#I will make 1000 art pieces before they get more lore | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

bluepoodle7 · 11 months

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#NegativeColors #ColorInspiration #PoodleArtMyArt

Used the luna pic for my Falseperson oc in my Au.

LunaPic | Free Online Photo Editor | Negative

My mobile home infected Realtor oc colors are silver, turquoise blue with a green lure cord.

I based his mobile home off this tin toy mobile home.

A blog about obscurity stuff, plushies and food. on Tumblr - search: Peaches

YipYop explained and Lore Spark Notes Version

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Next pic is YipYop a conjoined shifter based off a TopsyTurvy Doll.

Are sister and brother while also conjoined in the middle.

They don't have feet just hands and have both genders.

They are the last of their species and is the villain of Zable Fable's story that was lava preserved in the human museum in realm 12 where Zable Fable worked before becoming a realm jumper and helped Zericon or her dad break out of the museum exhibits.

They were preserved in the first lava from realm 1 like amber to trap them.

Their bodies were displayed like a art piece until they broke free and put a sitcom curse upon only Realm 12 as revenge while also reverting time from 2012 back to 1990 once new years hits.

Since they were watched now the people and beings are now being watched like they were.

Zable Fable realm jumps for the money and experience from her/ all versions of the characters job and for a cure or a solution to this.

The Past Prank War

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Fable in the deep past like the beginning when their were more Funny Fellas and Topsy Turvy chimera's had a few of them around.

Most of the Funny Fella played tricks on all shifter types since they were clown themed shifters.

This made YipYop angry and decided to prank back.

The pranks slowly became more dangerous and this is before all shifters could adapt to being badly hurt or bones being all shifters weakness.

YipYop decided to makes a lava wave to wipe all them out but only Fable survived barely but was dying until Fable met Zericon.

Zericon was friends with this genderless shifter and Fable says to keep it's lifeforce in a necklace that was later given to Zable as a present on her 18th birthday this later made this character randomized and separate into different versions when realm jumping.

Each Zable is different and unique.

They are only linked by blood and realities not in one body.

Fable is referenced by the upside down heart symbol each Zable in their design.

Sometimes the stories are different like it's Zable's mom Monique (Meriza) that is the shifter and Zericon is the human mayor named Juleius Jackson.

Fable was the first shifter to adapt then later gave it to Zericon and then later taught the other shifters in a school to adapt but later found out bones were a shifters weakness after trial and error.

To test what the species can and can't adapt too which makes sense.

Since most shifter are boneless but are more slime or cartilage like so they can easily change form without bone breaking.

Topsy Turvy chimera, Fable, and defective ones have few bones.

After the prank war on April 1st YipYop was defeated by being tricked by Zericon to be amber sealed in a volcano lava rock that was later found by humans to be put in a museum in Realm 12 where Zable Jackson worked.

Zericon teleported there to steal YipYop back to be safely put back in a location where they can't wake up and get revenge.

So Zericon changed into a human to try to bypass security but when trying to shift his hand like a key got caught.

Then was shot with bone bullets and tried his best to scratch and push out the bone fragment before he turns to dust because if a shifter is a 1000 years old or older they will turn into dust if all bone fragments are not removed quickly.

He panicked and changed into his back sword symbol to shake the rest out but was later knocked out by a dart from the security and is now displayed in the museum in a cold room to prevent him from shifting or teleporting.

Later Zable Jackson was on the night shift to check all the museum exhibits to see if no one was there after hours but sometimes reads up on the info of the museum exhibits.

Then later found a weird sword and the weird lava rock next to each other with a made up info from the staff.

Then noticed the sword was like the story her mom read to her in shiften and wanted to touch it with her gloved hands.

The warmth of Zable's hands helped wake up Zericon then his sword form floated in air then telepathy asked her for something to eat.

Zable Jackson was making a decent living but not enough to go traveling.

She digged in her pocket and gave the sword shifter a spicy chocolate limited edition bar and that was enough for Zericon to be in his true form.

Zericon was pretty tall for a shifter and it was due to shifters using being tall for intimidation but Zable was pretty tall while her mom was short and her brother was in the middle in size.

Zericon noticed the necklace Zable was wearing and wants to take it but decided not to due to not wanting to anger his mate which was the mayor.

Zable Jackson was 24 years old at the time and Zericon is older than 1000 years old but decided to make his age stuck at a 1000 years to prevent the bone weakness dust from quickly killing him.

Zericon doesn't have a determined height but 6'7 is his favorite height in human form.

Zericon asked if Zable wanted a better career that paid more and you can travel while also meeting people.

Zable wasn't sure who this person is and why he was so nice to her since she wasn't good at making friends let alone keep them but she did have one college friend.

She decided to take this person's offer but they need to get to know each other's names and what they like.

Also wondering who and where her dad is. Zericon wanted to tell Zable that he was her dad but was interrupted by the lava rock sealing YipYop breaking like a egg and finally being free to have revenge.

YipYop created a portal in the sky and flew in to make the world revert realm 12 to 1990s sitcom world with a intro, forced catchphrase, and everything.

YipYop was being watched by people in the museum and now the Realm 12 is now in a sitcom being watched by them and others.

This curse also made Zericon just be Zable's friend and not her dad since it is a spoiler that will unlock the sync with Fable.

Fable knows about Zable but is just a body to them but later after Zable does her interview and seeing the many versions of the character then they slowly started caring about Zable.

Not only as a vessel to the physical world but needed to protect all versions of the character from YipYop or enemies that try to harm them all and will separate to give up itself if needed to protect Zable.

Zable arrived in the Zerphra Company with Zericon.

She recently turned 25 and now is stuck at that age because of the curse but the longer she is away from her realm the more normal while comfortable this character will be.

Zable was told by the boss chimera to not use her real last name so Zericon suggested Fable.

It was pretty hard for her to translate other beings languages so sometimes Zericon tags along to interviews to translate.

Zericon tends to be in a form similar to the locals in the realm they visit.

But one day Zable realm jumped to a world where both her stepwatch and bootleg toy jewelry ring acted weird.

Her toy ring was glowing when she returned home and out popped this robo toy sloth.

This toy sloth wanted to be called Janet and just started eating the fruit in her kitchen.

Zable was interested on where Janet came from so she checked off a list of realms she visited and still couldn't find where Janet came from.

Seems like a outside force brought them together.

Zericon when first seeing Janet found her strange but not a threat.

Zericon uses Janet as a way to be free to do important things like checking up on the mayor to chat with her and get a plan together.

Years past since Realm 12 and everyone figured out when 2012 hits and it's new years YipYop reappears from the portal to search for Fable maybe unleashes their underlings to find that shifter.

Once midnight strikes then Realm 12 reverts back to the 1990s again. The technology also reverts.

The longer Zable is in the Realm 12 the more sitcom corny this character will become and everyone around them.

There is a laugh track from nowhere but outside the realm some of this curse does drip out without control randomly.

Zable when realm jumping is trying to look for someone who can take down YipYop and this curse to finally move past all of this.

If you try to force Zable Fable to say things against their will Fable will stop Zable from saying mid sentence then say try again later.

Maybe hear a faint voice in the person's head who is trying to make Zable say something against their will like.

"They been through enough so quit it will ya." Or make them say it.

If you try to remove Zable's upside down blue heart necklace it will just teleport back.

The necklace won't be worn by a clone or doubleganger because Fable sense's that it's not the original vessel but will float around to find another version Zable or a descendant.

If Zable were to really die like from a humanization of death then Fable will fully take over Zable's physical body then change back to it's original funny fella form but will store Zable's lifeforce in the necklace. Fable will try to find another vessel or to find a wish maker, genie, or a scientist to bring them back if Zable wants to. If any version of Zable wants to pass on they will let them.

The scary thing is that YipYop can just daydream death into existence and defeat Fable but that would be too easy for them.

Unless Zable randomly dreams up a invincibility dream move to counter that. But distracting Fable while attacking and later attacking them is a weakness.

Also proof that Zable swapped places while Fable is dormant will work to stop the dream moves and fighting.

But it needs to be a video.

If you are a lover or friend then a song you both like will work to snap Zable back to reality.

Like if Fable is attacking then the lover or friend can hum or sing a song.

The vessel may nod their head or join in singing but it's Zable's voice but sometimes Fable will interrupt to focus on either killing the enemy or making them flee.

Identity theft is rampant in this realm but there is technology that can find out who is who.

Also if you have a inner bag realm the tech inside stays the same so everyone in Realm 12 owns one so it won't revert back.

Refs

The Ultimate Toy Gift Guide for Parents (pinterest.com)

Darling Topsy Turvy Doll Little Mermaid Sea Witch And Prince So Cute! | #1622759481 (worthpoint.com)

What it sounds like on new years while Zable Fable with special guest fighting YipYop while a band plays in the background cheering you on.

Mario Artist: Talent Studio - Enter the Catwalk - - YouTube

Mario Artist: Talent Studio - The Catwalk (Act 1) - - YouTube

Mario Artist: Talent Studio - The Catwalk (Act 2) - - YouTube

Mario Artist: Talent Studio - The Catwalk (Act 3) - - YouTube

Mario Artist: Talent Studio - The Catwalk (Act 4) - - YouTube

Mario Artist: Talent Studio - Catwalk Wrap-up - - YouTube

And after the curse is lifted then slowly the normal theme plays.

Mario Artist: Talent Studio - Group Photoshoot - - YouTube

Ennio Morricone: L'alibi (Belinda May + Fantastic Plastic Machine Rmx) - YouTube

Ennio Morricone L'alibi [Belinda May Fantastic Plastic Machine] Rework latin house by Max Belloni DJ - YouTube

Songs not mine but links are there.

YipYop Upgraded Forms

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I can see YipYop striking a deal with a stalker character or a random character that wanted Zable as their own by giving them a "upgrade".

Maybe lying saying that Zable loves boss battles and the "upgrade" only works when a person or being having a really high angry or sad emotion that will unlock it.

But once unlocked the person or being will be out of character and maybe revert to their beta design.

Kind of similar to Giga Bowser from Melee.

Videos not mine but links are there.

SSBM - Vs. Giga Bowser (youtube.com)

Boss (Beta Mix) - Plok - YouTube

Fable vs the "Upgraded" Forms

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If Fable found out the enemy has been "upgraded" by YipYop the shifter would want to destroy this "upgraded" form but not hurt the user of it.

There is one dream move that is constant and only used when this event happens.

∞

Pick on Someone Your Own Size Fable in Zable's vessel body will try to scan the "upgraded" enemy then dodges any attack they have to try to figure out the new weakness of the enemy since YipYop changed the old weakness of the "upgraded" individual.

Then will change the vessel's body or limbs into the weakness then hug the individual while secretly absorbing the "upgrade" form to purify it into a pie to use on YipYop later to defeat them.

The dream move will randomly let the "upgraded" vessel enemy either not know they changed or tell them they changed.

When Zable is swaps back in control they will know what happened and know that Fable exists along with the dream moves.

Zable will try to reason with the person.

I call the purified pie attack is a Puripie.

Doombringer OC

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Zeri the 8'7 In gold, silver, bronze, and copper haired huemon has a tail is a beta design of all shifters looks like a stickman.

Also was once a Doombringer which are 13 beings that once summoned destroy worlds and other realms.

Once one doombringer either dies or quits another takes the place of the missing one.

But Zeri quit being a doombringer and decides to chill out with Zable.

Has a pet living purple giraffe mug that lives in his fannypack.

The living mug's name is Provo and he squeaks.

He also can store hot/cold liquids and food the use as weapons.

#Negative Colors #Color Inspiration #Poodle Art My Art

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theamberfang · 4 years

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My mind has latched onto Nuclear Throne recently (again), and I’ve been thinking about trying to write a fanfic for it, so I guess I’ll just go ahead and put a bit of work into that. But I’m can’t get into writing the story immediately because the thought of actually drafting a story is immensely stressful quite a bit of worldbuilding needs to be done on my part. There isn’t anything resembling a plot in the actual game really: just a bunch of sparse elements that, on the face of it, are quite confusing to try to piece together.

But for now, what I’ll mostly be starting by rambling out my thoughts on Nuclear Throne lore and how I’ve interpreted things in the nearly 1000 hours I’ve spent with the game.

Anyway, Fish is a good way to begin rambling about things. He comes across as being the leader of the mutants, being the first from the left on the character select screen, generally being in the center of the campsite, and featuring prominently in promotional art.

One of the main things about Fish is that he’s an ex-cop. One of his loading screen “tips” is something along the lines of “one day before retirement”, which is, to my understanding, a trope in cop media of a—usually highly skilled—cop that just wants to retire being pulled into “one last job”. So the implication of this hint is that Fish was a veteran cop ready to retire just when the apocalypse happened. Fish’s B-skin also seems to be an homage to those sorts of action-hero types.

When thinking about applying this to a story, I imagine it being a source of conflict—both with the rest of the group and internally for Fish—since the main bad guys are also cops, the IDPD. Unlike Rogue, he never quit being a cop or anything; again, he stayed on long enough to retire. Yet he does have to reckon with the fact that he fights the IDPD. He could try to justify himself as a “good cop” and the IDPD being “corrupted” with a lot of “bad cops”. But YV—a known cop-hater (and a god)—would probably have something to say about that; and maybe some of the other mutants, too, since, to me, many of them are coded as being from of some marginalized group or another.

It’s a shitty point of reference since I barely know anything about the show or comic, but there could be some similarities to The Walking Dead. Post-apocalyptic setting with a well-meaning cop father-figure leader type. I don’t know how those stories deal with that character being a cop later on, but I did watch the first few episodes of the show.

Oh, and the main thing I’m going off of for the “father-figure” part, other than being an appropriate trope, is Fish singing in the camp. It gives the impression of him keeping moral up for everyone with song, so he seems more openly warm rather than being a cold hard-ass (though, maybe he becomes more of that eventually, if his B-skin is any indication.)

One last thing that contributes to Fish’s leadership capabilities is that he’s smart and resourceful. A big part of this comes from something I don’t remember the source of, but I recall something about Fish being the one to find and repair Robot. Maybe it was from a streamer who was relaying information that they got from their viewers who may have gotten it from a development stream or something. Maybe I just read it on the wiki at some point. But regardless, it’s also supported a bit in-game, depending on how you interpret Fish’s passive ability of getting extra ammo at least. But I interpret it as him knowing where to find resources and/or knowing how to turn junk into useful things; a similar sort of logic could be applied to his Confiscate ultra-mutation. And this lines up well with him being able to repair Robot (who is then also a character that can recycle junk into useful resources).

As for how he relates to the rest of the group, I’d say he works well with Crystal, who I interpret as being the “group mom”. I imagine them clashing quite a bit ideologically, but making things work for the sake of the group. He’d probably be pretty close with Robot; though there could be some conflict based on Fish thinking of Robot as more of a “pet” and Robot having advanced enough AI to think otherwise. Chicken might idolize Fish a bit since she’s a big fan of action movies, since Fish basically is an action hero. Steroids might be one to challenge Fish’s leadership with toxic machismo—but it’s tough to be sure since Steroids is also known as a bookish type. I’m confident in Fish clashing with YV though; just not how exactly, what with YV being a god. Maybe YV isn’t really part of the group and just shows up occasionally, sometimes testing and/or taunting Fish (as a cop-hater to a cop). Lastly, I’d expect Rogue to be the one to really help him understand that “all cops are bastards”; like, she might be on that journey herself after going rogue and is able to bring Fish along.

There’s the matter of what Fish would be searching for the Nuclear Throne for, but I think the Throne is worth exploring on its own.

#throne fic #nuclear throne #fish

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utaprifanzine · 5 years

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Concept Pitch: Prismatic v2 + Fantasy AU Zine

(Quick reminder that secondary admin applications are also still open! So, if you’re interested in helping us out with the project outlined below, feel free to apply here!)

To start, I want to clarify that either project, regardless of it we go forward with only one or both, would not be starting until next year.

This concept pitch is being released now, rather than closer to the end of the year, because if we do go ahead with both projects, there will be a smaller round of applications in November in preparation for the main round of applications in February. This will be explained in further detail below the cut.

There is also a feedback form (link) for this pitch that we’d like to ask everyone interested to fill out. As per last time, if it gets over 70 responses then we’ll do at least one of the zines, but whether or not we do both and/or how we do them will depend on the responses.

Two main things will be decided by the responses in this form: -> Whether or not we do both projects or just one (four possible scenarios explained below the cut) -> The exact theme of the AU zine (“ ”)

The following information will be split into three categories: “Zine Content”, “Applications”, and “Possible Schedules”

“Possible Schedules” is where you’ll find all four advancement options outlined and explained, and “Zine Content” will contain the possible themes we’re looking at for the AU zine.

That being said, this will still be a strictly non-profit project (not affiliated with a charity), and the content rules set in place for the first volume of prismatic will not be changing.

However, we will allow submitted AUs to have more mature plots/themes as well as implied/referenced ships provided that the content produced for the zine does not contain those themes or those ships (i.e. if the plot for AU ends in a particular ship, that’s fine, as long as the final writing/art that goes into publication for the zine is generic. Your AU won’t be penalized in the application review for simply containing ships or mature themes).

There’s a lot of information below the cut, so we’ve highlighted the most important pieces in bold!

Zine Content

In this section, we’re going to be talking about each zine in it’s own subsection, so that it doesn’t get confusing. Prismatic first, followed by the AU zine.

Prismatic V2 (Working Title)

This would be a second volume of Prismatic. It would pick up where the first volume left off and cover the next 7 gacha and 14 events leading up to (and including) the 1st anniversary of the game. The cover, prints/merch, and overall design would be based on the “My Only Prince” UR set.

All events/gacha will be represented by a double page spread, that has an A4 illustration on the left hand side and a piece of flash fiction on the right. The MOP gacha will have four double page spreads (for a total of eight pages) that would feature four A4 illustrations and four pieces of flash fiction. The estimated page count is 60.

The gacha and events to be featured are as follows:

Gacha: Events:

Cheerful & Happy Valentines The Confused Soloist

Grateful White Day Aqua Crystal

Shining Sports Day Inspector Kurusu’s Pursuit

Fantasy Circus Professor Renarty’s Scheme

Caught in the Rain Shining Solo Series Cecil

Marine Festival Shining Solo Series Tokiya

Glittering Summer Festival Night No More Say

MOP: A Class + Cecil No More Bets

MOP: S Class Shining Solo Series Masato

MOP: Reiji & Ranmaru Resolute March

MOP: Ai & Camus Renegades in Unison

Starflowers Bloom at Night

Steal Your Heart

Shining Solo Series Ren

As far as contributors, we would have 25 writer slots and 45 artist slots, the latter including print, chibi, and cover artists.

AU Zine

This zine would feature fanmade AUs involving the Utapri characters.

There would be six featured AUs (two per idol group, so Starish, QN, and Heavens would all be represented), that would have eight pages each; four for art and four for writing. There will also be a four page story to go with the cover design, but the cover (and, by extension, the cover story) will depend on the final theme for the zine.

We’re looking to make this zine fantasy-themed, and have narrowed down three distinct themes that we could use. You can vote for your favourite one in the feedback form!

Possible Themes: -> High Fantasy: Mythical Creatures and Magical Powers -> Dark Fantasy: Monsters and Mayhem -> Urban Fantasy: Steampunk and Sci-fi

The estimated page count for the zine is 64 pages, and we would have contributor slots for 7 writers and 20 artists (incl. cover, chibi, and print). There would be three contributors working on each AU – one writer and two artists – and the creation period would also be longer.

Applications

Once again, this section will be split into two subsections for each zine!

Prismatic (“regular” applications)

Applications for Prismatic would be our main application period and would be open for three weeks (last week of Jan 2020 through Feb 15 2020).

The process would largely be the same as it was for the first issue, with separate forms for artists, writers, and cover design. However, in response to feedback from our first zine, there would be changes to the limitations on those forms.

Firstly, artists will be able to submit more than 5 samples, provided that all their samples are in one folder. There will also probably be a limit in the total number of samples/images, but that will be decided later.

For writers, we will be introducing a limit of 5000 words across all submitted samples per application. This means that the total word count of all the samples a writer submits for their application must not be greater than 5000 words.

Secondly, unlike last time, at least one of a writer’s samples must be a stand alone piece that does not exceed 1000 words, given that the pages you’d be applying for would be flash fiction pieces of 500 words or less.

The applications and review would still be done by page, so your application would only be reviewed/considered for the specific pages that you select on the form. However, since this time we know in advance that we’d be accepting print and chibi artists, artists will be able to select which positions they would like to be considered for.

AU Zine

If we go ahead with the AU zine, there would be two opportunities to apply as a contributor.

The first application period would be held over the entire month of November, and would only be for interested applicants to submit their AU ideas to the zine. We would be holding this round of applications separate to “regular” applications in order to pin down which six AUs will be featured in the zine, so that we can allow interested contributors to apply for both zines at the same time in February, during the main/second round of applications.

As mentioned before, there would be three people working on each AU, but one of these three will be the creator/owner of the AU. They can be either the writer or one of the artists and would also be submitting samples of their own work alongside their AU information, since they would also be required to be a contributor, should their AU be chosen for the zine. We would not be accepting AUs without their creator.

To submit an AU idea, applicants would need to provide the following information on their AU:

-> a character relationship chart -> rough outline of at least three plot/story arcs (among these, there must be at least 1 main plotline and 1 subplot) -> character designs for each member of the group to be the focus of the AU (can be rough sketches/concepts) -> description/explanation on the lore of the fantastical elements of the AU (dependent on the type of fantasy we settle on for the theme) -> basic worldbuilding (incl. social hierarchies, environmental information, general landscapes and territories, historical information relevant to major plot points/places/characters) -> brief backstory for each member of the group in focus

(It’s also worth noting that the submitted AUs must be noticeably different from any similar existing official utapri AUs or collaborations. i.e. you can’t submit a vampire AU with the QPot Sweets Vampire designs and you can’t submit a Pirate AU that has the same plot as Pirates of the Frontier)

(you will also be allowed to submit an AU that you’ve already posted content for online. However you will be required to produce new content for it should it be accepted into the zine)

The idea behind having all these requirements, is to show us that you, as the creator, have fleshed out the AU enough so that a writer or an artist can easily write or draw something for it using the information that you already have. The two contributors that would be working with you to produce content for the zine are not responsible for creating/fleshing out your AU for you and should ideally be able to work from the information you already have.

You will also not be expected to uphold a high level of quality for the positions that you are not applying for. That is to say, if you submitted your AU and are applying as the writer for it, don’t worry about the quality/skill level of your artwork. Likewise, if you’re applying as an artist, don’t worry about the craftsmanship of your writing.

(We’re also looking into providing templates for people to use for the AU application, to make the process easier).

After the six AUs have been picked, the types of AUs (i.e. Starish Vampire AU, Heavens Pirate AU, etc.) and the remaining positions for each would be announced before “regular” applications in February and interested contributors would be able to apply for those positions at the same time as Prismatic. Both would be available on the same application form.

However, unlike Prismatic, the owners of the AUs will not be announced until after the main application period is over, to prevent people from applying to contribute to a particular AU just because a specific person created it.

Possible Schedules

The whole idea behind running two zines at once was to not only allow more people to participate, but also to avoid running a zine where the contributor slots were too few and too limited (as is the case with the current concept for the AU zine).

My original planned schedule was to run both at once, have pre-orders for both open at the same time, and have both release on the same day for the sake of simplicity - however, this hypothetical schedule received a rather mixed response, particularly in regards to selling both zines at the same time.

In response to this, I’ve instead planned out four possible schedules going forward: two where both zines are done, and two where only one of the zines is done. In terms of feedback, I’m asking anyone interested in either contributing or buying the finished product to read over schedules and consider which one you think is better, then let us know on the feedback form!

Ultimately, this is purely a passion project for the fanbase, so it does matter a lot to us what you all think is best.

Schedule #1: Both Zines Run at the Same Time This was the original concept, where both zines were run, went up for pre-order, and were released at the same time. The rough schedule was: -> November: 1st round of applications (AU ideas only) -> December: AU ideas reviewed -> late January – February: Main applications for Prismatic & AU zine are opened, closed, and reviewed -> March 1st: creation period begins -> late April: Prismatic final submissions -> early-mid May: AU final submissions -> late May: pre-orders open (both zines) -> mid-June: pre-orders close (both zines) -> mid- July: both zines release

Schedule #2: Both zines are released separately

The idea here was in response to the concern of having both zines for sale at the same time and scheduled for release at the same time being counterproductive to the success of the project, given the utapri is still a relatively small fandom in the west. For this variant, the schedule remains the same, right up until pre-orders open: -> late May: pre-orders open (Prismatic only) -> mid-June: pre-orders closed (Prismatic only) -> mid-July: Prismatic releases -> mid- August: Prismatic contributors can post their works online -> mid-September: pre-orders open (AU only) -> mid- October: pre-orders closed (AU only) -> mid-November: AU zine released (US orders sent) -> mid-December: International AU orders sent

*Note: the delay in shipping between US and international orders would be due to Jinx being in the US from mid-August to mid-December. No-one wants to ship internationally from the US. It’s a nightmare.

Schedule #3: only Prismatic runs

In this case, the schedule would remain the same as it is in schedule #1, except that any AU-only related dates would be taken out, since Prismatic would be the only zine running.

Schedule #4: only the AU zine runs In this case, the schedule would remain the same as it is in schedule #1, except that any Prismatic-only dates would be taken out, since Prismatic would not be running.

In addition, here we would also have the option of either running a double volume of the AU zine (i.e. take all the specs outlined for the content and double it) or producing two volumes, each with a different theme. If this is your preferred schedule, make sure to vote for which option you’d prefer!

And that wraps up our concept pitch! Thank you to everyone who’s read this far and please consider (if you are able and have the time) to fill out the feedback form to let us know what you thoughts are for this project!

Sincerely,

The Utapri Fanzine Team

#utapri #uta no prince sama #shining live #uta no prince shining live #utapri fanzine #concept pitch

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paradisobound · 5 years

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They’ll Tear Us Apart (If You Give Them the Chance)

Summary: Dan was just a fairy in his little village of Vixedeler when a mermaid invades the waters and sends the village into a frenzy. A thousand year old rivalry is resurfaced and Dan is left in the middle of his village while also feeding his new connection with the mermaid, Phil. As tensions rise, and Dan falls deeply for Phil, a Romeo and Juliet love story begins.

Warnings: Mentions of violence and conflict (but not explicitly)

Word Count: 7.3k

This is a Romeo and Juliet au centered around fairy!Dan and mermaid!Phil (but don’t worry! No one dies at the end!)

**Link to the Art** | **Link to Ao3**

Written for the 2019 @phandomreversebang!

Thank you so much to my lovely artist @lovelydeps! It was so much fun working with you and getting your idea for your art and bringing it to life! And your art blew me away! And thanks to my beta’s @partlycharlie and @stockholm-13-syndrome who both looked over the fic for me! And special thanks to @flymetomanchester and @phloridas for being the best cheerleaders whenever it comes to any of my fics! You’re the best :)

The wind whistled through the air as Dan walks slowly through the forest on his way back to his cottage. His hands are full of the fruits and berries he had picked up on his way back.

His feet crinkle a bit in the leaves, but his near weightless body doesn’t really make a sound as he walks. He hums to himself, looking around at all of the trees and little critters around him. A squirrel to his right. A bunny to his left. They never bother him so he never bother them.

Dan figures he could use his wings and fly by to his little cottage, but that takes energy and to be quite honest, Dan’s a bit lazy. Not to mention, he had a run in with a bumble bee a few days ago and he isn’t trying to collide with another one of those fuzzy fellas any time soon.

Dan lives in a quiet little village called Vixedalar, which resides just outside the forest. They share a border with another little village called Estemopia, but they often don’t interact. Dan’s village is very quiet and often isn’t bothered and Dan quite likes that.

He prefers to be alone, sitting in his cottage, sipping Grassroot tea and consuming his berries. Well, he prefers to be alone when he’s not with his friend Lilibeth, but she is often busy in her garden or messing with the mortals in the overlands. Lilibeth likes to change out their babies; although Dan doesn’t like her mischievous actions, he does sometimes laugh at the stories she tells.

His village is near water, which is uncommon for his kind. Dan learnt when he was first taken to the water by his guardians as a youngling - they warned him to never go near it or in it. However, many people in his village fish, which used to leave Dan scratching his head in confusion.

Dan has to pass the water every time he goes back to his cottage from foraging for berries and fruit. He often finds himself staring out at it, as if it’s calling to him, but he never goes to it. He reminds himself of his warnings and just moves on with his time, happily humming and skipping a bit as his wings get excited and he hovers a bit over the ground.

This afternoon is no different. Dan is walking by the water and looking at it from a distance. He lets out a sigh and finds himself smiling. Maybe one day, maybe he’ll cave and go to the water.

Dan is about to turn his head and look back to where he is walking when he sees an odd ruffle in the water. His heart skips a beat and he lets out a loud gasp. What was that in the water? He narrows his eyes a bit and floats up, his wings holding him, and he looks over the water.

The water doesn’t move again, but that doesn’t mean Dan isn’t still curious about what it was. His heart is racing a bit and his wings are beginning to strain. He quickly shuts his eyes and sucks in a breath as his body lessens in size and he flies through the trees as fast he can back to his cottage.

Dan can admit that he’s never been the most graceful with his landings when he goes back to being full bodied, but he certainly tries. This time, he loses a few berries and an apple and huffs in annoyance.

“Never been the most graceful, have you, Dan?”

Dan snickers and turns to his friend Lilibeth. She’s stood in front of her cottage across from his own. Her light colored hair is flowing a bit in the wind, and she has some stray pieces tucked behind her ears. Her wings are looking as beautiful as ever, a bright azure blue with swirls that are unlike anything Dan had ever seen.

When Dan had first seen Lilibeth, he quickly realized how pretty she was, but as they grew up, he realized she was a close friend, not someone he wanted to raise his future family with.

“Never have been and never will be,” Dan says with a chuckle.

Lilibeth waves him off and turns around, wiping her palms on her cloth pants and walking back to the flower garden in the front of her cottage. Dan always envied how well she could grow flowers. He doesn’t do well with that. He’s good at making cures and teas. He’s not good at other things.

Dan cuddles his fruit and berries closer to his chest as he walks up to his cottage door and steps inside. Dan walks over to his table and sets down his food on the wooden surface.

He walks to his tiny little leaf basin of water and rinses off his hands before he grabs a small blade and a wooden bowl and walks back over to his table. He grabs each fruit piece by piece and begins to cut them smaller.

As his blade cuts through each piece, he begins to think more and more about the water. What did he see in the water? It wasn’t a fish - the fish aren’t very big in the water. It had to be something different.

His blade suddenly stops mid-cut and his heart beats fast. Was it a mermaid? He’s only heard of them in stories from his guardians and the whispers around the village.

But surely, a mermaid wouldn’t dare to actually come back into their little village, would it?

Dan shakes his head and lets his hair fall into his eyes a bit before he tucks the stray bit behind his ear. He’ll talk to Lilibeth about what he saw later.

***

Dan visits Lilibeth in her garden a little while later. His berries and fruit were all cut and he even brought a small wooden bowl for Lilibeth to have as well. He walks up behind her and she stands up, turning around and smiling at him.

“Found some good fruit?” she asks and Dan nods. “Let’s bring them inside.”

Dan follows her into her cottage and sits down beside her at her small table. Lilibeth’s cottage is a lot smaller than Dan’s but Dan finds it cozier. His sometimes seems empty when he doesn’t have company.

Lilibeth picks out a fresh berry from the bowl and takes a bite of it. “How did foraging go?”

“It went well,” he says. “Didn’t have to look long before I came about a really good amount of berries.”

“Good!” Lilibeth smiles. “I was speaking with Merrybeth and she mentioned that berries were becoming scarce. She said we might have to rely more on fish soon.”

Dan makes a face. He isn’t nearly as much of a fan of fish as he is other foods; he much prefers fruit over meat. “I’m not fond of that idea.”

“Nor I,” she says.

Dan picks up a berry from the bowl and eats it. He watches Lilibeth reach for one too, and then remembers how she mentioned water. He should mention to her what he saw.

“I saw something in the water,” Dan says.

“In the water?” Lilibeth asks.

Dan nods.

“Yes, I believe it might be a…”

“… a mermaid?” she says, her eyes widening. “Are you sure that is what you saw?”

“I’m not that sure,” Dan admits. “But it was odd.”

“Mermaids aren’t supposed to be able to come into our village,” she says, as if that’s not something Dan already knows.

Dan knows the lore about the mermaids. His kind, the fairies, and the mermaids have been in a war for over 1000 years. They never interact nor do they like each other. Normally when a mermaid comes around, the villagers run them out or threaten worse.

Dan’s guardian used to tell him when he was a child that it was because of a mistake between fairies and mermaids. The fairies were always mischievous and Dan knew that because of Lilibeth and his follow villagers. But one year, way back in the earlier days, a fairy mistakenly took the baby of a mermaid, thinking it was a mortal being. The mermaids found out and sought out the fairy and killed them. It was a sad day in the neighboring village that still thrives at the thought of the fairy who lost their life.

“Are you sure?” Lilibeth asked again. “It’s a bit foolish to claim there is a mermaid and there are none.”

“I’m aware.” Dan says. “I think that is what it was but…”

“Let us go to the water and see.” Lilibeth interrupted, standing up from her stool and extending her hand out.

Dan grabbed onto her hand and pulled himself up. She began to drag him to the door and Dan laughed a bit as her strength yanked him outside of the cottage and dragged him a bit down the pathway towards the forest.

Lilibeth shut her eyes and shrunk down and Dan followed and shrunk down, flying beside her. They zipped through the forest, between the trees and past all of the insect that shared the air with them.

Dan loved flying with Lilibeth. Sometimes he liked flying alone but other days, he’s glad that he has such a good friend like Lilibeth to play around with. He never had many friends as a child but Lilibeth was always there for him.

They flew around for a while until Dan began to feel the telltale signs of exhaustion in his wings and he motioned for Lilibeth that he was going to land. Lilibeth landed next to him and they took a second to catch their breath.

They were both still laughing at their antics when Dan remembered what they were doing in the forest. They were supposed to be going to the water. He looked around to gather his bearings. To his right, he caught sight of the water in the distance and he and Lilibeth began to walk closer to it.

They were almost to the clearing and the water when Dan noticed a ripple in the water again. His breath caught in his throat and his hand came up, instinctively to his chest in surprise. He turned to Lilibeth and her green eyes were staring wide towards the water.

“Did you see that?” She asked, her finger coming out in front of her to point towards the ripple.

Dan nodded.

He continued watching the water for a few more moments before he saw it…a dark blue tail came out of the water and splashed back through the crest, creating a soft splash in its wake.

Dan gasped and Lilibeth made an unsettling noise. They turned to each other and both immediately took off and flew as fast as they could back to their village. They needed to warn the others.

As soon as they land, Lilibeth runs down the pathway to the village center where there is a bustle of other fairies roaming about, bartering their food and selling their fish.

Lilibeth moves through the small crowd of others and stands in the middle of them and picks up her voice. “Dan and I have spotted a mermaid in our waters.” She says. “We saw it while we were out in the forest frolicking for fruit.”

There is a sudden uproar of voices and everyone seems to be appalled by the word of a mermaid being spotted. A few of the males step forward with their fishing nets in hand and scowl.

“How dare a mermaid invade our waters?” The one spat out, his eyes growing a bit darker in color.

“We must all brace for an impending invasion!” The other one called, his wings suddenly fluttering as he picked up into the air, hovering. “We must prepare for anything they bring. It’s clear that they’re ready to strike us again and we need to be ready.”

Dan felt his mouth opening and shutting, almost as if he wanted to argue and say that he thought that wasn’t true. But he didn’t speak up. He wasn’t too well known in the village like Lilibeth was and he wasn’t going to get into any possible scrabbles with other fairies. Dan knew how stubborn his kind can be.

Slowly, the village began to whisper among each other and Dan found himself in the middle of everyone else as they all spoke about what the mermaids could do to them. It made Dan shudder and wrap his arms around his thin frame, almost as if to protect himself from something that wasn’t even there.

When the sun began to set, and the moon and stars came out, the village broke apart and Dan walked back to his cottage besides Lilibeth. They said their goodnights to each other and went their separate ways.

As Dan washed up in his basin and then redressed, he found himself thinking about the mermaid and if the creature was really as dangerous as everything was telling him they were. He knew from the stories that mermaids could be mean but his kind could be too.

When Dan tucks himself into his bed and wills his eyes to shut, all he can think of is whether or not the mermaid is still in the water, just swimming around, unaware of what was going on in the village.

***

Many moons passed and nothing happened within the village. Most villagers have forgotten that the mermaid was in the water while a few remain on watch some nights by the water to make sure the mermaid didn’t leave.

Dan found himself thinking about the mermaid every time he did anything. When he was out in the village looking to barter for a new shirt, he found himself wondering if the mermaid had ever worn a shirt. When he goes into the forest and picks his berries, he finds himself wanting to go to the water and see if he can see the mermaid again, just to see what they looked like.

He was curious.

When he is out one afternoon and has packed all of his leaves, flowers, and fruit into his leaf knapsack, he finds himself flying to the water. He maneuvers through the branches and trees and surpasses a few bees before he lands on the edge of the water and looks down into it.

He’s stood on a rock on the end, peering at his own reflection in the light pool. A few bugs dance along the top of the water and he giggles as he watches the way they bounce and make little zaps onto the water.

Dan plops down onto his behind and sits with his legs tucked under him. He removes his knapsack from his shoulder and sets it down beside him as he looks at the water and stares with intent to see if he can spot the mermaid. They were probably already gone but Dan was just curious into seeing one that he was eager to sit and watch.

After a few moments of nothing happening, Dan finds himself already getting a bit board so he looks around and finds a stick next to him. He picks it up in his hand and looks it over before he gently pushes it into the water and watches the rippling around it.

He waves the stick around, drawing designs in the water and giggling as he watches so fish come up and try to bit the end of the stick like its bait. As nothing continues to happen, Dan feels himself sigh and let out a breath. The mermaid was definitely gone and he was beginning to doubt that he and Lilibeth even saw it. Maybe their minds had just been playing tricks on them. He really isn’t sure anymore.

Dan moves back and picks the stick out of the water, throwing it off to the side and feeling the splashes of the water until his skin as he does so. He shivers from the cool touch of the water and turns his head to pick up his knapsack when he hears loud splashing in front of him.

He looks up and see’s blue eyes staring at him, just barely peaking over the water with a mop of wet dark hair on top. Dan feels his heart beat erratically and he begins to crawl backwards to escape the edge of the water.

The head suddenly comes up further and Dan lets out a loud gasp as he sees the mermaid in front of him, their webbed hands coming up and swimming in circles to keep the mermaid afloat. Dan watches the creature for a moment before the fear wins out in his head and he wills himself to fly.

He flies as fast as he can back to his cottage and only when he has landed and caught his breath has he realized that he left his knapsack at the water and he was going to need to go into the village for food that night.

***

A knock happens on Dan’s door as he’s mashing some berries in his bowl to create a tea to drink. He stands up from his table and walks over, opening the door to see Lilibeth on the other side.

She was wearing a long skirt today which was unusual for her but Dan had to admit she looked beautiful. She must have bought it in the village or she might have flown to the next village over for it.

“Peter told me that he and Caspian have been on watch at the water every night.” She says, inviting herself in and walking inside. She takes a seat at his table on one of the stools and rests her feet on the stool across from her. “He said that there is a mermaid living in the waters but it doesn’t appear to want any harm.”

“Oh.” Dan finds himself saying as he shuts the door and walks towards her, sitting down opposite.

“Which is a good thing.” She continues. “I’m not sure what our village would do if we had an onslaught of mermaids coming for us. Caspian says that he believes there is only one lone male.”

“I’m aware.” Dan says. “I saw it today.”

“You did?” Lilibeth questioned. “When?”

“Earlier when I was out in the forest getting my food.” Dan says. “I decided to go sit by the water and it came up while I was there. I was too afraid to do anything so I flew away.”

“Did it appear dangerous?” Lilibeth asks

Dan shook his head. “No, but I’m also not sure.”

“What did it look like?” She questioned.

Dan shook his head again. “I didn’t really see.”

“I’m afraid that it has ulterior motives.” She says, keeping up with the original subject. “Although Caspian and Peter both told me that they did not believe the mermaid was harmful, I’m unsure. Why would a mermaid invade our waters? They know their place.”

Dan nodded but he didn’t agree with her. He didn’t believe that the mermaid was harmful because…well, he didn’t really have a good reasoning for it. He just had a feeling that the mermaid wasn’t harmful and he was going to believe it.

“Speaking of,” Lilibeth says, clearing her throat a bit. “Caspian asked me if I would go fishing with him one day.”

Dan felt his lips curl into a smile. “Oh?” He teases. “You and Caspian going to be a family?”

Lilibeth reaches out and shoves his shoulder. “He gave me this skirt as a mating gift.” She says, flattening the fabric onto her legs. “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”

Dan nods because the white fabric weaved with green is stunning against her long white hair and bright eyes. She paired it was a beautiful sheer green top and Dan finds himself staring at how beautiful she looks right now. Almost glowing actually, if you will.

“It’s stunning.” He says. “Where did Caspian get it?”

“He didn’t say.” Lilibeth answered. “But as soon as he gave it to me, I knew I had to accept.”

Dan couldn’t help but feel a bit jealous at Lilibeth and Caspian. He has sort of known that something was going on between them when he would spot Caspian coming out of Lilibeth’s cottage often, sometimes in the morning. He was happy for her, really he was. He knew that they were at the time of their life where mating was something they needed to do but it was hard for Dan to find someone he could see as his mate when he was attracted to…well, males.

He and Lilibeth shared a meal together before she left to tend to her garden and Dan decided he wanted to finish making his teas. Later that night when he was getting washed up to lay down, he found himself thinking about the mermaid again and it’s deep blue eyes that pierced into him.

Dan wanted to see that mermaid again. He was determined to.

***

As the sun is rising the next morning, Dan is already at the edge of the water, tip toeing down the rock to the edge. He hadn’t been able to get any rest the night before. His mind was busy trying to figure out the mermaid. He was still so curious about the creature and as soon as dawn began to break, Dan had gotten up and dressed and flown to the water where he now was.

He was sat on the same rock he had been the day before. This time, he had his feet dangling into the cool water and he was swishing them back and forth, running the water over the tops of his feet. He was laughing a bit at how they tickled but he mostly just liked the feeling of the water running over his feet. He was still doing this when he saw the ripple in the water come from nowhere and suddenly, the same piercing blue eyes were staring up at him from the surface.

Dan draws in a loud breath and looks down at the water and at the creature. He pulls his feet up from the water and tucks them under his body as he kneels and places his hands on the end of the rock in front of him and stares intently, trying to figure out the mermaid.

“Is all you fairies do is stare?”

The voice shocks Dan and he lets out a gasp as his eyes widen and watches the mermaid breach the surface of the water and swim closer, his head fully poking out. Dan moves backwards from the edge of the rock and the mermaid comes up and pushes their arms on the end of the rock, resting their upper body on the edge.

“I’ve never seen your kind before.” Dan says, his voice catching a bit in his throat.

The mermaid scoffs and a small smile ghosts his lips. “I see you all staring at me every night.”

“We don’t mean to do any harm!” Dan quickly says. “It’s just that none of us know what to do with a…”

“A mermaid.” The creature finishes. “Do you have a name?”

Dan nods. “I’m Daniel.”

“I’m Phil.”

Dan looks down and cocks his head to the side. Phil? He’d never heard of a name like that before. It sounds like a mortal name.

“What are you doing in our waters?” Dan asks, his curiosity getting the best of him.

Phil opens his mouth but suddenly the sound of whispers and voices drowns out anything he could have been saying. Dan quickly turns his head and sees a group of his fellow villagers coming towards the water, some with fishing nets and some with what looked like branches poles.

Dan quickly turns back to say something to Phil but Phil is long gone, already swum off somewhere else in the water. Dan quickly stands up and rushes away, ready to fly off and escape the other villagers when his name is called by a deep voice in the group.

“Daniel?” Dan turns his head and sees Caspian standing on the outside with Peter on his right. He’s holding a hand-woven net in his head and his red wings are waving in the air. He walks over to Dan and gives him a questioning look. “What are you doing near the water?”

Dan opened his mouth and quickly thought of the first thing that came to his head. “I was out getting some berries but they began to stain my hands so I came to the water to wash my hands.”

Caspian nodded and cocked his eyebrow. “The water is not safe right now, Daniel. You should be more careful.”

Dan wanted to roll his eyes. He understood that Caspian was a wee bit older than himself but he didn’t like how Caspian treated him like a youngling just because Dan liked to gather berries and fruit and not fish.

“I’m aware.”

“We do not know if the mermaid is dangerous yet so please, do not go to the water unless you have to.” His voice goes soft and he looks around before leaning closer to Dan, his long brown hair falling over his shoulder and nearly into Dan’s face. “I’d hate to tell Lilibeth that we found you at the bottom of the waters.”

Dan swallowed at that thought and furrowed his brows, but nodded nonetheless. He quickly said his agreement to Caspian and then bid his farewell and flew away, feeling completely foolish.

When he lands at his cottage, Lilibeth is walking outside of her own with a leaf filled with water in her hands to water her garden. Dan finds himself walking up to her, coming up behind her as she waters down her plants.

“I went to the waters this morning.” He says to her. “I spoke with the mermaid.”

Lilibeth dropped the leaf on the ground, the water splashing around their feet. She stood up from squatting position and turned to face Dan. “Are you foolish?”

“The mermaid was nice!” He counters. “He told me that his name was Phil. I don’t think he means any harm.”

“Daniel,” She says, her hands coming up in front of her to make a gesture towards Dan. “We do not know if this mermaid is dangerous. Mermaids are manipulative creatures. You need to be careful. You cannot be going to the waters and just accepting this foul creatures friendship.”

“I wasn’t doing that!” Dan counted. “I went to the waters and the mermaid was there and I spoke with him.”

“You’re acting like a fool.” Lilibeth says, her voice tight and harsh. “You’re not thinking.”

“I’m aware of what I’m doing.” Dan says. “I see now harm in the mermaid being there.”

“That’s all fine and well until in one move, it’s slitting your throat.”

“Lilibeth, we don’t know…” Dan stops himself because what he was going to say would just prove her correct. They do not know if Phil is dangerous so in hindsight, Dan shouldn’t be seeing him or even speaking to him. “I’m sorry. I’ll be more careful.”

“I don’t want you getting harmed.” She says. “Caspian warns me of the mermaid all of the time and I’m warning you. Do not befriend him. Treat him like an enemy.”

Dan nods.

“And please, Dan.” She continues. “Do not go to the water and see him.”

Dan doesn’t end up listening to Lilibeth despite her warning him and the next few days, he found himself waiting on the edge of the water for Phil to come and speak to him. A few mornings in a row, Phil did not swim up to Dan but rather just swam closer for a moment before disappearing back into the water. This frustrated Dan immensely.

But then after nearly four mornings of not seeing the mermaid, Dan finally sees him again and they talk for a brief moment before Phil would disappear and Dan would be left all alone again on the rock.

On the fifth day, Dan had been out all afternoon gathering as many fruits and berries he could so he could take them to the town center to barter for new clothes and he found himself going to the water just as the night was beginning to fall. The moon was reflecting brightly in the water and he sat on the same rock he always did and snacked on a few berries as he waited to see Phil.

His eyes eventually grew tired and his body began to collapse in on itself from exhaustion and he found himself laying down the rock to rest. His eyes shut and just as he’s beginning to succumb to his bodies rest, he feels something reach out and touch his hand.

He opens his eyes a bit and sees Phil leaning on the edge of the rock, his hand coming out and resting on top of Dan’s. Dan feels his heart pick up it’s beating as he looks down at Phil.

“You always come every day to see me.” Phil says, his voice gentle. “What do you see in me? You should be afraid.”

Dan picks his head up and bit and looks down into Phil’s blue eyes. “I’m not afraid of you.” He says, his voice wavering a bit. “I know you don’t want to hurt anymore. If you were going to hurt me, you would have already. I like visiting you and seeing you.”

Phil’s lips curled into a slight smile and Dan smiled back, his head resting limply against the rock. Dan looked down at their hands again and he notices that Phil’s hand is not webbed at the moment, it looks just like Dan’s. Dan opens his hand and turns his palm over underneath Phil’s skin. Phil looks down between them and his connects their hands together.

“You don’t treat me like I’m a monster.” Phil says. “I appreciate that.”

“You’re not a monster.” Dan says. “You’re just another being like me.”

When Dan shuts his eyes, no longer again to fight it anymore, his and Phil’s hand is still connected on the rock and Dan feels comfort in knowing he’s gained the trust of such a ‘dangerous’ creature.

Dan feels safe around Phil.

When he wakes up to the bright sunlight, his hand is alone and he’s alone as well. Phil is gone back into the water and Dan is unsure of how long Phil stayed with him but his heart fluttered a bit thinking that maybe Phil had watched over him all night and protected him.

He was beginning to take a liking to the mermaid and it was a bit scary for Dan to think about. He found himself thinking about Phil’s bright eyes and soft smile. He thought about how gentle and kind Phil’s voice had actually been. He thought about the trust in Phil’s voice when he told Dan he appreciated him.

Dan really liked Phil.

If he wasn’t feeling a bit foolish, he might even say that he could see Phil as his mate. Maybe that’s why they were able to appreciate each other so well. On some deep level, they were mates.

Dan felt a bit daft knowing that he was a fairy and really thinking about being a mate to a mermaid after their history of tension between the two but he couldn’t help thinking about it. He thought about how Phil’s lips would fell against his own. He thought about how Phil’s skin would feel against his. He wondered if Phil had a body like his own―he heard mermaids could sometimes walk on land―and if he and Phil could share such intimate moments with each other.

He continues to have these thoughts the rest of the day until Lilibeth comes knowing on his door at dusk, a worried expression on her face. She’s a bit disheveled and her wings and fluttering in worry. “Daniel, they’re planning on slaughtering the mermaid.”

Dan felt his heart shatter and his eyes will up with tears. “What?”

“Caspian and Peter saw the mermaid by you as you slept near the water and they feared that it had plans to do something awful to you. They’re planning on killing him. I just got word.”

“Lilibeth, they can’t kill him!” Dan pleaded. “Phil means no harm!”

“Daniel, I do believe you but Caspian is certain about this and I’m afraid he’s not going to change his mind.”

“I have to go and warn him!” Dan cries. “I need to warn him about this!”

He doesn’t wait for Lilibeth to answer. He just pushes past her out of the cottage and takes off, flying as fast as his wings can go towards the water.

When he lands, he falls to the rock and crawls to the edge. He cups his hands to his mouth and shouts Phil’s name until the mermaid rises from the water and swims near, his blue tail poking behind him out of the water. When he gets to the rock and pulls himself up, Dan reaches down and grabs for his hand.

“Phil, they’re planning on killing you.” He cries. “The fairies in my village think you’re going to harm someone…they’ve already made their decision.”

Phil reaches up and his webbed hands transforms into a normal hand and smoothes its ways through Dan’s hair. “Do not worry.” Phil says. “I’m not afraid of them.”

“But they’re going to kill you!” Dan cried. “They can’t kill you!”

Phil shushed him and rested his hand on Dan’s jaw. “They’re not going to kill me. I won’t let them.”

“They’re strong, Phil. They won’t give up.”

Phil just shushes him again and runs his hand over Dan’s cheek, soothing his crying. “I’m going to be safe, Dan. I promise nothing will happen to me.”

“I know you’re good.” Dan says. “I know you won’t harm anymore and you won’t harm me. I know you wont!”

Phil continued to stroke his cheek and Dan sees Phil’s eyes glistening a bit with his own tears and sadness. Dan sniffles and tries to stop his crying but he lets a few more tears fall. He was just going to know Phil, he didn’t want to lose him yet. He couldn’t.

“I’ll be safe.” Phil repeats.

“Please be safe.” Dan says. “For me.”

“I’ll be safe for you.”

Dan looks down at Phil and finds himself leaning in, ready to connect their lips. He presses his lips against Phil’s mouth and their lips lock as if they were a perfect match. Dan lets out a whimper and pulls back, Phil’s hand still resting on his cheek.

“If you weren’t a mermaid, I’d say you were my mate.” Dan says.

“You are my mate.” Phil says. “I know you were special to me the moment I saw you.”

“Me too.”

Phil smiles at him and then he leans up and they share another kiss. When Dan pulls back, he positions himself so he’s laying down on his stomach and he’s face to face with Phil.

“How did you even get to our waters?” He says. “Mermaids aren’t supposed to know where we are.”

“I got lost from my kind.” Phil says. “I was messing around with a couple of other mermaids and I got separated from them. I swam the full length of the water before I came to land and had to try and find where they went. I can walk on land for short distances so I wandered until i was near exhaustion. I was on the verge of death when I saw your water here and I stumbled in. I never meant to invade your land.”

“I knew you weren’t an invader.” Dan says, his lips curling into a smile. “I knew you didn’t mean any harm.”

“I never would harm anyone unless they wanted to harm me.” Phil says. “I am not a dangerous kind.”

Dan opens his mouth to ask Phil more questions when there is a glowing amber light in the distance. He turns his head and sees fire and torches coming towards the water. There is whispering and shouting coming from there and Dan feels himself begin to panic.

“Phil, they’re coming to kill you! We have to go!” Dan gets up and tries to tug for Phil to get up onto the rock. “Please!”

“I have no where to go, Dan!” Phil cries. “I’ll die if I can’t get back to water.”

“I have a basin at my cottage you can be in! But you can’t stay here.”

“Dan, I don’t think I can…”

“Please!” Dan cries, tears escaping down his cheeks again. “I can’t have you die when I just found my mate.”

Phil looks out towards the glowing amber and then back at Dan and climbs his way up onto the rock. Dan is mesmerized by Phil’s stunning blue and green scaled tale and how it transforms into two lanky legs in front of his eyes.

Despite the fact that Phil is naked, Dan wraps his arm around his waist and hurries him into the forest where they rush as fast as they can. Dan uses the strength he has in his wings to fly them back to his cottage just as he hears Caspian’s deep voice shout to the crowd that tonight, they kill a mermaid.

As soon as they land, Dan hurries Phil into his cottage. Phil is panting and exhausted, barely able to hold himself up. Dan rushes to get the water into his basin and then he helps Phil step inside the water. Once his lower half is coated, Phil visibly relaxes and his tail begins to form again.

Dan breathes a sigh of relief and rests next to the basin where Phil lays back and rests his head against the back, shutting his eyes. Dan reaches up and connects their hands as he lays down on the floor of his cottage and shuts his eyes as well.

***

The next morning, Dan finds his wings a bit crumbled under him as he wakes up to Phil staring at him from the basin. His body is covered with a thin layer of water and Dan can see that he’s struggling to remain submerged in Dan’s small tub.

“I can’t stay here forever.” Phil says. “I can’t live in something this small.”

Dan nods, feeling his chest tighten. “I know.”

“I need to go back to the water but…”

“I’ll talk to the village!” Dan says, sitting up. “I’ll convince them to let you stay here in the water.”

“They want me dead, Dan.”

“I know but, I feel like I can convince them.”

Dan picks himself up and stretches as his wings as he paces around the cottage and tries to figure out how he is going to do this. He eventually takes in a deep breath and heads out of the cottage and into the village center.

Most people are out and about already this morning and Caspian, Peter, and Lilibeth are as well. Caspian is talking loudly to another villager about how he missed his opportunity to kill the mermaid last night and Dan felt a bit sick.

Dan walks over to Caspian and stands in front of him. “You can’t kill Phil.” He says. “You can’t hurt him!”

Caspian’s eyes widen and he cocks his head. “Who is this Phil?”

“The mermaid!” Dan says and everyone around him suddenly stops talking and ceases their movements. “You can’t hurt him!”

“And why can’t I?” Caspian questions. “He’s a dangerous threat to our village and our peace. He needs to leave.”

“No, he doesn’t!” Dan counters. “Phil doesn’t mean any harm! He got lost from his kind and ended up in our waters. He has no idea where he is or where he can go! He needs to stay in those waters to stay alive!”

Caspian let out a laugh and Peter followed. “I have some news for you then, Daniel. The mermaid was not in the water last night. Must be he already left.”

“No.” Dan shook his head and sucked in a breath. “Phil stayed in my cottage last night. He stayed in my washing basin but he can’t stay their forever! He needs the water!” Dan pleads. “He means no harm to anyone and he’ll never lay a hand on me but I believe he is my mate and I would like for him to be able to stay.”

Lilibeth picks up her head and looks at Dan, giving him that knowing glance that Dan has seen her give him so often. She suddenly turns to Caspian and places her delicate hand on his arm. “Let the mermaid stay in the waters.” She says. “He hasn’t harmed anyone yet and I doubt he will. You can let him stay in the waters and if he harms anyone or anything, then we can think of what to do. But it is true that he hasn’t harmed us.”

Caspian looked between them both and let out an exasperated sigh. “Fine. But the moment he hurts anyone, I’ll kill him with my own hands.”

Dan nodded and agreed with a smile because he knows that Phil wouldn’t even harm anyone or anything. Phil just needed a place to live and the waters was perfect for him.

Dan thanked Lilibeth with a hug and then thanked Caspian with a bow and flew back to his cottage as fast as he could. He pushed open the door and rushed inside, yelling Phil’s name as he said, “Phil! They’re allowing you to stay! You can stay in the waters!”

When he doesn’t hear a response, he wanders to his water basin and sees it empty, Phil no longer in sight. His heart shatters in his chest and he falls to his knees as sobs collect in his throat and he cries into his hands.

Phil was gone.

***

Dan doesn’t see Phil for many moons. He finds himself at the edge of the water each morning and night, waiting for Phil to come back. Each day, his heart breaks more and more at the thought of losing Phil and not knowing where he is.

After the fifth day, Dan begins to give up hope.

Dan sits on the edge of the rock, a stick in his hand as he waves it through the water and watches it ripple under his strokes. He continues to draw designs, his tears falling from his cheeks and landing on the rock in front him, splashing the dry stone. He sniffles and his body shakes as his vision blurs more. He misses Phil a lot.

He’s about to leave for the evening and go back to his cottage when something grabs his stick in the water. He gasps and looks down and his face crumples as he see’s Phil’s piercing blue eyes poking out of the water. Without thinking, Dan pushes himself into the water despite his sensitive wings protesting, and he wraps his arms around Phil, holding him close as Phil keeps them afloat with his swimming.

“I thought you left me.” Dan cries.

“I knew I wasn’t wanted by the village.” Phil says. “So I disappeared before they could kill me.”

Dan leaned forward and rested his head on Phils shoulder, his legs swinging in the water to help him swim. “But you’re allowed to be here now!” Dan says. “The villagers told me you could stay! I went back to the cottage to tell you but you were gone.”

Dan pulls back and looks at Phil who is staring at him with wide eyes. “Are you sure?”

Dan nods and smiles. “You’re welcome to stay here, Phil. You get to stay with me.”

Phil lets out a loud cry and then they’re sharing another kiss as Dan chuckles and smiles because he’s so happy.

He’ll ask Phil where he went eventually but for right now, Dan was going to stay here with Phil and spend his evening with his newly found mate.

#phan #phanfiction #phanfic #fluff #angst #fairy!dan #mermaid!phil #fantasy!au #phandomreversebang #prb 2019 #romeo and juliet!au #princesslexi763fics

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myfriendpokey · 6 years

Text

clearance sale

clearing out some of my backlog of opinions before the new year so i can start anew. in this post I have accumulated some writing scraps on the only three topics: 1. finance 2. mystery 3. location

FINANCE

i enjoyed these recent-ish posts against the idea of indie sustainability, although as someone who already works a day job i always feel a bit ambivalent about the advice to just work a day job to pay for this stuff - - like yes, absolutely, do it, BUT sell your shit too in the knowledge that the type of precarity we associate w/ creative work is already in the process of being implemented everywhere else as well (or has already been - zero hour contracts, sub-living wages etc). like i am fortunate to still have a day job which pays a living wage and leaves me time to work on my own things on the side - but this feels like an anachronism rather than an inevitability right now.. maybe my unsustainable games will help keep me afloat when my job gets automated and i have to go work in an amazon warehouse, unsustainable games for an unsustainable job, ha ha ha. video games are an exploitative bubble but so is the rest of "the market".

it is true that this is a political problem rather than one in the narrow remit of things that can be fixed with the right 10-point sales plan- - nevertheless i think the issue of trying to make even small money off these things will remain kind of pressing as, in turn, regular employment comes more and more to resemble irregularly compensated hobbyist labour.

anyway one point i found really interesting, which i think all the above posts kind of grapple with - - the idea that it's not necessarily more "realistic" to aim at selling 1000 copies rather than 100,000. i think while we make fun of the aspiring millionaires a lot of people have just been banking on the idea of a fertile middle ground between the two extremes of tiny and ludicrous amounts of sales, between boom and bust. i'm sure there are still people working in that space but it seems like it's shrinking.

one question brendan keogh asks in his piece is "why should game makers be any different [from the norm of artists, musicians etc not really making any money]?" i think this can actually be answered a little - because hobbyist game development sort of exploded in tandem with the internet itself becoming more naturalized within everyday life, because the economic basis for indie games was always centered around the internet, which means people working in indie games were always in the vicinity of the massive, startling movements of capital that the internet rendered more visible and immediate. no more were the weird vicissitudes of the market hidden behind closed doors, in boardrooms or stock quotations - now you could log onto any site and see just bewildering amounts of money suddenly funnel into the pockets of this or that individual in real time, frequently to their own surprise as well. and i think this connected to something more general - a sort of ambient awareness of financialization, the way "the financial sector" cannibalized things like industry, the greater visibility of capital not as something embedded in some specific product or set of individual practices but as a kind of weird free-floating aura arbitrarily descending or departing. enormous reservesof "general" wealth became more visible just as the benefits and stability of waged employment became yet more desolate and i think you need to see the draw of one in part as a consequence of the other.

gacha-capitalism, permanent artificial scarcity coupled with the vague, insistent prospect of fantastic gains, as long as you keep playing. which is a rhythm already enshrined in many areas of working life - broke college students and unpaid graduates hustling for eventual employment, waged workers grinding through until retirement. but it's one the enhanced immediacy and swiftness of capital on the internet intensified and extended. fabulous payouts can strike anyone at any time, in exchange for slowly bleeding out the prospect of any other kind of livelihood. much like the austerity following the financial crash which levelled so many basic social services for no particular purpose other than the hope that doing so for long enough would please the gods of prosperity to start tossing money around again. all dues, no pay.

i do think it's worth being cynical about the efforts to domesticate this process, building a fair and sustainable biome within capitalism, by using the tools of that same capitalism etc. but if the format can't be seperated from the wider world then that's something which swings both ways. for me the most interesting critical work around vgames right now is in the effort to move outside of the constant, numbing boom-and-bust cycles of capital, the idiot repetition of exhilaration and depression and exhilaration and it'll all be okay as long as we can hold out one more cycle, particularly when that's a rhythm which has been central to the development of the format from the beginning. i think anyone involved with developing videogames has probably seen multiple generations of cool shit emerge, get abruptly killed off and written out of history in accordance with market diktats, and then replaced with a new wave of cool shit whenever the investors shift gears into "expansion" mode again. a mode of thinking about and preserving what people do that stands in opposition to this is something i can easily imagine being more generally useful in the culture, as ever more areas of life and culture start becoming subject to the same questions.

MYSTERY

there's a mystery in depth and a mystery in shallowness. with depth the habitual glance of recognition goes out and falls through - you can place roughly where something is in relation to the world, but not what it's doing, not where it goes. as a presence it seems to require a new mode of attention to be recognized, which i guess is why it sometimes makes me uneasy - that challenge, the way that challenge can be moralized. are you a bad enough dude to engage with art?? if there are 100 black obelisks in a field which one do you decide to look at? and will it really turn out to be deep, or just dense?

videogames can feel like depth-worship, like the embodiment of an essentially cthonic system of values. how deep did you go and what did you see there? did you find the gold bars in pac-man? (www.mikesarcade.com/cgi-bin/spies.cgi?action=url&type=info&page=pmgoldbar.info.txt) did you see the secret ending? how far did you get into the game mechanics, into the lore? this marks the top 10 deepest players on this game. surpass them... if you dare. an ethos of diligent attention, hierarchial levels of understanding and initiate-dom, a sub-culture. and at best a maguslike dedication to altered states of consciousness that i can respect, an interest in shifting through mangled pieces of debris in search of secret mysteries. at worst the authority cults and tests of true belonging that spring up around those mysteries, whose value is in being hidden and whose guarantee is in the strenuous effort with which they must be located. paranoia about true spiritual meanings being plundered by opportunistic interlopers. stay out. get good.

the videogame has the basic opacity of the computer system and the act of engaging with this curious abyss is allegorized into dungeons, castles, mazes. trapdoors and secret corridors. one pleasure in looking up older games for me is in seeing them recognize and learn how to thematize this basic sense of mystery. in bubble bobble the obscure scoring mechanics and secret endings are cheekily perverse, arcade challenge by another means - another system to game. in king's quest there's something like a crossfertilization between the strange causal voids of the fairy tale and the adventure game: "Exit the gingerbread house and go east and east. There is a large walnut tree here. Take walnut and then open walnut to discover a gold nut. Head east and take bowl . Look bowl to see the words “fill” at the bottom. Fill and the bowl will fill up with a delicious stew." the wizardry games took the connection between mysterious game systems and occult knowledge much further - the "true" ending of wizardry iv means finding a secret chamber and answering a series of riddles based on your knowledge of the kaballah (or at least, kaballah-derived tarot interpretations).

it's easy to moralize depth - lotus eaters, magic islands. you wander through a strange land and then return to find it's 5 hours later and you forgot to eat. there's something creepy to me about depth on an industrial scale, about building huge tunnels with massive teams on forced overtime, and then a team of professional tunnel reviewers cautiously start descending on ropes and come back every so often and say, well, 20 hours in and it all looks ok, and meanwhile everybody else is jumping en masse. maybe that's more of an issue with consumer culture in general. but sometimes it feels like a way to avoid dealing with certain inherent limitations of that culture, or even limitations of art in general, by projecting those limits out to the end of ever-deeper tunnels that fewer and fewer people will ever see, the rest of them straggling back, exhausted, getting jobs. well, i can't tell you if red dead 2 is good or not. i only got 60 hours in, and i never even found all the falcons.

if the mystery of depth is having too much space for speculation to operate coherently within, the mystery of shallowness is having not enough space for speculation to operate at all: something is too manifestly there, limited, closed-off, it's hard to push it away to get some metaphorical breathing room.

i feel this way sometimes reading writers like tove jansson, flannery o'connor - SOMETHING happened, the stories are short and clear and describe some definite event without too much uncertainty, they even have "broader themes" raised - but somehow the themes feel embarrassingly outsize for the stories, and the stories remain too clearly defined to sink back into the murk of a generalized moral or experience. they feel like moral stories when you can't work out what the moral might be.

robbe-grillet on raymond roussel: "Now these chains of elucidations, extraordinarily precise, ingenious, and farfetched, appear so derisory, so disappointing, that it is as if the mystery remained intact. But it is henceforth a mystery that has been washed, emptied out, that has become unnameable. The opacity no longer hides anything. One has the impression of having found a locked drawer, then a key; and this key opens the drawer impeccably... and the drawer is empty."

there's a famous shallowness to videogames as well that's most often caught by people outside the culture - when you see the fake videogames in a comicbook, or on tv, and they're named something like "washing machine simulator 3000" or "municipal tax assailants". and part of this also stems from the computer, the history of the computer as it insinuated its way into everyday life, as a mysteriously elaborate and convoluted way of doing just impossibly banal things, like balancing chequebooks or printing text. the stubborn thingliness of not-quite-functional machines, the way the thingliness glosses and corrodes their own internal fantasies, mirrors of the basic weirdness that is human consciousness as a material fact within the world.

with my friend i used to joke about "e3" just being the dumpster behind an abandoned gamestop - all those needy longform experiences frozen into evocative trinkets. find a nonfunctional disk copy of mario odyssey and it gives you all the same delight as playing mario odyssey, only without having to. i think there's something beautiful about that flatness, that directionless object-hostility, the rejection of the grandoise hero's journey fantasies that it implies – as well as something baleful, a rejection of consciousess in general, the idea that it could take you anywhere not inside your own head.

LOCATION

why are there so many videogames about going outside? every time i've played a videogame it's been inside a room, usually a dark one, mostly while still wearing my pajamas. for me it is an internal activity. but not only do all these games take place in fields and plains, they always talk about the wonders of going on a voyage, the beauty of the great outdoors, the superiority of the wandering main characters to the slugs and layabouts who sit at home all day.... it's weird to me, i demand we move past these cloying pseudo-critiques. raymond williams once pointed out that the first pastoral was written from the perspective of a rentier daydreaming of cashing out and moving to a country home. i demand more games with the courage of their implict convictions and that if they require you to sit motionless indoors for hours they should explicitly establish and argue for a value system in which this is the best possible thing that you can do. imagine if movies were all set in dark chambers full of people sitting down - i think i can say they would be much less insipid as an artform. "all of man's problems stem from an inability to stay in his room".

(images: Gakken No O Benkyou Soft Kazu Suuji, Legend of Legaia, a Chinese bootleg cart, and ...Iru!)

#gamechat #room

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gaycey-sketchit · 2 years

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(Gary anon) And FMA is timeless, which works in its favor. Can't say the same for certain other series that are products of their time. (They do, but it seems most have collectively agree to pretend the photos 'don't exist'. Toby is a dog, and only a dog) Yeah, at least these days there's more tools and platforms where they can make a name for themselves or go in and out of small group projects more easily. (Art is meant to be fun and a way to express)

(Part 2) (Whether you want to make money off of it or not is up to the person) Old internet felt like you had 1000 sites to explore and get lost in. Now everything has 'diminished' to roughly 10. No way would I go back to waiting 5 minutes for a page to load, but in hindsight, the increased popularity of a site always seems to come back to eventually work against it. (And meme potential. Ultra Instinct Shaggy alongside Batman is finally a reality)

(Part 3) I think I mentioned it before, but if you're curious, there's a compilation of all of Gary's OS scenes on Nicovideo. There's one for his *Chronicles episode and a AG-DP one too. (*And yes, the scene where Oak mentions Ash to Gary also has the music different. :P No wonder Palletshipping was more popular in Japan: nico vide o . j p / watch / sm309 54797) Mmm, here's hoping. With the limited time we have left for JN.

(Part 4) (If it makes you feels better, while I did catch the day it happened, I did miss out on seeing it live. Apparently it was already spoiled beforehand) Now I'm making sure I stick around for this one, hopefully that battle lives up to its potential like other final battles. (Yes, the PWC battles resumes on July 8th)

(Part 5) Oh, in Pokemon Masters news: It seems an[other] Anipoke character is destined to join the game, based on a datamine. All I will say, it'll certainly be an interesting piece of lore if they and a certain other character were to meet.

Yeah, FMA has aged really well.

Yeah. What a life to have honestly--it's similar to how Hiromu Arakawa, despite having created such an iconic and beloved manga, manages to keep her life so private we pretty much only know her as the cow she draws herself as.

True! And indie games have been getting more attention in recent years.

For sure. What people do with their art is very much a personal choice because art is such a personal thing.

Oh yeah, how could I forget about that! Incredible.

Ooh, I will definitely take a look at that later!! Thanks for the link!!

Yeah, here's hoping!

Unfortunate... Pokemon Twitter has at least gotten a little better about not posting untagged spoilers the day an episode airs.

Yeah, hopefully it's as good as it can be! Very excited to root for my boy.

Oh, that should be interesting! Exciting stuff!

#Andrew answers #Gary anon

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cyberkevvideo · 4 years

Text

Throne of Night - New Special Material: Gunzarak (True Mithral)

In Book 2, the (unfortunately) last published book for Throne of Night, we were introduced to the concept of “true mithral”, also known as gunzarak. It was a special processing of mithral that allowed you it to mimic some of the properties of adamantine. We even got a really interesting weapon in the form of an axe. We were also given a minimal amount of lore that this style of processing was a closely guarded secret to a specific clan of dwarves, and that its secret had long been lost over time.

Sadly, that’s all we got. It can be assumed that in Book 3, where we see the party finally find the lost dwarven city, that we would get either a sidebar or even an appendix that explained what true mithral was, and its pricing for armor and weapons. Sadly, this would not be the case. At least as of today’s entry.

Today, I’m going to give you my rundown on how I would have released it. I would like to say that I did not come about these numbers willy-nilly. I contacted some friends and acquaintances from the table top industry, who far more adept and knowledgeable at this kind of thing than I (not to mention decade long veterans) , and had them give me their opinions, then I went marketed it to more than a half-dozen players to get their take on it.

As always, for space reasons, I’ll be cropping the encounter build.

All images shared here were done by the forever fantastic and amazingly talented Michael D. Clarke, aka SpiralMagus

I do not have a Patreon or a Kickstarter, but I do have a Ko-Fi page (linked) for those who are looking to support me monetarily. There is no pressure or obligation to do so.

Finally, before I get to it, I hope everyone’s staying safe right now.

Deep within the Zaraketh Mine, after solving a dwarven puzzle, what appears to be a mithral greataxe can be found by the party. To their astonishment, it’s actually an axe made of a new special material, gunzarak.

The provided lore says: But for all the dark elves’ skill in working this strange metal, it was in the forges of Dammerhall that the dwarves learned the secret of elevating mithral to its full potential. They could create an alloy that was lighter than aluminum, stronger than adamantine, as perfect a metal as this world has ever known. This was gunzarak (in dwarvish lit. the true gift of the earth) or “true mithral”. Even the drow had never seen its equal and it was Dammerhall’s gift to the world. Even today, centuries after the last sword of true mithral was forged, many a dynasty counts among its greatest heirlooms these dwarven blades and armors.The secret of making ‘true mithral’ was lost with the fall of Dammerhall. The dwarves too jealously guarded their secret and when calamity fell, the secret was lost. Perhaps there will never again come forth a smith capable of making gunzarak. Perhaps this jewel of dwarven lore is forever beyond the kin of mortals.

As written, the magic axe reads as thus:

The Axe of Horath Rocknose Aura moderate conjuration and transmutation; CL 10th Slot --; Price 27,320 gp; Weight 6 lbs. DESCRIPTION This is a +1 keen dragon-bane greataxe made of gunzarak (true mithral). It counts as both being made of adamantine while possessing the weight reduction of mithral. For the purpose of damage reduction it is considered as both an adamantine, silver and magic weapon. CONSTRUCTION Requirements Craft Arms and Armor, creator must know the secret of working true mithral, keen edge summon monster I; Cost 13,660 gp

Given its stats, it’s obvious that this was to be a major boon in Book 3. It can also be assumed that if the axe is shown to the stone golem blocking the secret passageway to Dammerhall, that’s part of the key needed for bypassing the guardian.

From a designer stance, this item has a few issues in the math and wording, but that’s okay. What’s important is that you can still discern its capabilities and what the author was trying to convey when he made it.

With what’s provided, and a little reverse engineering, we are able to deduce that, theoretically, gunzarak is worth 775 gp/lb. This is a little more than 1.5x what mithral costs (500 gp/lb.). That sounds reasonable enough.

Over the past month, I’ve had multiple discussions with some fellow game designers, as well as a bunch of players that I know. The reason being is designing special materials is a balancing act that many aren’t very good at. The conversations went from “treat this like a magic item and make the lowest cost be 1.5x the price and add the highest base, or at least add an additional percentage to the total price” to “adamantine in Pathfinder 1e and 3.5 was overpriced, so unless that gets fixed, you won’t get a proper price for this material.” What was also mentioned was that it was nice that this replicated both mithral and adamantine as a whole, like a magic item, what was special about it? What made it its own material that people would covet? Sure it was both mithral and adamantine, but you could find magic items that would made things better and cheaper, or even psionic powers or spells that could do it better, for cheaper, and not have any sort of weaknesses short of being dispelable. “True silver”, another special material (from Paizo), is processed to the point it was immune to rusting effects, so why wouldn’t true mithral have something similar, if not exactly the same? Again, all valid arguments.

In the end, after all the conversations had completed, this ended up being the final numbers and abilities. As such, I’d recommend the additional property be added to the axe in Book 2.

Gunzarak (True Mithral) Mithral that's been masterfully refined and processed, making it lighter than aluminum and stronger than adamantine. Armor: Heavy and medium armor are treated as one category lighter. ACP is reduced by 3 (to a minimum of 0), Dex bonus is increased by 2, and ASF is reduced by 10%. Grants untyped damage reduction 1/— (light), 2/— (medium), 3/— (heavy) Weapons: Ignore hardness of less than 20. Considered adamantine and silver with regards to bypassing DR. Special: Always considered masterwork. Immune to rusting effects. Hardness 20; Hit Points 30 per inch Armor Costs: Light (+6,000 gp), Medium (+15,000 gp), Heavy (+22,000 gp) Weapons and other items: 775 gp/lb.

It shouldn’t need explanation, but just in case, “rusting effects” include that of rusting monsters and the rusting grasp spell. Also, true mithral isn’t adamantine, even if it counts as such, so it won’t have the same ‘hit points per inch’.

I know that some people are going to argue that it’s way too cheap, but it’s honestly not. Adamantine is way too overpriced, and you fail a single save against a rusting effect and that PC is out their armor. Not to mention, given any other price point, you’re better off taking mithral armor and wearing a belt of Con for the additional hit points or something that can regenerate your heal in some way. Anything else would just be considered a waste of money. I know, the players I talked to schooled me pretty hard in that regard, and broke down the math. Not to mention, if you allow 3PP products in home games, a psychic warrior with the biofeedback power has DR 2/— for 1 minute/level, and can augment that to make it even higher. If you can turn that same power into a permanent magic item, it costs 8,000 gp to buy, but only 4,000 gp to make. It’s about being practical with your money at higher level, and crafting items takes a long time when it’s in the high, high thousands.

That said, if you feel it should be significantly higher, like say: Light armor +6,500; Medium +16,000; and Heavy +28,500 gp, which were the original prices I was suggested to go with, then so be it, but don’t be surprised if the party tries to sell the items for something cheaper and more practical, and bank the rest of the gold. Even more so if they’re playing with the kind of GM who is very strict about the wealth table, and being even 1 gold piece over it means you’re “broken” and no longer allowed an allowance until such time that you become high enough level to earn gold again. And, yes, those GMs absolutely exist, and players take that into consideration when it comes to their purchases. I will mention that my original prices were actually lower (14k and 20k for medium and heavy), but I was quickly talked out of it.

Again, this is what the decision came to be after multiple conversations with fellow TTRPG game designers (most having previously worked for Paizo) and players who’ve all played in very confining and restricted wealth games. In the end, we were all able to walk away happy. I have absolutely no idea how much Gary originally intended this material to cost, and I’m more than curious, but he had connections with Paizo as well (namely the director and lead designer, Jason Bulmahn), so it’s possible that our numbers aren’t all that different.

Segway: For anyone curious what a more practical cost for adamantine would be, Purple Duck Games published it as 750 gp for light weapons, 1500 gp for one-handed, and 3000 gp for two-handed. Armor was 4000, 8000, and 12000, respectfully. When it came to gunzarak, it was quoted as likely being 6000, 12000, and 18000 for the different armors. Weapons would probably start at 800 gp, to make it more of a round number, and different from adamantine. Mithral was also dropped to 350 gp for light weapons, 700 for one-handed, and 1400 for two-handed. Armor was 1000, 2000, and 3000. It sounds cheap, but the new Pathfinder 1.5 system they developed removed arcane spell failure.

Getting back to the original subject though, in Book 3, the party was supposed to discover the art of how to process the mithral, and I would bet that like in Book 2, the axe the PCs find is a key to a safe or another puzzle, that has that exact formula for how they’d do it. As to what that process is, I’ll leave it up to the GM. Their game, their rules. They would know best how it should be done in their own home games in their own home world.

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

With that, the “Throne of Night” AP is complete. At least for now. All the known monsters have been identified and given stats (or linked to stats), the gunzarak is fleshed out a little more, an alternate race (that we should have seen in Book 3) was provided, a couple of extra monsters were added for additional encounters, more items were designed or showcased, and Mike’s fantastic art was shown off. Not to mention an entire AD&D adventure converted to Pathfinder 1e to help anyone finish their game without having to rely on books that don’t exist, and still give the AP some sense of finality. If there’s any more than that, I’ll do them as they come by may. At the very least, there’s more than enough to do your own game and give it a respectful ending.

If anything more if required, I made a resource page and posted a link on the Paizo forum for everyone to access. It has all of the relevant posts, additional adventures that could be used, suggestions and ideas from other GMs who homebrewed the rest of their own game, etc. A treasure trove of information for anyone needing it.

I thank everyone for coming with me on this journey.

0 notes

lionsongfr · 7 years

Photo

Cetea Scylla Charybdis (Lionsong #49028 )

The 3 Moray sisters are up for sale at 200,000 t or a mix of gems at 1:1000 t. If you send lore requesting or responding about their arrival to your clan via PM, you can get a discount or refund of 50,000 t. They do come with this art piece and a lore bit in their bio! They will be available till the 24th (New Moon) and then they will be sacrificed I mean exalted.

A tale from the Clan of the Lionfish

Crime and Punishment 3: A letter

Part 2 here: link Part 1 here: link

TideSage breathed deeply as he sealed the bottles containing his letters. One by one he tossed them into the swirling pool, a prayer spoken as they disappeared. SeaQueen had agreed to his request to find homes for his children, only as long as their new clans understood that they would not be...normal dragons and would need special care.

He clenched his teeth. SeaQueen had also agreed to his mate’s plan. If they did not sell and the money could not be required to purchase the magic needed, they would be sacrificed. He sighed and relaxed, he would make sure his children had homes before that. He called the coral carpenter back to his table, he would dictate more letters. He would save them.

A Letter from the TideSage,Tidelord Sage and Warrior Priest, Archpriest of Abyssal Acropolis and Duke of the Abyssal Acropolis,

“I am writing to your clan to see if you are willing to accept another dragon to your dens. A dragon created with dark intent, to be sacrificed for their mother's power. Their eyes do not see, their ears do not hear, and their mouth can not speak, but unimaginable power does this dragon hold. The waves are at their command, water curls and twists about them like an obedient dog. Through the ripples and feel of the water, the world is known and understood like the touch of a claw across the ground. And while this dragon can not speak with their maw, their mind can speak in images, feelings, and occasionally a semblance of words. Though they lack the other senses, their nose is keen, and both prey and predator will be at danger to their teeth.

The cost of sending this dragon to your clan will be 200,000 t. I know it is a good sum, but the treasure is needed to replace the cost of their magic. If you send a letter back to me, I can recompense you 50,000 t from my own stores. Consider it an offer of good faith. Also in gratitude for your purchase of out progeny, my mate and I have gifted this dragon with the Blessing of Silence and Secrecy. The Blessing of Secrecy insures that any secret given to this dragon will be kept to their graves. The Blessing of Silence gives this dragon the ability to sap away sound from their own movements or the sound of the area and objects around them.

I pray you consider my offer and that one of my children can find a home in your clan. I thank you for looking over my letter, and may Tidelord bless your lands with a prosperous future.

-Sincerely, TideSage of the Clan of Lionfish”

#FR #Flight Rising #clan lore #Clan of the Lionfish #fr: TideSage #dragon sales

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theonyxpath · 7 years

Link

How Intriguing!

I know, bad joke. (More on that later). But excellent Intrigue cards from the Prince’s Gambit social-deduction card game, pictured above. Our Kickstarter is just finishing up its first two weeks and we’re already 400% funded and have reached over 1000 backers!

That last factoid is actually really significant, as it’s a milestone I love to see with our KSs. I think in comic book publishing that’s called the Golden Thousand, and applies to a creator who can rely on that many fans, at least, picking up and talking about their latest work. Get that amount, they say, and you have enough voices out there to spread the word about every project you publish.

And in general, it is just fantastic that 1000 people are excited about our little card game!

Illustration by Pat McEvoy for V20 Dark Ages Companion

Thanks to all of you that joined us for our AMA last week on Reddit. Mostly about Prince’s Gambit, the questions were fired at us fast and furiously and were all over the place. It was great- thanks to all of you and all of the various Onyx Path creators who dropped in from that afternoon all into the night and even the next morning!

Now what was I going to say about bad jokes?

Oh yes, I remember. One person’s bad joke is another’s laugh-riot. Humor just works like that. It, like all art, is subjective.

In fact, I’d say that humor is even more subjective than horror, and that much harder to successfully use well in roleplaying games. So generally, I tell our developers to try and avoid writing the Funny. Let the situation and characters dictate whether a situation might have humor in it, but let the players decide just where in that subjective humor zone they want to land.

Eddy and I had a similar conversation about the humor in Pugmire, and we decided to dial it up just a notch, but not to undermine the fantasy adventure basis of the world, nor the essentially pathos of dogs awaiting their masters’ return. But ultimately, we know we’re not stopping the sniffing each other’s butts jokes that are almost always part of the first reaction to the game.

Fortune Markers for Pugmire by Jeff Laubenstein

Which brings us to our April Fool’s joke project this year.

Every year, we try and come up with something amusing. Just that, just amusing. Not big laugh, not change your life. And absolutely not something that freaks anybody out as sometimes happened back in olden White Wolf days. We get enough in the freak out department with just everyday business as usual. (More on that later).

So this year, it’s an homage to Chuck Tingle and his projects. (Google him).

And no, the humor is not for everyone. It was not designed to be. Nor is the over-the-top nature of the humor a threat to anything you hold dear. It’s not for sale, so if you get it and don’t get the joke, then you’ve lost nothing. It didn’t come out of our regular production efforts, so no projects were delayed for it. It is only official Scion lore if you want it to be.

It’s a joke, which I don’t say as a put-down to anyone who didn’t get it, or as an excuse. It’s a joke because jokes are subjective. Jokes are the things that look at life at an angle, that at their best can contain unpleasant truths that can’t be told any other way. For the record, I’m pretty sure our little effort this 4/1 is not the best that jokes can be, but it made us and a bunch of other people laugh.

Which is a win any day of the week.

For anybody that didn’t get the joke, got it but didn’t think it was funny, or was offended: No worries, we’ll be doing another something next year, and we’ll try and get you laughing with that one.

V20 Beckett’s Jyhad Diary illustration by Sam Araya

One more thing this week: I’ve been talking a bit about how we’ve been working on “shoring up our infrastructure”. I’m sure it is obvious by now that that also meant that we are getting some projects and entire lines moving forward as we need them to. There are a lot of approaches that we are using, and sometimes after using a bunch of them, we see no choice but to change the team.

Some of you have expressed concern for your favorite project, or line, or developer(s) after we’ve made these changes, and I understand that. Change is scary. We invest a lot of ourselves in our favorite creators of our favorite games (and media in general), and it sometimes feels like we’ve lost out on something if they move on. Please rest assured that we at Onyx have been there, and know how you feel, and are doing everything we can to make the changes needed as non-disruptive as possible.

I will say that we don’t make these sorts of changes casually. We don’t make changes to projects merely for the sake of doing so, particularly if the project or line has already been shown, even a bit, to our community. We take that very seriously. We always pay for publishable work that is handed in to us when we require it. And unless a creator’s actions are actively harming Onyx Path, we generally would like them to continue doing something with us, just not the thing that wasn’t working out.

It is my preference that Onyx Path‘s representatives don’t go into the details of how and why we’ve made those changes, but on the ultimate result by announcing to you all how a project or line will be moving forward and with whom. There are many, many, reasons why these sorts of things turn out like they do, and rarely are there villains of the piece. Like I’ve said before, more often, due to where we are with what we need and where a creator is in their lives, there’s no longer a good fit.

Again, I’m keeping this all kind of general and broad-sweeping rather than getting into examples, and while I know that’s not as entertaining, in this case I’m erring on the side of treating people like I’d like to be treated.

And there I go from jokes to some pretty serious stuff, hope none of you got whip-lash.

BLURBS!

KICKSTARTER!

The Prince’s Gambit casual vampire card game Kickstarter continues to roll with over 1000 backers! We’ve been passing alternating Stretch Goals for adding the Independent Clans and new art at a rapid clip since then, with more cool rewards yet to come. So please check it out: http://ift.tt/2nj37GG !

Designed by long-time Vampire: the Masquerade tabletop RPG developer Justin Achilli, Prince’s Gambit is a fast-paced social deduction game set within the world of Vampire, but which requires no special knowledge to play. Players must cooperate to gain the favor of the Prince while deducing who among them are secretly the traitorous Sabbat infiltrators.

Next, the Monarchies of Mau KS is scheduled come after Gambit.

ON SALE!

Looking for our Deluxe or Prestige Edition books? Here’s the link to the press release we put out about how Onyx Path is now selling through Indie Press Revolution: http://ift.tt/1ZlTT6z

You can now order wave 2 of our Deluxe and Prestige print overrun books, including Deluxe Mage 20th Anniversary, and Deluxe V20 Dark Ages!

The splendor and horror of Rio is unwrapped this Wednesday! Cursed Necropolis: Rio for Mummy: the Curse goes on sale in PDF and PoD versions.

Beneath the splendor of Rio de Janeiro seethes a hotbed of occult activity. Over a score of mummies keep their tombs in Rio, their presence seeping into the soil and stones and souls of the city. Over all this reigns the infamous Teshra-Gemet, the pretender Pharaoh.

The city of Rio births marvels both bright and dark… and you never know which kind you have until it’s too late.

Cursed Necropolis: Rio contains:

The secrets and schemes of Rio’s Arisen.

New Utterances, from the perception usurping Horse and Rider to the cleansing fire of Baal’s Due.

“The Serpent’s Tooth,” an all-new adventure to introduce players to the conflicts and power plays of Rio de Janeiro.

Beasts are added to Hunter: the Vigil with Hunter: Tooth and Nail, coming atcha in PDF and physical book Pod versions on DriveThruRPG.com! http://ift.tt/2nwetoP

Tooth and Nail is a bonus chapter/companion book to the previous released Hunter: Mortal Remains that explores antagonists inspired by the Beast: the Primordial RPG.

Hunter: Tooth and Nail includes:

Fiction and story hooks to bring these beasts of legend to your Hunter: The Vigil chronicle.

New bestial Dread Powers.

New Compacts and Conspiracies which hunt the monsters, but also sometimes hunt the zealous heroes that hunt as well.

The Secrets of the Covenants for Vampire: the Requiem 2nd REVEALED this Wednesday on DTRPG! Physical copy PoD version coming to DTRPG: http://ift.tt/2gbQjus

Vampires gather under many banners. But five have endured the tumult of Western history better than any other. The Carthian Movement. The Circle of the Crone. The Invictus. The Lancea et Sanctum. The Ordo Dracul. Each has its fierce devotees, its jealous rivals, and its relentless enemies. Now,for the first time, the covenants speak for themselves.

This book includes:

A variety of stories from each of the covenants, all told in their own words.

Never-before revealed secrets, like the fate of the Prince of New Orleans.

New blood sorcery, oaths, and other hidden powers of the covenants.

From the massive Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras main book, we have pulled this single chapter, Dark Eras: Fallen Blossoms (Hunter 1640-1660 Japan). Japan is moving into the Edo Period. New laws and new ways of thinking wash over the land, and with a new order come new threats to humanity. Take a look at the Vigil in a time where samurai transition from warlords to bureaucrats, Japan massively and lethally rejects outside influence, and when Edo rapidly grows into a world power.

Continuing our individual Dark Eras chapters, we offer you Dark Eras: Fallen Blossoms on in PDF and physical copy PoD versions on DTRPG! http://ift.tt/2mfc1F1

From the massive Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras main book, we have pulled this single chapter, Dark Eras: Doubting Souls (Hunter 1690-1695 Salem). Immigrants and tribes struggled to co-exist on the Eastern Seaboard in the ever-expanding Colonies. Violent clashes, supernatural beliefs, and demonic influences spelled disaster for Salem Village and its surrounding towns, while others fought werewolves and vampires on the frontier. With so much at risk, only god-fearing men and women were deemed innocent — and those were few indeed.

Available in PDF and physical copy PoD versions on DTRPG: http://ift.tt/2kKOrfm

From the massive Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras main book, we have pulled this single chapter, Dark Eras: The Bowery Dogs (Werewolf 1969-1979 NYC). New York City in the 1970s. Crime. Drugs. Gang violence. Vast economic disparity. And werewolves. It’s a lean, ugly time to be alive, and the lone wolf doesn’t stand a chance out there. In the end, all you really have is family.

Available in PDF and physical copy PoD versions on DTRPG: http://ift.tt/2lM0Tzv

The Locker is open; the Chronicles of Darkness: Hurt Locker, that is! PDF and physical copy PoDs are now available on DTRPG! http://ift.tt/2gbM9me

Hurt Locker features:

Treatment of violence in the Chronicles of Darkness. Lasting trauma, scene framing, and other tools for making your stories hurt.

Many new player options, including Merits, supernatural knacks, and even new character types like psychic vampires and sleeper cell soldiers.

Expanded equipment and equipment rules.

Hurt Locker requires the Chronicles of Darkness Rulebook or any other standalone Chronicles of Darkness rulebook such as Vampire: The Requiem, Werewolf: The Forsaken, or Beast: The Primordial to use.

From the massive Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras main book, we have pulled this single chapter, Dark Eras: Ruins of Empire (Mummy 1893-1924). Perhaps the quintessential era of the mummy in the minds of Westerners, this period saw the decline of the two greatest empires of the age: British and Ottoman. Walk with the Arisen as they bear witness to the death of the Victorian age, to pivotal mortal discoveries in Egypt, and to the horrors of the Great War.

Available in PDF and physical copy PoD versions on DTRPG. http://ift.tt/2k0XDhX

From the massive Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras main book, we have pulled this single chapter, Dark Eras: The Sundered World (Werewolf and Mage 5500-5000 BCE). At the birth of civilization, in the shadow of the Fall, the Awakened stand as champions and protectors of the agricultural villages spread across the Balkans. In a world without a Gauntlet, where Shadow and flesh mingle, the steady taming of the world by humanity conflicts with the half-spirit children of Father Wolf.

Available in PDF and physical copy PoD versions on DTRPG. http://ift.tt/2k16mRj

Night Horrors: Conquering Heroes for Beast: the Primordial is available now as an Advance PDF: http://ift.tt/2j7p7lO

This book includes:

An in-depth look at how Heroes hunt and what makes a Hero, with eleven new Heroes to drop into any chronicle.

A brief look at why Beasts may antagonize one another, with seven new Beasts to drop into any chronicle.

Rules for Insatiables, ancient creatures born of the Primordial Dream intent on hunting down Beasts to fill a hunger without end, featuring six examples ready to use in any chronicle.

Open the V20 Dark Ages: Tome of Secrets now on DTRPG! Both PDF and physical book PoD versions are now available! http://ift.tt/2i1XOXd

The Tome of Secrets is a treatment of numerous topics about Cainites and stranger things in the Dark Medieval World. It’s about peeling back the curtain, and digging a little deeper. Inside, you’ll find:

• Expanded treatment of Assamite Sorcery, Koldunic Sorcery, Necromancy, and Setite Sorcery

• A look at Cainite knightly orders, faith movements, and even human witchcraft

• Letters and diaries from all over the Dark Medieval World

CONVENTIONS!

Discussing GenCon plans. August 17th – 20th, Indianapolis. Every chance the booth will actually be 20? x 30? this year that we’ll be sharing with friends. We’re looking at new displays this year, like a back drop and magazine racks for the brochure(s).

In November, we’ll be at Game Hole Con in Madison, WI. More news as we have it, and here’s their website: http://ift.tt/RIm6qP

And now, the new project status updates!

DEVELOPMENT STATUS FROM ROLLICKING ROSE (projects in bold have changed status since last week):

First Draft (The first phase of a project that is about the work being done by writers, not dev prep)

Exalted 3rd Novel by Matt Forbeck (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Trinity Continuum: Aeon Rulebook (The Trinity Continuum)

M20 Gods and Monsters (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

M20 Book of the Fallen (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

Ex Novel 2 (Aaron Rosenberg) (Exalted 3rd Edition)

C20 Novel (Jackie Cassada) (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)

Pugmire Fiction Anthology (Pugmire)

Monarchies of Mau Early Access (Pugmire)

Hunter: the Vigil 2e core (Hunter: the Vigil 2nd Edition)

DtD Night Horrors: Enemy Action (Demon: the Descent)

The Realm (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Dragon-Blooded (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Arms of the Chosen (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Redlines

Kithbook Boggans (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)

Second Draft

V20 Dark Ages Jumpstart (Vampire: the Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition)

GtS Geist 2e core (Geist: the Sin-Eaters Second Edition)

CtD C20 Jumpstart (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)

Pugmire Pan’s Guide for New Pioneers (Pugmire)

VtR Half-Damned (Vampire: the Requiem 2nd Edition)

Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook (The Trinity Continuum)

Scion: Origins (Scion 2nd Edition)

Scion: Hero (Scion 2nd Edition)

WoD Ghost Hunters (World of Darkness)

Development

W20 Changing Ways (Werewolf: the Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Edition)

Signs of Sorcery (Mage: the Awakening Second Edition)

SL Ring of Spiragos (Pathfinder – Scarred Lands 2nd Edition)

Ring of Spiragos (5e – Scarred Lands 2nd Edition)

SL Dagger of Spiragos (Pathfinder – Scarred Lands 2nd Edition)

Dagger of Spiragos (5e– Scarred Lands 2nd Edition)

Changeling: the Lost 2nd Edition, featuring the Huntsmen Chronicle (Changeling: the Lost 2nd Edition)

Book of Freeholds (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)

BtP Beast Player’s Guide (Beast: the Primordial)

M20 Cookbook (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

Editing:

Wraith: the Oblivion 20th Anniversary Edition

BtP Building a Legend (Beast: the Primordial)

Post-Editing Development:

CtL fiction anthology (Changeling: the Lost 2nd Edition)

Indexing:

ART DIRECTION FROM MIRTHFUL MIKE:

In Art Direction

Beckett’s Jyhad Diary – Got almost all the artwork in.

W20 Pentex Employee Indoctrination Handbook – Ellis is on it.

Dagger of Spiragos – Leblanc’s art is in, waiting on maps.

VTR: Thousand Years of Night – Contracted

Cavaliers of Mars – AD’d(ish)

Monarchies of Mau Early Access – Contracted

BtP Building a Legend – Contracted

Wraith 20 – Sending out notes to some of the old guard artists… then figuring out who from the new roster to get.

W20 Changing Ways – Getting that contracted this week. Got a couple of artists lined up… just need to line up a couple more.

Marketing Stuff

In Layout

Prince’s Gambit

M20 Book of Secrets – Layout in progress.

Pugmire Screen – Got specs…working on it once I have the book ready to go to press

Pugmire Cards – Working on these. Just have the shepherd set and another tiny set.

Pugmire – Prepping files for press.

M20 Art Book

C20 Anthology – Try and carve out some time to knock this together.

Proofing

C20 – Aileen inputting notes from 1st proof

V20 Dark Ages Companion – Second proof.

At Press

Ex 3 Screen – Shipping almost completed.

Ex 3 core book – Shipping almost completed along with map and bookmarks.

W20 Shattered Dreams – Shipping almost completed.

Shattered Dreams Screen – Shipping almost completed.

Beckett Screen – Shipped to shipper.

Beast Conquering Heroes – PoD proof on the way.

Dark Eras: Beneath the Skin – PoD proof being reviewed.

Dark Eras: Out of the Cold – PoD proof being reviewed.

Necropolis Rio – On sale in PDF and PoD versions this week.

V20 Lore of the Bloodlines – PDF out to backers, gathering errata

Dark Eras Companion – PDF out to backers, gathering errata.

W20 Song of Unmaking – PDF out to backers, gathering errata.

EX3 Tomb of Dreams Jumpstart – PDF going out to backers this week.

TODAY’S REASON TO CELEBRATE: April Fool’s was a couple of days ago, and now we can believe everything everybody tells us!

#Onyx Path Publishing

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pengiesama · 8 years

Text

GLENWOOD RUSTLEMANIA CHAMPIONSHIPS

and now i’m at the final dungeon in Berseria, ready to kneecap anyone who stands between me and my true goal of launching a spinning heel-kick at Innominat’s skull

as always, BIG TIME SPOILER EXTRAVAGANZA UNDER THE CUT, as i am at the endgame at this point

for the curious, per Eizen, a scarlet night happens when the moon and the earth line up such that the earthpulse gets drawn into the moon by gravity

"i'm a wicked little boy, doing this for my own selfish needs!" SWEET BABY!!!! SWEET BABY!!!!!!

it's such an understated character quirk but i love how huge of an appetite Laphi has and how much he zeros in on delicious things. in like two thousand years once your and Sorey's sleepover is concluded i'm sure Mikleo will make ice cream for the both of you

every time Eizen says shitty things about women or is creepy at Velvet, Edna adds another notch to the tally of times she needs to powerbomb him into the mountain. the tally is frustratingly high

bye shigure you're far more appealing than your brother and are one of like, four decent NPCs in the game *plays Taps on kazoo*

bye old fat man you sure were old and fat *plays Mambo No. 5 on kazoo*

"WHEN THE ELEMENTAL EMPYREANS AWAKEN THE VERY FOUNDATIONS OF THE EARTH WILL SHAKE AND HORRIBLE DISASTERS WILL RAIN UPON--" you are trying to reason with the wrong ass crew, man. get slormped

Velvet projectile vomits the souls of the abbey bosses she ate into the volcano earthpulse, causing the elemental empyreans to awaken and literally dropkick Innominat into outer space. it is now up to us to get some golf clubs and finish the job of caving his skull in. and somehow steal a rocket ship to get up there; no one's really addressed that part yet

the best part of the empyreans awakening? because Innominat is now so weakened, his suppression on the malakhim/seraphim's free will is gone, meaning we got to see a bunch of malakhim ripping off their masks and loudly tell the abbey to fuck themselves sideways before poofing away.

so now i guess is the point where i would normally fuck around with so many endgame sidequests that i'd never wind up getting around to fighting the final boss, but i wanna break Innominat's kneecaps so bad that that's not gonna happen. the true Sweet Baby must take the throne

that's not to say i'll be skipping endgame sidequests entirely, such as the sidequest where i just fought the main guy from Xillia (?) who got turned into a penguin (???)

normin island is super cute and packed with Zestiria references, including but not limited to: 1) normins daydreaming about finding a nice master to serve, like "a pretty girl who makes terrible puns" 2) Zaveid arriving with little Dezel in tow, who he let wear his coat after saving him from daemons. i believe in Zestiria Dezel is said to be a fairly young seraph by seraphic standards, and Berseria takes place 1000 years in Zestiria's past -- if 1000 is "young" for a seraph, like, Mikleo must be considered a zygote

Zaveid loves kids so much that he and his now-dragonified girlfriend collect orphans and then kidnap random humans to help raise them. specifically he kidnapped some cooks bc he doesn't know how to

anyway we killed the dragonified girlfriend and now Zaveid and Eizen are friends and Zaveid promises to make Eizen's death wish a reality someday. once Eizen goes dragon Zaveid will run down the two-person list of people interested in having sex with him so i'm sure it'll be painful on his part as well *plays Single Ladies on kazoo*

and then we killed dragon-Silva again and confirmed he's the dragon skeleton on Hexen Isle. sometimes i feel Berseria tries a little too hard to shove LORE!!! LORE!!!! in our faces but i think that's just because i want it to focus entirely on lore that canonizes sormik more than it already is

hi other person from Xillia. is the penguin thing an in-joke i don't understand because i don't play Tales games that aren't gay

welcome to Katz Korner and here is where i remind you that Katz Korner explicitly has a sex club that you have to be 2000 years or older to enter and in Zestiria they state Zenrus was their most frequent guest

Laphi wants to enter the Katz wrestling championship where you make biscuits on your opponent and the first person who purrs loses. SWEET BABY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

the final component of that legendary medicine we were gathering to save Laphi's Little Pal proves to be malakhim tears. can confirm that if Mikleo cried, i would gain the power to rend the earth in twain to annihilate the cause of his woes

Phoenix is here to fight again (pre-again? whatever prequels), and despite him putting forth the challenge only because he stalks Edna enough to know Eizen is deliberately avoiding her, he actually puts forth a remarkably coherent and comprehensive argument on how immature and horrible Eizen is being for keeping what he's truly doing a secret -- so much so that Eizen is basically sputtering red in the face in furious embarrassment towards the end and is all but screaming "FIGHT ME THO" to put a stop to it

that's all the compliments i'll give to Phoenix though because his fight makes me realize how much i HATE THE FUCKING STUN MECHANIC IN THIS GODDAMN GAME JESUS CHRIST. DO YOU LIKE GETTING STOPPED DEAD IN YOUR TRACKS EVERY TWO SECONDS IN BATTLE, FOR ABOUT FIVE SECONDS APIECE, GETTING YOUR MAX ABILITY POINTS REDUCED EACH TIME, UNTIL YOU CAN LITERALLY DO NOTHING AT ALL? WELL YOU FUCKING BETTER BECAUSE THERE'S NO WAY TO AVOID IT LOLOLOLOL FUK U

anyway after all that Eizen sends Phoenix to watch over her and is convinced to come clean to Edna about being a pirate. you then receive a letter from her, in which she casually accepts the news in the traditional Edna Way ("well that was obvious. the new doll you sent isn't cute but i'll keep it since you sent it.") then Eizen starts crying and it made my dick stiff

i think the Seres = Lailah theory is dumb and very well-debunked at this point (considering Seres is like. very dead) but Velvet does state in an event skit that Celica loved to make puns so maybe Lailah helps carry on her purpose into the future

i poked my head into the Empyrean/Artorius' Throne area to clean up a hunt but i found a pair of freed malakhim there who stole the Water Divine Artifact (aka Mikleo's bow) from the Abbey and are planning on smoothing out the armatus arte to make it less dangerous and more of an even exchange of power than it is at that point -- as it is it's just exorcists flat out stealing malakhim power with zero consent and then melting from the strain.

yet another chapter in the Who Fucking Edited This Game's Localization saga; localizing Glenwood as "Greenwood" because who cares about consistency in a pair of linked games. that might sound minor but, seriously, there are skits and dialogue that have complete gibberish as the subtitles/on-screen text. for example: Magilou has a line of dialogue: "That's a little goose I'm even by my standards." I was straight-up staring at my screen and eventually pieced together that they were going for "gruesome". i had a suspicion on how it happened, and checked out videos of the dub to confirm -- sure enough, Magilou's EN VA (who still sounds obnoxious lol i am so glad i changed to the sub so early) says the line, and if you were in fact a poor innocent speech-to-text converter software, used by a bunch of lazy localizers who decided to use a speech-to-text converter to automatically transcribe dialogue so you could whack off in the bathroom instead of doing work, it's very clear how you could parse the line reading as "goose I'm" instead of "gruesome".

okay i think that metaphor might have gotten lost there. what i am saying is the lazy ass localization team clearly used speech-to-text converters to transcribe dialogue for subtitles, and couldn't be arsed to proofread the result. this happens CONSTANTLY in Berseria's subs/on-screen text. christ, what happened here? Zestiria didn't have this problem...

#i guess this is my personal tales of berseria tag now #i guess this is my personal tales of zestiria tag now

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symbianosgames · 7 years

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The following blog post, unless otherwise noted, was written by a member of Gamasutra’s community. The thoughts and opinions expressed are those of the writer and not Gamasutra or its parent company.

[Video Game Deep Cuts is a weekly newsletter from curator/video game industry veteran Simon Carless, rounding up the best longread & standout articles & videos about games, every weekend. This week's highlights include the design of Klei's Oxygen Not Included, a look at Nintendo's Arms, and much more.

Another early newsletter this week, since I'm off to Los Angeles for both PrE3 (Sony, Microsoft and Bethesda press events) and E3 itself. Always interesting to see what's going on with the massive games and platform holders at the show, even if the focus has drifted somewhat towards announcements and away from the LACC itself.

And in a 'winner take all' world, at least some of the games announced or showcased at the event will be multi-million sellers. (Not to be sniffed at, when it's difficult to burst through the insane mass of games jockeying for attention nowadays.) Until next time, and I'll try to have something for you despite E3sanity...

- Simon, curator.]

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The Art Of Creating A Game (Brandon Martynowicz / CGSociety) "My name is Brandon Martynowicz. I have been working in the game and film industry for the past 10 years, primarily as an Environment Artist. Recently I completed production as the Art Lead for the game: What Remains of Edith Finch... This article will be a high-level brain dump about how we, as a small art team, created the massive amount of content for What Remains of Edith Finch."

Building replayability into the intricate architecture of Tokyo 42 (Chris Priestman / Gamasutra) "In the opening minutes of Tokyo 42, you’re accused of murder and have to flee your cramped flat with a stampede of bullets hot on your tail. Before long, you find yourself hustling to survive in the cloud-piercing heights of its futuristic city."

Level Design Workshop: A Narrative Approach to Level Design (Jolie Menzel / GDC / YouTube) "In this 2017 GDC talk, Ubisoft's Jolie Menzel explains why a shared understanding of narrative gives a level designer a guide for everything from the pace of their level to an understanding for which assets should be placed where to tell a convincing story using physical space."

Game Freak Is More Than Just A Pokémon Developer (Brian Ashcraft / Kotaku) "Game Freak is best known for one thing: Pokémon. But while they created the iconic franchise, Game Freak isn’t afraid to let its developers get their sea legs making non-Pocket Monster games on non-Nintendo hardware. That’s why, in the past few years, Game Freak has released a number of totally original titles on platforms you might not expect."

The Art Of Everything (Laura Parker / California Sunday) "On a recent Wednesday afternoon, David OReilly stopped by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art to set up an installation of his new video game, Everything. OReilly — who, as a child in Ireland, dropped the apostrophe from his name, partly because it’s more visually appealing — was dressed entirely in black and white."

We Are Not Alone - Developers Respond To The 1000 Game Makers Thread (Joel Couture / IndieGames) "After taking the time to speak to Steve Cook about the 1000 Game Makers Thread - a collection of gifs and links to unique, personal, and interesting games from around the world that Cook wanted to see supported, we sought out the developers who had been touched by his work."

Arms' Creators On Twintelle's Popularity And The Strange Lore Of The Game's World (Kyle Hilliard / Game Informer) "Ahead of its release, we spoke with Arms producer Kosuke Yabuki and art director Masaaki Ishikawa about the game. We discussed a number of topics, like what it means to wake up with extendable arms one morning, why everyone is already obsessed with Twintelle before the game even is even out, and whether or not we can ever expect to see a cameo by Luffy of One Piece fame (we won't)."

The 50 Worst Games Of All Time (Miguel Lopez, John Davison, Simon Cox, Jody Macgregor / Glixel) "We've all played games that are bad. If you've been a gamer for more than a few years, you've no doubt been exposed to your fair share of genuinely awful experiences – but which of them can be counted as the worst of all time? [SIMON'S NOTE: in general, I'm against 'worst' lists, but this one has some pretty obscure AND interesting games in there.]"

Activision Blizzard Aims for the Big Leagues (Michael Lev-Ram / Fortune) "Activision Blizzard built a videogame empire around bestselling titles like Call of Duty and Warcraft. Now it wants to become the ESPN of competitive gaming. Will audiences play along?"

The Tyranny of Kawaii | Tokyo 42 (Toussaint Egon / Heterotopias) "Of this we can be certain: the first, last, and greatest protagonist of cyberpunk is no “console cowboy”, but the city itself. Tokyo 42 understands this intuitively, its isometric perspective situating the genre’s debt to the lineage of modern architecture at the forefront of the player’s perspective."

Xbox Unleashed: Our deep-dive study of how millions use Xbox Live (Kyle Orland / Ars Technica) "For three years now, Ars’ Steam Gauge project and the public sampling projects it has inspired (such as Steam Spy) have provided an important behind-the-scenes look at what kinds of games are popular on PC gaming’s most popular marketplace. Today, after years of work, we’re ready to unveil a new effort that similarly uncovers what’s popular among Xbox Live users on the Xbox One and Xbox 360."

Classic Game Postmortem: Sid Meier's Civilization (Game Developers Conference / YouTube) "In this 2017 GDC classic game postmortem, Civilization creators Sid Meier and Bruce Shelley tell the story of how Shelley's background in board game design and Meier's history of sim game development blended together perfectly to create what is perhaps the biggest and longest-running strategy game franchise in the world."

The Story Behind Mass Effect: Andromeda's Troubled Five-Year Development (Jason Schreier / Kotaku) "In 2012, as work on Mass Effect 3 came to a close, a small group of top BioWare employees huddled to talk about the next entry in their epic sci-fi franchise. Their goal, they decided, was to make a game about exploration—one that would dig into the untapped potential of the first three games. Instead of visiting just a few planets, they said, what if you could explore hundreds?"

Sunder - Interview with Rakuen developer Laura Shigihara (Sunder / YouTube) "Sunder is joined by Laura Shigihara to talk about her new game, Rakuen, as well the development process of creating and releasing an indie game."

How Dangen Aims To Connect Indies With The Devs That Inspired Them (Cam Shea / IGN) "Formed by a group of ex-pats who have been embedded in the Japanese games industry for many years – working at places like Capcom, Grasshopper Manufacture, Q-Games and Playism - Dangen is the latest small-scale publisher to emerge focused solely on indies."

Video Games Aren't Mindless - Or Heartless - Entertainment (Matthew Smith / Salon) "In 1991 before I was even born, my father purchased a Super Nintendo Entertainment System for my older sister. That system spawned plenty of long play sessions of “Super Mario Brothers” and “Donkey Kong Country.” And while my sister regarded it more as a distraction than a marvel, I was entranced from the moment the 16-bit curtain rose."

We asked a landscape designer to analyse The Witcher 3, Mass Effect and Dishonored (Rob Dwiar / Eurogamer) "Whether you're traversing an expansive open world, climbing crumbling ruins or sneaking between shadowy city corners, the landscapes and environments we see in games have never been better. Gone are the days of miracle-growing trees popping up at certain draw distances."

The Unusual Excellence Of Halo's Most Iconic Level (GB Burford / Kotaku) "Soon to see its third re-release, Halo: Combat Evolved remains not only one of the best shooters ever made, but also one of the best video games. That's a pretty big claim to make, but Halo's got the levels to back it up."

Hirokazu Yasuhara - How to make a game "fun" (Digital Dragons / YouTube) "There are so many fun games nowadays. And it is getting easier to make games by using various engines and tools. But it is hard to make them “fun” without game design, like as people can’t build high risen building without architecture. [SIMON'S NOTE: the codesigner of Altered Beast and Sonic in a rare design talk with my buddy Brandon Sheffield!)"

Layering challenges in Klei's survival sim Oxygen Not Included (Joel Couture / Gamasutra) "With Oxygen Not Included, Klei Entertainment, developers of harrowing, sometimes-hilarious survival game Don’t Starve, tasks players with surviving in an even more inhospitable environment: outer space. Oxygen, minerals, water, entertainment, and a place to just exist within provide all new-challenges to players."

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[REMINDER: you can sign up to receive this newsletter every weekend at http://ift.tt/2dUXrva we crosspost to Gamasutra later on Sunday, but get it first via newsletter! Story tips and comments can be emailed to [email protected]. MINI-DISCLOSURE: Simon is one of the organizers of GDC and Gamasutra, so you may sometimes see links from those entities in his picks. Or not!]

#IFTTT #Blogger

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symbianosgames · 7 years

Link

- Simon, curator.]

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

#IFTTT #Blogger

0 notes

symbianosgames · 7 years

Link

- Simon, curator.]

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

#IFTTT #Blogger

0 notes

symbianosgames · 7 years

Link

- Simon, curator.]

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

#IFTTT #Blogger

0 notes