shy. He elected not to impose since he was a stranger and didn’t want to scare her off before he even had the opportunity to get to know her.

As he kept looking at her he saw her head about to move, so he ducked before she could catch him. He felt blush rush to his cheeks and chastised himself for being so careless before walking back to his room pondering on ways to strike her attention.

Hours flew by, and he couldn’t decide what gesture would grab her attention. He let out a harsh breath and ran his hand through his hair. “What am I going to do?” He thought for a moment before an idea formed in his head. “I’ll just write her a love letter.” He smiled and rubbed his hands together saying to himself this was the best idea.

Quickly he grabbed paper and a pen and placed it on the mini table the staff gifted him since they knew he loved to draw so he would have something to press on. They also gave him a notepad and art supplies and the main reason being to keep him from drawing on the walls out of boredom or mischief.

“Now how do I start?” He asked himself while lightly hitting his chin with the pen. He’s never written what he’s dubbed a love letter, so this was foreign to him. Especially why he would call it love when he knew nothing about her. He made many attempts at writing what he thought was suitable and what would make him seem approachable, however, all of them were failed attempts. Finally, he decided to be himself was the best approach.

I don’t know how to write love letters. I don’t even know why I’m calling this a love letter or if this even is one, but what I do know is that I want to get to know you. I want to grasp your emotional rigor when you’re faced with having to live when you’re upset. I want the opportunity to turn your frown into a smile. Who knows maybe we can become best friends, that sounds good, right? I could help you wear all that concealer and makeup stuff you might have, and in turn, you’ll help me sneak drawings on the walls in the hospital. They think they can stop me, but if I have a partner in crime we’ll be unstoppable, so what do you say? Did I put a smile on your face yet? I want your rhythm and blues… What should I call you? How about Green Eyes? Maybe Hazel? Hazel sounds cuter right? I think I’ll stick with Green Eyes. So you might be wondering how I know the color of them… Well… What had happened was… I kinda sorta found your room and was peeking through your window. I’m not a peeping tom I promise. Well, hopefully, Green Eyes those very eyes will be peering at me up close soon. Can’t wait for you to write back.

❤️ CB

He smiled and added a drawing of her from memory at the bottom. He put the letter in an envelope and wrote “TO GREEN EYES” and drew her eyes under it and colored it in mixing the colors the best he could to capture the green/hazel color. Once he was finished, he went outside his room and asked Nurse Sandy whether she could give his newfound interest Green Eyes his letter, and she happily obliged. He thanked her kindly, before heading back inside his room to lay in his bed.

Now all there was to do was wait.

#chrianna #chrianna ff #chrianna fanfic #chrianna fanfiction #chris brown #rihanna #chris brown fanfic #rihanna fanfic

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bigbrothernetflix-st · 4 years

Text

EPISODE ONE

“its week ONE. why is everyone being so cracked i hate it here i absolutely hate it here someone take me out with a sniper rifle” - aria

HOH: Jev UPSIDE DOWN: Jacob & Gina NOMINEES: Kiki & Nash POV: Nash FINAL NOMINEES: Kiki & Mo EVICTED: Mo (14-1)

PRESEASON CAST ASSESSMENT

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEdLzVoyttU&list=PLFEwPPy8j010XXwntq80VSU0qLNTNpSIN&index=2&t=0s

JOEY

WOO holy shit this cast is filled with such insane personalities, and I cannot WAIT to play this game!

NASH

tell me why i'm already nervous

NASH

waits patiently for mo to pick another damn person to infect

GINA

skghkdgljhgdlj BRAIN HURTY,, sm people to talk to and everyone is so so nice! just glad I'm not winning hoh

ARIA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-bwCxQGRhk

alternative title: im very mean for 20 minutes

KIKI

so far the cast seems very sweet! a little quiet so far but otherwise im really enjoying talking to them!! and i think the twist is a cool idea but could be dangerous.... maybe a little too easy to expose alliances

GINA

I really like this cast! I'm actually really good friends with Aria (but we keeping that a secret) and I recognize Joshua from other orgs! Also, this twist seems super fun!

ARIA

okay,,,,okay,,,ok,,,k my brain is struggling to complie everything ive learned today i am STRUGGLING!!!!

So!! Lets make a tier list

We're working together (didnt even need to discuss)

-Nathan

-Jacob

-Gina

Asked to work together

-Joey

-Joshua

Implied we're working togther but lower tier

-Jev

-Josh C

-Monty

Super Sweet & Nice

-Bri

-Kiki

-Dem

-Mo

Sweet but i want a response

-Nick

-Emma

_saira

-jake

-Nash

So thats what i've gathered for today mostly, Jacob-Joey-Jev-Joshua all seem to really want to work close with me and we've talked a bit of game ( ITS ALL THE Js HELP) and seem super open while the girls seem more closed off as of now, kinda worried gina isnt gonna be active enough but idk, oh also everyone is noticing bri is CHAOS and that nick is talkative/assertive. more to update in a bit but heres a trust ranking for night one, one more thing jev said he doesnt like nathan or nick :OO and someone else mentioned nick being overbearing

1.Gina (i love her to the moon and back)

2. Nathan( the charisma SNAPPED this game go off sir!!)

3. Josh C (they're also charismatic but they're hecking hilarious and our view are pretty similar)

4.Jev (they cared about me!! and im nice to them and this is just really wholesome)

5.Jacob (LOVE him but we havent talked enough beyond "we're winning this game")

6.Joshua (super fun to talk to, same og community king)

7.Bri (they wont keep info to themselves but shes SO sweet pls take my heart)

8. Joey (hes kinda sketching me out tbh but also he wants to work with me so)

9.Nick (they wouldnt put me up and thats all i could ask for)

10.Monty (PLEASE trust me i need ur braincells)

12.Kiki (sHES SO SWEET AND GOOD AT ART ADORE HER)

13.Mo (existential dread buddies <3)

14.Dem(approached game w/ me,,,but on the first message so might be doing that w/ everyone)

15.Nash (kate protection gang!!!)

16.Saira (we loVE DOGS! and thats it)

17.Emma (feel better soon,,,then pls talk to me k thanks)

18.Aria (dont trust anyone,,,not even yourself)

DEM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykD4dZjsDl0

BRIANNA

https://youtu.be/odNZXz-jNtw

If alliances have been made already, I am gonna have some QUALMS... This cast is very cute, I love meeting new people, let's see we have

Aria - an ANGEL we've been talking about SIX the musical and slime tutorials

Brianna - The first person to recognize me using a Carole & Tuesday song in any of my videos. I'm v grateful.

Dem - He kinda jokes like a mom...

Emma - I'm friends with Emma outside of the game and she is such a chaotic sweetheart. We been in the house a day and she plays Lois Griffon singing Doja Cat... for what...

Gina - I have not talked with her, I just said hi.

Jacob - Jacob is nice. I think I've yet to have a super positive ORG experience with him tho. So. Yeah.

Can I do the rest tomorrow cus I'm tired and just not in the mood. Okay thank you.

SAIRA

I was a little surprised by the amount of people dming me but they all seemed pretty nice! The twist sounds cool, I'm excited to see how it plays out

JEV

i definitely did NOT expect to win the first hoh but here we are, i have no idea what i'm gonna do but i need sleep so that's tomorrows problem

JOSH C

HELLO! it's your boy josh coming to give you some thoughts on the cast. coming into this game, the only person i know of beforehand is.. JACOB who has managed to snake me in both games we've played together so that's cute. i don't really have a choice but to trust him for now bc that's my only outside connection so we'll see how it goes. he's fun to talk to so i don't really mind but my eyes are PEELED for it going south.

my favorites just from the first night are probably aria, kiki, nathan, and saira. for no REAL reasons other than i just feel like i've had the best conversations with them and they were more fun than the rest of the cast. i'm not sure if those will stay the same but that's HOW I FEEL RIGHT NOW!!

i've reached out to everyone and heard back from everyone (other than nash.. dunno what that's about so i'll just let it sit there. i don't REALLY mind bc it's good if i win HOH because it's a good reason to throw someone up there). everyone is cute enough, though i think i've connected LEAST with brianna, dem, joey, and monty? just haven't gotten a lot of energy back from them but i'm hoping that was just FIRST NIGHT jitters of people not putting in their full effort into their social game.

i'm going to spend today just chatting with people so i have a base relationship with them and that way if jev goes the route of asking people who they'd him to nominate -- i'm not someone they name simply for not knowing who i am. trying to be a little SOCIAL QUEEN. fun and funky so let's hope it pays off.

for the twist, i'm not really sure how to play this. i don't think the first round is going to have the BEST power hidden in it but it'd be nice to know that i for sure won't be first boot. (though i'm feeling OKAY enough that jev won't kill me bc we've talked at least). i think i'm going to wait a minute before i ask someone to send me in, or someone just sends me in on their own accord. that way people don't look at me for having a secret power bc it'll be really easy to narrow down who has one and that's just such an unnecessary way to get a target on your back. i like the twist, it's just hard to figure out how to play it and maybe i should just wait until someone does it for me or i'm one of the later people to get it so i get safety when there are less people in the house and it'll be harder to survive.

xoxo gossip josh

SKINNY NICK

https://youtu.be/yNBReh_pBPk

NATHAN

He's here, he's queer... and oddly enough starting off by not doing a Video DR; however, I think when making an initial first impression/trust list this method seems to go a little smoother... First off, coming right off of Big Brother Pasio and thrown into this game has made my head hurt more than it should. I forgot how annoying and tiresome the initial conversations are with everybody. With that said, I have begun to kinda pick out a path that may be suitable for me this season. In Pasio, my goal was to lay low, not be seen, and form connections. That strategy is going to be partially active this time around as well. I'm a big personality, and while that's fun and cute, I learned by keeping a low profile in the beginning portion while remaining social it does wonders. I don't need to be a Skinny Nick character and be talking in the house call and house chat at every ounce I get. With that being said, this season is full of Pasio players... some in which I had both good and bad experiences with. However, pushing that aside I really have my eyes set and locked on Aria. I have a feeling that the other Pasio alumni may see her for how she played in Pasio and I do as well, but I want to make sure her and I are on as good as terms as possible. She did NOT like me in Pasio, so rekindling that flame is ultra important. Alongside Aria, I get to play with both Monty and Jacob who I've had rocky relationships with in the past, but have grown to become great friends outside this. Working with them is going to be vital, but keeping them too close is suicide. With that being said, here's my initial trust ranking:

1. Aria

2. Jacob

3. Nash

4. Jev

5. Josh

6. Monty

7. Joey

8. Nick

- - -

END LIST

JOSH C

okay, well nominations just came out and i can't say i'm too surprised that nash got nominated for eviction considering she hasn't responded to me yet and most everyone else is saying the same. i can't really imagine anyone using the veto on her unless she has a complete social turn around in the next 24 hours but that seems like.. a stretch. just gotta hope she doesn't win! we love an easy first week boot!

i'm a little sad about kiki getting nominated because i've really hit it off with them, but i think it's a good way to secure some trust with them and spark off a relationship. i've been trying to already be like YOU GOT THIS, YOU'RE STAYING! NASH DOESN'T TALK TO ANYONE! and i think they're being receptive. i like that i can joke around with them, so i'm hoping they enjoy me as much as i enjoy them.

i've also had aria and jake come talk to me about noms which means they trust me and that's GOOD. i want to try to secure something with them soon because i think they're both people that would want to work with me and i know that jake doesn't have a lot of connections already so being an early ally of his would be BIG.

just trying to focus on being a cute little social presence so people don't really focus on targeting me early on. i think this is a game full of half social players and some.. not so exciting people so it'll be easy to just slip through by not being the most boring person around. i don't want to promise TOO many people loyalty just yet but i think building a small core for myself will be important to keep me safe and i'm hoping that can come with jake/aria/kiki/jacob(?)

JAKE

chile............. where the fuck am i?

i dont know what dimension i'm in right now with these people but i am ready to show them what i am made of!! so far i've felt..... on the outs of most of what is going on so im just gonna give my perspective on things so far!!

the cast....... ill just do an assessment

dem: said maybe three words to me since we've started... so there's that

saira: seems like a queen! i def need to talk to her more i've been sleeping on her and i think we'll get along well

joey: girl sometimes idk what this man is saying to me but we're rolling w it..

nash: her "sick" ass hasnt responded to my message from yesterday so bye

joshua: oh he can work! hes fun to talk to and i def see some potential to working with him. hes only 16 so yung so pure i remember those days </3

nathan: hes so hot god i literally want to eat his entire ass but i dont wanna be creepy so im trying to subtly flirt with him SDLKJFSKF he seems to be a sneaky player to me but hopefully thats not the case and we can be a showmance later on hehe

emma: LEGEND. QUEEN! PUT SOME RESPECT ON HER NAMEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! my ride or die in this thing <3

jev: oh jevfrey my angel im so happy he's here!!! he's a loyal guy from what i remember and ill def be working with him ESPECIALLY now that hes the first hoh ayyyyY!!!! i feel completely safe with him

kiki: oh i LOVE THEMMMM we had a great connection from the jump and i have a soft spot for them for sure. theyre sadly nominated this week i did not know why jev made that decision but i will make sure they stay know THAT

monty: monty left me on read :( we had a kinda awk convo so idk how monty feels about me right now?? i def dont think he trusts me and ugh i hate the tension!!!!!!!! i hope we can resolve it all and be friends again

josh: KDJKFG i love this man... hes not entire truthful and is def playing me a bit but i think he's great and hopefully he doesnt turn out to be the snake i think he has the potential to be

gina: idk what to think of this girl she doesn't reply much to me and we haven't really spoken much for me to really get a good read of her. i infected her and idk if she'll take that a certain way i came to her with the explanation that we just havent talked as much. idk shes fine?

mo: hahhaha hes a cutie too and i think hes not much of a talker so i think hes nice for the most part it's just kinda hard talking to him sometimes

brianna: um....... yeah we haven't spoken yet and she infected me so idk how to feel about her yet. she claims it was this number system but do i fully believe thats what she based it on? not really.. so ill def have to talk to her more

aria: NOW THIS........ THIS IS ELEGANCE. THIS IS CLASS. THIS IS EXPENSIVE. THIS IS TASTE, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! this 15 year old girl has me shaking to my god damn core with her social game within a 20 minute conversation ive already devoted my entire game to her and our "attention whores" alliance. iM GAGGGEDDDD i really like her and i know shes a big threat but if shes with me then we can do some damage together hehe

skinny nick: SKINNYYYYY i dont have much to say about nick i think they're well connected in this game so i have to make sure i'm good with them a little more. our convos are a little dry hopefully that'll change as the game goes on

jacob: a sweetie.. i really like jacob as a person but as a player he scares the shit out of me DSLKFGFKJ he lied to me like every round in BBHOS9 so i dont rly know if i can trust him. he def has other friends in this community hes playing with so ill have to sus out who exactly that is...

and......... yeah! kiki and nash are nommed. gina n jacob went to the down under. i think jacob will def get whatever power is down there he is one lucky man so i wouldn't be surprised if it's something good. oh well hopefully when i go i get whatever the best thing is a dpov mayhaps!.......

i hope the next hoh is something i can win because i want these people to TALK TO MEEEE tell me where their heads are at for god's sake! me on day 2: why arent you telling me all your alliances? dFGKLF i feel like im okay just gotta talk to some said people more and try to make sure they dont hate me!

JOSHUA

I thought Jev was nice but I'll have to go back on that because he absolutely is not fooling a single person, I thought we'd be allies but he's been acting sus all day so he can choke on rat piss. Joey and nick literally aren't talking to me at awl so... they can choke and die too. Aria is talking to me a lot but I know she talks to everyone a lot sjdkjds queen of big brother pasio... but I trust her for now I guess. Other than that I'm not super like concerned with anyone else I mean brianna kiki gina mo are nice I guess.. mo is a little hard to talk to though so :( anyway glad to be here but my social is kind of rocky skjdjskdj : ( ( ( ( (

JEV

SKINNY NICK

https://youtu.be/0Kb-twzCkYI

trying to hint to dem that I’m not okay... wonder if it’s working

ARIA

its week one. its week ONE. why is everyone being so cracked i hate it here i absolutely hate it here someone take me out with a sniper rifle im sick of this, but its fine im gonna try to do my best to explain EVERYTHING bc whew is there a lot..

First off lets start with the fact ive been talking with everyone from the moment i woke up and my fingers hurt so much but also now people like me and thats all i need in life so heck yes!! So when it was nash vs kiki i start planting seeds to keep kiki with people and then nash wins veto so thats thrown out the window yayyyy-

Things start happening after jev renoms Mo. First off i get a call with crack kills (joey bri me) and we discuss the vote a little bit with Joey leaning towards keeping Mo and Me/Bri wanting to keep Kiki, joey leaves and me and bri talk about the alliance we were invited to (jacob josh jake kiki us) and then i notice theres a house vc which i then go and join alone.

It was silent for a bit before they mentioned they were talking about votes and were being kinda secretive about names but i asked directly so Mo tells me that dem told him that there was 5 confirmed votes against Mo (nash Jacob Nick Joshua/Jacob(dont remember which) and Josh c) he said the names really fast so i mightve missed a few and nathan interjects about my notes and like??? shut up nathan???? anyways i act all shook about an alliance and we talk about votes and apparently when mo campaigned to bri she just sent "hugs" and im caCKLIGN FDSGFDSH anyways that confirmed 5 votes is gonna make people nervous and cause people to keep Mo which like, im not totally against but i just want a unan vote please. Also i think dem & emma dont really trust me which is big ughhh idk if one of the pregame girlies (any of the names from that list) win hoh next week ill throw one of them utb easy peasy

So then i start asking around to gina and she ghosts me??? gina NEVER ghosts me so im sketched out there and Mo is asking for my help when i already told kiki i would save her its such a messsss. So if i had to guess the sides i would say

PREGAME GIRLIES: Nash Jacob Jake Joshua Josh c kiki

UNCONNECTED NOT PROTECTED: Dem Joey Emma Nathan Mo

Whomst: Saira Jev Monty Nick Gina Bri

Help: Aria

So, where do i go from here? How do i make sure this vote comes out hecking even,,, im not sure. nvm i am sure because Mo just told me they want to give up HFBHJBSDFS MO MY SAVIOR ILL NEVER FORGET YOU KING <<<<3333333 okay nvm hes not fully giving up but im giving him an avenue that would make my life much easier where im telling him to have good convos with people so they connect more and if anyone feels moved theyll come to me and ill get the ball rolling with a easy peasy unan vote hopefully. But i think i might be able to manipulate this situation to my advantage WHEW im hyped now!!

So lets say mo leaves the thought of those "five confirmed votes" is still gonna be in peoples heads mainly dem/joey/emma/nathan which might form into a side and go hard for hoh taking out some big social player and then we have two sides going after each other which would be cute.

I would make trust rankings but i trust no one fbhsafd and thats on pewiod

JAKE

WHEW!!!!!!!!!!! im not the first boot :~) let's celebrate that....

but i'm not too thrilled about these noms...... im happy nash won POV she started talking to me more and shes actually really cool so i wanted her to stay. i am sad kiki is nominated i don't want them to go at all..... and mo being the replacement nominee was a shock to everyone i think.....

i don't have a problem with mo leaving cuz we have a weak connection i just thought dem was going up based on my prior conversations with jev. he says dem started talking to him more but i just wish jev would talk to me and emma about his decisions if we're "aligned"?? like whats the point of having an alliance if we don't have any say in your decisions?

today i woke up to a message from josh asking me what i think about being in an alliance with jacob brianna aria and kiki........ and im just like wtf where this come from and he said that jacob is making it and its just his fave ppl??? im like ok like im not one to turn down an alliance but i let him know that i dont rly trust jacob n brianna as much as the others in the alliance. hopefully this makes him feel close to me and not blab his mouth to jacob ab that!

brianna has yet to speak to me and jacob is just someone im always gonna have a hard time trusting sooo if i have to nominate them down the line i won't hesitate unless this alliance is genuine and helping me in the game.

i really only trust emma so far with aria being my secret spy and big meat shield im gonna need in this game. aria's super well connected and im hoping she'll be able to provide me w the information i need to take bitches down later on.

i think i'd be worried about brianna winning bc we've never talked but at least we have this alliance possibly in the works?? and i dont know if nick would nominate me we haven't talked much..

but i want to win the next hoh so people actually talk to me LOL praying i can win

#bbnetflix st

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mslalaescargot-blog · 7 years

Text

101 things I’ve said while playing Persona 5

((Me and my siblings play persona sometimes when we’re real tired. I’m bad at video games. It’s a fun time.))

Yes, I did name my protag Enrique De Garza. I have headcannons about the spanish crimeboy if people want them.

1. *Long and drawn out conversation about sexual favors on the school rooftop*

2. *Torero (by Chayanne) lyrics* “Appropriate music.”

3. “I’m blind and I don’t understand…”

4. “What is Shakira doing right now?” “Body rolls?” *Sings Tight pants / Body rolls really loudly and obnoxiously*

5. “There are two periods in the day: morning and even—” “I just want to be friends with my dad, okay?”

6. “I want kindness! I wanna work at the flower shop!” “Nope, flower shop gives you kindness. You want charm.” “FUCK!”

7. “What do we do in these safe rooms?” “MAKE LOVE”

8. “I’m deaf. I’m deaf, I’m blind, I’m a baby kitten.”

9. “David, you’re in my shirt.”

10. “Ambush him!” “HAH!” *Opens menu* “…Fuck.”

11. “Oh no, Ryuji’s dead. What can I do?” “Items. Or you can use skills if you have them. Or you can just kill him.” “WHAT?!”

12. “Y’know, the Hairies are weak to gun. … Wait.”

13. “Great, only one of my people has a brain, and that’s… Ryuji.”

14. “Our father, who art in heaven, Safe Mode be thy name…”

15. *Fergalicious lyrics* “Appropriate music. I make the best playlists.”

16. “I hope you’re happy with yourself. You were ambushed by two guys in flip-flops.”

17. “I don’t wanna go back to the boobs…”

18. “Menacing Owlman.” “Tag yourself. OMG. TAG YOURSELF.”

19. “Well, obviously. It’s an authority figure. We need Ryuji.”

20. “I mean… Ryuji’s tits are pretty fine, soo…”

21. “Does it bother you that Igor goes *clacks teeth like a dinosaur* and still manages to make M and N sounds?”

22. “Your BOY needs to chill the fuck out.” “My BOY takes after ME. I’m not sure he CAN.” “… Also your boy doesn’t say fuck.”

23. “You aren’t allowed up here.” “Yeah, but what about the secret blowjobs? Can’t do that in the library, Makoto.”

24. “I didn’t know we could make a bus uncomfortable.” “Bus blowjobs. Super secret.”

25. “This just in: Ryuji is actually several majestic flip-flaps in a trench coat.”

26. “Can I take a bath? I haven’t taken a bath in two weeks.” “YOU SMEEELLLLYY!”

27. *Ann threatens to tear down Madarame’s shack* “Also, tearing that house down probably involves breathing lightly on the walls.”

28. “Somehow I think ‘I gotchu Boo’ is a little out of character for Enrique.”

29. “You know, cats can’t equip undies.” “Shame.”

30. “Yeah, I do like your lady’s dress, Iwai.”

31. “Y’all, I got three boys in undies who’re ready to fight.”

32. “My nose is all itchy…” “AWWW…” “He’s a jock.”

33. “Who is attacking me?” “GUYS!!!”

34. “Um, excuse me, that was my… FUCK!”

35. “It’s called PAINting for a reason!!!”

36. “That will be your exfiltration route.” “I hate that.”

37. “I am thou, thou art I. I exist amongst the merchandise as a frowny face.”

38. “You know who I just figured out that Yusuke dresses like?” “Who?” “Mary Berry.”

39. “Coffee Dad is unimpressed with my choice of friends.” “Your friends are unimpressed with your choice of friends. Look at Yusuke.”

40. “Does she actually day-dream about Ryuji?” “Only angstily.”

41. “Oh, he’s actually going to corner me in a broom closet.” “Actually, I think you’re the one cornering him in a broom closet, but that’s beside the point.”

42. “Is Enrique a dick?”

43. “Enrique, being the bisexual beast that he is…”

44. “Has the prick been bothering you, Yusuke? Do we need to go on a date to take your mind off it?”

45. “If anyone was a hooker, you’d expect it to be Ryuji…wait.”

46. “We pray for the skinny gays, and hope that they learn…something.”

47. “I feel like they’ve become my Tamogachis. I need to feed them…”

48. “Where is the D?” “Down at the top.”

49. “’I walked Yusuke back to the station.’ Like a good date.” “We then made out obscenely in the train station.” “We made everyone uncomfortable.” “It was great.”

50. “I’m sorry Ann, this is a boys-only treehouse.” “Except for Makoto.” “Oh, yeah.”

51. “’Show me your true form!’” “NO!!”

52. “Ruyji is blinged the fuck out. Like, look at him.” “He’s also inside you.”

53. “It’s called High Pixie, and not… some mean name.”

54. “Why is my boy so elegant?” “He does the Naruto run. It makes me angry.”

55. “What about my security!?” “It was a bitch… But I’m bitchier.”

56. “I am that jiggly sinner elephant.”

57. “Where’s the *pterodactyl screech*??”

58. “Stop giving genders to inanimate objects.” “Fuck you, I do what I want.”

59. “And here we see the wild Joker, knocked on his ass.” “Isn’t he pretty?”

60. “Yusuke! Where in your space pants are you keeping an assault rifle?”

61. “You can’t make Ryuji hungry! He’s always hungry. It’s like trying to make the hulk mad.”

62. “It’s knowledge going up, not charm…” “It’s always charm with Enrique.”

63. “Oh, OK. So you’ve got eight days until your nudes are leaked.”

64. *Mona, wearing a rainbow afro* “Wait, guys, something isn’t right…”

65. “How do I get rid of the slime?” “You say ‘Release the Slime.’”

66. “I like the one where Ryuji yodels and Ann tells him he’s cute.”

67. “What? You don’t want to teach Zorro to break wind?”

68. “Is that an assault rifle in your space pants or are you just happy to see me?”

69. “If I wasn’t so opulent, I’d be a bit more peeved.”

70. “Hey, Mishima. You want to join the harem?”

71. “Yusuke, if you want to draw sexual tension, you have friends for that…”

72. “Exactly. He’s a bus, and the wheels on the bus go round and round, motherfucker.”

73. “Ugh, you scared him away!” “He can’t help it. Ryuji is spooky.”

74. “WE NEED AS MANY PHANTOM THEIVES AS YEW CAN THROU DAUN”

75. “So Yusuke is now lightly boiled…” “You mean…sleeping?”

76. “Sword, how do you feel about smacking dem snake tiddies?”

77. “You scared him off with your fuckin’ snoring, ya spoopy bastard.”

78. “Fuck off, Kris. We can’t all have a level five knowledge stat, so shut your damn nose.”

79. “Fuck, I just made out with Ann too. Accidentally. … Shit.”

80. *continues to be distraught about having Ann as a side ho*

81. “Yeah, Ryuji will just bust a move up in here and it’ll be shocking! …Ha! Puns.” *Nobody laughs*

82. *Competent players having a legit conversation about comparative SP usage* “Hey! Can I talk to the box?!?” “… No.”

83. “What? Your teammates? That one’s a mouse now, because fuck him, and your other guy friend? He is now a beautiful snake.”

84. “You know what else is really beautiful?” “Mishima?” “ME.”

85. *Far too many dick monster jokes for general health*

86. “Damnit, they aren’t weak to smack!”

87. “First I had to convince Sojiro to let me keep a cat, now I have to convince Sojiro to let me keep a Yusuke…”

88. “Why do I get the sense you’re enjoying this?” “Because he’s fucking the culprit!”

89. “I do want to spent my Hot Night with the Mishiman.”

90. “Oh, hi Akechi.” “What?” “You see the guy buying Cinnabuns? Right there?”

91. “Urgh… Morgana just needs to chill his beans.” “BEANS???”

92. “They give you great spiritual power…” “And gas.”

93. “No, I do not like that Fox. I would like him… in a box.”

94. “Ya done spooked the Ryooj…”

95. “Oh, yeah. Sae is ready to cut a bitch.” “And that bitch is Akechi.”

96. “You wanna say that a little louder, Akechi? For the people in the back? Especially your…self.”

97. *To Iwai* “You betcha, sweetums! …that is not the right name for you, sir. I’m so sorry.”

98. “Fuck off, Friendly Girl.” “That was rude!” “Well, she was rude to me, so she’s not very friendly.”

99. “God, Kawakami… It’s fine. I brought condoms.

100. *Competent players having a legit discussion about social link points* “GUYS, we need to focus more on the important issue at hand! Mishima is still wearing clothes??” “… what?”

101. “Yusuke doesn’t have cleavage!”

#//Talk to me// (OOC)#//A pretty boy in eyeliner// (the mun)#persona 5 #persona #persona trash #I'm very sorry

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buzzdixonwriter · 4 years

Text

The Seven Secrets Of Pure Dumb Luck

“Introduce a little anarchy. Upset the established order, and everything becomes chaos. I'm an agent of chaos. Oh, and you know the thing about chaos? It's fair.”

-- The Joker, The Dark Knight

Sandra Newman’s meme has been bouncing around the Internet for a while now, and while many people get it’s point, some fail to realize she’s satirizing not people who fail to achieve success (however one chooses to define “fail” or “success”) but rather the mindset of those who are “born on third base and believe they knocked a home run”.

It’s the mindset of privilege, and while her meme specifically focuses on those with the privilege of wealth, truth be told privilege comes in many shapes / forms / fashions depending on when and where and to what group one is born.

But let’s focus on the wealth-based form she cites.

Chance, as Louis Pasteur observed, favors the prepared mind.

It’s certainly solid advice for everyone to strive to be as mentally / emotionally / physically fit and healthy as possible, to develop productive habits, and to constantly be open to learning new things.

Before they became glorified trade schools, universities’ classical liberal arts degrees didn’t teach students what to think but how to think, the goal being to produce a cohort of graduates who -- regardless of what situation they found themselves in -- would be able to analyze what was needed and figure out how to achieve it.

Nowadays, thanks to libraries and the Internet, it’s possible for anyone to be their own polymath.

All it takes is the will and desire.

But despite being prepared, there is no guarantee chance (or fate, or fortune, or destiny, or God’s will, or plain ol’ dumb luck, or whatever you want to call it) will provide you with an opportunity to succeed.

Indeed, as our friend The Joker observes, chaos is fair.

It will dash you down just as easily as it lifts you up, and sometimes it will lift you up only to dash you down all the harder. (Cue Carl Orff’s “Carmina Burana - O Fortuna”.)

You can’t complain about that. As Jimmy Durante observed, dem’s da conditions wot prevails.

Life is neither pure intellect -- such as chess -- nor pure chance -- such as roulette.

Rather, it’s more like Monopoly.

Now, as a game, Monopoly starts off fairly (well, kinda…each player brings their own particular skill set / insight / personal history to the proceedings, and sometimes a player’s background can provide either a distinct edge or disadvantage).

Every player starts with $1,500.

The bank owns all the properties.

Play is determined by a random roll of the dice, and a random distribution of Community Chest / Chance cards when one lands on those spaces.

Player wheel and deal, each trying to force the others into bankruptcy, thus winning the game.

(It’s really a damn tragedy that Monopoly -- which began life as a socialist teaching tool called The Landlord Game -- has become a cultural touchstone for sociopathic success instead of a dire warning for community disaster.)

Now imagine Monopoly played under these conditions:

Of the maximum number of eight players at the start of the game, two only get $100, two only get $500, two get the full $1,500, one gets $2,000, and one gets $5,800.

The two wealthiest players never go to jail, never pay any penalties.

The players with the least money pay double.

The two wealthiest players get their $200 every time they pass Go.

The other players only get $150…or $100…or just $20.

The two wealthiest players can borrow as much as they like, any time they like, and pay back at their leisure with only minimum interest.

The other players can’t borrow enough to meet their needs, and what they do borrow, they need to pay back on a rigid schedule at usurous rates.

The two wealthiest players can purchase properties and houses and hotels whenever they like.

The other players are either limited to what they can buy or denied the chance all together.

It would be bad enough if the unequal benefits were handed out purely at random, but in order to more perfectly model real life, this version of Monopoly would require the owner of the game not only get the most money but be the banker as well, that their best friend takes the #2 position, and that lesser acquaintances fill in the bottom six slots on the roster.

And to make it even more realistic, imagine that the top two players are allowed to keep their winnings and properties from the previous game every time a new game was started.

Now, it is possible for a player starting with only $100 to come out on top and win the game through a combination of shrewd business strategy and uncommonly good luck --

-- but that ain’t the way the smart money bets.

At a certain point, no matter how brilliant one may be regarding financial strategy or computing mathematical odds, the only “winners” will be those pre-ordained to win by the owner of the game.

Every successful person is successful for a combination many different reasons, but unless one admits pure blind luck random chance is one of those reasons, one is lying.

Case in point: My personal history.

Random factor #1: I was born as a male into a white middle class family in the American South in the early 1950s. For most of my life, I had advantages millions of others -- black, white, and female -- were denied.

Random factor #2: Because my father changed jobs a lot, we moved frequently, averaging out one move a year, usually to a different town or at the very least a different school district. As a result, I grew up with no lifelong friends or neighbors or schoolmates.

Random factor #3: Because we were always moving into new schools, I gravitated towards science fiction fandom. It gave me a group of friends and pen-pals who were never further away than my mailbox, and a sense of permanence lacking in real life.

Random factor #4: Because I was involved in fandom, and because I had a creative bent (and because my father once harbored ambitions himself of being a writer -- throw that in as random factor #4b -- and thus could provide me with books and magazines on writing), I started writing science fiction / fantasy / horror stories and reviews / articles / letters of comment to fanzines.

Random factor #5: I was drafted at age 19, and thus missed an opportunity to go to college straight out of high school.

Random factor #6: I met and married my wife while in the Army, and we started a family. This gave me an incentive to stay in for the full 6 year enlistment, as well as an incentive to find employment in my desired field as soon as possible once I was discharged.

Random factor #7: Though the GI Bill got me into USC’s film school, that started in October of 1978 and I was discharged in February of 1978. We came to Los Angeles to find a place to live and hopefully for me, a mail room or driver job in the film or TV business so I could make a little money and get my feet wet in the industry before starting film school.

Random factor #8: After visiting nearly 100 other studios and production companies (no kidding!) in search of a mail room or driver job, I worked my way down to Filmation Studios. By chance I was there during what was called hiatus season (i.e., the lag time between the end of production on the previous season’s shows and start of the next) and Filmation’s live action producer / director Arthur Nadel Jr. was twiddling his thumbs in his office, bored out of his mind, so when the receptionist asked if he wanted to see the guy looking for a job, he said sure, send him back, anything to kill an afternoon.

Arthur took a liking to me. I told him about writing but not selling short stories for sci-fi magazines (see random factor #4 above). Arthur asked if he could see some, and to make a long story short, when October rolled around I was making too much money as a staff writer at Filmation to go to film school that year (see random factor #6), so I decided to put it off until 1979.

Which became 1980…1981…1982…

Random factor #9: Filmation downsized and turned me loose in early 1980; I found a staff position at Ruby-Spears, and there met Steve Gerber and several other people whom I’d work with repeatedly in the ensuing years, becoming dear friends with many of them.

Random factor #10: For various reasons, Steve and I left Ruby-Spears. Steve was hired to story edit Sunbow’s G.I. Joe series.

Now here’s an important point: I was not one of the first round picks for staff positions at Sunbow.

Indeed, I was told even freelancing there would likely be a long shot.

However, Steve knew I’d served in the Army (see random factor #5) and, realizing the stories they were getting lacked a certain sense of verisimilitude, asked if I would look them over and give him some feedback. I did so gratis because we were friends (see random factor #9).

From that feedback, Steve recommended to Sunbow they hire me as a staff writer / technical advisor. That quickly morphed into an assistant story editor position, and from there I went on to story edit the second season of G.I. Joe.

I’m going to break off my narrative there; clearly there were a lot of other random factors that impacted me through the next 35 years of my life.

My point is, had any one of random factors #1 through #10 been changed, the subsequent events of my life and their random factors would have changed as well.

If I hadn’t been drafted and sent to Korea (random factor #5), it’s extremely unlikely I would have ever met Soon-ok (random factor #6).

And while one can argue these random factors carried combinations of good and bad circumstances (and sometimes what seemed bad -- being drafted and sent to Korea, f’r instance -- turned out to be really, really good), had I not been steered into the direction of sci-fi fandom (random factor #2), and / or if my father hadn’t encouraged me (random factor #5), I wouldn’t be posting this, you wouldn’t be reading it.

Would I have been a better / happier / more successful person under different circumstances?

Good question -- and I’d like to think no (at least to the better and happier parts).

But I would certainly have been different.

To return to my central point: I got breaks other people didn’t get because of my random factors. Assuming all the random factors averaged out with good nullifying bad and vice versa, I can feel a certain sense of accomplishment in my career.

But there are others who had far more advantages due to their random factors, and others who faced far more obstacles due to their random factors.

Looking back at our Monopoly game, while there’s nothing wrong with a truly random advantage, there’s also something profoundly unfair about ginning the game to stack the odds in your favor.

#writing #creativity #privilege #success

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comicteaparty · 5 years

Text

November 26th-December 2nd, 2018 CTP Archive

The archive for the Comic Tea Party week long chat that occurred from November 26th, 2018 to December 2nd, 2018. The chat focused on Super Galaxy Knights Deluxe R by snuffysam.

Featured Comment:

Chat:

COMIC TEA PARTY- WEEK LONG BOOK CLUB START!

Hello and welcome everyone to Comic Tea Party’s Week Long Book Club~! This week we’ll be focusing on Super Galaxy Knights Deluxe R by snuffysam~! (http://sgkdr.thecomicseries.com/comics/)

You are free to read and comment about the comic all week at your own pace, so stop on by whenever it suits your schedule! Remember, though, that while we allow constructive criticism, our focus is to have fun and appreciate the comic. Below you will find four questions to get you started on the discussion. However, a new question will be posted and pinned everyday (between 12:01AM and 6AM PST), so keep checking back for more! You have until December 2nd to tell us all your wonderful thoughts! With that established, let’s get going on the reading and the chatting!

QUESTION 1. What has been your favorite scene in the comic so far? What specifically did you like about it?

QUESTION 2. At the moment, who is your favorite character? What about that character earns them this favor?

QUESTION 3. Since the comic utilizes a wide variety of comedy, what have been some of your favorite jokes to appear in the comic so far? What about the joke worked for you? Name as many as you would like for this question.

QUESTION 4. Do you believe that Mizuki will eventually discover her own magical talent, or will she be stuck stealing others’ abilities forever? What might her magical talent be? Also, regardless of your answer, how might this issue change Mizuki?

DA-POW! (Yayao Yuying Studio)

Okay, so I haven't actually gotten to reading this comic yet-- just started like... right now. But OMG. XDDDDDD I'm loving how they're breaking the fourth wall and poking fun at stuff. My favorite scene so far is this one:

And of course the follow up:

I really like the guard so far, though I have absolutely no idea if he'll ever appear again seeing as I'm still in the first chapter. ;v;

The fact that he makes fourth wall breaking remarks is what sort of sold me. If he doesn't appear again, hopefully someone else along with the main character will make better jokes that will sell me good.

BUT OMG!!! This one really caught me off guard:

XDDDDDDD

The comedy here is really up my alley man. ;W;

O v O

Just found my new favorite character.

Mr Holy Tree:

AH! Btw, I love how the siblings who are governers of the Sikode plain's clothes sort of match up with the work hours they took. <333

Just finished Chapter 3. 8^U!!!! If I have more time tonight, Imma try to read a few more chapters yo! But this comic is really snatching me with dem scripts.

snuffysam

glad you like it so far!

DA-POW! (Yayao Yuying Studio)

Of course! >W< Thank you for creating this silly hidden gem!!! <33333

ShaRose49

I love that it’s not perfect, and this is not an insult. My favourite character so far is the guy who sliced that squid in half he seems like a boss

It’s also amazing to see how far the author has come in their art, I looked at the original pages a bit.

snuffysam

Cahe Is A Good Boy

Kabocha

Cahe is good, but I do wonder about the magic of how quickly they had their baby... Maybe it's one of their magic love powers.

snuffysam

also yeah, I've changed a lot over these past three-ish years lol

there's been exactly one hint as to why that happened, and it's in probably the most obscure place imaginable

the game where you can play as everyone's favorite archery ace

ShaRose49

I obviously didn’t get to any baby yet whups

snuffysam

oh no that's not for a while

ShaRose49

Snuffy is pretty good at lighting and shading too. I still have plenty to learn about that

snuffysam

the baby doesn't happen for another like 350 pages from where you are

ShaRose49

Oh hi snuffy!

My bad lol

snuffysam

hi lol

i'm in blue this week

ShaRose49

Hey how do you know where I am?

snuffysam

oh i just assumed given your comments

ShaRose49

Yeah I know

Oh okay

I’m in the middle of chapter 2 I think

snuffysam

yup so i was right lol

Kabocha

Daaaaaang. That's some good accuracy. I'm lucky if I can remember my own name some days

snuffysam

i did have to look up the page numbers lol. it was just a matter of guessing that sharose hadn't started chapter 3 yet

ShaRose49

Hahaha

snuffysam

anyway yeah i wrote a shader script for blender to do the lighting properly. took me a couple years to figure it out but i got there eventually lol

ShaRose49

Oh my word I can barely use blender yet

So it IS CGI! I couldn’t tell for sure I thought maybe it was supposed to mimic CG

snuffysam

a lot of stuff is drawn in with photoshop. and i think i just recently passed the point where more than half the comic is CG as opposed to being drawn.

but ye

ShaRose49

Wow. I don’t think I’ll be doing my comics with CG but I do wanna be an animator one day. Good for you!

snuffysam

thanks!

ShaRose49

No prob. I just got to more doodley pages

snuffysam

yeah haven't updated chapters 3 onward yet

ShaRose49

Oh okay. I can relate lol. I’m glad to see this up here, you’re a brave artist

snuffysam

thanks ha ha

ShaRose49

They are so innocent ohmiword

“I thought for sure 1+1=2!”

snuffysam

mizuki may not have gotten an A in all her math classes, but she at least knows that much

RebelVampire

QUESTION 5. Who exactly are/were the Galaxy Knights? How did they come to be, and what goals did they have? Do you think we’ll see more former or current members? Also, what are your theories about their involvement in the story given they’re in the title?

RebelVampire

1) it's still the end fight of book 1. which i wont go into too much detail cause i dont want to spoil for those just starting up. but i still love the entire choreography of that fight. seeing mizuki solve everything in the most unconvenentional ways possible is so immensely fulfilling. 2) cahe's mustache. i cant wait till it gets fed up with cahe, rips itself off his face, and joins mizuki to fight the good fight. (but also probably electric zebra because he believes in the power of love) 3) there's too many jokes to name. theres a lot of great ones. although one of my favorite more recent ones has actually been a callback to the fact that cahe never names his village. and lo and behold his village is revealed to be unnamed village. i was slain by the joke. 4) i think eventually mizuki will discover her own thing. but at the same time i dont think thatll stop her from using others' abilities cause i think she turns what others view as a weakness into a strength. so basically mizuki will just have more ammo for her mind magic arsenal. 5) i mean the obvious answer is that they were protectors of ppl and that mizuki is gonna join them. but idk. i def think were gonna see more former and current members though given the title. and mizuki will thrash them all with the power of stealing their abilities and stubbornness. in the end, there is only one super galaxy knight deluxe and that person is mizuki. lets not ask what the r stands for.

shim

I haven’t even finished chapter one yet but I love this guard guy.

snuffysam

lodu is best boy. i'm actually planning on having him show up again for real in the next chapter. and by book 3 he may even have enough screentime to jump up to major character status.

snuffysam

also rebel you really have a knack for asking questions that will be straight-up answered within a month or two.

like in the weekly chat back in may one of the questions was "what is the plot of book 2"

not saying which of the questions you asked will be answered in a month but just overall, it's an impressive skill lol

snuffysam

and yeah chapter 8 is my favorite arc in hindsight. i'm not sure i'll actually manage to out-do the 1v1 fight choreography there for a while.

Kabocha

I have to admit, I'm really enjoying the current fight scene. The banter's top notch. >:3 Dramatic text meets no-nonsense. Now give Mizuki that damn generator so she can win the talent show!

snuffysam

talent show > crimebusting

Kabocha

he can get it back after the crimes are solved... But the bigger crime really is that the King--- wait the King gets to make the laws doesn't he

Kabocha

....wait, what I just said doesn't make sense. Oh well. He can get it back after the talent show is done -- it's a crime Mizuki can't win it!

snuffysam

the two of them should bring criminals to the talent show and bust them on-stage

RebelVampire

mizuki should get back to the talent show if only because i bet the old man is still on stage trying to tell horrible jokes

Kabocha

get that man a google assistant... or sub him to r/dadjokes

https://www.blog.google/products/assistant/ok-google-tell-me-a-joke/ I'm sorry, I can't get over how bad some of these jokes are.

snuffysam

it's been well over 12 hours, and it's the middle of the night now. do you really think he's still on stage?!

(the answer is yes)

Kabocha

Of course! He's waiting for Mizuki

RebelVampire

of course he is, he is an angel. and everyone is too polite to tell him to get off the stage and go home

snuffysam

well they're waiting for mizuki too

snuffysam

interested to hear what the caught-up folks' reactions to today's page will be...

shim

don't say that, now I want to throw all my homework out the window and catch up all the way

snuffysam

lmao

as much as i want to tell you to go for it... put your homework first lol

shim

I am definitely planning to catch up once I have homework and finals out of the way. Unfortunately…that will also be after this week's bookclub will be over and we'll be discussing someone else's comic by then.

snuffysam

aww oh well

shim

I hope to read more before, then, though, so I can discuss some things. I just won't be fully caught up, hehe.

snuffysam

and of course, no reason you can't keep reading after your finals are done and just comment in the comic itself

(though this is a much better place for people to get theories out there)

shim

-procrastinates from homework-

Okay this restaurant owner

"Everyone does horrible things sometimes. So really, I was completely justified."

I love this so much

THEY JUST COVER EACH OTHER'S FACES THIS IS GREAT

snuffysam

Protection from indecency!

RebelVampire

QUESTION 6. Why do you think Mizuki drifted apart from Cahe and Pejiba so much between Books 1 & 2? Why did the couple not invite Mizuki to their own wedding? Will Cahe and Pejiba make a comeback, or are they settled down into domesticity forever?

RebelVampire

im gonna be optimistic and say her letter just got lost in the mail

because cahe asked someone terrible to deliver it

maybe the anecestral tree

and cahe walked away before the ancestral tree could remind him that hes rooted to the ground

or the ancestral tree was pissed he wasnt invited

Kabocha

I think Cahe and Pejiba were just so in love they forgot! Or ultimately, they just didn't like Mizuki so much. Granted, it's been ... a very short duration

RebelVampire

maybe its gonna be an it was all a dream thing somehow

mizuki has been having trouble sleeping

snuffysam

there is a misunderstanding involved, but it’s less about “why didn’t they invite mizuki” and more “why would they invite zebra over mizuki”

RebelVampire

thats easy: zebra is the best

Kabocha

Zebra also is much better at music, so

ShaRose49

I don’t mean to be rude but I wish Mizuki would wear more clothes

shim

Actually, me too…

ShaRose49

And IMO the boobs are too exaggerated. But I like how she eats the food lol

snuffysam

y'all are on chapters 3-4?

shim

Yeah I'm on 3

ShaRose49

I guess she actually doesn’t know what a shirt is? Whoa there are cool animations!! And the lady’s power is cool. @snuffysam I’m not sure hang on I’ll check

shim

No wait I'm on 4, oops.

ShaRose49

I’m on chapter 4

snuffysam

she buttons the jacket in chapter 5, and her proportions get fixed when i switch to 3d

ShaRose49

Yeah she’s less exaggerated in 3D for sure, and I’m glad she buttons up the shirt

snuffysam

the outfit in chapter 4 is a reference to how in the original short film i made that this comic is based off, her actor decided to wear the jacket with no shirt (which is not something i, like, wanted or expected)

ShaRose49

Huh okay

snuffysam

but i changed it because i didn't think it made sense to draw her like that

ShaRose49

How did you get gifs in the comic?

snuffysam

(though the in-universe explanation is that it just got windier)

i use photoshop to animate, if that's what you're asking

ShaRose49

Oh awesome, I didn’t know photoshop could animate

shim

Oh cool! I've dabbled with PS animations before.

snuffysam

most things are frame by frame, with motion & opacity (like the lights fading in and out, cahe flying around the room) being done with photoshop's tweening

shim

Ahhh.

Ow hot sword.

ShaRose49

You are a better animator than me so far lol

Or you have more experience

I love how they’re like “Oh no prob!” After the whole fight

I think that whole fight was a test to see if the two main characters were fit to be the new Galaxy knights or something

And that’s a nice sunset drawing in chapter 4. I love sunsets

shim

"What, are you going to throw your sword at people now?" HAHA!

ShaRose49

So so,done just got shot in the face

Someone

Yikes that!s a mean lady

snuffysam

and a magic mean lady at that

ShaRose49

Yeah I can’t believe he’s not dead

snuffysam

captains are very resilient

RebelVampire

QUESTION 7. Do you think we’ll see Gynu and Suzigu in Book 2? If so, do you think they have one of the power gems Mizuki needs? Will they give it to her? Alternatively, what other places or characters might reappear do you think, and how will things have changed?

mathtans

"Maybe we DO want them to get the wrong idea."

Using this as an excuse to finally get caught up with SGK. Should have a remark or two by weekend.

snuffysam

looking forward to it!

RebelVampire

(the archive for last week's chat on The Angel with Black Wings is now up! @Mharz https://comicteaparty.com/post/180645388940/november-19th-25th-2018-ctp-archive)

QUESTION 8. Why do you think King Zebugu closed the magic portal? Is he up to something evil, or did he actually turn over a new leaf and is trying to do something helpful that he just won’t explain? Will he succeed or will Mizuki defeat him do you think?

snuffysam

king zebugu turns over new leaves all the time

birch, pine, oak

it's the highlight of the month

shim

what about old leaves?

-is still in chapter five and has no idea who this king is-

snuffysam

if my leaf of the month club sent me an old leaf, i'd probably cancel my membership tbh

unless it was like... historical in some way

shim

haha

RebelVampire

this is too plausible not to be true

7) I think we'll see Gynu and Suzigu probably. Although I feel Mizuki might be at a disadvantage since they already lost to her. so now they know what he game is or something like that. and i dont think theyre gonna just give her the gem given the whole food fiasco and i kind of get this sense they want to test her? as for other characters, i hope we get to see our favorite immortal captain again. and electric zebra. electric zebra needs to come and sing about the power of love and all that. or at least be on tour and give mizuki a signed cd. 8) i feel hes not doing the evil, but i feel whatever the king is up to probably is dumb at least. maybe this is an elaborate prank from the wizard guy who is mad about having to put all the food back. he gave the king the wrong prophecy and now the king is trying to undoom the world. at the end mizuki will win, but winning might not matter. i think shell lose the talent competition tho. shell make it back in time but get disqualified over something trivial. like misspelling something on the contest form.

snuffysam

something worth pointing out about both those answers - in book 1, nobody knew what zebugu was up to except for the people in the castle (and the ancestral tree, cause of the omniscience). people like gynu and suzigu wouldn't have agreed with zebugu if they had known what he was doing. in book 2, zebugu has roped other people into his plan by giving them a gem to protect. zaxaty knew what her brother did, and so did the ancestral tree (being specifically instructed by the king to guard the gem and not tell mizuki the reason why). even taci ramino knew that the portal had been turned off, and zebugu didn't even give him a gem! so if gynu and suzigu do have a gem, what did king zebugu say to them to get them on board? and was he truthful to them, or is this all an elaborate ruse?

RebelVampire

the fact hes roped other ppl into it makes me believe that it is for the greater good. but on the otherhand blackmail and bribery are also options. maybe zebugu has an embarrassing photo of gynu from their last xmas party.

snuffysam

*life day

RebelVampire

QUESTION 9. Do you think Mizuki will be able to win against Sword Warrior? Do you think Sword Warrior could be a potential ally, or is he just a one-off villain? What are Sword Warriors actual goals?

snuffysam

keeping in mind that sword warrior now has twice as many swords as before

RebelVampire

i feel like thats a hint

he must want the worlds largest sword collection

snuffysam

that was a hint as to whether or not mizuki can win

but sure

also, interesting how you seemed to describe "ally" and "one-off villain" as the only two choices...

RebelVampire

mostly cause i dont want the questions to be immensely long

snuffysam

lol

that's fair

RebelVampire

i believe in mizuki to be able to win. shes just gotta punch the swords hard enough to shatter them. and then sword warrior will have to change his name to just warrior

snuffysam

she already shattered a sword though. was sword warrior just "warrior" for that two-page period? are names all but an illusion giving us some sense of identity? is that identity earned?

RebelVampire

yes to all that, with a semi yes on the third one. you cant call yourself sword warrior without a sword. thats false advertising otherwise

mathtans

Okay, so, obviously the baby isn't theirs, unless gestational periods are really short or there was time travel hijinks. My money is on them looking after Zebra's kid, in exchange for him performing at the wedding. That's why they got him on short notice, for free. Though adoption's also possible.

snuffysam

I mean y’all can’t just skip over short gestational periods and time travel hijinks in a world where trees talk and sailors just forget that they’re mortal

But that’s a solid possibility

mathtans

I mean, there's magic, and then there's magic!

Clever plot twist in the most recent pages. I did not see that coming. I actually thought Taci had lied about getting one of the gems because he was embarrassed that the Swordsman had already stolen it.

Also, magic can be used to change dialogue into cursive, or something.

mathtans

I'll get to the questions later.

mathtans

-Scene-wise is tough, I don't even recall what I said last time. ^_^; The fight against the king was pretty epic though. Character-wise, I like Pejiba. Just something about her I guess, helpful, first major magic user, that kind of thing.

-Like Rebel, I'm not sure about grabbing any particular comedic moments. The stuff with the tree is pretty good though. Even more recently with the 'I am a jerk but that's not the reason' sort of thing. Also, used firewood...? O.o

-I dunno, stealing the powers of others can be a power itself, see Rogue from X-Men. Plus I think Mizuki'd be worried that once she finds her own, she'll lose the ability to copy everyone else.

-The Galaxy Knights are actually a bunch of mathematicians, that's why the King's advisor is one (if memory serves). Seriously though, I like how they were just randomly brought up recently. It's kind of like they're their own story running in parallel somewhere else. (Which isn't too far off, Gynu and them were in a guest comic series elsewhere, I think.)

Actually, it's impressive the number of guest comics and literary tie-ins that exist.

-Since only, like, a week passed between Books, idk. Maybe Cahe was given bad information, or their messages were cut off. Though the whole wedding seems like a rush job because honeymoon in an all female hotel what now? I feel like they'll still have cameos.

-Hoping we'll see Zaxaty again. That blush had to mean something. (Also, back to comedy, "Get out of my house", hah.)

-The King's probably doing this as some sort of test, like to see if Mizuki can be a new governor or something. After all, he seemed okay with how she spared him. Alternatively, the Galaxy Knights wanted him to do this, so that they could test for new recruits.

-Related to that answer is the possible answer to snuffy asking about what Gynu might have been told if he has a gem. All in a day's work. (Though a photo would be amusing.)

-Sword Warrior will be useful in terms of giving Mizuki many more magic ideas to steal. (Also, since he can make his own swords, I don't think Mizuki will win that way. Maybe she can get him to zip off the edge of a building.) I think Taci just has a thing for vigilantes.

snuffysam

math, are you completely caught up now? including wednesday and friday's pages?

mathtans

Yis.

I'm trying not to be too spoilery though. (I may be failing at that.)

snuffysam

na it's all good lol

also i don't remember gynu being in a guest comic series somewhere else? so if someone did that without letting me know

whoops

actually i guess there were the crossover things on comicfury. but that was ages ago

if that's what you're referring to

mathtans

Yeah, the crossover things. I'd read those for the original Discord chat.

I haven't kept up on the latest literary stuff from StArt Faire though.

snuffysam

to respond to some of your things specifically - - the advisor is a statistician, which... i guess is a mathematician? usually when i think "mathematician" i think of people who write proofs for really difficult problems and not, like, nate silver. also, the wizard is a magic researcher, so he does a lot of math for his work. i guess the active galaxy knights are pretty math-y, except for that third as-of-yet-unnamed active galaxy knight that's shown up. -yeah the wedding was very much a rush job. zuzu was already a member of the family by the time cahe and pejiba were on their honeymoon. -we'll see zaxaty again sooner than you expect. and yeah, there's something there. blushes don't lie. (fun fact: the fight against zaxaty was originally going to be the first time in the comic it's implied that mizuki is into women. when drawing book 1 chapter 6, i changed my mind and worked a love triangle plot into the story. that's the main reason why mizuki never says anything to pejiba about being interested - because it's not in the script. that's also part of the reason why zaxaty's island is "lesbos 2: sappho harder". the timeline for making the comic gay got moved way up, so zaxaty had to be a bit over the top) -won't say much else here, but i like that people's impressions seem to be that zebugu's plot might be morally dubious, but maybe not exactly evil. we'll see how that pans out. -if he had the chance, taci would absolutely start dating sword warrior. he's totally into the tall, slender, vigilante crime-fighter type. (which may lead to some butting of heads down the line...)(edited)

mathtans

That's very cool... both about having Zaxaty in mind so early on, and for managing to foreshadow Mizuki's interests. Also, I don't know that Zaxaty was necessarily over the top (I didn't see a harem), though she does seem to like putting her interests (frustrations?) into her artwork.

As to Zebugu's plot not being evil, it allows for a scene where Mizuki goes off on him and him having some sort of retort. Even if it is to defer to the wizard or something. (Hey, maybe the wizard wanted all magic off so that no one would know that he was on sabbatical.)

snuffysam

you don't see a harem NOW because zaxaty went into seclusion.

it would be nice if zebugu gave his wizard a vacation, considering that he was kind of a jerk to the guy in the first book

mathtans

Ahh, right, I vaguely recall that. Missed the free love vibes what with all the tripping out.

To be fair, he was kind of a jerk to everyone.

snuffysam

true. maybe this is part of his new leaf that he's turning over?

mathtans

I wonder who convinced him to collect new leaves. His other sister, Pokemon? ^.^

snuffysam

he's a big animal crossing fan

he thinks he's stealing people's furniture

Kabocha

I guess his wizard better tell him he's moving to another town soon, so Zebugu can try to give him leaves and present boxes to get him to stay.

snuffysam

wizards love to scam people out of presents like that

Kabocha

... T_T Same with half of my animal crossing townies

shim

ahhhh animal crossing

RebelVampire

QUESTION 10. What are you most looking forward to in the comic? Also, do you have any final thoughts to share overall?

snuffysam

one thing i'm really looking forward to as the author is creating book 3. i think it'll answer a lot of your questions about the series, and there will be a bunch of character interactions that I know people will want to see

DA-POW! (Yayao Yuying Studio)

What I'm looking forward to is seeing the creator update all the pages into the 3d model style! <333 Although, I gotta say I really do enjoy seeing the hand drawn pages too. ;V; I'm still behind in reading, but hopefully when I have time, Imma try to get through more pages. But what I've seen, I've liked and enjoyed immensely!

But can I just say, I love how crazy and silly everything has been so far? XDDD Thanks to this discussion, I found this gem and ended up sharing it with a friend of mine. And they loved the golden comedy too! (Not to mention they're favorite scene was the tree saying they were a jerk as well. O v Obbb)

And I'd also like to commend the fact that the creator has been able to power through and draw so much content (not to mention reworking those pages into new ones. OMG!) OAO!!! As an artist myself, I know how much work it is to get to the number of pages I am now. Thank you so much for signing up for the discussion (because if you hadn't-- I probably would have never discovered yer work) and hope you continue to update the awesome sauce of a story Super Galaxy Knights Deluxe is! <333333(edited)

mathtans

More hints of Galaxy Knights is always fun. Wonder if they're all human, given there's a tree as a character.

snuffysam

@DA-POW! (Yayao Yuying Studio) glad you and your friend liked the comic! I hope you both continue reading after the week ends! and yeah, getting this far has taken a bit of time. I've spent over 1000 hours total on the art aspect alone!

@mathtans i originally planned on one of the galaxy knights being a giant cyclops (in a future book), but i ended up writing him out.

mathtans

I could see lack of depth perception being a problem.

The big twist is probably that Cahe's kid is a Galaxy Knight. Explains everything.

snuffysam

...i'm trying to remember if zuzu actually does grow up to be a galaxy knight or not...

"marries a killer cyborg" is definitely in there for one of the zuzus, but i'm not sure about being a galaxy knight

RebelVampire

im looking forward to finding out if that old man really will just continue on with the talent show until mizuki comes back. and then ironically winning because ppl decided they liked his talent of talking for billions of hours

RebelVampire

COMIC TEA PARTY- WEEK LONG BOOK CLUB END!

Thank you everyone so much for reading and chatting about Super Galaxy Knights Deluxe R this week! Please also give a special thank you to snuffysam for volunteering the comic and creating it! If you liked Super Galaxy Knights Deluxe R, make sure to continue to support it via some of the links below!

Read and Comment: http://sgkdr.thecomicseries.com/comics/

The Super Galaxy Knights Deluxe R Twitter: https://twitter.com/Galaxy_Knights

#ctparchive #comics #webcomics #indie comics #comic chat #comic discussion #book club #bookclub #webcomic book club #webcomic bookclub #comic tea party #ctp #super galaxy knights deluxe r #snuffysam

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inventedworld · 6 years

Text

WANTING REALISM IS NOT REALISTIC

A prominent client recently asked me to deliver a series of splashy videos. “I want them to be realistic,” he said. “I don’t want them to look fancy or have all sorts artsy camera angles. I want them to look real.”

I thought about my response before I opened my mouth. “Let’s figure out your message. I presume you’re looking to convey a few key points instead of trying to drown your audience in minutiae, right?”

“Of course,” he said. “But I don’t want these videos to look like something we staged. I want it to look like the real thing, our thing.”

This is a tough spot for a production team. Looking like the real thing and showing the actual real thing are not the same. The reason something looks real is because a production team has gone to pains to present visuals and words and other narrative elements that suggest realism to the viewer. To the uninitiated, this sounds like an effort to present a documentary or some sort of cinema vérité.

It’s not. Forms of semi-journalistic storytelling behave differently than other commissioned work. Usually requiring hundreds, sometimes thousands of hours of footage captured over the course of many long days, often with producers embedded amidst the action while events are taking place, documentary realism captures stories by careful editorial selection of events that creators determine to be important. For everything else—that is, for projects that must invent a simulacrum of reality—storytelling usually requires artificial yet carefully artful depictions of elements to reveal details that might otherwise elude a non-expert.

In other words, creators lie in order to tell something truthful.

Considering perilous trends in contemporary media, the great populist pugilist Bugs Bunny comes to mind: “Dems fightin’ woids!” When a client asks for reality, I must gently explain that real life doesn’t always reveal the meaning he or she wants. The elán vital of a story sometimes only shines for non-experts when burnished by some window dressing. Sure, we can keep colored lights and fancy special effects out of the production, but for fickle audiences who may not be willing to wait for the message beyond more than a few seconds, a successful production needs some narrative front loading, some sizzle, and some focus.

Alas, the customer is always right, which sometimes turns into a delicate process of self- discovery. When this particular client insisted that he and his team were resolute and determined to do it their way, that we should deliver our products with a minimum of edits, camera movements, lighting or other schematic designs, I calmly promised that we could do just what they asked, despite my recommendations.

Some lessons are learned the hard way. When they saw the footage we captured, cut together with our best efforts to breathe life into the project, they were dismayed. “Maybe we could hire an actor to appear besides just a narrator’s voice,” one of the principals said. “Maybe we should explain more about what’s going on in the script,” said another. “I don’t think outsiders will have any idea what we’re doing here. It just doesn’t feel very interesting. It doesn’t feel realistic.”

Exactly.

Shortly thereafter, we agreed to draw up a new production plan. They sat back in their chairs. I asked them what they wanted to communicate, and then I offered to present them some new ideas about how we might get those ideas across. I promised to try and preserve as much work as we cold from the first effort, but I also suggested a significantly redesigned sense of style and pacing and presentation for the overall project. They nervously agreed, and we rolled up our sleeves.

When the new videos were all done, everyone said they loved finally seeing their messages shine, bright and lifelike. The revised work communicated something essential about their message. When someone feels like they’re making themselves understood to an outsider, they usually feel like they’ve achieved something that makes the effort worthwhile. After all, the purpose of communications in the first place is to reach an audience with meaningful messages.

@michaelstarobin

facebook.com/1auglobalmedia

#Realism #reality #communications

0 notes

johnchiarello · 7 years

Text

Wednesday

SHOOTER- MEDIA-NEWS-

John 8:32

And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

The other day- Sunday afternoon- I did a few roll out videos- on them I discussed media manipulation- I even talked about how they have shaped the narrative on gun shootings in our country. Sure enough that night- we had one of the most horrific mass shootings in the nations history- as of now- 59 dead in the Vegas strip shooting. I did a few comments/videos since then- I decided to link them all to one post- here it is. I might add some controversial video links that have come up since the shooting- if you watch my videos you will see how I do not buy into all the various conspiracy theories going around- but these other links are making the rounds- and there is a general distrust of the media and official government reports- on many things. In my opinion they deserve this distrust- and that's what fuels the conspiracy theorists- I’ll also link whatever videos I make today- 10-4-17-

[Past posts- verses below]

Walk the dog- [notes below] https://youtu.be/zXTtFQXZgdE

http://ccoutreach87.com/10-4-17-walk-the-dog/

.Free Fallin’

https://youtu.be/QA_RtMKkeD8

.CNN- Top story- MORON- MORON- MORON-

.Great job guys!

.abc- nbc- cbs- 613 [3- 6- 10 are the local stations] I made a correction below- on the 613- the real number some scholars debate is 616- not 613- I posted the past teaching below-

.Did we just crack the code? Watch n see

.And yes- some teaching- Docetism and the Gnostics

Trump golden showers video- Breaking News- no more Sun!- https://youtu.be/RRWeF3IevLw

http://ccoutreach87.com/10-4-17-trump-golden-showers-video-no-more-sun/

.Digital disaster?

.Fox news not much better

.ISIS

.Trump and the hammer?

.FBI- Comey

.Russian blackmail?

.The infamous Russian hotel room

.CNN and porn?

.Trump tweet was right

.Acts 24 preview

.What happened in AD 79?

.Media establishment

.Fake News

Breaking news [NBC] Tillerson calls Trump Moron- Democrats thinks Guam might flip over [On the video I said Puerto Rico- it was Guam] https://youtu.be/BpVfg5WGDPU

http://wp.me/a4V5qQ-JR

.See for yourself? https://youtu.be/v7XXVLKWd3Q

.Why does the media believe Guam [or Puerto Rico] will flip over? [Dem said it- media covered for him]

https://youtu.be/_Q76bxxyKu0 Shooter update- I made this video on 10-2-17- and the day before the shooting I actually talked about issues like this- https://ccoutreach87.com/2017/10/02/sunday/ So I linked them here - I didn’t make a post for the Shooter videos and wanted them on a post.

https://youtu.be/G4CCQi62RBY Shooter 2- media disgrace

https://ccoutreach87.com/10-3-17-shooter-2-media-disgrace/

Last video [Walk the dog]- I did talk about Logos- Word- and did a little teaching- yes- on the antichrist! Did I crack the code? You’ll have to watch to find out.

Ok- obviously I simply did a day of discussing media- I talked about how NBC had breaking news- yes- they reported that Tillerson called Trump a MORON. This pressed Trump’s button- and they knew it!

CNN ran a story ‘Trump to have special meeting over tensions between him and Tillerson’. Then they had 3 stories- in a row- where the phrase MORON was in the title. Like college kids playing a game.

The short teaching on the video spoke about the importance of the Word- Logos [Jesus].

I guess it’s fitting- our nation- and the world- have some real problems-

The Vegas shooting- yes- the recovery from the hurricanes- and other very important things that REAL NEWS is not covering- the humanitarian crisis in Yemen- where many are dying- not because of a hurricane- or a deranged shooter-

But because of real shooters- in a proxy war- in which the U.S. is arming one of the sides [Saudi Arabia].

Yes- many more than 59 are killed- and many more than all the recent hurricanes combined.

Yet- we actually play a roll in these deaths- and if the media gave 1/ 100th of the coverage they give to MORON stories- we might actually be able to save lives- yes- of women and kids.

So the word- whether print- or spoken- can have a positive impact on the world.

But sad to say- we are getting the wrong words-

As Christians- and yes- independent bloggers- we can play a role as well.

It’s sad that many in our society simply do not trust the mainstream media- or the official government reports.

Many have turned to others- to try and find REAL WORDS- words that are simply speaking truth.

Not manipulation- not personal attacks against the president- any president.

The public know the difference between true investigative journalism- and what we see today.

There was a time when journalism- on both sides of the aisle- could be trusted- but no more.

So- that's it for today-

Unless there is some other breaking world news event-

Like maybe Trump’s wife called him a moron too- then sure enough-

That headline will take precedence over the kids who are dying in Yemen- or Africa- or in many other places of the world.

Because the shooting of 59 people in Vegas- as tragic as that is- that same loss of life happens every single day in worn torn areas of our world- yet never makes it to the radar screen of the so called REAL news.

For those who are interested in real news- here’s just one link

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yemeni_Crisis_(2011%E2%80%93present)

NEWS LINKS- [Just a few links to some of the stuff I mention on the videos]

https://www.infowars.com/breaking-sheriff-says-las-vegas-shooter-could-have-been-radicalized/

https://bigleaguepolitics.com/hillary-clinton-not-give-fbi-13-devices-containing-emails/

http://www.breitbart.com/news/the-latest-girlfriends-sisters-say-shooter-sent-her-abroad/

http://midnightinthedesert.com/hotel-guest-next-door-las-vegas-shooter-saw-multiple-gunmen-video/

http://yournewswire.com/las-vegas-video-multiple-shootes/

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/04/us/las-vegas-shooting.html

http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/news-life/twitter-is-drowning-in-a-goldenshower/news-story/17f297c7c86510cf986011201ab88d85

https://www.thecut.com/2017/01/the-sheer-perfection-of-donald-trumps-golden-shower.html

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/tillerson-s-fury-trump-required-intervention-pence-n806451

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/barack-obama-hillary-clinton-concede-election-night-donald-trump-presidential-latest-a7443606.html

PAST POSTS- I’ll try and add some stuff- on these roll out’s I make the videos and add comments thru out the day- they are not intended to do in depth teaching but I know I drained you guys with all the MORON stuff- I figured I’ll add something of value-

https://youtu.be/Da51D5bw4qc Remember the crumbs

https://ccoutreach87.files.wordpress.com/2017/01/12-29-16-remember-the-crumbs-matt-16-rev-21-2nd-sam-5.zip

ON VIDEO-

.Christian rapper leaves the faith

.Apologetics

.Atheism

.Jewish Prophets preceded Greek philosophers

.Logos

.Historical Jesus

.Higher critics

.Marcion

.Gnostics

.Sophia

.Demiurge

.1st canon

.Saul’s crippled grandson

.This Rock

.Natural ethnicity opposes the kingdom

.Tel Aviv - Jerusalem? Does it matter?

.Which John wrote it?

.Kingdom come

.How to maximize your potential in the kingdom

NEW-

Once again- I talked about a lot of stuff on today’s video.

I’ll try and hit the high points.

In the famous confession of Peter we see Jesus- and all who confess him- as the ‘stones’ that the church- the spiritual temple of God- is built upon-

Matthew 16:16 And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Matthew 16:17 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.

Matthew 16:18 And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

Peter- in his own letter refers to us as ‘living stones’-

1 Peter 2:5

Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

Now- John in his vision on the Island of Patmos saw the same thing-

Revelation 21:14 And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

That the foundation of the church- the city coming down from God out of heaven- also had the names of the apostles ‘built into it’.

The church is made up of all those who believe- and have received this revelation- that Jesus is indeed the Son of God.

In the city John saw- there were angels at the gates- the gates are described as ‘pearls’ as well-

Revelation 21:21 And the twelve gates were twelve pearls: every several gate was of one pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass.

This is where we get the term ‘pearly gates’.

Paul teaches that the church is built ‘upon’ the foundation of the apostles and prophets- Jesus being the chief cornerstone-

20 And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;

21 In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord:

Eph.

Most of us realize Paul is talking about the church- not an actual temple with cement and rocks.

But many view the same image that John sees- as an actual city/building ‘coming down from God’-

Revelation 21:2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

Now- we are indeed the actual dwelling place of God- but when John sees his vision- he is seeing what Paul himself wrote about.

Get it?

Jesus taught us that no man can really know who he is- unless God revealed it to him-

John 6:44

No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

Paul teaches the same-

1 Corinthians 12:3

Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.

So- we today- the temple that God dwells in- are the city coming down from God out of heaven-

The Bride-

Revelation 21:2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

Revelation 21:9

And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb's wife.

2 Corinthians 11:2

For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

The spiritual stones that make up the city are ‘children of revelation’- meaning children who have received this understanding from God.

John sees a ‘light’ in this city- not the sun or moon mind you.

But a light that has shined for all who believe-

The Lamb himself-

Revelation 21:23 And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.

Yes- the bible says the word is a light unto our path-

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. Ps. 119

Jesus is that light-

John 8:12

Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.

John 9:5

As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.

We walk in the light- as he is in the light-

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. 1st Jn. 1:7

Those who walk in sin- they can’t enter into the city-

14 Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.

15 For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.

Rev. 22

Repentance and faith are required to get in- to be a part of this city of God-

Revelation 21:24 And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it.

The Jerusalem which is below- earthly- is in bondage-

25 For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. Gal. 4

meaning those who stayed in the law covenant- would not benefit from this new reality in God.

But the ‘Jerusalem which is above’ the church- coming down from God out of heaven is free-

26 But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. Gal. 4

Yes- John saw some great things in his revelation on the Island of Patmos.

These are the same things we see in the teaching of Jesus- and Paul.

Jesus is the head of the church- he is the cornerstone- and he is the foundation-

Ephesians 5:23

For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.

Colossians 1:18

And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.

But we read that the church is built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets-

That means their gift- in preaching Christ- is declaring him as the foundation they were laying-

1 Corinthians 3:11 [Full Chapter]

For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

Yes- he is Lord of all-

10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;

11 And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Phil. 2

PAST TEACHING-

[parts]

VERSES-

Isaiah 60:1 Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee.

Isaiah 60:2 For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.

Isaiah 60:3 And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.

Isaiah 60:4 Lift up thine eyes round about, and see: all they gather themselves together, they come to thee: thy sons shall come from far, and thy daughters shall be nursed at thy side.

Isaiah 60:5 Then thou shalt see, and flow together, and thine heart shall fear, and be enlarged; because the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee, the forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee.

Isaiah 60:6 The multitude of camels shall cover thee, the dromedaries of Midian and Ephah; all they from Sheba shall come: they shall bring gold and incense; and they shall shew forth the praises of the LORD.

Isaiah 60:7 All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered together unto thee, the rams of Nebaioth shall minister unto thee: they shall come up with acceptance on mine altar, and I will glorify the house of my glory.

Isaiah 60:8 Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows?

Isaiah 60:9 Surely the isles shall wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish first, to bring thy sons from far, their silver and their gold with them, unto the name of the LORD thy God, and to the Holy One of Israel, because he hath glorified thee.

Isaiah 60:10 And the sons of strangers shall build up thy walls, and their kings shall minister unto thee: for in my wrath I smote thee, but in my favour have I had mercy on thee.

Isaiah 60:11 Therefore thy gates shall be open continually; they shall not be shut day nor night; that men may bring unto thee the forces of the Gentiles, and that their kings may be brought.

Isaiah 60:12 For the nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish; yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted.

Isaiah 60:13 The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee, the fir tree, the pine tree, and the box together, to beautify the place of my sanctuary; and I will make the place of my feet glorious.

Isaiah 60:14 The sons also of them that afflicted thee shall come bending unto thee; and all they that despised thee shall bow themselves down at the soles of thy feet; and they shall call thee; The city of the LORD, The Zion of the Holy One of Israel.

Isaiah 60:15 Whereas thou has been forsaken and hated, so that no man went through thee, I will make thee an eternal excellency, a joy of many generations.

Isaiah 60:16 Thou shalt also suck the milk of the Gentiles, and shalt suck the breast of kings: and thou shalt know that I the LORD am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob.

Isaiah 60:17 For brass I will bring gold, and for iron I will bring silver, and for wood brass, and for stones iron: I will also make thy officers peace, and thine exactors righteousness.

Isaiah 60:18 Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders; but thou shalt call thy walls Salvation, and thy gates Praise.

Isaiah 60:19 The sun shall be no more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but the LORD shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory.

Isaiah 60:20 Thy sun shall no more go down; neither shall thy moon withdraw itself: for the LORD shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended.

Isaiah 60:21 Thy people also shall be all righteous: they shall inherit the land for ever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified.

Isaiah 60:22 A little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation: I the LORD will hasten it in his time.

Matthew 5:14 [Full Chapter]

Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.

James 2King James Version (KJV)

My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons.

2 For if there come unto your assembly a man with a gold ring, in goodly apparel, and there come in also a poor man in vile raiment;

3 And ye have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and say unto him, Sit thou here in a good place; and say to the poor, Stand thou there, or sit here under my footstool:

4 Are ye not then partial in yourselves, and are become judges of evil thoughts?

James 3:17

But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.

In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations

[parts]

1886- DIVINE LOGOS

Okay- just read Isaiah 65- one chapter left.

These past few weeks I have been going thru the last 15 or so chapters of the book.

There are lots of great themes to do- maybe I’ll take a pic of the verses I wrote down and hung up here in my study.

I also wanted to engage in a conversation on the Divine Logos.

Huh?

Well yeah- maybe a little scholarly sounding- but my goal has been to ‘upgrade’ our level of teaching.

When I say ‘our’ I’m talking generally about the present day church in America- and the obsession with ‘the now’.

That is ‘what do I get out of this- monetarily?’

Yeah- that’s the rave of the day.

So- every so often I do my best to walk the other road- to give the other side of the coin.

So- a few weeks ago I was at my daughter’s house- we usually have the whole family over for the b-days and stuff.

And my kids like playing those word games.

So they bought some game- don’t remember the whole name- but part of the name had LOGOS in it.

I just quipped ‘you do know what that means’?

Now- I kid around so much- sometimes they have a hard time believing me- like ‘sure- you’re making it up’.

No- for real!

Logos means WORD.

It’s the Greek language- which the New Testament was written in- and it simply means WORD.

My 2nd oldest said ‘I should have known that’.

My oldest daughter- Bethany- just turned 27- Becky is a couple of years younger.

They both have degrees from A&M University here in Texas- top notch school for sure.

So that’s why Becky ‘should have known it’.

Anyway- this word is a favorite in the writings of the apostle John.

In both the gospel and his 3 little letters [1st, 2nd and 3rd John] he uses this term to describe Jesus.

‘In the beginning was THE WORD and the word was with God…’

That’s the Greek word- Logos.

It should be noted that the early Greek philosophers had a concept much like this.

All the way back to the time of Plato- Socrates and Aristotle [around 500 years before Christ] the Greeks were speaking about a universal principle- some type of ‘unifying theory’ that would be the basis of all knowledge.

They spoke about this principle as THE LOGOS.

So- some of the critics of Christianity did use this as a criticism of the church- they say ‘see- the disciples were just making stuff up- borrowing themes that were already there’.

Do they have a point?

A point- maybe- but that’s all.

In the letters of John we also read him refuting a cult of the day- called Gnosticism [Gnosis is the Greek word for knowledge. They believed that they had secret knowledge that the others did not have. A modern twist on this is sometimes referred to as Revelation Knowledge- it’s a form of this ‘special knowledge’ idea that existed in the early days of the church.]

An off shoot of this group were called the Docetists.

These guys were pseudo Christians- they held to some form of Christian belief- but denied the true faith of the church.

They taught that Jesus was ‘a phantom spirit’ that is- they denied what we refer to as the incarnation.

That God became man in the person of Christ.

John was one of the youngest disciples- and he also outlived the others.

His writings are probably the oldest in the N.T. [Revelation]

So- he was around long enough to refute the growing philosophical challenges to the church.

So- putting all this together- when John said Jesus was the Divine Logos- he was not ‘stealing’ that idea from the earlier Greek philosophers who were indeed looking for a Logos principle.

No- he was saying ‘look- we- the followers of Christ- have found the thing you were looking for all the time- he is the Wisdom- the Logos of God’.

See?

Okay- I haven’t read John in a long time- nor have I ever studied Greek.

But- I do have a Greek lexicon [a book that gives you the Greek word before it was translated into English].

And back ‘in the day’ when we were young believers- seeking to learn the faith- these were the basic tools of the trade.

But today- well- the tools are motivation- success stuff.

Learning how to invest- make a buck [or 2] - how to ‘create your world’.

Yeah- we really don’t have time for all that silly stuff like the Logos.

After all- it’s all Greek to me.

Yeah- I know.

www.corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com

Note- Do me a favor, those who read/like the posts- re-post them on other sites as well as the site you read them on. Thanks- John. Don’t forget to scroll down on the timeline [Facebook] - I have posted lots.

[parts]

(1343) One of the other themes that spoke to me from Galatians was the idea that Israel and the world were under a ‘schoolmaster phase’ until the fullness of times arrived. This phase was the whole economy of Old Testament law and rule. I felt like the Lord was saying that many of us have been led, and actually have arrived, at places and purposes the hard way; i.e. - the ‘tutor’ phase. That is God allowed the process of trial and error and discipline to work in us until we arrived at the purpose and goal. Isaiah says that ‘I have chosen you in the furnace of affliction’ yes, this way of ‘arriving’ is much more painful, but it still gets you there. Now the entire discipline phase for the world was the time period before the Cross. The law and the Old Covenant were the only way to ‘get there’ so to speak. If people wanted to have a relationship with God, they were either born Jews, or converted to Judaism. Today of course we have access thru the Cross. One of the earliest ‘cults’ of Christianity was a sect call ‘Gnosticism’ these early adherents mixed Greek dualism [material world bad, spirit world good type of a thing] in with Christianity, they taught that the God of the Old Testament was the evil God who created the material world, and that thru Jesus we can come to know the true God of the New Testament, the God who gives us salvation by delivering us from the material world. Though it seems like there are verses in the New Testament that teach that the ‘world’ is evil and that God wants to ‘deliver us from this present evil world’ [Galatians] yet in these contexts ‘the world’ is simply speaking of the lost system of man and the ‘way of the world’. In Christian theology matter is not inherently evil. The Apostle John would deal with the Gnostics in his first epistle by saying ‘whoever denies that Jesus has come in the flesh is not of God- they are anti-Christ’. Because the Gnostics believed all matter to be evil they would reject the humanity of Jesus, John was targeting them in his letter. As I mentioned before the controversy over the Trinity was settled at the council of Nicaea [a.d.325] but the church still battled with the nature of Jesus. Nicaea said ‘God is one essence/substance and 3 persons’. But this did not fully deal with the nature of Jesus, various ideas rose up [Monarchianism, Dynamic Monarchianism] that challenged the nature of Christ. In 451 a.d. the church settled on the language that ‘Jesus is one person with 2 substances/essences [natures]’, though to some this looks like a contradiction to the earlier language of Nicaea, this council in 451 [Chalcedon] was simply saying Jesus was ‘fully God and fully man’ so anyway we were all under the discipline phase until the ‘fullness of times’. I am believing God to get us to the destination with less ‘tutoring’ if you will, less trial and error. Sure, we will never fully get to the point of not making a few mistakes and stumbling along the way, but as we get older hopefully we will ‘stumble less’.

Correction- I ‘joked’ about the media being the antichrist- the number some scholars think is actually 616- I said on the video- 613- so- for the media- I guess you got lucky today- see below-

[parts]

Gematria- a common use at the time John wrote- which gives each letter of the Hebrew alphabet a numerical value.

Nero Caesar[ 1st century emperor] equals 666.

STUFF HE DID;

1-Made people worship him- as God [2Thessalonians 2:3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;

2Thessalonians 2:4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.]

2-Castrated a boy- named Sporus- then married him.

3-Put tar on Christians- set them on fire and used them as human torches.

Nero ruled as emperor and persecuted the early church- his rule led up to the destruction of the Jewish temple in a.d. 70.

The predictions Jesus gave to his apostles about the destruction of Jerusalem and a great time of wrath [or tribulation] can indeed be seen as having happened during the 1st century.

Many people believed Nero to be the fulfillment of the anti-Christ that the New Testament speaks of.

John the apostle wrote that ‘anti-Christ’ were those who denied Jesus- at the time of his writing [1st century].

John- who wrote Revelation- said ‘the mind that has wisdom’ will figure out who he is talking about.

John sent this letter to actual Christians living in the 1st century.

You would expect that the readers of the letter would have some clue to who he was talking about.

As we go thru Revelation- my intent is not to cover [and debate] all the various views on all the verses in this book.

I simply show you this view [which I think is about the best one out there] Because we live in a day where many of the ‘end times’ teachings seemed to be consumed with a future leader [a famous preacher just prophesied ‘the anti-Christ is here’ the other day] who is still to come-

And that this will set off a cascade of events [most see these events as prophesied in Revelation- and sort of see it as a play book].

So- it is quite possible that the anti-Christ was Nero-

And yes- we live in a wicked world- and sure- we might/will continue to see men ‘rise’ and do wicked things.

But when Paul and John wrote- in the first century- warning the believers about a wicked ruler who would do bad things-

I think it would have been a disservice if he were speaking about a leader- who would not show up- until at least 2 thousand years later.

BELOW- I pasted some various views here- just to give you a flavor of the different ways Christians view some of these things.

At the end I also added some of the passages I talk about on the video.

Here’s a quote from St. Augustine- an early Christian leader- referring to the verse I pasted from 2nd Thessalonians-

"Some think that the Apostle Paul referred to the Roman empire, and that he was unwilling to use language more explicit, lest he should incur the calumnious charge of wishing ill to the empire which it was hoped would be eternal; so that in saying, 'For the mystery of iniquity doth already work,' he alluded to Nero, whose deeds already seemed to be as the deeds of Antichrist. And hence some suppose that he shall rise again and be Antichrist. Others, again, suppose that he is not even dead, but that he was concealed that he might be supposed to have been killed, and that he now lives in concealment in the vigor of that same age which he had reached when he was believed to have perished, and will live until he is revealed in his own time and restored to his kingdom. But I wonder that men can be so audacious in their conjectures" (De Civitate Dei, XX.19.3).

I pasted this from another site-

In both ancient Greek and Hebrew, letters also represented numerals (as they do in Latin), their values assigned according to the order of the alphabet, alpha and aelph, for example, having the numerical value of 1. By adding these values, words could be represented as the sum of their numbers. This literation of numbers and numeration of letters was known as isopsephism by the Greeks and gematria by the Jews (which, in cabalistic practice, has been used to interpret Hebrew scripture). If the Greek spelling of Nero Caesar (Neron Kaisar) is transliterated into Hebrew (nrwn qsr), the numerical equivalent is 666.

What is curious, however, is not so much that 666 can be decoded to signify Nero but that the name of the emperor is encoded in this particular number, especially since it could have been represented more readily in other ways. If "Nero" is retained in Greek, for example, the numeration would be 955 or, if "Neron," 1005; in Hebrew, then 256 or 306, respectively. It only is when the words are transliterated into Hebrew that the numeration adds up to 666 (nrwn qsr, 50 + 200 + 6 + 50 + 100 + 60 + 200). Even so, this is an alternate spelling, a letter in "Neron" being transliterated (nrwn instead of nrw) but not in "Caesar" (qsr instead of qysr), although these forms do appear in both the Talmud and a contemporary Aramaic scroll from Qumran. It is intriguing, therefore, that 666 encodes the name of Nero in Hebrew when Revelation, itself, was written in Greek.

One should appreciate, too, that there were no numbers in Greek or Hebrew and that the "the number of the beast" was not presented as a figure but as letters of the alphabet or written in full. That is to say, it was not expressed as "666" (indeed, discrete Arabic numerals would not be invented for another five hundred years) but as the numerical values of the three letters representing 600, 60, and 6.

For Watt, the significance of 666 is that its expression in Latin is the sequential Roman numerals DCLXVI, which parallels but is the antithesis of the "Alpha and Omega" that John uses to characterize both Christ (22:13) and God (1:8, 21:6). As the Deity represents the beginning and end, so the Antichrist is a reversal of the first and last, D (500) preceding I (1). To phrase this another way, 666 (or rather DCLXVI) signifies the Antichrist because that number signifies Nero, and Nero—who was a matricide, proclaimed his divinity on Egyptian coins as the "Savior and Benefactor of the World," and the first emperor to persecute the Christians—signifies the Antichrist. Indeed, the procurator of Judea (c. AD 60) refers to Nero as "my lord" (kyrios), the same title applied to Jesus (Acts 25:26).

If the Latin (rather than the Greek) spelling "Nero Caesar" (above) is transliterated into Hebrew (nrw qsr), the final "n" in Neron being omitted (and its corresponding value of 50), the name computes as 616, which is the number indicated in the oldest surviving copy of the New Testament (the fragment illustrated below). If, instead, "Neron Caesar" is correct, it may be that the Latin was transcribed incorrectly, perhaps because the copyist realized that this transliteration did not equate to 666 and so omitted the letter, which changed the sum to 616.

Still, each digit of 666 is one less than seven, the perfect number, and such mathematical play may have tended to establish 666, rather than 616. Regardless of the number, Nero is the only name that can account for both 666 and 616, which is the most compelling argument that he, and not some other emperor, such as Caligula or Domitian, was intended. Too, for the number to have any significance for a reader of the first century AD, it would have to refer to a contemporary historical figure.

Writing a century later, Irenaeus is the first church father to comment on the number of the beast, although he apparently was ignorant of what the number actually encoded. Nor is he correct in assuming that John's vision occurred "almost in our day, towards the end of Domitian's reign" (Adversus Haereses, V.30.3; a tradition repeated by Eusebius in his Ecclesiastical History, III.18.3, and by the church fathers), which is to say sometime before AD 96, when the emperor was assassinated and just a few years before John himself died of old age. Rather, his presumed banishment to Patmos (where Revelation was written) seems to have occurred almost thirty years earlier, toward the end of Nero's reign and before the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70, which John otherwise would have mentioned.

For Irenaeus, 666 was correct. The Antichrist "sums up in his own person all the commixture of wickedness which took place previous to the deluge....and also sums up every error of devised idols since the flood" (V.29.2). The flood came in the six hundredth year of Noah and the golden image set up by Nebuchadnezzar (who Shadrach, Meshach, and Bednego refused to worship) was sixty cubits high and six cubits wide (Daniel 3:1ff). This being the case and "this number being found in all the most approved and ancient copies....I do not know how it is that some have erred following the ordinary mode of speech, and have vitiated the middle number [L] in the name, deducting the amount of fifty from it, so that instead of six decads they will have it that there is but one" (V.30.1).

Nero, too, was the sixth emperor, counting from Julius Caesar (as did Suetonius, for example, and Josephus, cf. Antiquities of the Jews, XVIII.2.2, where Tiberius is identified as the third). "And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth. And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come" (Revelation 17:9-10). Of these emperors, it is Nero who had been "wounded to death" but "his deadly wound was healed" and he still lived (13:3)—Nero redivivus.

St. Jerome-"As for the Antichrist, there is no question but what he is going to fight against the holy covenant, and that when he first makes war against the king of Egypt, he shall straightway be frightened off by the assistance of the Romans. But these events were typically prefigured under Antiochus Epiphanes, so that this abominable king who persecuted God's people foreshadows the Antichrist, who is to persecute the people of Christ. And so there are many of our viewpoint who think that Domitius Nero was the Antichrist because of his outstanding savagery and depravity." (St. Jerome - Commentary on Daniel; notes on Daniel 11:27-30, -- BAKER BOOK HOUSE Grand Rapids 6, Michigan 1958)

Some will suggest that the book of Revelation was written only for those living at the time, and that 666 most probably applies to Cæsar Nero, who ruled Rome from 54 to 68 A.D., rather than someone from latter centuries. This point of view, which suggests Revelation had an immediate application to the first century, is known as preterism. So, just how is Nero linked to 666?

Preterists take Nero's name, Nero Cæsar and transliterates the Latin into Hebrew. An "n" is added to conform with the Hebrew spelling and usage of Nero's name, in a manner similar to the Greek adding an "s" (i.e., Jeremias, Jonas, etc.). Other names in scripture where the adding of an "n" may be seen are Abaddon, Apollyon, and Armageddon. Once Hebraicized, the Latin Nero Caesar becomes "nrwn qsr," which when using the numeric equivalent of the letters, then adds up to 666 as follows:

Nun

Resh

200

Waw

Nun

Qoph

100

Samech

Resh

200

An example of this spelling has been recently discovered in one of the Dead Sea scrolls. If you use the same process, but without the added "n" the result is 616. Interestingly, some early manuscripts have 616 rather than 666, but even scholars such as Irenæus [A.D. 120-202] attribute the 616 to only a copyist error (Against Heresies: V, xxx) "this number [666] being found in all the most approved and ancient copies" [of the Apocalypse] and asserts that "men who saw John face to face bearing their testimony" [to it - 666].

VERSES-

1 John 2:16

For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of theFather, but is of the world.

In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations

Revelation 13:1-18 - And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. (Read More...) 2 John 1:7 - For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. 2 Thessalonians 2:3-12 - Let no man deceive you by any means: for [that day shall not come], except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; (Read More...) 1 John 2:22 - Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son. Mark 13:22 - For false Christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall shew signs and wonders, to seduce, if [it were] possible, even the elect. 1 John 4:3 - And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that [spirit] of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world. 1 John 2:18 - Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time. Matthew 24:24 - For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if [it were] possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Mark 13:6 - For many shall come in my name, saying, I am [Christ]; and shall deceive many. 1 John 4:1-3 - Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. (Read More...) Revelation 19:20 - And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. Revelation 13:16-17 - And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: (Read More...) Matthew 24:5 - For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. 2 Thessalonians 2:4 - Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. Revelation 13:1 - And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.

MY SITES

www.corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com [Main site]

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https://ccoutreach87.com/

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Note- Please do me a favor, those who read/like the posts- re-post them on other sites as well as the site you read them on- Thanks- John.#

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professionalpracticetendai-blog · 7 years

Text

picture may be worth 1,000 words, but how do you take the 100,000 or so of them in a book and consolidate them into a single image? Book covers help readers instantly decide if a a book is meant for them. After all, a single image is a lot quicker to digest than 150+ pages of text.

So how do you make sure that a cover captures the soul of a book and intrigues the right reader to pick it off the shelf (whether physical or digital)? Start with genre. This article explores how to design book covers for different genres of literature, so when your book is judged by its cover, it’ll come up a winner.

Fantasy & sci fi covers —

Sci fi and fantasy books are all about imagining scenarios and worlds that are impossible or improbable in our current state of technology, society or environment. Think long distance space travel, dragon-regulation politics, or even man-made atmospheres. There are several cover techniques to use in order to make these worlds seem more real:

Merge the real with the unreal

Sci fi and fantasy novels explore real world, human themes in far-fetched worlds. It should come as no surprise, therefore, that many of their book covers visually mimic this binary theme. To do this, they combine a representational style of illustration—grounding the design—and pair it with surprising or unusual elements, be in monsters or technology.

Show the drama

Another well-used technique in sci fi and fantasy book cover design is the depiction of dramatic actions, expressions and imagery. This should come as no surprise. Sci fi and fantasy books are often dramatic and action packed! Notice how Fall to Earth features a man abandoned, falling through space, or Rise of the First World shows the heroes in the middle of a battle. Very dramatic!

Create a mood

Lastly, we mustn’t forget the way in which sci fi and fantasy book covers attempt to create a world with looming tension. There is sometimes a sense of serenity, as if to depict the calm before the storm. A perfect example of this is 2001 A Space Odyssey which feels quiet and calm in it’s expansive use of negative space, yet somehow dark and frightening in it’s flat grey and bright red color palette. Alternatively, science fiction and fantasy book covers can create a sense of unease with surreal imagery—like cover for Swarm—or adventure—like Auf Dem Vulkan.

What to keep in mind

The subject matter and tone of your book are the most important things to keep in mind when designing a cover for sci fi or fantasy, but there are a couple of other design trends that help readers know the genre:

A large number of modern sci fi and fantasy novels use all caps titles. More classic, old-world looking serif fonts are in fantasy and modern, clean sans serif fonts in science fiction.

Blue and amber are the two most used colors. Blue creates the feeling of the calm before the storm, and amber lighting connotes something other worldly.

Smoke, clouds and fire are popular mood-setting textures.

Romance covers —

The huge stereotype in romance cover design is two half-naked figures passionately staring at each other. Love it or hate it, this style of book design is vastly popular. It lets the reader know that these books offer something that’s hard to find in this world: love and passion. But this isn’t the only way to do a cover for a romance novel. The key to a good romance novel cover is to show that the book is, well, romantic, and to hint at what makes your book unique. Here are a few ideas:

Go traditional, with details.

Romance is about the connection between two people, so a great way to get that concept across is to show two people connecting. You can do this with the classic, irresistible hot-and-sweaty design style of showing bodies intertwined, or you can be more subtle about it. Many romance novels don’t show the faces in their cover image, because it allows readers to more easily get lost in the story, perhaps imagining themselves as the hero or heroine. A romance novel can be particularly evocative when you only show parts of a body, be it lips or feet. It focuses on sensual body parts makes the reader wonder what is happening that isn’t pictured. They key to making these covers unique? Bring in details that hint at characters, like on the Kings of Midnight cover, where the feet clearly belong to two very different types of people.

Have some solo fun

Some romance novels are more about one individual’s journey—whether it’s erotic or romantic. Often times these books picture the protagonist on the cover, with subtle cues that tell us what the book is about. The Vampire’s Throne, for example, puts the scantly clad heroine in a provocative stance, showing off a lot of leg. In the background, a man’s mouth hangs open with a drip of blood. It’s not an actual picture of sex, but damn if it doesn’t tell you that that’s what the book is about (at least in part).

Use objects as foreplay

In recent years, romance novels have taken to building the tension and appeal by using provocative objects as surrogates for bodies. Take for example Fifty Shades of Grey, which depicts a necktie. The choice of image clues the reader to the sexual practices of the main characters. It’s a great example of how to be provocative without showing any skin!

What to keep in mind

Romance novels are about the connection between two people. There are multiple ways of showing this. You should use what’s best for your individual book. A few things to think about:

More traditional romantic romance novels tend to prefer soft colors: lilacs, pinks and golds. More erotic romance novels go bold with deep, bright colors, often paired with dark images.

There is a lot of freedom to play with font: use it as a device to tell us what kind of romance novel you’re writing. If it’s classic or historical, perhaps choose a script-based font. Modern and edgy? Choose an equally modern and edgy font.

Font choice further reels the reader into the serious world of romance.

Thriller & mystery covers —

Thrillers and mysteries get our hearts pumping and our brains working as we try to figure out whodunnit. A good book cover in these genres will do the same. Readers want to know just enough to draw them into the story, but don’t want the spoilers revealed (bonus points if you can hint at them so when the reader finishes the book they have an “oh yeah!” moment about your cover). Here are a couple of our favorite techniques:

Use perspective

Thrillers and mysteries have layers, and with each chapter you get deeper and deeper into it. Many thriller and mystery covers use images with deep perspective, leading the character (and the reader) down that path into the unknown. This technique is a favorite of renowned thriller author, John Grisham, and is used on many of his covers.

Make your title the focus

Mystery and thriller covers are unique in that a large percentage of them make the title the graphical focus. This is because the titles are often so good at setting the moods and building the tension—any visual image could spoil a twist. When the title is the focus, the text generally has some interesting graphical element to tie it to the surroundings or themes of the book. For example, The Girl on the Train cover shows a blurred background and some of the letters are offset, creating a discombobulating feeling, which could be caused by the movement of the aforementioned train, or something else…

Make it unclear what we’re looking at

When something is a mystery it’s unclear. That’s pretty much the definition. To bring this theme into your book cover, you can show us objects or use images that are an obscured or placed out of context, leaving the reader to wonder what they are and why they’re there. Take the Gone Girl cover: what are those white lines? Are they hairs of a girl fleeing? Hairs left at a crime scene? Or something else? Alternatively, you can use a silhouetted, blurred or partial view of a character. This design trick leaves us wondering if this is the good guy or the bad guy, and what exactly they’re up to.

What to keep in mind

The main goal of a thriller or mystery book cover is to build up the tension. You can do that in a number of ways. A few parting thoughts:

A large number of mystery and thrillers use red as an accent color, probably because of its association with blood and heightened emotions. Red screams danger!

Many mystery and thriller covers are high-contrast, meaning they use deep blacks and white whites (or bright colors) to heighten the tension.

Font choices are predominantly angular serif fonts. The harsh edges of this type of typography again helps create a stark, edgy feeling in the design. When serifs or softer fonts are used, it’s usually done so for a particular purpose.

Literary fiction novel covers —

Literary fiction is a broad genre, but generally means any novel which is felt to have literary merit. Think fictional stories which could potentially be true in our reality. These books are often written to offer insight into the world we live in. At first, it sounds tough to design a cover which draws a reader into… the world they already live in? Ironically, because they’re rooted in the real world literary fiction novels tend to have some of the most stylized, least realistic covers of all the genres.

Trying to find patterns among literary fiction covers is nearly impossible; their artwork is as diverse as the books themselves. We see photography—both landscape and portrait. We see abstract and representational illustration. We see bold, bright books with just the title. We see images that represent the action and characters in the books, and those that use images as metaphor.

Here are a couple of our favorites, in very diverse styles:

What to keep in mind

If you’re writing literary fiction, make sure your cover art fits the mood and style of your book.

Epilogue —

Next time a book cover “grabs” you, think about the book cover design techniques in this article. Also don’t forget, we’ve showcased only several of the more popular styles. There are many more! Don’t be afraid to experiment or identify different techniques used in other cover examples. Also if you’re doing a series, remember that designs need to be adaptable/flexible to look cohesive throughout the series. Think along the lines of aligning book spines, title placement and puzzle piecing. For more on series check out the full article here!

Ready to get the cover for your book? Launch a cover design contest now!

—

This article was written with input from workerbee.

https://99designs.co.uk/blog/uncategorized-en-gb/book-cover-design-by-genre/

NICHES IN GRAPHIC DESIGN: WHY AND HOW TO CHOOSE YOURS

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Manuela Langella

graphic

organizing

2 January 2016

It is a priority to know which are Graphic Design Niches, to know which is the best way to choose.

When you come into Graphic Design world, it’s your choice, because you have passion, good taste for graphic and colors, drawing affinity.

You begin reading books, look at very talented artists, read so many good articles. Then you come to that point:

Can I reach a so high level?

Sure, you can.

But. I say yes but I’m not telling you the way it’s easy. It is not. It is a very long and difficult one, you need time to achieve some results and demonstrate your skills. It’s hard, but not impossible. You can do it.

How?

First of all, you need to choose your Niche in Graphic Design.

Then, you need to choose your Tool.

Let’s see how.

WHY YOU NEED TO CHOOSE A NICHE IN GRAPHIC DESIGN

Choosing a niche means choosing a piece of market to address your work to. As well as in Web Design, it is a good practice to choose your target customers in Graphic Design too.

You can choose which kind of works you like to execute, depending on your client. Why?

Because this way you can specialize in something and work even better when you know your target client. You will discover problems and solutions about that niche and you will be specialized to solve them.

That happens in every working environment, so in Graphic Design one too. It is no good to specialize in everything, even there.

“Specializing in everything” means doing everything bad. It’s better to concentrate on one thing, ignoring others deliberately.

“Don’t I loose clients, this way?”. Sure, but it’s the result of choosing. And as such it will bring to you target customers, I mean people interested to your products and ready to pay a specialist as you are.

HOW TO CHOOSE A NICHE IN GRAPHIC DESIGN

There are two ways to choose your niche:

doing what you do best

combine it with what you like to do

For instance, if you can draw and can use Photoshop fine, both things can be used to develop your own work and you can specialize doing just that.

I love using Illustrator and choose it to work on my niche.

WHERE YOU CAN CHOOSE A NICHE IN GRAPHIC DESIGN

It depends. You got two options:

working with clients close to you geographically

working online

If you want to work with clients you want to meet (geographically close), you have to choose an area.

Is it your town? Do you want to include close towns around?

Do you want to extend more?

Just choose which are geographical border you don’t want to overpass. Specialize on that area, and maybe you can take a larger area when you have done with the first one.

Remember: if you do this choice, your business success depends on locally economy.

So, before you can take a decision, just go around and ask people working in this area since time, to know if searching there is worth. Don’t be surprised if you receive negative answers: “It is not worth…there’s no much work…the best is changing your mind”. It often happens because people fear competition. For this reason, you could find co-workers who want to discourage you

But this is not the way we will be. Some kind of people don’t know that competition is exactly what we need to achieve success. But this is something else, maybe I will talk to you about it some day.

If you want to work online instead, things become different. In this case you will be able to work with customers from all over the world.

You can work choosing through many freelance sites, where you can find work. Here just someone:

https://www.freelancer.com/job/

https://www.peopleperhour.com/freelance-jobs

http://www.guru.com/d/jobs/

https://www.elance.com/q/find-work

Upwork.com

http://99designs.com/

https://www.behance.net/joblist

https://studio.envato.com/

Here you will be able to find so many job offers for graphic, design and illustration. You can choose an ad and propose your quote. Don’t forget to link to your portfolio.

Another valid way to work it with Passive Income. You are free to create resources you like and to sell them more and more. Places where you can do that are for instance Graphic River and Creative Market.

In both cases you can choose your reference market. A good example is the one from Flauntmydesign, who presents us a various schema:

WHICH NICHE TO CHOOSE GRAPHIC DESIGN

Now you know why you have to choose your niche, where to choose it and which tools to use. You miss just one step: which one to choose.

I show you here the great list of Millo:

Find your design niche in designing web sites for small businesses

Designing web sites that can be edited by non-programmer/coder clients

Designing extremely original business cards

Designing very fancy application icons

Designing mobile web sites

Find your niche in designing facebook pages

Designing facebook tabs

Designing twitter backgrounds

Designing web sites that turn a ‘boring’ business into an exciting one

Designing movie posters

Find your niche in designing concert posters

Designing microsites

Designing portfolio sites

Designing landing pages

Working exclusively with Dentists

Working exclusively with Doctors

Working exclusively with Small Businesses

Working exclusively with Large Corporations

Working exclusively with Grocery Stores

Working exclusively with Hair Salons

Working exclusively with Animal Shelters

Working exclusively with Restaurants

Find your design niche in working exclusively with Clothing companies

Working exclusively with Photographers

Working exclusively with other designers

Working exclusively with Online businesses

Working exclusively with Brick and Mortar Businesses

Targeting companies that have no well-established brand

Targeting companies that have a rich brand history

Targeting companies that are non-profit

Targeting fortune 500 companies

Targeting companies that have only a few employees

Find your design niche by targeting companies that have never done business online

Focusing on selling wordpress templates

Focusing on selling HTML templates

Focusing on selling stock logos

Focusing on selling branding strategies

Focusing on selling style guides

Focusing on selling CSS stylesheets

Specializing in HTML5 web sites

Specializing in Flash web sites

Specializing in Javascript applications

Specializing in Jquery-rich sites

Specializing in high-traffic design

Specializing in usability design

Specializing in logo design

Specializing in print design

Specializing in business card design

Specializing in internet marketing design

Specializing in web banner ads

Specializing in branding & identity design

Specializing in product design

Find your design niche by specializing in transportation design

Specializing in billboard design

Specializing in flyer design

Specializing in point-of-purchase design

Specializing in package design

Specializing in vintage design

Specializing in modern techniques

Specializing in style guide design

Blogging about the business of design

Blogging about where designers can find inspiration

Blogging about your own design projects

Blogging about freelance design

Blogging about printing techniques

Blogging exclusively about print design

Blogging exclusively about web design

Blogging about logo design

Blogging about design education

Or, like me, find your design niche while blogging about design entrepreneurship

BONUS UPDATE!

After posting this article, I received an interesting email from Tomas Fransson reporting me a very interesting niches collection he made, about Web & Graphic Designers, Photographers, Illustrators, Writers and more.

His collection name is The Niche Notebook and it’s very easy to read and consult through tabs, and many links to take examples from.

Thanks a lot Tomas for your email!

https://www.manuelalangella.com/niches-in-graphic-design-why-and-how-to-choose-yours/

How to find your design niche: 70 ideas to get you startedSHARE

PRESTON D LEE

There’s a continuous debate in the design community (that I don’t plan on diving into today. If you’re interested, read here.) about whether or not a designer should specialize in one specific area or strive to be a jack-of-all trades. For designers who think it would be beneficial to find a super-specific niche, today we give you 70 ideas to get your creative juices flowing.

This list of possible design niches will jumpstart your creativity and help you decide where you want to focus your efforts as you work to build your design business.

There’s an endless number of niches not mentioned here. Please share your ideas for design niches by leaving a comment!

Sidenote: Once you finish, read how 4 freelancers built recurring revenue models that changed their business. You'll love it.

How to find your design niche: 70 ideas

Find your design niche in designing web sites for small businesses

Designing web sites that can be edited by non-programmer/coder clients

Designing extremely original business cards

Designing very fancy application icons

Designing mobile web sites

Find your niche in designing facebook pages

Designing facebook tabs

Designing twitter backgrounds

Designing web sites that turn a ‘boring’ business into an exciting one

Designing movie posters

Find your niche in designing concert posters

Designing microsites

Designing portfolio sites

Designing landing pages

Working exclusively with Dentists

Working exclusively with Doctors

Working exclusively with Small Businesses

Working exclusively with Large Corporations

Working exclusively with Grocery Stores

Working exclusively with Hair Salons

Working exclusively with Animal Shelters

Working exclusively with Restaurants

Find your design niche in working exclusively with Clothing companies

Working exclusively with Photographers

Working exclusively with other designers

Working exclusively with Online businesses

Working exclusively with Brick and Mortar Businesses

Targeting companies that have no well-established brand

Targeting companies that have a rich brand history

Targeting companies that are non-profit

Targeting fortune 500 companies

Targeting companies that have only a few employees

Find your design niche by targeting companies that have never done business online

Focusing on selling wordpress templates

Focusing on selling HTML templates

Focusing on selling stock logos

Focusing on selling branding strategies

Focusing on selling style guides

Focusing on selling CSS stylesheets

Specializing in HTML5 web sites

Specializing in Flash web sites

Specializing in Javascript applications

Specializing in Jquery-rich sites

Specializing in high-traffic design

Specializing in usability design

Specializing in logo design

Specializing in print design

Specializing in business card design

Specializing in internet marketing design

Specializing in web banner ads

Specializing in branding & identity design

Specializing in product design

Find your design niche by specializing in transportation design

Specializing in billboard design

Specializing in flyer design

Specializing in point-of-purchase design

Specializing in package design

Specializing in vintage design

Specializing in modern techniques

Specializing in style guide design

Blogging about the business of design

Blogging about where designers can find inspiration

Blogging about your own design projects

Blogging about freelance design

Blogging about printing techniques

Blogging exclusively about print design

Blogging exclusively about web design

Blogging about logo design

Blogging about design education

Or, like me, find your design niche while blogging about design entrepreneurship

http://millo.co/how-to-find-your-design-niche

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