#and finally finished typing it up on my PC couple weeks ago

[raksh-writes]

Thinking of maybe posting a lil' thing sometime soon 👀 So -- a sneak peek ^^

Text version:

Khun Vegas stays quiet for a while after Nop finishes, his eyelids fluttering and the tense line of his shoulders lowering, slumping down and inward, the alpha’s usually proud posture curling in on himself. Small. Weak. Vulnerable… hurt. To the very core.  “Thank you, Nop. You can go now.” The alpha’s voice sounds thick, watery – clicking with emotion too grand to be only an effect of a simple nightmare. Nop can’t help himself as he takes a step— “Khun—” “Don’t.”  The order freezes Nop in place – not for its force, but how quiet it is. When he doesn’t immediately follow through, Khun Vegas’ lips curl into a snarl. “Get. Out.” Nop’s hands curl into fists at his sides, fear coiling around his guts, his lungs, his pounding heart, but still, he bows and doesn’t let it show.  “I’ll be just outside,” he says, because he has to, because he needs his alpha to know he’ll be there, that there’s no way he’s getting off his shift now. The only acknowledgment he gets is a nod, short and barely visible, but Nop doesn’t dare to linger anymore. He turns to leave and braces himself against the pure, unadulterated wave of grief that damn near explodes from behind his back, rapidly filling the air with the force and pull of a tsunami, so suddenly thick and potent his own knees just about buckle. Nop doesn’t allows himself to turn around though, not when he hears the rustle of the man collapsing in on himself, and not when the impossible intensity of the sheer pain in the air clogs up his senses – the grief so abrupt and so all-encompassing it only reminds him of one thing, of when he lost his— Instead, Nop sets his jaw and hurries to the door, not quick enough to avoid catching the first notes of a the most wrecked, mournful whine he’s ever heard in his entire life.  His heart bleeds all over his guts as he nearly slams the door shut, barely fast enough for the sound of his alpha’s grief to not carry down the corridor. Not fast enough to spare the other guard stationed at Khun Vegas’ door the same mercy, though.  Somewhat young for the alpha’s detail, but incredibly hardworking and loyal, Bold looks at him with wide, alarmed eyes, and Nop [...].

[pricescigar]

Johnvira - How the two fell in love HC's

Admin note: Works kicking my arse and I haven't been able to finish off part 3 of love bites, so... Enjoy this :)

Cw: NSFW mentioned 🔞

John Price:

It was love at first sight for John, he couldn't remember the last time he felt like this... Or even had this type of feeling when he met Elvira.

She was different than the others - It wasn't a bad thing of course, but John couldn't pin point the feeling. All he knew was that she was the one for him.

He admired her for sure - Growing up he heard about the Cold War hero (Elvira) And the big sacrifice she made.

After accommodating Elvira, wanting her to get used to the new world before joining the SAS. He taught her everything about the new world, especially with the technology.

He even showed her some video games, though he had never been a gamer himself due to work. But watching Elvira playing those small little games made him fall in love with her each more.

He was worried about her being overwhelmed with everything being new, especially if she was in a comatose sleep for 38 years.

But that one mission in January in 2019... He didn't expect the package they'd recover would be a human, let alone Elvira.

The two became close quickly, and while they were stranded on a mission, did the two realise the love they felt for each other.

Of course since they were stranded in the middle of nowhere, the only type of shelter they had was a barn... It gave the chance for the two to be intimate.

Even though John & Elvira had began their relationship, boy did John want to put a ring on her immediately. He had never been the type to get jealous, but the thought of someone else wanting Elvira riled him up.

He knew he was getting ahead of himself but he knew, she also knew... So it was okay.

Elvira Wolff:

Elvira had been in love before, but that was a long time ago. When she was much younger when she was a teenager, though for her... After being in a comatose state, it doesn't feel like over 30 decades ago. It only feels like a couple of years ago

The first time Elvira met Price, she thought he was an angel at first. Believing herself that she finally died, but actually she was in a med ward in Hereford's base.

After a few tears realising she was no longer in 1981, Price did his best to comfort her. Allowing her to hug him for as long as she wanted, and of course that made her feel much better.

Knowing that she now has to get used to her "new" Life. Elvira embraced it, rather than feared it. Even if it scared her a little...

But Price was with her every step of the way, Elvira felt comforted and supported by him. Something that she desperately needed.

During the week and a half she took the chance to get familair with phones, tablets, laptops, PC's the whole lot. Elvira only wanted to know the basics and go on from there.

The one thing Elvira loved the most is video games - It reminded her when she went to the arcades in America when she lived with Adler.

It didn't take long for Elvira to fall in love with Price, there were many factors that came into play with this.

Mainly because of how nice, gentle, kind and sweet he was with her. And he he made her laugh too, and also because Price is dead drop gorgeous

Of course her first mission ever with the Captain was a special one, especially being in the Barn

Elvira did feel nervous that her first time having sex was with Price, but he understood and was gentle as possible with her.

They kept their relationship under wraps because of the military. It was only people close to them who knew. Until it was necessary to let the superiors know when they do eventually get married.

[brickcentral]

🤩 ARTIST SPOTLIGHT: jcmimoso Hello everyone! It's time to direct the spotlight toward our community members, and today we will get to know better jcmimoso!

"Hello fellow LEGO photographers, my name is Juan Carlos Mimoso. I'm from Spain and I grew up in the 75-80s. When I was a child I never had access to LEGO, due to economic reasons and poor distribution in my area. On the other hand, I did play with Playmobil and also with Exin Castillos bricks, with which I built spectacular castles.

I am currently a Doctor in Primary Care in a health center, and when in 2020 we suffered the COVID-19 pandemic and forced confinement, I continued working. I changed my work in the clinic for work at home and in the clinic, with no limit on hours and with the uncertainty and feeling of not being able to offer everything my patients needed. That caused me a lot of added stress. I had always liked photography, landscapes, macro, etc... and I relaxed by walking to see the world with photographic eyes. Instead, now I found that I was confined and unable to create new content.

My son had a couple of LEGO minifigures and a small set, and I thought it was cool to take a photo with an interesting background and post it on Instagram. And since then, I have been hooked on toy photography. I have seen that there are many colleagues spread around the world, and communities like Brickcentral, where tricks and ways to take the final photo are freely shared.

I took almost all of the photos with an old second-hand Fujifilm X-E2 mirrorless and the little Fujinon 27/2.8 pancake lens with a +2 or +4 close-up filter attached. I like that combination because it is very small and portable. A couple of years ago I added the Fujifilm X-H1 because, although it is a little bigger, it has a flip-up screen, which makes it much easier for me to make low compositions without having to move the whole equipment to check the focus. This year I bought a 1:2 macro (Fujinon 60/2.4) and so far I like the results, although due to work and family issues I haven't been able to take many photos. I hope that changes in a couple of weeks.

My workspace is typically my desk. I use the PC monitor as a background, or if it's a building without any background at all, and I place everything on heavy, thick medicine books so I can use my tabletop tripod at the right height. For lighting I use LED spotlights (Ulanzi VL49 and Lumecube Air), although I have also sometimes taken photos with matchstick lighting.

My compositions are not very large because as soon as I finish the session I have to put away everything that is on the desk so that I can use it to process the result. I usually take several shots with different lighting, aperture and sometimes even stacking photos to give more depth, although I never usually use the whole stack, but only just enough so that the background does not look too sharp. Later I choose the shot I like the most in Lightroom and complete it with Photoshop for basic retouching such as cloning, filters, etc.

I mainly use LEGO minifigures from various series (Marvel, DC, Ninjago…), although you can also see some Playmobil and Star Wars figures. The main type of photography I do is usually related to medieval, fantasy, sword and sorcery environments, among others.

In my posts you can see that I use extensively the Barbarian (series 11) and Viking (series 20) minifigures. I think it's because they don't usually require much post-processing, but also because they remind me of the 'Conan the Barbarian' comics I used to read when I was a kid. It's my humble way of paying a little homage to great artists who have drawn the Cimmerian since the 70s and who bring back so many memories. I recently acquired the Red-Haired Barbarian minifigure (series 25), which I'm sure will co-star in future photos. In fact, the photo I'm showing you today is the first one I've used it for.

Fortunately, over the years, I saved some Exin pieces, and along with others I've gotten lately, I use them extensively in my creations to mix LEGO with Exin Castles and get a more realistic environment. To this I usually mix all kinds of rocks, sand, grasses and other accessories so that it integrates well with the sword and sorcery atmosphere that I usually pursue in my publications. For inspiration I use old comics, game or movie sequences, and anything I see that fits well with my possibilities and knowledge. I have notebooks full of ideas written down for a better occasion, which doesn't always come. I learn a lot from other fellow toy photographers and I'm always looking for new ways to tell the little stories in my photos.

"

Thank you for accepting our invitation and let the community knows you better!

If you want some insights on the exclusive picture and for a better view of the others, head to our blog at https://brickentral.net/.

- @theaphol, Community Outreach Manager

[ducktastic]

2020 Gameological Awards

Over on the Gameological Discord, we have an annual tradition of writing up our games of the year not as a ranked list but rather as answers to a series of prompts. Here are my personal choices for the year that was 2020.

Favorite Game of the Year

I didn’t know what to expect when I walked into Paradise Killer. I knew that I liked the vaporwave resort aesthetic from the game’s trailer and figured I was in for a Danganronpa-style murder mystery visual novel with an open-ended murder mystery at its core. Those assumptions were… half-right? The game definitely plays out like the exploration bits of Danganronpa set on the island from Myst but with far simpler puzzles. What I didn’t expect was to fall so deeply in love with the environment—its nooks and crannies, its millennia of lore, its brutalist overlap of idol worship, consumerism, and mass slaughter. It makes sense that the world of Paradise Killer is its strongest feature, since the cast of NPCs don’t really move around, leaving you alone with the world for the overwhelming majority of your experience as you bounce back and forth between digging around for clues and interrogating potential witnesses. And despite what the promo materials indicated, there IS a definitive solution to the crimes you’re brought in to investigate, the game just lets you make judgment based on whatever evidence you have at the time you’re ready to call it a day, so if you’re missing crucial evidence you might just make a compelling enough case for the wrong person and condemn them to eternal nonexistence. Am I happy with the truth at the end of the day? No, and neither is anybody else I’ve spoken to who completed the game, but we all were also completely enthralled the entire time and our dissatisfaction has less to do with the game and more to do with the ugly reality of humanity. I’ve always been of the mindset that “spoilers” are absolute garbage and that a story should be just as good whether you know the twist or not and any story that relies on surprising the audience with an unexpected reveal is not actually that good a story, but Paradise Killer is a game about piecing together your own version of events so I feel that it’s vital to the gameplay experience that people go in knowing as little as possible and gush all about it afterwards. Just trust me, if the game looks even remotely intriguing to you, go for it. I’ve had just as much fun talking about the game after I finished it with friends just getting started as I did actually solving its mysteries myself.

Best Single Player Game

I honestly missed out on the buzz for In Other Waters at launch, so I’m happy I had friends online talking it up as Black Friday sales were coming along. The minimal aesthetic of his underwater exploration game allows the focus to shift more naturally to the game’s stellar writing as a lone scientist goes off in search of her mentor and the secrets they were hiding on an alien world. It only took a few hours for me to become completely absorbed in this narrative and keep pushing forward into increasingly dangerous waters. In Other Waters might just be the best sci-fi story I experienced all year and I’d highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys sci-fi novels, regardless of their experience with video games.

Best Multiplayer Game

Look, we all know this year sucked. 2020 will absolutely be chronicled in history books as a fascinating and deeply depressing time in modern history where we all stayed inside by ourselves and missed our friends and family. It was lonely and it was bleak. Which is why it made my heart glow so much more warmly every time I got a letter from an honest-to-goodness real-life friend in Animal Crossing New Horizons. Knowing that they were playing the same game I was and hearing about their experiences and sending each other wacky hats or furniture, it lightened the days and made us feel that little bit more connected. Sure, when the game first launched we would actually take the time to visit one another’s islands, hang out, chat in real-time, and exchange gifts, but we all eventually got busy with Zoom calls, sourdough starters, and watching Birds of Prey twenty-two times. Still, sending letters was enough. It was and still is a touching little way to show that we’re here for one another, if not at the exact same time.

Favorite Ongoing Game

Zach Gage is one of my favorite game designers right now, and when I heard he was releasing a game called Good Sudoku I was sold sight unseen. The game as released was… fine. It’s sudoku and it’s pleasant, but it was also buggy and overheated my phone in a way I hadn’t seen since Ridiculous Fishing (also by Zach Gage) seven years ago. Thankfully, the most glaring bugs have been fixed and I can now enjoy popping in every day for some quick logic puzzle goodness. Daily ranked leaderboards keep me coming back again and again, the steady ramp of difficulty in the arcade and eternal modes means I can always chase the next dopamine rush of solving increasingly complex puzzles. It’s not a traditional “ongoing” game the way, say, Fortnite and Destiny are, but I’m happy to come back every day for sudoku goodness.

Didn't Click For Me

With Fortnite progressively losing me over the course of 2020, finalizing with my wholesale “never again” stance after Epic boss Tim Sweeney compared Fortnite demanding more money from Apple to the American Civil Rights movement (no, absolutely not), I dipped my toe into a number of new “battle pass”-style online arena types of games, and while Genshin Impact eventually got its hooks into me, Spellbreak absolutely did not. With graphics straight out of The Dragon Prince and the promise of a wide variety of magic combat skills to make your character your own, the game seemed awfully tempting, but my first few experiences were aimless and joyless, with no moment of clarity to make me understand why I should keep coming back. Maybe they’ll finesse the game some more in 2021, or a bunch of my friends will get hooked and lure me back, but for now I am a-okay deleting this waste of space on my Switch and PC.

"Oh Yeah, I Did Play That Didn't I?"

I remember being really excited for Murder By Numbers. Ace Attorney-style crime scene investigation visual novel with Picross puzzles for the evidence, art by the creators of Hatoful Boyfriend, and music by the composer of Ace Attorney itself?! Sounds like a dream come true. But the pixel-hunt nature of the crime scene investigations was more frustrating than fun, the picross puzzles were not particularly great, and the game came out literally a week before the entire world went into lockdown which makes it feel more like seven years ago than just earlier this year. I remember being marginally charmed by the game once it was in my hands, but as soon as my mind shifted to long-term self care, Murder By Numbers went from hot topic to cold case.

Most Unexpected Joy

I was looking forward to Fuser all year. As a dyed-in-the-wool DropMix stan, the prospect of a spiritual sequel to DropMix on all major digital platforms without any of the analogue components was tremendously exciting, and I knew I’d have a lot of fun making mixes by myself and posting them online for the world to hear. What I didn’t expect, however, was the online co-op mode to be such a blast! Up to four players take turns making 32 bars of mashups, starting with whatever the player before handed them and adding their own fingerprints on top. It sounds like it should just be a mess of cacophony, but every session I’ve played so far has been just the best dance party I’ve had all year, and everyone not currently in control of the decks (including an audience of spectators) can make special requests for what the DJ should spin and tap along with the beat to great super-sized emoji to show how much they’re enjoying the mix. Literally the only times my Apple Watch has ever warned me of my heightened heart rate have been the times I was positively bouncing in place rocking out to co-op freestyle play in Fuser.

Best Music

Only one video game this year had tunes that were so bumpable they were upgraded to my general “2020 jams” playlist alongside Jeff Rosenstock, Run the Jewels, and Phoebe Bridgers, and that game was Paradise Killer. 70% lo-fi chill beats to study/interrogate demons to, 20% gothic atmospheric bangers, 10% high-energy pop jazz, this soundtrack was just an absolute joy to swim around in both in and out of gameplay.

Favorite Game Encounter

It’s wild that in a landscape where games let me live out my wildest fantasies, the single moment that lit me up in a way that stood out to me more than any other was serving Neil the right drink in Coffee Talk. Over the course of the game, you serve a variety of hot drinks to humans, werewolves, vampires, orcs, and more, all while chatting with your customers and learning more about their lives and relationships. The most mysterious customer, though, is an alien life form who adopts the name Neil. They do not know what they want to drink and claim it doesn’t make a difference because they cannot taste it. Everybody else wants *something*. Neil is just ordering for the sake of fitting in and exploring the Earth experience. It’s only in the second playthrough that attentive baristas will figure out what to serve Neil, unlocking the “true” ending in the process. Seeing the typically stoic Neil actually emote when they tasted their special order drink? What an absolute treat that was.

Best Free DLC of the Year

It’s still only a couple of days old at the time I’m writing this, but Marvel’s Avengers just added Kate Bishop, aka Hawkeye, and THANK GOODNESS. Almost every character in the game at launch just smashed the endless waves of robot baddies with their fists and that looks exhausting and uncomfortable. Hawkeye (the game calls her Kate Bishop, but come on, she’s been Hawkeye in the comics for over 14 years, let’s show her some respect) uses A SWORD. FINALLY! Aside from that, I’m just having a blast shooting arrows all over the place. She and Ms Marvel are the most likable characters in the game so far, so I hope they keep adding more of the Young Avengers and Champions to the game, and if the recently announced slate of Marvel movies and tv shows are any indication (with America Chavez, Cassie Lang, and Riri Williams all coming soon to the MCU), that seems to be what Marvel is pushing for across all media

Most Accessible Game

Nintendo is, first and foremost, a toy company. They got their start in toys and cards long before video games was a thing, and they still do more tests to ensure their video game hardware is childproof than anybody else in the industry (remember how they made Switch cartridges “taste bad” so kids wouldn’t eat them?). This year, Nintendo got to rekindle some of their throwback, simplistic, toys-and-cards energy with Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics, a Switch collection of timeless family-friendly games like Chess, Mancala, and Backgammon, along with “toy” versions of sports like baseball, boxing, and tennis for a virtual parlor room of pleasant time-wasters. The games were all presented with charming li’l explainers from anthropomorphic board game figurines, and the ability to play quick sessions of Spider Solitaire on the touch screen while I binged The Queen’s Gambit on Netflix made Clubhouse Games one of my most-played titles of the year. Plus, local play during socially-distant friend hangs was an excellent way to make us feel like we were much closer than we were physically allowed to be as friends knocked each other’s block off in the “toy boxing” version of Rock’em Sock’em Robots.

"Waiting for Game-dot"

I get that everyone loves Disco Elysium. I saw it on everyone’s year-end lists last year. I finally bought it with an Epic Games Store coupon this year. This year was a long enough slog of depressing post-apocalyptic drudgery, I didn’t want to explore a whole nother one in my leisure time. I’ll get to it… someday.

Game That Made Me Think

Holovista was an iPhone game I played over the course of two or three days based on the recommendation of some trusted colleagues on Twitter and oh my goodness was I glad that I played it. What starts as a chill vaporwave photography game steadily progresses into an exploration of psychological trauma, relationships with friends and family, and the baggage we carry with us from our pasts. In this exceptionally hard year, I badly needed this story about spending time alone with your personal demons and finding your way back to the people who love and support you. Just like with Journey and Gone Home, I walked away from Holovista feeling a rekindled appreciation for the people in my life.

[gamesgotta922]

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[thelightofthingshopedfor]

as usual, an unrealistic list of things I’d really like to get done over the three-day weekend, which is not super likely to go well considering I’m posting this at 5 fucking p.m. but whatever:

gaming-related

I have exactly a month left on my (so far unused, whoops) PC Game Pass subscription, so I need to go over my wish list again and identify

which games have achievements

each game’s average playtime so I can prioritize

which ones interest me the most (emphasis on spooky games because...it’s spooky season)

try Fallout 76 once it finally finishes downloading, because I played the free weekend on Steam before and this is Microsoft, and...I think my character should just be on their servers but I don’t actually know hahahaha yeah that super didn’t work, maybe in a week when our billing cycle restarts I’ll try redownloading and reinstalling it, and anyway I did download and test a couple other Game Pass games

cancel my current SWTOR subscription so I’m not still paying for that while focusing on Game Pass games

play one of a few Flash games on my to-play list, if there’s something short

misc/housekeeping

check out my current backup situation and see how hard it would be to modify, I mean at some point I have got to set up an actual system but for some reason that’s intimidating so if what I currently have is at all usable, I should add to it

and then verify my drivers. I don’t know what’s wrong with my PC and I’m really not sure how to figure that out but since Memtest86 ran for three fucking hours and came back clear, it seems like this is the next major step in the troubleshooting process okay I actually didn’t do this but I did try some other things that also didn’t work

finish claiming all the Black Panther comics

a tiny bit of room cleaning? maybe?? I actually already did a very tiny bit, and this is something (one of...many things) I could do while on a call with friends, which is also in my plans

open a couple packages from one of said friends, which keen-eyed readers might note was in a to-do list ages ago oops

check Tumblr drafts

work on modifying or fixing some masks that currently aren’t working well

send an email that’s been on my to-do list for...a while

actually another email would be a good one too

keep trying to get Hazy to learn that letting people handle her paws results in good treats, so we can make an appointment for a Petco nail trim (and ideally clip them ourselves, sometimes)

ah fuck I still need to finish my will

creative

mildly edit the short fic I posted a few days ago, give it a title, and toss it on AO3

as always, some typing would be really really good

so would...some writing...

make some more potion bottles with, uh, random stuff I’ve collected on recent walks around the neighborhood (other potion bottles with other random ideas I’ve had wouldn’t be a bad idea either...and I would like to try one of the Youtube tutorials I found for making tiny hourglasses, but I guess that’s probably not a priority)

do a little reorganizing in my giant to-do lists for a) 1/6-scale projects and b) lyrics for titles

doing more research on parts for a 1/6 female Loki is really not urgent but...I might want to...and some things are on sale right now...

repair Tiny Loki’s tiny mask

rewrite my paper list of prioritized projects, which I needed to do anyway, but now I’ve also lost the original and that’s very annoying (also make a pocket for it in my notebook so this is less likely to happen again)

make designs for a few new Pride Cap shields, maybe? it really would not take long to make just a few, and now is when I should be adding stuff to Etsy if I have any hope of like...holiday sales

for that matter, now would be an extremely good time to at least start planning what kinds of holiday-specific things (and/or other new listings) I might be able to make in time to list them on Etsy

mental health

write up a post for the ADHD Reddit and maybe other related places

experiment with Notion and Airtable as organizational options

research some bullet-journal layouts to see if anything seems like it would work for me

in general, spend some time just kind of...brainstorming the type of system that would be useful for me in keeping my shit together, so I have a better idea of what I’m looking for (also probably helpful to list like...the big problems I’m trying to fix)

see if Penzu seems like a good option for a keeping-my-shit-together strategy I have in mind from my latest therapy session, and if not, do a little research on other journal-type possibilities

shopping I probably shouldn’t be doing

make a Michaels order tomorrow when both coupons will be active, because...there are some Halloween things that are somehow already sold out at the nearest store but I still want them...and they’re available at the store all the way across town...so...

possibly go to an estate sale benefiting the rescue group where we got Scully and Hazy, which is also all the way over on the other side of town but if I’m going over there anyway, I might as well

some stuff in my Etsy cart that I don’t want to miss

ditto eBay, I think mostly in my cart but also check watch list

AliExpress is also having some sales and yes there are more tiny things I want to buy for Loki’s arcane workshop, shut up (but also if I’m going to buy another Hot Toys body, this time for Thor, I gotta...take some measurements)

politics

call legislators

I really don’t know why I bother but I’ve found a bunch more articles recently that I’d like to throw on Facebook

for that matter at some point I’m probably just going to do a Facebook post like “hey, if you care about me at all, please consider voting Biden,” which also probably won’t make a difference but like...there’s a tiny chance it might

actually write those Sierra Club letters to voters that I meant to do like...two weeks ago...and maybe also some postcards, idk

maybe go to a thing Monday afternoon

also maybe just like...look through my links and folders to see who’s doing textbanking? like I don’t necessarily have to do any of it this weekend, just figure out what’s available?

........hmm this is all a terrible idea, probably, in part because my brain is looking at this absurdly long list and still going “oh shit, oh fuck, we’re forgetting something major aren’t we!!!”

[painandpleasure86]

I can’t live with you (but I can’t live without you) - JohnicaWeek 2020

Author’s note: This idea born in my mind since Rachel announced this special week. My real life inspo were my own parents, married since 1991 (I born in 1992). Here I portray this couple as I imagine, based in real life experience having a 67 yrs old dad and in things that I read about this couple. This will be the most realistic posible representation of them that I could write. Don’t hate me if isn’t all cuteness here, life it’s good but also bad things :/ Also sorry if it’s too cheesy! I don’t like make suffer to my characters a lot lol.

Art by @imflashqueen (instagram). She drew the second piece inspired in my story! She was my beta indeed :3 Thank you for give me some feedback! Ah, and the first one was an old collab that we did in last November!

Plus, i’m doing this just for mere entertainment ;) I just love participate in this kind of events to meet new people, practicing my skills and have fun!

Summary: The anniversary date it’s here! How will they react about this?

Pairing: Current John and Ronnie :)

Warnings: Angst, some humor, some swearing, some fluff too. Mention of death.

Word count: 2139 words, perhaps my longest fic. If not, the second one.

Prompt used: Anniversary Day

First part

January 11th. Just like another weekend, another morning. He left very early his bed, trying to not wake up her. He wants some quientness to drink his tea. He wants to forget for a moment everything. Ever that next Saturday will be 18th. Just like in 1975. A cold Saturday in that catholic church, where Freddie made a particular entrance. Remembering that made him smile, but then was so upset, because Fred were ruining the strict ceremony. 

“I’ll always love you bud. Cheers for you” he said rising his almost empty cup of tea watching the sky through the windom and finishing his tea. 

His eyes were shining. His smile, wide. Until…

“Morning, no?” she said near to him.

He jumpscared a bit.

“God Ron! You know that I have heart problems…” he exaggerated putting his left hand in his chest.

She laughed.

“Exaggerated as always…” she added.

“Morning, yeah!?” he said finally, letting the empty cup of tea in the nearest table.

She started to prepare her breakfast. 

“Who you were talking?”

Lighting a cigarette, he said “I… just remembered something Ron.” He aspired the smoke deeply. Now the cigarette are between his index and his middle finger of his right hand. 

“Something happy”. Let go to the smoke through his nose.

Her eyes focused in him and smiling widely.

“I just remembered when Freddie entered to the church with that two girls in our wedding.” He aspired the smoke again. “Hahahaha… he couldn’t did it in another way!”

Her face turned so quickly in an deceptioned expression.

“oh… that, haha.” she said meanwhile she was preparing her tea.

Letting go the smoke but now from his mouth, he smiled mischievously. He did it again.

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

In the afternoon of that Saturday, the couple received a video call of their youngest offspring.

“Hiiiiii dad!! Hiiii mom!!!” he said with his habitual happiness, smiling widely.

Both parents greeted to their son.

The young continued talking.

“How you feel knowing that next Sat will be your anniversary?”

Ronnie smiled widely. “FINE!!”

But he stared at the camera and rolled his eyes, sighing. “Another year” he said kinda melancholic.

His son and his wife watched at him.

“Huh? I was honest.” But really he wasn’t real honest…

Trying to change the mood, Cameron added with a smile “Well, the fans are more excited for that than you, and you’re the one that’s married with that lady” winking an eye to his mom.

Being visible upset, the old man said: “That fans, ha! Try to be married at least 5 years and have 3 children in the meantime and after they can say if they’re happy with that life! I have enough of that fans speaking about me like the cute one, the good dad! I wasn’t one all the time for fucking god's sake!”. He raised of his chair and slammed the door of the room.

“Another time with that rant about the fans…” she said sighing and watching at her child.

“Well, let’s speak about you then mom. You have plans to the anniversary?” he said trying to make smile to the 69 years old woman.

She said “yeah. I reserved a table in Nobu for that day” and smiled shyly.

“MOOOOOOM, that restaurant it’s so famous. Every famous people will can see you with Dad there” almost shout the young man.

“It’s my intention, son.” and she smiled kinda mischievously.

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

Second part

Another 18th came finally. Another year. Another cold winter day. Another time where he remembered why he did that.

He opened his eyes that morning earlier than usual. He watched at his side. She was snoring softly. 

Finally he decided take his morning tea. Putting his robe and his winter flip-flops, go to the kitchen. He’s trying to not make any noise. More than ever, this morning needs that Ronnie don’t wake up at the same time than him. More than ever wants some silence and time with himself.

In the kitchen, he puts to boil some water to his tea. Meanwhile, he smokes a cigarette watching at outside through the window, still dark.

“45 damn years today. For good or bad... “ he sigh deeply meanwhile he was thinking. “Sometimes I ask myself why I did that. Sometimes I wanted to get away from this life, but for some reason i’m still here. Perhaps i’m tired of trying? I don’t know.” He aspired the smoke and let it go in a deep exhalation. “The only certainty it’s that I decided 45 years ago that beautiful slim prego lady, now an old woman, be my wife. Her…” and his thoughts were interrupted for the sound of the boiling water. “For fucking god’s sake…” he mumbled, while he turned off the fire. He prepared the tea and go to his “office” to check the internet. “Let’s see what the people say about me today… Wait. It’s early… Don’t care. I’ll be with this all day long if it’s necessary. This will be more fun than always.”

He sat at his desk with his computer, with his tea in one side. Meanwhile the PC was initializing, he was with a lot of expectative.

He sips his tea and opened the navigator. Typed the right search in the search bar. “Gosh, a lot of thing already. That people really loves me being with her”, he whispered. Clicks in the first result. And he started to laugh. “Happy 45th anniversary blahblahblah, his marriage its the proof that the love always wins” he said reading the text on that post in a social network. “Little person, it’s just the proof that I prefer be with her for a reason. Well... Six reasons. Hahahaha” he “responded”. 

Another post. That one, a drawing. “Oh okay, I look cute with her, goooootcha” he said  with a pinch of sarcasm. 

A fic. In this he stopped to read it entirely. He almost ended his tea meanwhile. And his laugh was harder. “These little girls haves a lot of imagination. Gosh, why I’m almost always the good boy in this things? Hahahahaha”

And another, and another, and another… He passed a lot of his morning there, having fun or merely entertain himself with the posts of the fandom. More than always.

Ronnie wake up. And her husband isn’t there with her. “John… at least today…” she though resigned meanwhile she puts her robe and his flip-flops.

When she was about to down the stairs, she listened a loud laugh. “He’s in the studio”.

She knocked the door. 

And he sighed. “why Ronnie?” he though. But he said “come in!”, still laughing.

“Morning Ronnie!” he said as any morning. But that one wasn't like any morning. Was the morning.

She stared at him, after close the door behind her. 

“Just that?”

He rolled his eyes, sighing.

“Happy anniversary Ronnie!” and he smiled quite exaggerated. “Come here”.

She was with mixed thoughts and kinda hysterical, but she approached him. She after a few steps was at his side. He hugged her, still in that comfy chair, with funny face. She couldn’t resist to hug him too, caressing his almost bald head. “Sometimes I hate your behavior John” though Ronnie. “But anyways i think that I still like to be with you, haha”, continued in her mind, quite smiling.

He, moving his face to leave that embrace, said “Well honey, I told it. I was cute no? hahaha. Stay with me and have fun with me reading that things that under 30-years-old girls write and draw about us”.

She stepped away from him.

“John, that people are just being kind with you. A lot of people recognize you now. A whole new generation. And they’re educated greeting us for the anniversary”, she said watching at him.

He laughed. Turning his chair in her direction, he continued talking. 

“Ron, that people thinks that marriage its easy, plus having 6 SIX kids to raise! Isn’t nice, it’s hard! And super stressful!”

Her face showed her nuisance.

“Ha, really you say that? You always recording or touring or in an endless holidays. I raised OUR kids ALONE a lot of time!”

He sighed so deeply. He started to need another cigarette. Now his arms are crossed.

“Really this again? Honey, stop. We fixed that already. Now i’m more at home with you and I helped a lot raising to our youngest kids”

Without thinking in the repercussion of her words, she said “Yeah, just because Freddie died before the birth of our youngest ones” and she half turned to her left, arms crossed.

He was without words. Was like a dagger in his heart. He didn’t knew how to react. A lot of mixed feelings. His hands in his face, he reclined his head.

“Veronica, get out.”

She, watching the results of her impulse, tried to fix that situation… in vain.

“But John, it wasn’t m-”

“GET. OUT.” His words were like a sharp.

She left the room, almost crying. “Well I’ll change my clothes meanwhile… and ill make my breakfast” she though in the meanwhile.

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

That old wound was opened. he remembered that words about getting older together writing songs. he remembered how Freddie cheered him up to write songs, how he said once “shhhh John it’s creating”. He remembered noticed that scars. And knowing that his friend would die sooner than everyone expected. “He had a lot to give… We lost a lot of moments together for that damn disease. He was my real fuel to composing, and when he gone, my interest faded away. I just wanted to survive…” he started to think. He raise of his chair and took an old whiskey that he had over there, serve a glass of it and drank it of one sip. He lighted that necessary cigarette, now watching at the window, immersed in memories, in things that happened… He cried.

In audible voice, he said

“Fuck you Ronnie. Why you said that? Why you opened that wound again?” He sighed deeply, putting the cigarette in his mouth and aspiring the smoke. “I can’t live with you, but I can’t live without you, sadly.” Exhaled the smoke for his mouth. “Why I couldn’t leave you? I’m a masochistic? I love a lot to my offspring? In the very deep inside, I still love you? I don’t know really…” Aspired the smoke of the cigarette again, the last one. The cigarette its too short now. Throwing the cigarette to the floor, he stepped on it, turning it off. Exhaling the smoke, he continued. “You are my life, despite all the events. I give you my life. My love. My “freedom”. I married with you just having 23 years old. I REALLY loved you. Now?” He sighs deeply. “I don’t know. I just know that I don’t hate you”.

He didn’t knew that those words were listened for her, she opened silently the door minutes ago to apologize her  for her words and she stared there, listening.

“John…” she said with tears in her eyes.

He turned his face enough to show her that he noticed her presence, smiling. She entered to the room running. She hugged him. “Sorry John. I- I was impulsive”.

Now watching at the window again, he said “nothing to sorry. It’s okay” and he placed his left hand over her hand that was hugging him from the back. He take that hand and kissed it. He turned to her and hugged her tightly.

“You should knocked that door first, he said, leaving the embrace.

“well, I-” started to say Ronnie, kinda scared.

“hahahaha! Relax! Now come with me and read that things that the people say about us” he said going to sit to his chair again.

“No John.” she said, shaking his head.

“Uh Ron, you’re booooooring! hahahah”

“That aren’t plans for an anniversary” she said, getting closer to him.

Watching at her eyes, he said “and go for a dinner today? We don’t usually go to dinner and you want TODAY? Oh, and I just hope that you didn’t asked to the Father of the parish  to office a Mass for our anniversary! I’ll not go to the church today, and nevermore!” 

She stared in silence, incapable to react. Her plans are discovered.

He watched at her, smiling mischievously. “Ha, Mrs you’re so predictable…” he thought.

She, trying to cover her real intentions, responded “Eeeeeh, no. I didn’t do that! You know me John, hehe… I’ll just cook a special meal.”

“No Ron. I’ll do that, and I promise, will not be cheese on toast” he replied smiling lightning another cigarette.

He had a surprise. But one that just he knew… And eventually Ronnie. Because something like that deserves an adequate celebration. And will be at Deacon style.

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

If you liked this fic, please reblog and leave a comment! (or if you’re shy, a reply, some emojis as response or an ask (could be in anon!)).

-Lily.

[smilingperformer]

Pokémon Sword & Shield - Personal experiences, Part 1

About a week ago, I declared that I wanted to write down a critical post looking at my experiences with Sword & Shield, noting what I liked and what not. Considering the fact that I still haven’t completed the game (at around 37.5h mark and done with 6 out of 8 gyms), I’m gonna divide this post into two, where this first part focuses on gameplay, music and graphics, while the latter part, which I plan on writing next weekend, will focus on the story and character portrayal, including the trainer customisation, League Cards and Pokémon designs of this generation. Do note, these posts will contain spoilers for new, unrevealed Pokémon, so if you want to discover them yourself, I suggest you read this post at a later date! If not, then let’s get started! With a Charizard Pose!

As a disclaimer, the version I’ve been playing is Pokémon Sword, and as said above, the amount of time spent currently is around 37.5h.

Gameplay

Let’s start with the aspect that’s most important to the games, alright? So, how’s the gameplay in Sword & Shield? The battling system remains the same as previous games, meaning it’s turn-based, commanding attacks to your Pokémon. There’s not much to say to this aspect of the game, but I do love the improvements to the UI during the battling. Now that the series is back to one screen again (which happened first with Let’s Go), all the needed info has to be displayed in the same screen. If you ask me, it’s displayed nicely, and the UI style is very slick. The button mappings have changed for quick-selecting pokeballs and checking move-related info, so if you’re used to doing the R1 + a combo on checking move info, you’ll accidentally do the move instead. Happened to me a ton of times. But, since we have to consider that 3DS had less buttons for usage, new button mappings are fine.

The effects of Pokémon loving you during battle is still there, as in if you’ve been playing with your Pokémon a ton, battled with them and spent tons of time, they’ll start dodging attacks to your shout, curing poisonings and paralyses on their own without healing items, and get more experience. It does make the game easier, but I have found myself still struggling against some of the stronger type of Pokémon, even when my Pokémon has more levels. But that may be because I’ve tried switching out team every now and then to avoid being overly overleveled. And it’s been for the best!

Encountering wild Pokémon

First introduced in Let’s Go, Sword & Shield now lets you actually see the Pokémon catchable in the wild, making the world feel so much more alive. The grass encounters are still there, but instead of triggering random at your place, they’ll trigger nearby to you, and you can choose to either ignore or run into it. And from what I can tell, some Pokémon are only catchable in the grass patches. But I could be terribly wrong! The ways Pokémon react to you are different to the type of Pokémon you encounter, some examples being kind cheers from smaller Pokémon, some running into you at slower speed, some chasing after you and being faster than you, and some plain up teleporting away or running away from you as fast as possible. It’s such an awesome feat to see, and I have to note how much I love that Diglett and Dugtrio can actually be seen moving under the ground in fast speed, then coming up in another spot. It feels like such a huge improvement from how they moved in Let’s Go. Same with Rhyhorn, I love how they decide to charge at you, with no way to turn mid-ram! Meaning if you dodge, they miss. It’s such a nice way to show the wild Pokémon’s personality. This is why I ended up catching a certain Pikachu and making it my main Pikapal, despite wanting to get certain type. Because it kept coming at me, stopping to say “Pika~“, turning away in sadness, then turning back at me as I would approach it. It was so cute to see.

There are also fishing spots where you can encounter water type Pokémon, and they seem to appear in similar fashion as in Gen 7 games, but with less-obvious-looking spots. If you run into the spots, they’ll disappear, just like before. So go at them at walking speed! Speaking of which!

Controlling the character

Never have I enjoyed controlling my character’s movements in a Pokémon game before, as I have in Sword & Shield. Not only does the spinning have an awesome finishing pose involved now, you can also control the speed your character is moving at by the amount of tilt you do with your left stick. If you tilt it a tiny bit, you’ll be moving at a slow pace, and when doing this in a grass patch, you’ll be entering a sneaking mode, where your character will try to not make any sounds at any close-by Pokémon. It’s a feature that was last seen in Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire, and boy am I glad to see that feature return!

Now, if you tilt the controller more bit by bit, you’ll notice how the speed of your character increases gradually, and the animations transition smoothly when doing so. I don’t have a gif to show of you of this, but if you entered this post before playing the game, make sure to try it out! It may be minor, but to me it’s such an awesome feat, as I can now walk or run at any pace I want, and gives me more control on the character!

At some point during the story, you’ll gain access to a bike powered by your Rotom Phone, and it helps you move at a faster rate in the game, if that’s what you want to do. I myself opted to mostly walking, mainly using the bike in the Wild Area. Controlling the bike feels good, turns feeling natural and the bike never feels like it’s going out of control. The speed boost by pressing B makes you go extra fast, and you’ll be able to upgrade it up to tier 3 in the Wild Area. I haven’t found the upgrade yet for being able to go over the water, so I’m gonna assume that’s mostly post-game. Or I’ve just missed it somehow, and I have no idea how!

Side note: Shiny hunting

Now, from what I’ve read, despite Let’s Go letting you see the Shiny versions in the wild, Sword & Shield does not let you see them. You instead have to encounter the Pokémon and hope that it is indeed a shiny. I myself believe this was done by design choice, as to make the Shiny hunting still feel rewarding, instead of making you just stand on one spot after getting max chaining, hoping for one to appear. Like it was in Let’s Go. Thou, in Sword & Shield, it’s a whole new method. You only have to focus on encounting that one specific Pokémon for countless times, and at certain points of counters, the chances of encountering a shiny increases. This is all official info from The Pokémon website! And I believe the article also states that, the glowing Pokémon, which have chances of having better stats, egg moves and other cool stuff, also have higher chance of being a shiny.

You can also apparently do Chain fishing for increased shiny chances on the fishing spots, which is quite cool! The breeding method is still the same as far as I can tell, but there’s now also a chance for a different type of Shiny sparkle animation. If you get a square type sparkle, then congratulations, your Shiny is extra rare!

Berry farming

I find the berry farming in this game to be my absolute favourite form, as I myself didn’t find any appeal on farming the berries itself, often neglecting that aspect in previous games, and this doesn’t feel even close to the tedious pick-up animation chain Gen 7 games had whenever you were picking up the berries from the ground. But, knowing how my sister has been liking the discoveries of mutated berry farming, that seems to be gone, and I do find that kind of discovery not being there kinda sad. Maybe there’s something to this later in the game, I don’t know.

Gym Battles

The gym matches provide some extra challenge in throwing at us Dynamaxed and Gigantamaxed Pokémon, which I myself haven’t been able to one-shot. While being overleveled does make it easy to steamroll the first few Pokémon on Gym Leader’s team, the final Pokémon always Dynamaxes or Gigantamaxes, and it does make you wonder whether your Pokémon’s gonna survive the hit or not. I always look forward to seeing what kind of Pokémon is gonna get Gigantamaxed next, as after the first two gyms, the Gyms always have a Gigantamaxing Pokémon on their team. At least, from what I can tell.

Speaking of Gyms, the Gym Missions have so far been a ton of fun. While one of the wants you to herd a bunch of Wooloo to knock-down barriers, other one has you avoiding traps, being auditioned or spinning around like crazy. So far none of the Gym Missions have been the same, and it’s very refreshing! One of them was very easy to cheat on thou, provided you had the right type of Pokeballs with you, which does make me wish Game Freak had implemented some type of restriction on what type of Pokeball you can use during the mission. But, I guess they didn’t want to force you to use certain type. Since you could actually keep any Pokémon you catch during this Gym Mission.

PokeJobs

The new feature that pretty much replaces the PokePelago from Gen 7 games. And it’s very simple: the new Rotom-powered PC Box has the option to check out jobs for your Pokémon to do, and they usually have a description that states in a fancy manner of what type of Pokémon you send out for that specific job. The amount appears to vary from 3 to 10 at a time, and you can send them out for from couple hours to a whole day. Once your Pokémon return, they’ll gain tons of experience based on how long they were at the job, and how well it was done. Sometimes, one of the sent Pokémon will come back with items! It’s a nice way to get your boxed Pokémon up to proper levels, thou sending them out on these jobs also makes them unavailable to use during that time. Logical, but I myself sometimes accidentally sent out a Pokémon on a job for a whole day, then realising I needed them for the future battles. I can only blame myself for that. I do find it a teeny bit annoying how the Pokémon disappear from the Pokebox, meaning if you’re very precise about organizing it, it’ll become a mess. Unless one found a good way to make it less messy. I myself haven’t!

Camping with your Pokémon

Throughout the game, you’ll be able to camp out with the current Pokémon on your team, and play with them using different kinds of toys on your toybox. From what I can tell, playing with them can give them experience at the end of the session, so it’s a nice reward for spending time with them and making friends along the way. Petting is not longer possible thou, which makes the Amié and Refresh lover in me cry in sadness. But alas, if we consider the fact that this game is meant to be enjoyed both docked and handheld, the petting mechanic would be extra akward to do with a stick instead of touching the screen. So, I can understand why it had to go away. This game isn’t motion-based after all, like Let’s Go was. Seeing the Pokémon play with each other and become friends with each other is such a wonderful feat to see, so I feel like Refresh was replaced with a good counterpart. I’m happy with my current experiences with the camping, and look to see if there’s more to it.

Or whether another Pokémon will come to my screen the moment I camp out and just stare at me for few seconds. Gosh you’re too cute Wanpachi!

The Curry making

During the camping, you’ll also have the option to make curry, to which up to 4 players can join up together to make a delish dish to eat. The partner eating the dishes with you is the one who’s first positioned in your party, so make sure you switch it out from time to time to see how different Pokémon eat their dishes! Smaller ones have smaller, cute dishes, while fully evolved tend to eat a huge amount! Above screencap being my Inteleon’s dish.

How you cook is based on what incredients you’ll be using. First you’ll choose the base of the curry, which can vary from bread to noodles to leeks that may or may not be liked by SirFetch’d. Then, you’ll add berries. I’ve been trying out different kinds of combos, but so far I haven’t failed a single dish. But I’ve also yet to get a perfect dish done. I’m guessing the way you perform with the mini-game of spamming button A, totating the right stick at right pace and timing your final button A also contributes to this. So I need to practice some more! I’ve been doing it a ton, and find it awesome time-spender. It also has benefits on making the Pokémon in your party more friendly to you, gain experience, and, based on how well the curry was made, restore health and pp, also reviving fainted Pokémon. It’s a great, cheap way to get your Pokémon back up to speed. Unless you’re in the middle of a Gym Mission, then you’re not allowed to do that. Which is a good way to restrict your healing options and make them more challenging!

Wild Area

Now this is what I was most hyped about in this game. The Wild Area. After couple hours of playing the game, you’ll reach this huge, unlocked and fully explorable area, where you can encounter all kinds of Pokémon, varying from levels 10 to whopping 60s at least! It’s entirely possible that you can encounter higher level Pokémon as well, but I myself haven’t seen higher than 60 yet.

Exploring this area is quite a pleasure, as in addition to previously mentioned controls on your character, you can now also move your camera with the right stick. Which is a first in a main-line Pokémon game. I have also discovered, thanks to a NPC I’ve encountered, that you can zoom in and out with a click of stick button. This will help you see either closer or wider, depending on how you like it. I myself like switching between the modes depending on the situation!

There are tons of areas to explore in the Wild Area, and tons of stuff to collect as well. Each day, each sparkling collectable respawns, meaning this place is the perfect way to farm yourself cash. Also berries, there’s tons of berry trees in the Wild Area, which can also be found on traditional Pokémon-styled routes.

Wild Area is also where, if you connect to the internet with Nintendo Online membership and through the Y-comm, which is pretty much upgraded PSS system from Gen 6 games, you’ll be able to see other players around the world right beside you. It’s such an awesome feeling, and makes the Wild Area feel even more alive. However, this does jag up the performance a bit, and you may see your frames drop down for a bit before coming back up. It’s a shame, but as an MMO player who’s had to deal with worse, it’s.... manageble. Not ideal, but not the worst. The way the trainers just pop out with no cool entering animation feels akward thou, haha.

There’s also Rotom Rallies to do, trainer battles to find, treasure digging through two NPCs and findable trainers who trade up items for amounts of Watts, the Wild Area currency you’ll obtain from glowing Pokémon and red glowing nodes.

Max Raid Battles

As previously mentioned, in the Wild Area, you’ll be seeing red-glowing nodes around, sometimes sending out a long beam to the sky. This indicates that you can enter a Max Raid Battle, in which you can join with up to 3 other players to take down a stronger, bigger wild Pokémon. This is also the only way to encounter Gigantamaxing Pokémon, thou I cannot say for sure if it’s the only way to get yourself a Pokémon that can Gigantamax. I’m not that far in the game yet. But so far, these raids have been fun, although I’ve only ever managed to join up with one other player, with rest of the spots being filled with NPCs. Which sometimes have really weird choices of Pokémon partners (looking at you, trainer with Magikarp against Pumpkaboo!) Depending on the amount of stars, the Dynamaxed or Gigantamaxed Pokémon may sometimes put up a barrier to slow down the process of taking it down. While the non-dynamaxed Pokémon on your team can then only take down the small, red-colored bars from the health bar, the Dynamaxed Pokémon can destroy the whole bar and do damage at the same time. I am not sure if it depends on type matchups or just works that way regardless of the move. But it does make the Dynamaxing feel worth the trouble!

The Gigantamaxed Pokémon seem to have way lower catch rate thou, and it really bums me to see the Pokémon run away after one catch try! God damn Gigantamaxed Sandaconda and Butterfree!

The Y-Comm

I don’t have screencaps to provide for this at this moment, but I’ve been using it quite a bit by now. As said before, it is basically a return to the style of PSS used during Generation 6, and you’ll be able to do Pokémon trades, league card trades and check out raid battles, while also request single, double and multi battles. One aspect from previous games is gone thou, and that’s the GTS feature. Yup. You can no longer put up a Pokémon to be traded for certain, specific Pokémon. Which is a huge bummer, considering how even I used this feature to help with completing the Pokedex in Ultra Moon. I don’t know what the reasoning could be for this, but I guess all I can do is speculate that Switch is not capable of this kind fo feature? I’m not able to say, I ain’t familiar with Switch backend capabilities. And I don’t remember if Let’s Go had GTS or not, but I’m guessing it didn’t. Otherwise, the Wonder Trade has been replaced with Surprise trades, which is basically the same, but this time happens in the background, without halting your progress with the game. Which is an awesome improvement to previous titles.

Quality of Life improvements

There has been a ton of QoL improvements done to this game, most notable ones being able to access the PC box at any time, which certain areas restricting the usages, like Gym Missions. You’re now also able to rename your Pokémon at any PokeCenter nearby you, also being able to make your Pokémon forget or remember a move at same place from the same guy. With no heart scale costs! No longer do you have to wait for almost-post-game to get your Steenee the move it should have learned already but somehow didn’t to be able to evolve to Tsareena, or run back at certain town to rename your Pokémon you either forgot to name or messed up naming. It all makes the game feel less inconvinient and more controllable.

TRs are also back from pre-gen 6 era (or is it pre-Gen 5?), which break after one usage. You can mostly obtain these during Max Raid Battles, so it gives you a great reason to keep doing those battles if you want more of certain type of TRs! Some are obtained while you do the story and explore the routes, so make sure to do that as well! There’s also now two different Pokémon Nurseries to put you Pokémon at, one being at Route 5, while other is located in the Wild Area. So, if you want, you can farm eggs at both of the locations.

You’re now also able to adjust audio settings for music, sound effects and what-not, thou it’s oddly behind finding a key item during the first big city, Motostoke. It’s possibly as a way to introduce this new feature, but it does feel a bit odd to make it an key item instead of making it a setting right away.

Music

Now that we’re done with the gameplay section, how’s the music? In short, it’s darn amazing! Each music so far has been a joy to listen, some of my personal favourites being Gym Leader Track (which changes dynamically based on whether your Pokémon fainted, beat the opponent or whether it’s the final round of the battle, it’s so cool!), Stow-on-side’s theme and the upper Wild Area’s tracks. Sonia’s theme is also such a pleasure to listen to, every time she appears in the story I just find myself not touching anything os I can listen to her track. I’ve yet to found a track that I’d find annoying, and so far this game’s OST has a high chance at being my favourite. Thou, Alola’s OST is still my top favourite, mainly because of Malie City, Ultra Necrozma and Gladion’s themes. Thou Marnie’s and Bede’s themes are awesome as heck as well! Especially the battles ones, thou the ones during their cutscenes are great as well! Lots of love can be heard from this soundtrack, and I can’t wait to hear more!

Graphics

To be able to talk about the Graphics, I’ve been playing the game on both docked and handheld modes. From what I can tell, this game looks absolutely stunning in the handheld mode, while during the docked mode, some of the shadows may look a tad bit jaggy and can flicker a bit while moving. It appears to happen in certain arears during the daytime, so it’s not that bad, but it’s still noticable. But aside from the shadows, the game looks amazing to play on a 23 inch TV, and also on 39 inch TV. The colors are such an eyecandy to watch, and I hardly find myself looking at something and being like “man, this looks so bad“. The trees in the Wild Area? Sure, the texture on most of those trees look akward, but I honestly don’t pay any attention to them? Because I’m mostly looking at the grass movements around walking Pokémon, how Pokémon feel like the belong to the same space, and how it just feels so nice. Say what you may about the graphics, this is the best looking Pokémon game up to date. Even if it’s not as gorgeus as Zelda franchise’s Breath of the Wild. It still looks good and appealing for my eyes as a Front-End Developer with graphics design studies behind as well. Could it use an improvement? Absolutely. Does it need it desperately? In my honest opinion, no. But I do hope the next game in line will look evenly or hopefully even better than this gorgeus game!

I will say thou, the drawing distance with trainers and Pokémon in this game is quite akward. It would appear to be around same distance as in most MMO lowest drawing distance setting, but it’s still noticable. I do understand this helps the game keep up better performance and not drop frames constantly (which has only happened to me in the Wild Area while connected to the internet), but maybe there’s something that could be done to improve the drawing distance in the future, to make the world feel way better? Only time will tell I guess.

Animations

The new animations added to the game look amazing, and your trainer character no longer looks like an emotionless, empty-staring character during cutscenes, but actually has a fitting face for the situation. At least, from what I can tell. The movements overall are smooth, and I haven’t seen too many jaggy model turning without any other movement on the legs or so. Maybe a bit with Pokémon, but not much with trainers. There are couple, but not overwhelmingly lot.

What is an awesome addition to the game thou, is the fact that there’s now visible lip syncing with character models, even with your trainer character, and the speed of the lip syncing is based on the text speed setting. I tried the fastest setting, and it made some of the cutscenes look SUPER akward, as the camera would do the movement as it is programmed, but the text was already done and the character at the cutscene is just turning around or being zoomed in and not moving their lips at all! It’s a bit akward, and hilarious! But this only happens in the fastest setting, as it works well with normal and slowest setting! So, make sure to not put on the fastest setting?

First impressions on story

You’ve reached the end of part one of my experiences with the game! To give of final thoughts, I’d like to say what my first impressions are on the story, now that I’m over the half-way point, at least from what I can tell. It’s been an interesting one so far, with the Gym Challenge feeling like where’s playing an actual Pokémon Anime season instead of just running from gym to gym. Each  gym leader has character, current favourite being Opal from Ballonlea Stadium. And it’s totally not because of how obsessed she is with the color Pink, and how she just scouted out Bede out of nowhere. In addition to Gym Challenge, there’s also a mystery with the Dynamax being built on, and discovering the legend of the Darkest Day with Sonia, and the lore behind the heroes that saved Galar during the Darket Day long, long ago. There’s also the build-up with Bede collecting Wishing Stars for Chairman Rose, Hop having amazing character development arc with having an Ego that gets crushed during one point of the story.

While I’ve been so much distracted by the Wild Area and not having completed the story yet, it feels interesting and I always look forward to seeing what we’ll uncover of the legend next, and whether Chairman Rose is doing something shady in the background or not. At least his backstory has me worried. The start of the game’s story was such an awesome way to get the story going, and I look forward to seeing how we’ll be possibly(?) restoring Zacian to its game cover glory. As it did look kinda beat with all the scratches and ear being cut.

Thank you for reading this post guys! It took hours to write, and creating a new private twitter account to get these screenshots transfered. But I hope this was an enjoyable post to read! I’ll be writing my second post after I’ve finished the story and played the post-game for a bit, which could be next weekend, or could not be. Depends on how much further I’ll get during the next week, haha! Anywho. Until next time!

[drake-the-incubus]

1-50. Your turn >:3

1. Think of the last person who said I love you, do you think they meant it?

I hope so! Hey @hero-of-bowerstone do you love me?

2. Would you date an 18-year-old at the age you are now?

I’m turning 22 and have done nothing with my life. It depends. I don’t really know many 18 year olds.

3. When’s the last time you were aggravated and happy at the same time?

Re-reading my favourite book series a couple of days ago. Menoetius please love yourself more my baby, my child. Also writing my last fic is probably sooner. Cause Xiphrus needs love.

4. Would you ever smile at a stranger?

Uh… how the fuck do people smile?

5. Is there someone mad because you’re dating/talking to the person you are?

Uh yeah. He’s blocked and hopefully will leave me the fuck alone.

6. Have you heard a song that reminds you of someone today?

Uh not really. I have tailored playlists.

7. What exactly are you wearing right now?

A t-shirt, shorts and underwear? I need to change actually but that requires a shower and I’m too lazy to get that ready :/

8. How often do you listen to music?

24/7. Unless I’m watching a video/video calling, I’m constantly listening to music. When I say I’ve listened to a song for a week straight, it’s likely the song has been looped… for a week straight.

9. Do you wear jeans or sweats more?

Sweats, jeans fucking suck and cause issues I’d rather not deal with.

10. Do you think your life will change dramatically before 2013?

I mean the year already passed but back then I was going into 7th I think? If you mean the turn of this year, yeah I fucking do look at the world.

11. Are you a social or an antisocial person?

Anti-Social. I don’t like spending time with people too much and need a lot of alone time. That being said I crave attention from friends.

12. Have you ever kissed someone whose name begins with the letter ‘A’?

I don’t know? I’ve kissed a lot of people I have forgotten bc of truth or dare. Not that I recall.

13. What about ‘R’?

See the same as above.

14. Can you drive a stick shift?

No, and legally if I drive I’m going to be arrested as my learners expires soon and I a) have no glasses, b) can’t concentrate on the road to pass a driver’s test. Also why the fuck do people drive those, it’s… so unreliable.

15. Do you care if people talk badly about you?

If they’re not telling me to my face, yeah. If you have a problem with me, bring it up to me. I don’t like people talking behind my back. That being said, nah. Talk shit about me to my face all you want I don’t give a shit.

16. Are you going out of town soon?

I’m spending the next month in another province so the answer is, already out of town. I’ll be going out of this town quite often.

17. When was the last time you cried?

A few days ago I cried over Menoetius losing his fucking shit at love and then again when Joxeia was struggling.

18. Have you ever told someone you loved them?

Plenty of times. Then it got thrown back into my face almost the same amount.

19. If you could change your eye color, would you?

Yes and no. If I could have full heterochromia with a blood red eye I’ll fucking take it. That shit’s cool and I still love it. Otherwise only to make my own centerlized-heterochromia more distinct. (Blue/Green Split)

20. Is there a boy who you would do absolutely everything for?

My boyfriend? IG. I mean fictionally a lot of boys. IRL I don’t think I could do everything for anyone. Not my style.

21. Name something you dislike about the day you’re having.

I’m hungry and I can’t finish the series I’ve been waiting on bc scanlators dont have the final two chapters.

22. Is it cute when guys kiss you on your forehead?

No. Ew. It reminds me of what parents are supposed to do. Otherwise why’re you checking my fever? What’s the point?

23. Are you dating the last person you talked to?

Uh depends on what that’s defined as. I talked out loud, verbally to my boyfriend so yeah. Otherwise, no.

24. What are you sitting on right now?

A very uncomfortable arm chair/lazy boy type thing.

25. Does anyone regularly (other than family) tell you they love you?

My boyfriend. My friends. Also bold of you to assume my family tells me they love me.

26. Have you ever wanted someone you couldn’t have?

Yes, I want a lot of people. Fictional characters are nice, man. Otherwise kinda. On and off.

27. Who was the last person you talked to before you went to bed last night?

Staff on a server.

28. Do you get a lot of colds?

Yes! It fucking sucks because I sound like I’m dying MORE now.

29. Where is the shirt you are wearing from?

RTX 2018 when I went down there. Wish I could go again.

30. Does anyone hate you?

I would think, someone does, I'm not the most likeable person in the universe. I secretly think everyone does.

31. Do you have any empty alcohol bottles hidden somewhere in your room?

I should fucking hope not. If there is my boyfriend is going to have to answer some questions.

32. Do you like watching scary movies?

That’s my favourite movie genre.

33. Do you want your tongue pierced?

Ew no. Someone else does and I hate them for it. No that shit is… no. Good on other people but I know ppl who have had it and no.

34. If you had to delete one year of your life completely, which would it be?

Um… 2016 bc that ruined my life :)

35. Did you have a dream last night?

Fuck if I know. I woke up hungry and focused on that.

36. When was the last time you told someone you loved them?

Yesterday. My boyfriend.

37. Do you think you’ll be married in 5 years?

I don’t know if I even want to be married, but given what’s going on if I’m not then my bf might cry? So I think yes if we get the finances.

38. Do you think someone has feelings for you?

Uh… my boyfriend. But otherwise? Yeah. I’m fairly aware a lot of people develop feelings for me. It kinda weirds me out bc 90% of the time it’s never romantic.

39. Do you think someone is thinking about you right now?

Uh. Statistically speaking someone probably is.

40. Did you have a good day yesterday?

Nope. I don’t really think it was a net good or bad day.

41. Think back 2 months ago; were you in a relationship?

Yeah. We’re two years in September.

42. In the next 48 hours, will you hang out with a girl?

I currently share a house with my sister in law. We just had a conversation when I reached this question actually.

43. Has anyone told you they don’t want to ever lose you?

Yes and that brings up bad memories.

44. What’s the best part about school?

I got away from my abusive parents. Got to write in class. Met some friends. Uh. Learned about many things, people who’re 13 and spent five minutes learning about, argue with me on them. I learned how to write and use none of that knowledge now.

45. Do you have any pictures on your Facebook?

I wish I didn’t, but yeah because I had to upload things for my parents. Including images of before I was out as trans.

46. Do you ever pass notes to your friends in school?

Yup. Pretty common past time.

47. Do you replay things that have happened in your head?

Obsessively. So much so I’ve caused issues. So now I keep fictional worlds going as a coping mechanism.

48. Were you single over the last summer?

Nope. Won’t be this one either,

49. Is your life anything like it was two years ago?

Hahaha. Fuck no and im glad for it. Not with my parents, not struggling with other issues, not with my ex. Shit’s baller.

50. What are you supposed to be doing right now?

Probably writing a fanfic or planning a book. Cleaning. Could use a shower. Will I do any of these? Probably not, my boyfriend jacked my PC.

[prorevenge]

A potential client tried to take advantage of me and I got her fired from her 'big-shot' marketing job.

Hey guys, first time posting here, bit of a long story. TL;DR at the bottom.

A little bit of backstory, I'm running a painting business over the summer as a Junior in college to pay for school. My prices are pretty fair as I hire college students and have a deal with Sherwin Williams as a contractor to get cheaper paint and materials.

Anyways, a potential client, we'll call her PC for pretentious cunt, scheduled an estimate with me about a month and a half ago for an interior bathroom job and a deck stain. I tell her the times I'm available, but she absolutely pushes for a time where I would have to rush over from a job site, do a hurried estimate, then run home to grab a bite of dinner before going to previously scheduled estimates. I'm a bit miffed but I said fuck it. Sales is hard, I should learn how to bend over backwards for clients. So I show up to do the estimate, and the whole time I'm getting my numbers together, she is talking me down, telling me how if she ran a business like I did, she would be fired from her big-shot marketing job immediately, and how I should be dressed better to respect the client. What I did to offend Her Majesty was I moved her plants to the side to be able the measure the deck better, and I came to the estimate in paint stained clothes since I had run over directly from the job site.

So I present the price of about $800 with a 10% day of estimate discount to book up the season and she says she needs a few days to consider it. Okay, fair enough right? I'll extend the discount a few days for her. So I come back a few days later expecting a yes or no answer and she sits me down and starts to haggle with me. At this point, I'm tired enough already from working in the sun all day and just want some food to stop the rumblies. After I give her another 5% discount just to close the job, she continues to haggle with me saying "The highest we can go is $600." When I finally tell her I can't go any lower on the job or I would actually lose money on it, she tells me that she got an estimate from another local company for $500 and that she wouldn't want me to match it because she wants to support the local community.

At this point, I'm exhausted and my brain is barely keeping me breathing but that price point doesn't sound right to me. I calculated my price based of a small profit, labor, and materials. Now I pay my painters $13 an hour and I hire college students. So if the other company is charging waaay less, they either pay their career painters even less (minimum wage where I am is $11) or the quality of paint is much lower. So I ask PC if they remember what paint the other company said they would use and she says she doesn't recall Fair enough, paint names are hard to remember if you don't see them that often. Then I ask if I could see their estimate contract to try to figure out why they were so much cheaper than I was. PC says that they didn't have an estimate sheet. Now this is a big no-no in any contracting business because you have to keep track of numbers, budgeted hours, etc. Now alarm bells are ringing in my head so I set a firm amount on the price of the previous estimate with the additional 5% discount which means that I make a measly $5 per hour I personally work on the job. PC finally agrees on the price saying "It's just $50 dollars, I can't see why you can't just give us more discount. At [my big-shot marketing job] I would give the customer a discount without hesitation" forgetting that A. The discount would be coming out of my broke college student pockets, not a big corporation and B. I already told her that I would only be getting about $5 per hour on the job even though she wants to "support the local community"

She asks if we take credit, but there is a 5% credit card fee that would come out of my already tiny slice of profit so I ask for check (which I told her we prefer during the original estimate). She tells me that she uses Chase which doesn't have a branch near us and that the nearest one is in New York (we are about half an hour from Boston). What?? Therefore, she cannot use check because she would have to order the checkbook from New York. I think, alright fine. I guess some people these days don't have checkbook. I reiterate that I will lose money on the job at that price point with the 5% fee tacked on and that I can wait until the checkbook arrives.

So I tell her that she can message or call me when the checkbook arrives and I can drive back to collect the deposit and have her sign the contract. On the way out, she tells me that the job needs to be finished before a certain date because she was having guests over. I explain to her that when I receive the deposit, I'll lock her in for a power wash of the deck which will need about a week to dry the we can stain it in one day. She mutters "... [something something] I can find the check book by tomorrow.." Come on now.. she just admitted to lying to me about having to order a check book from NY. So I say that's fine, let me know tomorrow afternoon so I can come by and finalize the contract.

When I get home, I decide to search up 'Chase branches near me' on Google because I found it really strange that there wasn't one closer that New York especially since we were pretty close to Boston. I kid you not, there was a Chase branch 14 minutes from her house. Now I'm pissed. I don't know what else she lied to me about so I call up my friend whose dad owns the company she talked about. He calls me later that day and says that he never did an estimate with her name or address.

I send her a message over Facebook Messenger (I do a lot of posts in local yard sale groups for exposure for my company so I set up estimates though Messenger) and called her out about the Chase branch, the check, and the "estimate" from the other painting company. She. Goes. Off. Here are a few memorable quotes from her rant - "You don't have the right to insult me like that, this is just your first year running a business and I've been working at [big-shot marketing job] for years now","it doesn't matter what I pay you because you're a young and money doesn't matter to you right now" (my facebook post literally says that I am running this business to pay for college) and my personal favorite "you people should be grateful that I even pay you $5 an hour for your work" (I'm Chinese).

At this point I'm ready to just block her and go to bed angry but I have an epiphany and just hear "[big-shot marketing job]" echo through my head. I take screenshots of the messages she sent me and slapped them along with a lengthy description of what happened in an email and sent copies to whatever email addresses I could find associated with the "big shot marketing company". I get an email back a couple days later from a different address than the ones I wrote to previously basically saying thank you for reaching out to us, this type of behavior is unacceptable and we will be conducting an internal investigation into PC. My Justice Boner is about half-mast but I think to myself, that'll be the last of it I guess.

Just today, I was messaging another old client and came across PC's conversation with me. I go to her profile and in the intro for her profile it now says "Works at Self-Employed." Instant full mast.

TL;DR A pompous, self righteous woman lies to me repeatedly to try to get a better deal on a paint job and when I call her out on her lies goes on a racist rant against me which I email to her company who fired her.

(source) (story by RicePaddyFarmer69)

[ltjlily17]

The truth about vampires

Let’s start off with some basics. What’s your name? Rachel How old are you? 35 What’s your hair and eye color? Green eyes, brown to teal hair. How tall are you? 5′6″

What’s your relationship status? Married Alright, enough of that. Let’s move on to the random shit. What’s your favorite song? Mayonaise by the Smashing Pumpkins, Wonderful Tonight by Eric Clapton and In Your Atmosphere by John Mayer. What does that song mean? What is the message behind it? They are all pretty different theme wise, but all three really evoke a feeling. Is it your favorite because you relate to it, or do you just like the beat? They’re all more guitar heavy than having a beat, the lyrics and overall feeling the songs provide are what really get m, though. Have any pets? If so, what are they and what’s their names? I have a dog named Finn, and a cat named Mateo. Have you ever met your idol? If so, were they nice or were they kind of an ass? I don’t have an idol. What’s your favorite method of gaming? (PC, Xbox, Playstation, etc) Either the Switch or my laptop. Xbox is fine, but I guess I prefer a handheld type device.  If you’re in college, what’s your major and why did you pick it? I am not in college. My major when I attended varied between visual communications, education and IT. I didn’t choose nor graduate. How’re you doing today? Meh, theres a lot going on around me with people I care about. I was talking to a friend earlier about how most people are stressed or unhapy this time of year, which is really not my experience. I love buying gifts for others, decorating and baking, so this is generally a good time for me. What color are your bedroom walls? Ugh, like a pastel yellow. I really dislike the color. I have painted some grey paint splotches on one wall to see which one I liked most, but I’ve never gotten around to actually painting. Describe your favorite shirt. I don’t know that I have a favorite. I typically wear a shirt I got from John Mayer’s last tour the most- its got a cool fish and cat graphic on it. Use this space to tell someone off. I’ve no one to tell off. What’s your view on smart watches? Cool or a waste of money? I have one. I like it. I really like watches in general, though and I feel a little sad I don’t wear the analog ones anymore, but I’d miss the functionality of the smartwatch. What is one poster that you have hanging on your bedroom wall of? I don’t have anything hanging on the walls in my room. We have slanted ceilings, so there isn’t even enough space for a poster. My room was covered in band posters as a teenager, though. How many times have you moved in your life? I lived at home til 20, lived with my first roommate til 25, a townhouse with a friend and my now husband for a year, an apt with my now husband for 4 years and now our house for 5 years. If you moved, do you like where you are now better than where you were? I’ve stayed in pretty much the same area, but living in our house is definitely better than the one bedroom apartment we were in. What’s your favorite color and why? Grey. Darker earthy tones. Do you have a calendar? If so, what’s the theme? Nope. Just use my watch/phone. Have any famous person’s autographs? I do on some concert tickets from when I was younger. Do you draw well? Depends on your perspective, to my non-artistic friends, they think I’m amazing. The artistic friends, probably just roll their eyes lol. What type of cell phone do you have? iPhone X. Should you be doing anything else right now or are you just bored? I finally finished the wedding I had been editing and the only other project I have right now is the paint by number of our dog I got for my husband as a gift, but he’s here, so it has to wait. Finishing that wedding was a huge weight off my shoulders.

If you’re in school/college, what’s your favorite subject and why? Not in school. Maybe now that I’m done with the wedding I’ll start exploring some learning opportunities. Are you a cat or a dog person? Why? I would’ve always said cat until I got a dog. There are a lot of things about dogs I was really not into, but I love my dog so much. Personality wise, I’m more of a cat person, but in practice I like dogs. Tell me about the plot of your favorite book. I have several. One has a ghost that rings a bell around a mounted moose’s head. Do you wear glasses or contacts? Glasses. What do you think about horror movies? I like them. I’ve seen a lot of old ones. Back in the day, my mom and I would go to Blockbuster and I’d get a different horror movie every week. If you love them (I do), what’s your favorite? Nightmare on Elm Stree is a classic for me. It Follows is probably the one that fucked me up the most. Got any cool Christmas presents picked out for family or friends yet? I’ve got all my gifts purchsed except for the hub. He sent me a ridiculous wish list that included a suit of armor and a castle and then decided he didn’t want any gifts this year. I’m running out of time to figure something out. Do you do Black Friday shopping or wait for Cyber Monday? Neither. I’m definitely not going to go out on Black Friday and deal with all those people for junk I don’t need. As for Cyber Monday, I don’t really pay much attention to any of the deals and don’t really buy more on that day than I would on any other. Have any mental illnesses? Not encompassing enough to get any kinda of diagnosis. What’s your favorite word and why? No idea.  What is the most expensive thing you own, and what is it? My car? I mean, I don’t outright own it yet. Singular item, my MacBook or iMac, I guess.  Did you buy that item yourself? Yes, I bought the macbook and iMac after I left my job at Cassano’s and needed a new laptop since my previous one was owned by the company. Where do you work and what is your position? *I am currently unemployed. How often do you cuss? A fair amount. Maybe just a little bit more than whomever I’m talking to. What type of car do you drive, if any? I have a 2012 Volvo s60. Are you happy with it? If no, what’s your dream car? I prefer to drive my car than my husbands, but I’m like 50/50 on liking it. Right now, my dream vehicles are the new Land Rover Defender or an Audi Q8. Do you have a lot of social media accounts? Which ones? I have Instagram, Facebook LinkedIn and Tumblr. I very rarely post on any of them. I use snapchat a lot, though, if that counts. What is your favorite genre of music? My Spotify year end review said I listen to Pop, Rock, Indie, Folk and Emo the most. In that order. Does your family have holiday traditions? If so, what are they? Nope. My fmaily just barely cobbles themselves together for major holidays. If you’re in a relationship, are you happy with it? Sure. People are breaking up around us, and it really makes me appreciate the relationship my husband and I have, even if it doesn’t always feel like its going as well as it is. How long have you been with your significant other? Just hit the 10 year mark. Do you like psychology? (It’s my college major). Nah. Never really been something I’m too interested in. What is something your state is popularly known for? College football I guess.  Do you like to do craft projects? If so, what’s the coolest thing you made? I do. I recently drew a bunch of Dungeons and Dragons monsters to use as ornaments on a tree in my dining room where my husband and his friends play Dungeons and Dragons on Sundays. I’ve made some painting as house warming gifts or nursery art for friends children that they’ve hung up and thats nice to see. Do you watch sports or do you think they’re overrated? Nah. Not really a fan. What’s one occupation you think gets paid too much and doesn’t deserve to? Meh, I don’t know that I want to hate on any specific occupation. The extremely rich do bother me, however, with how much money they make, often at their employees detriment. Do you straigthen your hair? Not usually. I have more lately, since its getting long again. I’m more likely to do the loose waves thing, though. Ever dyed your hair a color that isn’t natural? (blue, pink, etc) Yes, it is currently teal. How’s your relationship with your parents? Relationship with my mom is okay, none with my dad. Do you still live with them or do you have your own house? I live in my own home. What’s something you are currently saving money for to buy? Hmm, nothing. The couple of items I want at the moment, I asked for on my Christmas list. Do you smoke/vape? If so, what brand do you smoke/what device do you use? Nope, I’ve never smoked. Ever done drugs? Nope. Tell me one of your worst habits. Picking at my cuticles? What’s a weird quirk you have that no one else you know does? No idea, I kind of doubt that theres something I do that no one else ever does. If you game, what type of headset do you use? I don’t ever need a headset. What type of computer do you own, and do you like it? I have a MacBook Pro. I used to have an Air and I loved it, but my husband talked me into getting the Pro instead and I regret it.  What’s the thing that annoys you the most? When my husband asks google to make his cellphone ring at max volume without even trying to look for it. Today, it was in his pocket. What brand of TV do you have? Samsung. Are you excited for Christmas? (It’s December 1st today when I made this) Kind of? I love how cozy my house feels with all the decorations.  Tell me about your favorite vacation you’ve taken. We went to New York for my birthday/anniversary/Halloween 2 years ago. Tell me something cool about yourself. I am not cool? Did/do you get good grades in school/college? Not in my middle school/high school years. What’s your ringtone on your phone? Vibrate. What’s your favorite store to shop in? The internet. If you won the lottery, what is the first thing you would buy and why? I have no idea. I’d probably sit on the money for a long time and then once I finally broke the seal, buy a bunch of stuff. How long have you had a Bzoink account? Don’t have one. Ever been to Field of Screams? If so, what’s your favorite attraction? Nope. Do you own a Polaroid camera? I have an Instax camera. Do you have hardwood floor in your room or carpet? The two bedrooms upstairs have carpet, but the rest of the house is hardwood. It’s a Saturday night, what are you typically doing? Relaxing at home, most likely. Doing a crossword puzzle, probably. Do you have a lot of friends or do you not have any at all? I have a couple. What’s your all time favorite movie and why? I don’t know, really. I watch the Iron Man movies and Thor Ragnarok the most these days. How many blankets do you sleep with at night? A sheet and comforter. What’s the last TV show you watched? Did you enjoy it? The Mandalorian. I do enjoy it.  Do you prefer cable TV or do you use Netflix? We have cable, but never really watch it. Everything we want to watch is only Netflix or Disney+. What is your dream job and why? I have no idea. Need to get to thinking on that. Do you think you would be a good therapist? I do. I think I can listen to people and help them come to their own answers pretty well. What’s your favorite brand of clothing? I don’t know that I have a favorite. Anything that fits well and has a lot of sales lol.

[cloudynames]

The Demon Knows Best

hey guys!! how is everyone? i hope youll all excuse me for this late fic ;; school has been killing me but during my winter break ill make sure to post more! please study hard if you take exams this december but make sure to take care of yourself!! hopefully this will power you through exams <3 

Word Count: 2,914

Rating: PG-13

Warnings: Underage drinking, underage usage of drugs, driving under the influence, and swearing

lets get it!

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

“Thank you so much for coming!” You yell out, waving at your friends for coming to your birthday celebration. You turn around and grin at all the presents left for you before jumping into the pile and starting to rip off the wrapping paper from the gifts.

Tearing the envelopes and boxes open, you’ve received countless cards to all your favorite stores and some clothing. You laid back once you’ve opened everything and smile. Your friends were so sweet to be giving you all these wonderful gifts. Making a mental note in your head, you were sure to thank them later on that day.

Just as you were about to stand up and grab a snack, a sharp edge stung the side of your thigh.

“Ow! What the hell!” You fume, about to throw the object that suddenly attacked you when you realized it was a wrapped present. Confused, you try to recall if you had missed any present but couldn’t come to any conclusion. Unwrapping the gift, you were left more confused than ever.

The present was a black box with gold engravings on the edges and forming a floral pattern in the middle of the square. Analyzing it from all six sides, the best bet as to what the mystery object could be was a decoration. You sigh, setting the object down and taking out your phone.

Typing in the group chat, you ask if any of your friends gave you a ‘sharp tiny box.’ The responses varied from, ‘hell no’ to ‘I bet it was from Jisung.’

You huff and throw your phone next to you. Did Jisung really buy you a decoration for your birthday? You sincerely appreciated the thought, but he knows that you two don’t share the same aesthetic.

That day, you didn’t look at the box again.

Nor the next day.

However, you messed with it the following week.

That night you were taking a break from studying and YouTube was getting boring so the next best option was to clean your room. Upon dusting your dresser, your eyes landed on the mysterious black box that had been secretly haunting your thoughts. Grabbing the box, you sat on your bed and stared at the markings.

Noticing the tiny scratches and small indents leads you to suspect that the gift had been previously owned. A loud groan fills your room. Why the hell did Jisung give you a box? More importantly, a box that has already been used! You seriously needed to teach him some proper gift-giving etiquette.

However, the box had scratches and small indents. Someone must’ve played with it or dropped it previously before. But if they had dropped it, why were they even looking at it in the first place? The box might’ve been the size of your hand, but it was quite heavy for its size.  

Your finger glided across one of the golden strokes and the piece suddenly shifted to a new position. Your mouth hung open in shock and suddenly you yelled, “OH!”

It was a puzzle!

You carefully worked on the puzzle for twenty minutes and smiled in satisfaction once the final piece set in place. The markings weren’t supposed to be a floral piece, but a cat. But after that last piece set in place, the box began to glow. Throwing the box on your bed and jumping up from your seat, you wondered if the box was simply a decoration. Checking the time comforted you as it was late at night. The clock read 2:37 so it was about time you get some rest.

As the box began to glow more and more, soon becoming blinding to even look at, it was definitely not an illusion. Fearful to make a sound, you slapped a hand over your mouth and closed your eyes tightly, hoping it would all end soon.

Suddenly, the glowing stopped and you opened your eyes.

There was no longer a box in front of you, but a black-haired boy with just as black horns and a tail.

“Finally! I’ve been yelling at you the entire time to solve me.” He exclaims, sitting down as your desk chair while you stared at him with wide eyes.

He took a few chips from your chip bag before jumping up and holding his hand out. “I forgot, humans introduce themselves to each other. My name is Jeno.”

Due to you not responding, he took your hand and slid it into the grip of his, shaking firmly.

“W-What the hell are you?”

“Well, I’m not Hell. But I do come from it! I’m a demon. I’m friends with The Devil if you guys want to go out sometime.”

“I swear I can see stars right now…”

“No, no, no! That’s not good at all. Oh please don’t die on me! This has happened before.” He rushes you put a pillow behind you in case you collapse.

“W-WHAT?”

After taking a few moments to breathe and collect your thoughts, you iterate to Jeno the new information about his appearance.

“So, you’re a demon that’s supposed to make me do bad choices in order to live? Somewhat similar to a leech?”

He makes a pained face and grabs his heart. “Leech is low. Parasite is much more educated and proper.”

You stare at him in shock. The fact that demons existed in your oh so black and white world confused you more than ever.

“S-So, can you like go? I’m a very busy person and I don’t worship The Devil.”

“Nope.” He plopped on your bed and snuggled into the covers.

“Why not?”

“Okay. So here’s the thing: I’m supposed to take your soul so I can leave and I need to make you as vulnerable as I can to make extraction easy. I need to make you do bad decisions though, almost like to destroy your sense of morality and slowly kill you from the inside to out.” Jeno monotones.

“I’m stuck with you until I die?”

“Or until I take your soul.” He winks and a strange pulling at your heart occurs.

However, being with Jeno wasn’t as bad as you thought. He threatened to eat your soul a couple of times but he honestly was a good dude.

“Ugh, I hate eating all this fast food.” You muttered, shoving a fry in your mouth, “but it tastes so good!”

Jeno sips on his milkshake loudly and nods. “I agree—Ooh! Brainfreeze!” He yells and holds his head, shaking from side to side. You grab the milkshake out of his hand and finish it, throwing away the garbage.

“Okay, what should we do next?” You questioned Jeno.

He was in deep contemplation, playing with the end of his shirt until he randomly stood up. “Video games!”

“With what system?” Your room had no consoles and no extra PC for him to play on.

Holding out a hand, a black mist covered his arm and a Nintendo Switch made an appearance.

You open your mouth to question him but he quickly cuts you off.

“What? You don’t think we have video games in Hell?”

You smirk and quickly rush to your TV, only to play Smash until the next day. The next day, however, happened to be a school day.

Falling asleep just twenty minutes ago and hearing your blaring alarm startled you from your slumber. You jolted up in surprise and groaned at the clock. “No way it’s already seven! I’m so tired.” Yawning and lying back down, you curled up close to Jeno. “You’re so warm.” The words came mumbled and gargled, but Jeno understood you perfectly.

Blushing, he opened up more towards you and whistled out, “Well, you can just skip.”

“Yeah… I might just do that.”

Jeno could feel your moral compass failing already, but he didn’t want to take your soul just yet.

That night your parents couldn’t stop yelling at you for skipping, but spending the day with Jeno made you feel better. They made you swear on your life to study that night to make up for skipping and you promised.

Having Jeno in the kitchen was a terrible idea. While trying to study names of scientists for chemistry, he kept opening and closing cabinets, banging pots and pans together, and trying every condiment available to him. He almost smashed a bottle of spicy mustard after it disgusted his tastebuds.

“Ohohoho! What do we have here?”

Turning over to the devil boy holding a bottle of fruity rum, you jump out of your seat and reach for the bottle, only to have your face pushed away.

“Jeno! No! You’re not drinking that!”

“Why? The drinking age in Hell is whatever you want it to be!”

You growled, “Good thing you’re on earth at the moment!” Jumping and stretching for the bottle only frustrated you more when all he did was raise his arm higher.

“Come on, don’t you want to try it? It’s going to be sooo long until you can try it.”

He tempted you and he was doing one good job at doing it. Pursuing your lips, you grab the bottle and two shot glasses, filling them halfway. You tentivany bring the alcohol to your lips and down it. The drink leaves a slight burn and leaves a pit of despair in your stomach afterwards if your parents ever find out what you were doing.

But it was damn good.

Jeno and you spent that night drinking and dancing in your room. Even though it left you with a hell of a hangover, you powered through the day and went to school that following morning.

All was going well (other than you almost tripping with every step) until lunch arrived.

Renjun was rambling off about his newest obsession which happened to be an anime while Chenle was picking at his food half-heartedly, more interested at his phone. Your group was only disrupted when Jaemin, Haechan, and Jisung sat at your table, almost clinging to each other.

“What happened?” Renjun stops his rant to question them.

“Well, you see, uh—“

“Haechan accidentally bought edibles!” Jisung yelled and Jaemin almost sent him out of his seat, a fist flying very close to his head.

“How the fuck do you accidentally buy edibles?” Mark asks, taking a seat at the far end of the table.

“I didn’t know what edibles meant! I thought it was one of those pretty arrangements of fruit!” He complained, slamming the bag of what appeared to be chocolate chip cookies.

Chenle let out a laugh before snatching the bag and letting out a even louder laugh. “Yep. These are for sure edibles.”

The whole table bursted out in laughter and amusement while Haechan’s face became a pretty pink color. He shoved his head in his hands and breathed, “I don’t know what I’m gonna do! I don’t even do drugs! I’m part of student council! They can’t catch me doing this shit!”

“I’ll take it.” You speak up, holding out a hand and Chenle places the bag hurriedly in your grasp.

“Ooooo, honor role student taking a bag of edibles? Who hurt you?” Jaemin giggles.

“Shut up. I know someone who’ll take it.” You grumbled.

Deep in the back of your mind, you knew it was a lie. You were the one who was going to take it, along with Jeno.

“Are you sure you wanna try this?” He asks, fidgeting with his fingers.

“Jeno, if I didn’t know you any better, I would say you’re scared!”

He was. He was incredibly terrified. Every time he looked at you, you were doing something bad. Whether it was telling a lie or drinking, your moral compass was decreasing at an impeccable pace. Jeno would admit he had developed a tiny crush on you. You were so innocent, but you slowly turned into someone he didn’t recognize.

You had already taken a bite out of the cookie and with crumbs falling out of your mouth, you speak out, “I don’t feel anything.”

An hour later, you laid on your bed and giggled. “Hey Jeno, how would a dog wear pants? On all four legs or only the back ones?”

Jeno wondered if someone high even acts like this.

“I can’t honestly tell you {y/n}, but I bet it’s based on preference.”

You chuckle and roll around in your bed. “Jeno—“ You call out sweetly.

A heat rushes to Jeno’s face and he replies, “Yes?”

“You know I like you a lot. Like, a lot a lot. More than a normal person should.”

Jeno feels his heart stop momentarily and he swallows the lump in his throat. “What do you mean?”

“Like, I think sometimes I’m in love with you.”

Oh, how ironic that now he feels as if he is going to faint.

He passes it off as you exemplifying your feelings and he states, “Maybe you should get some sleep.”

He looks back at you for your response and only breathes out a sigh of relief when he notices you’re in a deep sleep.

Slowly, Jeno started noticing your moral compass failing more and more. Although it was his job, he never wanted to take your soul. You were too pure to him, something untouchable. Fate hated you clearly, due to the black box within your room.

The last straw for Jeno was a late night at a party. Since it was Halloween, nobody would question his horns and tail. You decided you wanted to bring him along. Perhaps he pressured you to a few shots, but nothing more! He saw how much you could take with the fruity rum.

However, you stepped up to play a game of beer pong once Jeno used the bathroom. A few beers later and secret shots, you were officially wasted. Jeno, even as a demon, knew better than to let you wander around the disco-like party. He begrudgingly grabbed you and dragged you into your car.

Whilst he kept you from falling all over, he quietly waited for you to start the car, only to realize that you’re drunk and he doesn’t know how to drive on earth.

Panic sets in, but what’s the worst that could happen?

The worst nearly happened.

He didn’t think much of it when you were drifting off into different lanes, but when you almost crashed into a tree, he started to worried.

“Oh my Devil, I have a serious case of whiplash. Hey, are you alright?” Jeno shook your shoulder and you held a hand to your mouth.

“Dude, I’m seriously going to puke if you mess with me like that.” The words came out slurred and Jeno frowned. He knew something had to be done.

He made sure to get on your ass for the next week. Jeno made sure all your homework was completed and you studied at least one hour a day. You resented him for it and it caused that every day stress to creep back into your life once again. Feeling an itch to find some quick relief, raiding the liquor cabinet didn’t seem to do any harm in the short-term.

Sneaking quietly to the cabinet and grabbing one of your mother’s favorite champagne bottles, you turned around only to smack your face in the chest of a demon.

“And what do we have here?” Jeno questioned, snatching the bottle from you.

“Jeno, give it back.” You complained, reaching with little effort.

“What did I tell you about drinking?”

By this point, you were fuming. Who gave Jeno the authority to boss you around? It’s not like he cared anyway. He wants you to do these terrible things!

“Why do you even give a damn anyway? It’s not like you care.”

Jeno remained quiet and you felt your heartbeat pounding harder than ever.

“I don’t care? I am risking my job to keep you safe. I have disobeyed every law in Hell for you just to spend time with you. I even have a crush on you, my fucking host. If Satan ever finds out my feelings towards you, he would keep me as a pet, which is not fun at all!” He almost slammed the bottle on the counter before taking one final look at you. “But go ahead. I don’t give a damn apparently.”

Jeno left you and the bottle remained unopened.

You weren’t sure how to exactly apologize to a demon. They might not even accept apologizes! Yet you needed to set things straight with Jeno.

About an hour or two after your argument, you crept up to your room and tapped lightly on the door. Peering in, you saw the somewhat small lump on your bed, covered in your personal blankets. Resisting the urge to grin, you tiptoed to your bed and laid down next to lump.

After a few moments of shuffling, Jeno poked his head out from the blankets and pouted, “What do you want?”

You breathed out, “I’m sorry. I’m sorry I fought with you and got mad. I know you’re looking out for me.”

Jeno contemplated your response before responding, “Forget about what I said earlier.”

Your mind flashes back to his confession and you feel suddenly light-headed, being in the same bed as the boy who just confessed to you.

“What about if I don’t want to?”

Suddenly, Jeno moves closer to your body and wraps both of you in the warm sheets.

“I would say don’t. After all, the demon knows best.”

[thelightofthingshopedfor]

things I need to do by, roughly, the end of January:

Avengers Academy will be gone for good after I think Feb. 4, so before then:

finish whatever I still want to do in the actual game, which is kind of a lot (earn a shit-ton of rankup materials so I can get through all remaining character storylines; rearrange campus)

finish and post final fic, which is also kind of New Year themed so that’s another reason I meant to do it earlier and definitely want it done soon (also like, with the game shutting down fewer people will be going to the subreddit and Discord channel, so if I want anyone to read my fic...)

make Funko Avengers Academy Thor to go with the Loki I already made a while ago; unfortunately this involves significant rotary-tool work before I can start painting, which is difficult because there’s no fucking room in the garage to do anything and also it’s 10° F right now which means the garage isn’t much warmer

make a 3.75” Loki, because I’ve had the parts (a Joker figure and maybe a Loki head) forever, but this also needs some rotary-tool work...and then I got a 6” Dorian Gray from Penny Dreadful that would also work

play the free Resident Evil 2 demo, because it’s free and it has Steam achievements, but it’s only available until Jan. 31 and it’s strictly limited to 30 minutes, so really this one should be pretty easy (or quick, anyway; I suspect I’ll be very bad at it) as long as my current setup will actually run it

finish Cat Valente’s Space Opera, because I have the ebook through Overdrive but only for another week or so (and this is uhhh the second time I’ve checked out the ebook, because sometimes I put things on hold and then I get them and forget I have them until after they’ve expired)

read whatever looks interesting for Riveted’s free January books, which is pretty much just The Diabolic (turns out I read more books when they’re only free for a limited time)

install my new power supply so I can write a review of it and get a $25 Steam card in return, which has to be done within 15 days of purchase, so...either I need to put the new PSU into my current setup, hurry up with everything I still need to do so I can fully upgrade, or just write a review like “um it looks good and it was packaged well idk” and hope that’s good enough

post Fallout 3 holiday fic, which is more or less done but not typed up, and obviously earlier would’ve been a better time for this but I figure as long as it’s still January it’s not too ridiculous

haha and I still wanted to do that fic of post-IW Loki getting triggered at a Christmas service but I haven’t written anything for it so I suppose I should just...give up on posting it at a semi-relevant time

I still want to do a couple posts about 2018 (and 2019 goals) and obviously that also should’ve happened earlier but at least it’s not totally ridiculous as long as I do it during January...?

comment on the proposed rule change to Title IX (Jan. 28 deadline)

other things I need to do soon:

SWTOR, even more urgently, because a different EA Star Wars game just got canceled so it’s possible they’re going to lose the license and I still have a lot of story to get through (much of which I could and should have during the past six years but, well, can’t change that now)

other typing/organizing. still. ALWAYS

backup my goddamn files so I can actually upgrade when I finish getting all my PC parts

get a cat tree so the cat can actually hang out downstairs with us and eat his food in peace

sign Hazy up for training (unfortunately the first class she should have, for dogs that don’t play well with others, is smaller and more expensive than basic training, and the current one is closed)

send in PSU rebate

make new Etsy listings FFS

things I should do today:

send in American Income Life claim 

leave voicemails for legislators about the shutdown

call Fred Meyer again about my missing glove

move Avengers Academy screenshots off my phone

make current Etsy order, because it should be pretty straightforward

go to Value Village because clothes are 50% off today, although given that I’m achier than I was yesterday, I might just skip this

go to Anchorage Folk Festival to see this week’s other headliner, which ideally will also give me time to write

[christinaengela]

I’ve been writing stories basically since I could hold a wax crayon, and as any writer might tell you, any book they’ve created holds a special place of its own in their heart! It’s no less true for me in the case of “Blachart” in that respect because of how that book is a milestone for me! Why? Well, because it was my first completed and published novel, and also because it’s the first of my books to be released as an audiobook!

You may wonder how I wrote “Blachart”, how it got to be what it is now, what the journey was like – and how long it took! To do that, I’ll have to take you back to the beginning!

It all started in 1986 – 34 years ago! I was 12 years old and in my first year of high school – a budding writer who occasionally caught the spotlight in English class for essay and composition writing! That was when I started working on the foundations of what would become “Blachart”.

Back then, however, the story was called “The Red Star” and it featured the some of the same characters (under different names) and the story plot was somewhat different – and if you’ve read “Blachart” and were handed a copy of “The Red Star” circa 1986, you would find it… well, unrecognizable!

In 1987 I’d rewritten the same story into another notebook under the title “Galaxy 1”, sowing the seeds of what was to later become the first title in the Galaxii Series. By 1988, the basic plot had evolved into the more familiar story of a starship Captain (then Mykl Nikolls, not the more familiar Mykl d’Angelo) being rescued from his broken down ship – and the introduction of the formidable Corsairs… and a character then called Black Heart. By 1989 I already had a good idea of the broader story the series would take – beginning with a back-story called “Galaxy” which would set the scene for the later books. “Galaxy” became “Galaxii” in 1990, and “Blachart would follow on to “Galaxii” in the series… except that the newer prequel presented me with considerable difficulties at the time.

“Galaxii” – the story that would set the foundation for the rest of the series, and be the book from which the series took its name – was a problem child. It went through numerous redrafts and complete rewrites before eventually being published – only in 2020! When published, it was under the title “Best Served Cold” – and as a standalone novel, not part of the actual series!

“Blachart” meanwhile, in 1990 was far closer to completion in draft form, and continued to receive the bulk of my writing attention. By the time I finished high school in 1991, I had a rough idea where I wanted the story to lead. But life was hectic, and tended to get in the way – in January 1992 I was conscripted into the SA Army and had a hell of a lot on my plate with gender dysphoria. My life generally took me into places I did not wish to go. My writing at the time was rather spotty, confined mostly to completing short stories and working up to mastering longer writing pieces. During this time, I delivered short stories like “The Devils In The Sky” (1993) and “A Really Bad Day In The Life Of Lance Corporal Thomas O’Blivion” (1995).

Eventually, in February 1998 I finished the last handwritten draft of “Blachart”! …And then it lay fallow for some time longer, while a lot of other things unfolded in my personal life, in terms of gender identity, self-discovery, and career. In 1999 I embarked on my transition – and entered a world both terrifying and amazing all at once!

Then when things had settled down somewhat, in 2003, I finally typed and edited that draft on a PC, and launched into the modern way of writing novels! I found it far easier and faster to type and edit on a PC than doing rewrites of my books by hand as I’d always done previously! This change set me off on revising all my other pieces as I copy-typed them into Word on PC’s at work! Later I finally obtained a useable PC at home, and that accounts for my rapid progress and increase in production of reading material – which I’ve been told is somewhat prolific!

Anyway, back in 2005, after years of struggling to find a publisher to take on any of my writing, I chanced upon that wonder (and bane) of our time – the internet – and tripped over the concept of self-publishing! In the same year, I self-published the eBook in its original most basic form on Lulu.com. Over the next few years, I ran several updates in content improvements and covers. In the meantime, I’d also published several of its sequels (“Demonspawn”, “Black Sunrise”, “The Time Saving Agency” and “Space Sux!” which were then all part of the Galaxii series).

Very probably the first cover, 2005.

Another cover for Blachart, 2005.

New series cover, 2007.

In July 2014 I was picked up by a ‘traditional publisher’, a small press. “Blachart” was the first of my books they re-released with a new cover created by one of their staff. The content went through a two-stage editing process, and by the time it was released in late 2014, “Blachart” was around 49,600 words long!

In 2015, “Demonspawn” (book 2 in the series) was re-released by the publisher. With another 5 or 6 books still waiting to be re-released, the publisher dragged their feet to the point where it appeared they were going to release just one book a year! In the meantime I’d had to take the self-published versions all down from all the places they’d been available on the internet, and I wasn’t making any money off them at all!

Fortunately that state of affairs didn’t last very long – due to an identity crisis at the publisher which came to a head in mid 2016 when they booted out all writers of what they called “not pure horror” – I found myself without a publisher again! Instead of feeling distraught, I was overjoyed, and leapt back into indie publishing again – with gusto!

For the remainder of 2016, I worked on putting all my completed books back up on indie platforms again, and then also on completing some unfinished projects. It took a while for me to find my indie feet again, and “Blachart” and its siblings went through several cover redesigns in the process, including a change from print size of pocket book to 6×9.

Both my parents were also writers – unpublished for the most part – and during 2018 I finished editing and publishing of most of my parent’s works. Then I took a look at the channels through which my books have been distributed – and decided that I should also place my titles at Smashwords to gain access to their distribution network also. I later also added EBooks2go to that distribution chain. Every bit of knowledge and trick of the trade I learned, I also applied retroactively to all my books – including “Blachart”.

During 2018 – while I was at it (the most dangerous words known to humanity) as the old saying goes, I spotted a couple of editing errors left over from my “traditional” publishing days, and set off to check the whole manuscript for more!

This sparked off another complete edit – and then I added a little bit here, and a little bit there… and before I realized it, a drastic complete rewrite was underway! (Insert pained groan here).

I evaluated each sentence. I added a stack of more material… back-stories and extras that would enrich and enhance the overall experience of what I had envisioned as the Galaxii Series! Two weeks later, at over 84000 words, the Fifth Edition of “Blachart” was born!

To complete the metamorphosis, I designed a fantastic new cover which would also form the basis of a template for the entire Galaxii Series, and which I also modified for my other series, Quantum and Panic!

It was somewhere around July 2019, that I became friends with Brandon Mullins of Moon Books Publishing – I’d just submitted a short story I wrote regarding the topical “Storm Area 51” event in Nevada for September, which MBP was going to release in good time for the event. A little later, it became evident that we were going to be collaborating more in future! In light of this, I was the Editor for a sci-fi short story anthology “Christina Engela’s Strangely Compelling SciFi” (Dec 2019) and still have a few upcoming jobs to do for MBP.

Brandon wanted to help me distribute my books further, and so around October 2019 I took down all the print versions of my books on Lulu and handed them to MBP for distribution through Amazon. I subsequently decided to leave Lulu and to do the same for the eBook versions as well, although I’ll still be handling eBooks on other platforms.

One of the many ways Brandon has been of immense help to me is in making my books available as audiobooks! Although a number of my short stories had been included in anthologies I’d contributed to when they were turned into audiobooks, this was the very first time a whole novel of mine had been released as an audiobook – and it was amazing to hear it!

In this respect, “Blachart” is the first – and the journey really got interesting at that point! It started with finding a narrator – and Brandon had to put up with my perfectionism and pickiness! Poor guy! *wink* At any rate, after reviewing a few audition clips in February 2020, Brandon sent me one that grabbed my attention – by the throat!

The audition in question came from one Nigel Peever – a BBC and London stage actor who also has a formidable reputation in narrating eBooks! To be blunt, I was definitely blown away – Nigel gave us not just one, but two options – with or without sound effects and dramatization!

Mr. Peever is an extraordinary narrator – not only reading the text with emotional expression, but he also included sound effects in the final mix – so the story sounds rather a lot like an old-style radio play, but all read by one person doing different voices and accents! I think it sounds absolutely amazing! Nigel was also kind enough to design the cover for the audiobook as you see it below – and so he’s also a graphic designer as well!

After much consultation and backing-and-forthing and wondering how we could afford this, Brandon came through for me and did me a real solid! Nigel would record “Blachart” with full dramatization and sound effects!

Due to Nigel having previous commitments to complete, recording of “Blachart” was due to start in April 2020, and the finished production was sent to ACX/Audible at the start of June.

On July 09, 2020 – due to delays resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, “Blachart” was finally released as an audiobook! When I first heard it, the result was fantastic! As a writer, I’d often imagined the sort of voice I’d like to have my stories heard in – that is, inside the reader’s heads… and what a voice! What talent – what characterization! What interpretation! That said, I can’t quite put into words just how marvelous it is to hear my work, words that I wrote, being not just read aloud in front of a microphone – but interpreted… lived… with depth of emotion and wonderfully appropriate feeling and thought!

People do a lot of things for payment, it’s true – and between us, we all stand to profit from our involvement with “Blachart” – but as the creator of the story I feel a swell of gratitude and appreciation towards both Brandon and Nigel for making the audiobook what it is – and for giving my words a voice.

Nigel meanwhile, is busy recording book 2 in the series – “Demonspawn“, and I can’t wait to hear it!

The final release of “Blachart” is 10 hours 26 minutes long, and I’m sure you will enjoy it as much as I have!

Until next time, keep reading!

Cheers! 🙂

If you would like to know more about Christina Engela and her writing, please feel free to browse her website.

If you’d like to send Christina Engela a question about her life as a writer or transactivist, please send an email to christinaengela@gmail.com or use the Contact form.

Show your appreciation for Christina’s work!

All material copyright © Christina Engela, 2020.

“Blachart” – A Writing Journey I've been writing stories basically since I could hold a wax crayon, and as any writer might tell you, any book they've created holds a special place of its own in their heart!

[theteenagetrickster]

Beware: The Techno-Doom-Loop

There's a principle I've been trying to verbalize for a long time. The issue is during the incidents where I wish to express it, I am actually therefore snared in irritation and dread that I can't raise considerably more than harsh incantations and also profanities. These episodes have been actually occurring more regularly it seems. Either considering that I am actually aging or even because alleged "cloud computer" is actually coming to be extra ubiquitous.

It happens when you are actually regarding to perform some insignificant task, something that ought to take just 15 few seconds. Like the opportunity my better half inquired me to acquire an audio lecture she purchased from a website onto her iPhone. No issue, right?

In between shooting up iTunes, upgrading iTunes on her laptop, updating iTunes on her phone, upgrading iphone before I can easily improve iTunes, recouping her password for iTunes, deauthorizing one-too-many devices coming from iTunes, one or even 2 other barricades I can't don't forget anymore as well as I'm 90 mins in to this odyssey.

The problem is it is actually certainly not simply that time. "Hey, don't forget the time I inquired you to duplicate that file to my apple iphone and you found yourself throwing my brand-new notebook at the pet dog?" ... as if it feels like that a person opportunity? No. It is actually significantly every single time.

Today needs to possess been cool ...

It is actually Brand-new Year's Time. Angela inquired me if I can always remember a newspaper article I as soon as discovered concerning a family member of hers in Barbados that I had actually sent her. Could I locate it once more? After browsing our sms message I decide I'll inspect my email. Since I switched over laptop computers, (the exact same the brand new notebook transfer that generated my changing from Microsoft workplace to LibreOffice), the global search feature in Thunderbird, the one that browses throughout all mail boxes and within information physical bodies hasn't functioned. It simply raises a blank button window when you run a hunt as well as it merely keeps empty.

I notice there is actually an upgrade accessible for Thunderbird (or even "ThunderTurd" as happened to be known within the following hr or even therefore). I attacked the switch, install the upgrade, reboot it ... as well as now every little thing is actually blank.

I reboot my laptop pc, and it enters a program update that takes half an hour to finish. Besides that, Thunderbird still looks hosed. Repeated reboots not do anything, and also the "Concerning Thunderbird" dialogue is constantly stuck on "Applying Update".

After trying a handful of factors, I choose to open a ticket in the Mozilla Support discussion forums ... simply as very soon as I generate an account ... which I require to validate by means of an authentication code they send out ... estimate where? To my email.

I run upstairs to acquire my phone and also get the code coming from my e-mail there certainly, lastly I can publish my concern ... Merely as quickly as I discuss what is inappropriate to the ticketing system which suggests a lot of various other posts that have absolutely nothing to do along with my trouble prior to finally putting a little hyperlink near the base along the collections "none of these solve my issue".

It is actually Brand new Year's Time as I stated, so I'm certainly not expecting a lot of other individuals to be actually squandering their f-ing day dicking about on Mozilla support discussion forums so I determine not to support my breath for any type of replies.

I remember I used to utilize Postbox when I ran right into a few other complication along with Thunderbird. It was something to carry out with every outbound information neglecting to write a duplicate to sent-mail after awhile and it certainly never acquiring resolved. I didn't mind spending for Postbox, as a matter of fact I liked that because that (supposedly) suggested this is actually an expert provider that is going to handle their paying users as something similar to clients as well as less like livestock. That concept was actually scurried when they unceremoniously cajoled me in to updating to version 6 and afterwards when I arrived recognized that they went down 3rd party plugin support and also that meant GPG help was actually gone. Thanks, pricks.

I went back to Thunderbird (currently strongly ThunderTurd) considering that at the very least that still assisted Enigmail's GPG plug-in. But then, that additionally barged in the relocate to OSX Catalina.

I need to have prefaced of this with "I started on this expedition during a speedy, but bright New Year's Day afternoon". It is actually now dark out.

Where was I? Oh yes, Postbox.

After downloading Postbox as well as hit on the damn.dmg repeatedly again and also absolutely nothing occurs I ask yourself if Postbox determined to discard 64-bit help, or hasn't acquired to it however, but I figure that's extremely unlikely (also though other much bigger companies, like Amazon, haven't bring out a 64-bit Kindle audience for OSX yet).

They carry out sustain it I'm only overlooking something. Oh yes, OSX blocks all apps coming from non-Apple Outlet developers unless you enter your safety environments and also especially enable it.

I enter into setups anticipating to observe that greyed out "Postbox" being noted as shut out, all athirst to click on the "make it possible for anyway" button or whatever it is actually phoned ... other than it is actually not there certainly. There is actually nothing at all. No blocked out applications. So I select the dmg a handful of more opportunity, apart from I click harder and also start promising on every click, but even that doesn't aid.

Then I remembered it took place to become before. Greater than once. And I always wind up on this reddit thread phoned "Remedy!! For all applications closed in Catalina" which seems like specifically what I need to have.

It proposes disabling the OSX gatekeeper, enjoy this:

Which I carry out and after that I click the dmg a couple of additional times as well as the fscking thing are going to still closed.

Turn back to the layer and perform it again

Still no dice. I do hear my laptop computer doing something so I check out the procedure list and DiskImageMounter is using up most of the Central Processing Unit, so I eliminate -9 that, then select the dmg and bingo! Postbox mounts.

(As I kind this rhetoric, which I may or might not publish, I keep in mind that very same reddit string reminds you to re-enable gatekeeper afterwards, which I haven't carried out yet, and also will perform ... right now)

Remarkably, this goes off without a snag. I was anticipating my laptop pc to reboot or even something. Yet remember, all this becomes part of the much bigger picture, which is I would like to manage a hunt throughout my e-mail messages. Postbox is actually still re-downloading my whole entire inbox so I can't pretty do that as yet. I'm doing this rather.

Anyhoo ... it seems like there's an outdated variation of Postbox on my brand-new laptop computer which have to possess come upon when I brought back coming from backups, and it has my aged e-mail profiles and also they are actually in place, apart from ... it's cuing me for my professional security password on my Postbox software program tool as well as I possess no idea what the hell it is actually considering that it is actually from a very long time earlier.

Some more taking a look around and I determine just how to reset a master code in Postbox

Disabling the expert password indicates I need to return to the IMAP security password on all my profiles, so I open my keychain to start re-entering all of them. However as I carry out the first one, nothing takes place. None of the email is coming down. I am coming back the security password again and again once again and also it is actually just certainly not occurring.

I always remember that regarding a year ago we transformed the hostname on the easyDNS IMAP swimming pool. There was an explanation for it, I only can't remember what it was actually. I remember my mama's e-mail was actually down for full weeks considering that I couldn't receive down there to transform the singular hostname environment in her email customer.

I finally upgrade all the IMAP multitudes throughout all the accounts, as well as obtain the codes went into ... which is actually where our experts are actually today. My major inbox is actually still downloading, each of my email routing filters are out of date, I am actually capable to finally run my searches ... as well as it is actually transforming up absolutely nothing.

I began this around 3pm, it is actually now 5:51 pm. When I mosted likely to place on a weed of coffee I finally attacked upon a words that illustrates this kind of butterfly impact dynamic:

The Technology-Doom-Loop

Over the vacations I was actually trying to coarsely verbalize this concept to a couple of close friends. None people possessed a words for it, however they all knew precisely what I was actually referring to. This seems to be near global recently. And also my accomplice is actually fairly well-informed about this stuff, imagine being a complete techno nonprofessional?

One buddy defined it as "South america minus televisions", after the techno-rubble dystopian culture represented in the Terry Gilliam motion picture of the same name.

The center guideline of the techno-doom-loop is actually that: when you start what must be a minor innovation located job, you are actually stopped coming from implementing that job by a pouring set of interdependencies as well as failing shapes that shed with an order of immensity even more opportunity to handle than the initial activity itself.

Just how frequently does it take place to you? The amount of opportunity do you squander in techno-doom-loops? Exactly how frequently does it happen to your workers and co-workers? To your whole entire group? When I consider it, whole projects as well as campaigns get hung up in this particular constantly. Exactly how a lot is your time, their time, our opportunity worth? Incorporate everything up, as well as our experts'll find that this probably has a true economic cost even better than some of the pictured crises our company listen to a great deal concerning in mainstream media and social networks.

It is just one of the reasons that I have a tendency to snort coffee out of my nostrils when I listen to pundits breathlessly spurting about Artificial Intelligence. If our program receives considerably smarter, human being is mosting likely to grind to a standstill before some of our makers usurp our company.

This content was originally published here.

[prorevenge]

A potential client tried to take advantage of me and I got her fired from her 'big-shot' marketing job.

Story Data: long story. 6517 votes. %96 upvote. highly popular. TL:DR at the end.

A little bit of backstory, I'm running a painting business over the summer as a Junior in college to pay for school. My prices are pretty fair as I hire college students and have a deal with Sherwin Williams as a contractor to get cheaper paint and materials.

Anyways, a potential client, we'll call her PC for pretentious cunt, scheduled an estimate with me about a month and a half ago for an interior bathroom job and a deck stain. I tell her the times I'm available, but she absolutely pushes for a time where I would have to rush over from a job site, do a hurried estimate, then run home to grab a bite of dinner before going to previously scheduled estimates. I'm a bit miffed but I said fuck it. Sales is hard, I should learn how to bend over backwards for clients. So I show up to do the estimate, and the whole time I'm getting my numbers together, she is talking me down, telling me how if she ran a business like I did, she would be fired from her big-shot marketing job immediately, and how I should be dressed better to respect the client. What I did to offend Her Majesty was I moved her plants to the side to be able the measure the deck better, and I came to the estimate in paint stained clothes since I had run over directly from the job site.

So I present the price of about $800 with a 10% day of estimate discount to book up the season and she says she needs a few days to consider it. Okay, fair enough right? I'll extend the discount a few days for her. So I come back a few days later expecting a yes or no answer and she sits me down and starts to haggle with me. At this point, I'm tired enough already from working in the sun all day and just want some food to stop the rumbles. After I give her another 5% discount just to close the job, she continues to haggle with me saying "The highest we can go is $600." When I finally tell her I can't go any lower on the job or I would actually lose money on it, she tells me that she got an estimate from another local company for $500 and that she wouldn't want me to match it because she wants to support the local community.

At this point, I'm exhausted and my brain is barely keeping me breathing but that price point doesn't sound right to me. I calculated my price based of a small profit, labor, and materials. Now I pay my painters $13 an hour and I hire college students. So if the other company is charging waaay less, they either pay their career painters even less (minimum wage where I am is $11) or the quality of paint is much lower. So I ask PC if they remember what paint the other company said they would use and she says she doesn't recall Fair enough, paint names are hard to remember if you don't see them that often. Then I ask if I could see their estimate contract to try to figure out why they were so much cheaper than I was. PC says that they didn't have an estimate sheet. Now this is a big no-no in any contracting business because you have to keep track of numbers, budgeted hours, etc. Now alarm bells are ringing in my head so I set a firm amount on the price of the previous estimate with the additional 5% discount which means that I make a measly $5 per hour I personally work on the job. PC finally agrees on the price saying "It's just $50 dollars, I can't see why you can't just give us more discount. At [my big-shot marketing job] I would give the customer a discount without hesitation" forgetting that A. The discount would be coming out of my broke college student pockets, not a big corporation and B. I already told her that I would only be getting about $5 per hour on the job even though she wants to "support the local community"

She asks if we take credit, but there is a 5% credit card fee that would come out of my already tiny slice of profit so I ask for check (which I told her we prefer during the original estimate). She tells me that she uses Chase which doesn't have a branch near us and that the nearest one is in New York (we are about half an hour from Boston). What?? Therefore, she cannot use check because she would have to order the checkbook from New York. I think, alright fine. I guess some people these days don't have checkbook. I reiterate that I will lose money on the job at that price point with the 5% fee tacked on and that I can wait until the checkbook arrives.

So I tell her that she can message or call me when the checkbook arrives and I can drive back to collect the deposit and have her sign the contract. On the way out, she tells me that the job needs to be finished before a certain date because she was having guests over. I explain to her that when I receive the deposit, I'll lock her in for a power wash of the deck which will need about a week to dry the we can stain it in one day. She mutters "... [something something] I can find the check book by tomorrow.." Come on now.. she just admitted to lying to me about having to order a check book from NY. So I say that's fine, let me know tomorrow afternoon so I can come by and finalize the contract.

When I get home, I decide to search up 'Chase branches near me' on Google because I found it really strange that there wasn't one closer that New York especially since we were pretty close to Boston. I kid you not, there was a Chase branch 14 minutes from her house. Now I'm pissed. I don't know what else she lied to me about so I call up my friend whose dad owns the company she talked about. He calls me later that day and says that he never did an estimate with her name or address.

I send her a message over Facebook Messenger (I do a lot of posts in local yard sale groups for exposure for my company so I set up estimates though Messenger) and called her out about the Chase branch, the check, and the "estimate" from the other painting company. She. Goes. Off. Here are a few memorable quotes from her rant - "You don't have the right to insult me like that, this is just your first year running a business and I've been working at [big-shot marketing job] for years now","it doesn't matter what I pay you because you're a young and money doesn't matter to you right now" (my facebook post literally says that I am running this business to pay for college) and my personal favorite "you people should be grateful that I even pay you $5 an hour for your work" (I'm Chinese).

At this point I'm ready to just block her and go to bed angry but I have an epiphany and just hear "[big-shot marketing job]" echo through my head. I take screenshots of the messages she sent me and slapped them along with a lengthy description of what happened in an email and sent copies to whatever email addresses I could find associated with the "big shot marketing company". I get an email back a couple days later from a different address than the ones I wrote to previously basically saying thank you for reaching out to us, this type of behavior is unacceptable and we will be conducting an internal investigation into PC. My Justice Boner is about half-mast but I think to myself, that'll be the last of it I guess.

Just today, I was messaging another old client and came across PC's conversation with me. I go to her profile and in the intro for her profile it now says "Works at Self-Employed." Instant full mast.

TL;DR A pompous, self righteous woman lies to me repeatedly to try to get a better deal on a paint job and when I call her out on her lies goes on a racist rant against me which I email to her company who fired her.

(source) (story by RicePaddyFarmer69)