#Also this looks cool if you’re in dark mode but that’s not a necessity

[estrellami-1]

Lavender Letters

Part 1

There’s a few interesting-looking squiggles there that Eddie puzzles at before finally moving on to the next paragraph.

More squiggles.

Eddie reads through it once, twice more. This was not what he was expecting when he opened his locker today.

He, insanely, hopes the author is watching as he pulls his hair over his face.

He almost gets out his notebook to write a response when he realizes he doesn’t know who his admirer is. He doesn’t know how to send a note in return.

Well, he figures, he could at least write one, just in case.

There. Jumbled and all over the place, but at least it’s down on paper and not floating around in his brain anymore. He tucks the note in beside his in his notebook and carefully closes it, ensuring its safety.

He really hopes S, whoever they are, writes again.

[ninjabelle]

Berserk meta: future hill of swords type scenes, predictions and wishes.

Ok so as all my great berserk meta starts this is a direct reply to @bthump 's reply to me being a poorly concealed anon in this post.

I like to think in rules of 3 when it comes to Great Moments in Media so if we take hill of swords as the first major griffguts scene post eclipse then there will be another 2 at least before the end of the manga.

I agree with bthump that if they meet a second time Guts would absolutely get lost in his rage and despair over Griffith, not forgetting his urge to kill so much as forcing it to consume him so he's able to attack efficiently. In true Guts fashion molding his emotions and feelings in what they should be instead of what they are. In an ideal version of the story Griff accepts this with a sad sense of finality because he too is a master of pretending over acknowledging. BUT then just as they're really going at it an outside threat shows up, a player 3 if you will and Guts is so comsumed by the beast he sees nothing but Griffith and completely misses player 3 going for his throat so Griff- as Femto with his superhuman reflexes and world-bendy-magic bs entirely on instinct places himself right between Guts and the threat, getting impaled or at least badly wounded in the process. I mean, he's Femto so he won't die but there's BLOOD so Guts, shocked immediately out of dark mode stops fighting, drops his sword and goes to Griff's side before he even registers he's doing it.

Now something like this accomplishes 2 things: one, Guts sees Griffith isn't as free as he claims to be and does not actually want him to die and two, Griff sees the naked concern in Guts' eyes mirroring the hundreds of ways Guts had always looked at him and the penny just drops, that maybe he was wrong about Guts' resentment of him all along.

Of course this is still Berserk so they won't be given an opportunity to discuss this because with both of them distracted by their internal revelations player 3 goes ham and they beautifully team up like old times to defeat it. THIS even more than them realising the others feelings is something I neeeeeed for a future griffguts scene. Them fighting together just one more time. Body instincts overriding all the emotional responses, them back to back like before with everything that's happened between them not forgotten but just- put aside for a brief moment to defeat a common enemy or whatever.

I just want to see their internal monologues as they're depending on the other again out of necessity complete with the acknowledgment that both of them have MISSED THIS, no matter how much they wish they didn't.

As for the 3rd time they should meet, I gotta say that in my eyes that's also the entire climax of the story, the very ending so it'll be their last time together.

I love how bthump sees them falling together to their deaths, with Griff coming willingly where he could have otherwise chosen to live if Guts died.

But that's not an option, not when Griffith knows that Guts accepted him and cares for him still. No matter the dream or achieving that utopia I firmly believe he couldn't bear Guts going somewhere he can't follow again, so dying together is the only option. Griffith wouldn't even hesitate.

My perfect ending is very similar, except tragically I always see Guts being unable to stop fighting. Be it because of fate, or the beast of darkness or just not knowing what to do with himself if he were to stop and chose a different path. This, in sad contrast to Griff who I think if he fully awknowledged his own heart would drop everything he was doing, deeming it meaningless now that he's finally being true to himself. But at the same time realizing that he and Guts can't turn back time or change the destiny they've set in motion, keeping up with Berserk's themes.

So they fight brutally and Guts can't stop but deep down wants Griffith to stop him and this goes on for a painful while until Griff drops out of his Femto skin and lets Guts run him through with his sword.

Guts realizes Griffith's not blocking his blow too late and suddenly they're face to face and Griff is cupping his face like when they first met, and Guts does the same to him with shaking fingers. Now you're mine, now I'm yours. They sink to the ground, Griff goes out smiling and Guts stays there holding him, choosing to succumb to his wounds.

ROLL CREDITS!

Honestly though any ending where they wilfully choose to die together works, I just enjoy the thought of Griffith getting a big hole through his chest as a visual metaphor, which is why in my ideal versions he's always getting stabbed. As for Guts, I want him to stop fighting and settle down and be happy, sure, but within the story that just doesn't work for me. It's in his bones, it's who he is. He would only ever stop in my book if there was no longer any reason to. Which always comes back to Griffith since he's his reason, no matter how you look at it. Guts fought for him before, for his attention, then for his vengeance and regret and finally because there's nothing else left for them and that's how it should end. And it's a sad end, but I very secretly hc that Griff as Femto can absolutely fuck with timelines so who knows, they might get a second chance to do it right at some point!

Anyway those are my thoughts, I have a million more, many with Casca getting sick of both their shit and just triggering a behelit to kill them and everyone else as collateral, but that strays off topic lol.

If anyone has more cool significant griffguts scene predictions or ideas let's hear em!

Ninja out~

[nastyburger]

Okay but how did the first meeting tm go between all of the dannyverse tm. Did danny b just show up at danny’s school and go ‘hey im the new sub’? Did dex try and go home for a hot sec? Did SAM try and go home/ to tucker’s place? Did tucker try and go to his house/ danny’s place?? I have questions

the initial meeting period, which i like to call “the search” takes place over like two days, each character having having a different amount of time they spent in the canon universe in reference to “the portal surge” as we’ll call it

(this ended up being really long so im putting it under a read more for everyones sake lol)

dex pops in at the same time as the surge, so hes really been in the canon dimension for like 30? 40 minutes tops? until he finds the trio. he knows immediately hes not in his home (his amity is a lot more advanced with tech) and distinctly remembers being sucked into some sort of portal, so being the smart cookie he is reasonably infers parallel universe and sets out to find answers. he flies around in his mech (invisibly) until he hones in on an ecto signature clearly reading halfa in a crowd. whether its vlad or someone else, dex figures that a halfa was probably his best bet for help so he puts on his hoodie with hood up and slips into the crowd. (the mech is close behind but remains hidden and follows dex around until its needed)

he actually initially bumps into danny by mistake while searching (”oops sorry” / ”sorry, its fine i wasnt looking”) before taking a double take and going “wait that dude has my face??? hold on is he the halfa signature im tracking???” and runs after them. he catches up after they leave the crowd and are in a less populated area and grabs danny’s arm, startling everyone, and essentially going “wait, you’re a halfa right? possibly named danny fenton??” which effectively sends everyone into panic mode until dex pulls his hood down to show he has danny’s exact face and says “can you please help me???”. this panic morphs into full blown freak out.

they eventually calm down though, and set to sort this out. this was around late afternoon.

danny b was launched into a few days before the surge, and was actually dropped a little outside of amity. at first he thought he had been sent into the past, but seeing a news story in a tv store display and seeing a 14 year old danny phantom with white hair and green eyes effectively shuts down his idea. basically has a john mulaney “adult life as a half ghost is already so weird, this might as well happen” moment in a parking lot and moves on trying to find this alt version of himself for help on how to get home.

it was a little tough for him in those few days, he doesnt carry cash and his bank account for his debit wouldnt exist, so he went hungry for a bit (probably used his ghost powers to steal some food when he got desperate) and slept on a couple park benches and all that. its a little sad really.

eventually, after days of wandering around, his ghost sense goes off as he passes a park and sees a group of 4 kids huddled together. its starting to get a little dark out by this point. danny b approaches the gang movie peter b style: from behind, somewhat ominously with his hand outstretch, with the declaration of “hey, kids....” and dex stranger danger panics and electrocutes him with his robot arm. he passes out.

the kids assess the situation, dex being able to read that danny b is a halfa (”how many of you guys is there supposed to be in this universe?” / ”only vlad and me as far as i know.”) and tucker pointing out that he kinda looks like danny if you imagine the hair black (”great, its ANOTHER version of danny like we dont have enough of those”). afterwards, they take everyone to fenton works, canon trio through the door and dex easily sneaking in with unconscious DB.

once danny b wakes up (in his childhood room nonetheless which is a little disorienting), he immediately takes refuge in canon danny’s shower, also taking the time to shave and eat whatevers in the fridge. the trio are a bit weirded out by this older danny, especially when hes on his 4th pudding cup and eating it like a rabid animal (”do NOT judge me its been a hard few days”). but they more or less get used to him, especially when he proves to be a pretty cool guy. once DB’s basic necessities were taken care of, they start to form a plan of action.

the first step they decide on is finding any other stranded interdimensional people. lucky for them, dex locks in on 2 other halfa signatures in the general area. they set out to search the next day.

mourner and ghouly are found almost simultaneously. dex tracks them down immediately and determines that one is flying through the air as a ghost and the other is in human form on the ground. the group splits up with danny looking for the full ghost, db partnered with sam to sniff out the human form one, and tucker staying with dex in the mech (everyone communicating through fenton phones).

danny finds mourner (”i think i found.....a sam? as a ghost?”) and needless to say that first encounter doesnt go well. mourner popped up a couple hours after the surge while it was nighttime, so she spent most of the night flying around trying to figure stuff out but not garnering a lot of information with the world asleep. seeing danny just makes her instantly hostile thinking its another weird ghost trick so she starts blasting and they duke it out for a bit. she really only stops until dex and tucker show up in the mech and reveal themselves does she realize “okay different versions of people i know, this is weird but its not a ghost manipulating me by puppeteering my dead friend around i guess”. she calms down and joins the group.

ghouly is easily the smoothest encounter, the gang has gone through this enough already to not freak out over it. most reaction would probably be mild amazement and typical confusion (”oh wow its a goth sam and........an older danny? with red hair?” / “we found a different version of tucker, i guess he’s a halfa”) ghouly just doesnt have as much reason to panic as much here. he got launched into this dimension at the same time as dex (the moment the surge happen) but was more or less lost and wandering around since his gps and technology didnt seem to have signal. he didnt sleep overnight so he’s running a bit on empty but bought an energy drink and sandwich earlier that morning (he carries cash) so he hasnt gone full homeless mode like danny b did.

while his initial reaction/meet up with the others were definitely the least weird and confusing, ghouly probably does stare at canon danny a little too much to the point where its a bit awkward. (”sorry its just so weird not seeing you wear black and also i still find you really cute and grappling with whether or not this is considered cheating if youre like the same person”)

[cyclechicks]

Best Electric Motor Scooters for Adults

The Best Electric Scooters For Adults In 2020

On the off chance that you are here scanning for more data on the top electric bike for grown-ups, Be educated that you are exactly at the correct spot. Anyway, you think individuals zooming around on electric bikes appears to be cool? 

Indeed, you are not by any means the only one — in light of the fact that there are numerous fanatics of mechanized electric bikes that are yet to purchase and attempt this great game for obviously better practice alongside likewise an option in contrast to open vehicle.

Finding a grown-up electric bike could be for an assortment of reasons. They are anything but difficult to learn and perfect, simple to amass, and offers incredible versatility. Beside that, these pleasant rides are phenomenal for any age. For children, young people, and adults — the mechanized bike is the identical joy.

In This article all things considered, we'll adhere to the grown-up electric bikes which Are uncommonly intended for adults to cruise with, and stay away from open Transport. 

First We'll list down the main 10 items dependent on our Research and experience, at that point we will give you our top picks, and Last yet not the least, we will endeavor to answer a portion of your normal inquiries. Along these lines, with no extra ado, how about we get serious. To buy these, visit Geekwake.

1. Convenient And Folding Commuter Electric Scooter

Number 1 on our rundown is Glion Dolly Foldable Commuter Electric Scooter and there are numerous purposes behind it.

No doubt one of the most significant things to look for in mechanized bikes for adults is its own battery pack. This top electrical collapsing bike for Private vehicle has one of the best battery pack you may see in the business today. Indeed, we're discussing the premium 36V, containing 18650 cells and 30 Sony NMC.

Fundamentally, these Technical specs mean you will appreciate for a constant working time of 3.25 hours. Glion Dolly Foldable Commuter collapsing bike incorporates a speedy Charging time too.

The motor inside this ride is actually an It is incredibly quiet, which implies that you can even wander around within your home without really upsetting anybody.

The brakes Can likewise be found in the engine, which can be antilock kind and requires zero support. The pace of the ride is quite incredible as well — you can go at 15 mph and dazzle everyone around you. On a solitary charge, you may utilize this heavenly collapsing bike for at any rate 15 miles.

Why We Liked It – The way that you can ride for a constant 3.25 hours is Something very cool. Beside the super slowing mechanism with zero Maintenance likewise grabbed our eye. 

By and large, Glion Dolly Foldable For a couple of abundance zooms in her or his life. On the off chance that you're searching for the absolute best Electric bike accessible available — this may very well be it. For more, click here.

2. Qiewa Q1Hummer

In case you're a fanatic of solid, Army structure products, you're going to adore the Qiewa Q1Hummer from tires to the general system, everything about this excursion is conspicuous.

With ground-breaking 800 Watts lithium-particle batteries, this guarantees you go undisturbed and with no worry of reviving for in excess of 100 km. That is a significant distance truly — what it implies that you can ride on it the whole day and there will even now be some juice left in t.

The twofold safeguard with this collapsing bike is very much designed. You can ride it on practically any landscape and you won't feel the knocks and unpleasantness. The drive speed of 55 kph is incredible also, making it the top electric excursion for driving.

The organization affirms that this ride could be collapsed in 2 Seconds, which is extraordinary considering the tough plan it's. This general size of this cooter, when it's been collapsed is just 3 unusual feet. You can without much of a stretch put it under your vehicle's seat and revel in the ride where you go.

On the off chance that you are searching for somebody interesting, that is fit for stopping people in their tracks at the recreation center — a while later, Qiewa Q1Hummer Electric Scooter ought to be your decision.

The features don't complete here this stunning Grownup collapsing bike incorporates first class plate slows down that are powerful at forestalling numerous wounds and unexpected knocks. Beside that you additionally get the decision of USB cell phone charging on this excursion.

Why We Liked It – Qiewa Q1Hummer is loaded up with various stunning highlights. Nearly Everything about this excursion is perfect. Qualities like plate brakes, brake Lighting, strength, durable battery alongside the watertight plan make we begin to look all starry eyed at this electrical excursion for driving. This costs up to $2000.

3. UberScoot 1600 Electric Scooter For Commuting

Do You appreciate transformers notwithstanding a fanatic of bikes? You basically can't stand to miss this one thereafter. UberScoot has impeccably consolidated that thick mechanical like body with all the contemporary highlights in UberScoot $1600 for Commuting.

The battery on this mammoth is a 48 V, 1600 W brushless one. For a lower wattage, at that point attempt the UberScoot 1000w world class electric bike.

Riders Also have the decision to pick the economy mode to spare vitality while trading off only a little on the rate. Despite the fact that the grown-up bike UberScoot 1600 for Commuting is a tremendous ride yet it could be collapsed effectively and adjusted anyplace. It turns into your optimal friend wherever you go.

The battery on this develop bike is adequate to proceed Provided that 12 mph, contingent on the heaviness of the rider and the sort of territory.

front and backdrop illumination alongside the adaptable and removable seat makes this ride one of the extremely favored of genuine riders.

The sticker price connected to this Item is Slightly higher however when you contrast this and all the highlights it has on offer — it is intelligent.

Why We Liked It — Starting from the structure, the long battery life and agreeable. For more visit, Geekwake.

4. Razor E200 Electric Commuter Scooter

As of now examined, it is difficult to keep Labor out of the challenge for a really long time. On number 4 we currently have still another progressive item from the bike monster — the Razor E200 Electric Commuter Personal transportation Scooter.

The best part concerning this drive is its ultra-quiet, chain-driven motor. Riding on this ride is long periods of fun and that additionally without upsetting anybody around you. 

The hand turn grasp on the holds gives additional immovability and that full inclination important for genuine riders. The chain-driven engine ensures rapid of 12 mph, which is sufficient for even proficient riders. This drive for grown-ups has an enduring seal battery of 24 V.

E200 incorporates a solid kickstand to the side, guiding on the grasps and tough pneumatic tires for this ultra-smooth ride. The get together of this ride is simple and everything is incorporated and clarified in the bundle. 

The battery charger included may charge the battery from 0 — 100 percent in a couple of hours. Be that as it may, for the absolute initially run, it is prescribed to control the battery complete, which may take as long as 12 hours.

For more visit, Geekwake.

Razor is demonstrated to join top notch material with the most recent in innovation — with Razor E200 Electric Commuter Scooter, The organization has satisfied the expectation. 

The whole size deck and the casing are made out of this hardest material you'll find in hurries. This permits the riders to have a ton of fun without stressing over harming their excursion.

Why We Liked It — There are such a significant number of things to appreciate about this thing. Originates from the business head itself, besides, the ride is so smooth And calm you will before long become hopelessly enamored with the Razor E200 Adult Smooth make makes this drive the most sturdy in its alliance.

5. Super Turbo Elite 36v Electric Scooter

Super Turbo has been in the organization of making top class toys and rides for a long while now. The organization has a past filled with creating solid and "begin to look all starry eyed at" kind of rides for quite a long time. The Super Turbo Elite 36v is one such item that is made for some genuine delight.

Is among the most tough and rough excursion you will discover in the commercial center at this point. It might persevere to 250 lbs of weight on smooth territory. 

On the off chance that you append an extra adornment (the mountain unit) it can hold up under as much as 350 pounds of weight. Along these lines, regardless of how substantial you're, in the event that you love electric hurries, this ride is for you!

Talking about the rate, this ride may go Up to 26 miles (contingent on the kind of landscape and the rider's weight). The turbo and market button on the dark Super Turbo Elite 36v makes this ride entirely adaptable. 

For example, on the off chance that you need more speed, you may simply turn the turbo style on — in the event that you need the battery to last more, the market is the choice for you. Regardless of what your necessities are, this sail has every arrangement.

Contingent upon the rider's weight, the sort of landscape alongside the elective picked, the battery over the dark Super Turbo 1000w electric kick bike can proceed insofar as 18 mph. 

The seat on this one is additionally very agreeable, customizable, and removable moreover. Riders are presently ready to sit on the off chance that they wish to or simply evacuate the seat and remain as they ride around the play area intriguing the group. 

Incorporates availability to different how-to life support on building and segments help. Electric bikes with seat qualities are extremely well known for workers for clear reasons.

Why We Liked It – To be straightforward this drive has everything a rider can request. From Tough and solid structure to smooth long ride, the Super Turbo Elite 36v Electric Scooter is something which you will consistently be pleased with.

For more, click here.

[lechevaliermalfet]

Vae Victis! – A Look Back at Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain

It was the mid-1990s.  We were in the fifth generation of video game consoles, and gaming as a medium was eager to prove that it had grown up.

This had been going on before the fifth generation, of course.  The Sega Genesis sold itself on its contrast to the status quo.  “Sega does what Nintendon’t,” and all that.  Sega’s whole image was bound up in being the cool kid, the one who’d outgrown all those pokey “kiddie” games like Super Mario Bros. or Kid Icarus or Mega Man.  Sega fans played games like Mortal Kombat and Eternal Champions.  Even a mascot game like Sonic the Hedgehog had a kind of snide adolescent streak to it; leaner, meaner, and less patient.   Nintendo themselves had to butch up a little, even.  When their bloodless version of the first Mortal Kombat got outsold by Sega’s, which kept all the gore – despite otherwise being technically superior in every measurable way – they relaxed their standards and left all the blood and fatalities intact for the second and third games, and saw a jump in sales accordingly.  

The 90s were in part a decade of cynicism and ironic detachment.  Sincerity tended to be frowned upon as being kind of silly and naive, or else a cover for motives less savory.  Strong skepticism was the default mode, and in fiction, anti-heroes were all the rage.

Which brings us to Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain, described by its developers as a Legend of Zelda “for adults”.

Of course, any self-described adult who can’t bear to play a Legend of Zelda game because they feel it’s not grown-up enough needs to sit down and re-assess their idea of adulthood, and how secure they are in it.  If a tolerance for violence (if not a craving) is all it takes, then I was an adult at about eleven, when I was single-handedly mowing down whole armies of Nazis in Wolfenstein 3D.

But those were the times, and that’s how Blood Omen got pushed.  Which is unfortunate, because it misses the more thoughtful parts of the game’s story that actually did make it material mostly for adults.

“...the first act in my theatre of Grand Guignol!”

We begin in the world of Nosgoth, and if there’s a made-up fantasy word that screams “dark supernatural fantasy” more than that, I haven’t heard it.  Our main character is Kain, a nobleman caught out at night in a town where he can’t find an inn or tavern to stay for the night.  He is cornered by assassins and murdered, whereupon he goes to hell.  Or at least, we can assume it’s hell; I don’t think even a death metal band’s idea of heaven involves being cuffed to twin posts overlooking a literal lake of fire with a sword stuck through you.  Anyway, that’s where Kain is, cursing the fact that he can’t get revenge.  Which seems a little warped, on the surface of things.  You’d think if you were stuck in hell, then getting out, however impossible, might seem more important than getting back at the people who killed you.  But if you’re the kind of person who winds up in hell after being murdered, I suppose it stands to reason that your priorities may not be in order.

While Kain is in hell, lamenting his impotent rage and generally ignoring all the fine mid-90s CG scenery, he is approached by a necromancer named Mortanius.

The necromancer offers him a way back to the world of the living, and thus a chance at revenge.  Eager to oblige his overdeveloped sense of wrath, Kain takes him up on the offer, and fails to consider that there are only a few different ways, traditionally, that a dead person can cross back through the veil.  And none of them really involve returning to life exactly as you were.

Kain rises from his grave as a vampire, stronger than he ever was in life, and only too happy to hack up his assassins when he encounters them not far from the site of his crypt.  However, as he comes down from his vengeance-high, he hears a voice in the back of his mind – Mortanius’s voice, in fact – suggesting that his assassins were “the instruments of your murder, not the cause”.  Mortanius then urges him to seek out the Pillars to find the real reason for his murder, and its true culprits.

We need to rewind a bit.

IN THE BEGINNING, there were the Pillars of Nosgoth (in fact, “Pillars of Nosgoth” was the game’s working title for a while). Rooted who knows how deep in the earth below, and reaching up to the clouds, the Pillars are a structure that should be physically impossible.  They are somehow both integral to the natural order of the world, and also the embodiment of certain elemental principles. There are nine of them, embodying – in no particular order – conflict, energy, states (of being, not political), dimensions, death, nature, time, the mind, and balance.  Each Pillar has its guardian, a human endowed with powers according to the Pillar’s defining principle, and tasked with overseeing that Pillar’s particular province.  

A good while back in the past (how long is not detailed in this game, but probably centuries) there was a genocidal crusade of sorts against vampires, who were evidently a serious scourge of some kind.  In fact, the game opens on a view of a field – practically a forest – of stakes, with a vampire impaled on each.  Vlad Tepes would be proud.  This crusade was ordered by the Circle of Nine (the collective group of Pillar guardians), and carried out by the fanatical religious order known as the Sarafan Brotherhood.

Monsters that they are, the vampires did not take this well.  One of their number, an elder vampire named Vorador, decided to strike back.  Vorador was by this point in his unlife no longer quite human looking, with mottled grey skin (later series installments would make this varying shades of green), odd three-clawed hands, and giant bat-like ears. Blood Omen never elaborates on the reason for this difference.  At any rate, he singlehandedly stormed the citadel of the Pillar guardians while most of the Sarafan brotherhood were away (presumably looking for more vampires to stake), and wound up killing several of them (one of the sequels gives the number as six).  In the process, he even managed to beat down Malek on his way out, perhaps the greatest warrior among the Sarafan, and the one specifically tasked with safeguarding the Circle.

For screwing up his one job, Malek was punished by being made to do that job for eternity.  It might seem inadvisable to take the guy who failed to guard you and then make him your guard forever, but it helps if you rip his soul out of his body and bind it to his armor, thus making him a sleepless, tireless, unfeeling, and ever vigilant warrior fueled by pure wrath.  Which is what they (or rather, Mortanius) ultimately did.  At some point between this time and the present day of Blood Omen, Malek became the guardian of the Pillar of Conflict, so evidently he was fit for his role in the end.

Now we fast-forward a bit, to a point just moments before Kain’s birth. In fact, later games place this at the exact moment of that birth.

Somewhere around thirty years before Kain’s murder outside a nameless tavern in a random town, Ariel, the guardian of the Pillar of Balance, is murdered.  This is bad news for all the usual reasons, and also one or two unusual ones.  It turns out that her lover is the guardian of the Pillar of the Mind, the mentalist Nupraptor.  Her murder drives him insane, and being a telepath (among other things), his insanity infects the guardians of the other Pillars as well. This turns them from their usual purpose of upholding the natural balance, and instead sets them to destroying it.  This in turn corrupts the Pillars, symbiotically connected to their guardians, turning them from pristine white to a pitted and cracking grey.  With both the Pillars and their guardians respectively corrupted and insane, the natural order of things begins to fall apart.  Bad news all around.

Blood Omen is somewhat unusual in that it’s one of the few probably rare instances in fiction where a woman is stuffed into the fridge at the beginning of the story, and in order to drive the villain to extremes of behavior.

So.

Now we have Kain, in the present of our story, given to understand that his death was in some way connected with the Pillars and their corruption.  He makes his way to the Pillars, where he meets Ariel’s restless spirit.  She’s the one who lays out for him part of the business about her murder and Nupraptor’s madness, and the threat posed to the world by it all.  Kain is only interested in a cure for his vampirism (now that he’s had his vengeance, he wants no part of this undeath business), but Ariel persuades him that his best bet is to deal with the corruption of the Pillars.  So Kain storms off to go take care of Nupraptor, and ultimately to cleanse the Pillars by severing their connection to their now-insane guardians, solving the problem of their corruption by reference to his sword.  Go with what you know.

It’s at this point that Kain’s personal arc begins to unfold, as he becomes increasingly alienated from humanity, both the species and the concept.  While initially at odds with his vampirism, Kain spends the story coming to grips with the hypocrisy and corruption of human civilization, all the while becoming more and more comfortable with the seeming monstrosity of his new existence.  This is a matter of some necessity.  He has things he needs to do, he has to stay alive to do them, and so a certain amount of blood-drinking and slaughter seems inevitable.  

In his travels, he comes across Vorador’s manor, situated deep in a swamp teeming with monsters.  Kain seeks his help to destroy Malek.  Vorador, for his part, spends the encounter being lordly and largely dismissive of Kain’s quest.  He advises the fledgling vampire that meddling in mortal affairs is nothing but bad news.  Better to sit back and sate one’s hunger – or thirst, in this case – and let the mortal world turn as it will.  Humans are to be preyed on, not helped or manipulated or otherwise gotten involved with.  Best to stay above such passing concerns.  Nevertheless, he takes a liking to Kain, and gives him his ring to summon him at need.

Say a word often enough, and it starts to lose its sense of meaning.  Actions likewise lose significance with repetition.  They become rote.  And as time wears on, Kain seems to begin making a turn.  There’s a certain honesty in being a monster.  You always know what you are, and you always know how other people see you.  Kain may sneer at Vorador’s decadence when they meet, but at least the elder vampire is never less than one hundred percent honest about what he is.

And as Kain goes on, it begins to seem that Vorador was right.  So much of Kain’s and the world’s difficulties seem to stem from the selfishness, greed, shortsightedness, self-absorption, and general malice of the people he runs up against.  Eventually, he winds up accidentally sparking a second genocidal crusade against his own kind.  This has mostly to do with him traveling back in time to kill a man in the past who would grow to become a tyrant in his current era.  This mistake no doubt has its roots in his not having not grown up in a world with a whole sub-genre of fiction concerned with the merits or otherwise of traveling back in time to kill Hitler.

We will have such fun with time travel as the series goes on, let me tell you.

The game ends by offering the player a choice.  Kain’s efforts to cleanse the Pillars and restore balance to the world have made him the new guardian of the Pillar of Balance.  Yet, like all other Pillar Guardians slain at his hand, he himself is corrupt, and must die to complete the task.  So the player is asked: Will Kain willingly sacrifice himself for the greater good of Nosgoth, or will he refuse the sacrifice and choose to live in an increasingly broken and corrupt world.

The sequels take the second ending as canon, and honestly, it’s hard to argue.  This isn’t a story about hope springing eternal, after all.  The few people in it who are unambiguously good are either killed (Ariel) or largely ineffectual (King Ottmar, who comes to prominence briefly toward the end of the story).  The player may feel differently, but there’s little reason to believe that Kain would.  Proud, haughty, vindictive, wrathful, and growing ever more cynical and mistrustful of the motives of those around him, tired of being used as a tool for other’s schemes...  Why would he choose to sacrifice himself?

And so, canonically, we close on a shot of Kain sitting on a throne at the base of the Pillar of Balance, with it and all the other Pillars lying in a broken ruin around him.  He drinks from a goblet, and muses that Vorador was right after all: “Vampires are gods – dark gods – and it is our duty to thin the herd.”

The End.

“Nothing is free.  Not even revenge.”

So that’s Blood Omen as a story.  What about as a game?

On the balance it’s kind of uneven.  

On a technical level, it’s fairly impressive.  In its time, it stood as a testament to the potential quality of two-dimensional graphics in gaming, even as the entire medium was leaping into the third dimension, ready to ditch and decry anything made in 2D as inferior. The result from a technical standpoint is that Blood Omen has in some ways aged better than a lot of other games of its vintage, including its first sequel.  

But then you actually play the thing, and see where it sort of falls apart.

Let’s get the easy part over with, shall we?  The load times in Blood Omen are godawful, just the worst possible combination of long and frequent. It seems almost like a joke at times: “Really?  We’re loading again?  It was one fucking room!”  Were it not for the fact that it began development as a totally unrelated game, I would strongly suspect that the sequel, Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, used its data-streaming technology to avoid loading times altogether purely as a response to this criticism.  I still think that may be the case.

Once we dig past the issue of loading times, though, the game reveals other issues.

There are good ideas on display here.  Let’s start with that.  The game has a day-and-night cycle, and while you can walk around during the day, you deal less damage (and take more) while the sun is up.  Water is like the touch of acid to a vampire, and any time you’re in it, you’ll take constant damage.  Rain and snow will likewise damage you, and while there are power-ups that are supposed to eliminate this problem, I’m not sure they actually work.  At least, not on the PC version of the game, which is what I’ve mostly played.  

The game also requires that Kain drink blood periodically.  His health naturally drains very slowly, but constantly, so you always have to be on the lookout for a way to top yourself off.  There are some more abstract health restoration items, as well as a consumable item you can use, called the Heart of Darkness (this item will become obscenely important in later installments).  However, the game is structured such that most of Kain’s health restoration will have to come from either enemies or, more often, helpless innocents.  This ties nicely into the game’s theme of alienation from humanity, though the way the game often presents these situations –random strangers chained to walls all over the world, for no apparent reason – seems a little odd at times.  And it has interesting ideas about different creatures having blood that might actually be harmful to Kain, or inflict him with a long-term poison.

In addition to the graphics looking nice (the CG cutscenes are definitely of their time, but the in-game sprite work and lighting effects are quite nice), the game has a great soundtrack, dark and moody and ominous. And the voice work is superb.  All character interactions are handled with voiceover rather than on-screen text, and the cast knocks it out of the park.  Not just “good for the mid-90s video game voice acting”, but great, period.

The puzzle-solving is a little lackluster, though.  For something pitched as a “grown-up Legend of Zelda”, its puzzles largely consist of pulling levers and pushing buttons, and navigating mazes. Which is fine, but again, any game that’s going to self-consciously compare itself to The Legend of Zelda needs to bring its A game, especially with its puzzle-solving.

The game does offer you a lot of tools to use, in the form of different weapons, spells, and magical items.  But a lot of these boil down to more inventive yet questionably practical ways to kill enemies.  And considering that setting up a selection of these items for immediate access involves going back and forth to the inventory menu (requiring a load time both ways), it’s easier to just stick with your weapon and a handful of the most commonly used spells and items and call it a day.

Weapons themselves are another problem.  You’ll find that your iron sword from the very beginning of the game is the most generally useful. The mace will let you stun human enemies to drink their blood after just two hits, but it lacks the crowd-control effect of the sword, and also lacks the stunning effect on the non-human enemies that make up the bulk of your later-game foes.  It’s also useful for knocking down certain stone barriers, but these are few and far between, and necessary for progress only very rarely.  The twin axes let Kain cut down trees barring his path, and also let him cut down enemies by spinning like a saw blade… but this means you’ll frequently kill enemies before you have a chance to drain them.  The flaming sword burns enemies alive and leaves only ashes, preventing you from drinking blood that way.  And then the final weapon, the Soul Reaver (also an item of incalculable importance later in the series), deals massive damage as long as you have magic power to fuel it.  But while thus empowered, it detonates the enemies it kills, making them impossible to drain.  And when not empowered, it’s only as damaging as the iron sword, but slower and more awkward.

Combat in general gets frustrating at times, thanks to the iffy hit detection.  One enemy might walk right through your sword swing, while another you could swear was out of range will register a hit.  It never becomes a total deal-breaker, but it’s a point of frequent irritation as you go.

Let’s have another positive: Kain also gains the ability to transform into various other states as the game goes by.  In his wolf form, he can leap over certain obstacles, but his attack in this form has no combo ability and a long wind-up, making him vulnerable.  He can use his bat form to fast-travel between beacons and certain landmark locations, while his mist form allows him to walk on water without taking damage, as well as cross certain barriers without opening the door.  There are also two disguises he can use.  One transforms him into a peasant, while the other turns him into a human-looking version of himself so that he can pass as a nobleman.  The use of both of these is largely situational, required in a very small number of situations and then mostly pointless outside of them.

But perhaps the thing that stands out the most is its linearity.

This is to some extent mandated by the story.  Unlike The Legend of Zelda, to which this game invites much comparison, Blood Omen’s story is very much at all times front and center.  A Zelda game will leave you with bits of story here and there, and largely leave you to explore or puzzle your way forward or dick around in town or otherwise do your own thing for long stretches of time.  The story in one of those games is the starting point of the experience, a backdrop against which you play out the adventure.  Hyrule is to some extent defined by that openness, with its plains and deserts and vast forests and so on.  

Blood Omen lacks this.  Its story is the entire point and purpose of the game. The path forward is always clear and rarely has room for deviation or discovery.  There may be things hidden off to the side, but these tend ultimately to be cul-de-sacs, connecting to nothing else.  This is even subtly expressed in the game’s environments: lots of indoor areas, caves, narrow trails, canyons, and so on.  There’s little opportunity to go off the beaten path.  Blood Omen’s pathways not only discourage exploration, they often disable it. This is not your experience to own; it is Kain’s story for you to be told.

I feel like in story terms, that’s ultimately the difference.  Legend of Zelda’s story always exists to serve the game that Nintendo crafts.  Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain’s game exists to serve the story.

And just to be clear, none of this is bad at all.  It’s every bit as valid in terms of game design and mechanics as any given Zelda.  But if you’re going to compare your game to The Legend of Zelda and then fail to do the most essentially Zelda things in it – not just do them poorly, but not do them at all, missing the point entirely of what a Zelda game is about – then it’s worth commenting on.  I like Blood Omen, but I had to get used to thinking of it on its own terms.  The Zelda comparisons are easy to make. Even without the developers making them, the look and structure of the game seems to invite them.  

Like a good book, Blood Omen is a (mostly) straight shot from start to finish.  Its linearity is what allows it to control the story, to unfold its plot and explore its themes at a pace of its choosing.  The game to some extent revels in its edginess, but to be honest, it was perfect for me at the time.  I was sixteen when I first played the game.  Sixteen, and a bit of a loner with an odd and private (but intense) interest in vampires.  It was probably the perfect game for me at the time.  And it’s still ultimately enjoyable today, if you take it as what it is.  Not as a Legend of Zelda game for adults, but as a decent action-adventure game with a good story and top-notch presentation.  If you don’t mind the linearity and the relentlessly dark and sometimes disturbing story, it’s just about perfect.

Post-script the First: Likelihood of Re-release, and Current Availability

Eeeehhhhhhhhhh...

Here’s the problem: Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain was originally dreamed up and created by Silicon Knights and published by Crystal Dynamics (who also had a hand in the development, late in the process), with distribution to be handled by Activision.  Crystal Dynamics eventually got full ownership of the Legacy of Kain brand, and used it to make the first sequel to Blood Omen, titled Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver.  Silicon Knights was against this, but had less deep pockets than Crystal Dynamics, so they were ultimately the losers of the resulting court battle over the affair.  The lone bone thrown to them was that Crystal Dynamics had to acknowledge in the game that Soul Reaver was based on characters and ideas created by Silicon Knights.

By the time Soul Reaver rolled around, Crystal Dynamics belonged to Eidos.  Then, in 2005 (not long after the last Legacy of Kain game was published), Eidos was completely bought out by Square Enix, and was mostly refocused on creating western-style games under the Square Enix umbrella.  Crystal Dynamics still exists as a division within Square, where they’ve been making various Tomb Raider games almost exclusively ever since the acquisition.

The problem with any hypothetical remaster or re-release of Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain is that, for several years, it would have required some three-way legal wrangling to determine who really owned the thing, and what they could do with it (if anything), and under what conditions.  

As of about 2014, Silicon Knights ceased to exist (about which more later, because it’s a fun story), but that still leaves the rights an open issue.  Square Enix seems to own the larger Legacy of Kain intellectual property, but there’s the question of ownership regarding Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain specifically, and I’m not sure that question has ever been answered.  Silicon Knights doesn’t exist, but many of its personnel are still around in some capacity, and would presumably have something to say about anything involving it.

Venues like Steam and Good Old Games have released the every other installment in the series digitally (even Blood Omen 2), but nobody’s touched the original game.  Probably CD Projekt Red and Valve don’t have much desire to try unsnarling the ownership and licensing issues themselves, and none of the owners seem all that keen on it, either.

And it will probably stay that way.  The Legacy of Kain series in general has always been pretty solidly in the B tier of video games, from back when there still even was much of a B tier in the first place.  The fanbase for that kind of deliberately overwrought gothic supernatural fantasy was loyal, but never very big, and I’m not sure how much that’s changed.  Moreover, I’m not sure either Square is willing to bank on it having grown in the interim enough to do anything about this first game in the series.  The more time goes by, the less inclination any party has to make anything of the series, especially an early entry whose ownership may be contested. An indirect sequel, and also some kind of MMO, were both in the works at various points.  The MMO vanished after not very long at all on the market, and the indirect sequel never made it out of development.

Legal options for playing Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain are limited.  You can play the original PlayStation version on the PlayStation 1, 2, or 3.  It’s also digitally available on the PS3, although not for the PSP or Vita.  Infuriatingly, it’s one of a small handful of games that can’t even be side-loaded (a process that involves downloading a digital PS1 game onto your PS3, then copying it uninstalled to the Vita).  The PC version, meanwhile, can still be played, though there’s a special program custom-made for it that you’ll have to get in order to install it and run it on modern systems.  And this tends to run a little slow.  Music and sound are fine, it’s just the game actually moves slower than normal.  Or you could install a virtual desktop and play it that way.

Post-script the Second: The Death of Chivalry

So whatever happened with Silicon Knights?  

Well, the story is… not complicated, exactly, but not entirely straightforward, either.

Development of Blood Omen was troubled.  As we would later learn, this was not an especially novel situation for Silicon Knights to be in.  Two of their other big projects later on underwent some turbulence in production.  Blood Omen was originally to be created by Silicon Knights and published by Crystal Dynamics.  Later on, after Crystal Dynamics became part of British publisher Eidos, they were able to somehow leverage this connection to strongarm their way into ownership of the overall Legacy of Kain intellectual property.  They used it to make the first sequel to Blood Omen, titled Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver. This had begun life as a brand-new IP (originally titled Shifter), which helps explain some of the tremendous thematic, aesthetic, and design differences between the two games.  

Silicon Knights later maintained that they’d had their own ideas for a potential Blood Omen sequel, but never got around to it, and after Crystal Dynamics started making their own sequels, Silicon Knights lost interst.  I’m not sure how much of that is real and how much is just so much sour grapes.  Anyway, they went off and did their own thing for a while.  They published the survival horror game Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem for the GameCube, after having signed an exclusivity deal with Nintendo around that time.  It had originally been in development for the N64, but was ultimately moved up to the newer hardware after development delays.  For anyone who’s wondering, Eternal Darkness an excellent game, on the shortlist of must-own GameCube titles, even if you’re not necessarily a fan of survival horror.  It’s not perfect (among other things, you have to beat the game three times to see the true ending), but it does a lot of interesting things.  

They also developed the GameCube remake of Metal Gear Solid (likely under heavy scrutiny and supervision form Konami), dubbed Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes.  Much as I tend to prefer the original version of the game for its restraint (Twin Snakes has a lot of ridiculous high-flying wire-fu maneuvering in its action cutscenes), the remake is worth any Metal Gear fan’s time. Among other things, series creator Hideo Kojima has apparently declared it the canon version of events.  It also saw a re-dubbing of the entire script, since apparently when the original audio was played back at a higher sampling rate, you could hear the traffic in the background, which the ramshackle soundproofing used in the original hadn’t been able to entirely shut out.  The re-dubbed script also has the benefit of having allowing Jennifer Hale and Kim Mai Guest to ditch their put-on accents – Guest’s being particularly irritating, and borderline racist (maybe actually racist; I’m a white dude, and not totally clear on these things).

After this, they moved on to the Xbox 360 with their passion project Too Human, which had been troubled from the beginning.  Its on-again, off-again development cycle spanned a decade and three console generations.  It began development for the original PlayStation, then shifted to the GameCube when the developer did in the early 2000s.  It went quiet for a few years, then resurfaced as an Xbox 360 project that was ultimately delivered in 2008, two years after its projected release on that console.

Too Human was a notorious, news-making flop, and Silicon Knights responded to this failure not simply by pinning the blame on someone else, but by doing that and then actually suing them.  Specifically, they sued Epic Games, from whom they had licensed the Unreal Engine 3 to make the final version of Too Human.  The accusation was that Epic deliberately sabotaged developers who licensed their engine by providing an incomplete product, and that the difficulties stemming from this had caused development delays.  These delays, and the compromises they brought about, were supposedly ultimately responsible for the failure and the financial losses of Too Human.

Epic responded by then counter-suing, which was the beginning of the end for Silicon Knights.

Epic’s counter-suit stated that Unreal Engine 3 was a work in progress, and that they were making it essentially on the fly as they developed the first Gears of War.  The counter-suit further stated that it was readily and openly acknowledged that the engine was unfinished, and that when it was done, it might ultimately not turn out to be useful for the licensees.  Epic’s suit further indicated that these facts were all known and laid out in the licensing contract, and so like all licensees, Silicon Knights knew this when they signed for it.  

But it gets better (which is to say, worse, at least for Silicon Knights). Epic’s counter-suit also included the allegation that Silicon Knights had knowingly and wrongfully copied code wholesale from Unreal Engine 3 and incorporated it into their own engine without permission from Epic.  They had then gone on to use this hybrid engine on other internal projects without the permission of the people they’d cannibalized it from.  

Now, I’m not one to root for a big corporation, even (especially) a game developer.  But Silicon Knights had the misfortune of being run by Denis Dyack, a known con-man, grifter, shady bullshitter, and general ambulatory phallus.  He maybe wasn’t in the same category as a Randy Pitchford or a Bobby Kotick, but that’s less a matter of capacity and more a matter of opportunity.  Given the chance to operate on their scale, I don’t doubt he’d have fit right in with that crowd.  

As far as the court case went, the evidence was overwhelmingly in Epic’s favor. In addition to their own court costs and damages awarded to Epic, Silicon Knights was forced to recall all unsold copies of Too Human and X-Men: Destiny (another game they’d developed with their Unreal Engine 3 hybrid), as well as scrap all projects using the engine, which seems to have been literally everything they had in the works at that point.

So what happened, essentially, is that Silicon Knights sued Epic Games in an effort to offset their losses by making money out of the Too Human debacle somehow, and it backfired so comically that they broke themselves against their opponent.

But their end, one way or another, was probably inevitable in that console generation.  Looking at their release history, there’s really nothing that stands out as a hit or an absolute classic.  Eternal Darkness and Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes were both fine games, this much is true.  But Eternal Darkness was a GameCube exclusive, and the GameCube didn’t sell the way Nintendo hoped.  Meanwhile, The Twin Snakes is certainly nice, but as a remake of a different developer’s game, it has little in the way of originality, and very little of the material can really be said to “belong” to Silicon Knights, since it was someone else’s brainchild right from the start.  

They were never a hugely prolific publisher, with eight games published before they folded, and according to Wikipedia, seven known titles cancelled at various points during their existence.  These cancelled projects included two sequels to Too Human (which had always been planned as a trilogy).  Given the cold reception received by the original, both from critics and consumers alike, that seems questionable.  In for a penny, in for a pound, I guess.  But however you look at it, they didn’t have what you’d call a good ratio of finished to unfinished projects.  And while it’s worth mentioning that many of those unfinished projects were upcoming games they were forced to cancel because they’d been made (or begun) with their illegal Unreal Engine 3 hybrid, the fact is that when your business plan hinges on stealing another developer’s game engine to make your own games, you’re already in a bad place.  

Silicon Knights pretty firmly slotted into the middle tier of video games.  For my money, the middle tier is in some ways the sweet spot.  It’s more high-tech and technically involved than the indie set, yet not so high-budget that developers in it can’t feel free to experiment.  But that middle tier has all but vanished these days. It’s questionable whether Silicon Knights would have hung on long enough to find a spot in it today, even if they hadn’t destroyed themselves going after Epic, just based on the iffy reception of their games.  That’s without considering the general skullduggery it took to keep them going in the first place.  And I also tend to think of X-Men: Destiny as a bad sign.  There’s no shame in work-for-hire; it’s how a lot of major development studios (like Blizzard) started out.  But that’s the key: you start out doing work-for-hire projects to make the money to strike out on your own. Silicon Knights was moving in the opposite direction, and that’s a bad sign.

Vae Victis, indeed.

[royaltealovingkookiness]

30 Days of Zutara - Day 21: Costume Party

She helps him slide on the red tunic, the silk is cool and smooth to the touch.

Her fingers brush over lightly the star-shaped wound, still so fresh and he winces from the pain. “Thank you, Katara,” he smiles gratefully. “I still feel like an invalid, I can’t even dress myself.”

“You should be in bed, you almost died.” Katara looks at him sternly.

Zuko ignores the comment about dying, and simply shrugs, “You know I’d rather be lounging around, but it’s important that I show up to my first meeting as Fire Lord with the military commanders. I have to demonstrate that I’m in control, it’s a delicate time.”  The complexity of the political situation doesn’t escape Katara, but it’s surreal that the awkward dork who was washing dishes with her a few days ago now suddenly has an entire country to run.

The burgundy west with the golden hem comes next.

He continues. “If they think I’m weak, they’ll pounce like puma-hyenas, to tear the whole thing apart. We’ll end up with warlords sitting on their islands again.”

“Is that a bad thing?” Katara thinks that the empire needs to end, and learning to be small again may not be the worst thing for the Fire Nation.

“I understand how you feel about the empire, Katara, believe me, I do. But that doesn’t mean we should go back to the days of the tribal wars and bloodshed.”

He raises his arms and she twists the golden belt around his waist.

“I didn’t mean that.” She doesn’t wish war on anyone, there has been enough lives lost.

Zuko sighs. “I know you didn’t. I’m just nervous.” He bites his lips.

Katara ties the intricate knot, taking care that the lines are perfect. “You’ll be fine, Zuko. You prepared for this your entire life. It’s your destiny.”

“Well, not for the three years I was banished,” he sighs.

“Especially those three years,” she says firmly. “Think about it, what did your uncle teach you?”

Zuko pauses for a moment then smiles. “You’re right. Strategy, politics, diplomacy, leadership, patience...tea.” Mentioning his uncle lightens him up without a fail. Katara thinks that maybe it reminds him that even with a missing mother, an imprisoned father and a crazy sister, he is not all alone in the world.

“You forgot pai sho,” grins Katara.

“Don’t even remind me of the pai sho,” he grimaces.

She helps him get into the ornate long robe.

“I still feel like a kid playing dress up… What if they don’t listen to me?” Zuko is back to worry-mode.

“They will. You are their legitimate ruler, and more importantly, they will see that you are right.” At least she hopes they will.

He bows his head slightly, so she can tie up his hair.

The black locks feel like pure silk under her fingers. They never touched much before, but since she has been healing him constantly in the past few days, she has become more tactile with him. He closes his eyes and leans into the touch lightly. Katara fusses with the knot for an unnecessarily long time; both of them unwilling to break contact.

Katara pins the three-pronged golden headpiece into the topknot.

He raises his head and his transformation is complete. In this moment, she’s acutely aware that he’s not only her dear, awkward friend, but also the Fire Lord, who belongs to his people. The feeling of closeness is replaced by a feeling of grief as she realizes that the part of their lives roaming free as a group of friends is irrevocably over. Something whispers inside her that it was probably the best part, only they didn’t realize it then.

“Aang said that he’ll leave for the Earth Kingdom tomorrow,” Zuko says quietly. There is a question hidden in the statement which he doesn’t say, but Katara hears nonetheless. Will she leave as well?

“Iroh needs his help to prepare for the peace conference… I mean it’s good no? We’ll be together again in two weeks.” Katara rambles instead of replying because she simply doesn’t know. It’s all hellishly complicated. In wartime, necessity ruled their life often leaving them no option, but now that peace is here, the future is wide open. Zuko’s and Aang’s destiny is written, but she’s free to become who she wants to be. Suddenly it feels like a terrible weight and she’s unsure if she’s capable of making a choice.

“Yeah, it’s good,” mutters Zuko, but there is a sadness in his eyes. He takes a deep breath and motions to his attire. “How does it look?”

Katara steps closer.

She smoothes her fingers over his eye gently, purple-red mark blooming under her fingertips.

The scar feels dry, scaly and warm. It reminds Katara that pomp and circumstance is only the surface, her dear friend underneath remains who he is. Reckless, brave, heroic, caring. She’s unsure if the caress is a good-bye or a promise. He goes very still and surrenders to her touch, just like he did that day.

“Perfect,” she nods.

They are yet again on the crossroads of their destiny, except this time the choice is hers to make. And now she feels the agony he must have felt, torn between the familiar and the new. She breaks away.

She squeezes his arm and nods at him encouragingly. “Go, knock them out…”

“...moose-lion,” she says and he flashes a big toothy smile at her. He runs out of the hut. One of his friends, dressed as a penguin, greets him. “Cool Zuko-costume, Bumi. But I think the scar is on the wrong side.” “No, it’s not on the wrong side,” retorts Bumi, and waves back at Katara one last time before the boys race towards the communal hall where the costume party is about to begin.

Katara watches his son skipping away happily, dressed as Fire Lord. Before, it would have been unimaginable for someone in the water tribe to pick a Fire Nation costume, but Aang and Zuko working tirelessly on peace have managed to turn things around in a surprisingly short time.

But there is more than that. Zuko is Bumi’s personal hero since he took the devastated boy last summer on a trip to the Fire Nation, while his siblings were training with their bending, introducing him to swordfighting, theater, white sandy beaches and other exciting adventures. Things he should have done with his father, but...well,...never got to. The trip changed the boy, he came back all laughter and confidence.

Katara looks at the frayed golden thread stuck to her hand and wraps it around her finger. In the last pale rays of the setting winter sun it looks like a golden ring. She closes her eyes and as the fading light caresses her face, she lets herself think about the life she didn’t choose.

When darkness falls over the South Pole, she goes home and starts preparing dinner. The kids will be back from the party soon and hearing their excited chatter over the family meal is the favourite part of her day.

AO3 link

[insomniac-dot-ink]

Whales Aren’t Real, Ch1

Genre: sci-fi, wlw, series

Words: 3k

Summary: A chosen Earth Restitution Team goes diving into the ocean to look for what remains of ocean life

The young RT member finds one of the few humans who adapted to the destruction of the planet, she asks her if whales are real or not.

Lesbian soft-apocalyptica.

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Chapters: One, Two

Chapter 1: Breech

Life wants to live. That’s a basic tenant of nature, that it strives and reaches and wants.

That is what hunger is, and sex, and frogs with poison in their skin and bugs that look like twigs, birds with hollow bones and primates with fingertips. It is fish growing wings and the first inklings of life that swam to light.

The want that carves out canyons into forests and trenches into coral reefs. That want that turns empty plains into rumbling gardens and the whole dang earth into something… different.

It’s something Remy has to put her faith in, blindly, religiously, fanatically. Life wanted to live and that meant something.

-------

The Wb-77 glides effortlessly across the dark blue waters, it’s pointed triangle wings cutting through the gentle ocean breeze and buoying them a couple feet above the ocean’s surface. The sky is almost as blue as the waters down below it and the whole world is one large expanse.

It’s so large it feels like she could open her arms and fall into it forever.

Remy takes a deep breathe, it tastes sticky with salt and sunshine, and she grins.

“Woooo!” She stretches her arms up to the sky and whoops, tossing her head back and laughing into the salty air. “Can you feel that Kel?” She calls out above the dim hum of the Sunflower Motor. “That’s the energy of good luck.”

The pilot glances over his shoulder at her, “keep focused Rem.” He says in a flat tone, sunken eyes focusing on the stretch of distance ahead of them. “Mission in ten.”

She nods with gusto and reaches inside her own small cockpit and extracts a large tub of dark jelly, she grabs a globby handful and starts applying the adhesive to her bare skin and swim bottoms.

“I’m just saying, I’ve got a good feeling about this Kel,” she says brightly, “today is the day.”

“Please,” his tone sags around the edges, burdened by its own weariness. “Just keep your camera on the rocks Remy. It’s the RT, not a travel holiday.” Remy could have stuck her tongue out at him, but she decides to tug on the end of her small tight ponytail instead, “Don’t tell me you’re not feeling it.”

She slathers another handful of goop onto her leg and pats it down generously.

Kel sighs, “whatever it is, I’m not sure I want to feel it Rem. You ever hear of ocean madness?” Her eyes glimmer, “have you ever heard of wet-blanket syndrome?” “Haha,” he turns the plane gently toward a pile of rocks in the distance. A promising location for new crustacean life. “I’m serious!” She crows over the wind, “They’re singing for us right now, I know it.” “Maybe in your head, SCO-y.” SCO-y was the name for all new recruits to the Restitution Team, Single-celled Organisms, newbies, guppies, easily dismissed. Remy ignores the name.

“Says the man with one burst eardrum,” she puts her hands on her hips as she finishes applying the protection jelly all along her shoulders. “I hear it! No one else is listening.” “It just isn’t exactly top of the list yet Rem,” he says, this time a little more warmly, they were almost reaching the final destination. “Besides,” he says as they slow to a crawl and a couple dozen seagulls caw overhead, “Whales aren’t real.” Remy rolls her eyes, “you’ll see.” She turns toward the edge of the Wb-77’s wing, secures her helmet, mouthpiece, and flippers, and waits dutifully for the jelly to finish drying on her skin.

She gives Kel the thumbs and dives feet first into the dark waters below.

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

Remy’s camera flashes in the dark, lighting up blank, faceless dark rocks and more edged crevices. She spies the signs of small tiny minnows off to her right, but nothing substantial.

Was it too much to ask for one mollusk? A tiny hermit crab, a nice oyster.

She swims around in circles and takes another flashing image of nearby plant growth, she couldn’t name it but it resembled kelp with long single green tendrils reaching up. That had to be good sign, she takes a quick series of photos from all angles.

The Council would dismiss anything that wasn’t thorough and well documented.

Finally, she takes a deep breath and gently parts the plant, examining the underside of the leaves and where it’s roots met the sand.

She curses in her had as she sees no new macro life anywhere near the vicinity. Again.

Remy is sighing and can feel Kel’s smug aura wafting toward her from above, of course there wasn’t anything new. She could also feel that he was definitely napping by now.

She’s inspecting what felt like her fiftieth blank dark rock with a bit of algae growing on it, everything had algae, soft mossy stuff that layered the rocks. Too bad nothing of note was eating it right now.

Remy frowns deeply, her mind working like a ticking clock. Soooo, Kel was definitely napping by now. And signs of algae usually meant ancient runoff was still affecting the area from nearby.

Remy has a bright feeling in her gut, it was still going to be a special day. It had to be.

She turns her body away from her assigned rock enclave and toward the sun, she starts swimming. The protective gel was meant to coat her body and keep it at room-temperature, as well as absorb any toxins in the water so it didn’t leach into her skin.

It also meant that with two hours left of air in her tank that she could at least dive a little deeper.

Remy starts swimming.

Her flashlight reflects off of nothing for a long, long time. She only stops once to go top-side and make sure she can still the Wb-77 in the distance. There are several streaks of white birds over head.

Her eyes follow them and she sets her mouth, “you must be going somewhere as well.” She focuses on the seagulls diligently and starts crawling in their direction. Her muscles complain at her and her chest aches slightly after 40 minutes of swimming.

Maybe this was only kinda a good idea after all.

Then she sees something sticking out of the water, flat and grey and striking. Several seagulls land on it and peck the top.

“Yes!” She pounds the air and secures her air tank one last time, diving further into the water. This is what she was waiting for.

Her camera flashes off something immediately, something large and looming.

“In-it,” she mumbles through her mouth piece excitedly and starts paddling.

It is large and had sharp crumbling edges, dark sides that are covered in more patchy algae, it appeared to be perfectly square and with sturdy almost-intact walls. Somehow, it managed to stay upright after all this time, reaching and carving its way to the ocean surface.

A deadciv building.

Remy can’t help it, she makes a sharp noise that might be described as a ‘squeal,’ she starts flashing pictures of the battered windows and tiny fish swimming around it’s ceilings.

A window to a skyscraper of ghosts.

Remy starts to swim back and forth, pressing her gel-covered fingers over the rough surface and looking for signs of life among the wreckage. It wasn’t entirely what she was looking for, but it was new.

She knew people studied the deadcivs, wrote papers on how they failed and why they made this whole mess to begin with. But she can’t help but feel a wave of affection for them as she finds these towering immense artifacts.

They really did exist down here, made things, lived on the surface.

She finds the tallest building she can and starts following it down, down, down, there must be something down there, sidewalks or mailboxes or whatever else they used to make this whole thing work.

She runs her hands down the buildings spine and sinks as far as she can, the light drains from the water around her- all except her brilliant flashlight glowing up ahead. She listens, straining her ears for any slow movements or the appearance big ugly eyes in the dark.

She would take anything at this point, any sign.

That’s when her oxygen tank starts beeping at her.

“Gdang’it.” She hadn’t been paying attention, Remy quickly turns back toward the top.

Luckily, she can still make out the light up above and she starts following the building up up up, the thing is as tall as a mountain.

Beep beep beep.

‘I know, I know’ she thinks to herself.

Beep, beep, beep.

She can feel her lungs start to burn as the tank goes into ‘oxygen saving mode’ and starts providing at half capacity. She paddles harder with her flippers.

Beep beep

She curses in her head and her vision starts to go dizzy, the light above flashes and she pushes and forces herself toward it. She couldn’t afford to pass out now.

Her lungs are a forest fire, she claws at the water with all her might and kicks until her ankles go numb. Her senses blitz in different directions as she pushes toward the surface with all her might.

She comes crashing up through the surf, coughing and scrambling for breath.

Her muscles are screaming at her and she feebly manages pull herself onto the of crumbling building roof, rolling over and lying there in the pale flashing sunlight.

“Ah, fuck,” she curses at her oxygen tank and starts taking deep, salt-tinged breathes. It was going to be a hell of thing getting back now. She closes her eyes and lets her body cool, one deep gulping breath at a time.

She’s still gasping when she hears it, a splash of water just off to her left. Remy barely has a moment to respond when her eyes fly open, they land on a figure.

A figure standing on the top of the building next to hers, staring at her.

Oh.

Remy’s eyes go wide and her mouth falls open a little bit.

She wasn’t alone here.

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

Remy had heard people talk about those who stayed on the surface, the ones who refused the evacuation sirens and hid from the Exodus crews. Proper Enclaves called them ‘adapted by necessity’ and the improper Enclaves called them ‘less than human.’ In more senses than one.

Remy doesn’t think of those Enclaves as she’s lying there, soaked and covered in protection jelly as she takes in a green-tinged stranger.

“Oh.” It comes out as a simple pale gasp.

It was a girl.

She was wearing something like a bright orange nylon swimsuit, old and ragged looking with one yellow stripe across the chest.

She has a winding beaded necklace around her throat and matching beads around her wrists. Her thick brown hair is pulled back into a low ponytail that trails all the way down her spine. Her skin is tinted slightly green and covered in flecks of dark freckles, if freckle is the right word for them- small dots that seem to catch the light itself.

Remy could also make out her fan-shaped ears and unnaturally large eyes, eyes taking up more of her face than Remy thought possible. She had dark pupils that could eat up a night sky and full frowning lips.

Her webbed sharp hands hold something long and sharp.

Remy swallows dryly and spits out the first thing that comes to mind, “are you a mermaid?” The girl holds up the spear a little higher and narrows her large dark eyes, “Are you an idiot bird landed here?” Remy scrambles to sit back up and inch away from the pointed spear tip, she puts her hands up, “Woah, woah. No need for sharp objects. I come in peace.” She quotes some of her favorite old media, the girl seems unimpressed.

She shakes her thick hair and her lips curl back, “I’m sure.” “Wait, wait,” Remy tries to stall the girl before this turns from an expedition into her untimely funeral. The girl contemplates her for a long second, “What?” She finally asks in a hoarse, flat manner.

Remy tilts her head to the side, “I thought planet-siders couldn’t speak Common.” The girl makes an impressive eye roll, “well we usually try not to talk to Deserters to begin with.” Remy frowns at those words, she frowns at all of her, “that’s… too bad?”

The girl sniffs loudly and doesn’t answer that. “What are you doing her?”

Remy looks her up and down, “I’m looking for something. Are you... also looking for something here?” She grasps for conversation.

She raises her eyebrows, “I’m hunting,” she raises her spear, “and I would move along if I were you, this is claimed fishing grounds.” “Oh!” Remy says sharply, “no, I’m not trying to take your fish. I’m an RTM!”

The girl seems uninspired and Remy wilts a little bit, “A Restitution Team Member?” She clarifies weakly, “we’re here to check on the planet? And like, help it.” She gives a weak smile, trying to make clear she was one of the good guys.

The girl’s mouth is still snarling, “Go probe your gadgets elsewhere, you’re going to scare off all the fish with your noisy flopping around anyway.”

Remy puts her hands on her hips, “I’m gathering data, you know, trying to find important recovery strategies.” She blows a piece of stray hair out of her face.

“Catch me swooning,” she waves a hand airly in front of her, “now, don’t actually make me use this.” She shakes her spear in the air, “you seem like such a nice girl.” “Really?” She perks up, “because I’ve been meaning to talk with one of you for awhile, you know, since I learned you can speak common and-”

“Alright. I change my mind,” she gestures with her thumb downward, “nicely annoying.” Remy cups her hands around her mouth, “Booo.” “Get out of here.” She tries to shoo her and Remy wants to make a face back. They have a very long stare-off for a second.

Remy is the one that decides this isn’t going to be worth it, “fine, fine,” she deflates, “But!” She sticks a finger in the air, “I do have one questions and I won’t leave until you answer it.” The girl shifts from foot to foot, thinking, “what?”

Remy leans forward and her eyes go wide, “Do you know where the whales?” The girl lifts her eyebrows and shifts from foot to foot, “the what?” “You know,” Remy practically vibrates, bouncing up and down in place, “giant sea mammals! They are enormous, and have brush-teeth, and tiny eyes, and they breathe air! And some sing. You’d know them if you saw them.” She gives Remy a funny look, “do they also breathe fire and fly around capturing princesses?” “Whales,” she says slowly, “and why would they do that? They’re nice.” “I didn’t mean, that’s not the, ugh,” the girl struggles with something. “I don’t know any whales. Please, go take your sea madness elsewhere.” “Oh! Kel was just mentioning that too,” she grins and eyes the girl one last time, “what’s your name?” She backs up, she glances at something and then back toward Remy, “if I tell you my name will you go? I will really do have shit to do here.” “Yes!” Remy doesn’t mention the fact she had run out of oxygen. It might be awhile before she can actually leave. But the stranger didn’t need to know that.

The girl gives a slow smile, “Empress Feck steck. Leader of the free world.” Remy pauses for a second, thinks, and then gives a small bow, “well, Empress Fish sticks-” “Wait.” The girl seems to be rethinking her choices. “I’m Laramie Jones, but you can call me Remy. At your service.” She winks, “your Stickyness.” The girl groans, “Callisto. Like the constellation.” “The what?”

She just shakes her head and opens her mouth, “She’s the bear one.” Remy stands up straight, “the bear stars. I can see that.” She rolls her eyes, “And Remy. Like the very very odd Deserter looking for Welshmen or whatever.” “Whales.” Their eyes meet and they contemplate each other for a long moment.

“Okay. Where are whales supposed to be?” “Oh!” Remy opens her mouth to give coordinates, but instead the deep thrum of an engine fills the air, choppy and cutting through the space. Remy looks up and she sees the outline of the Wb-77 on the horizon.

“Ah, that’s mine,” She says quickly, “you should meet Kels, he can tell you-” A loud splash interrupts her and when Remy looks back to the Planetsider, the girl, Callisto, is gone. Remy gives a deep sigh and feels a weight of disappointment in her gut.

“Listen for singing!” She calls after her, “You’ll know it when you hear it.” She’s certain the girl doesn’t hear her as she must dive deeper and deeper into the water.

Remy has a sudden urge to dive in after he, ask her if Planetsider’s really did have gills, ask her how far down they could swim, and what exactly she has seen in these dark murky waters. If it was monsters or skeletons or just empty space.

One of those things had to be large creatures the size of houses, with small eyes and brush-like teeth, and voices that sometimes sing. Remy was sure of it, she had to be.

Chapter two =======>

[kalgalen]

@shortwaveattentionspan tagged me to post the first few sentences of my current wips but,,,there are So Many so here are just the one I’m currently vaguely working on!

Tagging uhhhhh. I have no idea who’s In Writing Mode atm gfgerfce wips under the cut

1. the post-canon W359 fic I’ve been thinking about since I finished listening to the finale

His mind is blank, the way slates are after being wiped: marked, still bearing traces of what had been written there before - but not enough to piece out its message.

They land back on Earth in the middle of October (although can you say "back" if you have no recollection of visiting it in the first place?); the wind, blowing chilly on his face and neck, feels like a foreign touch. He stumbles when he exits the ship, part from non-artificial gravity, pulling down on his body for the first time in as long as he can remember - which is, granted, only a couple of months - and part from the onslaught of informations coming from everywhere at once. The breeze, the distant noise of circulation, the smell of cooling engines - they all wrap around him like a smothering blanket. The sky is open wide and studded with stars above them, the only thing even remotely familiar to him - and so he looks up at it, takes a deep steadying breath and forces himself to release the tension in his shoulders.

2. a lil bit of KFam fic gotten out of an angsty chat with @intearsaboutrobots (and yeah, those are the first written lines. I don’t have the Actual beginning yet.)

“There's not much to say about it, really. Once you mentioned the darkness, the cold and the perpetual terror, I mean,” another voice interrupts - a bit fragile, frayed at the edges, but so familiar it makes Sammy’s heart ache with a mixture of guilt and relief.

“Ah - Jack? You're Jack, right?” Ben doesn't bother to hide his eagerness, and really, sometimes Sammy wonders if Ben wasn't more excited at the idea of having Jack back than Sammy himself was. “Glad to have you back among the livings, man, I hope we didn't wake you up. How are you feeling?”

“I'm good. And it's fine, I wasn't really asleep. It's - something I'm going to have to learn how to do again, I guess.” He chuckles awkwardly after saying that, and Debbie murmurs in agreement.

3. That One TPP Fic I’ve Been Working On For What Feels Like Years. I’m going to finish it though!! I swear!!

There are three different types of thieves.

First, the ones who steal by necessity, driven there by misery, because they have no other choice if they want to survive. They steal food, clothing, only what their family needs to survive. They might pick pockets for wallets and jewelry from time to time, but every single occurrence is in the interest of living to see another day.

Then, there are the people for whom theft is a vocation. They enjoy the thrill of it, appropriating valuables that aren't theirs to possess, breaking laws and impenetrable vaults with only their wits and the deftness of their fingers. They pursue wealthiness, if not fame. It's their job and their way of life.

Lastly, there are those whose blood run laced with stolen gold, born into empires that thrive on the other side of the law - heirs of generations of mobsters and crime lords, children groomed from their very first breath to one day lead their Families toward always more successful heists and ill-acquired riches. Those people can't imagine doing anything else - and why would they? They were born for it.

n then there’s that one W359 that I started working on a week ago and I wrote the final 2 sentences this morning at work but I still have a chunk missing

There's something to be said about your mechanic also being your best friend: you'll never have an issue with your prosthetic for as long as they're around. Hell, most of the time, they'll know something is wrong before you do.

It also means that, sometimes, movie nights morph into maintenance night, but hey, better this than a limb suddenly refusing to function in a critical moment because you "forgot" to mention a weird twitch in your mechanical pinkie to your engineer, right?

[suggestionsofthecaribbean]

Chat: Girls’ Night

Feat. @lizzyswann-turnersuggestions, @giselletortugasuggestions, @anamariasuggestions, & @angelicasuggestions

TL;DR: The girls of the reluctant Jack Sparrow Rescue Mission join for a night of drinking wine, dragging Jack, and offering advice on each other’s love lives whether it’s been asked after or not.  

Come to see Angelica and Anamaria become the hottest it couple of the Caribbean, learn Elizabeth’s true feelings on James Norrington and discover a truly horrifying secret only Giselle can impart...

Elizabeth had never hosted a party.  She had been the guest of honor at a few parties her father had thrown for her birthday, and that when she was younger - when she was old enough to host her own parties, her friends had largely moved or married out of Port Royal society.  Too proud to ask either James or Giselle for advice this time on how to adapt Port Royal party customs to a quartet of cool pirates, she decided on several basic necessities: food; drink, both alcoholic and otherwise; some kind of rag in case there was a spill; the potential props in order to play games, but kept out of the way so that no one felt obligated; company (so adieu, Captain Norrington, girls only); and, naturally, rules.  She was explaining that to the first arrivals on the scene. Elizabeth (to whom it may concern): Teasing is tolerated, bullying is not.  If you want to behave like one of the men you can go sit with them if you like.  I will be very clear on this point: if anyone wakes in the morning with something written on her head, so help me God, we will find the culprit and we will dunk her."  [mood shifting out of Pirate King mode] ...But I think that covers it.[Giselle puts her hand up] Giselle: Can we write elsewhere? Angelica: Can we write on the guys if/when they fall asleep? Ana: I was gonna suggest no writing on people without permission but I’m in if we are writing on the guys. Elizabeth: [pointing at Giselle] Excellent question! No. [pointing at Angelica, then Ana] Hang on a minute. What guys are going to be here? Angelica: Not here, on the rest of the ship. We can sneak out when it gets dark Elizabeth: I dunno if that's really covered by the all-girl-party rules.  I was just sort of thinking of establishing ground rules - ground here being my cabin.  Outside of it you can do what you like, can't you? Angelica: That sounds fair Angelica: Also I brought wine, if anyone's interested [Giselle gives a thumbs up, already getting into the snacks] Ana: Works for me! And I’ll take a glass. Angelica, pouring wine for Ana: So what do you usually do on a girl's night? Giselle, mouth stuffed full: Not have sex with men. Elizabeth: [poker face] Ana: It was rare we’d ever have one, but I grew up with four older sisters. We would talk shit about the boys around town, do each other’s hair sometimes, drink. Angelica: That sounds lovely Angelica: and not having sex with men can definitely be accomplished Elizabeth: ...yeah, mostly gossip and drink.  Discuss - [cough] - discuss anything you're not supposed to be discussing in mixed company. Angelica: it's okay you can say sex life Angelica: how's the former navy man? [Giselle manifests popcorn] [Anamaria chokes on her drink trying not to laugh] [Angelica sips wine] Elizabeth: [turning red] ..... as he is your captain, I don't know if it would be, hm, civil to discuss it- Angelica: how about we all tell each other a secret, to make things fair for poor lizzie? Giselle: Well it's not like we can't hear it Elizabeth: [loudly whispering] GISELLE Ana: Can’t say I’m not disappointed to not hear that gossip, but we don’t all have to talk about anything we’re not comfortable with. This is supposed to be a fun night, no stress. Ana: Or men. Which is like the same thing. Angelica: cheers to that Elizabeth: [takes a  big swallow of wine and elects to stay silent] Giselle: Well, in terms of secrets, I'm willing to share some Angelica: Oh? Giselle: [takes a delicate sip of wine] i was once part a group of ladies brought in to entertain some fancy pirate lords Elizabeth: [leaning in from where she's decided to sit] Anyone i know? Ana: [gets comfortable, grinning] Oh God here we go! Angelica: I fear the worst Giselle: i think i'm the only one what can claim to have undone both jack sparrow AND his father Elizabeth: Angelica: That might be the worst sentence I've ever heard, are you okay sweetie? Giselle: a bit itchy sometimes but overall alright Angelica: I can imagine Ana: I have no words. I kind of want to high five you and also forget I ever heard that. Angelica: I second that Ana: Does Jack know?? Giselle: don't think they talk much Giselle: kinda want to see his face when he finds out Ana: That’s exactly what I was thinking Angelica: I brought him up once and jack straight up left Angelica: just walked out Ana: Oh. I’ve only ever heard stories about his father, but never from him... Elizabeth: If it's not too forward - how do you know Jack? Angelica: Let's just say it's his fault that I'm not a nun anymore Ana: He DIDN’T. Of course he did. Elizabeth: [unintentionally melodramatic hand-pressed-to-heart reaction] Angelica: I learned the hard way that Spanish monasteries take chastity very seriously Elizabeth: ... I am so sorry. Ana: I swear to God he ruins everything he comes across. [rolls eyes and takes a drink] Elizabeth: I don't have anything even comparable to that, but he did try to trade my hus- [winces, collects herself] He tried to trade my ex-husband to Davy Jones to free his own soul.  And lied to me about it the whole time, letting me think he was doing everything in his power to save the man i loved, who had been cruelly forced into service by Jones.  He was just using all of us to get to the heart of Davy Jones, and he didn't care what became of us along the way. Ana: I...I’m so sorry you were treated that way. He can be a complete bastard. Sometimes he even takes pride in it...but I can’t imagine he’s proud of all that. That doesn’t make what he did any better though. Giselle: ………we should leave him to rot Ana: I sometimes wonder why we don’t. He owes me a debt, at least, is what I say my reason is for going after him. Elizabeth: ...Beckett's got warrants for our - I mean mine, Will's and James' - executions... all because we helped Jack out of his own. Elizabeth: I don't know, I guess if he just dies somewhere it's like it was all for nothing. Angelica: And I thought he fucked my life up Angelica: Are you guys okay? Elizabeth: I'm the Pirate King. I'm fine. [hesitates and chews on her lower lip] ... I don't know about James so much. Angelica: Well he's got the bastard himself pursuing him despite everything Angelica: Can't be much fun Angelica: why are we even talking about him, I thought this was girl's night?Angelica: Can't we shift the conversation to something more uplifting Elizabeth: I mean, it's certainly an icebreaker - he's the one thing we all have in common. Ana: Can you imagine how terrified he’s going to be when he comes back to find we’re all friends? Angelica: God you're right about that Angelica: Must be his worst nightmare Ana: We have to scare the SHIT out of him! Angelica: Honestly the only thing that he'd find worse than this would be if we were dating or something Angelica: So I think we're good to go Ana: [winks] Line up, I’ve got two secret admirers already. Elizabeth: [turns extremely red at that one and crams pretzels into her mouth] Angelica: That you do, any updates on that by the way? Ana: No. One’s a naval officer but it’s not James obviously so who even knows. And the other one’s part of the crew, but God knows who it is. Angelica: Yeah I have no clue to be honest Angelica: What do the rest of you think? Elizabeth: [shrugs broadly] As you put it, Anamaria, I've never had a secret admirer, and I don't know the first thing about them. Ana: Alright. But you or James probably know the crew better than I do, so if you ever have a theory let me know. Angelica: This is like a mystery novel Elizabeth: The real mystery is how any of these men learned how to write poetically. Angelica: How do we know if it's a man? Angelica: I mean the naval officer, obviously Giselle: [defensively] nehemiah's a poet! what with his hashtags and quips Elizabeth: [patting her on the arm] Yes, but he's not writing Anamaria, because he's taken. Giselle: [glances between anamaria and angelica, stuffing popcorn in her mouth - SHE HAS THEORIES] Angelica: [sips wine] I'm just saying Ana: I mean it’s either a guy or one of us, if they’re on the crew. Or they could be lying. Angelica: If it's jack I'm going to throw myself in the sea Ana: Pfffft he would have his work cut out for him if he tried. And it doesn’t seem to be his ghost messages so I think I’m in the clear Angelica: Oh that's right he does That Giselle: you should look for hidden messages Giselle: like them emoji Elizabeth: Like, the emojis being clues to the identity of the sender? Giselle: yes! we're all pirates, we're supposed to do hidden clues and such Angelica: idk guys this doesn't look like it could lead to anything Angelica: pretty normal looking if you ask me Giselle: it's a star Giselle: stars shine bright in the night Giselle: so do…… lighthouses!! it's a lighthouse keeper!!! Elizabeth: [wanting to preserve Giselle's feelings but not on board with this] I think it might just be an emoji they think is very nice. Elizabeth: Maybe you should ask Nehemiah! He knows, I'm sure, lots about emojis. Angelica: do we know any lighthouse keepers? Angelica: It sounds like a Solid theory to me Ana: I’m gonna agree with Elizabeth on this one Elizabeth: If they haven't conveyed their identity yet, I'm sure they have a good reason. Angelica: They might be scared or something idk Elizabeth: When my - it took Will a long time to tell me he loved me.  He had to be sure how I felt about him.  There was... It doesn't matter anymore. Nevermind. Angelica: Aw hun, you don't have to think about that Angelica: Do you want some wine? Elizabeth: Thanks, but I should probably watch how much I drink. Angelica: Fair enough, that means it's more for me Elizabeth: ...anyway. They'll tell you when they're ready, I know it. Angelica: Let's hope they do Elizabeth: They just want to be sure she'll accept them for who they are. Angelica: Oh yes I'm sure Angelica: If you got to choose, who would you want them to be, ana? Ana: I wouldn’t even know, I was always working with family, or just working so much I hardly cared. Never really thought about love. Ana: My dad left my mom when I was really young so I guess I just never thought it was worth enough to go looking for love. I haven’t been unhappy without romance. [shrugs] Angelica: I understand that, though in my experience that's just something that men do Elizabeth: [chatting w giselle about james' clothes lol] Angelica: No offense to you two, liz, Giselle Angelica: I'm sure your boys are fine Elizabeth: ...yeah, I'm usually the guilty party. Angelica: Oh really? Elizabeth: .... Exited an engagement to get engaged to someone else. Annulled that marriage to get with someone else again.  [beat] ...Kissed Jack during the second engagement. But it was to kill him, so, you know.[avoiding everyone's eyes] And.... even in a good place, I still think about other people. It's. [huff] It's confusing. Angelica: Maybe you're just not meant for monogamy? I've met plenty of people who made alternatives work Elizabeth: [mumbling] I don't think that's it. Giselle: i feel like it's okay to kiss someone outside your engagement if it means jack sparrow dies Angelica: Oh I'm totally with you on that one Giselle: but aside from that, i'm happy with how slow things are going with nehemiah - ain't never met anyone what didn't want to get my knickers off as quick as they could Angelica: But from what I can tell, that's not always the case is it? Ana: One of my older sisters used to say she was “window shopping”—she didn’t feel bad about looking at attractive men as long as she didn’t “make a purchase” while she was with another. Angelica: That's quite the philosophy, and completely understandable Elizabeth: .....Or attractive women. Angelica: Oh cheers to that Angelica: Being attracted to women is 90% of my life honestly Elizabeth: [peeping up at her in relief, and also... more relief] So that's - that's completely normal? Angelica: I mean if you ask me, it totally is Angelica: Maybe you should ask your man if he's up for a threesome? That way you could get in touch with some ladies Elizabeth: [COLORING] That's not really- nevermind. Angelica: It’s not for everyone, I get that Ana: [lets out a breath] I hadn’t even noticed that I found women attractive until someone thought to ask. I’m glad I’m not the only one. Giselle: i mean, threesomes are alright, i ain't never had a problem being with the ladies, but you had to share the money after… Angelica: Thought threesomes would cost extra? Giselle: they do Giselle: they do Giselle: i just don't like sharing my money Angelica: fair enough Elizabeth: [laughs out loud] Ana: [chuckling] I mean, you earned it, I get that. Angelica: [nodding in agreement] You worked hard Elizabeth: ...Giselle, have you ever been in love?  Before Nehemiah, I mean. Giselle: love's a bit of a fool's game in my old line of work, y'know? they start askin for free what you can charge ten shillins for Elizabeth: What'd you charge Jack? Angelica: I could have charged him?? Giselle: [huffs quite loudly and mutters into her wine] not enough considerin Ana: If I’d charged him he probably would’ve stolen it back anyway. Angelica: That's true Angelica: He's tricky like that Angelica: did he leave anything behind when he passed away btw? Anamaria: Whatever, I was using him for sex right back, would’ve evened out if he didn’t take my boat Elizabeth: I don't know how, but I heard Tia Dalma has what's left of him. Ana: Did someone loot the body? Angelica: Isn't she the swamp witch? Feels a little weird to leave a dead body with her Elizabeth: .... was it. Was it any good? Ana: ...I don’t like to talk about it because I hate admitting that it was. He doesn’t need to know that. Elizabeth: [presses her hands over her mouth and lets out a little squeal]  I want to know about it though! Elizabeth: I'm the only woman here who hasn't- you know. Angelica: [nodding] I'm not saying it was worth it but all I'm saying is that his mouth is good for more than talking Angelica: The mustache does tickle tho Elizabeth: [is gonna die] Ana: ...yeah I’m gonna pass that question off to Angelica and Giselle. I only ever did it the once anyway. Angelica: For the record I'd like to inform you all that I'm better than him Elizabeth: [moves her hands from covering her mouth to just burying her entire face in her palms] Angelica: I do hope your little navy man takes good care of you sweetheart Angelica: I always say that if he won't go down on you he's not worth your time Elizabeth: [muffled groan] Angelica: [sips wine] Ana: We could be your wingmen if you need it? I can’t tell if you’re embarrassed or upset because your face is covered. Angelica: I can make a powerpoint if you want Angelica: to show james Ana: He seems in love enough he’d probably do whatever to please you. Elizabeth: [pulling her hands down, composing herself immediately, after a moment to sniff as though she was on the verge of crying] I'm good. It's - we're good. Thank you. Elizabeth: [glances at Anamaria with a particularly fond smile at her statement that James looooves her] [because aww] Angelica: Eating ya girl out is part of being in love, everyone knows this Angelica: Just fyi if anyone here is thinking of dating me Elizabeth: [lifts just one hand to hier brow to make it out like she's scratching her temple but is really just momentarily avoiding Angelica's eyes] Angelica: [sips wine] Ana: Maybe if I did date someone the secret admirers would finally speak up about who they were.. Angelica: That might be uh, that could work maybe possibly Ana: I wouldn’t want to use someone like that, though. I dunno, stupid idea. Elizabeth: [hands end up clasped over her mouth again, but she doesn't say anything much] Angelica: I mean I could help you, if you want Angelica: That's what friends are for, right? Ana: What, like, fake date? You’d be okay with that? Angelica: Yeah, totally! :) If it helps us find the admirer then any tactic is good Angelica: plus it might scare jack Ana: That WOULD be hilarious. I mean, if you’re sure you’re okay with it, it’s worth a shot? Angelica: I don't see why not :)))) as long as you're comfortable with it Ana: Alright. I’m sorry I’ll probably be pretty awkward, I haven’t been in a relationship in ages Angelica: Oh no I'm sure you'll do great ️Angelica: So uh Angelica: Do we announce it? Ana: I guess so...? Elizabeth what did you do when you and James started seeing each other? Elizabeth: I... don't know that there's anything to compare to this. Angelica: If we want the admirer to see it we can't be discreet, right? Ana: I guess not, I just don’t really know what to post. It’s not like tumblr has a relationship status thing Elizabeth: Oh, hell. [laughs, albeit a little tensely] Elizabeth: Actually.  I think that's nearly the same as this. Ana: [concerned] Elizabeth, are you alright? Elizabeth: I'm fine.  There's just a whole lot of irony going around. Angelica: If you talk about it, maybe you'll feel better? Elizabeth: What's any of you know about James and I? Angelica: Not much, but if we knew more then we might be able to help you Angelica: We just want what's best for you darling Ana: I know you two are very close, he cares about you a lot. That’s about it. Elizabeth: Uh. Well. Elizabeth: James proposed to me in Port Royal the day I was first abducted by pirates.  I accepted him after he rescued me later, but I was in love with somebody else and he let me go. Elizabeth: I didn't mean to end my entire marriage for him.  I wish I could say I did.  But it just sort of happened when Will and I met up and I told him how I was feeling. Elizabeth: Then, you know, James showed up in Tortuga and they tried to lynch him.  I put a stop to that, and - more or less, people thought I was getting some... Use out of him.  So yeah. Elizabeth: [back to business] Same as you, pretty much.  We faked it really.  I was only keeping him in my room since I thought somebody might try to finish hanging him if they got him alone. Angelica: So it was a bit of a coincidence, is what you're saying? Elizabeth: A huge one! Imagine if he'd showed up just a little earlier than I did. I'd have been too late. Angelica: Oh yeah he'd be dead af Ana: So are you saying it’s still kinda fake now? Elizabeth: It's pretty real now.  I just don't know where it's going. Angelica: Well are you happy? Do you love him? Elizabeth: I'm. I'm not sure. Elizabeth: I'm not sure if I've ever really been in love. Elizabeth: [covers her eyes again as though she's getting a headache] Let's not talk about me. Angelica: No but sweetie, we need to solve this Angelica: You look like it's really eating you up [she puts her arms around liz] Elizabeth: [groans, inwardly, outwardly, globally, spiritually, on the astral plane, etc] Elizabeth: I've said I love him, but I don't know what I feel. Except guilt! I feel so much guilt! Angelica: I'm sorry to be the one to say this, but you might need some time to work on yourself darling Angelica: I'm not necessarily saying you should call things quits completely, but it sounds like this could end up being bad for both you and James Elizabeth: I can't do that to him.  I was just talking to him about us. Angelica: Listen, you can't move things too fast if you're not sure about this. Whatever you decide to do, that's one point I cannot stress enough Ana: Sorting through your emotions on your own time, either by yourself or with people you’re comfortable with, doesn’t mean you have to leave James behind, or even go on a break. Elizabeth: Angelica, if i took that advice, I would be on an island in the Caribbean somewhere, starving. With Jack Sparrow. Elizabeth: I've spent the last three years of my life moving too fast. Angelica: Then maybe it's time to calm down a little. Focus on your career or something Elizabeth: But I do care about him. Elizabeth: And it's not Jack that ruined his life, it's me. I did that. Elizabeth: He let Jack go because I stepped in and asked him. Elizabeth: Hell. If I had married him, he might not have chased Jack into a hurricane, either. Elizabeth: I owe him a lot.  And he needs my protection - he worked for Beckett for a year and no one trusts him. Angelica: Sweetie, you can't be in a relationship just because you feel like you owe the guy something. That's not healthy and certainly not fair to him Angelica: With your position I'm sure you can grant him some form of protection, as for what you owe him there are other ways to pay that debt off Elizabeth: [a little stubbornly] It's not the only reason. It's part of the reason. Angelica: A reason still, you should never feel like you owe a significant other anything Angelica: How would you feel if it were the other way around? Elizabeth: If James felt that he owed me? Angelica: exactly Elizabeth: I think he does feel that he owes me. Angelica: Then that's no good either Elizabeth: [desperately] Do we really have to talk about this? Angelica: If it's making you uncomfortable then we don't have to, but I do think you should talk to someone about this Elizabeth: There's nothing to talk about. Angelica: [shrugging] if you say so... Elizabeth: [crossing her arms, but thankfully not evoking either pirate king or captain status to get her way, just sulking] I do. Angelica: Yeah I can tell :) Ana: Well I might be shit at relationship advice but I’m fantastic at changing the subject. We ranted about Jack already but we haven’t dragged Beckett? Angelica: The only thing I know about him is that he's short and a Bitch Giselle: short and obsessed with himself - we all, 'cept cap'n swann, ree-gret-ah-blee have a kom-man-al-ihtee with him Angelica: Oh really? And with that, Girls’ Night amiably returned to slumber-party standards: subjects were changed, wine was had by all, and eventually men’s faces were defaced with mysterious sigils such as approximations of the eggplant emoji and the exotic incantation only known as DEEZ NUTS... and what horrors it summons, none yet live who can speak of it.

[writingscififantasy]

Writing Platforms and Apps

Disclaimer: Alright, I know this isn’t strictly sci-fi or fantasy-themed, BUT. Too bad, this goes out for everyone who writes, ever.

So, writing is hard. Full stop. Writing is difficult, and irritating, and oftentimes downright infuriating- and as much as we writers adore it, we could all use some help, right? 

Enter some tools of the trade- writing platforms and apps! Every writers uses something to write- be it the traditional methods of pens and notebooks to brainstorm, regular MS Word programs, online writing websites, or fancy programs like Scrivener for plotting- and all of them have their merits and downfalls. There are a ton of platforms upon which one can write. There’s no way I could get through all of them in one sitting, let afford some of the fancier ones out there (curse you, fundamental necessities!), but for this post I wanted to discuss the 4 programs that I use (and have been using for more than a year) and think are especially helpful not only for writing anything, but for...wait for it...NaNoWriMo endeavors!  Woooh, it’s time for Camp NaNo!!

Ahem.

So, let’s begin!

First up to bat is...Writeometer!!

This one here is an app available for free- yes, FREE, one of my favorite words right there- that is designed specifically for helping you track your writing progress. You can enter as many projects as you like, decide on your word count goals and your preferred deadline to reach that goal (perfect for NaNo!), and it will calculate how many words per day you’ll need to write- and, bonus, you can set subtle reminders to pop up at certain times to tell you it’s time to write. Even more bonuses- this app has tons of other features that are fun to use, including a writing log to record how you’re doing, graphs to show your progress, a list of stats pertaining to each project (for instance, your averages per day/week/month, your writing streaks, your best writing days, etc), a nifty little toolbox with a dictionary/thesaurus/word of the day/random words generator, AND a writing sprints timer that rewards you guavas each time you write for 25 minutes. Fun fact, guavas can be virtually exchanged on the app for prizes you set- mine include things like, “3 guavas to eat a cookie!” and “10 guavas to bang head onto desk while yelling!”.  Great stuff!

Next up- another app I use very often is JotterPad!

This one is very simple- while Writeometer was meant to deal with the nitty gritty statistics and tracking of writing, JotterPad is just a clean, simple mobile platform for writing. Nothing more, nothing less. You can create new documents and folders, and organize them any which way you desire- which, in my anxious writer brain, is wonderful- and if you want, add your Google Drive to it for backup so nothing is ever lost. Each folder and document is automatically made with different font colors, which I think is a nice touch, and every document has options for a viewing mode (closer spacing, no keyboard, cleaner look) and an edit mode (allows you to write, shows spelling errors, wider spacing for easier typing). Also in each doc is a dictionary and thesaurus option, a dark screen option for writing at night or sensitivity to light, and a short collection of stats for the doc (word count, character count, reading time, etc). This is all in just the basic app- there is a pro version that brings in other cool features like different writing fonts and document formats, but it costs money and I’ve never had any need for it. 

Onto the third program I like to use- myWriteClub! 

This one I just discovered a little while ago, courtesy of a fellow NaNo buddy, but I love it. The site is still in beta, so feel free to jump on the early bandwagon! This is a website, not an app (although here’s hoping they make an app for it...), but it’s 100% free and only requires an email address to make an account. The whole site is oriented towards writing sprints, and they make it fun- for NaNo and Camp NaNo, you can make a private sprint that only people with the link can join up on, and for anyone else there’s a global sprint going 24/7. What are these “sprints”, you might ask? Writing sprints last 25 minutes, and start every half hour- and on this site, you can watch your friends word count meter fill up in real time. Don’t worry- nobody can see your writing, only your word count. It makes NaNo writing sprints wayyyy easier, trust me. I’d recommend setting up a Dropbox account for all your writing on the site to be automatically uploaded to- there’s only one window you can write it, and there’s no saving documents on site- which I find is actually good, because there’s no getting lost.

Now, last and certainly not least- my FAVORITE writing site, 4thewords!

Okay, I’ll try to restrain myself here. I’ve been using 4thewords for over a year now, and I ADORE it. That being said, I will mention that this is also a fairly new site, still working out some of the bugs and getting updated all the time- I’ve never had a problem, but I wanted to mention it. This site is geared towards making writing fun, which it accomplishes by turning it into a game- a game with adorable monsters. Basically, you have a little avatar (whom you can edit and outfit as you please) and a map of different places you can unlock as you progress- each location has different monsters, which you can “fight” by writing a certain amount of words in a specific amount of minutes. For instance, to defeat the Wignow you must write 250 words in 30 minutes. To defeat the Pester, 500 words in 50 minutes; the Mawt, 1,400 words in 210 minutes. 4thewords is set up like an actual game- for each monster defeated, you get little prizes that you can trade in at the marketplace, and you can boost your fighting prowess by making or buying armor and weapons. There are also different missions you can run- namely things like, “defeat 20 of XXX monster”, after which you get a bigger prize. 

I mean, look at this little monster.  LOOK AT IT.

Even better things! I know, I know, I’ll wrap it up quick- 4thewords runs lots of different events, including Love Week (for Valentine’s Day), Tico Week (for Costa Rica Independence Day), Winter Wonderland (for Christmas and winter holidays), annnnnd...NaNoWriMo!!! Each event has special missions and monsters to fight, and has special prizes. There’s one going on right now, actually, for Camp NaNo, and an even bigger one in November for the main event. Also, 4thewords has a Read section where you can post your writing, if so desired- and every year so far, there’s been a writing contest with real prizes for people who post their writing projects. Not to mention, I’ve spoken with the creator themselves when I changed my account email, and they were so, so polite and accommodating. The only downfall to this site is that yes, it costs $4USD a month to subscribe- but, with everything it’s got going on, from active forums to incredible graphics (the ART, you guys, holy sh*t) and an lengthy, intricate ongoing storyline, I’m okay with the cost and I think it makes sense. Plus, bonus- there’s a month long free trial upon making an account, so if you’re not sure about it, you can try it out for free!

Alright, I know that was a lot of info all at once. I want to say right here, right now that I have not at all been asked to review on these sites or make a post about them in any way- this post is purely my opinions, with no coercion or bribing or whatever else. This is just me, ranting- I mean, sharing- some of the writing platforms that I, personally, find fun and helpful for me in hopes that someone else finds it useful. 

And hey, if you’ve ever used one of these platforms, tell me your thoughts! Or even better, send me your favorite apps and/or programs- maybe I’ll make a compilation post of them, who knows. Questions about them? Hit me up.

(Bonus: LOOK AT THIS LITTLE STINKER, I CAN’T EVEN FUNCTION)

Okay, I’m done, I’m done. 

[italicwatches]

Comic Girls - Episode 02

Why do I let myself stare into the abyss. …Anyways, anime. Anime is a good distraction. It’s Comic Girls, episode 02! Here we GO!

-It’s a new day at the dorm. The landlady is handling a chat with Kaos’s editor, who seems to be getting pegged into the motherly role for our little pink moeblob. And she can confirm that everything’s going great between all the girls, they’re getting along wonderfully…

-As Koyume puts Kaos’s long hair up into some twin buns. So what’s the over-under on the whole damn dorm turning Kaos into their doll slash mascot? But, they’re going out on a trip today! And not alone either, they’ll have Ruki and Tsuba—

-TSUBASA HAS ARRIVED! FULL SERIOUS MODE ACHIEVED! FEEL HER MANLY CHUUNI CHARM, YE LESBIANS, AND TREMBLE!

-Ruki quietly pulls her idiot roommate back to make her put on normal clothes. But even normal clothes still have Koyume swept up in her manly chuuni charm.

-Opening! Yep there are those lilies. If anyone turns out to really be a bear, I called it now.

-So where’s the gang going? Into Shinjuku, into the city proper! Into the kind of place where the trains are packed and the crowds are thick! So thick that Kaos finds herself being swept up in the sea of people, unable to escape…! At least until Ruki starts hauling people together. Ruki and Tsubasa, and Kaos quickly realizes all that damn manly charm Tsubasa has.

-Sidenote, just so we’re clear, I’m not the only one who’s just calling her Kaos all the time. Everyone is. We have heard her real name all of once, and I’m not sure what it is without looking it up. She’s just Kaos, through and through.

-Anyways, where do they end up first? Well, Kaos wants to go to a big proper book store…And woooowwww, this is a big place. Also I’m about 80% sure the fictional books the girls call out, like Super Exciting Paradise and Pretty Highness, are shoujo-ai books at the least. But that’s not all they find…Tsubasa’s latest work, the very same series they were just assisting on a few days ago, is on the shelf! And with a popup ad and the cover displayed! Holy shit they’re in the presence of not just an impossible amount of manly charm, but a GOD.

-So Koyume has to buy, like, five copies. As does Kaos. Even though Tsubasa has multiple copies of every volume to be given away as gifts. But you’re not going full otaku, or full hard crush, unless you’re spending money you don’t have to feed the machine. But eventually, they have their things…

-So what’s the next step? To a super trendy cafe! Where Kaos freaks out because only super cool high school girls can go in there. One, none of them are cool. Two, you’re a high school girl. Three, chill. Also Ruki insisted on lunch because if she doesn’t, Tsubasa will burn through all of her blood sugar at the art supply store and get dizzy. Again. So shut up and eat your damn crepe.

-And when the crepes arrive, Kaos doesn’t know how to handle something so cute, in a place full of nothing but trendy cute sexy young women in tiny miniskirts…Until finally Koyume feeds her the dang crepe.

-Finally to the art supply store and the meat we came here for. Kaos is freaking out at the density of the place. But, first step for her is she wants a full set of things she’d need as an assistant to be able to help everyone else out on the fly. Necessities it is! Forward MARCH! And then Tsubasa sees something she wants and she’s just gone, lost in her own fan behavior. Enthusiastic Tsubasa is kind of adorable, by the way.

-Then she picks up a feathered quill pen and sure, it looks cool, but it just seems impractical…

-And then Koyume says she looks cool with it and Tsubasa immediately goes FULL SERIOUS. Four-Quill Dip Style! And now she’s going to buy them all! Plus a ton of ink and new dip pens, as Koyume keeps trying to imitate her…And Tsubasa tries to encourage her to find her own path, but Koyume is most firmly motivated by, well, being like her Tsubasa-sama. It’s all that manly charm.

-So, quick sidenote, let’s explain fancy pens! While the analog comic artist has a lot of different options, there are essentially three major camps worth discussing for doing ink lines. These can be summed up in tech pens, brush and fountain pens, and dip pens. Some of this might get covered in the episode itself, but I love talking about stupid shit, so.

-Tech pens, or technical pens, started life as engineer’s tools before artists found them; you might be familiar with the Sakura Micron line if you’re a fucking weeb like myself. These are noted for a small, semi-flexible tip that gives a very consistent line width, and of course have an internal ink reservoir. Their greatest asset, this consistency, is also their chief weakness: A 0.5 millimeter tech pen is basically always going to put out a 0.5 millimeter line no matter which way you turn it or press it. This is fine, even preferable for more basic linework, but if you want to do more complex stuff…

-Then you need to consider brush and fountain pens. These are very different tools, but I’ve bundled them together to talk about them since they carry some similar advantages and disadvantages. Both still use an internal ink reservoir, though whether it’s pre-installed in a disposable or can be refilled varies. A brush pen uses an actual, quite flexible brush tip of I waaaaannna say a firm foam material, but don’t quite me on that, while a fountain pen uses a metal nib against a ribbed feed. The chief advantage here is flexibility; because firmness and angle matter, you can vary line width from stroke to stroke, or even within the stroke, by controlling your pen. The downside, naturally, is that you have to provide that control. Getting a line to stay at that 0.5 millimeter width the tech pen offers so easily, can be real hard with a brush pen, and not that much easier with a fountain pen. You don’t have as much flex with the fountain pen, but the size and shape of the nib give you a lot of control over like shape: Slightly modified forms, with a sharp-cornered square tip, are standard for Western style calligraphy, to give you an idea of what you can do with one.

-Lastly, and most simply thanks to all the previous stuff, are dip pens and straight-up brushes! These ultimately feed into the same idea as the fountain pen and brush pen, with one key difference: No ink reservoir. You have to dip into ink each time for your lines. This carries some advantages and disadvantages of its own, but it mostly feeds into the idea of control. Dip pens require very little commitment to a single shape for very long, as well as letting you do things to effect through how much or little ink you allow to fill the feed. All of this goes even further with the brush, though I’m gonna level with you, I don’t know of any manga artists who just use a brush like they’re doing fuckin’ sumi-e. I’m sure they exist, but they’re not likely to be found in the Jump-ass battle manga I typically read.

-Oh, and as ever, don’t quote me on this stuff I’m not an expert support your local library okay BACK TO THE SHOW

-So Tsubasa’s showing how you can use an overfull dip pen to create a really cool blood splatter effect by literally splattering the ink across the page, which is a skill Koyume wouldn’t even need while doing shoujo manga…And then Kaos sees their art pieces, from Tsubasa’s stern manly elf boy to the adorable shoujo girl from Koyume that he’s protecting…Aaand the best she can do is one of her cute chibi little characters in a very rough rendition of a knight’s armor, cheering them on.

-So where else are they going? To the screen tone section! Ruki is all gushing about new flower designs, which she inevitably ends up buying a bunch of. Koyume is imagining using them for cute flowing dresses on her girls. Ruki is imagining using them for sexy underwear. …Well, Ruki will be able to keep using the same pack for a lot longer, then, at least.

-Another aside while we’re talking craft, what are screen tones? You may have heard of them in previous manga-making shows and books, but the idea is really quite simple! They’re literally a pattern printed onto a very thin translucent sheet with a modest adhesive backing. When working in analog, you can get complex patterns easily by cutting out the rough shape of whatever you’re filling out of a matching screen tone sheet, adhering it down over your work, then using an x-acto knife to gently trace over the actual line edges and peel off the stuff you don’t need. You can easily recognize screen tone use because they tend to stay in the midtones, and are very consistent, being mass-produced and printed. Their most common uses are for complex symbolic backgrounds, and clothing patterns, but there are plenty of more complex and elaborate uses various artists have come up with!

-Back to the show. Ruki finds some cool bubbly background tones that Koyume can use…While Tsubasa’s going for the super-contrasty black and white lightning at FULL INTENSITY. And Kaos is buying lots of grim dark spoopy shadows. As for Ruki herself…She needs lots of smooth coverage for all the nudity coming up in her next work. Which means bubbly splotches, as Kaos asks what they’re for, and oh god she can’t admit the truth to this tiny innocent fetus.

-And then Koyume finds the cool patterned masking tape! …It’s patterned masking tape. Washi tape. If anyone you know goes to a craft store regularly or has a Pinterest account, you have seen this stuff. Tape in general is useful for keeping things firmly in place while working on your manuscript in an analog world, and, well, the cute patterns are because they are all teenaged girls. Mostly, Ruki ends up despairing when they start trying to pick sexy patterns for her, not some cute bubbly thing like everyone else got. I’m sorry, Ruki, but you have a reputation now.

-Also Tsubasa hears some girls debating pens and goes over to be all Cool and Manly and Get Their Numbers. …Okay mostly she goes over to offer help from a position of experience but I’m not wrong. So soon she leads them to some useful supplies for starting off drawing manga, and they’re all swept up in Tsubasa’s manly charm and Ruki’s gentle guidance and see themselves in Koyume and you can grow up to draw manga someday too, little pink haired moeblob!

-I’m sorry, Kaos.

-I mean, fuck, what else do you say to that, right?

-Eventually they can actually buy their stuff…Well, Koyume can buy most of her stuff. She’s a little shy after the books and the crepe. She’s gonna have to get rid of all of this cute masking tape…

-So Tsubasa picks it up to buy instead. And Kaos’s, too. A gift for both of you as thanks for the help the other day. Both girls are even more smitten than before. I didn’t think that was possible, but here we are.

-By the time they’re on the way back, it’s late in the day, and Kaos feels motivated to push even harder…Aaaand then they end up using the entire night chatting, and it’s time to get a few hours of sleep in the grim morning…

-When Tsubasa turns the TV on and the morning news is talking about the end of Golden Week.

-They have school.

-In like an hour.

-FUCK

-Episode 02: “Back to School”

-And Kaos gets to try on her new high school uniform, and she feels like she’s a real manga protag—

-And then she sees Ruki in her perfect setup and Tsubasa with her gives-no-fucks jacket and she realizes she’s just a background character next to these cool stylish girls she wants to smooch. …Oh and Koyume does the fucking shoujo manga toast-mouth run.

-Okay, to actual school! Where…

-I should have expected this.

-Tsubasa is the prince of the school.

-ofcourse.gif

-Also that cool splatter pattern on her shirt? …She spilled ink on it and just let it dry. How do you do this? Anyways, Tsubasa is the cool prince, and Ruki is the unapproachable stylish onee…sama…People are totally starting to realize she does something sketchy. Ruki, this is gonna be a lot less bad if they know you draw naughty manga than if they think you’re going and playing hostess to creepy old men or something.

-Oh and it comes out that Ruki and Tsubasa are the same age as our rookies. I’m sorry, they’re not older and more mature, those are just stress lines from the grim reality of a working mangaka lifestyle. Also Koyume is totally enthralled by the sexy slightly-stern homeroom teacher! So enthralled she puts a bow on her. And Kaos just wants to be scolded by the beautiful teacher lady. Truly you are Ruki’s apprentice.

-And then it turns out that while Ruki and Tsubasa are in the same class as Kaos, Koyume is in a different class. Alas, poor Koyume, no stern beautiful teacher lady for you. And that’s when Kaos realizes she hasn’t used her real name in so long she’s doubting her ability to write and pronounce it. She’s been going by Kaos around everyone. Everywhere. And people are staring. Trendy beautiful high school girls are staring, at her, with doubt in their eyes. So this, isn’t, ideal…But she finally pulls herself together despite the nervousness. That kid’s a real mess.

-Especially when she realizes she brought her manga pen case and not her school pen case. So instead of mechanical pencils and ballpoint pens, it’s dip pens, fat black markers and a screen tone pressing tool. …Well shit. And then people notice and Kaos cracks like an egg. If I hadn’t wanted to get a shot of each character for an episode…And then girls start asking her getting-to-know-you questions, which include her hobbies.

-So what are Kaos’s non-manga-drawing hobbies? She ingests tons of otaku media full of cute waifus and collects their slightly ecchi bishoujo figurines. But that’s not something you can say out loud. And the questions keep coming and Kaos just straight up faints. Which means a trip to the nurse’s office…And Koyume coming to check on her, before being dragged off by her new normal friends to get lunch. She’s already gotten friends. Alas, poor Kaos.

-At least you’ve got your fellow weirdos. But, yeah, Kaos suffers from social anxiety. I know these feelings all too well, even if they got expressed rather differently due to my own circumstances. Also when Ruki offers to get her moved closer to them in class, and Kaos’s look of appreciation just breaks Ruki as she has to keep herself from doing things to this sweet innocent zygote. …It doesn’t work very well.

-But Tsubasa’s advice is also that you don’t need to worry nearly so much about actually talking to people, making tons of friends, as you do about observing them…Learning from them. And that really hits home for Kaos, who’s been struggling with how to portray Normal High School Girls…Oh and Tsubasa’s advice is rounded off with her big buff bad guy sketch she’s been working on the whole time. You’re absurd.

-At the end of the schoolday, Koyume immediately comes and clings to her sweet little Kaos…And also she’s immediately made friends and had chats with girls who have actual boyfriends. Tsubasa and Ruki quietly despair at their own lack of success in love. Just steal these two rookies into the night, it’ll be fine. Mostly fine. It’ll work out. The law will never catch you.

-So, back to the dorm? Back to the dorm. When they run into…A stray kitty! TAKE THE KITTY HOME DO IT NOW. I DEMAND IT. And Kaos gets all the kitties. Except for one scared little kitty in the distance, so nervous, even as it lets her pick it up…She knows this fear, you sweet precious creature! KEEP THE CAT.

-Credits!

She better keep that cat.

And hey, another huge log. I blame the amount of setup, and also the amount of time we spent talking about craft materials. Next time should be more room to loosen up since we can broaden out to scene-level recap more. In theory. We’ll see what happens in episode THREE of Comic Girls! Wait for it!

[charger-batteries]

Acer ConceptD 7 Ezel Review

Acer's ConceptD 7 Ezel (starts at $2,499; $3,999 as tested) might be the most radical convertible laptop on the market.  Aimed at pen-savvy creators, designers, and engineers, this 15.6-inch hybrid's gorgeous UHD/4K touch screen flips into many different positions thanks to a unique hinge design, making it more versatile than traditional convertibles with 360-degree hinges. It also offers a Wacom EMR pen for a natural inking experience. Like the smaller ConceptD 3 Ezel, the ConceptD 7 Ezel is a slam dunk for those able to leverage its uniqueness, as there's nothing else quite like it. Just be prepared to get equally creative with your finances to afford it.

A Unique Concept(D)

The ConceptD 7 Ezel's uniqueness starts with its marriage of desktop-class power to a large 15.6-inch pen-enabled screen. My review unit, model CC715-71-7163, has the same grade of components found in a top-shelf gaming notebook, such as the Razer Blade 15 Advanced (2020). Inside is an eight-core Intel Core i7-10875H processor (2.3GHz base, up to 5.1GHz turbo), an 8GB Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Super Max-Q graphics card, 32GB of memory, and a 2TB solid-state drive. The Windows 10 Pro system carries a one-year warranty, which strikes me as skimpy for $3,999.

The only convertible that offers remotely similar performance is the HP Spectre x360 15 (2020), priced at $1,649 at this writing with a six-core Core i7-10750H, a 4GB GeForce GTX 1650 Ti Max-Q, 16GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD. That's a lot less than the base $2,499 ConceptD 7 Ezel, which matches the HP's specs except for a more powerful 6GB GeForce RTX 2060. That said, the comparison is purely for penny-pinching purposes; much of the ConceptD 7 Ezel's value comes from its design.

Versatile Usage Modes

The ConceptD 7 Ezel has a traditional display hinge that opens and closes clamshell style, but there's a second one halfway up the lid that allows the screen to rotate independently.

The display can be positioned at almost any angle and elevation by moving both hinges. It becomes a tablet with the screen rotated 180 degrees while the main hinge is folded flat, and by raising the main hinge, the screen can float as shown here …

The second hinge is stiff enough to keep the screen stationary for drawing or using the touch screen in this position. It also makes it possible to stand over the ConceptD 7 Ezel while doing so, an act that would require reaching several more inches with a traditional convertible that would be lying flat in tablet mode. A stand mode is also possible, which is like the photo below, but with the screen pressed down further so that it rests in front of the keyboard. The ConceptD lives up to its "easel" name in that position.

Last, it can operate in a display mode with its screen flipped over 180 degrees. It's a useful position if you're seated across the table from someone and wish to present something.

Creative Design Inspirations

The ConceptD 7 Ezel's white exterior may look like plastic, but it's metal; running a finger across it rewards with a high-pitched scratchy sound that plastic can't produce. The white comes from a ceramic coating that Acer claims is stain-resistant. I tested it by splashing dark roast coffee on the lid and letting it dry for a few hours. Sure enough, it wiped off without a trace.

At 1.13 by 14.1 by 10.2 inches (HWD), the ConceptD 7 Ezel is one chunky laptop considering today's relentless drive toward thin-and-light electronics, though it's not terribly overweight at 5.5 pounds. The display contributes most of the extra thickness; its base is of normal height for a notebook this powerful. All surfaces are satisfyingly flex-free.

The keyboard adds visual warmth with its atypical amber backlighting. Prettiness aside, the island-style keys unfortunately lack for tactile feedback, a casualty of their short vertical press distance.

The productive layout includes dedicated Home, Page Up, Page Down, and End keys. Only the arrow cluster is nonstandard, combining half-size up and down and full-size left and right keys. Below, the buttonless trackpad is just big enough. Its clicking action is slightly stiff but offers communicative, noiseless feedback. Meanwhile, the holes forward of the keyboard are for cooling, not for the speakers; the latter deliver unremarkable sound from under the palm rest.

Plenty of Input and Output

The ConceptD 7 Ezel offers Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5 wireless support, as you'd expect from a high-end laptop made in 2020. Its physical connectivity starts on the front edge with a full-size SD card reader, a nice break from the usual microSD slot.

The left edge holds a Kensington lock notch, a USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A port, two Thunderbolt 3 (USB Type-C) ports, and a headphone/microphone jack. Full-size HDMI and DisplayPort video outputs, another USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A port, and an Ethernet jack dot the right edge.

It's potentially inconvenient that most of the ports are located along the front half of each edge; connected devices can intrude on external mouse or elbow-resting space. The power jack's location at center right is also irksome—it should be further back to keep the cord out of the way—but at least the included adapter has a right-angle plug that doesn't stick out too far.

The power button, located on the left edge, doubles as a fingerprint reader for Windows Hello biometric logins. However, the ConceptD 7 Ezel has no IR webcam for facial recognition. Its average-quality 720p webcam also lacks a physical privacy shutter.

Legendary Inking: Wacom EMR Returns

The ConceptD 7 Ezel's best asset is its screen, a 15.6-inch IPS touch panel with detailed UHD/4K (3,840-by-2,160-pixel) resolution. Acer rates it for 350 nits of brightness and 100% coverage of the Adobe RGB gamut for eye-popping color. It looks great.

The ConceptD app provides controls for switching color spaces, including a native mode for those who plan to calibrate it themselves.

All I can discredit about the picture is its slight sparkle. It could be from the anti-glare surface treatment, a necessity given that the surface is glass (precisely, Corning Gorilla Glass 6) and would otherwise be reflection-prone.

The hard glass and the slight resistance from the anti-glare treatment provide an excellent pen-on-paper-like feel for inking with the ConceptD 7 Ezel's pen. Stashed in the right side of the display, it's slightly narrower than a normal ink pen and has two buttons. It never needs to be charged thanks to its Wacom EMR technology.

Wacom EMR, the oldest of the active pen technologies, is uncommon on convertible notebooks. It adds thickness since it requires an active digitizer to be built into the screen. By contrast, Wacom AES and N-Trig combine an active (powered) pen with a passive digitizer.

One of EMR's advantages is a long and responsive hover distance. The cursor appears when the pen is about three-quarters of an inch above the surface and moves perfectly in sync with the tip. With AES, the cursor lags since the tip's position isn't precisely known to the digitizer unless it's in contact with the display. EMR's tilt support, natural responsiveness to pen strokes, and up to 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity are other key reasons to applaud the ConceptD's inking.

Testing the ConceptD 7 Ezel: Studio Power

The ConceptD 7 Ezel is a GeForce RTX Studio product, which means it packs enough performance for advanced creative tasks such as video editing. My unit's GeForce RTX 2080 Super Max-Q GPU is also capable of gaming, though its 4K screen resolution is too high to drive without lowering the detail settings in many newer titles. Its screen refresh rate is also just 60Hz, whereas even mid-grade gaming notebooks have 144Hz or higher.

Acer offers the ConceptD 7 Ezel Pro for those in search of professional Nvidia Quadro graphics and independent software vendor (ISV) certifications for popular apps. It's expensive; the top-end CC715-91P-X1XB model goes for $4,999 with a quad-core Xeon processor and a 16GB Quadro RTX 5000. But that sounds about right for a mobile workstation with those components.

For our benchmarks, I compared the ConceptD 7 Ezel to the following convertibles and high-performance notebooks...

The non-convertible HP ZBook Create G7 and MSI Creator 15 are thin-and-light creative laptops with GeForce-class graphics. Though they're not direct ConceptD 7 Ezel competitors, their overall performance should be similar.

Storage, Media, and CPU Tests

The ConceptD 7 Ezel started with an excellent 5,753-point showing in UL's PCMark 10, our general system performance assessment that simulates different real-world productivity and content-creation workflows. We informally look for high-performance PCs to post at least 4,000 points in that test. The Acer also did well in PCMark 8's storage subtest, though it didn't stand out from the others despite having two 1TB solid-state drives striped together in RAID 0 (they appear as a single drive in Windows).

Next up is a pair of CPU-crunching tests: Cinebench R15 stresses all available processor cores and threads while rendering a complex image, while in our Handbrake test, we transcode a 12-minute 4K video down to 1080p.

The higher clocks of the ZBook Create's Core i9 processor gave it a slight advantage over the ConceptD 7 Ezel in these tests. Predictably, those two and the eight-core MSI had no trouble leaving the six-core ConceptD 3 Ezel and Spectre x360 15 in the dust.

The final test in this section is photo editing. We use an early 2018 release of Adobe Photoshop Creative Cloud to apply 10 complex filters and effects to a standard JPEG image, timing each operation and adding up the totals. This test is not as CPU-focused as Cinebench or Handbrake, bringing the performance of the storage subsystem, memory, and GPU into play.

The ConceptD 7 Ezel finished with an impressively low time for a convertible laptop. The high 5.1GHz boost clock of its Core i7 chip and 32GB of memory are ideal for advanced Photoshop tasks.

Graphics Tests

Our first two benchmarks in this section measure the gaming performance potential of a PC. In UL's 3DMark, we run the Sky Diver (lightweight, capable of running on integrated graphics) and Fire Strike (more demanding, for high-end gaming PCs) subtests, both DirectX 11-based. Unigine Corp.'s Superposition is another gaming simulation that uses a different rendering engine to produce a complex 3D scene.

The ConceptD 7 Ezel's GeForce RTX 2080 Super Max-Q GPU gave it top scores in these tests, as it should have, though the ZBook Create G7 wasn't far behind with its RTX 2070 Max-Q.

For cooling, the ConceptD 7 Ezel relies on cooling fans that jet air out the sides and back of the chassis. They ran frequently and noticeably, especially during our benchmark runs. They did, however, keep the chassis cool top and bottom.

Battery Rundown Test

For our last benchmark, we measure a laptop's unplugged runtime while playing a locally stored video with screen brightness at 50 percent and audio volume at 100 percent. We use the notebook's energy-saving rather than balanced or other power profile where available, turn off Wi-Fi, and even disable keyboard backlighting to squeeze as much life as possible out of the system.

Eight hours of unplugged life from a convertible this powerful is impressive, especially considering its active digitizer; it's longer than we expect from gaming notebooks with similar components. It even outdid the much less powerful Spectre x360 15.

One of the Biggest, Baddest Convertibles Around

Acer's ConceptD 7 Ezel defies convention by combining the power of a top-shelf gaming laptop with a Wacom EMR-enabled screen. It's a blissful combination for designers and creators, though not one without compromise. This is one bulky device, and one that will set you back financially even in its base configuration. But for those willing to ante up, this one-of-a-kind convertible delivers an unparalleled creative experience.

[pauperpedia]

Tuesday Brewsday 11: Year of the Rat

This weekend is the Zodiac Chinese New Year, celebrating the rat. There’s no better way to ring in the new zodiac year with a deck filled with a bunch of them. The Rat is the first of all zodiac animals. According to one myth, the Jade Emperor said the order would be decided by how the animals arrived to his party. The Rat tricked the Ox into giving him a ride. Then, just as they arrived at the finish line, Rat jumped down and landed ahead of Ox, becoming first. Just the like rat in this story, our rats play dirty as well by forcing our opponent’s to discard and have unfavorable blocks.

4 Typhoid Rats

1 Lab Rats

2 Burglar Rat

2 Ravenous Rats

8 Rat Colony

4 Chittering Rats

3 Okiba-Gang Shinobi

4 Defile

2 Chainer's Edict

1 Tendrils of Corruption

1 Snuff Out

2 Unearth

2 Sign in Blood

2 Foreboding Fruit

19 Swamp

2 Witch's Cottage

1 Bojuka Bog

Starting out with the one drops are the nastiest of all the rats, Typhoid Rats. As much as I would love to run Zodiac Rat for the theme and meme, I actually want to try to win a game and deathtouch > swampwalk. Typhoid Rats gives the opponent the difficult choice of whether or not to attack or block these disease ridden rodents. Our honorary one drop rat is Lab Rats. This is a less common known token generator that I’m banking you’ve never even heard of. For one black mana you create a 1/1 black rat creature token. What makes this cool, however, is the buyback clause for 4 mana. Depending on the situation, don’t be afraid to cast it without buyback though, the more rats on the field the better, and you might not want to wait.

You might be saying to yourself as you look over the list, why not run 23 copies of Rat Colony, throw in a playset of Dark Rituals, and call it a day? Well, for one Rat Colony is very susceptible to removal in the forms of Shrivel, Electrickery, Echoing Truth/Decay, Pestilence, Evincar’s Justice and the list goes on. This is why you’ll see a split of Burglar Rat and Ravenous Rats. They are essentially the same card forcing your opponent to discard a card when they enter the battlefield, but having different names helps minutely when facing the aforementioned echoing removal. I also feel like 8 copies of Rat Colony is sort of a sweet spot that I like. More often than not you’ll be getting a 3/1 for 2 out of it before you start seeing your rats die to removal.

Chittering Rats is one of the best rats available to you in my opinion. I mean years of it sticking around in Mono Black Devotion decks means it has to be good right? This plucky little rat comes down for one colorless & two black mana, and effectively time walks your opponent by forcing them to put a card from their hand on top of their library. This punishes opponent’s who missed early lands drops and can be back breaking if you’re able to play one a couple turns in a row or even replayed.

Okiba-Gang Shinobi is the rat that spells doom for your opponent’s if you’re able to ninjitsu it in and is left unchecked. Being able to bounce a Burglar/Ravenous Rats or Chittering Rats back to your hand to replay is pretty sweet as well. Forcing decks to go into top deck mode works well in your favor and is usually a path to victory.

The removal suite is something you’re probably familiar with if you’ve played Mono Black decks before. Defile is a great removal spell for one mana that becomes more powerful in relation to how many swamps you control. Chainer’s Edict is this deck’s way to squeeze out extra removal by being able to flash it back from your graveyard later in the game to remove another creature of your opponent’s choice. Snuff Out is there for pure tempo since for the most part you’ll probably be tapping out every turn to try and cast things pro actively. Being able to kill a creature when your opponent thinks you’re out of mana is a great feeling, albeit at the cost of four life. Lastly Tendrils of Corruption is there as a catch all removal spell that deals damage to target creature equal to the amount of swamps you control, in addition to also gaining you that amount of life.

The deck runs six card advantage spells, two Unearth, two Sign in Blood, and two Foreboding Fruit. Unearth puts a creature with three cmc or less from your graveyard directly onto the battlefield. Depending on the board state, you’re best creature to bring back is probably going to be Chittering Rats. Sign in Blood draws target player two cards at the cost of two life, just be mindful of the situation and remember it could be used to kill your opponent as well. Same goes for Foreboding Fruit, but the thing I love about this card is you’ll always cast it for its adamant cost creating a food token which nets you one life after losing the two to cast it.

These rats are very hungry for swamps, which is why I’m playing 19 basics. Since we have so many swamps, it’s also natural to play Witch’s Cottage alongside them. If it enters the battlefield untapped you can put a creature from your graveyard on top of your library. I find running two is a good number, plus they also count as swamps for Defile and Tendrils of Corruption. Bojuka Bog is a necessity in this metagame, especially when we’re relying on our opponent’s to discard hoping they won’t be able to use them again. It’s an uncounterable effect and punishes Mystic Sanctuary and Tron Decks. Unfortunately it comes into play tapped and there is no way to replay it.

3 Dark Dabbling

2 Pharika's Libation

2 Cower in Fear

3 Faerie Macabre

2 Grotesque Mutation

1 Chainer's Edict

1 Bojuka Bog

1 Distress

One way this deck loses, amongst many let’s be honest here, is through sweepers like Electrickery. To mitigate this I like to run Dark Dabbling. So long as you have 2 instant and/or sorceries in your graveyard you can regenerate all your rats. It still asks a lot to hold up three mana, so be mindful and don’t over extend. It’s one thing to lose a couple rats, quite another to lose three or more from one spell. This unfortunately doesn’t work against Shrivel, so you kind of just have to hope they don’t have it when they need it.

Pharika’s Libation is our only answer to annoying enchantments. Before the new set Theros Beyond Death, black had zero ways to deal with enchantments. This at least gives you the fighting chance, albeit still not a good one, against Pestilence decks. You can also bring this in alongside Chainer’s Edict against Hexproof.

Cower in Fear is our safe option to clear the battlefield without killing our own rats. Three mana is asking a lot though, so just hope you draw it early and are able to cast it in time against those pesky Elves.

Grotesque Mutation is there strictly for burn matchups, and depending on the matchups some aggro decks as well.

An extra copy of Bojuka Bog can be brought in when you’re up against decks that like to abuse their graveyard. If you’re facing a lot of Tron or just having a hard time beating other graveyard based decks, it’s not a bad idea to pack a couple of Faerie Macabre as well. Cool thing about the Faerie is that you can cast it for one mana if you have an Unearth in hand when you discard it.

Finally Distress is your catch all for any counterspell decks or Tron. I like this better than Duress if I’m dead set on only playing one in my sideboard, but if you prefer duress then by all means, go ahead.

We shall see if these rats can bring prosperity in numbers to this humble brewer. I don’t really expect to win, this was more of a fun casual deck project to celebrate the Zodiac Chinese New Year, but maybe I’ll get lucky and be surprised. If you have any brews you’d like me to write about, please email them to pauperpedia@gmail.com. As always, I play the decks in the free tournaments hosted by gatherling every Tuesday night, and do a quick report on how the deck fared the following day on my Pauperpedia Facebook page. Till next time folks, have a happy Brewsday!

[themurphyzone]

Spend the Day with Someone You Love Ch 4

My friends are insane. In one Skype chat we went from discussing Storm in the Room to posting Invader Zim memes with “You lie!” in big letters. At least they’re just as excited for the new Tangled series as I am! 

Ch 4 - Love is a Song that Never Ends (Whether this is Sweet or Annoying is Entirely Subjective)

“I am very disappointed in you both,” Balthazar paced back and forth in front of Vinnie and Arohbeohte. Vinnie feigned interest, popping a piece of dark chocolate in his mouth. Arohbeohte watched an old lady feed squirrels, snapping back to attention when Balthazar cleared his throat. “Arohbeohte, you made it more difficult to cover our tracks. Sometimes property damage is an inevitable factor in certain operations, but you almost destroyed an innocent family’s house. If they are not holding pistachios hostage, then we leave them alone. We cannot risk discovery. Is that understood?”  

Arohbeohte nodded. 

“Vinnie, you neglected to inform Arohbeohte about why her behavior is unacceptable. This is going to reflect badly on us when we report to headquarters,” Balthazar said. 

“You mean if you report it,” Vinnie suggested. “If makes it so you have a choice in the matter, but when is definite.”

Balthazar’s anger drained for a moment. “You may be onto something. Maybe I can just fabricate a report and blame her behavior on faulty engineering.”

“Or you don’t put effort in at all,” Vinnie said. “They shove all the reports they receive into the garbage bin. Never bothered reading them.” 

Balthazar’s mouth dropped open, arms flailing as he struggled to find the correct words to express his outrage. All the time I’ve spent writing extremely detailed accounts for future protectors to peruse, wasted, he thought. He shook his head. He could lament later. There were more pressing issues in the present.

“I’m getting off topic,” Balthazar said. “As much as I want to let out all my steam and you and Arohbeohte, it can wait until after we secure the pistachios at the mall. Now, the mall will be busy since it’s a weekend, so getting around will be difficult, especially with a giant robot in tow.”

“It’s also Valentine’s Day! Which means half-price chocolate sundaes!” Vinnie exclaimed, giving a high-five to Arohbeohte. 

“Valentine’s Day?” Balthazar looked at his watch. Feb 14, 21st century. Your horoscope today: The planet Venus burns in the 3rd house. Just kiss already, idiot. You don’t need this astronomy junk for love., it read. “That blasted holiday?”

“I just like it for the candy,” Vinnie shrugged. “Making a day all about love is pretty awesome though. What do you think, Arohbeohte?”

Arohbeohte thought for a moment, then began to flatten the grass with her feet. She stomped out a crude circle, bending down to carve a smiley face in the center. Then she drew a giant rectangle with the letter ‘P’ on it. Straightening to her full height, she created a torso with two spiky protrusions on the sides. Finally, Arohbeohte added two circles on the bottom, then pointed to the drawing.

“Is that you? Looks good for abstract,” Vinnie commented. Arohbeohte shook her head, though no letters came loose thankfully.

“I’ve seen 2 year olds draw better on nursery walls,” Balthazar grumbled. 

Vinnie elbowed him. “Come on, Balthy, be nice.”

“How many times have I told you to never call me that?” Balthazar glared. 

Vinnie shrugged. “I dunno, once, maybe twice. I forget. So Arohbeohte, who is this? A parent, sibling, friend, or none of the above?”

Arohbeohte drew a heart and a question mark next to the robot, then shrugged. 

“So, you’re in love with another robot but can’t figure out to say it?” Vinnie asked. Arohbeohte nodded, then hid her head in her massive hands. “Well, just say it! Wait, you can’t talk. That complicates stuff if there’s a lack of communication.” 

“As interesting as a robot’s romantic woes are, we need to-where did you get that phone book from?” Balthazar stared at Vinnie, who was quickly flipping through the pages with interest. 

“Well, it’s hard to explain it to Arohbeohte with just words,” Vinnie said. “What’s the phone number for the Danville chapter of the Backup Singers Union?” 

“Why don’t you just get the Swamp City branch? They’ll be here much faster. And cheaper too,” Balthazar suggested. 

“Quality over quantity. Oh, here it is,” Vinnie said, pulling out his cell phone and dialing a number. “Hello, Backup SIngers Union? Oh, they’re busy today? Never mind then. Thank you.” Vinnie hung up. “They’re booked solid. Something about all the singers doing a gig for some pharmacist. They say he pays well.” 

“That’s a shame. A musical number would have been good exercise,” Balthazar said. 

“I have another idea. Arohbeohte, can you do this?” Vinnie made a heart with his hands, and Arohbeohte tried copying him. She could only form them into a circle. Arohbeohte carefully picked Vinnie up so he was sitting comfortably on one massive palm. “Now, I want you to put your thumbs together and point them down,” he said, scrambling for her wrist when the surface began to tilt. “Like this,” he awkwardly managed to make a triangular shape while he was gripping the metal tightly. “Good! Now curl the rest of your fingers and put them together!” he grinned, finishing the heart shape. Arohbeohte copied him, raising her hands to her eye and peeking through it. 

“That’s perfect! Now just form the heart the next time you see your crush! I’m sure they’ll understand! Balthazar, catch me!” Vinnie offered a thumbs-up, then suddenly jumped off her wrist. 

Balthazar dove forward in his attempt to catch Vinnie, tripping over a rock and hitting the ground face-first. He yelped as he felt something incredibly heavy crush his spine. Moaning in pain, he turned around to glare at Vinnie, tapping his fingers on the ground in annoyance. Vinnie laughed sheepishly. “Thanks for being the throw pillow.”

“Don’t mention it,” Balthazar stood up, dusting himself off. “We’ve wasted enough time. Let’s just get to-” he caught sight of two teenagers wandering around, appearing to search for something. The boy pointed to them, and Balthazar’s brain went into panic mode. “Our position’s compromised! Abort mission!” he fled, realizing that Vinnie and Arohbeohte were running in opposite directions. 

At least the teens lost interest in them. Balthazar was glad the boy in the sweatervest hadn’t followed them. He and Vinnie tended to lose their pistachio stands for some reason when they did business with that guy. 

He was able to track Arohbeohte down easily, her massive size making it hard to blend in the city. He sat on her shoulder, holding on to a protrusion that extended from her neck. “Let’s find Vinnie,” he told her. “Locate the nearest street vendor.” 

Arohbeohte’s eyes glowed green, scanning the city. Then she took off towards a side street, finding Vinnie paying for his food at a bratwurst stand. “Man, bratwurst street vendors need more appreciation,” Vinnie said, stepping onto Arohbeohte’s hand. Balthazar rolled his eyes. He would never understand these constant detours for food. 

“Let’s just get to the mall,” Balthazar said.

When they arrived, Arohbeohte reduced the size of her limbs and torso so that she was human-sized. The pistachio stand folded into a compartment on her head. Balthazar wished he’d known that earlier. It would’ve saved so much grief. 

“Mama! Mama, what is that thing?” a young girl shrieked, pointing at Arohbeohte. She hugged her pink stuffed poodle tightly in case Arohbeohte would snatch it out of her arms. 

Balthazar held Arohbeohte’s arm, silently warning her to not make any sudden movements. 

“Chloe, don’t point. That’s rude. Now apologize,” the mother chided. She shot Balthazar and Vinnie an apologetic look. “Sorry about my daughter. She can be a handful sometimes.” 

“It’s cool. Don’t worry about it too much,” Vinnie shrugged. “Chloe, right?” 

“Sorry,” Chloe lowered her head, studying the ground. “I didn’t want to sound mean.” 

Vinnie smiled. “Do you want to meet Arohbeohte? She likes people.” 

“Um, sure?” Chloe slowly approached Arohbeohte. “Hi?” 

Balthazar pulled Vinnie aside. “Is allowing that child to be so close to Arohbeohte really a good idea?” he whispered, glancing over his shoulder. Chloe was just teaching Arohbeohte patty cake for now. 

“She’s fine. The more social interaction Arohbeohte gets, the better,” Vinnie said. “Are you worried about what headquarters might say?” 

“What?” Balthazar yelled, wincing at his own outburst. Luckily, Chloe and her mother hadn’t noticed. He lowered his voice so that Vinnie could barely hear his response. “I just don’t want people calling her a ‘thing’,” he said, blushing. 

“So you do have a heart after all!” Vinnie smirked. “I never would’ve guessed!”

“Sh-shut up! As her mentor, it is our job to make sure that she learns to control herself so she doesn’t harm anyone, including herself,” he said, nodding to reassure himself.

“Uh-huh,” Vinnie raised an eyebrow, but said nothing else. They walked over to Chloe’s mother, watching the two play together. 

“Thanks for letting Chloe play with your-um, companion,” she trailed off. “We should really be going now.”

“Bye, miss!” Chloe waved and skipped over to her mother. They entered a department store, leaving behind Arohbeohte and the pistachio protectors. 

“Well, that’s sorted out,” Balthazar pulled out a clipboard, jotting down a few details of his plan. “It occurred to me that we can’t exactly steal the grand prize when the mall is so crowded. We’ll have to enter that contest and do our best to win. And for that we need disguises.” 

“Can I choose the disguises this time?” Vinnie asked.

“Sure. Let me make sure we have the correct currency for this time period,” Balthazar said, flipping through his wallet. He needed to make sure they didn’t pay for necessities with ancient Lydian coins again. He pulled out a crisp hundred dollar bill, handing it to Vinnie. “I’m just going to rest here. You and Arohbeohte go pick out clothing. The contest begins at 2 pm.” 

“Will do!” Vinnie said. “Come on, Arohbeohte!” 

Balthazar opened his notebook, dating the top of the page. “Finally. Now I can write a few haikus in peace,” he muttered. 

Thirty minutes later, Balthazar was staring incredulously at the yellow tropical shirt and shorts Vinnie had picked out for him. “Not my style,” he fingered the collar, grimacing. 

“You never specified,” Vinnie shrugged. He had already changed into a black T-shirt and jeans. 

“Fine. I’ll wear it, but I won’t like it,” Balthazar grumbled. “Young lady, is that any way to dress in public?” he scolded Arohbeohte, who was wearing a red tank top and a white miniskirt. 

“She’s a robot,” Vinnie pointed out. 

“Still,” Balthazar grumbled, walking into a restroom to change. 

It took a lot of persuasion and blackmail for Vinnie to coax Balthazar out of the stall. Balthazar reluctantly came out, wondering if he could an anonymous letter to whatever corporation that created gaudy tropical shirts asking them to recall their monstrosities. They headed towards the center of the mall. 

Vinnie smiled at the sight of all the couples in the mall, pointing out a pair who were gazing dreamily into each other’s eyes while sharing a chocolate sundae. “See, Arohbeohte? If you’re successful telling your crush how you feel, then you might be able to act like that too!” 

“Vinnie, don’t encourage Arohbeohte to be completely brain dead,” Balthazar warned. Arohbeohte tilted her head in confusion. 

The contest sign-up was extremely busy. Most of the participants consisted of teenagers dressed in elaborate costumes, with a few adults sprinkled in. Balthazar waited impatiently, stuck behind someone in a cartoony duck outfit that quacked with every step. 

Finally, they were called by a bored-looking attendant. “Names,” he said. 

Balthazar realized they needed cover names. Any of these people could be rival time travelers seeking the same prize. “Arthur. That fine-looking gentleman in jeans is Frank. And the young lady’s name is Rebecca.” 

“Arthur, Frank, and Rebecca,” the attendant repeated, leaning on his elbow as he wrote. “And your group name?”

“Blast! We needed a group name?,” Balthazar cursed his lack of foresight. 

“I’m putting you down as Blastweneededagroupname,” the attendant said, writing it on the entry slip. “Your entry number is 6. Good luck and all that. Next!” He handed the slip to Balthazar. 

“So, what kind of contest is it anyway?” Vinnie asked. Balthazar gave him an odd look. “Dude, don’t tell me you entered this contest without even knowing what we’re supposed to do. If it’s a beauty contest, I want out.” 

Arohbeohte pointed to a flyer. “Let’s see,” Balthazar said, scanning it. He froze. “Re-enact a love scene from any famous movie, TV show, or Broadway play?” he said, indignantly. “Can’t they just hold a raffle like normal people?” 

 “’Participants will be judged for acting and presentation by a panel of three judges. Please be aware that children are watching, so keep everything G-rated. Phantom of the Opera-based performances are banned due to last year’s incident that consisted of a bully, a diaper, and a chandelier. Thank you!’” Vinnie read. “After this blows over, you wanna travel to last year’s contest and see this incident?” 

“I’m having second thoughts,” Balthazar muttered. “We won’t win anything in presentation points.”

“So we need to come up with something that involves all three of us, right?” Vinnie asked. “Here’s my plan.”

Ch 4 is finally done! Hope y’all enjoyed!

[josephlrushing]

TCL 10 Pro: A Lot of Phone for a Fair Price

I’ve been tied to iOS the last few years out of necessity, not a choice, so I’m always excited to test drive how things are going in the Android world. The TCL 10 Pro absolutely blew me away; it showcases the best of Android at an extremely wallet-friendly price.

The TCL 10 Pro is a larger smartphone, measuring 6.24″ tall by 2.85″ wide by 0.34″ thick; it weighs 6.6 ounces. The 10 Pro runs Android 10, and it is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 675 mobile platform and a 4,500mAh battery. The phone has a 6.47-inch FHD+ curved AMOLED display that features a 19.5:9  aspect ratio (1080 x 2340 pixels). The phone comes with 6GB RAM and 128GB, with 103GB available to the user; it can accept a microSD memory card up to 256GB. The TCL 10 Pro is an unlocked phone, which means it will work with all major carriers in the US, with the exception of Sprint. It also means that it won’t come with a lot of carrier-added nonsense apps.

Here’s a quick walk-around of the device.

The biggest thing about the TCL 10 Pro is the screen, both literally and figuratively. It sports a 6.47″ screen using what TCL calls “NXTVISION”, which is an adaptive technology that alters the screen to make it sharper and brighter for streaming and subdued for less eyestrain for reading.

You can actually go into settings and specify which apps you want for reading mode, which is great if you’re a news junkie who uses multiple news apps-you can set some or all to reading mode. While it’s not the same experience as reading with eInk on a Kindle, it’s significantly more comfortable than reading with a regular bright screen.

I found the streaming settings to work quite well, too, giving even dark scenes that extra touch of sharpness and detail that made it more pleasant to watch on a small screen. Again, it’s not going to replace watching it on a full-size TV or even a 10+ inch tablet, but it’s noticeably sharper than my iPhone 11.

TCL crammed four cameras on the back of the 10 Pro, ranging from a 64MP with autofocus to a 2-megapixel low-light video lens to 16-megapixel super-wide-angle to a 5-megapixel macro lens.

In other words, no matter what shot you need, you can get a good one with this phone. The actual camera software is pleasant to use, it’s very intuitive and responsive, and I had zero issues with quickly snapping shots of my son playing.

  I find that “how fast can you snap a photo of a moving child” is a useful metric of how useable a camera is since kids are adorable AND unpredictable, so you want to be quick on the draw. I think the photo quality is very good. While some shots look a little bit oversaturated versus the same ones taken with my iPhone 11, “slightly oversaturated” is hardly a dealbreaker when the camera holds up that well against a phone that costs almost twice as much.

  Left was taken with my iPhone 11; right was taken with the TCL 10 Pro.

I do not do much with video, but my 7-year-old is preparing for his future career goal as a “YouTuber” by recording videos all the time. He’s not thrilled I won’t let him share his video diaries with the world, but the video quality is good, and he’s had no issues with recording what feels like hours of him re-creating Power Rangers scenes.

There were a few features on the 10 Pro that made me really sad I couldn’t use it as my daily device. First, it has facial recognition, a fingerprint reader built right into the screen, AND the usual PIN/pattern unlock option. I didn’t realize how much I missed having a fingerprint reader until this phone, and there have been times where I’ve had a long shopping list and used the TCL in place of my iPhone solely for the ease of use of the fingerprint reader. It is just so much faster to zip through the grocery store when it takes one tap of your finger to unlock and check your list, versus typing in a full password. Admittedly, due to some employer constraints on my iPhone, I have to use a complex password, and this would be less of a pain if I only had to use a 4 or 6 digit PIN. But still, it doesn’t change the fact that TCL managed to tuck an accurate fingerprint reader under the screen, and it’s one of those little things that make using it so much smoother.

Another cool feature is the Edge Bar.

The 10 Pro has rounded edges, which some people love, and others hate, but TCL did include a handy feature where you can pin several apps and contacts for easy access, plus it doubles as a ruler. Granted, you can only measure 4in at a time, but if watching hours and hours of Odd Squad with my son has taught me anything, it’s that you can use a small ruler to measure any size as long as you mark your place. (It also made my son an absolute whiz at number lines, but that has nothing to do with this phone.) Between this and widgets (do not get me started on how much I miss widgets when I have to use iOS), you can truly customize the phone’s interface to how you work. It just adds another layer of customization, one of those little features that go a long way.

TCL did an outstanding job making the front-facing camera as unobtrusive as possible. It just barely dips into the top of the screen and doesn’t really stand out or look out of place.

The 10 Pro has a 24-megapixel front-facing camera, and selfies and video chats look great; it has all the beauty filters that you might want to access. I haven’t used it much, but my son’s best friend has an Android tablet of some sort, and the two of them use Google Duo to call each other nearly daily. From what I can overhear, the sound quality on the calls is excellent, as is the video quality.

The battery is a 4500mAh and offers fast charging. I’ve found that it lasts forever! I’ve been charging it 1-2 times per week, and it usually gets between 1-3 hours a day of use by my son. It has Quick Charge, so you can go from 0 – 50% in about 35 minutes. Admittedly, there’s no SIM in it right now, and he’s mostly using Google Duo and occasionally the video camera or Minecraft, but it’s definitely got excellent battery life. There’s also a headphone jack (handy if you lose your Bluetooth earbuds or they aren’t charged!), and a side button that can be customized to bring up anything, which I have set for one tap for the camera, two for Google Assistant, and long-press for the flashlight.

There’s very little to dislike about the TCL 10 Pro. The main issue I see is that the sides are very sloped, which makes it difficult and slippery sometimes, and the curved-edge screen takes a little adjusting, so you aren’t accidentally swiping out of what you were doing. TCL did include a case with the phone, but a few days of practice, and it’s been fine without one. Even after a summer of being in the hands of a 7-year-old, there are no visible scratches or blemishes.

Overall, the TCL 10 Pro is a fantastic deal. For $449.99, you’re getting a solid Android device with a jaw-droppingly good display and several little software tweaks that make using it a customized and smooth experience.

The TCL 10 Pro retails for $449.99; you can learn more about t on the TCL site and you can purchase it from Amazon [affiliate link] and other retailers.

Source: Manufacturer supplied review sample

What I Like: Amazing screen; Thoughtful software design; Good camera; Amazing battery life; Very tough build quality; Includes a case; The headphone jack!

What Needs Improvement: Some photos can be a bit oversaturated; The phone can be quite slippery without a case

The post TCL 10 Pro: A Lot of Phone for a Fair Price first appeared on GearDiary.

from Joseph Rushing https://geardiary.com/2020/08/31/tcl-10-pro-a-lot-of-phone-for-a-fair-price/

[twobeardgaming]

Damsel Release 07/08/2019 Switch version tested Review code provided

The Fang-face off of Indie Titles Makes it to Switch

She’s a badass with a shotgun and not afraid to show it. It’s a quick draw world in the dark and Damsel’s take on Blade is even just as deadly. It’s the arcade game that isn’t as Damsel leaps out of the comic books that bind her. Alongside her armchair companions, she is chargin’ to face-off against Red Mist, a vampire organization bent on world domination through plasma hungry population.

Damsel’s look is hand-drawn decals are a nice touch to the darkness that is. The game sports a couple of other modes on top of its campaign which entail mission parameters. All told through panels of comic books to subside the viewers, Damsel doesn’t have very much to unpack in its story. There are over 20 levels to destroy the vampires against.

Saving hostages is a more of a Shinobi-esque necessity, whereas it might not be needed but possibly a role in itself, also. Damsel’s kit is a bit basic in its needs. The trusty twelve-gauge and a dashing ability keep this heroine as nimble as she can get. Her pursuer is either supernaturally ready or just happy to bite her, leave a bit of variety in the fodder. Levels are constructed to be of either 2 to maybe 8 stories down.

Damsel does get a bit complex pretty quickly with the introduction of mechanics. There is a hint of complexity within these 2D walls. Especially when a bomb has to go off and you have seconds to disable it. Try this at 3. Damsel’s level gets brutal on even a smaller difficulty and when you’re locked in, you’re locked in. You can’t even walk away from the bomb itself. Damsel at times has minor bugs to contend with, but nothing over-the-top to stop the action dead in its’ tracks.

Final Words:

Damsel is a cool platform shooter in its own regard. With several different mechanics and a comic esque style, it’s gorefest is a bit more cuter than others. If Castlevania or pre-3D Duke Nukem had you at hello, Damsel might be able to get you to that, a couple of other greetings, and “Good Morning”. No stakes required.

  TBG Score: 7.5/10

Platform: Steam, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch Release Date: 07/08/2019 No. of Players: 1 Category: Action, Platformer, Arcade Publisher: Screwtape Studios Website: www.damselgame.net/ Twitter: @screwtapestudio Download link: eShop

Damsel – Nintendo Switch Review Damsel Release 07/08/2019 Switch version tested Review code provided The Fang-face off of Indie Titles Makes it to Switch…