#Aloy going Avatar state

[i-lavabean]

[thescientistowl]

Dawn Eases Night, Chap. 3

Here you go, gang, an update at last. Sorry it took a little longer than I orignally planned - I've been working a lot of late shifts at work so I haven't had as much time to write as I'd like.

We're still in nice territory so there's no nastiness to tag just yet. I keep promising bad stuff, but honestly I just want to write fluff because the bad stuff is coming and I don't like it! I guess that means the summary for this chapter is just... Aloy and Nil being massive softies for each other.

So, please enjoy! It's a little filler-esque, this chapter, but it just had a few things I wanted to get out that I don't think I could fit in any other chapter.

And again, no beta. We die like... spoiler!

Chapter Three - To Call Our Own

     Aloy stepped from her room, feeling the slight rush of air that preceded the closure of the doors. She could still hear Beta gently snoring away – having asked GAIA to leave her doors open just a little – and Sylens was, presumably, still hiding in the room that he had claimed for himself. She still wasn’t used to hearing this place so quiet and still, empty of the several lives that had lived there with her many months. But they had their jobs to do, their own friends and families to visit, and they deserved a break after everything they had been through.

     Her hand reached to her throat, where a red Carja silk scarf was wrapped gently around her neck, and she smiled. She deserved a break too, even if it was only a small one in the greater scheme of things.

     And hopefully, Nil would be happy to see her wearing his old scarf.  

     With a final check that she had everything that she needed, Aloy made her way up the stairs and to the control room. She wanted to check in with GAIA before she left.

     GAIA was, unsurprisingly, waiting for her as she arrived. Her smile was gentle, her eyes kind, and both were warm as they were bathed in the golden light that made up her avatar.

     “Good morning, Aloy.”

     “Morning, GAIA.”

     GAIA motioned to the weapons on her back, and the packs at her sides. “While I appreciate that you wish to recapture Hephaestus, I must ask why you are preparing to venture out when you had previously stated that you were to be taking a break.”

     “I am, GAIA, don’t worry.” Aloy smiled, gesturing to herself. “I can’t keep running myself into the ground, I know. I’m going to head out to Vegas for a couple of days.”

     “To spend time with Nil?”

     Aloy jerked uncomfortably. Was she that easy to read?

     “I could be going to visit Morlund and his friends.”

     “This is true, but given that most of your time there has been with your friend Nil and the racers, I merely assumed that this would be your course of action.” GAIA paused, looking mildly concerned. “I am sorry if I was incorrect. Perhaps my predictive analysis coding requires attention.”

     “No,” Aloy soothed, “you’re fine, GAIA. I am. Going to see Nil, I mean.”

     GAIA smiled and nodded. “Then I wish you a safe journey, Aloy.”

     “Thanks. Would you keep an eye on Beta, please? I don’t trust Sylens to not try and force her into work at some point.”

     “I will.”

     With a parting thank you, Aloy turned and made her way back to the common room, gathering some dried fruits and nuts from the breakfast bar and placing them inside her food pouch. Now she was ready.

     The land outside the western entrance was blanketed in light purple shadows as the sunlight peeked over the mountain behind her. Below sat the shelter that she, Erend and Kotallo had made for their Chargers, one built of old rocks and made to resemble a rockslide that leaned against the bottom of the mountain. It wasn’t an ideal shelter when there was an entire repair bay below them, but they were low on options since GAIA had locked the bay down in order to keep it safe from Hephaestus.

     Buddy had appeared from the small entrance upon hearing her footsteps, and he bleated up at her impatiently.

     “You know where we’re going, don’t you?”    

     Above her Aloy heard the gentle flapping of metal and film, and a shadow descended over her until a Sunwing appeared in her vision.

     “Morning, Birdie.”

     The Sunwing, Birdie, squawked and landed below, next to Buddy. The two machines had, at least to Aloy, appeared to have become friends; two independent override codes that bonded over their mutual love of trying to make Aloy’s ride as uncomfortable as possible when she led them into dangerous situations. She supposed she deserved it.  

     Both machines watched as Aloy climbed down from the edge to join them. Birdie squawked again, tapping at Aloy’s head with her beak.

     “I’m going to go to Hidden Ember for a couple of days, guys, so Buddy,” she turned to the Charger who suddenly started to fidget with excitement, “you’re with me.”

     Buddy bleated happily. Birdie, however, grumbled.

     “You don’t even like sand,” Aloy turned to the winged machine, her hands on her hips. “And the races don’t interest you. Just stay here, for Beta’s sake. Please?” She was begging now. “With Sylens around, she’s going to need to get out every now and then, and I trust you to look after her.”

     Shortly after their defeat over the Zeniths, Aloy had taught Beta how to fly. She was proud that her sister had become a fair flyer, even if Beta herself didn’t like leaving the base too far behind. At least it gave her a sense of freedom and a feeling of control that she had severely lacked for the better part of her life.

     Birdie chirped, tapping Aloy once more with her beak before she took flight, kicking up dust until she vanished from sight behind the mountain. Inside the shelter the remaining Chargers, with their severe lack of personality, bleated until the dust settled.

     “That could have been you, you know.” Aloy pointed at the shelter. “Boring.”

     Buddy chuffed agreeably in reply.

     Turning to face their path down the hill, Aloy thought that perhaps she should check if Nil and the racers were actually at the Stillsands track. She had recently gifted him with a focus, so it would be easy to check.

     She had no intention of dragging him into the impending battle with Nemesis - no, she was not going to ruin his newfound happiness for that – but she had wanted a way for him to see some of the things she could see. She wanted to share some of the wonders of the old world with him, and she couldn’t do that if he didn’t have a focus.

     But this business, with Nemesis and Hephaestus, she was keeping away from him. He had recently seen the inside of a cauldron with her and he had struggled with that, but she knew that if she asked for his help that he would offer his blade, his bow and his life regardless of how uncomfortable the situation made him. She wouldn’t let him do that. Not now.

     But she was getting distracted.

     Raising her hand to her focus she activated it and found Nil’s name on the list of contacts that it held. She had never tried to contact him via the focus network before, and she fleetingly wondered if this was going to be a bad idea.

     “Here goes nothing.”

     Tapping his name, Aloy heard her focus blip, ready to transmit her voice over the vast distance between her and Hidden Ember.

     “Nil?”

     She heard a commotion in her ear, a scuffle, and string of Carja curses.

     Aloy pursed her lips together, trying to contain the laughter that shook her shoulders. With a steadying breath she spoke again. “You okay, Nil?”

     “Aloy?” Nil’s voice sounded… terrified?

     “The one and the same.” Again, she fought back laughter.

     “By the sun, Aloy!”

     “Sorry, I forgot to tell you that I could talk to you with the focus.”

     “You forgot.” His voice was deadpan, and this time Aloy couldn’t hold back her laughter. “How do you forget something like that?”

     “Well, I was in a rush when we last met.”

     “That was weeks ago!”

     Aloy’s laughter died. It was weeks ago, wasn’t it? But she had been so busy trying to figure out how to recapture Hephaestus that she had forgotten to contact him in the meantime.

     She was a terrible friend.

     “I’m sorry. I’ve been busy.” She said, genuinely apologetic as she leapt atop Buddy. It felt like such a hollow apology when said out loud.

     Aloy heard a calming breath come from Nil’s side of the network. “It’s alright, I understand. Whatever the nature of your calling, I am well aware that it keeps you occupied.”

     She smiled, her heart fluttering at both the softness and the kindness in his words.

     “So,” he began, moving on, “what is it that I can do for you, partner?”

     Aloy relaxed as she let Buddy take the lead, knowing full well that he knew the way.

     “Are you at the Stillsands?”

     “Currently I am at my humble abode. The children decided to visit the arena, and I felt no desire to join them.” The smile in his voice was clear. “Should I expect the company of a certain blood-haired huntress?”

     “In a day or two, yes, if Buddy and I don’t run into any trouble on the way.” As if on cue, Buddy led them both away from a wandering herd of Bellowbacks, barely avoiding their gaze. “Where should I meet you?”

     “I believe that would have been obvious.” He chuckled, and in the background Aloy could hear him moving things around in his small, makeshift home. “I shall make you a fine meal when you arrive.”    

     Aloy smiled. He really didn’t like going near Hidden Ember without his squad.

    He continued. “Would you prefer peccary or hare for this meal?”

     “Ooh, I don’t know. Surprise me.”

     Nil chuckled. “Very well, my dearest partner. I shall, once again, amaze and delight you with my culinary skills.”

     “I’m looking forward to it.” Aloy didn’t need Nil to reply, when she could already picture the look of pride and accomplishment on his face.

     Buddy bleated a sharp warning, and Aloy looked up from where her eyes had turned downwards and half-lidded, to find two Ravagers pelting down the hillside towards them.

     “Aloy?”

     “Machines. Nil…”

     “I’ll leave you to it.” He paused. “And I’ll see you soon.”

      “You will.”

     With a tap of her focus the call was ended, and easing her bow from her shoulders, Aloy gave Buddy an encouraging pat on his withers.

     “Alright Buddy, you move, I’ll shoot.”

     Buddy charged forwards, bleating a war cry, and Aloy’s first arrow flew, hitting the leading Ravager’s cannon, shearing it at the joint and sending it flying. Another arrow removed the canon of the second machine, and soon cannisters and armour pieces littered the ground as Aloy and Buddy danced around the enraged machines. A well-placed hit left one of the Ravagers exploding in a shower of sparks, its carcass falling just ahead of them, and Buddy leapt over it as it slid towards him. The final Ravager howled, hurtling towards them, lightning sparking about its body as it prepared an attack. One final arrow, landing squarely in the machine’s optic, and it too fell to the ground in a cacophony of crashing weight and flying metal.

     “Good job, Buddy!” Aloy whooped, patting her Charger firmly on the head. His replying bleat was bright.

     “I’ll just grab a few of those cannisters and we’ll be on our way.”

     Thankfully the rest of the journey was uneventful, save for Beta contacting her and tersely demanding that she be informed before Aloy left next time. Sylens, too, called her, but Aloy elected to ignore his griping.

     It took a day and a half to make it to Hidden Ember, where Aloy decided to make a quick stop to trade her new acquired cannisters with Abadund and the settlement’s newly acquired cook. With them, she bartered for some Carja herbs that had arrived via Camp Nowhere, and two bottles of the better tasting Oseram ale that Aloy found she could stomach. Saying her quick goodbyes to Morlund and Stemmur as she left, she and Buddy headed east and out beyond the ruins, heading towards an ancient plane that had crashed into the hillside centuries ago.

      Their path climbed higher and higher across the dunes until they came to a dirt path along the bottom of a cliff, and they scaled ever further towards the summit. Aloy could see sparsely scattered wrecks of old-world machinery as they rode, before they broke from the established path and made their way to a much smaller, narrower path. At the end of the path, nestled between two rock faces, were the ruined remains of what had once been the body of a plane.

      Nil’s home.

     What remained of the plane itself resembled a metal tunnel, open at both ends, and decorated with the colours of the desert dwelling Tenakth. Outside the nearest entrance was a Charger, one that watched both machine and rider approach with vague curiosity: Nil’s Charger, whom he had affectionately named Devil’s Thirst.

     Nil was nowhere to be seen, but if he had left his mount behind then he couldn’t have gone far. Leaving Buddy in the company of Thirst, Aloy made her way inside.

     He had made some changes since she had last visited, making the sparse space a little more homely. The small and temporary campfire that he usually lit was now a permanent firepit, with a little cooking station and spit set up next to it. There were more tools on the workbench, and a small handmade table and set of stools now sat neatly in the middle of the plane. His storage chest was now etched with carvings of machines - mostly Chargers, she noted – and there were several small figures of machines and humans dotted about the metal shell of the vehicle in various places. Canvas and cloth hung from the roof, some for decoration and some as curtains to block out the weather or the chill of the desert night. He had also made himself a proper mattress of straw and cloth, with his bedroll placed atop it. Aloy noted, with a smile, that there was a second bedroll neatly rolled up next to it, with enough room on the mattress for it to also be laid out.

     They had become accustomed to sleeping so close to one another – something Aloy had never believed she would be able to do with another person.

     She remembered when Nil had first brought her here, following her terrible experience at Thebes, just to afford her a little breathing space away from the brash and lively youths that, though they had meant well with all their clamouring and chattering, had only aggravated her mounting stress.    

     Aloy wasn’t even sure how she had made her way to Hidden Ember, to the Stillsands, that day. She had been in a daze ever since she had returned from Landfall and left Alva in Varl’s capable hands, claiming that she had a few more jobs to do before returning to base. In reality she had needed to clear her head.

     Perhaps Buddy had decided that she needed companionship that didn’t involve anything to do with her mission? Or perhaps instinct had taken control of her, leading her there itself?

----------

Three days after the events of Thebes, at Nil’s shelter…

     “You don’t camp with the others?” Aloy questioned, dismounting Buddy as Nil swung himself to the ground from his own mount and removed his mask. The Tenakth paint on his face was beginning to run from the absurd heat that was battering the desert that day, and he ran his fingers through his sweat-soaked hair, leaving it stuck in all kinds of strange directions and angles. Secretly, Aloy thought it looked adorable.

     Nil himself looked at her with a tired smile as he led her inside. “I did at first, when I became better acquainted with them. But now? No. Too many times did I wake in the night to find either Haxx or Josekk trying to remove my mask.” He placed said mask on the workbench with a small thump, as though for emphasis. “There are only so many times that I can beat some sense into those boys before all sense is actually lost to them.”  

     But Aloy was incredulous, and not about the teens’ behaviour. “You slept with the mask on?”

     “Yes.”

     “Every night?”

     “I thought we had established this, but yes.”

     “Nil…” Aloy sighed, but the smile that grew on her face was apparently infectious and soon Nil was smiling with her – a toothy and all together genuinely cheerful smile.

     She looked around her once more, taking in every detail that she could. There was nothing that betrayed Nil’s Carja roots, and the few decorations or touches of life were purely of the Tenakth style. The shelter itself was far enough away from civilisation to be considered relatively safe, but it was open to the wilds and, therefore, machines or roaming explorers.

     “It is lovely here,” Aloy began, giving him a thumb’s up as she did, “but a little open to the elements. And the markings, they’re Tenakth. Don’t they use this place?”

     Nil shrugged, taking some flint and a piece of metal from the worksurface. “The Tenakth patrols stopped coming out this far months ago,” he knelt by the campfire, striking at the metal, and sparks began to fly. “And I very much doubt that the Oseram would ever venture this far into the desert.”

     (In retrospect, and with the clarification that came from hindsight, Aloy laughed at his words in her memory. Boomer, an Oseram, had in fact briefly stopped at these ruins not long after Aloy’s initial visit – something that had caused Aloy to laugh out loud when she and Boomer’s sister, Delah, had followed Boomer’s trail. Nil, thankfully, had been away that night). 

     Nil gestured for Aloy to take a seat by the fire as it slowly crackled into life and she accepted gratefully, taking in the peace of the slowly dying daylight. She listened to the faint chirps of nearby insects, the occasional grunt of a passing boar, and Nil’s gentle breathing as he moved about his small shelter, stashing his weapons in various safe places around the plane. A warm and comfortable silence enveloped her, sinking into her skin and bones, and pushing away the oh-so-uncomfortable recent memories of obscenely grand walls, cold and sterile, and the unfaltering golden gaze of the man who ended the world…

     She shivered, suddenly cold and clammy, just as she had been during her exploration of Thebes with Alva and the damned Ceo, even when the lava had risen higher and higher, threatening to swallow she and Alva both… and what Faro had become, mutated and all together wrong. An abomination of nature.

     Distantly, she became aware of a voice trying to break her from her thoughts – was it hers, or Nil’s? - but she was in too deep. Memories of Faro’s terrified companions forced themselves to the forefront of her mind, and Ted’s cold and calculating approach to what he clearly saw as a little collateral damage in trying to maintain his image… though why Aloy was surprised, she did not know: after all, Ted Faro had brought about the end of the world. Ted Faro had killed the Alphas that had worked so hard to keep life safe…

     “Aloy!”

     Aloy snapped free from the hold her mind had kept on her, her focus shifting to find Nil’s silver eyes looking directly into hers. Gone was any trace of the easy smile that now seemed to constantly grace his face, replaced instead by a deep concern as his brows knit with worry. His hand was hovering close to her shoulder, as though he had thought about touching her - perhaps to shake her free of her thoughts?

     “Sorry, Nil,” she blinked, shaking her head a little as though it would help rid her of the last few vestiges of Thebe’s ghosts. “My mind just… wandered. I’m okay.”

     Nil hummed, not satisfied with her answer.

     “Really, I’m fine. I just…” Aloy paused, thinking on how to best phrase her words as to not give too much away. “I travelled somewhere a couple of days ago. It was somewhere I needed to go, but it doesn’t mean that I necessarily liked what I found. I guess it’s still on my mind.”

     She watched as his frown grew deeper, his eyes thinning as he looked away. She knew that look – it was a dangerous look, and she had seen it once before during the Battle of the Alight, in the fires of what had been Meridian Village, as a Longleg had tried to kick her into the side of a burning building. She had seen this exact same look cross his face then, made even more deadly by the dark shadows cast by firelight. The roar that had followed as he plunged his blade into the machine’s neck made her blood run cold, and she saw his lips move as he said something else to the machine, his lips curled into a vicious snarl. But it was that fatal strike that felled the Longleg and after the fight was won Nil had turned his gaze to her, as calm as he usually was, as he lamented the destruction around them. To say that the whole experience had been jarring would have been an understatement. 

     But now Aloy watched as Nil sat in front of her, clearly trying to decide if this was a problem that could be solved with violence, and if so, how best to go about it. Aloy simply stared at him, noting the angles of his face from the curve of his brow to the line of his nose, to his strong chin and jaw… and she tore her eyes away before they roamed further.        

     “And what was this place, partner?”

     She huffed a laugh, but it was completely humourless. “Besides a monument to greed and hubris?” Aloy paused, shaking her head to herself. This could sound stupidly ridiculous, considering Nil knew nothing of her ongoing mission to save the world and, therefore, nothing of the world that had come before this one. “It was supposed to be a survival bunker for one of the Old Ones, but it was far too convoluted to be for mere survival. The man that owned it… he was greedy, self-serving, and he cared so little for those around him. He destroyed so many lives. He killed his own companions. And then he made sure that… place would be the death of any intruder.”

     “But you’re alive, Aloy…”

     She paused, ignoring his words as a tremor began deep in her bones. “There was so much fire… the lava, the smoke, the crashing as the whole damn place fell around me. The screams…I honestly thought ‘this is where I’ll die, surrounded by strangers’. I hated it. I hated that place…”

     “Aloy.”

     Nil patiently waited until Aloy’s attention was back in the present before he left her, moving away to his storage chest, his back to her. She watched with vague interest as he lifted the lid and took something from within, and from the movement of his arms he was turning whatever it was around in his hands. He stood almost as still as stone for a long while, but before Aloy’s concern grew too great he turned back to her, a red silk scarf in his hands. The same scarf he had worn during their adventures as bandit hunters.

     He moved back to her, his pace slow and his face uncertain. His fingers ran over the fine fabric in his hands, and as he came to a stop before her, kneeling so that they were almost level, he looked deeply into her eyes. There was so much trust buried beneath his quicksilver irises, coupled with such sobriety that Aloy wondered just what was so important about the material in his hands.

     “Here, Aloy,” he began, gently wrapping the scarf around her neck, “this will suit you better than it ever did me.” He tied the scarf with a simple knot.

     “Nil, I…”

     “I insist.” He finished his work and once again looked so deeply into her eyes. “At least this way it will never matter how far you will travel, nor whatever battles you will fight; you will always have a friend there beside you, in spirit at the very least. And,” he gestured around him, at the shelter, “consider this place as much your shelter as it is my own. You will always be welcome here, Aloy.”

     Aloy felt something warm prickle in the corner of her eyes, followed by an all-encompassing warmth that she had not felt in a long time. It felt like the times Rost had admonished her sternly, all the while with the hint of a smile on his face, for sneaking out to find the food they desperately needed. It felt like the warm grass and blue skies of the Embrace, and the knowledge that a safe shelter stood firmly nearby.  

     It felt like home.

     Nil sat back on his haunches to examine his handiwork. Clearly unsatisfied with something, his hands went to the knot where his fingers reworked it. It was only when he was satisfied that his hands came away from her throat, where they hovered for a few painful seconds before resting on her shoulders, his thumbs gently rubbing at the bone. A tremble rolled through her, starting from Nil’s touch and travelling at speed down her body, and he snatched his hands away as though she had burned him. Or as if he had hurt her.

     “Aloy, I’m sorry.”

     “It’s okay.” She looked up at him, at his wide eyes and his large hands that still hovered closely to her.

     He smiled – a half smile – and lowered his hands.

     Aloy felt her heart sink, and she reached out to him with a hand of her own. Their fingers grazed, and Nil stilled.

     For the longest time they sat in silence, each of them searching the other’s face. Then, slowly, Nil’s hands returned to her shoulders, his thumbs rubbing gently along the bone. Aloy’s hands went to his arms, her fingers closing around firm muscle, warm under her palms.

     They were both trembling.

----------

     Aloy was setting the spices and the bottles of ale on the table when she heard the approaching footsteps outside, accompanied by a quiet chuckle and the words “hello, Buddy”, quickly followed by a happy chuff. Seconds later Nil appeared in the entrance, his mask upon his head and silhouetted in the early evening sun. A peccary hung limp in his hand, lightly dripping blood.

     “Aloy,” the smile in his voice was unmistakable, “I was expecting you a little later than this. Did you rest at all on your journey here?”

     “Maybe.” She returned his smile in full, before gesturing to the items on the table behind her. “Surprise!”

     Nil placed the peccary by the unlit fire before removing his mask, moving over to stand by her side. Aloy’s gaze was instantly drawn the focus on his temple, and she felt a warm flush of pride wash over her.   

     Nil, however, roamed his eyes over the spices, his smile spreading.

     “Powdered dawnpepper, crimson heat…” He picked up each bottle in turn, examining the contents with interest. “Where did you find these?”

     “There’s a new cook in Hidden Ember. I asked if she’d be willing to sell me some of her supplies, and she agreed.”  She tapped one of the glasses with a fingernail. “You always make our meals. I just wanted to contribute something for a change.”

     “You have already done enough for me, Aloy.”

     She looked up to find him gazing down at her, his face full of warmth and his smile gentle. His free hand went to her arm, his thumb softly running across the apex of her shoulder, whilst she wrapped her arms around his middle, pulling him into a tight hug. Aloy felt the rumble of his quiet laughter before she heard it, and soon both of Nil’s arms were around her too.

     “I’ve missed you.” Aloy gave him a gentle squeeze to highlight her point.

     “And I have missed you.”

     They held on to one another for several moments longer before they parted, Nil flashing her a smile as he turned and made his way to his workbench. There, he laid his mask atop it and, after freeing himself from their straps, his armour pieces sat there too. He stood before her wearing nothing but a pair of wraps around his forearms and his green shorts, the yellow scarf from around his neck thrown aside. Aloy tried to keep her eyes from roaming but his chest was everywhere, and with the hair that had been allowed to grow since he had left the Sundom - hair that heavily dusted his nicely sculpted pectorals and stomach - it was becoming an increasingly difficult task.

     It was also something that had not gone unnoticed by Nil himself, much to Aloy’s mounting dismay. It certainly didn’t help that she had, one night, on a visit to Erend whilst he was at Hidden Ember, become terribly drunk off Scrappersap. Consequently, her drunken idiot-self had loudly proclaimed that she was very attracted to her good-friend Red Teeth’s chest hair… just as ‘Red Teeth’ and his squad pulled up outside the settlement to rest after a long day of racing. Truly, she had wanted the earth to swallow her whole there and then, and Erend’s raucous laughter offered her little in support as she was surrounded by feral teenagers who wanted nothing more than to embarrass her further.

     To this day the teens would not let her live it down, especially Haxx and Pekka. But it seemed as though Nil had decided to poke fun at her more than they ever would, stripping himself down to his shorts at every available chance he could safely find when they were alone together.

     “Like what you see, girl?” He smirked, watching intently as Aloy tried so very hard to look anywhere else.

     “Shut up.” Aloy laughed, trying to hide her blush with her hair and failing miserably to do so.

     With one large stride Nil was at her side again, helping her to undo the clasps that held her armour together, until she stood in the plain Nora clothing that she wore beneath, the red scarf around her neck. Her armour joined his in a neat pile atop the workbench.

     One of Nil’s fingers came to rest on her throat, tapping gently at the little part of the scarf that had escaped the neck of her tunic. She watched as his eyes brightened, and the tell-tale quirk of his lips that followed told Aloy everything she needed to know. He was ecstatic that she was wearing it, as he was every time she did, but Nil was trying his very best to play it cool.  

     Aloy grinned. She knew he wouldn’t miss it.

     Eventually, he looked up. “But, please, make yourself comfortable,” Nil gestured to one of the stools, “I’ll prepare the food.”

     “Can I help with anything?”

     “No, absolutely not. You are my guest, and I offered. Besides…” He gave her a sly grin as he began to light a fire. “I’d rather die gloriously in battle, Aloy, and not perish from food poisoning.”

     “It was one time, Nil.” And the last time, perhaps, since the undercooked duck had nearly killed her too.

     “And one time is more than enough, thank you.”   

     Aloy watched as he quickly dressed the peccary, carving chunks of meat from bone and throwing it into his cook pot before tossing the entrails to the vultures outside. He washed his hands with a little water from his nearby skin, before moving to his storage box and producing from inside a bottle of cooking oil, some vegetables and a small bag of rice.

     As he worked on adding a decent amount of oil to the meat, Aloy tilted her head and looked at the focus on his temple once again. “I am really sorry if I caught you off guard before, with this.” She pointed at her own focus, and Nil shrugged.

     “Oh, it was no trouble.” Leaving the meat to fry, Nil began to chop up the vegetables. “I was simply lying quite comfortably in bed, examining strange old-world glyphs, when your disembodied voice spoke so softly and directly into my ear.” He gave her a sharp and pointed glance. “Not once did I believe that your ghost was haunting me.”

     She chuckled. “Sorry.”

     Nil hummed, turning back to his food preparation.

     “So, old-world glyphs?” Aloy started, shifting in her seat so that she could rest her head against the lukewarm metal of the plane. “Does that mean you’ve been trying out your focus?”

     “If, by trying, you mean stumbling through a fog of endless confusion, then yes.” He huffed. “Those glyphs; they are so very unfamiliar to the Carja script.”

     “It takes some getting used to. I think the only reason I learned to read the glyphs so quickly was because I was still a child when I found my first focus.”

     “And children are notoriously fast learners.” Nil stated flatly, adding the now chopped vegetables to the pot. “That is what my nanny would always say.”

     Aloy raised an eyebrow, and Nil froze. She could see from the rapid loss of colour in his face that he had realised that he had made a grave error. This was something new that she had learned about him, and from her meagre knowledge of Carja society, she knew that only the noble families had these ‘nannies’ for their children.

     So, Nil came from a noble family. It was clear, however, that he did not wish to speak of it, if the trembling in his hands was any kind of indication.

     She needed to move away from this subject, for his sake.     

     “Would you like me to teach you how to read the glyphs?”

     Nil’s expression perked up immeasurably, gratitude etched into his face. “I would like that.”

     “Tomorrow, then. It will be an early start – lots to learn.”

     “Aloy?”

     She looked into his eyes, where the warmth in his expression was the deepest.

     “I… when I mentioned…”

     Aloy held her hands up. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

     He smiled again, his head tilting to one side as he simply mouthed “thank you.”

     As the darker evening descended upon them, Nil added water and rice to the now cooked meat and vegetables. With a pinch from each spice that Aloy had bought for him, Nil gave the stew a good stir before placing the lid on the pot. The meal was going to be a simpler affair compared to the things Nil usually managed to cook in the wilds, but he certainly knew what foods to combine to make even the simplest dish an absolute delight.

     With nothing to do but wait, Nil moved away from the fire and joined Aloy at the table. Aloy had opened the bottles of ale and handed one to him, which he took with thanks. After a long swig, he placed the bottle on the table and looked at Aloy curiously.

     “There was something on the focus that took me by surprise.”

     “Oh?” A feeling of unease bubbled in the pit of her stomach. Had he somehow seen something about Hephaestus, or worse, Nemesis?

     “Yes. It was… I don’t quite know how to describe it.” Nil frowned. Aloy gave him an encouraging nod, and he continued. “It was as though I was looking upon the ghosts of the past: Our ghosts, haunting metal halls.”

     Aloy let out a quiet sigh of relief, quickly followed by laughter. “You found some recorded footage, that’s all.”

     Nil frowned, though a single eyebrow arched.

     She pointed once again to her own focus. “This records things when it is being used – which is, to say, whenever it’s being worn. It remembers sounds and sights, exactly how things happened, and you can playback that footage whenever you like.”

      “I see. So, the ‘footage’ I witnessed was recorded from our little trip in the cauldron. Does that mean this,” he pointed to the focus on his temple, “is the same focus you leant to me there?”

     “It is, but data can also be transferred from one focus to another. It’s always good to have a backup.”

     “And what is ‘data’, Aloy?”

    Aloy smiled. They had time to kill until their meal was ready, she may as well go into the deeper explanations.

[oc-zine]

FAQ and Guidelines

Alright everyone, its 2019 in the year of the lord Let’s get this thing moving!  If you would like to see your character printed in the first OC zine, this is what you gotta do:

1)  Draw your character!

They need to be drawn full-body at least once, so we can see them in all their glory.  If they have multiple forms/transformations, we would like to see that full-body too, but if you can only fit most of it, that’s fine.  While there is no requirement for poses, we have a few recommendations.

If you have a personality trait you want to emphasize, try showing it in their pose:  Maybe they’re super energetic, they might be jumping with joy, or if they’re not feelin’ it today, they may be slouching.  

One thing to be careful about is not to let the pose hide their features -- like a crybaby character huddled up in the fetal position:  We just can’t see all of them and their design like that.  

THAT SAID:  You can draw them multiple times for the page!  If you want your character curled up, draw a second picture of them!  Or a headshot!  Or 4 headshots with different expressions!  Just do whatever you feel comfortable fitting on the page -- which brings us to

2.  Page size:  

   This zine will most likely be printed on legal-sized paper, which will be folded in half.  Make your canvas size 8.55 in x 7.1 in.  The size of the actual zine will be 8.5x7, but it will be cut by hand, so just add a tiny bit extra to account for that.  Make sure that nothing incredibly important will be cut off by putting anything important on the edge of the page.  

You can fill the background with a solid color, or you can just leave it white.  You can also draw an elaborate background if you want!  Just know that if it includes other characters in the background, they need to stay in the background. your main HAS to stand out from them, no group pics.

3.  Write your character’s name somewhere on the page

If you want, you could write a description or bio as well!  Just try to keep it short.  There is no word count, but make sure your font is big enough to be legible without taking up more than about half the page.  If your character is accepted, but there is an issue with their bio, we will contact you and ask to edit it.

When you’ve completed your character’s page, send it to us through private message, and we will review it!  We can not guarantee that every submission will be accepted for print, because the stapler can only tackle so many pages.  If It Is Not Selected For Print, it will still show up in the digital bootleg.

4.  Add your name (or nickname), age, country/state, and any social media links you want to include, but limit it to 3 links (like, insta, tumblr, and twitter).

FAQ:

When are the things happening!?

We currently do not have a submission deadline, or set date to release the zine, but we are hoping to have it finished by Summer, so cross your fingers and send in a character as soon as you possible can.

Can I submit my OC for (this show/book)?

No fan characters will be accepted.  This zine is to show off original characters that are your brain childs.  Fan characters are great and super fun and can have really creative designs, but there are specific places and other more specific zines to submit them to.  Even Admin Lightning’s main avatar is an Adventure Time OC from 2011.  As much as we would love to see your gem-sona, or cuphead OC in the mix, we feel like fan characters would easily dominate the other OC’s, and we don’t want that. then again,   You COULD change them up a little bit and not tell us that it is a fan character though.  We won’t ask questions.  

What about DnD characters?

This one is acceptable because there is a lot more diversity within the DnD universe than there is in an average show/game.  That said, we know that there are A LOT of them, so we can only accept a limited number.

What about Furry characters?

Furry is a fandom, but it’s not a copyright brand.  Send us your wolves and lions and dragons!

I drew it on paper!  Can I send you a picture?

If you drew it traditionally, please please please scan it. That will keep your original quality and proportions the way you made them.  If you don’t have a scanner, please try to take the best picture possible without shadows, and without blurriness.  If you send us a picture, keep in mind that we may take liberties in editing/color correction to get it to fit with the zine.

Color vs. Black and White?

We want a mix of both!  Do whichever you want.  If it is a pencil sketch, tho, you should know that we’re gonna have to give it more contrast and it may turn out black and white.  If you do submit a pencil sketch and want it to be another color (like, make all the lines blue or something) just let us know.

I suck at drawing, but I have a good character!  Do I have a chance?

Definitely!  We won’t turn you away because you’re a beginner artist- we welcome it!  Just try your best!  We’re measuring on creativity, not skill. If You Have a friend who wants to draw your character and you write the bio, make sure you add both your names.

What if I don’t get accepted?

Everyone will get accepted.  While we can only have a limited number in the physical zine for printing purposes, there will be a digital bootleg containing all the zine submissions! (minus those that are inappropriate)

What is inappropriate?  Are you banning porn like tumblr did?

HECK. NO.  we love artistic porn here we’d LIKE to keep realisitc cocks out of the zine, but whatever.  We will do a vote later if you want the physical zine to be NSFW, but the bootleg will include EVERYTHING.  What we will NOT accept is the following:

Images depicting rape or incest

***overly Sexy kids: If your character is young and sexy, you'd better have a pretty damn good reason for it. A little bit is frowned upon, but potentially still accepted but it depends. Think Of Alois Trancy from black butler. Anything a step farther WILL be banned and likely reported.

Racist portrayals of stereotypes

Any antisemitic propoganda at all.

Any sort of hatred towards LGBTA. 

HATEFUL politics.  Idc what your affiliation is, just be respectful about it. You prolly won't need this anyways.

Can I have multiple submissions?

you can submit several, but we'll only choose one per person, so maybe just choose your favorite. We Will Only use one in the bootleg as well.

What Is The bootleg you keep going on about??

Think Of It As A director's cut. This Will include a PDF with all the submissions, including what we couldn't print.

if I submit a character, will I get a free copy?

no. Most of the people wanting these will be people who contributed. If I made copies for all of them, I wouldn't be able to afford printing.

[brattyboyblue]

Top Ten Ships Questions

Pick Your Top Ten Ships and without looking answer the questions

Hijacked this from another blog and decided it looked fun. (Note: my favorite ships are not written in any particular order. It was just whoever came to mind first)

1. Klance (Keith/Lance, Voltron Legendary Defender) 

2. Victuurio (Viktor, Yuuri & Yurio; Yuri!!! On Ice)

3. Shukita (Yusuke/Akira; Persona 5)

4. Thominewt (Thomas, Newt & Minho; Maze Runner)

5. Jercy (Percy/Jason; Heroes of Olympus)

6. Phantom Hearts (Sora/Danny; it’s a crack ship, shhh)

7. Strifehart (Cloud/Squall; Final Fantasy 7/8 & Kingdom Hearts)

8. KeiKou (Kei/Kou; Ajin)

9. Bakugo/Midoriya (Boku no Hero Academia)

10. Alois/Ciel (Black Butler/Kuroshitsuji)

1.    Do you remember the episode/scene/chapter that you first started shipping 6? 

It was a joke. In high school, I was in the process of writing a really fun adventure story for my friends and I ended up shipping them in story as a joke. Turns out, their chemistry was too strong so my friends and I started shipping them since.

2.    Have you ever read a FanFiction about 2?

One or two. They’re terrible though. Not a lot of people understand how to write a healthy poly ship without smothering it in porn or unnecessary drama. I’ve been tempted to write my own but I worry I won’t portray the characters correctly.

3.    Has a picture of 4 ever been your screen saver/profile picture/tumblr avatar?

HELL FUCKING YEAH FOR LIKE TWO YEARS

4.   If 7 were to suddenly break up today, what would your reaction be?’

Laugh my ass off first then get their asses back together. I refuse to let Squall run away!

5.    Why is 1 so important?

There’s something intoxicating about their dynamic. They have exceptional chemistry and if any ship were to become canon within the realm of realism in Voltron, it would be Klance.

6.    Is 9 a funny ship or a serious ship?

It’s a chaotic and problematic ship thanks to Bakugo’s pride but Midoriya isn’t a walk in the park either. I like how “explosive” they are together. That’s what makes their dynamic interesting, it breaks the monotony of most ships.

7.    Out of all of your ships listed, which ship has the most chemistry? 

Had I written Victuri on here, I would have chosen that but I’ll have to go with klance.

8.    Out of all of the ships, which ship has the strongest bond?

Thominewt definitely. Too much went down between the three of them for it to mean nothing.

9.    How many times have you read/watched 10’s fandom?

LISTEN CHAPTER 129 FUCKED ME UP OKAY. I’ve been back and forth with binging the manga and anime this year.

10.  Which ship has lasted the longest?

I’m going to assume this question refers to how long I’ve shipped them since most of these couples aren’t canon (or true canon, I should say). The longest ships would have to go to Strifehart and PH. I’ve been shipping them both since 2008 so about 9 years now.

11.  How many times, if ever, has 6 broken up?

Lmfao like 4 times but they worked out their differences.

12.  If the world was suddenly thrust into a zombie apocalypse, which ship would make it out alive, 2 or 8?

Kei and Kou definitely because they’re Ajin so they can’t necessarily die.

13.  Did 7 ever have to hide their relationship for any reason?

Yup. Because Squall has issues. But it’s all good now.

14.  Is 4 still together?

Canon wise: no because Newt is dead. In fanon: fuck yeah. What is this death you speak of?

15.  Is 10 canon?

Oh god no. Ciel would never allow it. Does that mean I care? NOPE.

16. If all ten ships were put into a couple’s Hunger Games, which couple would win?

If we’re talking based on abilities and skill…. KeiKou COULD Be the last one standing because they can’t DIE but in terms of raw power, Bakugo and Midoriya have that in the bag. Not even Jason and Percy could go up against that. But based on personalities, I feel like Ciel and Alois are ruthless enough to get shit done if it means they don’t have to get physical.

17.  Has anybody ever tried to sabotage 5’s ship?

Like, in canon? Well, not really because this ship isn’t romantic in the books. But in fanfiction, yeah, a few fans have written some interesting things.

18.  Which ship would you defend to the death and beyond?

Klance, because there are too many subtleties for it to be platonic until stated otherwise by the show and even then, I’d still fight for it. Other than that, I know it’s not on here but Victuri, because even if it IS canon, people still say it isn’t.

19.  Do you spend hours a day going through 3’s tumblr page?

15 minutes at most, because Shukita is a new ship for this year and there isn’t much content. ;w; BUT WHAT IS UP THERE IS PRECIOUS.

20.  If an evil witch descended from the sky and told you that you had to pick one of the ten ships to break up forever or else she’d break them all up forever, which ship would you sink?

Alois and Ciel because Alois is dead lmfao. It’s also a bit of a rare pair, so there isn’t too much content for them, sadly.

[blueares]

Next Fire Emblem Discussion

So Fire Emblem Three Houses was a pretty massive success. Solid gameplay, great characters, compelling storyline, and of course, it even one Best Strategy Game for 2019. While I know it’s probably a bit early to start speculation on the next game already, I couldn’t help but wonder where the series might go from here, and while I’m not planning to like, write out the entire next entry for the series, I thought I’d just give my thoughts and opinions about what we can potentially expect going forward, and what I’d like to see.

Character Customization

At this point, I feel like character customization is something of a stable in the series. It started with Robin back in Awakening, and continued to Corrin in Fates. While Byleth isn’t as customizable as those two, you can still determine their gender, name, and birthday at the start, as well as their personality going forward (making them even more of a self-insert than the last two.) I think it might be safe to assume that player avatars as the protagonists might be here to stay for FE, which I’m personally fine with. I mean, I certainly don’t mind having a proper character as the protagonist; your Ikes, your Roys, Alms, etc... But the self-insert angle definitely makes sense if they plan on sticking with the next point:

Diverging Storylines

So the last two games have had a hard “choose your own adventure” feel to them; same basic premise, though one is unquestionably better-executed than the other. War is kind of a common theme in Fire Emblem games, but it’s not until recently that Intelligent Systems have really started to focus on letting players pick which side of the war they wanna fight on. I, personally, really like that idea, because it gives more credence to the idea that there is no black-or-white, true heroes or villains in war (even if they introduce a true villain with Anankos and the Agarthans) as well as providing greater replay value.

I also find it funny how there always seems to be one more route than advertised; Fates advertised the conflict between Nohr and Hoshido, but then added Valla and the Revelations, while Three Houses advertised... Well, three houses, but then gave you a fourth option with the church. The next game’s gonna have five story routes at this rate... But, in all seriousness, I do hope that if they decide to add multiple paths based on the faction you align with, they keep it to two or three. As much as I love the story of Three Houses, it does feel like some paths get a little more attention than others *cough*Verdant Wind*Cough* and others don’t get some of the same luxuries as others (Crimson Flower has no animated cutscenes until the very end.) I think cutting back focus to just a couple routes would help significantly; quality over quantity, as they say.

Mid-Fight Recruits

So this could be seen as either a positive or a negative. There’s little doubt that Three Houses significantly streamlined the recruiting process; you basically start the game with all your units, and anyone and everyone you wanna recruit can be gotten straight from the monastery. Sure, other students require you to build Byleth a certain way (unless you’re on new game plus and use renown to just get all the base stats and support levels needed to recruit early), but characters like Hanneman, Alois, Manuela and Shamir are all basically free at a certain point in the story, as are Flayn, Jeritza, Catherine, Cyril and Seteth depending on the route.

This is, needless to say, quite different from previous games, in which you would meet new characters that joined your party as you progressed, like Nowi in Awakening or Odin in Fates; characters you could encounter mid-level and talk to in order to have them join your team. I always found it a pleasant surprise when I could do that and build up my ranks as the story progressed, whereas in Three Houses, well... You more-or-less get everyone from the start. In a sense, I can see why that might be preferable, since you can start choosing a character’s build path much earlier (especially since this game’s progression system allows for way more freedom with each unit as opposed to other games) but I do the miss the surprise of encountering and recruiting friendly units as you progress.

Weapons Triangle

Alright, here’s the divisive one. Personally, I’m indifferent to the weapons triangle. I don’t love it or hate it, and I personally don’t mind if they choose to bring it back or leave it out forever. Some see it as another layer to the strategy of the game, and others view it as an arbitrary rock-paper-scissors mechanic that doesn’t really need to be there. Some see it as a staple to the series that should be maintained, and others a tired tradition that’s best left forgotten. In my opinion, the weapon triangle neither makes nor breaks the game, so I don’t mind wither way.

Shape-Shifters

While not exactly a hard staple of the FE franchise, I’ve always had a fondness for the transforming beast-people units; whether it’s the Laguz, Taguel, Manaketes, Wolfskin or Kitsune, I always enjoyed seeing what these races brought to the table both in terms of story and gameplay. Now, understandably they were left out of Three Houses because of the game’s focus on freedom for character progression, though I wouldn’t mind seeing them return in some capacity in the next game.

In-Universe Save-Scumming

And of course, we have the most recent reoccurring trend in the series: Mila’s Turnwheel, aka Divine Pulse, aka the “I made a bad move or an enemy got a lucky crit, so lemme just do that over” button. Honestly, I appreciate this. I know some super hardcore fans might dislike it for how it makes the game overall easier, but being able to turn back the clock and re-strategize your approach to something is a feature that I genuinely hope is here to stay. I mean, let’s be honest: IS knows that players are gonna save-scum when the RNG works against them, so I appreciate that they give us a means of doing so without needing to shut the game off. I also like how it further emphasizes dragons’ power in the lore, with how they can casually manipulate time.

Anyways, these were just some of my thoughts and opinions for the future of the FE franchise. Feel free to reply with your own, or state (in a respectable manner) what you agree or disagree with.

[myupdatestudio-blog]

New Post has been published on Myupdatestudio

New Post has been published on https://myupdatestudio.com/horizon-zero-sunrise-a-ambitious-new-journey-into-gaming-and-myth/

Horizon Zero Sunrise: A ambitious new journey into gaming and myth

As a subsidiary of Sony Interactive Enjoyment, Netherlands primarily based recreation developer Guerilla Video games is widely recognized for their Killzone franchise – the shooter series one of a kind to the Playstation that spanned six Games released on major systems and handheld devices of the brand.

What came as a marvel to many but became that the organization determined to “expand their horizons” and give you a brand new IP that changed into open global and provided loads more than what a first-individual shooter recreation normally does.

With a powerful story that feels like a aggregate between “The Last folks”, “Avatar”, and “Princess Mononoke”, Horizon 0 Dawn puts players within the role of Aloy, a younger girl outcast living in a publish apocalyptic global wherein nature has overtaken homes and wild “machines” run freely inside the open wasteland. Along with her journey literally starting from while she is only an infant, Aloy fights to locate her place in the world whilst stumbling onto relics of the beyond that don’t take a seat properly with the society of her age.

Gaining knowledge of the essential abilities to hunt and survive, this young woman is a professional archer as well as an ambitious adventurer as she embarks on a grand quest in an effort to ultimately alternate her and the world she knows for all time.

fable Basketball and fantasy Football – Getting ready For the Playoffs

In delusion sports, the concept is to win a championship. Getting to the playoffs is step one and an amazing draft gets you extra mileage than whatever else toward that end. however, winning the fantasy playoffs may also come all the way down to your potential to plot in advance even extra so than your capability to identify talent.

There are numerous factors that need to be taken into consideration as the playoffs technique. A few of them are indexed in this article.

1) We are able to start with the apparent. Overview your crew. Do you’ve got any “sleepers” that simply have not carried out as well as you had hoped they could? Do not bring sleepers into the playoffs except there are extenuating occasions – replace the player with a media player instead of taking a hazard on getting nothing. A situation I’d preserve an underperforming sleeper on my group is that if the participant is on a professional crew in order to be “making an investment time in their more youthful players” because of the professional team’s very own inability to make the playoffs.

2) Is your league a “keeper” league or maybe a protracted-time period settlement league? If yes, then you can possibly trade a number of your quite good players who are eligible to be kept for next yr. perhaps even one of those up and coming sleepers would be a good candidate. Why would you try this? nicely, you want to trade them for games which might be Wonderful These days to present you an edge. you may alternate with a group with a view to not make the playoffs this year and who is not going so one can hold their Top notch player anyway. It’s is a win/win. They rebuild for the future and you growth your chances of triumphing all of it this 12 months.

three) If your league isn’t always a “keeper” or long-time period contract league then you may still try trading up. On occasion, a group has too many games at one position or too many players at the equal group. You are probably capable of paintings a win/win change in that state of affairs as properly. they might take a lesser, however nevertheless right player, with a view to unfold out their players throughout extra expert teams.

4) How does the schedule look for your games at some point of the fable playoffs? This one is a bit more basketball associated than Soccer. Understanding how many Games every participant plays in the course of a given week can provide you with an idea approximately whether or not you would be higher served to trade a few games. Most likely, if two gamers are close to presenting the same delusion value consistent with recreation, then you need the one that performs the most Video games – regardless of the distinction in sports quantity. As an example, you would possibly have a participant that averages 10 fan pts (player A) per game and could play eleven total Video games in the playoffs. There might be a participant that can be picked up off of waivers who averages simplest nine fan pts (player B), however, will play 14 Games. All else being identical player A will make contributions a hundred and ten fan pts while participant B will contribute 126 fan pts. The distinction they might deliver you will virtually in all likelihood be larger because player B will have greater opportunities to fill a gap for you than player A. There are websites which have tables already created with this sort of fantasy sports sports agenda density facts.

Hint: 14 Video games is the maximum performed for any NBA crew over the last 3 delusion weeks of the contemporary 2008-2009 season. Which groups play 14 Video games? Philadelphia is the only crew that does so. 10 Games is the least played for the duration of that equal time period. That honor goes to the Houston Rockets. triumphing the ordinary season in delusion sports activities is regularly all approximately the draft and early unfastened employer. prevailing the playoffs typically takes a bit greater craft. Observe the above easy recommendations and you’ll be well organized for the playoffs while the time comes.

Spring ahead: Sturdy Spring Education Stats and delusion Baseball

whilst considering your alternatives for fable baseball within the everyday season, many proprietors look to put stock into the performances of players at some point of spring Training Games. Pitchers are frequently in the back of their batting counterparts to start camp and often spend time running on developing or refining pitches. Additionally, the huge names on the mound frequently most effective pitch A few innings in line with a trip for you to get warmed up as spring starts of evolved. As a result, lesser batting skills regularly have the opportunity to shine and as a result, may additionally put up stats that are a little out of the norm.

Additionally, there may be the difficulty of a notably small sample length. At any point throughout any regular season, in case you were to take a slice of Games and analyze the information you will absolute confidence find a few oddities. Baseball has a protracted normal season and stats often regress to the suggest. In other phrases, be careful not to put an excessive amount of stock in spring stats as an outlier for normal season overall performance. There were Some examples of spring Education stats being a terrible indicator of everyday season success.

during spring Education 2005, Toronto Blue Jays up-and-coming outfielder Gabe Gross set the franchise document with eight spring domestic runs. After this astonishing display, Gross managed to get himself right into a grand general of forty Video games for the huge league crew, amassing 102 plate appearances and mustering an unmarried domestic run inside the ordinary season.

What is more vital than stats are the battles for positions on a specific ball club. For example, throughout spring Education 2011, Washington Nationals Michael Morse made a push for playing time during spring Video games and ended up making the group and putting up astounding fantasy numbers. He increased his position from platoon player to the big-time producer.

For deep myth leagues, every other key component of spring Games is the battles for the returned give up of the rotation amongst starting pitcher candidates. A participant consisting of Boston’s Daniel Bard can have a significant one-of-a-kind fable effect in the starting rotation in preference to a relief role.

Getting the possibility to look players in new roles is any other gain of spring Games. A newly anointed closer including Houston’s Brett Myers may be watched all through March to see how the adjustment is being treated and if there is a great opportunity to advantage his myth proprietors.

[soulcrazy2017-blog]

The Future (Of Gaming) Is Female

New Post has been published on https://soulcrazy.org/the-future-of-gaming-is-female/

The Future (Of Gaming) Is Female

We’re getting into a brand new generation of video gaming. New Playstation 4 special Horizon Zero Sunrise is an epic open world RPG high-quality for its cinematic visuals, wowser narrative twists, and electrifying fight. The other factor worth citing: the lead man or woman is a woman. Horizon Zero Dawn’s Aloy is one in every of a small coterie of playable woman characters within the gaming world this is slowly pushing lower back towards decades of male domination.

Gaming

“The enterprise is seeing a want to shift, however, publishers are frightened approximately it because they sense like their center demographic is younger adult males, and young adult males need to play heroic male characters,” says main gaming critic Stephanie ‘Hex’ Bendixsen. “Publishers are nonetheless pushed through stats, but it’s like a snake eating its tail. More women aren’t going to begin playing games until they see themselves represented in video games.”

Hex has had a lifetime of a laugh with a controller in hand, but the large majority of her gaming avatars were men. In an international where women are historically consigned to damsel-in-distress or hypersexualized cliché, complex woman characters that act with autonomy and purpose are tough to locate. But they exist, and their numbers are growing.

The secret ladies And Busty Babes Of The Early Days

Inside the early days of console best gaming pc, women have been snuck into the outskirts. One of the earliest playable girl characters turned into Samus Aran in Metroid (1986), a helmeted area crusader who changed into known as ‘he’ in the sport’s marketing cloth. It became simplest while a participant completed the game in under five hours that Samus removed her helmet to show a long ‘shock’ of blonde hair — an inept gender signifier in an eight-bit world.

In the ’90s, ladies in video games moved from surprise object to intercourse object — the scantily clad protagonist proliferated. At Pleasant, ladies have been bloodthirsty bad-asses who ought to ‘preserve their own’ in a person’s domain, like Chun-Li of Streetfighter (1992) who was an early icon, letting fly with rapid-hearth lighting fixtures kicks then asserting herself as “the strongest lady in the world.” Lara Croft of Tomb Raider (1996) changed into the pinnacle of women’s representation in that generation — the sole protagonist in a movement adventure panorama. She became hugely famous, but now not pretty the avatar girl game enthusiasts deserved. “Even people who don’t play games recognize Lara Croft, but she became certainly designed inside the male gaze, as a kind of busty, warm-pants carrying hero running via the jungle,” Hex says. “There was hearsay that the sports designer changed into playing around with one of a kind sliders for her frame parts and by accident pulled the slider manner out for her bust, and simply decided to leave it there.”

Skip in advance More than a decade, and the Lara Croft reboot indicates how woman characters have slowly turn out to be Greater nuanced in both their motivations and their selections. Exploring Lara’s Foundation tale, Tomb Raider (2013) presents the killer archaeologist at the non-violent beginning of her profession, compelled via situations closer to her hardened, heroic destiny.

“What it did as a game become explore the outcome of loss of life for the primary time. The primary component she has to kill is honestly a deer, and that second has real weight, she’s truly sorry for having to take that lifestyles. From a female’s attitude, I suppose that’s exciting.

Female gaming

“Then while she has to have a war of words with a male enemy, that second is truly severe as well, you see her pressured into a state of affairs where she has to do so, it’s surely quite violent, and it’s simply virtually rare for a sport to have that point of view.”

(Literal) girl Energy

Cutting-edge-day Lara remains clean at the eyes, but that is now not a prerequisite for girl heroines. At the same time as there have continually been girl characters designed for little girl gamers — hiya, Ms. Pacman! — Recent years have seen women appear as playable characters in famous mainstream games. Before everything acting as the child accomplice of the lead character, Clementine takes centre-stage inside the Walking Useless: Season Two (2013) and proceeds to wreak unholy hell on the zombie apocalypse with smarts, adulthood, and wonderful survival capabilities.

Ellie, the potty-mouthed tweet from the severely-acclaimed survival horror recreation The Remaining of us (2013), has a similar spunk. “She’s forced to grow up and make lots of hard selections and learn how to survive honestly speedy,” says Hex. “There are moments while she is pretty susceptible however she manages to fight her manner via using her intelligence and agility. You couldn’t rely on guns a whole lot in that recreation, so it became surely interesting to see a lady person navigate an environment which you would usually tackle with guns, while you play like her.” That is the brand new breed of girl heroine; no longer some tokenistic man or woman with fantastical bodily proportions, no longer a ditsy dame in want of rescuing. Women have begun to tackle complex roles in big franchise games — like Cass in Fall Out: New Vegas (2012) and Aveline in Murderer’s Creed 3 (2012), however, the most interesting characters at the make aren’t bit-players in a person else’s story. They’re the women who take centre-degree, like Aloy in Horizon 0 Dawn, Religion in Replicate’s Area (2008), Chell in Portal (2007) and FemShep in Mass Effect 3 (2012). They are characters who make us think about what a lady may bring to the table.

About the avalanche of titles that function men — particularly white guys — as lead characters, women in video games nevertheless have a protracted manner to head, but We’re pointed within the right course.

“I’d like to hope that publishers are waking as much as the reality that humans want to play video games providing all styles of characters,” Hex says. “I don’t necessarily want to play as a woman to enjoy a sport, but I want to have characters which have interesting testimonies and a unique angle. It’s approximately having the option available so that you may be excited about an industry representing you and being which include each person.” Inside the current past, video games have turn out to be the in thing in town, leaving many youngsters engaged in their consoles for terribly long hours in the course of the day. For people who were kids in the 90’s, You could bear witness of the truth that the evolution within the subject of enjoyment has been massive. The diverse competitors have made a tremendous improvement in now not only the game-play but additionally in the numerous devices utilized in gaming. They’ve created consoles which are just best for the palms. This has made the revel in better. There may also be an enormous progress within the images and the general gameplay, with snapshots becoming Greater practical than ever earlier than.

Responsible gaming is not all that horrific

Despite the fact that numerous unwell and terrible stuff has been said approximately gaming, and its capability to result in dependency that tends to make many children come to be unproductive, there are some real blessings of undertaking Accountable gaming. As an example, kids who’re actively engaged in Responsible gaming tend to develop an experience of alertness and coordination. That is because of the keen interest this is required in some of the video games which include jumping ones. Coordination is due to playing video games which include sports and adventure ones, among many other deserves.

Girls and video games

The numbers of ladies actively undertaking playing these sorts of digital devices is overwhelming. This may be attributed to the numerous video games for women which can be available in the market. The builders and creators have additionally incorporated many female characters inside the games, for this reason making it More appealing for all genders. Current stats additionally suggest that the wide variety of woman gamers is slowly overtaking the quantity of male gamers. Subsequently, You could certainly see that that is an affair match for each gender. I suppose games inside the destiny may be even Extra-sensible then the video games we have already got with our Xbox 360s and Play Station 3s. Microsoft and Sony will Greater than probably come out with something even Extra insane like a virtual game or something and that might be the sport of the century. To have a digital game which you placed on however nevertheless used an Xbox or Play Station, and also you performed taking pictures video games such as you play online today. I think that might be the exceptional game to pop out ever.

In case you simply concept about what we have now and simply think about we can have inside the destiny you have to be amazed due to the fact with  female pictures and gaming getting so much Greater fine in satisfactory and appearance it going to be a good stock futures.

Future gaming

Similar to I said about the virtual sports aspect you can have that identical concept, however, have just sunglasses to put on, and you see everything thru the lenses. That could be a light-weight piece to the position on yet an entire huge bag of the game If you simply had that and an Xbox you would be set for gambling online. That might be an entirely new online enjoy for most gamers. I would not suppose that all people had ever visible whatever like that earlier than.

Additionally, humans are suggesting that they would like to have the ability to speak with characters from the sport. The whole point of the game is to play no longer speak what I assume. I suppose In case you need to speak you need to get on-line and play a sport like A Counterstrike or Day of Defeat or perhaps get on Xbox stay and perform a little Gears of Conflict or Halo 3. It truly is the form of games which you must want to speak on or to. If you ever go browsing you may see people speak online plenty and that might motivate you to get concerned. It’s a lot better to want to talk to other humans online then speak to a person in a recreation that is made to answer questions that you are going to invite except it has a mind and may talk and suppose on its very own. I don’t think something like that could come out for at least some other hundred years.

In case you are only to talk then you need just to go online or get an Xbox and an Xbox live account and get started out gambling shooting games on-line or play a few kind of role playing game. It’s In case you need to speak in the sport which you are playing. You could nevertheless not speak and play online or in every other game. I think playing video games online like Madden and sports games are amusing and also you do not have to speak with different human beings. Most of the people do like the idea of having the ability to talk with each other specifically since You can communicate with human beings from everywhere in the global. I do not see why someone would need to speak with a game person in a recreation.

[i-lavabean]

Screeching I just realized I never drew Kotallo's pupils and he looks Scary

Practiced turnarounds and I'm telling you Kotallo is entirely too spiky. The drawings came together pretty decently though