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woohwaholic · 2 years ago

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Turbulence (Part Four)

Pairing: OT8 x fem!reader

Warnings: language

Word count: 3,619

Tag list: @layzfeelit @dream-in-progress @mingkilovur @jenseok17 @camzpetite @jjaelly @yeosxxx @8tinytings @marsattacks @eastleighsblog @jackinmyarea @stopeatread @goldnhwa @loverlele @popcatx0 @lost-midnight-flower @kiwibaekie @starillusion13 @vampcharxter @reallysparklychaos

A/N: I’m so so so sorry this took so long to post. Life has thrown me a TON of curveballs lately and I’ve been dealing with them the best I can. I have had this written for a while but wasn’t completely happy with it until a few days ago where I was able to edit it. I think I finally settled on the direction I want to take with this and I appreciate each and every one of you being so patient and supportive of me 💕 I’m sorry if there are any formatting errors. I uploaded on mobile at work since my computer decided to die on me. I’ll post links and everything when I get home and can borrow a laptop to use.

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Lights streamed in through the blinds and thin curtain you had haphazardly thrown up the night you moved in. It shone in your eyes and you grumbled, cuddling closer under the covers. Your hand searched for your phone as your head stayed under the covers. A few pats and extensions of your arms, you found it. Pulling the charger from it, it lit up.

“Shit!” You sat up in the bed, jerking Major awake in the process. He barked and whined, looking at you with such betrayal in his eyes as he settled himself back down. You heard him whine in discontent as you threw the covers off of you and rushed out of the room.

“Mina!”

“You don’t have to yell. I’m right here.” She emerged from the kitchen, dressed to the nines in simple black slacks and maroon button down. Black heels and a trench coat completed her outfit. “What do you want?” She looked you up and down. “Why aren’t you dressed?”

“I woke up late.” You grabbed the coffee cup out of her hand, and chugged the rest of it. Mina glared at you and you sent her a cheeky smile.

“We have to leave in 10. Hurry your ass up.” She rolled her eyes at you and turned her back to you, gone to refill her cup.

Back in your room, you looked at the outfit you had picked out days before. A pair of high waisted black and white plaid pants, and a long sleeved black sweater that you had modified. You had cut and re-hemmed the bottom just enough that if you lifted your arms and stretched a small sliver of skin would show, but still look tasteful. A cute black belt, combat boots, leather jacket and a wide brimmed hat finished your look.

You checked yourself over in the mirror, quickly swiping on a layer of mascara, and some lipgloss, you were ready. You had noticed on your walks around the city and research into the culture here that women usually went more natural with their makeup, so you decided to do the same. You grabbed your tote bag and checked through it, making sure you had your wallet, sunglasses, sketchbook, and, more importantly, all the paperwork you needed for your first day.

“Are you ready?” Mina yelled at you. You could hear her heels tapping impatiently on the tiled floor. You walked out into the hallway to meet her, Major lazily watching you both from the couch.

Mina looked you up and down, and smirked. “You’re going to cause a riot. I love it.” She eyed your tote bag. “Bring that face jewel thing you made for Hunter.”

You opened your mouth to say something when she cut you off. “Yeah yeah I snooped. It looks good, and will impress the head stylists. It’ll make a good first impression.”

Unsure, you went to protest again before she held her hand up to stop you. “If you don’t grab it. I will. Go.” She pointed towards your room.

You made a show of rolling your eyes at her before turning to grab it. “Yes mom.” Sarcasm dripped from your words as you grabbed the jewelry container that held the handmade piece. You stowed I’d safely in your bag.

She noises at you as she saw you stow the item away. “Good. Let’s go.” She walked to the front door, opened it, and waited for you.

“Bye puppy!” You leaned down and gave Major some love before hearing Mina huff out in annoyance. “Ignore her. You know she’s not a morning person.” You teased her, and kisses the top of Majors head. “We’ll go on another walk when I get home! Promise.” You walked out the door, Mina following suit and locking it behind you.

“The relationship you and your dog have is weird.” She led the way out of the lobby and down the street. You were happy you lived so close to the KQ building that you could just walk.

“You’re just jealous.” You fell a few steps behind her, and reached down to grab a small pile of snow.

“Don’t you even think about it!” Mina snapped, head still facing straight ahead.

You huffed, crossing your arms as you hurried your steps to catch up with her again. “How’d you know?”

She gave you an amused look. “You met WooSan.” She took a sip of her coffee.

“That’s fair.” The one interaction that you had with the two of them, and you already knew that they were always antagonizing Mina and the others. Troublemakers if there ever were. Especially Wooyoung.

“What are the rest of them like?” You were curious, after meeting those two, how the other six acted. Especially around each other.

Mina thought for a second. “Hongjoong is very stern. Atinys, their fans, call him the dad of the group. He can be very bold, and loves to take risks with his style, but he can also be very bashful and flusters kind of easily.” She smiled softly, thinking about the men who have become more than just her managees over the past year, they’ve become friends. Confidants in a way she didn’t think possible. “I’ve never met someone who was more of a workaholic than you until I met him.” She shoved her elbow into your side in a teasing gesture.

“Looks like I’ll have to work harder then.” You stuck your tongue between your teeth towards her, your breath clouding in the air in front of you. “What about Yeosang?” You remember her talking about them at one point or another, but his name was the only one that you remembered.

She thought for a second. “Yeosang is quiet. He may act clueless, but he’s very calculated. He’s always observing. Probably one of my favorites of the group.” She narrowed her eyes at you. “If you tell any of them that I’ll smother you in your sleep.”

You made a shocked fact and dramatically put your hand over your heart. “I would never.” You smiled at her. “But. I might use it as leverage later. We’ll see.”

She rolled her eyes at you but continued. “He’s very smart. As I said, he’s always watching. Yeosang is the type of person who will pick up on your smallest tell that something is wrong and will immediately know something is wrong. He remembers all the small things about you and will use that to his advantage. Him and Seonghwa are very similar in that way.”

You smiled as her eyes shone with fondness for the men she describes. “I know you’ve told me a little about Seonghwa. I remember you gushing to me over how handsome and gentlemanly he was.”

She smiled. “Oh yeah. I was smitten with that man. I’m thankful those feelings have settled. I can finally be in the same room as him without acting like an utter fool.” She laughed, and turned the corner. It took you a second before it registered you were turning and hurried up to catch up with her again.

“Tell me about him, since he’s obviously your favorite.” A teasing lilt to your voice as you linked your hands together.

She ignored the teasing. “The fans call him the mom of the group, and he really is. He looks out for the others and is very genuine with the love and concern he shows them. He’s very loving, and always takes care of them, and the staff. He’s the first to offer to grab staff a drink or food. One of the women who worked in the concept department was pregnant, and when Seonghwa found out? Oh boy. He asked everyone what the gender was and bought her toys and clothes for the baby. She was having a boy. I remember having to talk her out of naming her baby after him.” She sighed. “He remembers the smallest details about a person. You mention you love to read offhandedly? He’ll remember. Will probably try to find out who your favorite author is and gift a book to you. Just because.” She shrugged. “He’s a kind man.”

“I don’t think that crush is fully over yet.” You winked at her and laid your head on her shoulder, swinging your interlocked hands.

She shoved you off of her. “The only feelings I have towards him is one of a younger brother. Even though I’m only a few months older.”

You laughed then shivered. A gust of cold wind seeping into the jackets you both wore. “Are we almost there?”

“Yeah. A few more blocks. Promise.” She squeezed your hand. “Jongho is a man of few words, but damn he’s got the voice of an angel. That man is so talented, it’s crazy.” She shook her head. “He’s also very mature for being the maknae, and often gets confused as being the oldest. He told himself high, but also can be very impatient. He gets embarrassed almost as easily as Hongjoong does. He’s savage as hell though. He knows how to take teasing and throw it right back, with some bite.” She laughed to herself. “He also hates the quiet.” She added.

You looked at her confused. “He’s quiet, but hates the quiet?”

“Yes.”

“Okay. I’m going to need you to elaborate.”

“He’s quiet when they’re all together. But if there’s silence or a kind of lul in the conversation, he’ll start singing. Loudly. Beautifully, but loudly. I can’t hear myself think sometimes.” She chuckled at her last statement. “But I love him. I love all of them.”

You nodded, understanding what she meant. “I envy the relationships you seem to have built with them.” You looked down at your hands, playing with the rings you wore. “I hope that I can build relationships like that with KQ Fellaz. And Ateez, if you’re so determined to get me to work with them.”

Mina grabbed both your hands, noticing your figiting. “Stop that.” She knew your tells, and knew you were starting to get really anxious about your first day. “I promise, you will be okay. I’ll be with you the whole day. Edenary has the boys today, so I’m all yours.” She wrapped one of her arms around your shoulders and squeezed.

You instantly felt some tension leave you. You smiled at her gratefully when she pulled away. “Thank you.”

“What are besties for? Speaking of besties, I haven’t told you about Yungi yet.”

You cocked another eyebrow at her. “Yungi?”

“Best friends. Almost as close as Woosan. But, not as chaotic, thank god. Those two alone turn my hair gray.” She laughed. “Mingi is such a shy, sweet man. Complete opposite of how he is on stage. The duality he has is unreal. He’s like Yeosang, but genuinely is confused. He’s the biggest teddy bear. He has anxiety too.”

She sent you a small smile, and you felt a little more tension left. If an idol, who is in the press and followed around daily can do it and still be in the spotlight, you’d be fine in the background, for now. You let yourself focus on that as Mina stopped.

“Where here.” She laced her hand through yours once again. “You ready?”

You took a deep breath and nodded, but you knew she could feel how clammy your hands were. She squeezed. “You’re gonna do fine. I bet you once you meet Sumin, you’ll love him! He likes to modify clothes too.”

You perked up at that. “A kid after my own heart.” You fake swooned as Mina lead you toward the doors of KQ Entertainment.

“Hongjoong likes it too. I bet once you meet, he’ll just die. None of our stylists create or modify. They just source and get stuff commissioned.” Mina smirked, knowing exactly how Hongjoong would react once he saw your sketchbook, and knowing how loose-lipped Wooyoung was, he would’ve been bragging to Hongjoong about what he saw when he essentially broke into your room the other night while you worked.

“Deep breath, and let’s go.” Mina opened the door and pushed you into the lobby.

The lobby was very homey, and not at all what you expected. There was an entryway that made you scan a badge and would let you through a little door that opened, almost like the subway stations back in New York. Beside them sat a large white desk with the KQ Entertainment logo. A few people milled around the desk, while two ladies sat behind it. One on the phone, speaking quickly and the other looking at the computer screen in front of her.

“You’re missing the best part.” You couldn’t see her, but could tell that Mina had a mischievous smile on her face.

You sharply turned to look at her, eyes wide. You already started to feel a little overwhelmed. “What’s that?”

“The Cafe.” She smirked at you. “They have coffee.” At your grimace she rolled her eyes at you. “And tea.” That earned her a smile. “You’re weird. Everyone likes coffee.”

“I guess I’m not everyone.” You shrugged, eyes still scanning the lobby. “If this is just the lobby, I'm excited to see the rest of the building.”

Mina smiled. “We need to get you your badge first, and your meeting with the big boss. Then I can give you an official tour. I think KQ Fellaz are recording some tiktoks today too, so you might be able to meet some, if not all, of them.”

You nodded, processing everything she had just told you. “Okay.”

She grabbed your wrist and dragged you over to the counter and conversed with one of the ladies there, and was handed a packet. You didn’t pay attention, too busy gawking at all the people and the decor.

“Thank you!” You heard Mina say, and you focused in on the conversation again. She turned and looked at you, slowly walking towards the little entryway. “You didn’t listen to a word we said, did you.” It wasn’t a question. More of a statement.

A blush crept up your neck and your ears turned red. “Maybe.”

She rolled her eyes at you. “Scan this.” She handed you a basic white card, vaguely reminiscent of a credit card. “It’s exactly like the subway at home. Scan the card, go through the doors. Simple.” She did as she had instructed you to do as an example and you followed her lead.

You followed her down a hallway to the elevators, your eyes darting back and forth from all the posters on the wall. A soloist you’ve never heard of, Young Saeng, and a group of eight men you knew to be Ateez, recognizing Wooyoung and San. The other six members looked familiar, but you couldn’t figure out why. You chose to ignore that feeling as you entered the elevator behind Mina.

“The stylist department is on the third floor. Along with makeup, and basically every other visual aspect KQ talent goes through. Maddox, Ateez, and KQ Fellaz frequently rotate through, so you’ll become familiar with them all soon enough.

“The first floor is the cafe, check in area, and all basic needs. The second floor is where idols spend most of their time. Dance studios and recording rooms. I cannot begin to tell you how often I have found Hongjoong asleep at the mixing station.” She smiled fondly. “The fourth floor is upper management and such. I spend way too much time there, and prefer being on the second floor.”

The elevator stopped, and the doors slid open. “You’ll be meeting with the head stylists and some other management. I’ll be in the meeting as well. If you need grounding, just look at me.” She smiled warmly at you and gave your hand a reassuring squeeze as you followed her into the meeting room.

Eight pairs of eyes zeroed in on you both as you entered the room. Men and women dressed in full suits, or business casual, or a weird mix of both. You mentally grimaced at one of the men who wore a bright orange shirt button down under his blazer.

“Ah. You must be Y/N!” A lady said, a closed lip smile on her face. “Mina-ah has told us a lot about you.”

You shot Mina the side eye as she blushed and ducked her head in embarrassment. She detached herself from your side, slightly shoving you to one end of the table, and she joined the group of people on the other side.

You bowed before addressing them. “I am. I really do appreciate this opportunity.” You put your hands behind your back as you stood, nervously figuring with the rings you always wore. Mina noticed and sent you an encouraging head nod.

You swallowed nervously. “As Mina has probably told you, I do more than style, but design as well.” You reached into your bag that was still slung over your shoulder. “I’ve been watching some of the content that has been posted about them and trying to get an idea of what their personalities are like and what they seem to be comfortable in.” You opened the pad and flipped to a page of Minjae.

“Looking closely at Minjae, and knowing his interests, I took a more hip-hop styled approach.” You quickly laid it on the table and pushed it slightly towards the nine people who looked at you with curiosity.

One man leaned forward to slide the sketchbook closer to them. You mentally pictured what they saw. Mainly black colored sweatpants with accents of white on the flaps of pockets and strings that hung down from the sides. An oversized sweater that had smoke in the shape of hands reaching for each other in the middle of it. It was nothing super original to you, just one of the first things that came to your mind when you first saw Minjae.

The silence in the room was deafening as they all flipped through your sketchbook. Small hums can be heard, but you weren’t sure if they were of appreciation or distaste. That is, until they got to the face chain you made for Hunter.

An approving hum came from a woman who you were sure was as the head stylist by how she was dressed. She wore cream colored pants that were rolled up at the ankles, a white button down underneath a beige knit sweater vest. She looked effortlessly put together and she was stunning in your eyes.

You looked at Mina, who gave you a dazzling smile. “She made it too. I watched her. Wooyoung almost broke it as she worked on it, trying to convince her to let him wear it.” She laughed. “I made her bring it with her today.”

You were already finishing around in your bag for the little jewelry case that held the chain when you were asked to bring it out. Your hand clutched the velvety box and you let out a deep breath, trying to calm your nerves. You never liked showing your creations to strangers when they knew you made it.

You pulled out the box slowly, hands shaking, and set it on the table, slowly sliding it towards them. The woman grabbed it and slowly opened it, her face staying neutral this time. Her eyes darted from the box to the drawing, not saying a word.

She passed the box to the next person and so on until all of them had seen it. They all shared looks before one man cleared his throat. “There are some things we need to discuss. If you could please sit outside for a moment.”

You froze when he said that. Were they going to fire you? Before you even started? Your blood ran cold and your heart pounded in your chest. “O-of course.” You studdeded and slowly walked towards the door.

A few agonizing minutes after standing outside, and almost on the brink of an anxiety attack, the door to the meeting room opened behind you, and Minas' voice called to you. It didn’t sound angry, or disappointed. “Y/N? You can come back now.”

You took a few deep, calming breaths as you turned to face her, hands clasped together tightly to hide how nervous you were. “I’m fired, aren’t I?”

She rolled her eyes before pulling you back into the meeting room and directed you to stand in the same spot as before.

“After seeing what you designed, and the chain you created” the man who sat in the middle of the group started. Your eyes shifted to Mina, who sent you a thumbs up. “We would like to offer you to work with Ateez.”

You stood there, stunned for a moment, while trying to figure out what words were and how to use them again.

“It would be temporary. Think of it like a trial of sorts.” A lady who sat to the left of you said. “Ateez is competing on another show that's very similar to how Kingdom was. The team could use someone like you to help with the designs.” She gave you a warm smile.

Your eyes widened. “That’s a lot of responsibility to throw onto someone who hasn’t proved their worth. I don’t think I can accept. I-“

The same woman waved her hand in the air, causing your words to die in your throat. “Nonsense. What we hear from Mina, and the designs you’ve showed us already, we have faith that you’ll succeed.” Her smile never left her face.

You eyes shot to Mina and she sent you a smug grin as you mustered up a nervous smile. You were too much of a people pleaser to say no.

“I accept.”

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baltheghoul · 2 years ago

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His attention was on her, rather than the cup, gaining not an ounce of knowledge on how to use the machine despite the clear instructions. He shrugged as acknowledgement of her demand as he stuck a straw into the blue slush and took a sip. Although his face was, as usual, concealed by his mask — the immediate distaste for the liquid was obvious in his demeanor as a shiver ran up his spine. “Sour.”

Bål’s head tilted, questioning the technology before him. He blinked behind his mask, as if clearing his vision would grent him the ability to work this so called… slurpee machine. “Ah—“ a pause. “No. Hm.”

#ofcrossrcads #( my dream is to be able to completely edit a post on mobile )

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breakingarrows · 1 year ago

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On a Decade of Creating

Today, the day I’m writing this, is November 6, 2023. Ten years ago on this day I published the first post and first podcast episode of what would become ten years of writing, recording, editing, and publishing reviews, essays, videos, and audio podcasts about video games. I did it because my dream was to work at IGN, an outlet I had a lot of love for throughout my adolescence. I never had any real expectation that it would happen, just a hope, and I also just enjoyed the process of creating these things. Running a tumblr account, a podcast, a YouTube channel, was a good excuse to get my friends together to create content but also just to hang out. I got to learn how to record audio and video, how to edit audio and video, and how to think and write about games in different ways from the standard format I had grown up on as my appetite for criticism changed and grew from different sources over the past decade. The episode in question is no longer available online as I no longer pay SoundCloud or Libsyn for the hosting. I have the MP3 file copy, and an incomplete archive of the entire podcast that I will eternally beat myself up for due to not properly archiving my own work, something I know is common in all industries it seems.

Building a portfolio did get me some work within the industry, I freelanced for a few sites in late 2014/early 2015, two of which, B-TEN and Current Digital, are no longer around though the third, LoadTheGame still exists. I remember being “fired” from LoadtheGame due to the owner or editor or whoever somehow misreading a post about the Sons of Anarchy mobile game being a post about the tv show itself? It was dumb and not like I was being paid anyway. At least my author profile still functions. Somehow my Facebook account still has me connected as an owner of the B-TEN.com page on Facebook and I never found a way to completely delete it. I don’t even use Facebook much anyway so I’ve let it be as a relic of the past. Gabe Carey was the founder for B-TEN and Current Digital and a friend who has gone on to have a successful career in the tech industry.

Attending the PlayStation Experience in my hometown of Las Vegas in December 2014 was probably one of the most exciting events of my start. I had reached out to various attendees in order to ask for interviews and also knew that various game industry people would be around to pitch work to. I was able to talk to Harmonix about Amplitude, Behold Studios on Chroma Squad, Greg Kasavin on Transistor, and my partner and friend Trevor Thompson talked to Greg Miller. Little did we know that both Greg and Colin Moriarty, from our favorite podcast, IGN’s Podcast Beyond, had decided behind the scenes to quit IGN at the end of the month to do Kinda Funny full time with Nick Scarpino and Tim Gettys. This meant their live panel at PSX was the last live panel appearance they would do as the Podcast Beyond hosts. While attending the show Trevor and myself met and talked to Vince Ingenito of IGN (the same one Kallie Plagge accused years later of sexual harassment) who gave us some advice on working for IGN and recommended business cards, which I slapped together and printed out that very next morning for the second day of the convention. We also had a friendly interaction with Nick Robinson who would be quietly removed from Polygon after accusations of inappropriate behavior with fans. We were really knocking it out of the park in terms of engaging with people who would later turn out to be not so great! Sadly we also did an interview with Alex Preston of Heart Machine about the then unreleased Hyper Light Drifter that became corrupted and unusable. This is mostly sad as it was a game that would go on to become an all-time favorite of mine and the demo itself was very different from the final game itself.

In March 2015 I would apply and be accepted to do work for Dualshockers, a role I would keep from April 2015 until August 2020, though there would be a break year in 2017 and the last years would be more features than daily news writing. I really enjoyed the time I spent working for Dualshockers. I always described them as a mid-tier site in terms of popularity. We had enough accreditation to attend E3 and be invited to various preview events by publishers, though never PlayStation as they had blacklisted us for almost its entire existence. We were not, however, large enough to really do anything in terms of payments or be recognized as fellow games media by the larger sites such as IGN, Polygon, Giant Bomb, etc. The comradery with fellow writers existing under a difficult (and tyrannical) editor formed bonds that continue to this day in our own private discord group. I got a lot of opportunities I would have never had without them: got to attend the last great E3’s (2015 & 2016), got to attend preview events where I got to shoot the shit with the likes of Jeff Gerstmann and Arthur Gies, and played more games than I probably ever will again in the span of a calendar year.

PSX 2015 was in San Francisco and home to one of the strangest events of my life. After PSX closed a lot of industry people hung out in the bar of the W San Francisco, right across from the Moscone Center. I ended up talking to Nayan Ramachandran of Playism and Alex Rubens of Red Bull. At some point the location was closing up and we ended up joining Adam Boyes of Sony and Dan Ryckert of Giant Bomb and the entire group made its way to Adam’s hotel room nearby where we just drunkenly hung out talking until the early, early morning. Key memories is Adam being insistent that I looked like a younger and more handsome Ted Price, Dan trying to convince Alex to let him pepper spray him in the face in exchange for letting Alex punch Dan in the face once, and me betting Dan a Taco Bell dinner there was no way he was actually going to replay The Last of Us Remastered by the end of the year (a bet that is unresolved to this day). It was wild and I never got into a situation like that again sadly.

Late 2016/early 2017 was one of great personal turmoil and probably the worst depressive episode I’ve had since high school but also yielded the most successful piece I’ve done, a video covering Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, a Toonami favorite, which has reached 203k views as of today. My second most successful video is one titled: “Modern Warfare 2 | 1 Hour of Ambient S.S.D.D. | Basketball, Helicopters, Radio Music, NPC Chatter” and was a byproduct of working on a video version of my essay on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Things have significantly slowed down since these earlier times. Pumping out articles to meet a quota, reviewing, coming up with features, and recording, editing, and publishing videos is long exhaustive work when you want to make it really good, and even what you would think is simple guides work of cutting up a gameplay recording into easy-to-follow segments is tough and time consuming. And IGN will overwrite your contributions to their Wiki Guide anyway with their own official videos so why bother? Just to get that view count higher than usual? Nowadays I’m much more satisfied simply writing and making a video when inspiration hits than to conform to the formula established and required by the sites I once longed to be employed by but are no longer recognizable compared to the versions I daydreamed about.

I’m glad that I stuck with it, even during the off years, when I wasn’t sure that what I was doing was going to be any good. I now have ten years to look back on fondly and continue to contribute to the ever growing body of work, a body that I’ve been slowly compiling into a completed works document to eventually print as a physical book, a collection of my work made physical as a symbol of growth and commitment to doing it for the love of it. Despite my post count wavering over the years I still have boundless ideas popping out of my head all the time in terms of things to do with writing and making videos about video games. Things have changed but thinking about, playing, and making things about video games continues to ceaselessly drive me to create.

#writing #criticism #vidoe games #illustriousmagic

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macaronnya · 3 years ago

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So I just saw the announcement about the EN server shutting down or at least dicontinued (hopefully just for now) and I might just burst into tears 🥲 I want to put my thoughts or rather feelings of the journy up until now on here to come down but maybe also as some form of comfort for anyone who needs it? It's very long and might have some broken english as it's not my first language so do keep it in mind please 😅

Anyways, I started A3! last year on march 7th because I saw a youtube video of people cosplaying Sakuya and Sakyo. At taht point, I already knew of A3! somewhere in my distant memories back when it was JP only. I decided to try out the game since I was getting bored of my current mobile games and the few reviews I could find of it were relatively positive. I had no idea just what a big part of my life this game was about the become 🤧

Btw I'm listening to some A3! songs right now, specifically Sakuya's 2nd character song, and it's not helping me 😢 So at the time, lockdown just started 2 days ago, which left me with a lot of time playing it and, I kid you not, I gulfed the main story down like it was the last slice of cake at home. I have 2 siblings. I think I finished it in a week or so despite it being only unlockable through leveling up, and if my memory serves me right, you need to be around lvl 75 to unlock all 4 episodes. As one can see, I was VERY invested in the story. It was just so....nice? I don't know how to exactly describe it but I was surprised by how likable everyone was. Of course I didn't hold such strong feelings for everyone back then as I do now but I was intrigued enough back then of nearly everyone, which is kind of rather rare in such types of games, no? At least for me it is, although I haven't played terribly a lot (Love Live, MLQC, Mystic Messenger).

I really like how the story actually continues through the events and how it alternated between stories exploring certain characters more (show events) and stories focusing on just them having fun. Getting to know everyone bit by bit and seeing how everyone grows closer to each other, not only within their respective troupes but the whole theater, makes me really all warm and fuzzy and it's found family, what more could you want?

Also, I really like Izumi, our dear MC 🥰 Even though she's supposed to be our self-insert, I found myself really enjoying reading her thoughts, observing her reactions to other characters' shenanigans (like her 'I do not see' to the members plan of faking their identity to bail Citron out lol) and just....her personality. Trying not to digress here but she has a lot more personality than other MCs in these joseimuke games and it makes her interactions with others not only bearable but even enjoyable. I'm not saying that this is what a perfect MC looks like or that she's superior to bland self-inserts. After all, it depends on the story, gameplay and other things. It's just a nice bonus I'm very grateful for. I mean, I got really emotional when Izumi performed with the other staff members all of the plays the actors have put out so far for the first anniversary. Her realizing she gained a new dream for her lost one just really took my heart, broke it in thousand pieces and then mended it again.

I also love A3! songs ❤ I did wonder how they would work in this franchise since it's not about idols but actors, though I guess there was nothing to worry about. I really like the duets because it's always a different duo and hearing them singing together, harmonizing with each other, complimenting each other, just fills me with undescribable joy. Of course the songs also slap pretty much every time. Even by limiting my options to 1 troupe, I still wouldn't be able to pick only one favourite (I like the majority of Winter's song tho, like Shoutai is just 🤌 and my sibling blasted Unmasked non-stop so I can't get it outta my head anymore). Gosh, I was so excited for 'Double Solitaire' since it would complete trilogy of the Hyodosakas singing together. I was really looking forward to getting all the songs and I was even saving up for Summer Troupe's 6th play.

If I had to describe the game A3! in one word, it'd be "charming". Coming to game itself, there are so many little quirks, that on their own aren't anything groundbreaking or big but together give the game its own flair. Live 2D is pretty common to see nowdays in games because it brings the characters to life through movements like 3D models. But I think A3! is able to illustrate it just as well, if not even better with their 2D sprites. Citron moonwalked by flipping the image over and sliding across the screen, Hisoka appeared out of nowhere by coming from above the screen, they do a little jump when they're happy, they go down a bit when they're sad. And that's just things with their whole sprite. The little drops when Tsuzuru finds himself in an awkward situation or is worried, the little note when Sakuya is happy, the hearts when Kazunari is lowkey flirting with Izumi, it's so cute! Or Omi's O.O face, Taichi's crying face (the usual one, not his face when he cried out of guilt of betraying Mankai), Yuki's done expression, H O M A R E AHA! They each have at least one personalized expression and also quote. Can you hear Kazunari's Yoropiko~☆, Citron's humming, Taichi's loud ass whining and scream of terror, Tsumugi's awkawrd laugh? It's brimming with life.

But also the UI (?how it looks) is joyful. The main screen's background cascading shapes changes depending from which Troupe your current character is from, the loading screen has sakura petals and a bird, the colors are very bright and saturated fitting to the overall color palette of the whole game, the little notebook during practice showing all the necessary infomation and a little sketch by the characters. It's just really charming.

As frustrating as it was, not getting halloween Tsuzuru after 110 pulls or Valentine Omi after 120, it was my first time ever understanding why gachas are called hellholes. Through my strong connections to the characters, their cards automatically appealed to me more. But the art is also so good???? Azuma is always looking flawless obviously but Omi's unbloomed Wolf card, where he is standing in the sunset looking at his camera or Kazunari's Shinobi card, unbloomed all concentrated on his panting and bloomed all shiny smiling like the fireworks in the background? Breathtaking everytime. I also appreciate it not needing multiple copies to unlock the whole backstage story.

I think I'm slowly running out of things to say, which might be good for whoever managed to come this far. I have to say though, A3! helped me through the pandemic. Being a perfect distraction to the world's chaos and more importantly my crushing schoolwork and worries for personal future. I'm a very pessimistic person but seeing the characters overcoming their hardships through the help of their to-be "family" and just being happy doing trouble, gave me a little hope and light for a bit every day. I came to cherish everyone, even those I like the least. I haven't felt like this since Mystic Messenger, which was also a game, that helped me through a difficult time. I can only wish to a shooting star, that it's not the end for the EN Server yet. While yes, the JP server is thriving and I could just switch to reading fantranslation, through my experience, my enjoyment considerably sinks playing like that and I wish to fully enjoy A3!.

Anyways thanks for reading (maybe again). Sorry for all the possible errors on the way here. I'm writing everything directly without too much thought. If you want, you can also share your experiences in the comments. It's always nice to share good memories with others.

Edit: I accidentally posted it already but I wasn't actually done 😓 When I said I had a lot to let out, I meant A LOT

#a3!#i will never forget a3!#in the end i never managed to get halloween and groom Tsuzuru

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rubyjcat · 4 years ago

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[Behind-the-Scenes] HELIOS Rising Heroes: Animation Showcase

“HELIOS Rising Heroes: Animation Showcase” is an English voice fan project I worked on all by myself (barring voice actors) that took five months to make.

The original plan was to make just one video, but it ended up being eighteen of them!

Link to YouTube playlist:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0UbdFyWSx0n_ewcd-t0iAB0adGe5lghH

In this write-up, I’ll be discussing details about the response to the project, recording all the footage, video editing, voice acting + audio processing, script translations + rewriting, which fonts were used, and even the emulator used. I’ve organized it into sections to make it easier to find certain things. Also, this is directed to English-speaking readers since I’m not gonna bother translating the entire thing to Japanese.

THE DREAM

I wanted to make this fandub ever since the game was released (in Aug 2020). I just knew that English voices would be extremely fitting to the world of HELIOS with a setting inspired by America and characters, places, and terms mostly in English. I was disappointed to hear that the studio behind the game, Cacalia Studio of Happy Elements K.K., had no interest to localize their games outside of Asia, which meant the chances of an English dub, let alone a global release were close to zero.

I was able to understand how to play the game thanks to the fan translators, some of which came from other Cacalia Studio games, and got inspired to continue learning Japanese (there was a previous attempt to translate Japanese lyrics years back).

What I thought was just the silly dream of one overseas player’s became something much more!

THE TIMELINE (BRIEF OVERVIEW)

I played the game for about two months prior to working on the project. Before starting the project, I had to sort out graphical and technical issues on my end first as I was unable to play the game smoothly until November.

November 2020

Finding all the in-game battle lines

Writing transliterations (romaji) of lines by ear

Learning and translating lines to Japanese

Started recording footage

December 2020

Further translation revisions

Held a casting call

Script rewriting and finalizing

January 2021

Completed casting

Started video editing (learning process)

Started audio processing

Recorded more footage

February 2021

Recorded more footage

Japanese script revisions

Finished working with VAs

Finished audio processing

Continued video editing

Published Preview video

March 2021

Recorded the last of the footage

Japanese subtitle revisions

Finished Showcase video

Finished Individual battle clips

Gave recommendations to VAs

The exact start and end dates were Nov 1st, 2020 to March 31st, 2021. Pretty neat.

RESPONSE TO THE PROJECT

I was absolutely shocked with the response to the preview video, which at the time of writing has just hit 10K views and almost 600 likes on Twitter and YouTube combined. Not bad for an unpaid hobby fandub (a joke only I find funny...) of an otherwise “niche” Japanese-only mobile game.

As of Apr 4th, 2021 - Thank you so much. This is more than I could’ve asked for.

The preview video blew up way more than anticipated, setting up for a bit of disappointment when the Showcase video was released.

The amount of views I expected for this project within its prime were a couple hundred views, so I’m content that the Showcase video reached that amount (it had ~500 by the end of March).

The expectations for the battle clips were an average of 100 views and a handful of likes - and each one got roughly that amount (or more) - so I’m also content with that, especially for something that’s just “bonus material”.

I tried my best to promote this project on Twitter with three main tweets. My one regret with promoting the project was making the second tweet after publishing the Showcase because the Japanese I wrote there was pretty terrible (as I was all worn out from editing and was in a haste to tweet about it). I tried to make up for it in a follow-up reply the next day, but it was too late. I was satisfied with how my third and final tweet and thread of battle clips turned out, but it sadly didn’t garner much attention. A reason for this was probably due to bad timing. I knew that the timing of the last tweet was awful as HeliosR did something special for April Fools’ day, plus the Easter event was being hyped around the same time, but I really wanted to finish up the project within March (my timezone, at least. It was already April 1st in Japan).

It was important to also make the videos accessible to the Japanese audience as they were a large portion of the viewers. This proved to be a challenge as my knowledge of Japanese is limited - at least for me, it’s easier to translate grammar-correct Japanese than it is to write my own sentences.

I ultimately decided against posting any of the videos on NicoNico because I wasn’t sure about Japan’s laws regarding copyrighted material. I knew it was already risky enough posting on social media and didn’t want to take any additional risks.

ABOUT THE FOOTAGE (1) – HEROES & ATTACK ORDER

HeliosR uses a gacha system, so to be able to even make something like this, you’d first need access to all 16 ★4 OG Heroes in the game.

I had them spread across five different accounts, four of which were reroll accounts. Asakou from the Cacalia RPG server gave me two of those accounts, and I rerolled myself for Keith and Ren during their Birthday Orders (one free 10-pull per account). Every account is also given a free ★4 selector ticket which I made good use of.

3,000 rubies (in-game currency) were sacrificed to pity the ★4 OG Dino when he was released in December just for the sake of the fandub!

Besides covering all of the Heroes, I also needed to play through each account to unlock certain story chapters, event stages, and evolve the Heroes for their shiny evolved CG art. Some of the Expert event stages (that had the Nighttime backgrounds) proved difficult to clear with a new account.

When using skills, the order of the Heroes were edited such that everyone was able to have the majority of their lines used at least once. All Heroes had two “receiving support” lines, two or three “supporting” lines, and two or three “skills against the enemy” lines. Some of the extra lines didn’t make it into the Showcase, so they were used for the individual clips instead.

I should’ve used Gray instead of Marion for the account that had Billy because you can see Marion’s sprite in Billy’s image. xD

In the Showcase, you may notice that the "Union Attacks" consist of all the ★4 CG images. These were spliced together; I never had all four Heroes of the same sector on the same account. For example, I would have Gray, Asch, and Jay on one account and Billy on another account, recorded their ★4 Bursts separately using the same background (from unlocking the Expert stages on both accounts), and then edited all the footage together.

Jay’s Burst was later re-recorded with a different attacking order so that he wouldn’t link to Billy.

It was also important to keep the same order of Bursts as well as use all four Bursts in the same turn. The ★4 Burst order was usually determined by who didn’t link skill with one another (with the exception of East sector as I was still figuring things out) because I didn’t want the link skill activation getting in the way of the animations.

As a little bonus, I also showed off the exclusive damaging skills of the Chapter 6 and 7 ★4 frames that I was lucky enough to pull from the gacha: Marion’s "Invitation To The Dance“ (roses), Faith’s “Synthetic Vibes” (beats), and Dino’s “Crow Mark Dead End” (claw marks).

ABOUT THE FOOTAGE (2) - BACKGROUNDS

Since I didn’t want to use the same battle music and backgrounds for all of the videos, I decided to use some of the themes from the limited-time events which went as far back as Nov 2020.

Each background has three variants (Daytime, Afternoon, Nighttime) and so I carefully picked them based on the colours. I ended up using mostly Expert stages - or Nighttime backgrounds, since Daytime versions were only used for Normal difficulty stages (which are too easy to clear).

The backgrounds used for the Showcase, all from limited-time events.

I decided to mix up some of the Heroes from other sectors in the individual clips for fun, basing it off of their relationships with each other. Using South sector’s background for Gast’s clip was a purposeful choice because I already used the North sector’s background for the other three North sector Heroes. I made sure to include Akira and Will of the South sector in Gast’s clip so it didn’t feel too random!

The only default background I didn’t use was Chapter 2’s because I already made use of the Casino theme for OG West sector’s individual clips. (...Plus I didn’t really like that background :p)

Here’s a list of all the backgrounds I used:

Escape the Prison (Nov 2020) - used for Showcase [EAST]

Mission of CASINO (Nov 2020) - used for Junior, Faith, & Keith clips

HAPPY NEW YEAR SHOW! (Jan 2021) - used for Showcase [SOUTH]

Help! Cooking Hero! (Jan 2021) - used for Will and Oscar clips

A Sweet Spell Garnished With Chocolate (Feb 2021) - used for Showcase [WEST]

Grandiose Chinoiserie (Mar 2021) - used for Showcase [NORTH]

The Hero Is A Detective!? (Mar 2021) - used for Billy and Jay clips

Default backgrounds: Chapters 1, 3, 4 (shared with 7), 5 (shared with 6) - used for all other clips

The Christmas event was the only event that went unused during the Nov 2020 - Mar 2021 period.

I didn’t record the East sector event (Christmas) in Dec 2020 because I was actually too busy with the casting call! I also didn’t think I would make use of it after already recording the Prison event intended for East sector. The project ended up taking so long that it actually benefited from having a wider selection of events over the months, which also showcased the beauty of the game.

ABOUT THE WORK & VIDEO EDITING

Hardware:

A decent computer.

A pair of no-name earbuds I found while cleaning out some junk.

Software:

All FREE!

*There’s a catch

NoxPlayer* emulator (debloated, read more about in its own section) and Open Broadcast Studio were used to record game footage and sounds.

Davinci Resolve was the main tool I used to edit the videos. A very demanding program that I only recommend using if you have a mid to high end computer.

MediBang was used to edit some of the art like the logos, but I ended up using Resolve for the majority of the graphics, including the thumbnails.

Audacity and Cakewalk were used to edit audio.

Many aspects for this project took longer than I had hoped because there was a learning process with using Resolve for the first time. I’m also a bit of a perfectionist, re-exporting videos tons of times just to fix small mistakes. Lastly, the time it took to make all the fancy effects was longer than I’d estimated. As the project dragged on, there was pressure to not delay the release of the videos any longer than I had to. A lot of this was self-imposed though.

There were days where I just did something else other than work on the project, which helped re-fuel my motivation when I decided to pick it up again.

Pretty much everything in the videos were taken from the game itself. The only graphics that were taken from the official website instead were the Substance symbols (the pictures with HERO at the bottom).

Additional overlay graphics were custom-made. It took two whole days to make the 3-second long sector intros and another two days to create and animate the arrow graphics for the credits. These were made using Resolve’s fusion and colour features. Much of the edit was inspired by the official HeliosR designs.

Left: Official in-game graphics // Right: My fanmade video (sector intros)

Sector intros were inspired by the four Heroes version of Union Attacks in-game.

Left: Official HeliosR video // Right: My fanmade video

The Preview video took after the ★4 Burst mini-previews as part of HeliosR’s promotional campaign, uploaded before the game was released.

Left: Official HeliosR video // Right: My fanmade video

The credits at the end of the Showcase were inspired by a different video, this time being the Half-Anniversary video.

The Showcase - which had a duration of 29:07 - was 11.5GB large in size. It took almost three hours to render (which I re-rendered to fix things) and two DAYS to upload to YouTube because I experienced multiple uploading interruptions. It’s a good thing you can re-upload the same video to continue where you left off without having to restart the entire process.

The individual hero clips didn’t take as long to make (but they took a while anyway as I re-uploaded some of them to fix minor mistakes). The recommendations for the VAs that were given alongside the publishing of each clip also spanned over another five days as I wanted to personalize and think about each one carefully.

A pretty frustrating part of the project was the prevalent lag when recording footage, which may have been due to the emulator and/or some technical things on my end. The Prison event used for the Showcase was the very first one I recorded when I wasn’t as aware about the lag, and so it suffered a bit as a result. The Union Attacks were the worst offender. I re-recorded the same battle scenes several times each just in case, then went through the footage frame-by-frame in Resolve and chose the ones with the least amount of lag. If all of the recorded footage suffered lag at different parts, I would even compare and splice together parts of them that didn’t lag. There was also audio lag (a known issue of NoxPlayer) so I had to move all of the audio forward by 1/3 of a second.

By the end of the project I had over 200 videos of game footage with a total size of over 24GB and a total duration exceeding 9 hours, not even counting all the ones that went unused.

The Heroes weren’t the only ones who evolved. MS Paint not recommended for thumbnails.

Overall, (despite the few mistakes here and there that nobody other than me would notice) I was happy with how everything turned out, down to the gorgeous thumbnails! I am an artist, after all~ :^)

I also have much more respect for video editors. They should be called VIDEO ANIMATORS!

ABOUT THE VOICES & AUDIO PROCESSING

When making a dub, it doesn’t mean we want to replace or best the original language, we just want to give it a new interpretation. In fact, the characters’ voice descriptions and direction provided in the scripts were heavily inspired by the seiyuu (Japanese VAs) and how they performed their lines.

Honestly, this was THE dream cast!! Some of the VAs had comparably similar voices to the Japanese ones which was an amazing coincidence. The ones that may not have sounded as similar had unique interpretations that I felt still suited their characters well. I also chose actors based on their performance, and everyone delivered!

Voice actors were not expected to imitate the Japanese voices and lines. They were provided direction and reference videos to help time their lines, but were otherwise given liberty when it came to their own interpretations.

You shouldn’t hear any jarring differences between the voice actors’ microphones and setups. That’s because I took the time to process the audio. Faith’s audio was submitted to me post-processed so it was used as a guideline for what the audio quality should sound like. Some of the others had comparable quality to Faith’s, so I only added compression to balance their volumes. Most of them benefited from equalization of various levels - this took some experimenting back and forth with the frequency spectrum. Lastly, a couple more benefited from clip fixing, noise gate, de-essing and/or click removal. It was very important for VAs to have at least decent room treatment; while small differences between mic frequencies can always be altered, echoes are difficult if not impossible to remove completely.

I feel that audio engineering is highly underrated and more important than ever as voice actors continue to record from home studios.

And in case it wasn’t already clear, this was purely voluntary work. No VAs or myself were paid to contribute anything for the project. Though, the experience alone was worth more than any amount of money.

ABOUT THE SCRIPT & TRANSLATIONS

HELIOS Rising Heroes「エリオスR」English Translation - Battle Lines

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ImWrAfvS_hgp6qr5qt30vCP63uHEk2o79uqY0h-3wL4/edit?usp=sharing

This spreadsheet consists of the literal translations for all the battle lines I could find in the game (it still isn’t done -yet-, plan to finish it when I get the chance). These are only fanmade and are not guaranteed to be accurate, especially as I wasn’t able to find another translator to help or proofread it.

After translating the lines, I made many additional revisions from the literal meanings such as changing the intention of the line slightly to flow better, having extra words added in to provide more context, or changing them completely. Thus, the lines used in the video are NOT literal TLs!

Another thing of note that may not seem apparent, but is what I feel an important aspect of character writing, is to remain completely unbiased towards all the characters. Personal favourites aside, I ensured that every Hero had their own spotlight as well as lines written in a way that remained faithful to their personality, no matter how unlikeable they were (looking at you, Asch Albright).

Even after giving voice actors their scripts, I made another revision in February after the release of the aforementioned Half-Anniversary video with the transcriptions for the ★4 Bursts, which is when I discovered a couple of mistakes with my transcriptions. This resulted in me having to edit out a part of one of the voice actors’ lines (Billy’s “String Show” line in his ★4 Burst) because of a translation mistake! I’m really glad I was able to double-check the correct lines before releasing the Preview video, or it would’ve looked pretty silly to Japanese viewers.

The last set of revisions were just minor edits to the subtitles (such as using kanji instead of kana) while I was working on subtitling all the videos.

Notable changes included:

WILL SPROUT

During attacking combo

Original line:

tanonda zo... ike! / “Counting on you... Reach!”

Rewritten line:

“I’ll become stronger... For everyone!”

The rewritten line is a condensed version of one of Will’s ★4 Evolved CG lines (“For everyone... I’ll become more and more stronger!”). He had “Reach!” in both his attacking combo and regular Burst, so I gave him an extra unique line.

★4 Burst

Original line:

warui kedo... kore de oshimai da! / “Sorry, but... it ends with this!”

Rewritten line:

“I’m sorry, but... it’s over for you! HAAAH!”

There were a couple of oversights I made with the script, and this was one of them that didn’t fit the animation properly. Props to Ryan for coming up with the extra shout at the end! So yeah, we kinda winged this line.

OSCAR BALE

When using skills against the enemy, during attacking combo, and in the ★4 Burst (repeat line)

Original line:

osoi! / “Slow!”

Rewritten lines:

“Too slow!” / “You’re slow!” / “Over here!”

Rewritten simply because I wanted to minimize repeated lines and change things up.

GAST ADLER

When supporting an ally, and during attacking combo

Original lines:

tetsudau ze / “I’ll help (you).”

itchouagari / “All done.”

Rewritten lines:

“I’ve got your six.”

“Target eliminated.”

I wanted to add in a few military terms to reflect Gast’s background.

FAITH BEAMS

★4 CG line (for the credits)

Original line (literal TL):

“It’s not terrible or evil, right? Surely this isn’t punishing... I guess?”

Rewritten line (with “mistake”):

“I’m not doing anything horrible or evil, alright? This is just business as usual... I suppose?”

Faith’s CG line had a mistake when I first translated and handed it off to his actor. I accidentally wrote “oshigoto” (work/business) instead of “oshioki” (punishment). The original has him pretty much saying the same thing twice anyway, so I would say the intention was still retained.

KEITH MAX

When supporting an ally

Original line:

gambare yo~ / “Do your best~.” or “Hang in there~.”

Rewritten line:

“Stay alive, would ya~?”

I know Keith’s meant to say “serious” things in a sarcastic or snarky way, but I just had to add in this fun line!

DINO ALBANI

Using skills against the enemy

Original lines:

haa! / “Haah!”

hei! / “Hey!”

Rewritten lines:

“I can do this!”

“Leave it to me!”

The Japanese lines for Dino’s offensive skills were rather basic, with the third and unchanged line “Here goes!” being a repeat line Dino also says when attacking. I wanted to give him some more lines - as standard as they are - to show his personality a bit more, along with having an additional fun West sector interaction. The changes fit the animations better too. (I actually had his VA say the "Haah!" line, but ended up using a different take of “Here goes!” in place of it.)

ABOUT THE FONTS

Fonts were taken from various sources and were either FREE for personal use or had an open font license. I didn’t have access to the commercial fonts (such as Futura) used in-game, so these were the following fonts I made use of:

Techna Sans looked similar enough to Futura when capitalized, and still looked decent in lowercase.

Jost* is a font that was derived from Futura. Some of its uppercase letters are sharper than Futura's, but it worked pretty well for the text in the credits.

Gau Font Over Drive was used for the ANIMATION SHOWCASE text.

Gen Jyuu Gothic LP was used for the majority of the Japanese text and its English letters were also used for the battle clip subtitles on Twitter.

Meiryo UI (default font) was used for the Preview videos’ subtitles.

Noto Serif JP (default Google font) was used for the serif Japanese text in the credits.

ABOUT NOXPLAYER ANDROID EMULATOR

ETA: AS OF VERSION 1.1.18 (04/23/21), EMULATORS NO LONGER WORK WITH HELIOSR (AS WELL AS OTHER CACALIA STUDIO GAMES). THE BELOW INFORMATION IS OUTDATED.

If, for whatever reason you’re interested in using NoxPlayer, you should take caution when installing it onto your machine. I don’t advocate for or recommend installing Nox. I had to resort to emulation so that I could record the footage and sounds directly from my computer using OBS. The reason why I used Nox specifically is because Cacalia Studio doesn’t like emulators, blocking most of them from running their games. I found further instructions on how to run the game in Nox from the Cacalia RPG Discord (via Twitter @HeliosR_en).

First, not all Nox versions are safe. It should only be installed from the official website, Bignox. More recent versions (I believe from 6.3.0.6 and up) may contain malware such as Segurazo and Chromium packaged with the installer which can be annoying to remove. The version of Nox I used was 6.3.0.0 (you can install older versions, then just don’t update it), which has Android 7 and doesn’t contain packaged malware (AFAIK).

Second, NoxPlayer may be “free” to use, but it comes with bloatware and profits off of its users’ data by collecting and sending it to many different servers. The below guide is what I used to debloat Nox and minimize communication to these servers. Scroll down the comments for additional domains to add to the hosts file.

Debloating & Optimizing Nox:

https://gist.github.com/Log1x/12d330ef7685d6fbc611d1d57efb5c29

This is another good guide that makes use of command prompt to remove additional bloatware from the emulator.

How to Remove Bloatware on Nox and LDPlayer Emulator:

https://codefaq.org/emulator/how-to-remove-bloatware-on-nox-and-ldplayer-emulator/

ENDING NOTES (TL;DR)

Images of the first and last video for the HeliosR project. We’ve come full circle!

One very tired and average person decided to translate, script, cast, direct, and edit an ambitious project all by herself using only FREE tools, and ended up taking too long to finish it. But at least she finished it, right?

Translators = RESPECT

Voice actors = RESPECT

Video editors = RESPECT

Audio engineers = R E S P E C T (their work is especially behind-the-scenes)

Hell, I even like Asch now.

During my time working on this, there was one question I always had in mind: “What would the fans want?”

I hope this follow-up has given you a bit of insight into the makings of the HeliosR project. Thank you for reading!

~RubyJCat

#heliosr #helios rising heroes #animation showcase #english #fandub #dub #voice #voices #voice acting #fanmade #fan #behind the scenes #my projects #english translation

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millennial-star-gazer · 5 years ago

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Tantric Flames: Chapter: 9

Tantric Flames

Nalu lovefest 2019 Prompts: Magic, Worship, Reckless , Forbidden and Cravings (All Implied)

Genres: Romance, Humor, New Adult Fanfiction

Pairing:Nalu (Natsu x Lucy)

Rating: M for language, steamy and mature adult sexual content (all consensual) in these and future chapters. Reader Direction is advised.(You've been warned!)

Summary: One look, one smouldering hooded gaze, one word, one fiery kiss, one magnetizing touch was all he needed for her to completely unravel at his mercy alone, succumbing to the sinful temptation of her inhibitions, his love, his feral passion, his raw, insatiable desires, his "Tantric Flames". Originally an Submission for Nalulovefest 2017 (on previous accounts) in which Natsu gives his mate a tantric massage-after much persuasion- she won't soon forget when it turns into so much more. Also previously featured in Nalu lovefest 2018 (on current accounts) , as well as Nalu Week 2017, Nalu Fluff Week and Nalu lovefest 2017 (as stated) with first three chapters on my previous celestialgeekmage accounts . Chapter 7 was also an entry for nalu week 2019 and Chapter 8 for Nalu Lovefest 2019. ( Nalu-centric) (Slight Au).

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

Chapter 9: Tempted by A Tantric Touch

A/N: Hey guys, it's your girl Millennial StarGazer! This time I'm returning with another long-awaited installment of Tantric Flames. Once again, a major thanks to and koodos to @bmarvels, @mannyegb, @animezing-fandoms/princess-starry-night, and @allie-and-her-fandoms for helping me edit and further develop this chapter! Now without further ado, here's the story-enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own Fairytail which belongs to the one and only Hiro-sensei instead!

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1. Tantric Flames

A. Tumblr Version

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Legend:

Italic: Song Lyrics/Quotes (or flashback dialogue)

Bold: First Person Thoughts

Bolded Italics: Empathized Word(s)

Bolded Italics (Within and Outside Bracket) including for author's side notes also known as (A/N:) within brackets (though none for side-notes in this chapter ).

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"You run your fingers over every part of my body and tease me with your touch".

(Source Unknown)

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Oh God, those love bites. So many love bites that decorated the blonde's creamy skin like jewels; far too numerous to count that always sent a red-hot line fire rippling through her nerves with with every nip, every suck; each every and stroke of Natsu's velvet tongue. Plus, he's usually doing other things at the same time. Racy images of the couple's steamy moments together from the last soak flooded Lucy's mind.

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Flashback

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The celestial mage's back arching of its own accord into Natsu's touch from robust hands cupping her breast; Blazing digits kneading the twin peaks in time with lips sucking along Lucy's pulse with so much skill that she couldn't help the heady moan that escaped her throat.

"Ya feel that, Luce?" Nastu growled in his princess's ear, the dark undercurrent of his territorial voice pulling a tingly shiver from her. "My marks all over that perfect body of yours— and not just the permanent one when you swore your heart to me . All of those are symbols of my essence, my claim, my love. That you belong to me and me alone. My mate and queen, forever and always. And those sounds you're makin'? Hot as hell."

Pretty sure, dude leaves marks on me as his way of announcing to the world I'm off limits as his mate. Explains why he's always quick to leave a fresh one in its place even after I cover them— not that I'm complaining. Plus, it's not only for his benefit but mine. It's great that he knows how much I love receiving hickeys and gets off from it.

Seriously, what more could I ask for?

Not to mention how lovely it always was to unwind with Natsu after each bath. The wizard was often keen in his offer to dry the blonde's damp hair with a towel or fire-magic-powered steam; from her perch on his lap or between his legs.

Much more relaxing than using a hair dryer if you ask me.

The dragonslayer would sometimes even hum or sing a familiar tune from days past in that appealing, gravelly baritone of his; would usually lull the already-zen mage into the world of dreams when combined with the sooth dual sensation of fingers combing through her hair, .

"I tell you, I tell you, the dragonborn comes ..."

Anyother guild member who might be eavesdropping, however, would often be quick to lightheartedly goad the blonde mage ( much to her chargin). Natsu no doubt would find this hilarious of course; which would serve for Lucy's cheeks to flush an even deeper shade of crimson than she already was.

"Say Luce, is that a blush I see?" he once crooned, a teasing edge to his words; though the affectionate mirth sparkling in his eyes warmed her heart just a little. "Aw, is my girl a little embarrassed? That's okay though— makes ya all the more adorable and endearing than you already are. You want me to make it all better? Cuz I can! Got plenty of kisses! Come on, you know you want some which I'm more than happy to give. God I love ya' so much, you know that?"

It's amazing really... Lucy ruminated in fond awe. How Natsu can switch between the different roles and sides to him with relative ease. From Romantic and tender to dominant, playful and affectionate; then back again on top of everything else all seemingly at the drop of a hat. All an innate part of his overall nature I guess— essentially what makes up who he is. Some people may find this a bit confusing to keep up with— but I don't. Just makes him all the more complex.

Though those people would also be right when they say that the dude still has a devious streak, she couldn't help but add with wry smirk. Even with me, though never with malicious intent. German suplex, non-stop tickling, dumping me in a tub of freezing cold water during one of our baths— too many pranks to count really. At least he's always quick to follow up with plenty of affection ever since we became an item— can't complain about that."

"You ready to get started Lucy?" Natsu's keen voice broke through Lucy's reverie.

"You know it!" The celestial mage chirped, unable to mask the pure enthusiasm in her voice; earning an amused chuckle from the dragon wizard . "Can't wait. I take it you'll be hoarding me for the rest of the afternoon?"

"Mhmm" Came his content hum in response." That really a bad thing, though?"

"No, definitely not."

"I figured. Why don't we get you up on that massage bed?"

"Sure thing!"

A buzz of anticipation was practically thrumming in Lucy's blood from such tantalizing implications of his words; the stunt Natsu pulled next , though— that was what really shot a thrilling jolt up her spine.

"Let's finish what we started later, yeah?"

The dragonslayer's proposal was punctuated by a light tap on the summoner's ass for good measure,; which resulted in a delighted squeal.

"O-okay!" was said female's response in the form of a breathy giggle.

"Let me get you that towel while I'm at it."

"Sure— thanks."

"My pleasure."

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A Few Minutes Later

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"Ugh...do me a huge favor and burn this towel. Will ya?"

Lucy couldn't help but let out an audible groan along with the heat rising in her cheeks. Good god was the particularly moist spot on the white towel a truly mortifying sight to behold. Basically tell-tale remnants of liquid arousal that had been wiped clean from her legs just moments before.

Mavis only knows what would happen if Levy or Cana noticed during laundry duty.

" Okay... why though?" Natsu questioned, brows drawing together in mild confusion. "As in why do you want me to?"

"Guild Laundry day" came Lucy's automatic reply."That's why."

"Not following ya.' Natsu blinked owlishly in uncomprehension.

"Levy…..and Cana….." Lucy supplied, a finger twirling an errant strand of blonde hair in :a self-conscious display." "I... uh.."

"Still don't know what you mean here, Luce."

"It's their turn to do laundry duty." She attempted to break down what was apparently such an abstract concept into simpler terms; not able to help the aggravation rising in the back of her mind.

"Yeah? So?"

"They'll probably see the moist stain on the towel." Lucy clarified, forcing her voice to remain level.

"I see— don't see the problem though."

"Think about who'll most likely be with them ."

"Gajeel and Laxus but…...ahh—"

Realization dawned on Natsu's face. "I get it now. What you're saying is that they'll probably catch a whiff of your arousal? "

"Well, the lingering remnants of the scent anyway. Seriously though?" he tacked on, lifting a questioning brow."That's what you're worried about?"

"Yeah... I am," Lucy admitted, nerves leaking into her voice. "Aren't you?"

"Not really, no." Natsu gave a shrug of his shoulders—seemingly unfazed.

"Why's that?" Lucy couldn't help but shoot him a puzzled glance.

"Cuz it'll show everyone how much I rocked your world." Natsu replied, flashing his mate a cheeky grin. " And what's not to love about that?"

"Pervert — of course you'd say that!" Lucy screeched, skin flushing a deep shade of crimson.

"That's me!"

"Ugh, still don't know what to do about the moist spot— those four are never gonna let me live it down."

"You know if you're that worried, I could always use my tongue to clean ya up instead." Natsu drawled with a lazy smirk that set her heart all pit-patter .

"And of course, you'd suggest that," Lucy quipped with a slight roll of her eyes. "Did I mention how much of a horn dragon you are? "

"Yeah, but only for a certain gorgeous blonde of mine and she loves it."

"Oh, she does, huh?" Lucy raised a challenging brow.

"Yep. Don't bother trying to deny it, Luce".

"Ugh fine... you're right. I do. Seriously, you and your colossal ego though."

"Why, thank you! If you're impressed by that, you'd really should see my co—"

The rest of Natsu's words were cut off by Lucy's hand swatting him with a pillow which was met with a snicker.

"Pervert" Lucy deadpanned with another eye roll. "By way, you would've found yourself in the proverbial dog house if you actually meant the other kind of 'fighting earlier."

Only for Natsu's face to instantly fall in response to her statement.

"What?" Natsu objected, gaping at her with wide eyes. " And deprive me of the chance to wake up to your beautiful face each morning for that long?!"

"Yep." Lucy gave a nod by way of reply.

"But why? You know that's not the type of fightin' I met!"

"Well yeah, I know that now. But not earlier when you originally brought up. Just be glad that you didn't bail on our date earlier."

"I didn't though! And never would— honest Luce!" Natsu's voice lifted into a petulant whine.

"Hmm.. Okay, good to know. " Lucy responded, raising her hands to placate him. "Though you'll have to be without me for a few days anyway.

"Wait, seriously?" Natsu faltered , bewildered panic flashing in his eyes. . "Come on! What is it this time?"

"Camping retreat in the woods next week that Cana, Mira, Lisanna, and Erza are organizing— ladies only."

"W-ha?" Natsu continued to sputter, his poor brain no doubt short circuiting by now." But Elfman said that it was open to anyone who's free to go!"

"Really? Lucy mused in thoughtful interest. "That's not what I heard... huh."

"What am I supposed to do without you?"

"How about something fun with the guys? Should be nice, right?"

"Yeah, but so is spending time with you Lucy! It's always more fun when we're together like you said."

"And I don't disagree. Doesn't change anything though. The trip's still happening."

"Didn't say it wasn't but it'd still suck here without you! Natsu moaned, that desperate sense of longing bleeding into his voice. " I'd miss ya' too much! So would our little buddy! Can't we tag along? Maybe Even share an air mattress in a decent-sized tent? I'd gladly help set up and keep you cozy in my arms at night."

"What about Happy?" Lucy questioned, intrigued by his suggestion. His offer does sound really tempting.

"Obviously he'd share the tent with us but would have his own sleeping bag and could hang with Wendy and Carla whenever we wanted alone time. Plus there are all these cool spots I could take you to on nature hikes!."

"Sounds great."

"Course it is! So whaddya say? You onboard?" Natsu wheedled, flashing her what could only be described as the most flawless puppy eyes she'd ever seen.

"Aw that's really tempting and" Lucy gushed, heart contracting at the adorable pout he was throwing in too. Normally I'd say yes"— but it'll have to wait. Thank you though! I'd love to take you up on that offer another day."

"Oh come on— please I wanna go!" Natsu huffed,stamping his foot as if he were a child pitching a fit over being denied a coveted toy- quite an amusing display to say the least.

"Not this time I'm afraid. Sorry, them's the brakes."

"Lucyyyyyyyyy!" Natsu whined again, dragging the syllables of her name with such melodrama that she finally decided to let him off the hook

" Jeez.. enough with the dramatics already. " Lucy yielded with an exasperated groan, You can still come— the trip is for everyone. I was only kidding after all."

Said confession was met with a noise of stunned dimsay from from the pyro.

"Wait... so ya' mean to tell me that this was a joke?! he muttered, voice coming out with a small pinch of disbelief. "You were pulling my leg the entire time?"

"Yep— consider it payback for me making think you were gonna ditch earlier."

"That's why? That's not nice, Luce— not very nice at all." Natsu grumbled, though not with any real heat.

"Oh yeah, what are you gonna do about it?" Lucy baited, a daring lilt to her words.

" Oh —- wouldn't you like to know?" Natsu rumbled, eyes sparking in a such a calculating way that it sent a electrifying chill down Lucy's spine.

"I would— ngh! Nastuuuu!"

The rest of what Lucy was attempting to say Lucy's words were cut off by the lighting- fast sweep of Natsu's velvet tongue up her thighs . Not to mention that electric high-voltage jolt of ecstasy flooding her veins.

"There! that should show ya!" Natsu let out a cackle of glee. " Not to ever play dirty tricks on a dragon I mean. Guess you're not gonna need that towel after all, huh Lucy?"

"My God..."

"Yeah, I know . Just that amazing with my tongue, I guess. Natsu purred, voice laced with am indecorous promise "Plus, hearing ya' scream my name like that just gave me another hard-on that I'd love for you to see .. "

"Jeez … of course it'd would . and no real shocker that you would say something like that."

"Yep- you know me so well, Luce. and it's not like you're complain' anyway. Want me to prove it?"

" Maybe.. But God- you're such a pompous ass, you know that?"

"Yeah but all part of my charm, sweetheart."

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A/N: And that's Chapter 9 folks! My apologies for the delay by the way! I originally wanted to post this much sooner but got hit with writer's block after getting a somewhat stumped on a particular segment of this chapter. I've also been with my other ongoing fanfics, WIPs and responsibilities among other things in my life . That all aside, at least this chapter was finally posted! Now please feel free to do me a solid and let me know what you think by leaving a comment/ review! Stay tuned for Chapter 10 too! Oh and please feel free to check out the rest of my writing which can be found above, on my profiles and in master post if reading this on tumblr. All right, that's pretty much all I have to say for now! Thanks to all my mutuals/friends, readers and followers for their continuous support over the years! (Corresponding links for the master of my writing and profiles can be found above, in the navigation bar of the desktop and bio if reading this on tumblr.) Until next time-take care!

#fairytail #ft fanfics #nalu #endlu #natsu x lucy #e.n.d natsu x lucy #tantric flames #my writing #millennial star gazer writes #millennial stargazer #please reblog

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dearyams · 5 years ago

Note

wanted to send you a prompt i was gonna do but i am too lazy prompt: mike and will have been dating but havent said i love you, mike is going on some trip for a week where cell phones dont work (obv future fic) and so Byeler is having a phone convo before mike arrives at his destination and they wont be able to talk to each other a week and will says tells mike he loves him but before mike can respond the phone disconnects as Mike arrives at the destinationn

[ crossposted on AO3 ]

“Finished packing yet?”

Mike turns from his suitcase and the clothes piles spread about the floor in his room and grins when he spots Will leaning on the doorframe a few feet away. He’s got two iced coffee cups in hand, indicative of finishing his part-time hours at the local coffee shop a few blocks north from the Byers residence. Mike wonders if Will biked his way over or took a lift with his brother to come visit before the Wheelers make their way on an impromptu trip to upstate New York at a cabin his dad had recently inherited.

The kneeling boy waves his hands at the disorderly state surrounding him and shrugs. “I’m trying and failing at packing the right clothes for this venture, I’ll say that.”

Will chuckles and walks fully into the room. He passes along Mike’s coffee, shoving around haphazardly folded pants to find a seat on the floor beside the other boy. Mike watches him grab a sweater and toss it aside. “It’s summer so you don’t need to pack heavy. Just grab some t-shirts and jeans; that should do. Shorts too if you’d like.”

“Sure,” sighs Mike before sipping from his cup. “I don’t want to make the visit miserable if I’m wearing the wrong clothes. Wrong for the weather and wrong for looking tolerable in the photos I know Mom is gonna force on me.”

Will laughs, a gentle breeze in the summer’s heat. “You’ll look good in whatever you put on.”

“As my boyfriend, you’re kind of obligated to say that.”

“Not really.” the brunette leans in to kiss Mike’s cheek. “I’ll let you know when you look bad if only for the sake of my own eyes.”

“And when you won’t be next to me, how will you judge my outfits properly?”

Will checks his watch and hums. “When’s your departure? If you have time, you can try out some of the outfits and I’ll let you know what works.”

Mike grins as he reaches over Will’s lap and snags a band t-shirt. “Sneaky aren’t you; tryna get me undressed.”

“I’ll cover my eyes.” Will places his unoccupied hand over his eyes but spreads his fingers between his middle and ring fingers to peek through the opening. Mike scoffs, tossing a stray pair of shorts at his face which makes the brunette laugh heartily. Mike already misses Will, the knowledge that they’ll be separated for a week squeezing his heart dry with romantic despair. He wishes Will could come with but the trip was pretty unplanned and though Mike's “job” as a blog writer and editor doesn’t require a remote location, Will’s job doesn’t allow the same ease when taking off work.

(Though Mike thinks he’ll probably still be working offline on an article if his mom doesn’t steal his laptop for “family bonding in the forest” time.)

Mike’s sudden fashion show lasts for about an hour and while Will does offer good input, most of that hour is spent playing around and Mike sneaking in as many kisses as they can get away with whenever Mike peels off a shirt and struggles to get his head through the tight collar of another. Afterwards, Will helps finish packing and when completed, they lounge about on Mike’s bed as Will discusses the customers he met earlier in the day.

Though he knows packing just mere hours before departure isn’t a habit he should develop, especially when the plans for his career require frequent traveling, he spent the night before editing a movie review scheduled for posting during the drive. Mike doesn’t regret his momentary time mismanagement if it means he spends more time with Will before the trip. The article can wait—he’s posting it early anyway—but time spent with his boyfriend is always coveted.

When Mike’s mom knocks on the door, Will pulls away from Mike’s chest where he rested his head as they page through Mike’s hard copy of The Golden Compass which he wanted to review in line with the show’s release. Shaking his head and straightening his hair as best as possible, Mike struts to his door and opens it with raised eyebrows. His mom looks up from checking her phone and offers Mike a tight smile before looking past him to wave at Will.

“I’m sorry to interrupt you two,” she starts warmly, “but Mike, we have to get going soon. The traffic through the city is getting dense thanks to an accident on the 70.”

“Got it,” replies Mike as he turns back to Will, who walks to his side with both their empty cups in hand. “I’ll see you in a few days, Byers.”

“‘Course.” Will grins and leans up to press a gentle kiss to Mike’s cheek. “Call me when you’re getting close to your destination.”

“Sure, worrywart,” he teases but turns his face to kiss Will’s lips one last time before he has to depart. He watches Will nod bashfully at his mom and give her a short goodbye before making his way downstairs. Mike doesn’t look away until he hears the front door closing and then he casts his gaze on his mom. “Are Dad, Nancy, and Holly waiting outside?”

“Yes,” she nods toward the front of the house. “We’ll all just waiting on you now.”

It doesn’t take long for Mike to join his family at the car, and as his dad pulls out the driveway, Mike turns in the direction of the Byers and smiles when he sees Will on his bike a little ways down the road watching. He sticks his hand out the window, his wave only growing more frantic when Will waves back. Holly giggles and Nancy makes a side comment about love sick teenagers as if she wasn’t one herself during her escapades with Steve, Jonathan, and now Robin. The first hour and a half fills with Holly saying “moo” every time they pass a cow on the way to the interstate and Mike feels like smashing his head against his window when they pass a farm and Holly moos until she nearly passes out. Pulling out his phone, Mike shoots Will a selfie of himself despondently looking out the window and groans when his cell service takes its sweet time sending the message along. Mike gets a reply a reply twenty minutes later: Will laughing at his misery with a short additional, “you’ll be there before you know it,” and a bunch of kiss emojis.

The next hour passes with Mike flipping through his ever growing Will gallery, a digital photo album filled with selfies and candid shots of Will, both solo and with Mike. He’s not one for being in photos himself but Will manages to drag him into a few selfies here and there. He doesn’t mind snapping a selfie either by himself or together—cheeks squished as they both attempt to fit in the frame as Mike holds the phone up and out—because Will always asks him to send the photo along and then makes it his lock screen until the next time he convinces Mike it’s photo time.

After settling on a candid shot Mike snapped when he and Will visited Lovers’ Lake and the sun framed Will like a bright halo of fire, Mike settles on playing a mobile game for about another two hours before staring out the window until the trees blend together and his eyes find themselves sliding shut. He wakes up a few times here and there when the family stops at gas stations and picks up snacks—he definitely remembers his mom arguing with his dad about stopping at a hotel which they ultimately don’t do—but he wakes up for the final time to his phone buzzing in his lap, startling him out of a dream he quickly forgets upon waking. Caller ID tags the number as Will and he immediately answers as he scrambles for his headphones in his pocket.

“Hey,” he begins, shoving the headphone plug into the slot at the bottom of the device, “Is everything okay back home?”

“Everything’s great,” Will’s voice crackles on the line and Mike peaks outside in the darkness to notice the forest surrounding him. They must be close to the cabin destination already. He didn’t think he had slept for that long. “Just checking in since it’s about time you’ve arrived if your dad didn’t take a rest.”

Mike laughs. “You’re cute, you know, checking up on me like this.” He hears Nancy snorting and reaches over Holly to pinch her bare arm. She glares at him and covers Holly’s eyes to flip him off. “Nancy says hello by the way.”

“Hello back to her.” Mike can hear Will’s grin and his heart clenches in sorrow at the current distance between them. “Are you doing okay there?”

“Yeah, peachy.” Mike yawns and covers his mouth. “Is it too cheesy to say I already miss you?”

“Maybe, but I miss you, too, so you don’t have to be embarrassed about it.”

A sleepy smile curls itself on Mike’s lips. “One week, Byers; one week and then I’m back.”

“Yeah, but don’t spend your time counting down the days, alright? I’ll do that for us both; you just have a great time at the cabin.”

Mike would kiss him if he could. “I’ll try my best but you know how my brain works.”

“Are you telling me it actually does work?”

“I’m breaking up with you.” Will laughs heartily. “Why are you laughing; I’m serious this time.”

“Sure, Wheeler.” Mike frowns as the last bit of his name gets caught in static. “Hey, I know this is probably something that should wait until you’re back but this separation made me realize I should tell you either way.”

“This sounds pretty important.”

“Yeah. I, uh, you probably already know this though but,” and Will takes a deep breath and releases it, though Mike hears it in short, split crackles. “Mike, I love you.”

The clarity in those four words stuns Mike into speechlessness and his mouth dries as his heart thumps speedily in his chest. Will is right, Mike already knows Will loves him, but this is the first time Will has ever said the fact out loud. I love you echoes in Mike’s head at the reverb levels of a rock guitarist. It takes far too long for his brain to come back online, but by the time it does, the car speeds past a brush of trees and the call suddenly drops. Mike looks down at his phone screen as the loud call dropped tone passes through his headphones. His home screen—a playfully disgruntled selfie as Will kisses his cheek—stares him back in the face as Will’s voice continues to bounce about in his head.

Mike, I love you.

Mike quickly calls back but his phone spits back the message that he has no service. “Nancy,” he hisses even though the entire car heard his part of his conversation with Will anyway, “do you have any service on your phone? I need to call Will back and my phone is being homophobic.”

Nancy raises her eyebrows but checks phone and shakes her head. “Looks like you’re straight out of luck.”

“Ha; you’re quite the comedian, aren’t you.” Mike reaches forward to tap his mom’s arm. “Mom, can I borrow your phone to finish a call?”

“Sorry, sweetie, I’ve lost service, too. I don’t think any of us can use internet on our phones.”

“Does the cabin at least have wifi?”

“Nope,” snorts Mike’s dad as he drives the car down a dirt road further into the forest. “You kids these days need to learn what life is like without cell phones anyway.”

Mike rolls his eyes and mumbles under his breath, “Okay, boomer.”

“What was that, young man?”

“Okay, bummer.” Nancy bites on her bottom lip and Mike sends her a grin before settling in his seat.

Their mom reaches a hand back to rest on Mike’s knee. “It’s only 7 days, Michael. I’m sure both you and Will can last that long without contact.”

He told me he loves me, Mom, he wants to explain but Will’s words are too fresh and far too private to blurt out in front of the whole family. He crosses his arms silently and turns to stare out the window, hoping that Will can wait out these next few days and hoping he doesn’t think Mike hung up on him after such an important conversation. I love you, too, he thinks to himself, smiling as he presses his hand against the chilly window and imagines Will on the other side as if the car window is the window in Will’s room and Will’s inside watching Mike with that ever so lovestruck grin filled with appreciation that Mike came over despite the cold night to comfort Will from the nightmares that occasionally plague him to this day.

I love you, Will, he repeats inwardly, wait for me.

#byler #byeler #mike wheeler #will byers #fluff #drabble #request finished #sidenote: i call the book 'the golden compass' because that's the title in the states!#on ao3

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donaeis · 5 years ago

Text

simmer - get to know

by @cupcakegnome

i was tagged by the amazing @whyhellosims and couldn’t pass up on this awesome opportunity to allow yall to get to know me a bit better! 💖

your name: I went on discord a few years ago for some sims help and just named my account Figaro after my favorite horse without really thinking about it... then I actually got hooked on discord and my friends started calling me Fig, so... fig it is! here’s the real fig, though, for those who are interested:

hes more amazing than i could ever dream to be.

languages you speak: dutch, english, german (i'm gonna go as far as to say dutch and german are mutually intelligible, and tho this gives a bit less of an incentive to actually learn german when germans will understand ur dutch just fine, it also makes learning german significantly easier). I tried to learn greek but even after years and years i just couldnt get past the alphabet LOL. the only greek I know are the bits and pieces I learned from my time spent there, but id have 0 idea how to actually spell that stuff out.

are you a mermaid: if only!! i do feel a very strong connection to water, though—my dad built his own sailing boat and traveled the world with it, and during his travels me and my sis been visiting a lot, living on his boat with him while we did

your play style: so, so story-driven... even when I tell myself I just wanna play the game without a story for once I end up with one by the end of my play session anyway.

your selfsim picture:

stories or gameplay, builds, lookbooks, edits or cc: I do stories most of all, but also like regular gameplay, my stories will for a very large part be game-driven, and from time to time ill post some builds. ive done a lookbook too. basically the only thing that wont have too much of a focus on my blog, despite my using it, is cc

your favorite age state: YA

your favorite season: winter

your favorite holiday: talk like a pirate day!

how was your day: actually absolutely terrible LOL. hungover, lost my temper on both a customer as well as a coworker... at least i got through it. 😂

your favorite career: admittedly, I rarely actually play careers cause my sims are way too busy or too dumb to actually be able to go there. if I had to choose any, though... I might actually go with the military

your favorite aspiration: the one that the most of my sims have completed is Friend of the World, cause I like for my sims to be sociable so it doesnt take too much effort to complete it anyway, and the reward of relationships never decaying is great

your favorite EP, SP or GP: vampires will always hold a special place in my heart, but I also absolutely love strangerville! if I had to choose any one favorite, id go with that one.

how old is your simblr: I posted some stuff in march last year but havent been active since, like, november? december? something like that

have you woohooed: yes

your favorite skill: charisma, cause theyll develop it automatically as I play

the size of your mods folder: 2.77 GB

your 3 favorite mods: mc command center, npc control, and personality please (links) are the three mods i absolutely couldn’t play without

your interests (other than sims): writing, dancing, creating (i love things like character creation), horse riding & anything involving animals, really.

your favorite sim (picture if possible): this is actually incredibly difficult for me cause im not sure i have 1 favorite. a lot of sims of mine will always hold a special place in my heart. my favorite sim to play fluctuates a lot... but god, if i had to choose any favorite sim whom i really completely made through sims and who was not a non-sims character already precious to me turned into a sims character.... itd probably be tika. hes an asshole but man, do i just love him and especially his story.

which Sims games you have played (including mobile games): the sims 1, 2 and 4

propose a crazy scheme: the sims community actually coming up with some GOOD sims 4 qualities for once

best part of simblr: the amazing people I got to meet on here!

worst part of simblr: hmm... though i feel its much much less toxic than places like youtube or even the official forums, there is still some negativity here sometimes

what other games you play: im kind of a noob with other games, honestly. I used to play a whooole bunch of horse-related games (am a total horse girl), and I played the battle for middle earth (also looove me some LOTR). used to go to my childhood best friend's house to steal her brother's xbox and play gta iv on it, and I bought gta v for myself but sadly, I suck too bad at games to actually progress any with it

other websites or accounts (origin, twitter etc..): im on wordpress (here). i also mod a sims-based, lgbtq+ discord server called simsclub

are you single: very happily so, yes.

im tagging @wesunnysimmer, @nyteroseshadowthorn, @amuhav, @chaosxsims, @silverspringsimmer, @polishsimmersblog and well, uh... basically anyone that wants to do this! feel absolutely free to ignore this if you dont want to.

#simmer - get to know #non-sims but also not really

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writelovetomeempress · 5 years ago

Photo

I haven’t done one of these in a while, been too busy working on a new fic that’s turning out AMAZING because of some grade A+ help from @life-0r-death!!!! But I wanted to do trivia on an old old OLD fic series of mine because I just updated part of it and I’m on the final chapter and felt some nostalgia for it.

Bloody Cards is my baby, my first fic and my failure, and I still love the crap out of it!

The series revolves around Joey, Yuugi, Ryou and Tea and their adventures in Wonderland, a twisted and deadly version compared to the one they’d read about before, containing some people they never expected to see. Though Wonderland seems like a dream come true at first, they start to unravel a devastating secret that changes everything. Not only are they trapped in Wonderland when they sleep, but their real lives in Domino City are slowly being taken over by an ancient evil no one can stop, but Alice.

I read and lurked all around FF and Ao3 for years before I decided to write my own fic. I wrote a crazy cross over fic... wow something like 13 years ago, but deleted it cause it was horrendous. I never touched fanfiction writing after that because I had so much going in in my life, but returned to it again after reading some BOMB fanfiction and decided, hey, I can do that too. I love writing, I love these characters, i have some good ideas, lets do the thing!

Let’s do the thing indeed.

I decided, because I’m an overzealous idiot, to start off writing, after taking almost a decade off of literary anything, to write a multi chapter, multi fic series with OMG SO MANY CHARACTERS AND PAIRINGS (ot3′s if I’m being fair) HOLY SHIT. Go big or go home, right? Bloody Cards has EVERY single aspect of my favorite stories/tropes. Every single one. All my favorite characters, pairings, tropes, just everything. You want to know what I love to read? Just read that. It’s it. It has mystery, fantasy, horror, smut, romance, DRAGONS fucking everything smashed into that one fic and for some crazy reason it works! It’s exciting, it’s amazing, I love it!

What was too much, however, was my zero experience writing.

My first review of the fic, was that the writing was juvenile. Fair. It was. Like oh god was it. I didn’t edit shit. I didn’t reread anything. I just wrote and posted. I did NOTHING to it. It had grammar/punctuation/characterization/pacing/plot faults the size of the grand canyon and the works wrong with it, but I had a few others who checked it out and bared with me and loved the idea. My Icon is made from one of those amazing readers who became a great friend and drew Seto as the Mad Hatter for me. <3 She also drew my background for the mobile version of my Tumblr page.

So because of a few readers like her, I rewrote it, trying to make the writing better after all I’d learned. And guess what?

I still have a lot to learn about writing to do that fic.

I’ve written 20 fics since then, (not including the wips that I haven’t posted) because I found my love of writing with that fic and the amazing support I got even at my worst. Each fic I write shows me a little more about writing, but I’m still not up to snuff to do that fic justice. It needs an experienced hand. One of these days I’ll be that writer and I’ll go back in and I’ll rock that fic out of the park, but for right now, I keep it to remind me how far I’ve come and my goals for being a better writer. I want to be able to write that fic That’s my writer goal.

I have one more chapter to add to my failure pile then it’s complete and I can wait, learn more, then come back in and make it the best fic I’ve ever written because in so many ways, it still is.

#trivia tuesday #bloody cards #still my baby #still my favorite fic I've written #love it so much #<3

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farawaysoph-ie · 6 years ago

Text

Incoherent Witchlands whatever

Stuff I'm grateful for in no particular order (it gets spoilery):

ThreadSisters/Brothers

HeartThreads are not fated, I mean, let that sink

One part of the Cahr Awen being the "shadow-ender"

Initiate, complete

Iseult det Midenzi

Okay it took me more but now I love Safi too as much as her ThreadSister

Actual world-building

Iseult jumping and tricking Aeduan into following

This Threadwitch is about to kill me, I'll describe her face down to the smallest flaw #priorities

"She's too plain to be the Cahr Awen" (sure, sure)

Aeduan: "I'm a monster" *procedes to spare people who don't fight back, his mentor, the Threadwitch, to save children from pirates* "a bloody monster"

Reading and realizing that yes, of course Aeduan is a Hufflepuff

Vivia. Freaking. Nihar.

The Nihar siblings holding back ocean, fire and storm with their people backing them up

Cam is too precious for this world

Sea Foxes

The Rook

Ryber finally getting her sight, and Tanz last words killing me

Safi being actual sunshine and too good for the world

"Stupid is something they never expect"

"Next time I'll kill you" "I don't think you will"

The Empress of the Flame Children, Chosen Daughter of the Fire Well, the Most Worshipped of the Marstoks, the Destroyer of Kendura Pass

Certain life debts

The Truthwitch, the Empress of Marstok, three HellBards walk into an arena

"Fire... unsettled him."

"But never—never in a thousand years of living—would he have guessed that the Threadwitch… was not a Threadwitch at all."

Aeduan and Iseult wishing on fireflies

All the masks Vivia tries on, but they never fit her

Stix being nearsighted

Merik Nihar journey being so so far from what I expected him to experience

The whole Puppeteer concept is so sickly wow

Captain

Gotta stop my sleep deprived self here, I'll add more when I finish Bloodwitch.

(You all probably here me screaming when I reach That part)

Edit (because tumblr mobile does weird stuff)

Yeah okay, I’m not okay and probably having a breakdown because I don’t know when the next book is gonna come out. But here’s the rest of the list I guess (full spoilers ahead):

Did… did Iseult just fell asleep holding Aeduan?

Soft vowels

“One should not need credit.” Excuse me Vivia, sweetheart, you don’t need credit, you freaking deserve it

Stix unable to tell Vivia about the whispers (I almost cried)

“Stasis. Stasis in your fingers and in your toes.”

“Here she could be Vivia. Just Vivia.”

“Sharing a room, Aeduan discovered, was vastly different than sharing a forest.”

Vivia and Vaness talk

Also the fact that they call Vaness the Iron Bitch but she is like too cute and can’t let the world find out about that?!

Aeduan thinking if Iseult would feel comfortable while choosing an outfit, #couplegoals

What is Leopold’s deal? I want to like him but Habim, Matthew and Eron have me very worried

The whole dynamic(?) between Iseult and Owl? Like when she recognized herself in the little girl? (Yeah tears)

Take that Aeduan

Monk Lizl was nice surprise, the Abbott was straight up creepy

Also Evranne What. The. Hell?

Vivia reminding the vizers that it was her mother who negotiated the Threaty (DRAG THEM GIRL, DRAG THEM)

Every Vivia part of this novel made me at least borderline cry. Maybe because she’s 23, running from her shadows and trying to be someone for the world sake. All of this without realizing how strong she is. She just does something to me guys

“No one had ever called her "My Queen” before" (I could not leave vizer Sotar out of this)

“They were merely wolves in a world of rabbits, who had forgotten that rabbits were important too.[…] And now it was up to Safi to remind them that rabbits mattered too.” (Other tears, because Safi is seriously too good for the world)

“Later, he would wonder how he knew it was her. Later, he would question if maybe his magic had been there all along and the silence of her blood had called to him. But in that moment, all he knew was that it was Iseult running toward him. It was Iseult fleeing the Icewitches.”

“And he had to reach her first.”

Please let Iseult be able to help the HellBards somehow, so they can be freed from the Emperor. I need them to be okay

“He should never have let her go.” (It only took him 3 books, saving each other life, travelling together and a serious near death experience)

Iseult embracing her demons to save Aeduan, and the flames and the Firewitch telling her not to cry… I want my demons to emotionally support me too

“She wanted air. She wanted light. She wanted life. But here, in the shadows of the Well, she wanted Aeduan more.” (Of course my ghost is typing this because I DIED reading this whole thing, from when they start running towards each other)

“But Lev—blessed Lev—simply barked, “Shut up, Commander. She didn’t ask you.””

“Being a Bloodwitch did not mean he could not also be a man.”

“But she died, he thought, heart tightening. Mind reeling. She died in an explosion two weeks ago. Then a second thought hurled in: And so did you.”

Te varuje (because sleep deprived me forgot about Mhe varujta in the other post… like how?)

The Void Well answering to Vivia

“No fetters to hold her down, no masks to hold her back.”

“Because now Iseult was back where she belonged. Initiate and complete. Threadsisters to the end.” (Finally, yesyesyes)

Vivia catching and saving Vaness

Lastly Rook King What. The. Hell?

Now I can finally die a little more while I wait for the next book (*hysterical laughters in the distance*).

Ah right did you catch what Aeduan wished for? Because I remember him saying that the wish had come true, but not what the wish was about?? Did I dream that?

But anyhow, send help.

#the witchlands #the witchlands spoilers #witchlands #susan dennard #new obsession #baeseult #incoherent whatever

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comicteaparty · 5 years ago

Text

June 10th-June 16th, 2020 Reader Favorites Archive

The archive for the Reader Favorites chat that occurred from June 10th, 2020 to June 16th, 2020. The chat focused on the following question:

How does poor web design affect if and/or how you read a particular webcomic?

carcarchu

it's a huge factor. if a comic is amazing in every way but the website or app makes it difficult for me to read i'm simply NOT going to read it. there are a lot of great series that i've put on the back burner just because the website is so annoying to navigate

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

i've honestly never run into a website so bad it stopped me from reading a comic i was interested in

carcarchu

FYI the worst comic app i've ever experienced is Aqua Kiss which I downloaded to read a single series. it's the most barebones app imaginable with no search bar. if you want to read something you actually have to manually load each calendar week to find it and some stuff are buried dozens of pages back. and to make matters worse it doesn't have a "history" or "bookmarks" feature either

Deo101 [Millennium]

The worst things with sites that I see often are 1: huge headers, and 2: laggy sites (not really site design, but its adjacent I think) Another is if the pages are too big on the screen, so you can't, for instance, see some panels all at once. Those kinds of things can really ruin a reading experience for me

carcarchu

One example of a website that is hostile to the reading experience is ZMYK which for some reason hosts vertical scroll comics but cuts them up into little pieces as if they were comic format so you can't actually scroll through the entire chapter as it was intended to

That kind of thing grinds my gears so much how can something you have to pay for be that incredibly bad

Deo101 [Millennium]

I've also seen some sites that have graphic design issues, where elements are illegible due to their color, and some have very busy and distracting backgrounds. Those kinds of things won't necessarily ruin it, but they're distracting

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

forward comic's website was doing this weird thing where the further I read the longer pages took to load. Near the end it seemed they were taking 10 full seconds. Still read the whole thing though. Reading manga on shady sites with terrible internet connection as a kid has desensitized me

Oh one comic I was interested in but didn't read because of the site: I was kidnapped by lesbian pirates from outer space. It doesn't have a website. To read it you have to pirate (hehe) copies of the archive.

It's a pretty sad story- the author was young and tricked into giving up the rights to her series

She ended up taking the site down to prevent the company from getting any more money off of it

https://rosalarian.tumblr.com/post/65353128180/its-with-extreme-sadness-that-i-announce-that-my

Here's her post about it

I think it can be a good warning message to us

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

For me, the biggest thing that deters me from reading a comic is if the website isn't well optimized for mobile (as someone who reads a lot on the go). This includes the images loading bigger than the page, or navigation being hidden on mobile, or glitchy scrolling, or any number of ungodly things. Also, too many ads. That'll turn me away in a heartbeat.

Deo101 [Millennium]

Yeah ads are definitely a huge turnoff for me too

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

@carcarchu okay i just digested this comment and wtf

no search bar is laughably bad omg

how did you even find out about it

Deo101 [Millennium]

Yeah that's ridiculous hahahaha

carcarchu

it's a shame because there are genuinely good comics on there you can't read anywhere else?? and i found it because an artist i adore did a series for it but it got AXED after only 2 chapters and after that was pretty much scrubbed from the internet. i think it's a shame because it really had so much potential and it ended before the story was really able to start

it's a screenshot from the app. you can see that it is categorized reverse chronologically by week

the point of aqua kiss is to emulate monthly/weekly style manga magazines but in app form. however i think the execution of this idea was horrendous

SteffieMusings

Oh no! It must make reading there so challenging. As for me, if the navigation is so hard to understand/pages don't load properly when you click a link or when the website's colours hurt my eyes so much I can't stay there for too long.

Shizamura 🌟 O Sarilho

Honestly nowadays most of the CMS's out there share the same basic functionality and adaptability, so it's getting harder to screw up on that. Most sites are OK, if only a bit laggy. If the site takes less than 2 seconds to load and it's not so crowded that I have to look for the comic, I'm generally good.

Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)

How much bad/inaccessible web design I'll tolerate is directly proportional to how much I care about the comic.

I've dropped a couple series in the middle of the archive just because they changed the site design to screw up the tracking of bookmarking sites, so I would've had to figure out an alternate way to keep track of it, and it didn't seem worth the effort

mariah (rainy day dreams)

Oh yeah, I've totally had that happen too where I was deep into an archive, had taken a reading break for a month or two, and came back to find the urls had been updated and my spot was lost it isn't so bad if a comic also has an archive page, but ive stopped reading a few stories that it would have been too hard to track down where I was.

DaeofthePast

I haven’t had to experience weird websites in a while, but I do sometimes go to an unknown website to read the comic/manga I’m looking for. Mostly what I’ve had trouble with is unnumbered chapters, of that it’s unclear where/how to start reading in general.(edited)

Like, I get to the page for that specific comic and then there’s no easy “start reading here” button anywhere

And when I do find the chapters list, I don’t know which end of the list is the beginning bc it’s unnumbered

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

Is a "First page" button enough or are you looking for a "new readers start here" button? (<- is redisigning her page)

DaeofthePast

Is there a difference? :0

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

hm, sometimes yes.

Some old running comics have different jump-on points (schlock mercenary for example).

DaeofthePast

Ooh I see

Well when I first go on the site, I just want to start reading so idk

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

So, I always try to read every comic that's featured in the book club all the way through. Like even if I don't particularly like the opening, or if the comic is thousands of pages long, or I don't have time to meaningfully discuss the comic, I do try to at least give the comic a fair shake by reading through the entire archive. There have been four exceptions. One was because of content (it was a gag a day comic, and the content was SO horrible for SO long that I just couldn't stand it anymore. real "punching down" type of humor). Another was because the comic was literally deleted before I could get to it. The remaining two were because the site design/organization were so awful that the comics were unreadable. One of the two comics had a custom built, hand-coded site (I assume), and it just... didn't work properly. Like the "previous" button seemingly took you to a random page, the "next" button and the "latest" button led to the same place, etc. I'm not sure the creator ever bothered to test the site. The other one used some pre-built stuff, so it was ok... but you had to scroll to the top of the page to go to the next page. Not only that, but the author was posting all their comics to the same archive - which means one page would be the comic that was actually meant to be read for the book club and the next few pages were a completely different comic entirely. And this wasn't a gag-a-day either - it was a story based comic, so the three action minimum to get to the next page made things absolute hell to keep track of.(edited)

DaeofthePast

Wow

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

Uff, yeah, that sounds horrible.

Nyx+Nyssa's page is currently a barebone mess, but I made at least sure the navigation works. :/

DaeofthePast

Having the comic be deleted while you’re reading it sounds like such a weird experience lmao

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

i mean, it wasn't thanos snap style lol

DaeofthePast

Was the website gone too or?

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

it was in between days

nah the website was still there, it's just that the author had decided to reboot their comic and forgot that they had submitted it to the book club

DaeofthePast

Oh okay I imagined Thanos snap style

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Not really a design but a site thing: I can't do comics without an archive of some sort. On platforms like Tapas or WT, the episode list serves that purpose perfectly fine. I personally need to be able to see how many pages there are, and I need a way to go to specific pages easily. It might sound like a small complaint, but it's a big thing for me! There have been comics that piqued my interest, but once I saw that there was no archive of any form, I left forever. Sure, I might be missing out, but there are also lots of good comics out there that have accessible archives. My life isn't long enough to read them all, so I'm letting myself be very picky.

copperine

I can manage a very basic site just fine. But if a site is hard to navigate, or just makes reading the page/getting to the next page difficult - I'd be likely to give up eventually. Doesn't matter about the quality of the comic, but if it's a chore to just read it, it's going to put me off after a while

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

I will note - if you want me to actually discuss your comic in the book club, please do have an archive link, and probably a cast page too. Like the lack of one doesn't stop me from reading entirely, but I can't discuss anything without being able to look back at specific moments. (and one of those archives that just has dates doesn't count - lemme know what the chapter is!)

copperine

For example - when I read webcomics on dA, I was absolutely fine with either the author having a dedicated folder with the pages in order. Another option was to link next and prev pages in the description. But if I had to go find each next page, I just wouldn't.

DaeofthePast

By an archive do you mean kinda like a chapters list?

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

A list of all the pages, ideally

That also list the chapters somehow

copperine

Short version: if I feel like I'm spending half as much time navigating the site as I am actually reading, it's gonna get old real quick

DaeofthePast

And same copperine. As long as it’s organized well, I will probably read it

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

Like maybe you click on a chapter link to get to a list of the pages, or maybe it's just a list of the pages with the chapter names as headers

some sort of organization

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Yeah! (I admit my own comic's archive page isn't the prettiest, but it's 100% functional.)

DaeofthePast

I only have a chapter list so far ^^; idk how to go about getting an archive

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Chapter list is totally fine if your chapters tend to be on the shorter side

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

I like having chapter lists around, although coding them can be a handful Not sure if to go for an archive with thumbnails or just with page numbers though.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

It's also workable if you also have like... a dropdown menu for individual pages on the actual pages? So it only takes 2 clicks to go to a specific page (first click to go to the chapter, second click to go to the page)

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

OH yeah, there was also a dA comic in the book club once that didn't have any next/previous buttons. However, it was a short comic - the bare minimum for getting into the book club - so I still read it all the way through. But it was pretty annoying to do so. (it was also pretty obviously a fetish comic, but that's not really relevant to the discussion XD)

DaeofthePast

I want to post by scene so I’ll be dividing chapters like “chapter 3 part 1” to hopefully that will be better

copperine

I'll always take functional over pretty

DaeofthePast

Haha I’m not sure if I want to know the comic for that one

Also what is “punching down” humor?

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

Like, the author was a straight man, and nearly every joke was making fun of people who weren't those things.

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

it's like making fun of people but

copperine

Yikes

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

you're intentially trying to put them down

that's punching down in my imo rip

DaeofthePast

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

yeah....

DaeofthePast

Well at least I know what to call it when I see it in the future ._.

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

Like, occasionally I see a shitty joke in a comic and I keep reading because maybe the author improved (we do sometimes get comics with archives that date back decades in here) But this comic was just so consistently awful for so long that I couldn't stand it

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

oof that aint good

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

Though that's kinda off topic lol

DaeofthePast

Oh yeah

So bad site design...

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

Anyway, I don't really wanna post the examples of the comics I talked about in here cuz I don't wanna call anyone out

Actually, hold on, lemme check something

DaeofthePast

I feel I haven’t had too much experience with bad site designs, but I might have just forgotten(edited)

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

ok yeah

so, the comic where you had to scroll up to the top of each page to click to the next one, and the site was multiple comics alternating pages that made the story rough to follow

copperine

Oof yeah having to scroll up to click next won't stop me but it is a bother

DaeofthePast

I like having the next button both on top and the bottom, even if they update page by page(edited)

It just feels convinient

copperine

Yeah same

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Re: punching up/down, here's an overly simplistic set of examples: billionaires making fun of poor people is punching down. Poor people making fun of billionaires is punching up.

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

's good webdesign pattern for everything with continous content - e.g. blogs, web-novels, webcomics.

Ideally you have one on top, between content and comments and under comments

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

the comic that alternated storylines & required scrolling back up to go to the next page was Antibunny: http://vinnied.comicgenesis.com/d/20061002.html if you see that page I linked and click next a few times, there's no obvious distinction between the main story and the spinoff story (no, like, header change between the two, and the art style looks similar), so you can see how it'd be confusing to follow and the scrolling is just icing on the cake (it used to be even worse) the only reason I feel comfortable sharing that is because the author uploaded the comics to new sites, and fixed all those issues in the process: http://antibunny.net/

DaeofthePast

Oh nice. So they realized the problem

copperine

Aren't they in this server? Or am I thinking of another one

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

Yeah, the author is in this server

copperine

I thought so

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

Hence why he realized, because we told him that there was a problem during the book club

copperine

I'm not gonna take anything said here as a comment on anyway btw

DaeofthePast

It’s cool that submitting their comic to the tea party resulted in some good feedback :3

copperine

You love to see it!

It always makes me happy when webcomic community stuff helps people out, that seems like the ideal outcome

DaeofthePast

Yess

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

i agree on that yeee

DaeofthePast

It’s like having a friend point out a spelling mistake. Embarrassing but you can live with the knowledge that your work is now a little bit better(edited)

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

Yeah kinda off-topic, but I love it when the author of the comic for the book club joins the server. Like not only does it mean that the author could join in on others' discussions in the future (pay it forward 'n stuff), but... it's just really sad when I see a comic pop up in the book club and the author seemingly forgot they submitted it.

DaeofthePast

How long does it usually take to get to a comic? :0 that they would forget they submitted it?

copperine

I always hope I can help others out or support them, and I hope they feel the same

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

The book club had a very very long wait list in the past. These days, not so long.

DaeofthePast

And I guess if you submit a comic with a website, the people here can be your beta testers

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

what's odd is that five months ago, the wait list was six months but now, the wait list is two months y'all need to submit/resubmit your comics

DaeofthePast

I tried going to submit mine yesterday and the site doesn’t let me v.v says you’re booked for July

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

oh yeah, so it is

DaeofthePast

Maybe later :3

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

i guess Rebel doesn't want the queue to get too long

copperine

I would submit mine but I'm only at 10 pages and I believe you need to have 20 to submit

DaeofthePast

Ooh they have a minimum?

Gotta count my pages now

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I mean it makes sense. Hard to discuss a comic that only has the cover for chapter 1

DaeofthePast

Tru

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

"Let us dissect this cover image for an entire week"

DaeofthePast

It would be a hilarious April fools challenge

copperine

Idk I think it was 20 minimum?

DaeofthePast

shrug

copperine

@snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights) can you shed any light on this

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

The sign up form is where you would normally find that information.

copperine

... very good point

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

But the form is currently unavailable, and it's possible that Rebel might change the requirement when it becomes available again

copperine

Thank you for the heads up

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

FYI, https://comicteaparty.com/ is where the form will be available eventually

Shizamura 🌟 O Sarilho

They accept resubmissions now?

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

I def like arrows on the top and bottom of pages for sites to be more of a thing, as well as clicking the image for the next page too! Honestly there hasn't been a make or break, mainly preferences, and the most complaints i have are with the mobile formatting. I think most comics have been pretty solid in functionality that i've read, and it's clear that having their own website is becoming mainstream enough for there to be help, tips, and tricks to making it work!

mariah (rainy day dreams)

I definitely prefer if I can just click on the comic image to go to the next page especially for mobile.

copperine

Agreed!

Idk about resubmissions tho

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

... Wow. I absolutely HATE clickable images on mobile, because they usually mess with the pinch-zoom.

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

i've had sites that didnt have image click throughs and the arrow..... was like SO TINY XD

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

Didn't think anyone would actually like it, so... huh.

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

i kept going back and forth

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

yeah, navigation needs to be bigger on mobile for safe tapping.

mariah (rainy day dreams)

Oh, re:resubmissions, I'm pretty sure you can if it's been long enough? I think @snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights) mentioned it recently as an option. But maybe a tangent for #general

boogeymadam

i dont mind the pinch zoom being a little more difficult from time to time cause usually the clickable image is worth it to me

mariah (rainy day dreams)

Same

boogeymadam

am also fond of sites that allow left/right arrows to let you move forward and back on desktop

mariah (rainy day dreams)

Mainly it's just for like Krispy said, reading on mobile and tiny next/previous buttons.

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

ye my dummy thicc fingers prefer the click through image for sure

ohh yes Boogey that too

boogeymadam

it took me hours of googling to find the very simple comicpress option to just turn that on on my site

copperine

Mmm I do like sites that allow pinch zoom though

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I also prefer clicking on the image to go to the next page

mariah (rainy day dreams)

My fingers small, but still dummy T-T

copperine

It makes it easier to get a better look at the page

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

iweudhweiu Mariah XD

copperine

Especially if it's got smaller font

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

nyxandnyssa has a seperate navigation for mobile that's much bigger and skipping scene select to make tapping easier.

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

I've had the hover text def bum me out for some comics, where you click the image and it just displays the text, then you gotta click the tiny next bar def killed me there

copperine

I've never had issues with pinch zoom affecting clickable images but I can imagine it would be annoying

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

but! never breaks me out of a comic for me to stop reading-! i persevere in the face of adversity XD

boogeymadam

i've never encountered a site so bad i couldnt continue reading. maybe stuff where i'd stop reading until i was less frustrated but i'd come back later.

DaeofthePast

That’s something I’ll have to consider for my site then

mariah (rainy day dreams)

I feel like Smackjeeves had a really obnoxious auto pitch & zoom before they updated most recently. I like when I can turn it off on my phone. I'd rather do it myself most of the time and let my phone try to auto it X')

DaeofthePast

I usually read on desktop more often than on mobile so it’s good to hear from other’s experiences

copperine

Idk I've never used a custom site yet

boogeymadam

same dae, except on tapas and webtoons!(edited)

comics with their own website i'll boot up my computer for a single update of

DaeofthePast

Even on webtoons I read on desktop

boogeymadam

omg your power, webtoons feels so choppy on desktop to me

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

im definitely lucky that our site got a mobile friendly version i remember the 'ol pinchy zoomz was tiresome on our site for sure

DaeofthePast

I get headaches from reading on my phone unfortunately :/

Idk what the difference is between reading mobile and on a desktop but my brain doesn’t like it

Like, I can text fine???? But reading a comic for some reason is like “no”

So yeah, comics on desktop for me

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

ohh!! it could be the close proximity!

DaeofthePast

Ooh :0 maybe?

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

i know i get motion sickness depending on how close/ far i am from screens

DaeofthePast

Maybe it’s something like that... :O

boogeymadam

whatever the reason sorry you get headaches and motion sickness from comics :'0

DaeofthePast

Every once in a while I’ll try again to read on mobile I never learn

boogeymadam

the only reason i dont like mobile is sometimes comics text is a combination of too small there and the font is hard on my dyslexia

DaeofthePast

Rip

boogeymadam

so i see if zooming in on my computer helps

DaeofthePast

The lesson here is that it’s good to have both mobile and desktop options

boogeymadam

yep :'D

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

ohhh yea def agree. I know that feeling and i sometimes ... have a Time reading my own work XD (i admit it lol!!)

boogeymadam

sometimes my own comic is hard on my dyslexia for The Effect so i never have hard feelings with other comics

copperine

(brb)

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

ewiudhiwue the things we do AT WHAT COST XD

DaeofthePast

Asdfghjkl

Meanwhile I use the same font for everything

boogeymadam

wait im gonna generalize this more so it can be a party

DaeofthePast

Please post that on pillowfort so I can reblog it

boogeymadam

you can post it for yourself if you want dae!

i'm having a hard time logging on asdfgjh

DaeofthePast

Rip sure

copperine

Ah see I have both

Because hand lettering

It's great for feeling right for a comic but also eternally wondering if it's readable

DaeofthePast

Ooh yeah I guess that would count as both

What’s your comic btw :0

Wait, we’re supposed to be talking about website design right

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Yep! If it gets too off topic, you can always continue in another channel that's more fitting.

copperine

Ah sorry! Sure thing

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

Mobile is too small for me

DaeofthePast

Yeah

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

(oHHMYYGOSH BOOGEY XD)

boogeymadam

mm archives were mentioned already, and how it can really turn readers away to simply not have one at all? my favorite archive is https://www.vaingloriouscomic.com/comic/archive 's but i've seen some where they attempted an all picture archive and it backfired by just being a page of all empty boxes. this didn't deter me from reading it and it got fixed pretty quick tho~ mine is one of these and its a very chonky slowmoving page cause i uploaded the first 90ish as fullsized pictures. nobody's ever complained so idk if it's ever deterred anyone from reading but i know i gotta fix it someday.(edited)

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

I really dont mind any kind of web design in particular though tbh. I prefer desktop sites but it’s fine if the design isnt great

DaeofthePast

Have you guys ever gone to a comic website (for a single comic) and the colors used in the background were so bright that it felt like they were blinding you to the point it was hard to read the actual pages?

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

My archive is down right now becayse it broke and I dont know how to fix it lol

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

i def want a fully view-able archive but we're gonna be hitting 800 pages and i dont know how well that will work XD

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

But I have a navigation bar now

boogeymadam

u could have multiple pages of archive, krispy!

i'm starting a new page for chapter 2

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

Or dropdown menus

boogeymadam

but its probably important to have a dropdown if u have more than 1 page, yeah

mariah (rainy day dreams)

I want to switch to picture archives, but I haven't found a good plug in/way to get my word press to do it :( if anyone has recommendations...

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

I wish I knew how to make dropdown menus

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

i'll have to bring that up ! we dont do the tech work for our site ( thank gosh seriously) but i love archives that show full pages

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

If I could make dropdown menus I would be unstoppable

copperine

I miss the drop-downs on SJ

boogeymadam

i feel like dropdowns are smth i pretty much only exclusively see on hiveworks comics

i wonder what their secret is,,,

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

I’ve inspected the elements on so many hiveworks sites lol

I want to know

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

they use word press I think

for their comic sites

just have to do some digging with the site html and csss

copperine

Right click and inspect maybe...

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

Php stands for my Personal hell pit

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

if i could go undercover for yall i would XD

boogeymadam

also!! @mariah (rainy day dreams) i use elementor for mine

its not perfect and breaks like every time i update it but it works asdfg

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

... I'm currently writing a sparkling fresh wp-plugin for my page (comic easel wasn't doing what I wanted), but I am also a software dev who enjoys coding.

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

My template I use functions in mostly php and xml and its gibberish to me but functions so well I dont know how to improve it to have specific things I want

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

my knowledge with site design is basic at best lmao

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

wordpress is a bit special in that it does most things more complicated than strictly necessary.

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

but I do like fiddling with stuff

^that too lmao

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

I know Shiza of osarilho is really good at web designing? she's made some beautiful work with her site!

boogeymadam

i want to ask shiza for more help but not before i have some money to pay her :')

she's helped me a lot already

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

I can do html and css at the babiest level

mariah (rainy day dreams)

I'll check that out Boogey, thanks! Even if it does break X') And I guess I'll just make a note to start stashing money to hire shiza XD im definitely at the point where my site needs a general face lift, but I don't have the spoons for it.

boogeymadam

imo i've made some really pretty pges with it. it's a drag and drop that's excellent at galleries, but it doesn't like when you don't have even rows for some reason

the wordpress plugin, Elementor, i mean.

copperine

I've been wanting to try comicpress for ages

I just don't know where to start

mariah (rainy day dreams)

I'm gonna move over to #shop_talk for my response

copperine

I had someone who was gonna help me out but we lost contact so it's on the back burner

boogeymadam

OOPS yeah

copperine

But for websites in general I prefer to have one that feels very basic than one that feels too busy or crowded

I'm not a graphic designer at all lol

If I do try an independent site I'm planning to pay a coding friend to help me

DaeofthePast

yeah i have no idea what I'm doing when working on my site, it's kinda basic, but at least it looks nice

copperine

I just use a premade theme on my ComicFury site

It works and that's good enough for me so far

Oh I guess the other thing that would put me off reading a comic is if the site isn't formatted for mobile, and/or particularly if the site doesn't have adaptive formatting

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

same, but editted it hard core so it looks like it's own thing lmao

copperine

I usually read on my phone because my computer is where I work so I like to get off it for hobbies

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

but for me uh i guess mobile i try to read it either on tapas, webtoon or its own site

I find just clicking the page to the next one helps me a lot lol I don't do a lot of zooming

copperine

Mmm

copperine

It's personal preference a lot tbh!

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

I like my comuter because its big

copperine

Valid

Mine is not

Shizamura 🌟 O Sarilho

did anyone talk about paying me please you don't have to do that

copperine

Idk but you can pay me

Idk what for but

I'll take money

mariah (rainy day dreams)

I absolutely would have to if you made my site awesome X') work is work, and you should be paid for it

Shizamura 🌟 O Sarilho

fair enough

Just send me a DM whenever you're up for that and lemme take a look at what you already have

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

I would hire someone to do web design for me but I dont have the funds & I dont wnat to make someone do work for me for free

sierrabravo (Hans Vogel is Dead)

I've been meaning to set up my own website for a while now, since the collective i was originally hosting my webcomic with kinda fell apart, but it's so much work and i'm hella intimidated :'''D

copperine

@sierrabravo (Hans Vogel is Dead) there's been some related discussion in #shop_talk and I believe @boogeymadam might be able to advise (I'm sure others can too but I'm going off the convo from earlier)

Shizamura 🌟 O Sarilho

@sierrabravo (Hans Vogel is Dead) depending on how much it is I can help you out

RebelVampire

Admin Reminder Remember this channel is for experiences as a reader first and foremost, so #shop_talk and #general are better if you want to discuss your own stuff.

DaeofthePast

thank you for the reminder :3

RebelVampire

I would say poor web design is something I have a complicated relationship regarding webcomics. On the one hand, outside of a site being 100% completely broken, I'm willing to sit through a lot to read. So in terms of affecting whether I read a comic the first time or not, there isn't much to say there. But it does affect how engaged I am with the comic. Cause if I can't easily go back to re-read a page, easily find things like character names, have to deal with extreme lag cause the host is garbage, have to deal with eye bleeding color schemes, etc. you can bet your bottom dollar 1 time is all that comic is going to get in terms of reading it. I can only subject myself to so much, and if I don't feel like reading a comic again because of the site itself, I'm going to quickly forget it in favor of comics whose sites don't make me cry. I do give more leeway to sites created by creators in many respects. But professional bigtime hosts like Tapas or Webtoons literally have no excuse for some of their garbage design choices. And some of their design choices are super duper garbage.

DaeofthePast

that's true yeah, there's a big distinction of the quality expectations between sites by small creators and those of big companies like Webtoons

RebelVampire

At the same time, though, I know from first hand experience that poor design choices are literally influenced by user data for bigger companies. So for every decision I consider stupid- at the same time they probably did the AB tests that showed crappy design A had better results for their conversion rates than user friendly design B.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Which boggles my mind

I wonder if there's some kinda causation-correlation thing going on that the A/B tests could not detect accurately

boogeymadam

Rebel mentioned sites that have eyebleedy color schemes and I'm in the same boat; will read the comic, just will be turning down the screen brightness a looot. Sites that have a huge space of extremely neon background that distracts from the comic make me reluctant to read on the site, and I'll look for a mirror before trying. That white background of the 2 big comic hosting sites can at least be affected and turned dark by nightmode when needed, while nightmode doesn't work on half the bright comic sites I've tried it on. u-u

#ctparchive #comics #webcomics #indie comics #comic chat #comic discussion #comic tea party #ctp #reader favorites

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pyroclaststan · 6 years ago

Text

Heartbreak Panes

So uh, finally posting my first Fallen Hero fic/bit of writing or what have you. Apologies for any mistakes and the sheer clogging length of this nonsense: there’s no readmores on mobile, and the formatting is trash because I copy-pasted from my phone notes for ease of editing. Warnings first then we’ll hop right into it. CW for possible: suicide, suicidal ideation, body horror, blood, graphic depictions of body trauma, gore, self-harm

————————————

It all needed to stop now: just like you stopped Heartbreak.

Your eyes still aim forward, not risking a good look or even a glance at whoever the dying telepath is that you’ve fired upon. You know mind games, you know what telepaths can do if you let them in, and worst of all you know what she’s done here—what she’s still doing. It’s still building around you, drowning out what’s left of everyone still inside. You know that she needs to be stopped here and now or your feelings—

No, her feelings.

—her influence will continue to spread. And so you continue to fire your caster. Over and over and over...

Let it out. Let it in.

You remember the sound of rushing waters.

You remember the weight of your limbs. A familiar weight you’ve fought many times before but you didn’t care to (I do) now. You remember how curious you were suddenly about the energy caster in your hand—about how it felt to be on the receiving end. You remember the morbid curiosity about the material of it: how would it taste?

Would it taste like freedom? Like relief? Like a satisfying sleep, the first in your life? Would it taste like an end to an ever-constant nightmare from which you couldn’t wake?

Didn’t everything always feel like you were dreaming?

Being made—grown—and trained to be a tool... that certainly sounded like a dream sequence. Some kind of sci-fi plot with bad actors and even worse special effects. All of the stone-faced meat-machines of blue and orange around you: no expense spared for the makeup and effects. The symbolism of other, and of danger, and of you’ll never belong.

Falling perfectly into place like a little toy soldier was like a dream: belief in the cause, blind devotion, fervent idealism, and an insatiable... hunger?

Your dry lips twitch, and again the urge to fill your mouth and taste pulses. The pressure building at your temples and the base of your skull like an anxiety attack you can’t shake. Your jaw aches under the strain you apply to clench it.

The dream carries on to freedom. Well, a freedom to any degree or sense you could experience it. You’ll always be followed, watched, touched, experienced, seen. You meet people who will never truly know you and they make you believe that you have a place among them. And sometimes, in bad times, they fulfil their purpose in your life and exit just as swiftly. It is hard to break the habits they’ve instilled in you: this is only a dream.

Like dreams, sometimes it all turned towards the fantastical, the above and beyond: you became a superhero. Like the ones in the vintage comics and shows and movies people—real humans—used to partake in. The classics Anathema would show you of people striving to be more than they’d been before circumstances gave them a taste for something more. A hunger for being more, doing more, going beyond the everyday limitations of others.

A hunger that pools in the stomach, an idea that feeds the brain dreams and passions and even more ideas. You never had a choice in hungers like that—force-fed.

And as dreams do this one darkened. This one crept in so slowly, fell upon you so heavily, and reminded you that even in dreams the hunger of the nightmare lingers.

You remember now that this is real life, always has been, and that reality has never held any favour for you. You will live and die by another’s rules or choices, bound by your limitations. And right now, at this very moment, something across from you is telling you it feels it, too. And it understands that secret you never shared: that you only ever found one decision that was truly for you.

Always running, always crafting a careful exit, always passing through. The only option you ever really had for yourself was leave.

Look at yourself: even in coming here you were carrying on the directive given to you, lying to yourself that it was of your own free-will.

Helping people.

Sounds a lot like what you were made to do: save the ‘right’ people, stop the ‘wrong’ ones. Sure, your definitions changed or broadened and sure, you pick your own targets now, but you were never very good at pushing the boundaries.

It crawls across your mind with a jackhammer. An involuntary inevitability that is swallowing you whole. An inescapable pounding at the door of your mind—the neighbour who will never leave.

What if you pushed this boundary?

What if you made a real exit? Leave the dream?

Taste the metal.

Your hand feels so much lighter when it starts to move up and you realise it’s right. You could truly make a choice for you: one that’s not just a rehashing of what you were made to be. One that’s not just a lie or a dream. A real choice.

It isn’t deciding this for you (it is), it’s just pointing out the obvious: you’ve always wanted to let go.

You’ve always felt the weight of the leash on your chest and the cut of the strings on your heart. You’ll always be someone else’s to order—someone else’s property—and you’ll never ever be safe. You’re not yours: there is no You.

You feel the tightness in your throat, the bile begging to fill your mouth, the hatred of knowing your dream has always been a carefully crafted lie. You have always been a creature, a tool, a science experiment.

An experiment of which you are the variable. The variable this time lifting your gun and your mask. The variable remembering that a tool must always do the job efficiently and to completion, as you turn the dial to its strongest setting. Nothing else will do.

If you were ever a tool of worth to those that made you while you were here, let them mourn you once you’re gone. Let them cry at the loss of their equipment.

Something in the back of your mind is screaming at you but the sound of waters is too loud. Something churns in your stomach and your mind tells you that it’s the hunger.

(It was my everything telling me this was wrong.)

The gun fits into your mouth like it was meant to be there: something in your mind supplies that it always was.

Your morbid curiosity is answered: metal.

It just tastes like metal.

Something in the waters is roaring, your name called out only to be muffled by the tide.

Kingsley, it cries. Your name.

It’s not from your lips, or hers. It’s Ortega, begging you to stop.

He begs on, cries for explanation, tries to make you see but you can only see your exit. You know with the whole of you that something about him should be causing you to stop, but all you can hear are the rapids.

Pull the trigger. End the dream. End this. Die. Let it go. Be free. Stop the game. Cut the leash. Finish this.

The cacophony is scraping against your mind with a pain you can’t imagine but you can’t gather the will to move. Ortega is wrestling your limbs, pulling your arm behind your back almost painfully if not for your dull haze. You need to escape this: the crescendo is maddening. Your body is stone and you need to be free, now, so all you can do is fire.

The flash is green and blinding even in your delirium, but your body is light again. You let go of your escape plan—it’s in Ortega’s hand now—but your mind quickly supplies another.

The window.

Like a moth to flame the light draws you in, every sense screaming at you to go. Your feet move before you can think any further: you need to get to the light, go forth, nothing else. And as Ortega reaches for you, your instincts move you out of the way: you need to be free of this dream. You’ve always been true to your namesake when it matters most.

The hunger for the light overrides the taste for anything else; you don’t know which dream it is you’re escaping or if it’s all of them. You suppose there won’t be dreams anymore, just sleep.

And you are so very tired. It takes so much to try and be real.

Your hands then face collide with glass and momentum carries you forward, shards and edges tearing you from your reverie. Your sharp inhalation slows the world to a crawl as you go, the shrill sound of your name being screamed somewhere behind you is rising in volume and the feeling pooling in your stomach earlier is gathering in your throat. For the first moment in your life you have a perfect clarity; powerful, complete awareness.

The sun is setting over Los Diablos, sparkling off the shards of glass that cascade around you like a waterfall of gems. The air is cool and rushing against you through your coat and the tears in your suit that have yet to seal. Your arms flail in the slowest of motion—you look like a newborn bird trying to take flight in some macabre yet poetic way. Your breath is stolen but in this small moment it feels as if you’ve never needed it. Or you never wanted it.

Is it cruel to find this day so warm, so beautiful?

The streets below you are blessedly empty, the LDPD flittering away—no, flickering away. One by one you feel the terrified and panicked lights extinguish from your mind. A rapturous warmth slides across you as the pressure of each one builds and then silence washes over. A welcome reprieve. The quiet will be coming for you, too, finally.

(I don’t want silence, I don’t want it.)

You feel Steel, somewhere: his worry for Ortega, his desire to finish the mission. Everything in you reaches out for him—you want someone to hear you. Hear your final words, give you some kind of closure with the people whose light you’ve been a shadow to. You always admired Wei’s motivation and now you’ll never be able to tell him that. A small, traitorous part of you screams for him to catch you, notice you, but you know that’s impossible.

Would he have even cared to try?

You search for Ortega but he’s a blind spot as always, and now more than ever you crave the static of his mind missing from your side. You care about him, so goddamn much it hurts, and everything in you claws out for some sort of purchase on his mind to reach him, but you know it won’t. Just one more small thing to die today: your hope.

(So sorry, I am so sorry.)

The hot, uneven pavement of just another Los Diablos street is rising to meet you, its arms open and waiting. Was it always waiting?

Some small, guilty part of you feels so bad for taking so long to reach it; no terminal velocity coming from that height to help you on the way down.

Nevertheless, the dream will all be over soon.

Faster now—your reverie ending—it comes for you, and you brace yourself for an asphalt kiss.

Again comes your morbid curiosity: will this taste like metal, too?

And so you meet it with a symphony of a disgusting thud, an echoing crack of bones, glass and gravel puncturing palms; a muffled scream as the stone clashes forcefully against your teeth and blood fills the spaces in between. Your hands’ instinct was to catch you but they touch down at the same time as your face and the impact reverberates up your limbs as your bones shatter like splinters. Your brain slams against your skull and not fast enough because holy hell you feel all of it. You feel it all and hate yourself because somewhere back there you thought that the end would be sweet and painless.

Before you black out from the torment you make a macabre note: the fifth story isn’t the place to find heaven.

You don’t know when, you don’t know how, but somehow you find consciousness. And you will remember the atrocity of it for the rest of your short, sad life unfortunately.

Your mind is muddled, your vision blurred if not destroyed, and everything screams with more pain than you’d ever experienced in all yours days of infiltration and hero work. Your thoughts feel like they’re in a blender, trying to reach for the solids while it’s still going. If your brain is not completely in tatters your bones have picked up the slack. Who knows how much trauma you’ve caused?

(And not just physically.)

Every part of you feels like fire, your mouth is filled with the taste of metal and bone. It makes you panic and cry and every quickened breath hurts like molten lava and threatens to make you pass out again, if you don’t drown in blood bubbles first. Stab after stab, unable to move: and here at the end, waiting to bleed out, you fall apart.

What tiny speck of consciousness you have is like a banshee scream against the rest of you, and it only sounds out one thing: Ortega.

If you beg and plead, will your calls fall upon the ears of a god who never cared for you? The one Tía spoke so highly of? Who never looked your way? Who never made sense to you? Who never even made you?

Your messy keening is only the answer that breaks the silence. Fitting. You’ve never been stupid enough to believe you’re worth anything that matters.

#MC: Kingsley Chrysanta #Sidestep #The Heartbreak Incident #Fallen Hero #fanfic #fallen hero: rebirth #FHR #FH: Rebirth #fh:r #pre-rebirth #The Mischief scribbles #possible spoilers #cw

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burnouts3s3 · 6 years ago

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Jump Force, a review

(Disclaimer: The following is a non-profit unprofessional blog post written by an unprofessional blog poster. All purported facts and statement are little more than the subjective, biased opinion of said blog poster. In other words, don’t take anything I say too seriously.) Just the facts 'Cause you're in a Hurry! Publisher: Bandai Namco Developer: Spike Chunsoft Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price (MSRP): 59.99 USD How much I paid: 99.99 USD for the Ultimate Edition. Bundle Includes: 3 Days Early access. Lobby Vehicles to ‘ride around in’ that’s purely cosmetic. Season Pass that unlocks 9 DLC characters to be announced and released at a later date. Rated: T for Mild Blood, Suggestive Themes and Violence Number of Playable Characters: 43. 4 Original characters. 39 Characters from Established franchises. Number of Stages: 7. Each Stage has a transition that changes when a character hits an opponent with a specific attack. Can I play offline: Yes. Controller Support: Yes. It was compatible with my Rock-Candy Xbox 360 controller. Keyboard and Mouse controls are available but are very awkward and the game was clearly designed with a controller in mind. How long I played: 18 Hours. 10 Hours to beat the story mode while watching the Cutscenes. UNSKIPPABLE cutscenes. 7 Hours just messing around and playing online matches. Microtransactions: 39.99 Season Pass that unlocks 9 DLC characters to be announced at a later date. Dual Audio: No. Only Japanese Audio with Subs available. What I played on: My PC. Performance Issues: For the most part, I got ‘mostly’ 60 FPS when I was playing online or running around. However, the FPS dips when there’s a cutscene playing to the mid 40’s even the high 30’s. Too bad however beautiful the particle effects are can’t adjust the wooden facial animations and stiff body movements. 3 Crashes within my playtime. My Personal Biases: I’ve followed the saga of Son Goku and friends. I’ve watched Naruto Uzumaki become the Hokage. I’ve watched Yusuke Urameshi journey from boy to man. I’ve watched Gon, Killua and Kullapika go on their various hunting expeditions. I’ve watched Yugi Moto become the king of games. And I’ve watched Light Yagami become defeated by his own hubris. In other words, I’ve been waiting for this game a ‘very’ long time, and have played previous games such as JStars Victory Vs. My Verdict: As much fun as it is seeing characters like Fist of the North Star’s Kenshiro beat the pulp out of My Hero Academia’s Deku, the limited roster, worn out gameplay from the Naruto Shippuden and Dragonball Xenoverse games, the laughable animation, idiotic story mode and the ever anti-consumer practices of Bandai Namco are bogging this game down. If you’re a fan of Shounen Jump, you’ll sure to have fun. But, if you’re patient or you want more characters consider picking up Jump Ultimate Stars or JStars Victory Vs and wait for a sale. Jump Force, a review

In celebration for 50 years, Weekly Shounen Jump has announced a new crossover game. Made with collaboration between Publisher Bandai Namco and Developer Spike Chunsoft, “Jump Force” arrives to bring together various characters found in Shueisha’s long running publication.

Can the game live up to the vast legacy it has inherited? Let’s find out in this review of “Jump Force”!

The Umbra cubes, cosmic cubes capable of granting those great power, have spread throughout the world. Thanks to the villain, Kane, and his lovely assistant, Galena, he has recruited the villains from Shounen Jump and replicated them. All the meanwhile, normal citizens have become “Venoms”, possessed by evil impulses. But just as Frieza fires a laser beam, ending your life, Trunks comes in, uses and Umbra cube and grants you great power to help combat evil.

Jump Force is an Arena fighting game similar to games such as Dragonball Xenoverse or Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm. Players pick between 3 characters and attempt to lower their opponent’s (shared) healthbar to zero. In addition to physical attacks, they can spend the abilities gauge to use a variety of ranged or close up attacks. In addition, whenever players take damage, they fill up the ‘awakening’ bar. Using half an awakening bar will allow players to unleash an ultimate attack, an ability that deals more damage than regular abilities. Using a full awakening bar will ‘transform’ the character to a powered-up state. For example, Goku will transform from his base form to his Super Saiyan form.

The other two characters can be called upon using the left trigger. Simply pressing the trigger will swap the character while holding it down will call them for an assist attack. Unfortunately, you cannot change the order of which characters you switch to and must cycle through said order to access the characters. (For example having a team order of Goku, Vegeta and Piccolo means that Goku cannot switch to Piccolo without switching through Vegeta first). Be careful because if you switch while both characters are on screen and the opponent is able to hit both, you’ll receive double the damage.

Customizing your character is nothing new for Bandai Namco games such as the various DBZ Xenoverse games and Naruto: Shinobi Striker, but the mechanic remains impressive here. Allowing you a vast customization between characters allows different playstyles and gives your individual avatar the ability to learn various techniques such as Vegeta’s Galick Gun or Yusuke’s Spirit Gun. However, certain techniques, such as anything related to Jotaro or Yugi are unable to be learned by your Avatar character.

Similarly, the defense system returns. Using the mobility meter, characters can dash towards or away from the opponent or teleport out of a combo behind the enemy. Most of the time, using the guard button will block most attacks. But, characters can either grab the blocking opponent or hold down either the smash or heavy smash button to break through the opponent’s guard.

While most of the characters play similar to one another, some of the characters have slight variations. For example, similar to his manga counterpart, Sanji will be unable to deal damage to female characters. Similarly, when Gon connets with an opponent with his Ultimate attack, he will become unplayable for the duration of the match.

Learning said techniques can be used by spending the in-game currency which allows you to easily unlock abilities, skills that aid in battle such as boosting attack power or various costumes for your avatar. In-game currency can be earned by either playing through the story or playing online.

The Story will not win any awards unless the Razzies suddenly announce a video game category. It’s a pastiche of clichés, tired tropes and nonsense as players slog through another world ending plot with stupid villains, stupid twists and characters acting like morons. For some reason, Light Yagami figures out the twist that even the dumbest of us can figure out 5 seconds in. Not helping matters are the rest of the characters acting like complete idiots with Sanji being the focus for some reason.

Say what you will about the current state of fanfiction, bad fanfiction is at least INTERESTING.

This combines the worst of Mary Sue fanfiction with the most boring and bland cliches possible. I understand orienting the game for Western audiences meant having to borrow notes from the Avengers and Justice League, but the characters expositing non-stop about the predictable plotline isn’t helpful. Worst yet, Developer Spike Chunsoft has forgotten a vital component for any story cutscene, the ability to skip them. So, be prepared to watch as characters drone on and on during the cutscenes figuring out the plot.

Just the same, the artstyle is going to alienate some longtime fans. While using the Unreal engine to render things such as particle effects, fire and energy beams is a delight to behold, said delight is replaced by revulsion watching the stiff character faces barely emote when watching a cutscene. These animations make Mass Effect: Andromeda look like the Witcher 3.

Half the time, the characters don’t even talk. RYUK DOESN’T EVEN HAVE A VOICE! What’s odd is that in the non-essential cutscenes, when the characters barely move and don’t have voices, the writing actually improves. Seeing various characters from different franchises interact with each other, brings a small delight to a mess of a game. Watching Zoro tutor Asta while Kenshin watches on or seeing Deku be a student to Kakashi’s lectures is the stuff of fan dreams. It’s too bad these moments are few and fleeting. And while 42 Characters in a base game is nothing to sneeze at, fans of Shounen Jump crossover games have already called out Developer Spike Chunsoft. While more famous franchises such as Dragonball Z, Naruto and One Piece boast a whopping 6 representatives each, more obscure franchises are either not represented or have a meager 1 character, such as City Hunter’s Ryo Saeba or Fist of the North Star’s Kenshiro. Meanwhile, mainstays from previous Jump crossover games such as Dr. Slump’s Arale, Kochikame’s Ryotsu, Bobobo’s Bobobo, D Grayman’s Allen Walker, Reborn’s Tsuna Sawada and Gintama’s Gintoki are all missing (though there is speculation they would be added later as Downloadable Content locked away with a paywall). And yet… God, it’s just such a fangasm seeing characters from different franchises duke it out with one another. Seeing Jotaro fight with Deku. Seeing Asta cross blades with Dai. Seeing Goku trade blows with Kenshiro is just one of my biggest dreams. There’s a germ of an idea here but it’s botched by piss-poor execution. I’m just so sick of games I would’ve loved missing the mark and not reaching their full potential. Caveat: Shounen Jump, Shueisha and Bandai Namco have a rare opportunity on their hands. Having the ability to have a character as old as Seiya have a fist fight with a modern character like Deku is one of the rare privileges a company can have alongside with Marvel, DC Comics and Nintendo. So, it’s unfortunate when Bandai Namco and Spike Chunsoft drop the ball and start limiting the roster, overpopulating it with familiar franchises instead of obscure ones and start nickeling and diming its customers with stupid DLC policies. Say what you will about the (very) imperfect JStars Victory Vs (which was also developed by Spike Chunsoft and published by Bandai Namco), the one thing that game did right was introduce a plebian like me to series such as Medaka Box, Assassination Classroom, The Disastrous Life of Saiki K, Toriko and Beelzebub. And while I did enjoy the extensive customization and gained a sick sense of pleasure whenever I finish off an opponent with DIO’s Road Roller, part of me couldn’t help but wonder when Kinnikuman is going to get the recognition he deserves. Maybe when Shounen Jump has its 55th anniversary, they can give its vast legacy of characters a game worthy of 50 years. We’ll always have Jump Ultimate Stars on the DS. Verdict: Rental or Wait for a Sale

#jump force #bandai namco #spike chunsoft #goku #vegeta #luffy #naruto #shounen jump #shueisha

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madscientistjournal · 6 years ago

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Product Review: Chronochill

As provided by Joachim Heijndermans Art by Dawn Vogel

Product Name: Chronochill Max Duozone® – Black Version Price: $389,95 & free shipping Customer Rating: *** with 85 customer reviews In Stock.

Product Description: Item Weight: 39lbs/ 17kg. Shipping Weight: 49lbs/ 22kg. Manufacturer: Chronochill LTD. ASIN: B008HFSSB2. Item Model Nr: 866339266CC.

Product Information: Temporal Shift Refrigerator. For those wizards in the kitchen who just can’t stand it when the food in their fridge goes bad, even after storing it just two days ago. The Duozone® from Chronochill prevents food from spoiling, melting, and being affected by frostbite or any other side effect that comes with the common fridge. Most refrigerators use cold air to keep food fresh, but moisture buildup eventually takes its toll on fruit, meat, and vegetables. By freezing your food within a single moment in time and storing it in a temporal shift zone, the Duozone® preserves anything you place inside it in its original status. You too will love having your meals preserved the ultimate way, locked within less than a second and still as fresh as the moment you stored it.

By freezing your food within a single moment in time and storing it in a temporal shift zone, the Duozone® preserves anything you place inside it in its original status.

Customer Reviews

DaisyDeez75: I bought mine last year, and I absolutely love it. Love, love, love it. My strawberries and blueberries always seemed to get moldy in my old fridge. Now I can actually store my meals for months. I had fresh summer fruit for x-mas. How wild is that? Love it. Recommend it to everyone. Five stars.

HarryFires02: It’s not really a fridge, is it? I put a beer in mine that I’d left out on my patio, and a few weeks later it was still lukewarm. Major design flaw. Getting a real fridge next time. No stars.

KaKay-zen: @HarryFires02 You know you can install a new temperature once you put your beer inside, right?

HarryFires02: @KaKay-zen Found it. Thanks. Works like a dream. Five stars.

KaKay-zen: @HarryFires02 No problem.

ROYDEEp: I like how much I can store inside. I’ve been able to cook entire courses weeks in advance, and then serve them still piping hot. Good deal. Four stars.

HarryFires02: Okay, so I managed to get the temp right, but now my six-pack of beer I put in there is gone. Like, vanished gone. No-one took it out, so I have no idea what happened to it. What is up with this piece of junk? Zero stars.

84FreeZone: Does anyone else have problems with the noise it makes? It’s not a constant thing, but in the middle of the night, it keeps going off. It’s annoying. Do love the rest of it. I just finished the tempura I got at the hibachi place near me a month ago, and it’s still crunchy and warm. Three stars.

KathyGibbs: @HarryFires02 Is your name Harold Fines? Because if so, I think I have your beer. I found it this morning in my fridge with a receipt on it. I have no idea how it got there.

BenSuller: I hate this thing. Hate it! Tried it. Returned it immediately. Stupid Japanese crap. Zero Stars.

HiJiNx453: @BenSuller Chronochill is a Finnish/Danish company. Dumbass.

BenSuller: [Comments removed by moderator]

HiJiNx453: @BenSuller you kiss your wife with that mouth?

BenSuller: [Comments removed by moderator]

HarryFires02: @KathyGibbs It is. How did my beer end up in your fridge? What is up with this thing?

Lolzcaty$$: @HarryFires02 You’re not the only one. I made a casserole, put it in right out of the oven, and the next day it was gone.

HohoHi: @HarryFires02 @Lolzcaty$$ Same here. My pizza vanished. But there was a casserole in its place. Is that yours?

HiJiNx453: Ok, this is weird. Why does the food keep jumping around? Someone should call Chronochill and complain.

ScarfaceSHTMLF: Mine works like a dream. No issues and great food. Five stars.

KathyGibbs: Throwing it out there, but is anyone missing some vintage bottles of Bordeaux? I think I have them. I feel really bad, and I want to return them to their rightful owner. Also, getting rid of my Duozone.

HohoHi: Woke up today and checked my fridge. Why is there a snow globe in it? WTF Chronochill?

Blerra2002: @KathyGibbs Those would be mine, I think. I’ll post pics of them before I lost them. Also, I have Larry Thilbert’s heart medication. Tried to find you, but there’s seven Larry Thilberts in my state alone. Please contact me.

HohoHi: I’m getting rid of my Duozone. This last week, I kept finding something new every morning. It was funny until today, when I found “samples” that someone stored in there. I pray to God they were either from a lab or for medical testing, because if not, shame on you sir.

Genndy Wazlow: No idea what the fuss is about. Love my Duozone. Don’t like the color though, but whatever. Four stars.

KaKay-zen: @Genndy Wazlow You know it comes in different colors, right?

HarryFires02: I hope they’re gonna do a recall. Mine got taken in for evidence. Not getting a new one, even if they do fix the glitch. Zero stars.

84FreeZone: @HarryFires02 What happened? Did the cops take it? If so, why?

HarryFires02: @84FreeZone I put lettuce in it. Got a different kind of head in it the next day. Some psycho put it in his Duozone. Nearly had a heart attack. I’m just hoping the cops believe me, even with the statement by Chronochill. Like I said: zero stars.

Click here to read 57 further comments.

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Chronochill LTD, founded in 2093, has been the top brand in temporal food storage. After the success of their first Chrono-depot and the acquisition of their first chained-restaurant contract (the event that led to the end of the McWars, and the final nail in the coffin for Burger Queen/Gwendy’s Jr.), Chronochill has recently expanded with home-based temporal refrigeration units. Despite the controversy regarding this move, Chronochill LTD has sold over 60,000 units last march.

Joachim Heijndermans writes, draws, and paints nearly every waking hour. Originally from the Netherlands, he’s been all over the world, boring people by spouting random trivia. His work has been featured in a number of publications, such as Every Day Fiction, Asymmetry Fiction, Gathering Storm Magazine, Hinnom Magazine, and The Gallery of Curiosities, and he’s currently in the midst of completing his first children’s book. You can check out his other work at www.joachimheijndermans.com, or follow him on Twitter: @jheijndermans.

Dawn Vogel writes and edits both fiction and non-fiction. Her academic background is in history, so it’s not surprising that much of her fiction is set in earlier times. By day, she edits reports for historians and archaeologists. In her alleged spare time, she runs a craft business, co-edits Mad Scientist Journal, and tries to find time for writing. She is a member of Broad Universe, SFWA, and Codex Writers. Her steampunk series, Brass and Glass, is being published by Razorgirl Press. She lives in Seattle with her awesome husband (and fellow author), Jeremy Zimmerman, and their herd of cats. Visit her at historythatneverwas.com.

Product Review: Chronochill was originally published on Mad Scientist Journal

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