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bearpillowmonster · 3 months ago

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Epic Mickey: Rebrushed

I'm an Epic Mickey stan, I would've bought this whether I played it or not, just to support it because I've always wanted more. (mainly, for Oswald!) But so much was planned for this franchise, including a movie and an Epic Donald spinoff.

CHANGES

Looking at this is night and day especially for a dark setting. The graphics weren't bad on the Wii, they were just, well, on the Wii. (which ran at max 720p) And while that's still feasible, it's so nice to see everything smoothed out and relit. They didn't have to go as far as messing with the actual fidelity of it or the custscenes but they make it known what a movie it would've been and we lost boys.

The addition of sprinting, dashing and butt stomping is really what this game needed because the first Epic Mickey was a Wii exclusive and I loved playing it when I first got into it but I found it had faded since then. I came back maybe a year or two ago to try and play it again and I just couldn't bring myself to. I like platforming and the platforming in this game sucked, it wouldn't control right, I felt like I was jumping in a straight line, like barely any momentum. It wasn't quite there for something you do a lot of. And if you fall in the thinner, there's very seldom a platform to catch you so dying sets you back and then you had to walk back so sprinting is just a complete clutch.

You also had aiming to deal with as far as the Wii remote- This review is for the Switch version, yeah, I knew that it would run a little worse than the other consoles but now I have the experience to talk about specifics and I wanted to play it on the go. The darkness I mentioned can be adjusted, not just in brightness but in color and style for color deficiency. You cannot shake the joycon to spin.

There is a choice to use motion controls when you're spraying but that's the only time it comes up, you already have to have the button pressed down and even then you can just use the analog stick, it's really good either way, no complaints. You can also set it if you're standing still and press the down arrow. The framerate…could dip and there was a time or two where it'd get stuck, the load times can be long (but you don't see a loading screen often) it's just weird to me that the game is a remaster of a game from 2010 and actually has the biggest file size on my Switch and even with all that size, has longer loading screens than comparable titles like Super Mario Odyssey.

And this is especially important for this game because you sometimes have to traverse back and forth between Ostown and Mean Street and whatever to get the side quests done (and sometimes main) and every time you have to speedrun the same pathway level (projector) to get there and each time you jump in or out is a loading screen. Seeing as this is labelled as a remake and not just a remaster, they very well could've made a fast travel. There were some instances like that where the sequel had the feature that I wanted and was hoping that it'd be updated in here like so many remaksters are doing now, Last of Us and Horizon for example.

The one thing that did carry over is that you've probably seen the different skins that you get with either preorder or purchase, there are a few unlockable ones as well. They fit well with the 2.5D levels (Brave Little Tailor for 30s cartoons, Steamboat for 20s). There is a photo mode, it's not as customized in the 2D levels but I definitely had fun with it if you can't tell.

It's the same game but it's not one-to-one, for example, the locations of the power boxes are different in Os-Town, scenes like this look different.

Which is a downgrade in my eyes but some of them are very neutral, like the health bar

…that's a choice, I guess, there was no real need to change it. It definitely makes things more textured and seem a little less rough, look at this platform where you find Pete Pan.

Sometimes more detailed and lush, but sometimes it takes from the scene. Little stuff like goo dripping from the ceiling removed, sometimes it's the overall colors and vibes of a level to either lighten or darken. I can't say whether I like one or the other totally more.

THE GAME

Let's talk about the meat because it's 60$ so I'm going to treat it like it as if it was a brand new game, plus I never reviewed the original and I don't talk about it enough so here we go. I'll cover thinner mode in some other post, this is more or less hero mode.

It's a reasonable amount of hours and honestly time as been gracious to it, whether it be the growing cult status or the fact that it's on other consoles other than the Wii because while the combat still leaves a little to be desired, the gameplay overall is a lot more refined in my eyes.

There are times where your paint can't reach an item, it's not a bad limitation but still in sight, it tells you what's reachable by turning green. But this is especially precise and annoying for the ending with the bloticles. I don't get what it is with games and popping bubbles.

Oswald is in this a lot less than I remember, I always thought of him as making mischief for a level but he kind of shows up just to show you your end goal. Towards the second half he appears a lot more though. It's kind of cool how it's all a Alice Through The Looking Glass type thing and Oswald is the White Rabbit. And all things forgotten, Atlantis, Tron…no Black Cauldron (which fits perfectly) and no Treasure Planet though everything that is popular is all mechanical, an artificial imitation and the way Smee is colored makes it look like the concept art, all inverted from the way we know and it's just-

I really like the idea of having different endings correlating to how you played. When I first played this, I tried to hundred percent it first round and paint absolutely every nook and collect every item and to be honest, I found myself doing a lot of the same stuff I did when I started, it's funny, I have the same thought processes but I've come to the conclusion that if I waste my time on just one collectible, it won't be as fun and I won't want to play it anymore and it's been this long so let me finish it. But there are obvious rewards for either path, one of the first I could tell was having a gremlin in a catapult and a chest on the switch. Remove the chest and it launches the gremlin, remove the gremlin and it locks the chest. There are times you can just thinner brush most things and it'll show a negative outlook on the world itself. You can either clean up your mess with paint or take out the trash and destroy it like it never happened.

There are a lot of things to collect and I had fun just looking in every corner though I found that they seem kind of half-and-half, some going by the wayside like the pins and some being cool like the concept art.

#epic mickey #rebrushed #remaster #remake #remakster #epic mickey rebrushed #video game #mickey #oswald #review

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billdenbrough · 2 months ago

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my uncle killed himself last night.

technically, he’s my mum’s cousin, but we’re pasifika, which means he’s my uncle. he’s one of her best friends in the whole world. she’s closer to him than she is to her actual brother.

when he told me the news, my dad gave a tiny biography. a refresher course, if you will. to some, this would indicate, i imagine, a great distance. a lack of familiarity. the thing you have to know, then, is my mother has one hundred and eight first cousins. multiple of them (who are also related to each other) have the same name.

but i’m sitting in a mall, looking at my google doc, thinking to myself, how am i going to connect a to b, and then i get a text, and i am staring at my phone for ten minutes. there is something weird and staticky and tight and panicky in my chest, but mostly everything is numb. i do not own a weighted blanket, but i imagine sometimes it might be like this. a grounding pressure coating everything. or maybe vaseline is closer to what i mean, keeping things in, keeping things out.

i call my dad. i take a list of errands. nothing to do with my uncle, or my mother, or grief, or death. they are the tasks my dad needs done, the things he was going to do today but now is not, because my mother’s heart is broken and he can’t leave her alone. so maybe they are to do with grief, kind of.

i drive through the city, and it sucks, because of course it does, but also it’s a saturday, and it’s a long weekend, and there are sales, and i am driving to the biggest mall in my area. and i get there, and i don’t really know where to go or what to do, so i try to nap in the back of my car. i lock all the doors, bunch up several of my jackets lying around, and set a timer for half an hour. after three minutes, it’s too hot, so i climb back up, figure out how to unlock the whole car, make my way to the front, turn it on, and put the back two windows down, just an inch or two. inches aren’t my favourite measurement—imprecise, unpractical, american—but it is what it is. i lay back down, and i try sleep, and i get maybe ten minutes of semi-aware rest before the noises outside stress me out too much, and then i spend the rest of the timer curled on my side, staring at my phone battery go down. my dad calls me back eventually, and gives me a direction. the first half of the great impersonator is my company for this, until my battery level stresses me out even more than the vaseline works, and i switch off bluetooth completely.

it starts raining at some point, and there is a wind tunnel, and my feet are sore because i’m not wearing my orthotics, which i am not wearing because they were making my feet ache. catch-22. i keep doing errands, and eventually, the lane i take when driving from one of the stores to a different mall leads me all the way to the house of someone i used to know, a boy who dated someone in my family for years and years and years. this is not great. i do not love this. i have spent the better part of a year adjusting to his absence, see, and reckoning with the big hurts people can deal people in ways that are small, in the greater scheme of things.

and i’m driving past his parents’ house, thinking about the last time i was there, and it’s probably less upsetting than it would be on a good day, but it is still a bad thing on a day that just managed to already be worse. and then i start thinking about my uncle, and my dad’s refresher bio, and how it did not include the fact that this man taught me how to weave, even though he did. he showed me how to weave hammocks and nets and helped me into a dinghy when i was ten and trying to bridge the gap of the ocean from the ladder to the boat and my mother loved him and relied on him and his smile is etched into my brain and now he is dead.

i finally get hungry. i woke up at 5am, my body causing me problems even after being up past midnight revisiting old stories and universes and ideas, and i’ve had one thing to eat around 9:30, and then everything has been too funny in my stomach to contend with the idea of eating. and then, suddenly, i am finally hungry, so much that it hurts. and i get food for my mother, who has not been eating all day, too full with grief, and i get food for myself, and some extra for my dad, and i drive through the rain and behind bad drivers and with songs i don’t know playing, until i get to the kitchen where my mother is, and i drop all my bags, and i hold her for a full minute while she shakes against me.

dad went for a walk, she says, and i give her the food, and i tell her i got the broth separate from the noodles so she can heat and eat it later if she isn’t ready now, and she says she will eat it.

and she is eating. and i am eating. and there she is. and here i am. and she says she wants to go back home. she wants to go this week, but she doesn’t know who can take care of the cat, because i will be in another city for three days and dad will be away for two. and she says how my uncle was such a big part of the reason she was so looking forward to going back home with all of us this christmas. they had so many big plans. and her voice shakes. and she says my aunt, her sister, is taking it badly, and i am not surprised, and then she says that my aunt is the one who found him, that it was in her house, and now i am surprised. now i am shaking too.

my dad comes home. she doesn’t bring up wanting to go back. maybe she is waiting. i wash my new sheets. the rugby game is starting in one room, and we all slowly migrate there, and we sit in separate chairs, and we watch, by which i mean we have devices in front of us that we sometimes look away from to observe the game. i’m still staring at that same google doc from this morning.

every so often, when i look up, i don’t watch the game. i watch my mother, and i watch how her face crumples, so many times that i cannot count. her whole mouth turns down, and her face shakes, and her eyes are so, so sad, and she is across the room from me, and all i can do is watch. she does not cry. she does not speak. but her face crumples, over and over.

my dad goes to shower. she goes to shower. i end up on a wikipedia deep dive of something even more horrible, even sadder, and close my laptop screen. i go to shower, because i almost had a breakdown over something that isn’t even a thing to have a reaction to on twitter, and i need to do something to douse the rising anxiety beneath my skin. so i go to shower, and i open tumblr, and i start typing. i don’t really know why i’m saying all this. i guess i’m still trying to douse the rising thing in my chest. the vaseline is wearing thin, and i don’t know if it’s all better out or in.

i guess it’s just a lot. and i don’t know where to put it down. and today is the first day. and we will do it all again tomorrow, and my mother will still be staring at the ceiling, and i will be watching her, and my dad will go for walks in the rain, and nobody will have anything big enough to say to make it better. i don’t know if anyone has told my sister.

#suicide tw #death tw #grief /#sorry i don’t know why i’m . i just needed it out. i guess #vent /#i’m just fucking sad i think.

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skunkes · 1 year ago

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sorry if this is a silly question but do you like. sit down and talk with your ocs in your head? and they tell you about themselves? how do you get them to reveal information....i am begging mine to let me know them orz

I do! In several different ways ^_^ the trick is to think of yourself as a character in your brain theater... ill mostly be explaining thru examples and using silly language ^_^ and its more How I Do It vs a how to....

"Sitting down and talking to em" interrogation style only happens before they're fully formed. when talon still didnt have very many traits it was like we were in a white room with 2 chairs... although you COULD make a scenario out of this its usually the Before for me. final tweaks in the form of basic traits and info before sending em out for further development

the way i get ocs to tell me about themselves is more thru actions! with talon I "locked him in a room" with al in the form of imagining how they'd meet. because I set it in talon's decrepit home with no running water or electricity, there come questions like. would he be accommodating? would he explain the vampirism or just rely on flashing his fangs or hiding them until its time to bite? these arent questions i actually went into the scenario having, but as you Play Dolls its questions that get answered anyway, ykwim? (although you could also go into the simulation (lol) with questions you want answered!) And its your brain so you can do as many takes and tweaks as you want, and things develop as you imagine the same thing, or different things, which all inform a character.

Scenarios could be anything. Im a serial daydreamer so anything goes depending on how bored I am or what im doing... and just like with real people, every scenario is a way to learn more about somebody...! It's like improv in your brain as you think up how they'd react and respond to things, and what they'd say. But also, going with your oc to the grocery store or a restaurant or to slay a dragon could give you insight into their behavior but likely not any info about their trauma or whatever, just like real people (but it also depends on the person) (and the oc!)

I DO have "sit down and talk" scenarios once i feel ive learned enough standard, early level friendship stuff about em though. It's much fun if you set the scene in your mind to mimic a real life Deep Conversation session. Sitting in the backyard on those plastic chairs, or aimless car ride at night. right now the one I keep going back to is just. Loafed in bed when you're really sleepy and just starting to say anything about anything and maybe get a little sentimental. sometimes its just me talking but I obvs have the ability to imagine how he'd be interpreting that in his brain, ykwim?? You play several roles at once I guess. It's like the sims, switching back and forth between povs, but the level of immersion i get into never feels like I'm Making Them Say It, it just feels natural at that point because I've learned enough.

There's also information that's shared by you figuring out what they'd Think (as above) vs what they say which is also fun characterwise... AND ALSO while im daydreaming scenarios I do multiple takes to find their voice. Like, I'm an overexplainer, a detailed therapy-speak-er. Sometimes I catch myself giving ocs that Voice and I have to do a retake. Like hold on, Talon would NOT be introspective. He wouldn't share all that shit I just "made" him say even if it is true and now I know about it. He'd say something insanely vague and confusing if anything at all. Let's take it from the top. etc

It rlly is about immersion! You have to have fun with it! Sometimes it's so Real to me that I genuinely can't develop an oc further because I cant make something up for them and they wont "tell me", which means I just have to spend more time with em I guess! or maybe need to leave em alone for a bit. or maybe ill never know (<- which also tells me about em!) just like real people. treat the fake people like real people in your fake dollhouse brain theater sims lot puppet show simulation.... also i added more in the tags bc i didnt know where to put it in the main txt 😭

#skunk mail #Anonymous #long post #LONG LONG POST.#also i didnt know where to add this but like. regardless of who im making interact #sometimes i imagine it in first person (my pov) sometimes 3rd person (spectator) and sometimes from the perspective of the oc #its like choosing a character in a video jame... like sometimes ill put talon in scenarios by himself and spectate #but other times its like okay what if we do it from his pov how would that change things #interacting with yourself (or other ocs) from the pov of the oc is also really fun.#this person (you) is trying to get you (oc) to open up. how do u react...#what do u know? what do u share?

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crystalelemental · 3 months ago

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What do you wanna see the postgame in Pokemon you want? I feel like it's kinda tricky to figure out myself when I replay the postgame content in numerous times.

Okay this might go for a while, because the short answer is "I don't think I know anymore."

Part of the issue is defining what count as "postgame." Like, is Kanto Redux in Gen 2 postgame because the League is the finish point, and Red is optional superboss content, or is that part of main game? Is the second half of Unova optional postgame content, or is it main game because you technically never finished your League quest? Some situations, like the Emma and Anabel quests in Gens 6 and 7, feel pretty decisively postgame, as do things like Delta Episode. But what counts and what doesn't is up for some debate, and I'm...not really sure where I draw the line. I've referred to everything in the second half of Unova as postgame, but now I question that decision.

More to the point, postgame runs into two specific problems in both story and gameplay areas.

Gameplay is probably best explained by Bopper's Gen 2 video. In it, he expresses that a major selling point of Pokemon is the emphasis on continued growth and development, talking about how moves being learned late or late appearing Pokemon give players something to work toward, and keep the game fresh and interesting. And to be honest, this tracks. As someone who's owned cheat devices most of his Pokemon career, you do try to hack in final teams right at the start and they get stale really fast. Having something to work toward is part of the fun.

Postgames tend to run into the problem of not having anything left to specifically work toward. The difference between Crystal's Kanto Redux and Platinum's battle island is that in Platinum, my team is done and has learned everything. As a result, that island doesn't really offer anything particularly fun. While I've been a proponent of Gym Leader and League rematches in the past, they also have the issue of...not doing anything different. Red as a new final conflict requires a different approach from facing off against Lance and the League, but Cynthia 1 and Cynthia 2 go down to exactly the same strategy. There's less to work toward, so the island feels entirely boring to me. It's a complete slog.

While there are opportunities to switch up the team, sometimes that comes a bit late, and isn't exactly...engaging. It works in a game like Crystal because of how type matchups work, where Misdreavus can be caught and immediately blank Red's Snorlax, or Tyranitar countering half of Red's team. Or in Emerald, Mawile can hard counter Steven's entire team with careful play. But later games don't have that opportunity. It's just lower level stuff, sometimes weaker stuff, with no real gameplay benefit.

Which leads to the main thing. This is a Monster Collecting game. Its postgame is effectively completion of the dex. Which is something Pokemon is uniquely terrible at. A game like Nexomon (which is excellent and should be played) lets your postgame be hunting down everything, which is all available in that one playthrough. But Pokemon has version exclusives that demand two games, and internet connection, and with Switch paying for online connectivity. In addition, while Nexomon has a ton of Legendary status mons, it also gives a ton of Golden Nexotraps for assured captures to simplify the process. Meanwhile, Pokemon gives you one (1) Master Ball, then gives you a gauntlet of like a dozen Legendary Pokemon that are wretched to catch because of how annoying their systems are. Monster collecting in the most popular Monster Collecting Videogame is terrible by design. It's never been good, and they're never going to make it good. Though I guess they tried with Galar's Dynamax Adventures and Paldea's fights with main legends. Though they both still do the stupid catching thing in other ways, like the Galar birds and Treasures of Ruin.

I think ideal gameplay actually gives you something to work toward, but also Pokemon really just needs to improve how it operates with catching everything. Which I think it has. To its credit, Galar and Paldea do make it easier to complete the dex by making near everything available. But that's also predicated on dealing with the awful raids and dens, which is somehow worse.

The other element, story, is where things get dicey, and I'll use a comparison to explain. In Nexomon, your postgame events are...honestly the most story intensive segments. They're really good, and my personal favorite parts. More critically, they're continuations. Nexomon 1 follows up the main story of defeating Omnicron with your story of destroying his soul so he can't regenerate (spoilers I guess). Neoxmon 2 follows up all the heavy stuff that happens with a bit of a departure, but only in the sense of setting up the connection between things that happened and things that are about to happen. It's all excellent, and the postgame story is the hook. Granted, alongside new boss fights and challenges and developments that are engaging too. Shame about how the hunt for Tyrants goes, but I digress.

Gen 2 and Gen 5, while they offer postgame, tends to be very light and disconnected on story. There's not as much relevance. Even with things like XY and SuMo and the Paldea DLC, which are much heavier on story, they have...literally no significance to the main event. Like okay, you can argue the thematic relevance of Emma as a character, or that the UB hunt is related to Lusamine's actions, but like...it's really not that connected to what was going on before. Teal Mask is just 100% disconnected, and when they do connect in the Mochi Madness thing, it kinda sucks ass and they wrote Carmine out of it entirely like assholes. I will never forgive that.

I can't say Pokemon's ever really had a great story-centric postgame. It completely lacks in that area, and tells the story it wants to tell centrally. Not that Pokemon's ever been that intense on story. So this is an area it can't really work for. But the ones that do stand out...also run into issues. XY and SuMo have great events with Looker, Emma, and Anabel...but the actual playing of those segments isn't great. And going back to the initial question, does Teal Mask count as postgame if you can do it, entirely, from nearly the start of the game?

The final issue is one of...well, the Battle Facilities. I hate them, personally. I have no investment in playing literal cheating AI at reading minds. Gimmick frontier stuff like in Emerald and Platinum can be fun, but stuff like the normal Battle Tower sucks. Add to it that legendary Pokemon don't count, and there's also very little benefit to gathering legends. You don't really get to do much but stomp the League with the box legends, and...then what? Do a bunch of extra stuff? Run battles that don't allow them? What's the point of having the postgame without those benefits? Galar fixes this a bit by letting anything into Tower, but it's a small concession more than a proper fix.

Honestly, I don't really know what this all adds up to. Part of it is desperately wishing Pokemon had better capture mechanics, because god do the current ones suck. Part of it is thinking that postgame should be a little quick, because usually my complaint is it goes on too long. But I really don't even know what I'd expect anymore. I think that, to some degree, postgame in Pokemon works while the generation is current, but falls off in importance on replays. It's why Daybreak made Legends Arceus worse.

#hoeddeok-rkgk

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bardic-inspo · 4 months ago

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Writer Interview

Playing some catch up on tags. Tagged by the wonderful @pursuitseternal, @marlowethebard, @nyx-knox, @honeybee-bard, @snowfolly,

and @paganwitchisis holy shit thank you all!!

Not sure who all in my circles has done this already, but gonna tag @wilteddreamsofbaldursgate, @astarionancuntnin, @pinkberrytea, @locallegume, @thedreamlessnights,

@ladymdc, and @carooosa if you see this and would like to do it! No worries if not!

When did you start writing?

Around 13/14 years old, doing warrior cats roleplay on proboards forums. Roleplay isn't really my speed anymore, but it eventually bridged me into more traditional narrative writing and then fanfic later. Fallout 4 was the first fandom I really wrote fanfic for.

Are there different themes or genres you enjoy reading than what you write?

I really love intricate long-running plots with slow-burn pay off, and used to write more in that vein, but got pretty burnt out on it. It felt like it would take so long to get to those big moments I pictured the whole time, by the time I arrived to them, they felt played out in my head. Trying to strike a happy medium now by writing (relatively) shorter and more focused fic/storylines that still pack a punch, but maybe have fewer branches.

Otherwise my genre/theme preferences are generally the same with writing vs. reading and are pretty broad.

Is there a writer you want to emulate or get compared to often?

Not a writer, but I've been told at various times there is a poetical element in a lot of my writing, even in just the sentence structure or how I tend to pace my prose. That makes a lot of sense to me, since I wrote a lot of poetry before getting into writing a lot of prose.

Can you tell me a bit about your writing space?

I used too many tricks on my brain to jump start creativity (yummy beverage, cozy blanket, favorite candle when writing) and now my brain often demands all of these things be in place to do any writing 😬I can sometimes get away without all of them. Usually, I'm writing in my office, which is a pretty blue color with some gold picture frames and often a soothing space. But, I do work from home in there at times, too, and on workdays I can't make myself do creative things in the same spot I sat in working all day. Then, I'll be at my dining table or sitting on my couch, usually with headphones because I have a hard time concentrating with other noise around me.

What’s your most effective way to muster up a muse?

Self care. I mean, making sure I've got sleep/food/hygiene etc. squared away where they should be, even if it means taking a break from the page. Most of the time when I'm trying hard to write and it's just not jiving, it's because I've neglected one of those things, and the words always come easier once I've addressed them.

Playing the game again. Listening to character music. Chatting with friends who love the character, too.

Are there any recurring themes in your writing? Do they surprise you?

Yes! A lot of them became apparent to me only after switching fandoms and realizing I was writing about a lot of similar themes. Grief is a big one. Characters who've experienced both a lack of love and a loss of it. Characters who fall in love again or in spite of that loss. The main ships I've written for all feature characters who either loved someone else first or, in Astarion's case, have gone through the forced motions of romance.

Battle couples is another big one. Bisexual battle couples. 🥰

What is your reason for writing?

It's always felt like something I needed to do to feel whole. Not necessarily the sharing the writing or posting it part, or getting a reaction about it, but doing it at all, even just a little. Even if it's just for me. I feel more me when writing is at least a small part of my life. More free. It's my creative outlet.

Is there any specific comment or type of comment you find particularly motivating?

I adore any comment. I'm borrowing this from someone else's interview post, but I too am a slut for praise. In all honesty though, just knowing I'm not writing into some void or vacuum can be so powerful. Even just a heart emoji comment makes my spirits soar.

The ones that go full red string and corkboard about the plot or characters, or quote what parts stick out to them always stick with me. It lets me know I'm hitting the mark with what I'm trying to convey.

How do you want to be thought about by your readers?

I want them to know I'm still good for it even if it takes me a long time.💜That's the biggest thing to me right now. I'm not able to pour it out so quickly as others can. But I hope they know it'll be a good time when I do eventually post.

And also that I'm just some lady. I'm just another human bean. Wanting to share and enjoy stories with other human beans, and connect with a sense of community through those stories.

What do you feel is your greatest strength as a writer?

Visceral/punchy action scenes, vivid descriptions, setting tone, and portraying character personalities.

How do you feel about your own writing?

My feelings about it change with the tides. Right now, I'm a bit glum, and I think that's because I haven't had much to share or post lately, even though I've been doing lots of writing that isn't ready to be shared yet. On the other hand, I'm having the most fun with it that I've had in a very long time, and that element feels great.

I'm grateful for what I've done, incredibly blessed to have made friends and found community through writing, and ever-striving to find the happy medium of productivity and creativity.

When you write, are you influenced by what others enjoy might enjoy reading, or do you write purely for yourself, or a mix of both?

It's mostly what I'd like hehe. And I'm happy about that. I am often inspired to try things based on what I see in fandom, but if I don't enjoy it, too, I won't pursue it further.

#writer interview #megh lore #megh fights the page #writing #tag game

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july-19th-club · 1 year ago

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Do you have multiple books in progress concurrently, and read them all one chapter at a time??? This is unimaginable to me.

well, not ALWAYS, but...uh.....yeah, when i wanna really have fun then yes, the way that i read books is best described as "ridiculous," "overcomplicated," and "absurd". i love it.

it usually starts out with like one book but then i start reading another one and then another book catches my eye etc etc and eventually i wind up with a stack of like six books at once (i try not to go over six, because then it'd take me multiple months to get through them all). my current stack of books that i'm reading are in the pic:

[image description: a stack of mostly library books on op's tv shelf. they are, as follows: "The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer" by Siddhartha Mukherjee, "Let Me Tell You," a collection of short stories and essays by Shirley Jackson, "Babel" by R.F. Kuang, "The Well of Sacrifice" by Chris Eboch, and "The Amulet of Samarkand" by Jonathan Stroud.]

and what i do is i read a chapter of the top book and i stick it on the bottom of the stack and the next time im ready to read - might immediately or it might be after a chore or it might be the next day - i read a chapter from the next book on the stack. then i stick it on the bottom and the cycle continues. now, because not all of the books have the same number of chapters, of course, i'll finish some of them before others. in my current stack "The Well of Sacrifice", the second one from the bottom in the pic, is the one i'm closest to being done with. when i finish it i'll put a new book in its spot in the order - not on the very top, not on the very bottom - because that would be 'cheating' and trying to skew the odds to make one book finish quicker than the others. unless the book is REALLY good, i don't stop and finish it all at once; i finish them when i finish them. how do i not lose track of books like this you ask? i don't know, my mom used to ask me the same thing when i picked out ten books from the school library at once in fifth grade; i just never have. all the books are about very different things. why would i get them confused? don't you get bored with a book sometimes? of course. that's why there's the stack. if a book is really dull, i only have to read a chapter of it before i can switch things up, but being able to do that keeps me motivated to finish even the boring books. AND if a book is really, really exciting, the stack makes me pace myself so i don't fuck up my sleep schedule or lose track of time for hours reading. i love my stack and i love to sort and yes, i am most very probably autistic

#this is the ideal way to read prove me wrong *thousands of people stand up in the auditorium and all start shouting at once*

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dojae-huh · 1 year ago

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I can't believe I found ur acc after about 3 whole years of searching that was long.. I read ur blog in like 2020/2021 I think and ever since, I've never come across someone with such a unique take on jaedo. I secretly enjoy ur blog ngl. I need to read the whole thing ^^

I liked how you mentioned that jaedo are already in a relationship and that was very different from my thoughts on them cuz to me jaehyun was still pinning on doyoung and it has always been a one sided or maybe even unrequited love..

But observing jaedo over the years till now, the theories are always endless. Like how I'm now sure doyoung knows very well jaehyun has feelings for him but he doesn't know how to reciprocate the feelings.

One day it's like dy can go well with jaehyun's little flirting remarks and banter then the next he's completely ignoring his entire presence??

To understand where dy stands will always be complicated but with jaehyun, how come he's so patient and so understanding to wait for all these years? Unless they're already dating, but that's a stretch. To me at least I can't see it like that.

If jaedo are currently going out, then I'd say it's very cruel to jaehyun cuz of what normally happens. It's been years, and doyoung only gives his attention to jh sometimes (oncam) while for jaehyun he'll break his neck for dy even at the slightest mention of his name.

One thing that helped me from ur blog was how u mentioned the thing about jaehyun's mother and how strict she was and the way he would want her to praise him by doing stuff like washing the dishes and stuff. It really put everything into perspective.

Jaehyun is braver than doyoung, that's for sure, but he's not brave enough to confess to dy. His teasing and small compliments are a way to get doyoungs attention to focus on him he hasn't done anything more. Same with how he washed the dishes, he'll do everything to make dy notice him but a confession hasn't happened yet I fear. (Even tho dy probably knows by know, and the entirety of ilichil)

I always ask myself this question who has the upper hand in jaedo (that's a bit toxic :*) but to me it's like who has a say in the relationship and how to move forward with it. My answer has always been dy but it recently changed.

The same way jh was the first one to catch feels (obvi) he'll be the same person to organise his thoughts and feelings if things don't work out with dy. I Wish him all the luck btw :( (dy is my ult jh is just a bias)

But if jaehyun suddenly pulls away from dy completely how will dy react? I feel like doyoung is not honest with his feelings, he might not like or even like jh but it's like he doesn't want to address it at all. (My opinion is purely based on observing them over the years)

I think the time for jaedo closure is a now or never thing. cuz with the military enlistment coming soon things might never go well for them.

Hi, welcome back.

Well, as much as it is interesting to read another person's point of view, to know how the same events are interpreted by a different mind, I can't agree to entertain your version. There are no endless possibilities. And it's not me being stubborn or narrow-minded or wishful-thinking, I simply considered all scenarios and scratched off those that are not supported by the facts from reality.

You say you observe JaeDo over the years, but it seems from your words you are too moved by the daily fluctuations. You look at the waves and not the sea bottom underneath. And you are talking about two grown up gay men like they are teenagers in Victorian era.

They are all fake on camera. Jaehyun, Doyoung, Haechan, Yuta with his Mark. It is not their life, it is their job. They have personas, images. Doyoung directly says his boyfriend pics for Insta is image, that they live the life of pretence, that he switches from Doyoung to Dongyoung. And yet, many still put too much importance on what happens before cameras. I mean, it definitely helps to draw the picture, but it's not their personal life.

Do a thought experiment. Ask yourself why would Jaehyun be still in love with Doyoung after all these years if all he ever knows is Doyoung being cruel to him? Is Jaehyun a masochist? Doyoung ignores him and Jaehyun instead of suffering sends him a megaton watt smile back his direction? When Doyoung really ignores Jaehyun, Jaehyun makes Doyoung's life hard (how it was in 2017). Jaehyun is not a patient guy, nor is he capable of yelding to others on things that matter to him.

JaeDo live in a homophobic society, but not in one where coming out means being thrown off the roof of a building. Dating a collegue or confessing, being rejected, and moving on is a much more usual and healthy way to pestering feelings over 10 years. They work 24/7 together, they can't afford endless pining or endless denial of feelings unless they are both internally homophobic (which they are not).

The common sense aside. JaeDo still pining after each other is simply not supported by what is observed in reality. For starters, there won't be any reason to pretend to dislike each other on public instead of being second TaeDo. As well as being censored by the company. They have to lie to the public because they are honest with themselves.

P.S. You watch too little content. Jaehyun said he is the type to confess right away. While Doyoung said he thinks if you love someone you should let the person know.

#ask me away #cogito ergo ship

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juliasdowntonstuff · 8 months ago

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for the ask game 🦋 💌 💕 & 🌸?

4 at once? Who told you I was stalling getting work done? Anyway, thank you!

🦋 Describe yourself in three words.

sarcastic. emotional. artistic (or at least I'd like to be)

💌 Do you talk to yourself?

Oh yeah, all the time. I think I actually talk more to myself than I do to other people. And sometimes I also catch myself switching languages. Whenever I do that, it is such a weird sensation because I never have any reason for doing so and it usually takes me a while to realise.

💞 @ your favorite blog.

I can't choose. There are different blogs for different things, and even for the same things, my favourite sometimes changes. So I can't answer you that, not without possibly wanting to change my answer in 5 minutes.

🌸 Best compliment you ever received?

I can't think of one definitive answer to that yet again, so I will just talk about the most recent one. A very dear friend of mine has said that in my writing one can feel how much love and hurt I have in me, and that they like how my experiences are woven into the story I am working on. While that might not sound like the stereotypical compliment to most, especially the first part, it really meant an awful lot to me. It reminded me that these two emotions are most certainly not mutually exclusive, which is what I had increasingly begun to feel like (while leaning quite heavily on the hurt side). They coexist and often even cause each other. It is easy to forget that there is hurt in love and it is also easy to forget love through hurt. I really needed that reminder at that time, and I needed it today again. So, thank you!

#ask games

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totallynotthecrystalskull · 2 years ago

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(Kinda Late) Nintendo Direct thoughts (2/8/23)

Teensy bit late on this one due to being at work all day, but I wanted to capture my thoughts on the latest nintendo direct (since we hadn’t had one in months and who knows when the next one is). Go over the highlights, the cool, the meh, and everything that I thought was interesting. Not gonna cover absolutely EVERYTHING, just the things that caught my attention (sorry Samba de Amigo and Fashion Dreamer, I’m sure you’re fun games and all, I just have other things I wanna talk about)Pikmin 4: Looks neat, that’s kinda all I’ve got on it. Visually it’s beautiful for a Switch game, but it’s not a franchise I’ve really cared about, so I’m pretty indifferent on it. Pretty happy for the Pikmin fans though, I know you guys have REAAAALLY been waiting on this one, so good to see it’s finally getting shown off. The dog thing Oatchi feels a little... weird though. Kinda like Pikmin’s version of Poochy or some other example of added dog-like companion getting added to a series, they always feel a little funky when added in my opinion. I dunno though, maybe it fits right in with the rest of Pikmin, I’m not exactly super knowledgeable on the series anyways. Xenoblade Chronicles 3 DLC: That’s neat for Xenoblade fans. I only ever played X on the Wii U, so I don’t have much of a connection to the series, but hope fans of the game are hyped (also, was that Shulk and an older Rex? That was kind of a surprise to see). Who knows though, maybe I’ll try the series out again sometime in the future (probs not though, they seem too big for me) Dead Cells DLC: Ok, with every update this game seems to get, the more tempted I am to get into the game. Actually, why haven’t I gotten it yet?! It looks fun as hell, and it’s got a ton of fun crossovers with Shovel Knight, Katana Zero, Castlevania, and so so so many more games. I Really gotta give it a go at this point. Ghost Trick port: oh HELL yeah, I’ve been wanting to play this one for ages now! The Ace Attorney Trilogy has been a fun way for me to get into those original DS games, and I’m hoping this Ghost Trick port will accomplish the same thing! Bayonetta Origins: It looks ok. That’s about all I’ve got for it. It’s style is pretty different from the other Bayo games which I really like, but this one’s just not really speaking to me as much. Splatoon 3 DLC: Ok, first we’re gonna get Inkopolis as a DLC... Hub? Ok, that’s a bit odd in my opinion. Like, it’ll be nice to revisit Inkopolis after ALL these years, but at the same time it’s like... it’s just a hub... DLC just for an different hub area? Feels kinda... underwhelming I guess? I dunno, just feels like a weird thing to add. As for the Side Order DLC, now THAT ONE’S catching my eyes! More Pearl and Marina, and Splat 2′s hub being completely white and covered in Coral is so mysterious, I love this!! Fire Emblem Engage DLC: I don’t care who you add, I’m not playing this FE Game! Omega Strikers: Honestly, I’ll probs forget about this game in a bit, but I do like the character designs. I dunno, looks fun enough, a neat take on Air Hockey. Might pick it up as a Multiplayer game when I have friends over (ya know, if that ever happens). Etrian Odyssey Collection: Oooooooo, ok, I’m down for this. Only ever played a bit of EOU2: The Fafnir Knight, but the mechanics of it’s dungeon crawling and custom map making was a lot of fun!! Might pick this collection up! Advance Wars 1+2 ReBoot Camp: Hell yeah! I’ve been looking forward to this one ever since it was announced!! It’s also a series I haven’t played before, but it looks so charming and fun, happy it finally has a release date! NSO GameBoy Advanced: Didn’t care much about the GB additions, but the GBA being added?! YEAAAAAH!!! I mean I wish it wasn’t a part of the Expansion pass, but also, YEAAAAAAH!!! I love the sprite work on so many GBA games, and plenty of them I’ve wanted to play myself, so I’m really happy they’re being added (especially both Superstar Saga and The Minish Cap, I fucking love the sprite work in those games so god damn much, AAAAAHHHHH!!!) Metroid Prime Remake: Hell yeah (again)! I’ve always wanted to try the Prime games, so this should be a fun way to get into the series! And available today too?!?! Mario Kart DLC: I’m liking the look of this new course, and getting Birdo in any Mario game is always awesome!! Hoping they’ll add more characters now too since we know that’s not off the table anymore. I’d love Fawful or Starlow to appear in a MK game, but let’s be realistic, that’s not happening Extras: Magalor mode in Kirby seems alright I guess, looks a little forgettable though. That Detective Danganronpa game looks weird. New Fantasy life is neat, first game was enjoyable enough, but I’ll probs pass on this new one. Neat that there’s gonna be a new Professor Layton game. The DecaPolice game looks like it could be fun, but at this point I’m hesitant on any game where you play as cops (though at the same time, it looks to be more Detective than Police, and it’s probs based more on the Japanese police rather than western police. Still hesitant though) And last, but ABSOLUTELY not least

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom: This section’s probably going to get pretty long since I am a huge Zelda fan, but first, let me just say, HOLY SHIT WAS THAT MATTHEW MERCER IN ZELDA!?!?!! FUUUCK YEAAAAH!!! Ok, all of my hype aside though, I am actually a little mixed on him being in it. Not cause there’s anything wrong with Matt’s performance (dude always kills it in his roles!), but because now when I’m playing the game, I’ll just hearing him as Matthew Mercer instead of whoever he’s playing (though, that’s not bad either. Hearing Mercer playing any role is always a very enjoyable experience, dude’s got a magic voice and I love every bit of it). And better yet, was he playing mother-fuckin’ GANONDORF?!?! I mean, he’s not immediately who I would’ve imagined for Ganondorf’s voice, but god damn am I always down for some more wonderful Matthew Mercer villain dialogue, especially for my favorite Villain!! But that said though... there’s also the possibility that the trailer mislead us and he’s NOT going to be Ganondorf, but instead playing the role of a new hidden villain instead (another Zant, Ghirahim, Astor, ect., an evil minion type character). I thought it was a little odd that there weren’t any shots of Ganondorf actually speaking, and Mercer’s voice feels a little mismatched for the (currently) dried up and mummified corpse of the Gerudo King, so that makes me wonder if we’re actually hearing dialogue from an unrevealed new villain (though alternatively it could just be dialogue from a... *ahem*,Rehydrated Ganondorf, but we don’t know if that’s going to actually happen or not). I’m not entirely sold on this theory myself (as I could very easily just be looking too far into some small details), but it is a theory I did want to bring up. The Dialogue and framing certainly point to him possibly being the King of all Evil, but those little things... it just feels... a little suspicious is all. As for everything else in the trailer though, OH MY GOD AM I HYPED!!! More Zonai stuff, plenty more enemy varieties, it looks like we’re getting both some sky islands AND underground stuff, there looks to be a ton of interesting changes to hyrule itself, and I CAN’T TELL IF THAT WAS A REDEAD OR A STALFOS BUT OH MY GOD AM I HAPPY THEY’RE BACK!! Looks like we’re getting some new Shiekah stuff, lots of new Zonai stuff, and Link’s new arm looks so interesting!! God am I hyped for this SO GOD DAMN MUCH!!! May can’t come soon enough!!

#nintendo direct #the legend of zelda #tears of the kingdom #splatoon 3 dlc #matt mercer #gameboy advance #thoughts #zelda hype #nintendo switch online #holy shit #i'm hyped

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marshmallowprotection · 1 year ago

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Kait~ it's been a while, I've been doing alright, I have been obsessed with pokemon and my last grade started a while ago. Tomorrow I'm also getting some more Blue Period merch I ordered! One thing in it is a special sketchbook that it's only in Japanese and I can't wait to try and translate it myself slowly and slowly, I have been doing decent progress with Japanese, after all.

Knowing two languages and going for a third one can be scary but I've been having fun learning it, even if I struggle a lot at some parts. I'm able to pick up on a LOT of words, actually, it's just I can't put them together in a sentence yet but I'm slowly learning more and more! It's not my main main focus right now but I have been getting back slowly into watching anime and catching up with some things.

How have you been? I still use Tumblr but not as much. I hope you have been doing well! If you want, please ramble about anything you want.^^

I wanted to ramble kinda about Yatora from Blue Period, I'm happy to say I'm getting more comfortable with my self-ship with him and also Saeyoung as well. Even though my main focus is Yatora, I still look at Saeyoung images from time to time!

Well, I won't be really saying spoilers about Blue Period but I have noticed a lot about Yatora. Sometimes, he is completely different from Saeyoung but they are some things they are similar to!

One thing is that they both go fishing! To be honest, Yatora was kinda dragged into it at first but now he seems to like doing it! I can imagine Saeyoung being competitive with a smirk and Yatora just awkwardly smiling as Saeyoung gets all the fish SKSJDHS

Important fact, they both blush a lot! I can definitely say Yatora blushes way more than Saeyoung but I love them having red on their cheeks, it's so so cuteeeee!! Yatora seems quite more emotional than Saeyoung so you'll see him cry a lot, even if he is happy it's so SKDHSHDH

We pretty much know how Saeyoung acts when he is mad so when Yatora gets mad, he thinks about it a lot and he gets hurt usually a lot if it's something with him. At least we know that he doesn't really lay a finger on anyone, no matter how mad he is, he usually just gets close while glaring daggers and talks lowly. Yatora doesn't really hold grudges and even tends to forget/leave it behind him pretty much!

One thing I adore is that they are probably taller than me MSMSMS and they both wear glasses, too! Yatora mostly wears contacts but he does switch to glasses when studying and other occasions!

A thing I found absolutely hilarious is that Yatora isn't that good with kids while Saeyoung is SKFBAJDHSJ we also know that Yatora sometimes cooks (to even avoid art block sometimes MSMSMS)

While Saeyoung doesn't really. Another thing they are total opposites about is that Yatora can consume alcohol (quite a lot too) and even smoke sometimes (usually when he feels horribly mentally but he doesn't do this that much now from what I've seen)

Even though he doesn't really get drunk, Yatora actually gets drunk from coffee for some reason AHAHAHAH- Yatora is also one of the best/smartest students in his school even if he messed around with his friends all day, it reminds me a lot of Saeyoung when he was studying back then!

I also love how much Yatora notices about the people around him. I'm guessing that Saeyoung probably does the same especially when he had to observe targets on missions as well. And can I just say how I ADORE that they both have yellow/gold eyes??? I could stare into their eyes forever HOLYYYY

I'm sure there's more stuff I missed but I will say these last ones~ Saeyoung is more outgoing while Yatora is quite shy and I found that really nice. Yatora kindaa goes wild if he is out drinking with friends but later on he is more calm. But it's really interesting how he can be quite timid at times.

Also Yatora's parents are really supporting and wholesome later on, it's really nice and sometimes really funny when I see them MSSMSMM while we know Saeyoung's is well.. yeah-

They do have some similarities but are total opposites to some stuff

I'll stop here but I'll probably come back when I remember more! I really wanna get back into writing self-inserts~ although I have other stuff to do first..^^"

Take care and rest well, Kait! We don't talk much but I really enjoy talking with you, I really hope you have been doing well. I hope you and Saeran rest in his garden and spend lots of great times together!

I do genuinely think it's interesting how we can find a way to allow our favorite characters to relate to each other as well as find the ways that they are different. It can be intriguing if only because it helps us better understand why we like those characters in the first place, and while you might find something that overlaps with another trait, you'll find that there is something else entirely there is well that the two of them may not have in common at all and you didn't expect to like a character like that.

I've definitely got a few like that.

I genuinely don't know what it is but people who enjoy Saeyoung… just end up liking other characters that can fish. I don't know how to explain this commonality but many people I know who like our red-headed hacker spend a lot of time somehow stumbling on to other characters who just happened to enjoy fishing for whatever reason.

I don't know what this means but apparently, it's just something that keeps happening these days. I actually don't know a lot of people in real life who enjoy fishing, but my God, what is it about fishing with these characters?

I wish you all the luck in the world when it comes to learning another language because God knows that isn't easy in the slightest.

I struggle with English and that is my main and only language. Sometimes, words just look fake and I don't know what to do with that. But, I always commend people who are willing to go through the trouble of trying to learn another language. It takes a lot of time and commitment to be able to understand all of the rules that go into what makes communication click.

I'm doing all right! focusing on all of the fun things I want to write about with Saeran because God knows I’m nowhere close to being done with him. He lives rent-free in my brain and he always will because I've been doing this for seven years straight and nothing’s stopping me. Hm, but as far as what I've been doing... I spend a lot of time in my RP Discord and working on my next fic!

Oh, and naps.

God knows I need a nap.

#stormflypirateskin #ask #mod kait #not mm

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glorified-red · 2 years ago

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I understand consistency is important , but what if you continue to write poorly consistently because you don’t know how to improve?

at that point, do you ask someone to give feedback or sum

Ah yes, the woes of insanity.

Ever heard of the quote “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results"?

Yea, that's the root of the issue you're referring to. Consistency in writing does not equal writing the same way over and over again. Consistency in writing is consistently allowing yourself time to write.

If you find that you aren't improving, it's probably because you're not experimenting with your writing. Now I don't mean "try out new words or phrases!" I mean trying new ways of writing: switch perspectives, switch settings, try only writing in narration, try only writing in metaphors, try diagrams, try something new. It's gonna suck, that's the point.

But when you try new things you're forced to learn something, even if its not about the new thing you're trying and you learn about your habits. That alone will help you somehow.

When you step out of your comfort zone you tend to find out what your "comforts" are in your writing and it exposes your nasty habits that are probably holding you back from improving.

Recently I thought I was getting better at dialogue, I can write it, but why does it still suck when compared to other writers? Why can't I get better at it??

Then I tried writing a scene with only dialogue and it immedietly exposed the fact that my dialogue is short as fuck. I can barely write a character saying something longer than a sentence or two. You go out into the wild and people are spewing paragraphs at each other.

Since then I catch that habit every time I sit down and write, to the point where I have to force myself to come up with something more the characters could say. And that made SUCH a huge difference in my writing. Now conversations (altho still kinda sucky) seem more realistic instead of choppy.

I never would've realized that "comfort" of mine unless I tried something new. This is why writing exercises were made in the first place, not only to challenge writers and give them something to write, but to force them out of their little box of habits so they could see that those habits were holding them back.

Try new things. And if that still fails and you genuinely cannot for the life of you figure out whats going on, reach out to someone! Sometimes it can all be in your head so reaching out to someone might help where exercises can't.

#asks #writing advice #writing help #writing tips

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semperama · 2 years ago

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24, 26

Answered 24!

26. How do you get into your character’s head? How do you get out? Do you ever regret going in there in the first place?

Wow, this is a good question. I generally don't find that I have trouble getting INTO a character's head. The process of writing does that for me. Writing is, to me, the process by which I figure out what a given character would do in a given circumstance, if that makes sense. As I'm writing the words, I'm already inside the character. Every now and then I do catch myself writing something that I don't think the character would do, and I have to go back and delete stuff and try again until it feels more "right", but a lot of it is not a fully conscious process for me, at least not until the editing phase.

As far as getting OUT of a character's head, that can actually be difficult for me, especially after I just finish a long fic. Writing for a long time in one POV and then switching to a different one is hard, so I usually have to write some short things in between to kind of get myself used to writing other characters again. Otherwise I notice all my characters are too much the same.....which actually might be happening regardless, BUT I like to tell myself I'm working on it at least, haha.

Do I ever regret going into a character's head? Only when it ends up uncovering stuff in my own head! Lolol. It frequently happens as I'm writing that something comes up that hits too close to home for me. It might not be accurate to say that I regret it, because it can be really cathartic, but sometimes things do get a little TOO real. But I've never gotten so inside a character that I feel like I'm experiencing their trauma or anything like that.

#writing asks

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ixcaliber · 2 years ago

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New Year New Video Games of the Month

it’s january

1. Mario and Rabbids: Sparks of Hope

It’s not a new observation that this combination of things shouldn’t work. Neither Mario nor the rabbids have anything to do with xcom style tactical combat. And initially it is funny to see Mario wielding dual pistols. But despite the seeming incompatibility of the elements these games are good.

The best thing about this game for me was the aesthetics. The designs of the planets that you visit, and the designs of the new original characters. Edge and the Spark Hunters are in a polycule and nobody will ever convince me otherwise. Cursa, the main villain of the game, looks fantastic; I loved whenever they were on screen. And even some of the planetary guardians have really great designs, for example Woodrow the doomed poet and Bea the retired pop diva turned farmer.

The biggest problem with the game is that it can feel real slow. Battles sort of happen jrpg random encounter style; you bump into an enemy, are loaded into an arena to have a combat, and then load back into the world. Only it feels more arduous than a jrpg random encounter just because a tactical battle by its very nature takes longer than a similar battle would. It would be one thing if these battles were one and done but enemies do respawn when you move to a different map (even if it’s just like going in and out of a house).

Additionally movement is just a hair too slow and so many of the puzzles you encounter are logistical puzzles where you can immediately see what you need to do, and the puzzle is painstakingly pulling blocks flipping switches etcetera to perfom that action.

Additionally additionally a lot of the main battles you fight are survive battles where you have to simply survive for x number of turns. I was always happy whenever a battle would load up and it was a simple ‘kill these enemies’ or ‘kill x number of enemies’ or best of all ‘reach this area’ because that’s something i can optimize.

Oh actually I know I already said the biggest problem with the game is the slowness, but the actually biggest problem with the game is the enemies ability to spawn in and attack on the same turn. Sure it gives you a heads up where they are going to spawn the turn beforehand, but even so it means that the enemy is almost always going to get free hits on you just because it’s impossible to fully protect yourself sometimes.

Or worse, on levels where you have to protect a building or an item enemies will spawn in and shoot that object taking away one of it’s 8 or so hit points on the same turn and so you essentially have to play perfectly to offset the fact that they get free hits you can do nothing about.

Oh and please note that this was a rental copy and I try not to financially support Ubisoft due to their unaddressed culture of abuse.

2. World of Warcraft: Shadowlands

You know that thing where a parent catches their kid smoking a cigarette and then as a punishment/deterrent forces them to smoke the whole pack? That was pretty much how I felt trying to force myself through this entire expansion as quickly as possible to avoid paying any more money to Activision Blizzard than I had to due to their unaddressed culture of abuse. (Also worth noting I didn’t buy Shadowlands, it was just randomly given to me at some point?)

With that said... I think that this was like my second favourite wow expansion?

(1. Legion 2. Shadowlands 3. The Burning Crusade 4. Mists of Pandaria 5. Warlords of Draenor 6. Cataclysm 7. Wrath of the Lich King 8. Battle For Azeroth)

Battle for Azeroth absolutely killed dead my interest in anything that was going on in the actual narrative of world of warcraft, so it is to the game’s benefit that you spend most of the time dealing with the crises and politics of the various afterlives you visit.

I liked these self contained narratives, like the rebellion of the people of Revendreth against their corrupted Sire, the civil war caused by the disappearance of the Primus of Maldraxus, the doubt and uncertainty creeping into the selfless to a fault kyrian of Bastion, the struggle to preserve nature in the face of an overwhelming drought in Ardenweald.

In Legion I loved the Order Hall campaign. It was a system where each class gets its own unique and aesthetically appropriate headquarters with a unique storyline, a unique armor set and a selection of unique artefact weapons (cool weapons from the warcraft lore with little questlines about how you get them). In Battle For Azeroth it felt like they tried to replicate this idea with the Horde/Alliance campaign and I couldn’t care less.

In Shadowlands you have the Covenant system and it’s a fair approximation of this idea. You journey through each of the four major afterlives and then are given the option of which you wish to align yourself with and there are unique questlines for each, a whole bunch of armour sets (at least one for each armor class), a unique side activity, unique npcs to ‘soulbind’ with, unique skills that are available for use whenever you are in the shadowlands. Honestly it’s a little too much weighing on this one decision and it was really difficult to make my choice, especially considering I wouldn’t have time for a second playthrough with another class (I picked the Night Fae because Ardenweald has the most foxies and it allowed me to take the form of a foxie whenever I wanted).

Sidenote on the ‘soulbind’ thing. It’s first introduced when two kyrian (big blue valkyrie ladies) mention being soulbinds and of course I think ‘oh cool soulbind means getting gay married’. So I got gay married to a cute satyr lady called Niya. Not what they intended I think but I’m taking it.

There’s so many elements in here that I could talk about. Like the garrison missions are now a kind of auto-chess that I couldn’t stand. Like how the Ardenweald side activity is just planting seeds and then waiting until they are sprouted, like a worse version of the Pandaria farming thing. Like Torghast and its pseudo roguelike structure. Like The Maw and its unique sensibilities and how later patches stripped away these more unique aspects. Like the proliferation of Timeless Isle daily quest hubs in patch content and how that continues with Korthia and Zereth Mortis.

My favourite quest was the first one I got after joining the Night Fae, where they ask me to put on a play recounting the events of both Legion and Battle For Azeroth. It was a fun little quest with various night fae npcs illusioned up to look like the major antagonists of previous expansions (and a whole bunch of them running around as n’zoth’s tentacles). And as a bonus it was kind of cathartic to see the Night Fae audience bewilderedly questioning why it was that the Horde and Alliance had gone right back to fighting one another again.

Additionally it was interesting that the main storyline of this expansion was completeable without ever setting foot in a raid or a dungeon. There were little sections where it was clear that raid encounters would go here and it would show you the outcome of those raids to make sure you could follow the continuing events. And it even had its own final boss fight.

Overall it was a pretty good experience even if it was coloured by my desperate desire to finish it within a single month. It’s not an experience I’d like to repeat, though that said if they did randomly decide to give me Dragonflight I can absolutely see this happening again next January. Fingers crossed that they don’t do that.

3. Lunistice

Lunistice is a cute 3d platformer with a ps1 art style and an adorable tanuki protagonist called Hana. It has this sort of dream like aesthetic. Every level is more or less an abstract environment that doesn’t feel quite like a real place, in some kind of endless void. For me it evokes early 3d platformers in the style of like Croc maybe? Except with actually good and responsive controls.

Hana is really quick and responsive actually, and it feels as though optimization of speed is a core element of the game. There are for example branches or waterways that you can slide down and as you do so you get this... almost like a balance gauge that shifts as the slide curves. At first I thought you had to stay in the right zone or fall off, eventually I realized it’s entirely there to give you a speed boost. At least I think so, the game didn’t stop and explain this to me so I’m working a little off guesswork here.

There’s a specific button to hold to move slower and more precisely but you only need it when on the narrowest of platforms... or if you’re good enough you could probably make those jumps without it.

The story such as it exists is told through bonus documents you get for collecting optional collectibles and is a little abstract even if you do read through them all. Like, having done so I do understand the concept of what is going on in the game and the reason why but there’s no detail. No attempt to explain how what you’re doing solved the problem that it allegedly solved.

Overall I really liked it. A nice cute platformer, cozy short and simple after my extended period playing really long games.

4. You Died But A Necromancer Revived You

A short little 2d game of hurrying through a dungeon and dodging traps. You die in a single hit but don’t worry a necromancer will revive you again and again to try try again. I know that’s like the conceit of almost every game that you can die and try again but here it is like partially narrative. The villain of the game is the necromancer that keeps bringing you back and forcing you to run his gauntlet.

The game is procedurally generated, forcing you to adapt on the fly rather than simply memorize a layout of traps. Also your path is gradually replaced by spikes, forcing you to keep moving and pushing you into riskier behaviours. Also on the normal difficulty you have to complete two or three floors before you’ll recieve a checkpoint that you can continue from.

All of these decisions make a certain amount of sense but sometimes you do get situations where the time pressure of the oncoming spikes and the density of traps creates a series of obstacles that feel insurmountable.

It does have an easier option which just means you get a checkpoint after each floor. This makes victory seem significantly more attainable for me as it decreases the amount of time you have to play perfectly and makes it less irritating to encounter a level that feels impossible.

A fun little experience. You could not pay me to touch the harder difficulties.

5. Outer Wilds: Echoes of the Eye

I loved The Outer Wilds. I... um... have less enthusiasm about this one. It still has all the things I love. The way that progress is gated by learning new information and shortcuts. The way that the whole game is this ticking clockwork world with predictable changes that happen at specific intervals. The intricate design of the world. The solutions to various problems being things you could have done at any time but wouldn’t think to without some prompting and learning how these systems work is a genuine moment of revelation.

The problem is the stealth segments. I really hated them. I was first trying to play this January of last year and I stopped the moment I hit them. They just do not fit with how the rest of the game plays. I hated the experience of hiding and luring and trying to move around and navigate in the pitch black.

The point at which I quit, I learned when I returned to it this year. I was trying to sneak into The Lodge and I was convinced I wasn’t sneaking good enough. That there was some direction I had to sneak to or some way I had to move that would solve what I was doing wrong. It’s this subjectivity that stopped me from realizing that there was actually a puzzle to be solved here.

It still has some really good moments. Like the revelations of what you need to do to access some of the locks are kind of incredible. And I love the design of The Stranger as a whole. The stealth doesn’t ruin the experience but it does greatly diminish it.

6. Taiji

Have you ever played The Witness? Would you like more The Witness with a slightly different main puzzle mechanic but otherwise recognizable puzzle elements?

I don’t think it’s unfair to compare Taiji and The Witness given that it even mimics the aesthetic of key areas. It’s not one to one but there are times when if you do have that experience you’ll walk up to an area and already have a good idea of how the rules should work in this area, and probably be right.

It doesn’t do as good a job at teaching its new mechanics as The Witness does. In the few instances it has a wholely unique idea to present, such as at the graveyard it essentially explicitly tells you half of how it works and doesn’t even really hint that’s there’s a second half of how it works until the final row of puzzles when suddenly your answers don’t work any more and it’s unclear exactly why.

It does have some neat environmental puzzles but lacks the immediacy of how they can be solved in The Witness.

If you like The Witness you’ll probably like this, though not quite as much. If you didn’t like The Witness you probably won’t like this. If you haven’t played The Witness, play The Witness and then consult this flow chart again.

7. I Commissioned Some Bees 0

After I mentioned playing the hidden object cats game to Forgie she pointed me towards this series of games. This one is free on Steam. It’s ten pieces of art filled with hidden bees. Find all the bees and generally have a chill time. It’s very pleasant.

The only thing I’ll say about this one is that the difficulty curve doesn’t really exist. The smaller levels are obviously easier because there’s less ground to cover and its easier to spot the bees. In some of the levels the bees are like solid objects that can hide half behind other objects, in others they are simply outlines and thus much trickier to find. There’s no real order that the levels are presented in. The second level is huge and some of the later levels are really small, like I think it’s level eight that is just a parking lot. And the outline levels are scattered seemingly at random as well.

Thats a really nitpicky complaint though. Overall the game has chill vibes and one level is a cute woodlands with foxie and raccoon and squirrel and god I would love a game where you find all the hidden foxies so much. That’d be a game of the year contender right there. No danger just chill just so many foxies to pet.

8. Kirby: Star Allies

I’ve never played a Kirby game before... and in some respects I still don’t really feel like I’ve played a Kirby game now. Star Allies was a game Forgie rented, and I think she just had it on her rental list as a placeholder, like, they’ll never send this one out, gives her a buffer to put the games she’s more interested in at the time at the top of the list. Only they did send it out.

It’s not a bad game but it is very chaotic. Me and Forgie tried playing it two player and it was pretty much imparseable.

Maybe saying that I don’t feel like I’ve played a Kirby game still is a little unfair. The only parts that I feel like I might have missed out on are like boss fights. In the chaos I’d quickly lose my copy ability and then not really know what to be doing for the rest of the fight as my allies just beat the enemy for me essentially.

My favourite part was having cute mouse Daroach on my team or whenever there was a team up action as that allowed the whatever was going on on screen to be more parseable.

I’d really like to try a more traditional game, or the new one where Kirby can be a car. I’m considering finding a copy of Kirby: Squeak Squad so I can see more of Daroach.

9. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

This game is something of a mishmash. It’s a bit of uncharted in how it handles its traversal, a bit of dark souls in its combat systems and a little bit of metroidvania in terms of level design. And while I do like the game I feel like all of these elements sort of work against each other.

Uncharted traversal makes it take longer to get around a level. If you keep dying to difficult bosses then chances are you’re going to see the same climbing animations over and over and it will start to grate.

Metroidvania level design suffers similarly, both the overlong traversal and the difficult combat make you less likely to even want to come back and search for secrets using your newly unlocked powers. A situation that isn’t helped by the fact that most of the things you can find are recolours for your poncho, your robot friend, your spaceship. The amount of really worthwhile items you can find is like single digits. There’s like total nine collectibles actually worth getting (the eight extra cannisters (your estus flask equivalent) and the one randomly hidden ability to use a double ended light saber).

And the dark souls style combat just kind of doesn’t necessarily gel with the source material. Like part of the point of a dark souls game is that it’s hard you’ll probably die at least a couple of times and have to get back up and throw yourself at the boss until you overcome it. That’s why you’re always some form of undead entity, so there’s no break in narrative when you die.

But, you know, Jedi die when they are killed. I spent some time trying to construct a justification for this. Your bonfire equivalent are meditation circles and I thought maybe whenever you fail it turns out what you are actually experiencing was a force vision to give you wisdom of how to proceed. Something like that, but it doesn’t quite gel with the fact that you can keep items and opened shortcuts stay opened.

I’d heard people make the dark souls comparison before and it’s like yes they borrowed these specific set of mechanics from those games but not the atmosphere or the things that actually make those kind of games fun to explore.

Also the game really wants you to be parrying. It’s the best way to deal with blaster fire, and enemies guard so much that attacking without parrying is just wasting your time and energy. Yet they also recover from a parry so quickly. I can’t land two hits before i have to actively dodge roll out of the way of their next attack.

I’ve complained a lot here but I did like this game. The things that really worked for me was the narrative... or maybe more accurately it’s the characters. Pretty much everyone is living with trauma after having been forced into hiding by the empire (i don’t remember if that’s what they’re referred to in this one but you know what i mean). A major component of the plot is learning how to move forward with trauma, and how to forgive yourself for your survivor’s guilt. Cere is cool. Merrin is pretty cool. Trilla is pretty cool. I like the little robot and Greez. Cal is also here and no sorry that’s mean, he’s fine it’s just another game where I’d rather be playing as one of the cool supporting cast.

Oh and fuck when they throw two of the bounty hunter boss fights at you at the same time.

10. SteelRising

Now here’s a game that actually feels like a Soulslike. I really liked this one a lot. It’s a soulslike where you’re a clockwork robot in an alternate revolutionary france, on a mission from the queen to find out how to stop the mad king’s mechanical armies.

I love how strongly it leans into its setting. You visit various well known french landmarks such as the Louvre, the palace of Versailles, the Bastille. You meet historical figures, some of whose names I’ve even heard before. It’s just such a neat aesthetic to these machines designed with revolutionary french sensibilities. The worst level in the game is Montmartre where you descend into a quarry and you basically could be in any video game at that point.

The combat is fun, and offers plenty of options and variety. I ran a high agility build with claw weapons and a heavy focus on immobilization and then capitalizing on the critical attacks that would ensue and I had a great time and hang on wait a minute -

Oh and you know what else Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order doesn’t have? Diversity in gameplay style. You can’t really build your character in that game. You don’t even get a second weapon style until late in the game/whenever you happen to randomly stumble across the doublesided light saber.

Anyway one of the things that is interesting about SteelRising is that most of its levels are designed for revisiting as you complete the various sidequests that you get throughout the game and so every level is like initial this long twisting corridor that you have to make progress throughout, but as you unlock new abilities and shortcuts they open out to be a lot more freeform than you’d expect in a souls game.

The sidequests are also interesting in that it seems as though you have an impact on how the power struggle at the end of the game plays out through your actions. Not just in your choices when you’re given an explicit ‘do you help x person or y person’ choice but also just in who you choose to complete side quests for. I helped everyone and I think it netted me the worst ending where neither side was really happy with the outcome.

Also Aegis and Athenais are gay and dating and I do not care if you disagree. This is simply the facts.

11. LumbearJack

Lumbearjack is a cute little game where a bear lumberjack cuts down and recycles every man made object in his path to help protect his animal friends and defeat the Evil Corporation.

It’s a very pleasant simple game. Your axe is strong enough to chop down objects of a certain size. Chop down everything you can until you have enough materials to create a bigger axe and chop down bigger things. Repeat as needed and watch nature reclaim the land as you chop away garbage dumps and industrial machinery. It’s cute and nice fun.

12. The Case of the Golden Idol

The Case of the Golden Idol is so good. It’s a game that presents you with a series of scenarios frozen in time; often the death of someone connected to the titular golden idol. You can explore the area, examine the items held by every person there, the contents of safes and letters and whatever evidence might be nearby, and once you’re done examining everything and have collected all of the relevant words you are given a number of different charts to fill in.

One common one is a selection of images of the various people involved in the situation with spaces below them for you to input their names. Or for example a map of living quarters and you’re asked to identify who lives where based on the information available to you. And each chapter you’re given a statement filled with blanks that you have to fill to demonstrate your understanding of the crime.

It’s really good. I’ve heard comparisons to Return of the Obra Dinn and yeah there’s so few games that operate on using deductive reasoning like this. Early candidate for game of the year. Going to be on my top ten at the very least. Well, I mean anything can happen but the rest of the year would have to be fucking amazing to keep this from my top ten.

13. Sonority

Sonority is a musical puzzle game. You play as Esther, a girl looking to learn a magical melody that can heal her friend, a talking bear called Batama. I was a little hesitant because I’m bad at musical puzzles in pretty much every game that features them, but the steam page promised that no prior musical knowledge was necessary so I gave it a try.

There are a couple of puzzles in the game about identifying notes that you can hear and playing them back, but these are all optional puzzles. The way that the main puzzles of the game work is that they use the rise and fall between notes as a puzzle element to interact with the world.

It works pretty well all in all, with enough variety in the puzzles and how they are presented to sustain you across the entire game. Though by the end I had like three instruments each of which able to play a slightly different range of notes and I did start to get a little overwhelmed. There were some segments, like the very last puzzle of the game, where I had most of the elements in place and I just had to do trial and error on the last elements because I couldn’t picture how it was supposed to look when I had done it correctly.

Also importantly there is a talking raccoon who is your friend.

#ix plays video games

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