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phytolacca-a · 5 years ago

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Writeup: First Non-PGM Spell Performed- Third or Fourth Spell Ever. 11/27/19

At the time of writing this I’ve just done a nine-knot spell written in the latter half of the Call of the Horned Piper. It seemed like one I could try out. This will be a long post. This is written directly after working- this post will be edited and added onto once I feel that either it had effects, flopped, or somewhere in between. This will be marked with “EDIT:”

EDIT: didn’t work (which is fine.) I’ve tried to divine on why and what to do better, although I don’t fully understand the “why” I got. If anyone would like to give their input on the “why” or try help me out in understanding it, it’s welcomed. Readings will be at the end.

Nine-Knot Spell, Intended for Good Business and Finance Influx

I saw mentions of business for what to utilize under Mercury and figured, since it’s a Wednesday when I want to try this out (and was told via divination to go ahead and try “tonight”- I did this at like 3am and ended maybe just before 4am so it’s Wednesday.)

Prep: I showered beforehand (although it took me a little while after to begin this spell. The book said to use a deep blue thread on Wednesday, and when looking up colors corresponding to Mercury I saw white. Since the only thread I have is much too thin for my preference of this I combined 2 white threads and 2 blue threads to both thicken what I was working with and utilize a number I saw associated with Mercury (4.) I asked one of my object-spirits to help me with this and strengthen the spell. I lit a candle and tried to get in the “working headspace” to do the spell so I stared into the candle for a while (trying to kinda meditate, but as I’ve said before I’m horrible at it.) Maybe 10 minutes? I can’t tell.

Procedure: I then began to knot the threads. The book tells you to try to focus intently on what you want out of the spell while making it so as I formed the knots slowly I tried to run through and focus on what I wanted (again, business related, and also to land a job) and I allotted time with mixes of “immediately, immediately, (immediately), as soon as possible, as soon as possible, (as soon as possible.)

Each knot was pulled/made as I said the corresponding phrases given in the book:

“One to start the spell upon, Two to pull the magic through, Three to rouse it mightily, Four for power strong and sure, Five to bring the spell alive, Six the magic might to fix, Seven for the secret leaven, Eight to turn the web of fate, Nine the hidden spell I bind!”

At the end of the tying I felt compelled to clap 9 times (in intervals of 3.) Don’t know if it did anything other than make me feel as if it concluded properly.

I wrapped the thread around my wrist (as it says to wear on person if the spell was intended for you.)

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Immediate thoughts on what I could’ve done better:

Although I tried to start out in a better headspace to do this, I was still very anxious and that nervousness and anxiety did persist through the working.

I’m not sure how much the object spirit I chose out of the two that felt like they wanted to help could actually help, since I have no idea what abilities they actually have and if they can directly help me. I did say that if he helped me I would refill my givings to them tomorrow so I will.

Right when I began to pick up the thread and tie it the object (with the spirit)’s head fell from being propped up against the wall and startled me pretty hard. I think it might’ve grounded whatever I had done with the candle (not sure if good or bad?) Will divine on later.

The book calls for the knots to be... regularly spaced. I, unfortunately, didn’t realize how bad I am at tying knots with the same spacing until I did this. The thinness of the thread(s) did Not do me any favors... and neither did my super long nails. 4 knots ended up directly back to back (2 each) and the rest were unevenly spaced (albeit better than the first 4.) We’ll see how much affect this has.

I feel I could’ve done more... Coming to mind is to directly call on the planet Mercury (something Maybe like “Mercury, I call to you on your day to assist me in my endeavors under you.”) and maybe done something with the planet sign? I cannot burn incense in my current situation so unfortunately that isn’t an option right now.

Speaking of my room, I think I REALLY need to cleanse it properly. The last time I did so was 2 years ago almost exactly. I need to cleanse it and try to ward it from things I don’t want in here.

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EDIT: Here I will attempt to write out my readings I got via cards. This deck is supposed to be mainly used via intuition & visual clues, though there is a list of interpreted meanings added on later. I try to mainly interpret Without the list, but when I’m really stumped I cave in and see if they make sense contextually. I think now that this is how I read, the cards seem to do a mixed bag of intuitive & listed.

“Tell me exactly why my nine-knot spell didn’t work”

Well, I’m having a really hard time trying to figure out what this means. An interesting thing I notice after writing down what I can interpret is that this is much more of a chaptered reading than I initially thought. The Omen through Divining seem to = Prepwork. Consciousness through Earth = Right as I started and throughout it. The Dragonfly = The tying of the knots. At least The Soul = the ending & after, and I think Visitation might have been a misdraw.

I asked if I am supposed to take the moon phases literally or not (i.e. when I should’ve done the spell vs. their spiritual meanings) and got Not.

Here is the closest I can get to interpreting this:

The Omen & The Spider- I had too little assistance didn’t have a clear plan on what all I should do. (Based on guide)

Duality- Well, if his was more based in the guide, maybe something about..... black and white thinking? If this was based upon the feeling of the imagery in context, this could be that I was too unfocused; too scattered.

Death- In the next reading, the Death card felt like a higher spirit. Not sure if its meaning is the same in this context, but if so, this could mean I had not called on a higher spirit.

The Heart, Waxing Gibbous, Magick, Waxing Crescent- I think this is about my anxiety and not feeling deeply enough or bringing up intense enough feelings about what I was saying and wanting it to do. I think the Magick card being encapsulated by both Waxing Gibbous and Waxing Crescent mean that^ and that there was not enough energy being raised and used while doing the spell.

The Crystal, Divining- The given suggested meanings correspond nicely together, though I’m not sure on the clear message it’s giving.. The Crystal says “hidden treasure, the core issue, synthesis.” Divining says “a search, finding a hidden source, latent information, need to dig beneath the surface.” These together might indicate I could’ve divined more either before or maybe during it but didn’t..? There might’ve been important information I wasn’t aware of.

Consciousness, The Obelisk, Earth- I think this might be talking about how I might’ve been too grounded during the whole thing. Again, pointing back to the lack of raised energy?

The Dragonfly- I think this is talking about me fucking up the spacing of the knots.

Visitation, The Soul- I... really don’t understand, at least not Visitation. The Soul might have to do with my immediate feeling afterwards that it wouldn’t work and my immediate theorizing on what I could’ve done better. (Something of note is that I think Visitation is the card I pulled and felt “maybe that shouldn’t have been added” but did anyway. It may be a misdraw.)

“How should I do better the next time I do a nine-knot spell?”

Honestly I think this one is much more understandable. This, I’m pretty sure says:

The Hive- Utilize and employ your spirits better. (The Hive seems to be signifier to the little uh... “community”? I have.)

Death- Utilize/Ask/Call to a higher power/spirit. (Feelings based off of the imagery)

The Obelisk- Get some sort of (better) energy source. <- This one I used the “meanings” list and used the one that felt right.

Waxing Gibbous- Cleanse! Do more cleansing of your space/things/yourself.

Telepathy- I think this means to work on my psychic skills, focus, mindwork, etc.

Conclusion: It didn’t work, but it seemed to be a very good learning experience. I’ll have to read back on this the next time I try this. -I’m assuming I might’ve been right that I could’ve called on Mercury to assist me, or maybe a mercury-corresponded deity to assist me? This would then be coupled with some sort of offering that isn’t incense which I’ll have to think on. -I was right I need to cleanse my room. -I also am thinking that maybe I should somehow do this magic (and probably other spells) in front of where my spirits are (which is sort of problematic but I’m sure doable.)

#personal text #witchcraft #knot magic #knot witchcraft #nine knot spell #spell #magic #magick #knot spell #witchblr #spell writeup #divination #card divination #cartomancy #failed spells

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tjp5 · 5 years ago

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Burpees - a story of dread

January 16, 2020 – Written January 17, 2020

Alright, I will say it, to anyone reading this, I either have too low of a center of gravity (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3kqfuGHbeI ref point 3:30), or I am not coordinated enough to do the damn things. They suck, and I hate them. Great, I might be watching Stone Cold Steve Austin Promos all day long. Sorry work.

I have come to the conclusion that this first week of workouts is all about finding your 3RM, and showing you how out of shape you really are. Just to let you know, I am out of shape as hell, I don’t think there is a shape to describe my fitness level, so we’ll go with blob, “hi friends, I am blob.” Obviously, I am not completely serious, but that is how I felt when I couldn’t burpee. I came into day two of this with sore legs, which worried me. The first day was all about legs, with the biggest part coming down to body weight exercises. I was the type of person that would see someone doing body weight squats and thought that it was a waste of time, but I am here to tell you that it is not.

I started off yesterday in an inauspicious way, I left for work and forgot to put my glasses on. With my vision issues, that isn’t a big deal until I try to focus on something, so I ended up having to go home and get my glasses after I had already shown up for work. This is something that I would absolutely have ignored months ago, I would have just stayed at work and not worried about the fact that I was going to be completely and totally a waste of space. It would be a lie if I were to say that I didn’t enjoy wasting a little bit of time and going home. Another thing that would be a little bit of a heads up to my workout fail would be the fact that I felt ill when I got home from work, nothing a little ginger ale can’t fix, diet of course.

Once I got to the gym and looked at the workout, I saw that I am going to become a close and personal friend with the Row machine, much like yesterday the beginning of the workout started there, the row machine and pushups, a little bit of a superset, I guess. I have not problem with this, man titties are not something that I picture in my future so, I’ll push up all you want. The 3RM for the day had to do with bench press. Personally, I am not a fan of barbell bench press, I am not sure if it is because of a prior shoulder injury I experienced, or that my right arm over compensates for my left and it causes a pinching pain. Instead of feeling pain and deterring me from finishing the workout I grabbed the dumbbells, I got up to seventy pounders. I probably could have gotten ninety, but I started out way too low, because, like usual, I underestimated myself. I was pretty worn out, 70 went up a lot easier than I thought it would, but I left it there.

Hi Burpees, I’m blob. Look y’all I did three of them bitches, which is probably more than I have done since fall of 2012. I was upset with the form, and speed, so I switched that to jump squats. The headache started to set in again, I am guessing it is because of the fact that I have not done serious cardio in a long, loooooong time. A friend of mine brought up that it could be a hydration problem as well, and she’s probably right (hold on while I take a big gulp of wah wah.) Where it was lack of fitness or dehydration, my favorite doctor, the good ol’ internet, told me to take a little pause take a drink, and then get back to it. This helped a lot, because on day one, it was flat out debilitating, day two was bearable.

I struggled getting to the gym, but knowing I am not only letting myself down helped. Thanks to those who recommended doing this blog, because I probably would have made some excuse.

Meals: After my lack of prep yesterday I crushed food right at 1 PM, I was literally watching the damn clock. I had a bagel, lox, and cream cheese. Not the greatest, but it was pretty much all of the day’s real carb intake, plus smoked salmon is bomb, it was good for my mental. My second meal came about 2:50, it was two pieces of pork loin, some minced beef with jalepeno and shredded cheese, and broccoli. Like I said before, I had a diet ginger ale when I got home to settle my tum tum. At about 7:40 I had half a giant eagle rotisserie chicken, broccoli and a pretzel stick. Also, coffee and water throughout the day.

Workout: Tough, but easier physically, it’s like my body is clicking over to the fact that its time to get our shit together.

I forgot to post my weight yesterday, I was fully dressed and came in at 265. Annoying, I also don’t know how trust worthy the gym scale is, its sketch, but that’s where we will go from.

I also took a picture to track my process, I will do so after weeks 4, 8 & 12 as well.

Edit: I did do my hair, and I shaved, I think

Cheers!

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ibelieveinahappilyeverafter · 6 years ago

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Villainous Heroics - Chapter 13

Woo, sorry for the long pause between updates, guys! School's really been kicking it to me this semester, but you can't keep a good writer down!

A few quick notes to go over:

Just a quick update dealing with the timeline, but I won't be dealing with the Overhaul and Eri arc. Please assume that these events happen in Class 1-A's second year - as well as any further manga/anime plot elements. The rest of this story takes place throughout the rest of first year and possibly crossing over into the summer break. I don't want this story to grow too expansive where it was just meant to be a short thing, but corndog-patrol on tumblr has art of their original version of this AU that has Mic meeting Eri and it is absolutely adorable! As for me, well, I'm going to give our boys and 1-A a bit of a break. We'll see about Eri popping up in future drabbles, though!

Another note, I've changed the spelling of Shota to Shouta where I learned that Wikipedia is a fool that should never be trusted. I'll be using the spelling of Shouta from here on out, but there will be a final edit to the story once completed so that the earlier chapters are updated to reflect this - any other names I messed up will also be fixed.

Enjoy!

Click here to read the work on Archive Of Our Own.

Click here to read the work on Fan Fiction Net.

If you found yourself enjoying this, then check out my Fiverr gig.

⍣ I have a Patreon! ⍣ �� I have a tip jar! ☪

Summary: Eraserhead is an underground hero who is constantly busy and doesn’t have time to be dealing with new villains - even if they aren’t all that villainous and make the night interesting.

Present Mic is the latest up-and-coming villain in the world and he has a point to prove to everyone out there - as long as he doesn’t keep getting distracted by Eraserhead.

Aizawa Shota is someone who soon learns that there is more to someone than the mask they show to the world - especially when it comes to playing heroes and villains.

Yamada Hizashi learns that there is more to heroics and villainy than he could have ever thought - especially in a world where some heroes still care about those lost in the shadows.

(Inspired and dedicated to corndog-patrol’s Villain!Mic AU on Tumblr.)

<<First/Chapter>> <<Last Chapter>> <<Next Chapter>>

Chapter Thirteen

“Your body moved before you could think, huh…” Shouta stared at the streets below him, the image of cracked roads and dim street lights blurring into a single color as he let his thoughts drift back to the other night with Mic. “What am I going to do with you, Mic?”

Shouta had responded to the alert of a bank robbery and had been the closest hero on patrol at the time. He had gone in expecting hostages and thugs or villains who had been twisted by the cruelty of the world - or had given in to their own cruelty. Instead he had slipped in and saw Present Mic bleeding with a gun trained on him.

The blood hadn’t been a priority. Mic, whether villain or vigilante, had grown used to the pain of a difficult fight. The sight of a gun being pointed at him with a finger on the trigger had been anxiety inducing, but the expression on Mic’s face - the expression of acceptance as if he knew he was going to die and had already accepted it as fact… That had been heartbreaking.

There was a second where Shouta had seen his student and a hand reaching out to crumble her down to dust. It hadn’t been a reminder he needed, and it was only years of fighting and doing hero work that had him reacting on instinct, changing the path of the bullet and sparring Present Mic of death. Shouta hadn’t spared him from a lecture, though, but then the man had gone and said that.

“My body moved on its own before I could think.”

It was a joke among pro heroes. It wasn’t a well-known joke, but it wasn’t a secret, either. Every good pro hero, whether aware or not, they always managed to say the same thing. Their debut, the first time they helped someone, the moment they realized they knew what they wanted to do, it was the same phrase said again and again no matter the circumstances.

Their bodies moved before they could think. It was the mark of a good hero. It was the mark of a good hero - one who cared more about the safety of people than the rankings or media attention. These days being a pro hero was akin to being a celebrity, but even then the feelings were often the same.

Shouta groaned and shoved his goggles down to rub at his eyes, fingers pausing and twitching as they touched the familiar piece of gear, thoughts of Mic drifting up even more than before. The overwhelming abundance of memories and thoughts were drowned out by one single conclusion, though.

Present Mic was not, and never had been, a villain. There was no way for him to be a villain when he was too afraid of his own quirk and only used it when he was helping people. He protected children and saved teenagers he didn’t even know, he broke up fights if they got too rough, and he was willing to let himself get shot to help those who he had never met before. Present Mic may have called himself the ‘Voice Villain,’ but it was clear that he was anything but.

Even half the police in his area thought Mic was a vigilante! After the report he had filled for the bank robbery, half the force had asked him who the vigilante was that had been at the scene. Shouta hadn’t had the heart to correct their assumptions. Plus, it was going to be that much funnier when they were told the hostages were saved by another villain.

The sound of tired footsteps had Shouta coming out of his thoughts and tugging his goggles back up, reminding himself that he was on patrol. A glance down showed a man with long blonde hair that was pulled back in a bun, grumpy expression on his face.

The grumpy expression on his face was why it took so long for Shouta to realize that the man was familiar due to the fact this was the barista he saw at his regular coffee place. He didn’t even know that the shop closed this late.

“-stupid fucking douchebag. I could kill him and people would thank me. Oh, Yamada, you murdered your boss? Well, yes, because he made me stay four hours past closing and clean and-” The words drifted up through the air towards him before dropping back into bitter grumbling and mumbling, Shouta feeling his lips twitch into a smile.

He would have to remember to try and be a touch nicer towards him in the morning if he was there. Back to back closing and morning shifts weren’t exactly fun, especially when he already looked exhausted and overworked. Seeing people like this made Shouta wonder what Mic’s day job was. The man had to be doing something. Hm. He probably DJ’d at a local club.

Looking back down, Shouta now saw two figures in the shadows where the street lights didn’t reach instead of just the one. Readying his binding cloth, Shouta took a moment to assess the situation before he saw the flash of a gun.

Jumping down, Shouta barely landed before he was shouting loud enough to get their attention, “Hey!” The gun was now trained on Shouta, which, good. The civilian, the same barista, was tense and had a pale face and shocked expression, entire body drawn in tight. He seemed to be favoring his right shoulder, so it was possible he was hurt, but Shouta hadn’t heard a gunshot, at least.

“Who are you supposed to be?” The man who held the gun sounded panicked and ready to pull the trigger. Shouta would’ve been amused if there wasn’t a hostage or a gun involved.

“I’m the guy that’s going to kick your ass.” It was possible Shouta took some aggression out when it came to the fight that followed, but Shouta didn’t have much sympathy for those who contemplated murder as being an acceptable risk.

Making sure the knots were tight and the police were on their way, Shouta finally looked to the civilian, gaze flicking him over quickly to assess for damage. The man was rambling about how he was okay, full of nervous energy. He looked ready to vibrate out of his skin and there seemed to be some sort of damage to his shoulder.

“You sure you’re okay?” Shouta asked, pushing his goggles up and finally cutting into the rambling. He a had a lot of practice with Mic, after all.

“Of course! He didn’t get a scratch on me!” Something was… not wrong, but not quite right, either. Shouta felt like he was a few steps off from where he should be, and it wasn’t a feeling he particularly liked. Usually he was still half-asleep when talking to this man, so maybe that was it.

“Well,” Shouta sighed, turning back to keep an eye on the defeated villain. He wasn’t much moving. “You should at least come with me to make a report.”

“No!” That was a very strong reaction to the idea of going to the police. Maybe the other just hated paperwork. Shouta could relate to that. “I mean… I’ll just head home - thanks for the help, Eraserhead.”

“Mm.” Jumpy, but he wasn’t bleeding and didn’t seem in any extreme pain, and if he didn’t want to make a report or press charges, then Shouta could let him off easily enough. Strange, though. It was very rare that a civilian knew his name considering his status of being underground.

The feeling of the wrong steps turned into that of a missed step. It was odd, but maybe Shouta was just putting too much thought into it. If Mic were there, he would probably…

Shouta’s thoughts trailed off into silence as he felt a million little clues come into complete focus in a way that had him torn between incomprehensible anger and utter despair.

There wasn’t any other way to react when he realized his barista of the past few months was Present Mic.

Shouta really should have seen this sooner. He was groggy with the hour or two of sleep he had managed, but he pushed himself to focus as he stared at the barista who had a nametag he had never bothered to read before. Present Mic’s family name was Yamada and Shouta was feeling more and more like an idiot by the second.

Not only had Present Mic been in front of him since the very beginning of this whole mess, but he couldn’t even complain about it to anyone. He could never let this realization be known – to Nemuri, especially.

“Hey, there! You’re actually pretty early, this morning!” Yamada greeted, his tone an exact match for Mic’s in every way possible

“I couldn’t sleep so I decided to start the day early.” Shouta was only half aware of the words coming out of his mouth as he did his best not to be obvious about his staring. The more he looked, the more stupid he felt.

Yamada was wearing the same bulky glasses that Mic had worn all those months ago when his own sunglasses had still been broken. There were the hearing aids that Shouta caught glimpses of when Mic’s headphones weren’t on. There was that stupid mustache that should have been a dead giveaway and all of it was tied together with bright green eyes that were shining as if they knew him and fuck. Present Mic had been serving him coffee the whole damn time. This was Mic and he knew exactly who Shouta was.

“Maybe you shouldn’t be drinking coffee, then,” Yamada - Mic - teased, smile fond and warm in a way that Mic never let himself really show. “I wanted to say thank you, by the way, for last night. It’s good to have a hero around these parts.”

“It’s my job,” Shouta shrugged off, trying to get over his panic and calm himself down. It wasn’t working as much as he wanted it to.

“Well, thank you anyways, Eraserhead,” Yamada laughed, everything about him soft and quiet in a way that Present Mic never let himself be. Shouta had thought his feelings had been bad before, but this… Jeez.

“Aizawa,” Shouta said quietly, pleased when Yamada blinked at him in confusion. “I’m off duty in the mornings, so it’s Aizawa Shouta.”

“Oh.” The word was a soft exhale, Yamada’s eyes wide and bright and a smile on his face that looked fragile. If Shouta hadn’t known who this was before, then this moment would have given it away. “Well, then, it’s only right if you call me Yamada. Yamada Hizashi. Um, nice to meet you?”

“Right. Nice to meet you.” Shouta was fucked. His name was Yamada Hizashi. Present Mic’s name was Hizashi which literally meant the perception of sunshine. Shouta was filled with a dawning horror as he silently realized how many times he had compared the man’s smile to sunshine.

“Right, your order!” Yamada quickly moved to get the items, passing by a teenager coworker who was hissing something at him as he scribbled on an empty coffee cup before filling it. Shouta couldn’t even be upset he only counted two espresso shots instead of his usual six.

Yamada bustled around the small area and looked to hiss something back to his now glaring coworker before setting Shouta’s coffee and a bag of cute cat muffins on the counter. “Here you go, Aizawa-san! Consider this one on the house as thanks for last night.”

“Oh, uh…” This man was too sweet. This man was literally sunshine and Shouta had no idea how to deal with it. It was one thing dealing with Mic’s cockiness and rapid wit, but it was another dealing with this soft and quiet barista who gave the warmest smiles. “That’s really-”

“I won’t take no for an answer,” Yamada insisted, pushing the items closer and then crossing his arms. “And I can be a lot more stubborn than you can!”

“That part I didn’t doubt,” Shouta muttered, taking the items and half hiding behind his binding cloth as he eyed Yamada. “Thank you.”

“Of course! Just don’t make me say that stupid ‘have a lovely day’ phrase,” Yamada mock frowned, sticking his tongue out. “It’s so lame!” The frown disappeared in favor of one of those bright smiles. “Have a nice day, Aizawa-san!”

Shouta managed to keep himself together, as well as mumble back a response, and make it all the way to the U. A. staff room. He was in complete control of himself for the entire time. The moment he sat down, though, he let his head hit the desk, cheek squished against the desk as he felt his cheeks redden.

“My, my, what’s this, Shou-chan? Are you feeling embarrassed over something?” Nemuri, the utter vulture, was leaning off his chair in a second. Shouta did his best to ignore her and instead looked at his coffee cup which… didn’t have his name written on it. Instead, scrawled across his cup in looping lines:

Sound does not travel when no one hears Yet you have always listened for me From my loudest shouts To my quietest whispers

My voice has never fallen on deaf ears since you Is it any wonder I fell for you Like the last sharp note of a song Trailing off before dropping into unknown

“Holy shit, are you dying? Your face just got so red?” Nemuri’s shocked voice barely even registered, Shouta only staring at where Present Mic had written a love poem on his coffee cup. Oh, god, how often had he done this? Had Shouta been throwing away cups with love notes on them this whole time?

Shouta turned his head to rest his forehead against his desk, his co-workers chatting above him in a way to where it was nothing except for white noise.

Jeez… Shouta had never felt so blind as he did now.

#bnha #boku no hero academia #mha #my hero academia #erasermic #villain!mic #corndog-patrol #villainous heroics

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comicteaparty · 6 years ago

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June 24th-June 30th, 2019 CTP Archive

The archive for the Comic Tea Party week long chat that occurred from June 24th, 2019 to June 30th, 2019. The chat focused on Drugs & Wires by Mary Safro & Io Black.

Featured Comment:

Chat:

RebelVampire

COMIC TEA PARTY- WEEK LONG BOOK CLUB START!

Hello and welcome everyone to Comic Tea Party’s Week Long Book Club~! This week we’ll be focusing on Drugs & Wires by Mary Safro & Io Black~! (https://www.drugsandwires.fail/)

You are free to read and comment about the comic all week at your own pace, so stop on by whenever it suits your schedule! Remember, though, that while we allow constructive criticism, our focus is to have fun and appreciate the comic. Below you will find four questions to get you started on the discussion. However, a new question will be posted and pinned everyday (between 12:01AM and 6AM PDT), so keep checking back for more! You have until June 30th to tell us all your wonderful thoughts! With that established, let’s get going on the reading and the chatting!

QUESTION 1. What has been your favorite scene in the comic so far? What specifically did you like about it?

QUESTION 2. Who do you think made the Worm and for what reason? Why does it seem to mostly be affecting Stradania and not other places? Do you think Dan’s implant can ultimately be fixed, or is he stuck forever away from VR?

RebelVampire

QUESTION 3. At the moment, who is your favorite character? What about that character earns them this favor?

QUESTION 4. What aspect of the world’s cyberpunk setting interests you the most and why? Alternatively, what aspect are you hoping to see explored a bit more in regards to how it affects the characters?

RebelVampire

1) Gonna be a bit depressing when I say the bridge scene where Dan almost threw himself off it. Which I'm gonna spoiler tag the rest of this just as a suicide trigger warning precaution. I was 100% right there in the moment with him during that scene. Like I understood why he'd arrived at that conclusion, and it didn't come off as patronizing as I feel a lot of similar suicide scenes often do in comics. This is a man who even I felt really had nothing to live for, as sad as that is to say. Not that I wanted Dan to die, of course, but I get absolutely why he would. And then when he's saved, I liked that he is angry about it. Cause that is a dark reality I feel too many comics shy away from. And just all that gritty realism really hit me in the heart. 2) I don't know who made the worm and I don't think it matters all that much. Rather, I think the reason is more important, and the reason I think is to either kill VR or draw attention to Dan's shitty country. Which I kind of want to believe the latter, that this is somehow politically motivated. Or even if its the former, the idea is to get ppl more politically involved. That being said, I do think it's someone in Stradania who made it. As for Dan's implant being fixed, I don't think so. I don't think he'll be let off the hook that easy, and that he will continue to have to face his awful world for what it is, garbage and all.

3) Dan because he is the delicious epitome of a flawed protagonist. He's not mean, but between his drug problems, his crappy attitude towards most people, and so forth, he's got some real issues to work through. But that's great, cause at least that makes the few steps forward he's taken more satisfying. Since he's not getting those steps easy. He has to basically crawl through metaphorical lava to gain even 2 cm. 4) I really like the world's integration of VR and cybernetics. Like it's not on the level it's just there, but there's businesses around it, slang around it, and so forth. It's presented as this super ingrained culture thing, and that is super hard to play off. And it's just really well-done to see all the ways that those aspects bleed into their lives, whether the invention was intended to do so in that way or not.

Historical Jesus

I'm about to catch up. gimmy some time

RebelVampire

itll be going for the rest of the week, so theres no rush.

snuffysam

1) My favorite scene is the basement wake. It's a cool way to introduce those side characters (especially Vlad), and we were shown how our protagonist is seen through other people's eyes.

Like, we as the readers get to see Dan's struggles first-hand, but seeing the way Dan's "friends" think of him as a mindless junkie is really eye-opening

Re-reading the wake chapter made me think of something regarding question (2). Rebel, you suggested that the worm may have been made to kill VR. Could the reverse be true instead? Vlad has this speech about how the victims of the worm are martyrs, and the rest of the cast groans... but maybe he's not so far off.(edited)

My favorite character is Lin. On the surface, she's a terrible, shady person, but she's got heart where it counts! (in a trunk with a bunch of other organs)

Though I also really like Dan, for the same reasons as Rebel. He starts off in such a terrible place, and watching him take baby steps towards improvement is... honestly, uplifting, even if he does sometimes take some big steps backward.(edited)

RebelVampire

QUESTION 5. What has been your favorite illustration in the comic so far? What specifically about it do you like?

QUESTION 6. Do you think Dan will manage to find Eve again? If so, how might that affect him? Further, what do you think Dan’s past history is in general with his family and others that might play a role in the story?

Historical Jesus

Is the person writing this comic Russian

RebelVampire

cant speak for Io, but while not from Russia, Mary does speak Russian

Historical Jesus

SHe might have had family immigrate from Russia. This story just feels very Russian in the sense that everyone is down on their luck

But yeah. This story is freaking great!

Cryo

Hey, Mary here! I'm a Russian from Latvia, Io's German but I usually consult him on any Russian bits we have in the comic : D thanks so much for reading, loved seeing all the replies so far!

Historical Jesus

It's you

@Cryo Do you have experience with information security or bug hunting?(edited)

I mean, you sound like you REALLY understand hacker culture(edited)

Historical Jesus

ok I finished

1: Favorite scene? Hard to tell honestly. I like them all for different reasons. It's the continuum of the story I appreciate. The fact I'm always wanting to see what happens next? 2: Who made the worm. I've noticed that people who were infected had illegal copies of software. From a cybersecurity perspective, worms only work when either (A) someone finds a vulnurability that has never before been seem or (B) people don't update their shit for whatever reason. Hence why most software schedules mandatory updates. This could just be the inevitable conclusion to using pirated or older software. 3: Favorite character: Dan. I can relate to him the most. I don't do party drugs, just psycodelics.

4: Favorite aspect of cyberpunk. Historical relevance. In our past, rulers were privileged to rule because humans believed they were "ordained by God" to rule. European philosophers then said that the right to rule belongs to those who become the height of natural selection/ The premise being that there is no god and that we are "free agents" with "free will." No one is entitled to anything unless they produce something of value. This made perfect sense when manual labor was relevant and everything had to be done by hand. This includes pen and paper math. Hence why pay is exclusively based on labor value. Enter the age of technology fucked this up. Capitalism today is STUPIDLY efficient. We WHOOPED natural selections ass. We also learned that humans can't simply "change their outlook at will." Humans are mortal and are not much different than machines. The have needs and all that pesky human stuff. Some people could argue that healthier people have more free will than others, but poverty is the inevitable conclusion to this "free will" "labor value" mindset. But people think principles are sacred and set in stone. So what we are seeing is devalued labor and everyone becoming more poor and the formation of corporate oligarchies and dependences. Cyberpunk was WAY ahead of it's time in seeing this. We need to revisit this genre because I sure as shit don't want to live under a global illuminati with hard line cultural segregation.(edited)

Cryo

No, no real hacking experience here, I'm a 3d modeller by trade. We do our research when we can but our readers are a lot more technically minded than we are :p

Historical Jesus

I love 3D modeling

Attila Polyák

I'll be totally honest your work didn't really catch me at first, but I kept reading. Aaaaand dang that was a good decision. This is genuinely well made. I'm only at the end of chapter 4 but that bridge scene was great. I'm pretty sure it'll be my favourite scene but I need to read the rest first.

Historical Jesus

I have one of two options in life. Make high detailed models to sell on Gumroad or make comics. Gumroad will require constant adaptation to new software, but I already have my comic story structure fgiured out

Cryo

@Attila Polyák thanks for giving us a chance! Hope you enjoy the rest ( though chapter 5 is a lot less dramatic in comparison!)

Historical Jesus

Do you have a resolution in mind or are you just making it as you go?

Cryo

Yeah, we know where we're taking the story, but how it gets there can vary. Lots of the scenes we wrote years ago have to be tweaked or redone entirely to work

Historical Jesus

If the "free will" capitalist have their way, then we can expect the future to look very similar. Lots of poor people using lots of old tech. All software and hardware is closed sourced and locked down.The division between rich and poor will be larger than ever. Many of the zero days will be state sponsored much like they are now and they can use this to legally infect people and categorize them and use their own information against them if they ever become a threat to the state or the rich tech oligarchy

When I read this I got sense of creepy forcasting

More kids are playing with the Linux Kernal than smoking cigarettes so we might be ok

Historical Jesus

5: Favorite illustration? Anything that involved gif animations. That's not to say it should be overused but it was used at the right time

6a: Will Dan find Eve again? Probably. Since Cryo has a conceptual end in mind, I imagine she serves a key purpose in the plot. If they don't then it's likely that their actions will effect each other in some way.(edited)

6b: What is Dan's history with his parents? Let's look at who Dan is now. He's a poor drug addict who has had a dead end job. Yet he is not an overly angry person. Just depressed. He hangs around computer poetry people and other drug people. As a person who has experience with drugs, I noticed three types of people who do the dangerous drugs. At least in the US. They are... -People who have had repressive or needlessly strict parents. Thus overdoing drugs becomes associated with freedom and eventually a point of rebellion. But you can do too many of them. -People who are poor and need to sell them because they are poor. Naturally many of them do the drugs themselves so they naturally become addicted. -People who's parents are drug users themselves. The people who teach are schools will tell you it's that "people are trying to be cool" and it has nothing to do with that. Truth be told, they are hiding something. There is also a lot of dark racial history behind enhancing substances and the law and that can influence people's decision to take them, but I don't want to get into that because I don't want to get booted from this server.(edited)

Historical Jesus

Actually, @Cryo, would you be willing to give us a brief personal biography? Also, if you are, then can you tell us about your parents, what they did for a living, and the income situation you had growing up.(edited)

Why am I asking this? I think we can come up with more interesting answers about the comic if we know YOU as a person and how that influences your writing. I was able to infer that this story sounded Russian as fuck. Since the setting was Russian, I figured you were either from there or had family there

We can give more interesting answers that can help you come up with more interesting writing

RebelVampire

@Historical Jesus Your questions are getting a little personal, and while I understand the logic behind them, keep in mind we're here to discuss the comic and not the creators' personal lives.

keii4ii

Yeah... I feel even if the creators are okay with discussing it, this stuff is best left to DM

Historical Jesus

I understand. I would like to give her the choice. If she chooses not to then I understand. Biologically speaking, I think art is meant to be personal.

keii4ii

(and of course, if they don't want to discuss it, no one should pressure them about it )

RebelVampire

yeah if @Cryo wants to answer that's fine. Just for the future please keep those sorts of questions to a minimum and watch the wording on them. Cause that statement did sound overly pressure filled.

Historical Jesus

of course

keii4ii

I don't think we should be getting further into this territory?

RebelVampire

Agreed. This isn't a really appropriate topic for #week_long_bookclub, @Historical Jesus and has little to do with the comic.

Historical Jesus

I understand. I'm trying to demonstrate the the relevance and the benefits of understanding the author as a person. And again, it's her choice to choose what she discloses.

RebelVampire

And again, I get the logic. But just not appropriate for this discussion.

Historical Jesus

fair enough. I just want it to be known

I rephrased the question so it's less assertive. I apologies, I suck with social skills. Hopefully by the time she reads it, then it will be more inviting for her.

RebelVampire

thats better wording for sure, thank you.

Historical Jesus

no problem

art was definitely designed to be personal. The reason why a lot of big budget art feels bland is because it's meant for everyone and they have to not get too deep into offending people. Because it has to make money. That requires the work of a true genius. D&W is specialized and it will attract a certain group of people. Mostly people who value anonymous culture like myself. Or so I imagine.

RebelVampire

QUESTION 7. Which characters do you enjoy seeing interact the most? What about their dynamic interests you?

QUESTION 8. Will Lin actually go through with her plan to get into politics? If so, do you believe she can actually make a difference? What obstacles do you think she might run into, and do you think Dan will be of any help to her?

Cryo

(i would appreciate not having to talk about my life and anyones political beliefs neither here nor in DMs, thanks for understanding)(edited)

Historical Jesus

Understood

Historical Jesus

7: Dan, primarily because he is relatable. He would interact the way I would. Not having money sucks.

Historical Jesus

8: Will in go into politics? Probably not. She strikes me as a neroatypycal character. I could be wrong though.

RebelVampire

@snuffysam If the worm was designed to improve VR, I really want to meet the person who decided that making ppl martyrs was the way to go. Cause that's some backwards thinking, imo at least XD

5) There's a lot of really great ones, but I'm kind of fond of the illustration of Dan puking up rainbows. It's this cool mix of gross, psychedelic, and not what I expected. It expressed a lot of mood somehow for something that's less grand than I usually pick. 6) I think Dan will find Eve again, if only cause from a technical perspective she was introduced super early on to not be important. However, I think meeting her again is just gonna make him feel bad about himself as he realizes how little his baby steps of improvement are. In regards to his family, just gonna be bold and say my theory: his dad is part of that political group that took control and really hates cyborgs and technology and all that. Thus they were probably not the most open-minded and rejected Dan in multiple ways both through emotional abuse and neglect.

7) I like seeing Dan and Troy right now. Everyone else in the comic is kind of...shitty towards Dan. Like i know Dan isn't the greatest person, but I would hate to be in the situation where I'm constantly being told I'm a junkie who won't amount to anything. Which I mean don't get me wrong, those are interesting interactions. But Troy? Troy is this new person whose only experience with Dan is kind of a nice if not high tension one. Troy comes with a fresh, no prior knowledge of Dan perspective, and I think that's really interesting and gonna be a good way to shed new light on Dan's more positive traits. 8) I think Lin will try to go through with it, but I think Lin is fighting a losing game. Short of stuffing the ballot, I don't think those she's trying to help will vote for her. Instead they'll just bitch and be complacent to the world around them. But on that same vain, Lin probably could just stuff the ballots to win. I umm...honeslty don't think Dan can help her in anyway. Dan is really busy helping himself to suck less at the moment. XD

RebelVampire

QUESTION 9. What sorts of art or story details have you noticed in the way the comic is crafted that you think deserves attention?

QUESTION 10. What do you think Sandman and Fixer will find in regards to the Worm as the story continues, and what does the VR cafe Sandman has been hacking have to do with anything? How will Nate tie into this given he’s looking for Fixer?

RebelVampire

QUESTION 11. What do you think are this particular comic’s strengths? What do you think makes this comic unique? Please elaborate.

QUESTION 12. Overall, what role do you think Troy will have within the story? Additionally, how will she get out of her situation with having no ID, money, or much in the way of people she knows?

Historical Jesus

9: The art against the web design literally looks like something we would see at Def Con

10: I image he has a lead. After all his motivation is revenge

11: it’s strength is that it's good at making people empathize with characters even if you can't relate to them

12: I don't think Troy will get out of her situation. If she comes back to the states empty handed she will be fired. It might be in her best interest to get wrapped up in finding the worm programmer

Typically speaking large scale worms are state sponsored but it's not clear how far this thing actually spreads.

RebelVampire

9) My favorite details so far have been the small things in the background. Like the random graffiti on the walls, the cracks and dilapidation of the buildings, all the small do-dads in Lin's place. Like none of that needs to be there to create a complete background, but it adds so much character to the setting and each character. So I really appreciate the extra mile taken for that. 10) I think Sandman and Fixer are gonna find that some corporation or someone high up on some food chain made it on purpose. As for the VR cafe? Honestly, I think it's a red herring and Sandman is making an excuse to target them just cause he hates them. As for Nate, I think Nate is gonna join the investigation team but also kind of serve as a negotiator between Fixer and Dan. Cause I don't think those two will get along without help.

11) I think this comic's strengths are a) the setting both visually and story wise, as it's a really strong and vivid setting. then b) Dan. It is very, very hard to write a character like Dan. There are so many things he does that could immediately make him unlikeable, what between the drugs, self destruction, and general assholeness to some of the ppl around him. but yet he is likeable. you do want to see him succeed and not suffer. yet you also still can acknowledge hes unreliable. its a great dynamic that lesser writing could not pull off. 12) I think Troy is gonna be their viewport into the corporate world. Which I think will play a role since there is a themeing here about evil corporations. Plus, she at least knows some stuff better than they do, as she already showed off at the VR cafe. But getting out of it? Nope. Shes stuck and probably gonna make another panicked call to Dan at some point. And Dan will be an angel and help again.

snuffysam

I'm going to go out on a limb here. Not only will Lin go through with running for office, she'll win. And she won't even have to stuff the ballot that much. But... I'm not sure her fight will be over there. After all, there's more than just one corrupt person in the country. I agree with you on the investigation into the Worm, @RebelVampire . I think someone up the corporate ladder is responsible. With that said, I don't think Sandman is targeting the VR cafe for nothing. I think he's trying to draw more attention to their security flaws for... some reason. I guess to get more people involved in investigating? I doubt he foresaw Troy showing up and offering to upgrade the cafe's machines though, so I that probably isn't part of his plan. I think a major part of Dan's character arc going forward will be accepting that he doesn't need Eve. Like, accepting that he doesn't need her help to get better, and that he's the only one he needs to prove his progress to.

Dan's character writing is absolutely my favorite part of this comic. In a weaker comic, I would absolutely hate how a self-destructive character like Dan is portrayed. Like, often characters with addiction/other mental health problems in fiction come off as unlikeable, or too cartoonish, or too depressingly stagnant (at least, from what I've seen in other works of fiction). But Drugs & Wires strikes a great balance where character progression isn't always linear, and isn't always positive, but it's there, and that fluidity makes you want to root for him more each chapter.

Attila Polyák

Now that I finally read all of it... 1, The bridge scene at the end of chapter 4, that was really done. 2, Dan's implant... I'm pretty sure it can be fixed, but I have doubts if Dan will ever have the resources to have it fixed. As a matter of fact I feel like he'll never have the money or influence to have it fixed and the way it is he can't really replace it either, so... He's probably stuck without VR. 3, Lin! She's awesome! 4, Probably the grey market implant dealers, even though that's kinda bog standard cyberpunk stuff. :) 6, Yes, they will probably meet again. And yes, I do feel like we'll need to see more of Dan't past history especially about how he got involved in... well in everything that's his current life. 7, Nagy, as surreally odd, is a great addition to Dan. Like at times I thought his absurdity would actually help Dan. 8, Ofc she will, you don't forge that much "voter trust" for nothing. And Dan, tho probably seemingly unwillingly, will likely help her one way or another.

RebelVampire

QUESTION 13. What are you most looking forward to in the comic? Also, do you have any final thoughts to share overall?

QUESTION 14. Do you think Dan will ever be able to kick his drug habit, or will he continue to fall back into it forever? How will this affect his relationships? Further, how will his habits shape his future role in the story?

RebelVampire

13) I'm looking forward to getting more info about the worm. Cause right now I dont feel any more knowledgeable than I did at the start, and I'm itching to see Sandman, Fixer, or Dan to somehow get a bigger clue to what's going on. 14) I think both will apply. In that Dan will kick the habit eventually but will always be at risk because addiction is not really something you just completely cure. It's a battle he'll have for his entire life, even if he learns to manage it. As for for his relationships, I don't think it'll have much affect, tbh. Maybe things with Lin will improve, maybe Eve. But everyone else is kind of a jerk who already writes him off. Dan is in need of a fresh start somewhere far away.

Historical Jesus

13: Same here. I would like to know more about the worm. I hope that Cyro puts a cool technical characteristic into the worms behavior so that creates interesting and unique challenges for the characters 14: Statistically speaking most people do not kick their drug habit's. Especially not in the position he is in. Based on the story's cultural nature, I doubt the ending will be happy. But I am sure it will be interesting

Cryo

Thanks so much for picking and reading our comic this week! I've had a great time reading all the replies, especially since we don't hear from new readers often, and it's gonna come in handy when we get back into writing more stuff for the comic.

snuffysam

I had a great time reading it, Cryo!

Io.Black

Just wanted to add my own thanks to everybody who took the time to read and comment this past week. As a writer, it’s always incredibly valuable to get a sense of what people are taking away from your work, as well as where they think it’s headed.

RebelVampire

COMIC TEA PARTY- WEEK LONG BOOK CLUB END!

Thank you everyone so much for reading and chatting about Drugs & Wires this week! Please also give a special thank you to Mary Safro & Io Black for volunteering the comic and creating it! If you liked Drugs & Wires, make sure to continue to support it via some of the links below!

Read and Comment: https://www.drugsandwires.fail/

Drugs & Wires’ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/drugsandwires

Drugs & Wires’ Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/Cryodraws

Drugs & Wires’ Merch: https://www.hellovoid.online/

Safro’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/marysafroart

Io Black’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/b_iologic

#ctparchive #webcomics #indie comics #comic chat #comic discussion #comics #book club #bookclub #webcomic book club #webcomic bookclub #comic tea party #drugs and wires #drugs & wires #mary safro #io black

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theonyxpath · 6 years ago

Link

Next week, we’ll be starting our Kickstarter for the Contagion Chronicle, which is a crossover chronicle featuring all of the game lines for Chronicles of Darkness.

Like all of our Kickstarter campaigns, you’ll be hearing a lot about this in the weeks to come, so I figured that this week, I’ll just go a little into how we came up with the idea to begin with.

We have received, over the years, many requests for crossover rules for the Chronicles of Darkness. Which makes sense, as CofD, unlike its predecessor, the World of Darkness, was created with the idea that all the game lines would have a similar, if not the same, rules set.

I’m not talking about the Storyteller and Storytelling Systems which are the rules for rolling dice, but the individual game line rules sets, like Disciplines, Gifts, cosmology, those sorts of things.

Book of Oblivion illustrated by Drew Tucker

With folks asking for crossover rules and tips, I suggested to our crew here that a crossover book would be something that could also be really helpful in providing new content for game lines that we were putting out less projects for that year.

Pretty much the same thinking as the Dark Eras books.

I wound up talking with Matthew Dawkins at the Vampire convention in New Orleans – the same one where we agreed on the deal for They Came From Beneath the Sea! – and he made the point that a whoppin’ book of pure rules with a bit of advice wouldn’t necessarily be as much fun as a crossover book that featured a setting where those rules and that advice could be seen in action.

This tied in with my thinking on adding default Chronicles to each of the 2nd Edition CofD lines: provide an example that people could either use wholecloth or could take pieces of or just be inspired by for their own Chronicles.

Fun to read, and examples of how a Chronicle could work. So this crossover Chronicle would be the prime example of how to use all the various supernatural character types and their cultures in one big setting match up, usable as written and usable as examples and overall, no matter what, fun to read.

Shunned By The Moon illustration by Brian LeBlanc

Matthew went off and came up with an external threat; something not featured in any of our previous material, but which could be part of any of our CofD game lines. Something that threatened the supernatural world so much that the various denizens would have reasons to ally themselves – no matter how treacherously – to deal with it. And so the Contagion was born.

We’ll bring you more concrete info on the Contagion Chronicle next week; I’m hoping to sit down with Matthew and chat a bit on the highlights of the project, and share that info with you. Meanwhile, here’s the link to the character creation sessions he has been recording (this link is also in a couple of other places on the blog today so you don’t accidentally miss it): https://youtu.be/dFMjit-YTwQ

We’re all really excited by this project as we’ve never really done anything like this before. It’s a discrete Chronicle, but it’s appropriate for all of our CofD game lines, and as a way to illustrate how something can be built that encompasses all of a setting no matter how disjointed, I think it will be handy for other game settings as well.

Signs of Sorcery illustration by Michael Gaydos

I also want to call out last Friday’s Onyx Pathcast where the Titanic Trio take turns “selling” different game lines of ours. It is probably the most energized and fun recording that they’ve done. Something about the timed, short, pitches just seems to bring out the best in the three of them.

In order, these are the ones they hit:

Dixie: Exalted Third Edition

Eddy: Legendlore

Matthew: Promethean: The Created Second Edition

Dixie: Cavaliers of Mars

Eddy: Pugmire

Matthew: Werewolf: The Forsaken Second Edition

Dixie: Geist: The Sin-Eaters Second Edition

Eddy: Trinity Continuum

Matthew: Demon: The Descent

Dixie: Scion Second Edition

So even if you just want to be sold on one line you haven’t been sure about, or that you were curious about, or even if you already love the game but want to hear their take on it, it’s easy to go back and forth until you get to it. Link is here and below in the BLURBS! section: https://onyxpathcast.podbean.com/

I really like the selection they chose for this batch of pitches, many of which were suggested by our community, and I think it’d be great if they did more in another episode or two. After all, we have:

Many Worlds, One Path!

BLURBS!

KICKSTARTER:

Next week on Tuesday March 26th, we will be starting the Contagion Chronicle Kickstarter at 2pm Eastern US time!

Matthew Dawkins has also started running the Contagion Chronicle for some of the members of his Discord, via Google Hangouts! Follow along to get some sneak peeks of the content coming up in the Contagion Chronicle Kickstarter: https://youtu.be/dFMjit-YTwQ

ONYX PATH MEDIA

Illustration by Michael Gaydos

This Friday’s Onyx Pathcast is an interview with a writer for many, many of our projects and now a first-time developer Chris Allen! https://onyxpathcast.podbean.com/

And Here’s More Media About Our Worlds:

This week in Onyx Path News with the ever-present Gentleman Gamer, Matthew Dawkins! https://youtu.be/zFTknuOdHGk

If YOU have a podcast, YouTube or Twitch channel, or talk about games on a blog or other website, and want to perform actual plays or make reviews of our games, please reach out to the Gentleman Gamer on the Onyx Path forum. From there we’ll share emails and get you started, so when you do start producing content we’ll be able to promote it on our blog and YouTube channel!

We’re closing in on the conclusion of Red Moon Roleplaying‘s They Came from Beneath the Sea! actual play! Here’s the most recent episode: https://youtu.be/CeFYwRLtXQk

We’d be fools not to promote the excellent Devil’s Luck Gaming, as they’ve reached episode four of their Scarred Lands actual play: https://www.twitch.tv/DEVILSLUCKGAMING Their costumes really add to the roleplay!

The Story Told Podcast comes at us with two pieces of media this week! The first is their Wraith: The Oblivion Actual Play here: http://thestorytold.libsyn.com/episode-22-wraith-the-oblivion-actual-play and the second is their Exalted: Dragon-Blooded actual play here: https://thestorytold.libsyn.com/fall-of-jiara-episode-1-session-0

Don’t forget to get in touch with any of your actual plays, interviews, and reviews of our games! We’re always happy to promote them.

Please check any of these out and let us know if you find or produce any actual plays of our games!

ELECTRONIC GAMING:

As we find ways to enable our community to more easily play our games, the Onyx Dice Rolling App is now live! Our dev team has been doing updates since we launched based on the excellent use-case comments by our community, and this thing is both rolling and rocking!

Here’s an update from the App devs:

Onyx Dice! We’ve recently released the Changeling: The Lost, Trinity Continuum: Aeon dice, and now the Geist dice. Next up on our radar is: Demon: The Fallen, Mummy: The Resurrection, Kindred of the East, Vampire Dark Ages, and Mummy: The Curse.

We have a serious issue on the Pixel and Motorola phones that prevent the user from using the app correctly. A fix is coming shortly. A temporary workaround is to minimize the app without shutting it down, and then restore it.

ON AMAZON AND BARNES & NOBLE:

You can now read our fiction from the comfort and convenience of your Kindle (from Amazon) and Nook (from Barnes & Noble).

If you enjoy these or any other of our books, please help us by writing reviews on the site of the sales venue you bought it from. Reviews really, really help us with getting folks interested in our amazing fiction!

Our selection includes these fiction books:

OUR SALES PARTNERS:

We’re working with Studio2 to get Pugmire out into stores, as well as to individuals through their online store. You can pick up the traditionally printed main book, the Screen, and the official Pugmire dice through our friends there! https://studio2publishing.com/search?q=pugmire

We’ve added Prince’s Gambit to our Studio2 catalog: https://studio2publishing.com/products/prince-s-gambit-card-game

Now, we’ve added Changeling: The Lost 2nd Edition products to Studio2‘s store! See them here: https://studio2publishing.com/collections/all-products/changeling-the-lost

Looking for our Deluxe or Prestige Edition books? Try this link! http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Onyx-Path-Publishing/

And you can now order Pugmire, Monarchies of Mau, Cavaliers of Mars, and Changeling: The Lost 2e! http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/manufacturers.php?manufacturerid=296

And available this week! Deluxe Changeling: The Dreaming and Deluxe Beckett’s Jyhad Diary! The additional books we have after the Kickstarter ship-outs are done are now at IPR!

DRIVETHRURPG.COM:

On Sale This Week!

This Wednesday, we’re yipping and purring to offer the Roll of Good Dogs and Excellent Cats, characters for Pugmire and Monarchies of Mau, in PDF and physical book PoD versions on DTRPG!

CONVENTIONS

UK Games Expo: May 31st – June 2nd Gen Con: August 1st – August 4th Save Against Fear: Oct 12-14 GameHoleCon: October 31st – November 3rd We’ll also be back at PAX Unplugged later this year.

And now, the new project status updates!

DEVELOPMENT STATUS FROM FAST EDDY WEBB (projects in bold have changed status since last week):

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

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

City of the Towered Tombs (Cavaliers of Mars)

Geist2e Fiction Anthology (Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2nd Edition)

Across the Eight Directions (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Exalted Essay Collection (Exalted)

Kith and Kin (Changeling: The Lost 2e)

Scion: Demigod (Scion 2nd Edition)

TC: Aeon Ready Made Characters (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Trinity Continuum Jumpstart (Trinity Continuum Core)

TC: Aeon Jumpstart (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Heroic Land Dwellers (They Came From Beneath the Sea!)

Monsters of the Deep (They Came From Beneath the Sea!)

Tales of Aquatic Terror (They Came From Beneath the Sea!)

Masks of the Mythos (Scion 2nd Edition)

Scion: Dragon (Scion 2nd Edition)

Wraith20 Fiction Anthology (Wraith: The Oblivion 20th Anniversary Edition)

Blood Sea Guides for 5e (Scarred Lands)

Redlines

Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition core rulebook (Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition)

Creatures of the World Bestiary (Scion 2nd Edition)

Chicago Folio/Dossier (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

Let The Streets Run Red (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

Cults of the Blood Gods (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

Dragon-Blooded Novella #1 (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Legendlore core book (Legendlore)

Second Draft

Tales of Good Dogs – Pugmire Fiction Anthology (Pugmire)

Heirs to the Shogunate (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Scion Ready Made Characters (Scion 2nd Edition)

Deviant: The Renegades (Deviant: The Renegades)

Scion Companion: Mysteries of the World (Scion 2nd Edition)

M20 The Technocracy Reloaded (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

Distant Worlds (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Development

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

Lunars: Fangs at the Gate (Exalted 3rd Edition)

WoD Ghost Hunters (World of Darkness)

Oak, Ash, and Thorn: Changeling: The Lost 2nd Companion (Changeling: The Lost 2nd)

Night Horrors: Nameless and Accursed (Mage: the Awakening Second Edition)

Memento Mori: the GtSE 2e Companion (Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2nd Edition)

Pirates of Pugmire (Realms of Pugmire)

Manuscript Approval:

Trinity Continuum: Aberrant core (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

CofD Dark Eras 2 (Chronicles of Darkness)

Editing:

V5 Chicago By Night (Vampire: The Masquerade)

V5 Chicago By Night Screen (Vampire: The Masquerade)

Spilled Blood (Vampire: The Requiem 2nd Edition)

Scion Jumpstart (Scion 2nd Edition)

CofD Contagion Chronicle (Chronicles of Darkness)

Witch-Queen of the Shadowed Citadel (Cavaliers of Mars)

Post-Editing Development:

Signs of Sorcery (Mage: the Awakening Second Edition)

Tales of Excellent Cats (Monarchies of Mau)

C20 Novel: Cup of Dreams (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)

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

Indexing:

ART DIRECTION FROM MIRTHFUL MIKE:

In Art Direction

Ex3 Monthly Stuff

Chicago By Night

Aeon Aexpansion

They Came From Beneath the Sea!

EX3 Lunars

Hunter: The Vigil 2

Shunned By the Moon – Final finals coming in.

Contagion Chronicle – AD’d for KS.

Scion Jumpstart

VtR Spilled Blood – Going over notes.

Marketing Stuff

In Layout

Dystopia Rising: Evolution

Book of Oblivion

Signs of Sorcery

Proofing

M20: Gods and Monsters – PoD proof ordered.

Adventures for Curious Cats – Waiting on maps.

Trinity Core – Page XXing.

Trinity Aeon – Putting in Mind Meld changes.

Ex3 Dragon Blooded – PoD proofs ordered.

Geist 2e – 2nd Proof.

C20 Player’s Guide – 2nd Proof

In Media Res – Inputting proof corrections.

The Realm – Art is arting, book is proofing.

At Press

Scion Hero – Printing. PoD proof ordered.

Scion Origin – Printing. PoD proof ordered.

Scion Dice – At Studio2.

Scion Screen – At Studio2.

Fetch Quest – At Studio2 prepping for shipping.

Pugmire Roll of Good Dogs and Cats – PDF and PoD versions on sale this Wednesday!

TODAY’S REASON TO CELEBRATE:

St. Patty’s Day or St. Paddy’s Day! Either way, we just had it Sunday, and while my celebration mostly takes the form of corned beef, cabbage, and green-dyed Birch Beer these days, once upon a time it was the old White Wolf tradition to meet for brunch and line up at the local Irish Pub to get in there as they opened and spend the rest of the day there drinking (or not) and having fun. It was a grand tradition of fellowship, and so here’s to the old gang!

#Onyx Path Publishing

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creative-type · 6 years ago

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Finishing the year in books...

Any longtime follower of mine is likely aware by now (I mean I have been doing this all year) that I set a resolution to expand what kind of books I read that has been...somewhat successful. Les Miserables really set me back.

But on this, the last day of 2018, I want to make two more additions to my list. They have nothing to do with one another other than I read them specifically because of my New Year’s resolution. One I read back in October and forgot to do a write up and the other I finished earlier this month and have been too lazy to post about.

So let’s talk about Harry Potter and North Korea.

What can I say, I was the one who wanted diversity.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkeban

Why I read this book: I, like many children, grew up with the Harry Potter books. However my mom was one of those moms who forbid me from reading them because magic which kind of limited how and when I immersed myself in the world of Harry Potter.

Some of the Harry Potter books I’ve read dozens of times. My step brother in particular had a copy of the Philosopher’s Stone which I read every time I visited my dad for well over a year. The Prisoner of Azkeban is different--I have only read it once or twice before, and had forgotten many of the finer details.

I’ve also been keeping up with the illustrated collector edition, which are simply a delight if you can get your hands on them.

My thoughts on the book

JK Rowling might not be the fandom’s favorite person at the moment (I’ve never been terribly involved in the HP fandom so personally I don’t care) but she’s a damn fine writer.

I’ve seen plenty of people complain how the concept of time turners break the plot, kind of like how people complain why the eagles don’t take the Fellowship to Mordor, but this has always struck me as nitpicky. There are plenty of in-universe reasons for the cast not to use time turners to fix everything, and at the end of the day it’s a fantasy novel. As with all things, Rowling doesn’t do anything to break the suspension of disbelief she’s built inherent to her world. Time turners, as a plot devise, work.

What really struck me was how Rowling used the introductory chapters, which many authors regard as glorified plot recaps, to set everything in motion. There were also layers within the mystery that helped misdirect from the big plot twist at the end, which is really one of the best in the series.

For example, heavy emphasis is given to Hermoine being in two places at once with her class schedule, as well as to Professor Lupin’s many absences. Diligent readers, even if they’re children, could realistically figure out time travel and werewolves are involved.

These mini mysteries, more blatantly foreshadowed compared to the Scabbers reveal, distract from the true culprit. The way Rowling plants the ideas of the newspaper picture, Animagi, Lupin’s relationship with James and Sirius, and Peter’s death feel more like world building elements than foreshadowing (heck, the Animagus lesson is given the same page time as the Cheering Charm.) Clever readers that figure out the mini mysteries are likely to be too busy patting themselves on the back for being clever than to put together all the individual pieces to the larger whole.

Like I said, Rowling is a brilliant author.

The other thing that struck me was how the climax of the book felt almost like it was in reverse order. The reveal of SIrius’s innocence, Lupin’s lyconthropy, and Peter’s betrayal all happen during the first timeline. Harry and Hermione don’t really learn anything new the second go around, they’re just trying to save Sirius and Buckbeak.

And lastly, on a completely unrelated note, I have a really hard time understanding Snape sympathizers after reading this book. Even knowing everything that happened in the past, he comes across as a total douchnozzle, wanting to kill an innocent man and getting another innocent man fired over a childhood squabble. I’m pretty sure it’s his lowest moment in the series, and cements in my mind that while he might have done heroic things during both Wizarding Wars, he’s no hero.

And now for something completely different...

The Impossible State is a book by Victor Cha on the history, present, and possible future of North Korea. Cha was an ambassador during GW Bush’s presidency and was written during the Obama administration, so while it’s slightly out of date it’s an impressively in-depth look into the most isolated nation in the world.

Why I read this book

The Impossible State was an impulse buy for me. Truthfully I was fairly ignorant on North Korean history and America’s place in it, so I felt it would be a good way to get familiar with it

My thoughts on the book as a book

I’d be curious to know if Cha actually wrote this or if it was ghost-written, but either way it was more enjoyable than I thought it would be. I was expecting something dry, but I was never bored. It helps that the mere existence of North Korea as a country is something that defies logical explanation.

It’s certainly not a fun read, but it was informative and did a fantastic job explaining how North Korea got to where it is today. It doesn’t shy away from the human right’s atrocities, but neither does it describe them in gory detail. Cha was also surprisingly supportive of President Bush’s North Korea policy and actions, which is a pretty rare thing.

If anyone is interested in North Korea, I’d suggest giving it a read.

This Year In Conclusion

When I started this New Year’s resolution I didn’t really have an expectation for getting it 100% completed, but as the cheesy saying goes shoot for the moon and if you miss you’ll be among the stars.

If I’m to be honest with myself, if you asked me last January how far I’d get, I’d probably say that I expected to give up by April. Life is busy, and not likely to get any less so. As much as I love to read the time I have to sit down with a book is fairly limited.

So with all that said, I’m happy I made it this far. There were other books I read that didn’t make the list because they didn’t fit a category, while there were others yet that I had lined up to read or have already started. I think I’ll probably finish out the blank spaces, and with Les Mis off my back I might get done by March. We’ll see, but all in all it’s been a good year for reading.

#creative-type reads #harry potter and the prisoner of azkeban #the impossible state #JK Rowling #Victor Cha #New Year resolution

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studiousbees · 8 years ago

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[App Review]—LingoDeer (Korean)

**EDIT** The LingoDeer team read my review and fixed some of the things I pointed out :>

Sorry for shuffling my upload schedule around so much lately! However with these new apps coming out, I want to jump on them and give my first impression ASAP!

I posted my review of the Korean Duolingo on Reddit, and the comments just exploded... it got a little messy, but one of the gems to come out of it was the recommendation of another language learning app called LingoDeer. Honestly I was a bit skeptical, but I decided to try it out... and I’m glad I did! This app also has its problems, but it’s generally fairly solid. Just like with DuoLingo, I took some extensive notes as I was playing through the levels (and some of my friends were doing it at the same time, so they reported abnormalities to me as well). Actually, I find this app a bit more similar with the Chinese-learning app HelloChinese than with Duolingo for a few reasons, which we’ll see later. Let’s get into it.

What is LingoDeer?

LingoDeer is a language-learning app for the three major east Asian languages, Korean, Mandarin Chinese, and Japanese. In this review, I will focus on the Korean course and give my views on the Chinese one in a later post. When I was told about this app, the person who linked me to it said that it was developed by teachers of those three languages rather than just volunteers like Duolingo uses, so that’s a bonus.

Very first impressions

The first thing I noticed that the LingoDeer app’s design and interface is very crisp and clean, which I appreciate a lot. I experienced some loading delays more than once, but my friends who tested the app out with me said that they didn’t get much of that at all, if any. I think maybe it has something to do with my Wifi, because my phone was showing a less-than-perfect connection strength when I was testing the app. Anyway, just be aware that you might run into some loading screens.

Learning Hangul

The Hangul learning portion of this app blew me away, to be honest. The usual romanization was there, whatever whatever (you know my feelings about romanization already), but what I loved was that the sounds are introduced in a logical order, starting with related vowels, and it shows you the stroke order for the Hangul. And those audio files...! The audio files in this app are SO quality, a lot better than the unfortunate robot voice that Duolingo used. The Hangul learning section is huge and extensive, and going through every single consonant and vowel would probably take someone forever, but luckily you can skip the Hangul level if you don’t need it, or you can take advantage of their Hangul charts. There are three charts, and you can tap on each consonant-vowel combo to have it read out to you. There is also a page explaining how Korean syllables are structured. So much information is given; it’s wonderful!

Getting in to learning

Once you refresh your Hangul skills (or not), you can start with the first level. This is the first major downfall of the app—there is no way to test up to higher levels, so you must start from the bottom. This seems like a major oversight considering comparable apps like Duolingo and HelloChinese have these features.

Anyway, once you tap into the first section, there are notes waiting for you if you swipe to pull up the tile to the left, only the edge of which is visible as it starts you right on an actual lesson tile. It would be nice if the notes were the first tile, as in HelloChinese, because it’s very easy to miss. Anyway, the notes are extensive and really well done except for some typos and weird English translations on occasion that probably could have been caught with one more read-through. Typos actually appear in other parts of the app too, and it does sort of detract from the nice feel of everything else. You can just forgo the notes if you want, and if you find yourself needing more information while you’re in the level, you can just tap on the part of a sentence you’re curious about and a notes window on that element will pop up. This is similar to HelloChinese, and this is what Duolingo’s app very conspicuously lacks.

Now, it’s time to actually start the lesson. You will be presented words with the Hangul and the romanization, which I was very sad to see, but you can turn the romanization off! Similar to HelloChinese; which lets you choose if you want to see only Pinyin, only Hanzi, or a mix of the two; LingoDeer lets you choose all romanization, all Hangul, or a mix.

The activities in the learning sections are very similar to Duolingo and HelloChinese. You can expect to match the word you hear with a picture, insert grammatical elements into the right places in sentences, unscramble sentences, and more. One of the activities that I do not like is this one where you see the romanization and match the appropriate Hangul with it. I purposely turned off the romanization, and people should move away from it as early as possible, so seeing those kinds of questions, though they are very few and far between, was a bit of a letdown. Also, I was disappointed to see that there are no speaking questions like in HelloChinese (in that app, you will listen to and see a sentence or see an image representing a word and then read/repeat it back into the phone). Also, while the audio files are, as I already said, amazing, this app is very quiet. Perhaps it’s because I’m used to HelloChinese (which I use a lot lately to work on my Mandarin) automatically reading things out, including the correct answer once you submit your answer to a problem for checking, I find it a bit annoying that if you want to hear read-outs of a lot of the sentences, you have to actually tap the sentence to hear it. Also, there is no indication that this is actually something that’s possible except for in cases where you’re on a listening screen, so some users might not be aware that they could be getting more audio input than what the app automatically provides. Maybe if they had a little play button or something next to those sentences it would be better.

Upon completion of a level, you can get up to five stars. When you first start studying, you set a goal for how many stars you want to get each day, and if you choose the lowest possible number (five) and do a single level perfectly, your study for the day is complete.

Review and stats

If you want to go back and review vocab or grammar flashcards, there is a section where you can do that. The review questions are the same as the regular level questions. You can choose to do a single lesson, or you can combine lessons for a comprehensive review. Also, there is spaced repetition listening practice, which is pretty cool. You can choose how you want the words and sentences presented, with Hangul, the English translation, romanization (ㅠㅠ), or just the audio and no writing. After listening, you can reveal the correct answer and rate your recall/performance “weak,” “good,” or “perfect.” You can also choose if you want a word or sentence-focused review. Seems like a good feature.

As for stats, you can check how long your learning streak (they wrote “steak,” as I said there are typos here and there) has been ongoing, and it even tells you how long you have studied for. There are some little achievement badges similar to Duolingo for things like learning time and streaks also. You can also set a time for reminders to study if you would like. However, I notice that the app is not synced to your phone’s clock but some other clock, perhaps that of the server it’s hosted on. So, for example, if I use the app in the morning here in Korea, it will still count any stars I get to the previous day since the app’s date hasn’t rolled over yet. There is not an option to change the app’s clock to sync to your time zone as far as I can tell.

Conclusion

LingoDeer’s Korean course is, in my opinion, a wonderful new app for those who are looking to start learning Korean! The pros and cons:

PROS:

GREAT audio files

Hangul presented in a logical manner

Lots of good notes and information on grammar

Spaced repetition practice and flashcards

Study reminders

cute deer mascot <3

CONS:

Slow loading at times

No function to test out of lower levels

Typos and unusual translations in notes and other places

App clock not synced to phone clock

No speaking practice

If updates are made to this app to fix any of the things I mentioned above, I’ll update this post (or maybe write a new one) to let you know. Happy studying~!

#studyblr #langblr #korean studyblr #korean langblr #app review #korean study app #lingodeer #language learning apps

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wildcrisis · 8 years ago

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Dadzawa and Shinson ficlet: In Your Image

So, I decided to write some Dadzawa and Shinson blurbs on tumblr that won’t be able to make it into Flourish (simply because I have way too many ideas and want/need the fic to flow well). I’ll post a few of those ideas that don’t make it into the fic here as little ficlets.

EDIT: SO MUCH FOR FICLET, THIS THING TURNED OUT HUGE, SORRY.

Summary: Celebrating Hero Day in 1st grade, Hitoshi wants to go to school dressed up as his favorite hero: Eraserhead. Aizawa, obviously very touched that his son looks up to him so much, can’t help but worry that Hitoshi will be picked on -- seeing as how he’s a relatively unknown, underground hero that avoids the media at all costs.

However, he simply can’t resist those pleading eyes that melt his heart.

(Under the cut, so I don’t clog anyone’s dash!)

When Aizawa arrived at the school, he released the sigh he didn’t even release he was holding in.

Hitoshi was quick to break away from the crowd of children and teachers, running as fast as his little feet would allow, practically throwing himself at his father. Shouta nearly found himself knocked off balance as Hitoshi tackled his abdomen in a tight hug, a large, happy grin on his face.

Amused, Aizawa quickly returned the hug, but peeled his son off of himself. It was always a coin flip, whether Hitoshi would be running to him happily, or upset. Whether he’d had a good, fun day learning in class and making friends, or had gotten picked on for his quirk, or hair or shoes or -- well, anything, really. Young children were merciless. However, today was clearly a good day, and Shouta was ready to hear all about it.

“Tell me about your day, Hitoshi.”

As Aizawa led his son to the train station, Hitoshi was quick to begin babbling about his day. They were learning so much these days, that even Shouta found it difficult to keep up with. How Hitoshi was beginning to learn how to write, how to read complicated sentences far beyond the one’s he’d learned at home, how to add and subtract -- it was mind boggling to believe that all children learned so much, all at once. And to Hitoshi, it seemed like nothing at all -- effortless. His teacher was always happy to report on his impressive progress.

But, as they took their seats for the quick train ride home, Aizawa could tell that there was something his son wasn’t saying. Hitoshi was quietly excited, still buzzing with pure energy, a big, happy smile on his face and pure, innocent hope in his eyes.

“Is there something else, kiddo?”

Shinsou eagerly nodded, clearly ready to spill the beans.

“Tomorrow is Hero Day, and Mrs. Hana said that we can dress up as a hero for class!”

Shouta smiled patiently (why was it that teachers always decided these things last minute? or was it just that kids never told their parents until the last second?), ruffling his son’s wild, purple locks, “Oh? And who do you want to dress up as?”

“You! You’re my favorite hero, dad.”

The conversation was vague enough that Aizawa didn’t worry much about being overheard. However, he waited until they were off the train to continue the conversation, holding his son’s hand as they made their way back home.

“Are you sure, Hitoshi? Remember, I’m an underground hero. That means that no one really knows who Eraserhead is.”

Hitoshi shook his head, undeterred, gripping his father’s hand as tightly as he could, “I’m sure! I don’t care if no one knows who I am. I want to be my favorite.”

Shinsou’s conviction was not one to be tested. After all, this was a child that went back to the same school, day by day, even when he was picked on. He chose to keep going back, to try and make other children see him differently. Aizawa had offered to let him transfer classes again, but Hitoshi had refused. He was stubborn, dead-set on getting people to see him for who he really was.

Wonder where he got that stubbornness from.

Internally, Aizawa struggled with the situation before him. On one hand, he could let Shinsou do as he pleased, dress up as the relatively-unknown Eraserhead, and potentially be picked on the next day at school, where his peers would definitely be dressed as well known pro heroes. On the other hand, he could encourage his son to choose one of his favorite pro heroes he saw on the news every night. Eraserhead wasn’t the only hero in Hitoshi’s eyes, but he was, obviously, the favorite.

Being a parent was full of difficult decisions. It always seemed like no option was the best one -- one was simply slightly better than the other.

Though, as Hitoshi chatted on about how to make his hair stand up and if they could make parts for the costume, Shouta quickly came to the conclusion that there would be no point in fighting it. His son was dead set on this plan. He’d probably been thinking about it all day long.

Well, if tomorrow turned out sour for Hitoshi, they’d take care of it. Together.

“Alright, alright, slow down,” Aizawa attempted to stem the flow of rambling words falling out of his son’s mouth at an alarming rate -- he’d lost track of their one-sided conversation, “I think we’d better stop at Uncle Mic’s place first. Something tells me he’ll be able to help us out.”

Yamada was, of course, ecstatic to have his friend and favorite nephew drop by. Once Aizawa explained what they were there for, Hizashi quickly threw himself to work.

“Right, I’ve got everything we’ll need!” Hizashi nearly screeched, clearly excited to dress Hitoshi up as his favorite hero, “Well, as far as your hair and goggles go! Your dad will have to help us with the rest, little listener.”

Shinsou’s face lit up at the thought, nearly bouncing off the wall with his unsurpassed energy, “Really!? Thanks Beebee!”

Aizawa chuckled, clearly amused that Hitoshi had never dropped his odd nickname for Yamada in all his years of learning how to talk. Hizashi, equally, didn’t seem bothered at all, laughing and pulling his young nephew into a tight hug before setting the excited, squirming child back down.

The trio made their way back to the Aizawa household, where the two adults began to conspire how to make this outfit a reality. Hitoshi, meanwhile, was playing hero on his own, pretending to rescue kitties from a dangerously high tree they’d climbed into.

“Well, I’ve got the gel for his hair,” Hizashi commented as he pulled out the supplies he was able to gather at his own home, “And remember those stunner shades we were giving out at the station? I kept a pair of yellow ones. I was gonna switch your goggles out with them for fun, but I guess this is a good use for them too.”

Shouta picked up the pair of cheap, yellow shades, putting them on non-ironically, “They’ll be too big for him. We’ll have to address that, somehow.”

“We could use some rubber bands, or string!”

“Right. He’s got enough black clothes to make the outfit work,” Shouta mused, taking a mental catalog of Hitoshi’s closet -- he doesn’t claim full responsibility for his son’s enormous amount of black clothing, “I’ve got an old scarf he can use. we just need to make him a belt..”.

To keep Hitoshi sated as they found the rest of the parts for his outfit, Aizawa and Yamada went ahead and fixed up the glasses to give to the rambunctious child. Shinsou was, clearly, beside himself with joy. He quickly put them on, having to constantly adjust them because of their size, and went back to playing hero for the kitties who constantly found themselves in trouble.

It took a couple of hours, and a break for dinner, but the two adults managed to construct an outfit for Hitoshi to show off at school the next day.

“Alright Hitoshi,” Aizawa calmly called out to his son, urging him to the bathroom so they didn’t make a complete mess with the hair gel, “Let’s put the whole thing together.”

Shinsou practically shredded his boring, regular clothes for the chance to dress like his favorite hero. Shouta smiled, amused and touched as Hitoshi became even more excited with each piece of the costume that adorned him. A fully black outfit, black shoes, a carefully wrapped scarf, a meticulously crafted utility belt, and the already fixed stunner shades to top it off. Yamada took the hair gel and quickly, expertly used it to make Shinsou’s hair stand completely on end.

Hitoshi stared in the mirror after all was said and done, completely transfixed by his appearance. His little fingers touched his reflection, briefly, before he turned to his father with a large, toothy smile.

“I look just like you! Thanks Dad, thanks Beebee!!”

Hizashi laughed, nudging Hitoshi towards his father, “You’re welcome! Though, to look just like your dad you’ll have to frown more. Now c’mon, it’s picture time!”

Aizawa, always good-naturedly annoyed by the impromptu picture sessions, picked up his son and put on his typical, I never agreed to this, scowl. Looking to mimic is idol, Hitoshi tried his best to put on the same face -- breaking character more than a few times to giggle and squirm happily. Yamada gleefully snapped a few photos, destined to end up in Aizawa’s treasured photo album, before they let Hitoshi loose to play hero once more -- as a real, bonafide hero.

“Hitoshi, you’ve got half an hour to play, then it’s bed time,” Aizawa called into the living area, rubbing a reddened eye before cutting off his son’s protests, “No but’s! Even Eraserhead has to sleep sometime.”

Strict parenting aside, Aizawa took time to relish the moment. Watching his son, decked out head to toe in his image, playing hero. It was Hitoshi’s dream to become a hero, just like his father. And watching him live in that excitement, in that dream, it just --

These were the moments Aizawa Shouta lived for.

Yamada stayed the night to help re-decorate Hitoshi in the morning. As Aizawa dropped his son off at school that day, Shinsou all put sprinted past the other children, also decked out in creative hero gear, to run inside and show off who and what he was, taking only a moment to turn and wave to his father before disappearing through the doors.

Aizawa smiled, watching the scene for a moment before turning to walk away, headed towards his own day of teaching would-be heroes.

Never able to shake the thought of Hitoshi dressed as Eraserhead from his mind.

#aizawa shouta #shinsou hitoshi #flourish fic #au #dadzawa and shinson #yamada hizashi #here have some CUTE #wilds fics

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warninggraphiccontent · 5 years ago

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17 January 2020

2020 vision

(Yes, of course I was going to do that eventually. Yes, 2020 hindsight will inevitably be a headline at some point.)

Whitehall Monitor 2020, our flagship report on the size, shape and performance of government, with lots of lovely #dataviz, will be out over the weekend/early next week. More in next week's edition, but we may be able to squeeze you into Tuesday lunchtime's launch event, where - after I outline some of the key conclusions - a brilliant panel will discuss what's in store for government in 2020. Come! Or watch the livestream.

Trending

Yesterday, I took part in a (really enjoyable) launch event for NatCen's new report looking at 50 years of social trends. We touched on optimism (think Our World in Data or the Roslings showing how things have improved globally) versus pessimism (dig beyond the headlines and there are some surprising facts - and, you know, climate change, geopolitics, etc etc etc), long-term policy making and the difficulties of working across government, the need to go beyond aggregated and headline data, and the need for government to just get better at data in the widest sense.

Nice question from former national statistician, Jil Matheson, in response to a mention I made of decision-ready information - how do we get information-ready policy-makers? I'm not sure this recent Ipsos MORI report is hugely encouraging on our prospects... but I think talking about 'data' in a way that makes sense to 'non data people' and conveys its importance, and increasing the political costs of not using information well, are parts of the solution. And I don't think any of us quite knows, yet, how to navigate a transformed information ecosystem around politics and political information.

A second Cummings

Just to add briefly to last week... I don't think it's an earth-shatteringly original prediction to say there'll be a lot of stories about the use and abuse of personal data this year (the New Year Honours 'leak' was a fitting start to 2020 in that respect). But I'm not sure the last few paragraphs of this article, which discuss targeting content at the public (content that 'really engages people') and a unit modelled on the Tory election campaign, are getting quite the attention they deserve. For all the excitement about what could come out of Downing Street on data, we don't have much detail yet. And you may remember the hoohah about data from GOV.UK being used 'to allow targeted and personalised information to be gathered, analysed and fed back actively to support key decision making'.

I wonder (genuine question) if people would feel differently about such data being used to improve the delivery of digital public services versus government using it to target information at people. Many governments are working out the place of government comms in a disintermediated world (decline of gatekeepers like newspapers, governments/corporations/charities etc can communicate directly with the public), but where is the line? As per the joint civil society letter last year, government needs to have conversations about how it uses personal data in public and with the public, otherwise we might squander the opportunity to use such data ethically and intelligently for the public good. </ramble>

Some other points in brief:

Invitations to the first Data Bites of the year will hopefully be going out very soon - for 6pm on Thursday 6 February. (We'll be back to the first Wednesday of the month after that.) Catch up with previous events here.

It's the Masters snooker at Ally Pally this week. I'd almost forgotten I'd played around with some snooker dataviz from last year's world championships. (And if you're wondering why I'm not even attempting any snooker puns, it's because they're all in the post. You have been warned.)

Very sorry not to be at UKGovCamp this weekend, but I hope everyone has a fantastic (and productive) time. I'll be following along here.

And keep an eye out and ears open (and any other body parts in the appropriate position, for that matter) for the latest IfG Inside Briefing podcast later. There will be music. Previous sonifications here.

Have a great weekend

Gavin

Today's links:

Graphic content

Politics and parliament

BAME, LGBT and women MPs by party (Ketaki for IfG - and Peston #GeekoftheWeek)

# of days between laying and approval of each draft affirmative instrument from the 17/19 Parliamentary session (Phil Gorman)

Mapping the Places (House of Commons Library)

Labour leadership and deputy leadership nominations (CLP Nominations, via Tim)

US politics

Who's still in the Democratic presidential race? (Vox, via Ketaki)

How the Democratic Presidential Field Has Narrowed* (New York Times)

Who Won The January Democratic Debate? (FiveThirtyEight)

How map makers will win the 2020 US election* (FT)

Openness

3 Out of 10 UK Government Departments Meeting 2020 Targets for Aid Transparency (Publish What You Fund)

Freedom of Information (Institute for Government)

Environment

2019 Was the Second-Hottest Year Ever, Closing Out the Warmest Decade* (New York Times)

2019 capped world’s hottest decade in recorded history* (Washington Post)

Everything else

The Big Mac index* (The Economist)

Progress and Popularity: Facing the Disillusioned in a New Decade (NatCen)

Global Advisor Predictions (Ipsos MORI)

In charts: Europe’s demographic time-bomb* (FT)

Finding the Worst, Highest-Paid NBA Player, Ever (The Pudding)

The Secret to a Perfect Mari...mekko? (Tableau Fringe Festival)

Meta data

AI and algorithms

Technology Can't Fix Algorithmic Injustice (Boston Review)

Joseph Stiglitz on artificial intelligence: 'We’re going towards a more divided society' (The Guardian)

Ethical algorithm design should guide technology regulation (Brookings)

Beyond Bias: Contextualizing “Ethical AI” Within the History of Exploitation and Innovation in Medical Research (Chelsea Barabas)

Researchers: Are we on the cusp of an ‘AI winter’? (BBC News)

Skillz

How we’re working to transform the way we work with data (Citizens Advice)

It’s a kind of magic… (Government Statistical Service)

Whitehall needs more scientists to compete with China: chief adviser (The Observer)

Global problems need social science (Hetan Shah for Nature)

What Researchers Think About the Culture They Work In (Wellcome)

Evidence

One Year In, the Evidence Act is Producing Results (Nextgov)

Inside the world’s ‘what works’ teams (What Works)

Social media data needed for 'harm' research, say doctors (BBC News)

Everything else

Sadiq Khan calls for evolution of London Datastore (Computer Weekly)

Charting the Next Three Years for OGP (Open Government Partnership)

What if everyone just said 'Nah' to tracking? (The Register)

Microsoft makes 'carbon negative' pledge (BBC News)

Exposing the problem with default data* (FT)

EU considers temporary ban on facial recognition in public spaces* (Politico)

The fourth industrial revolution could lead to a dark future (The Conversation)

MI5 chief sees tech as biggest challenge and opportunity* (FT)

Opportunities

EVENT: What is in store for government this year? Whitehall Monitor 2020 Launch (Institute for Government)

JOB: Policy/Programme Manager - Central Government (techUK)

JOB: Researcher (Social Policy/Public Policy) (Ada Lovelace Institute)

JOB: Senior Analyst (Engage Britain)

JOBS: Senior Quantitative Data Analysts (NatCen)

Introduction to the Data Science Accelerator programme (GDS, GO Science, ONS)

EVENT: Citizen Beta 2020 #26

And finally...

Data

"Oh no it isn't!" "Oh yes it is!" (Andy Riley)

WHAT I LEARNED TRYING TO COPYRIGHT MY OWN FEET (MEL)

Climate, inequality, hunger: which global problems would you fix first? (The Guardian, via Katie)

Reveals the music behind names (Clarallel, via Pritesh)

I got a rather unnerving Rush Hour Crush published in today's Metro. (@shockproofbeats, via Alice)

Viz

Man Leaves Behind 20-Year Career in Finance to Become Photo Manipulation Artist (My Modern Met)

Darth Data (via Duncan Weldon, via Jenny)

Distributions (via Sophie Warnes, via Tim)

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cattscientist · 8 years ago

Text

I fall in tetris too easily.

In this post I’ll conduct one single experiment to determine the viscosity of the medium where the tetrominos would be if the game Tetris were to be made in the real world.

CAT, THE SCIENTIST - 08/10/2017 TETRIS EXPERIMENT 001 - VISCOSITY INDEX OF THE TETRIS GAME

1 - Theoretical introduction

Everybody who knows video game history has heard of the name Tetris. Tetris is one of the most influential games of all time and still today entertains a worldwide fanbase( [3] Wikipedia). The objective of the game is to stack up blocks with different formats that fall from the top of the screen. Whenever the player arrange the blocks in such a way that a row is completely filled, it receives points and the corresponding row is eliminated from the screen. Otherwise, if the blocks pile up to the top the game is over.

As the pieces freely fall it is noticeable that they do so at a constant speed (assuming that the player is not giving any input to make them fall faster) as if they were submerged into some sort of viscous fluid. With an approximation of first order, by looking at the blocks forming the tetrominoes as spheres, we can calculate the viscosity index of such fluid and search for a real substance with a similar index.

Fig 1 - All tetrominoes in the game.

For this experiment we’ll impose some restrictions to the movement of the block. First, during the fall, any pair of forces can generate a torque that is sufficient for to turn a tetromino, and that there shouldn’t be any force perpendicular to the movement of the blocks. So, we don’t want something like this:

Fig 2 - Unwanted movement.

This problem can be prevented by imposing that the tetrominoes are constrained to move only linearly, which can be accomplished by making pierced tetrominoes slide down a vertical fixed stick throughout the fall.

Finally, the most horrendous gauge, the set of the blocks will be approximated for another set of spheres separated by a thin stick with the goal to use the Stokes formula to drag force.

Fig 3 - Cube to sphere.

The equation of forces acting in the blocks is (see the diagram of forces):

Fig 4 - Diagram of forces.

Where W is the weight of the block, Fd is the drag force and Fu is the upthrust force due the fluid volume displacement. Expanding in terms of the speed, their derivatives and using Stokes’ law we have :

Where g is the gravitational acceleration, ρ is the density of the fluid, V is the volume and m is the mass of the piece, D is the diameter of the sphere and η is the viscosity of the medium. Solving the linear ODE ( Boyce and DiPrima, 1997, p.12-13) to v(0) = v0, we find the solution:

Where the terminal velocity vt is:

In order to guarantee that the terminal speed be positive (falling downwards), the following must be true:

Furthermore, the terminal velocity depends on several factors like the body size and you form, density and temperature of the medium and the initial velocity of the body (Resnick and Halliday 1966, p.111).To ensure the simplicity of this approximation, the effects of turbulences in the fluid will be despised and the temperature is constant along the process.

In posse of the equation (3) we’ll conduct the following procedures to determine the medium where occur the Tetris game.

2 - Goals

Determine the viscosity index of the medium of the Tetris video game for the game boy version and correlate the different velocities at the increase of the difficult, for the first four, of the levels to changes in the medium composition.

3 - Procedures

We’ll measure the terminal velocity of the game boy version of tetris by the video of the following youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOYoBkZV9RU. With aid of computer video maker tool it possible to count the time necessary to the passage for one squarespace to another on down at each level of difficult.

To obtain the values related with the dimensions of the bricks we use the scale of the standard brick ( [4] belden brick site). About the mass of the blocks we generate 7 random values that obeys the relation (4).

Due to our initial observation about the speed of the tetrominoes be constant, only the terminal velocity matters to our analysis.

4 - Results

The dimensions of one individual block is estimated in the next table:

Note: The scale length of the brick is 18 pixels.

In order to reduce an error of the measurements all measures were repeated 5 times for each block.

The relation between speed and the game levels can be seen in the following table:

In the measurement of the speeds, a constant value of 0.2 ± 0.1 m/s was found, and the intensity of this incident increase with the progress of the levels.

The relation between the brick mass, viscosity, and density of the medium that satisfies the normal velocity was generated by computer simulation and can be seen in the nexts tables:

5 - Conclusions

Is noticeable that the level progress does not increase all pieces, just a few during the difficult level advancement. This is a good way to save memory, since that the cartridge of the game boy have a limited memory and also the implement of memory units are expensive. In the real life, the increase of the pieces velocity it can be obtained by the presence/increase of external fields like gravitational (as in an elevator, or one centrifuge), electromagnétic fields, the temperature of the medium or adding substances at the surface of the blocks or in the medium.

At the present moment, the authors don’t find any substance in any table (3 and 4) that satisfied the founded values. Even melted metals don’t satisfies this condition (CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, 84th Edition, 2003-2004, p. 6-191 - 6-192 ). The most viscous substance founded is the pitch, but this extrapole in much , 2.05 e9 Pa.s, our perspectives. We propose three possibilities: It is possible that heating or cooling any kind of substances is possible reach the wished ideal viscosity index. The second possibility is that at low values of mass, density and viscosity it is possible find known substances that satisfies this configuration. Finally, one most accurate method for evaluate the relation between the variables can provide more razonable values.

6 - Bibliography

Boyce, W., & DiPrima, R. (1997). Equações Diferenciais Elementares e Problemas de Valores de Contorno. LTC

Resnick., & Halliday. (1966). Física. vol 1. LTC

http://www.znu.ac.ir/data/members/rasoulifard_mohammad/crc.pdf

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetris

http://www.beldenbrick.com/brick-dimensions-guide.asp

https://68.media.tumblr.com/a7a7a682048c91a686cef58579d3dce2/tumblr_nj9psqGT8o1txe8seo1_500.gif

http://www.gifbin.com/bin/102009/1255604935_tetris_fail.gif

http://scoreboredsports.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/tetris-Pieces.png

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qRG4HoS3-Ng/VGhVCoDWyEI/AAAAAAAAFvM/5hgPvLUgQTA/s1600/Upthrust.gif

Note: both links were assessed in 06/10/2017 at 23:20.

Note: I had some problems with LATEX and html. So, sorry :p

#tetris #physics #science #experimentation #kpop #math #video games

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kaiowut99 · 8 years ago

Link

The One With the Brotherly Angst (Part 1)

It’s the Interschool Match between the Academia and the North Campus, and a hardened Manjoume--called “Manjoume Thunder” at the North Campus--stands before a high-spirited Judai. Judai and Manjoume Thunder duel, and through the power of the Manjoume family, it’s all live on TV. Manjoume’s Armed Dragons are Level-Up Monsters that get stronger with each turn, and with their strengthening Monster Effects, Judai’s E-Heroes are left at wit’s end...

*crashes onto your dash weeks late with Starbucks*

Didn’t mean for this one to take so long! I think it’s partly getting used to my schedule under my new job and trying to squeeze in all the editing and stuff. Also uploaded this one on a different site, as Cloudy’s been giving me trouble this weekend, but I’ll see if this one would work better going forward, since I know Yami on NAC’s posted ARC-V for a while on there and I’ve had people telling me they’ve had issues using Cloudy through my masterpost.

But anywho, 25′s finalized! My favorite Judai and Manjoume duel, this one sees them clash in ideals, Judai’s happy-go-lucky attitude going up against the stress Manjoume has going on, and it comes to a good conclusion next episode. Samejima and Ichinose talk of a special prize on the line, but what could it be? Find out in Part 2! It’s not what you expect.

(Also, TL Note: worth noting that the confusion Judai has going on when Manjoume’s all “It’s me” is because of him talking about himself in the third person with “-san,” in case some of you are new to the Thunder.)

Part of the delay with this one was the edits I had going on, which were tough to fit into my schedule when I’d get home with an hour or two before I had to sleep for work the next day. But there were a few, ranging from Burstlady’s unfortunate strap incidents to card fixes. Listed below the cut, as usual.

I’m going to at least work on the script for 26 much of this week, and hopefully I won’t have many edits to work on there. Once I do, I have a side-project or two to get some more done with for some people, but I’ll see about how I’ll squeeze it in, as I’m also helping with translating Dark Side of Dimensions’s script for GX_ST since it’s the big movie for the franchise that has been a part of my life for so long. Why aren’t there more days in the week though

Enjoy!

EDITS!

Recycled my translation of the “Go, Trio of Avid Bravery” kanji back in episode 12, edited by @aneroticporkcutletbowl, for the “We’ll make a Manjoume Empire!” scene, masking in the explosion smoke that for some reason existed and redoing the pan.

As Burstlady attacks after being summoned against Manjoume, she’s missing her outfit’s strap on her right shoulder. Worked what Photoshop magic I could to draw one on and connect it to her right arm cuff, as it should be, for the 13 frames in question and masked it into the video.

As Manjoume explains Masked Dragon’s effect, Burstlady’s imageless card is upside-down on Judai’s Disk, so I placed my Burstlady proxy on there right-side-up. This shot gets recycled a few times (as do some others, actually), so I repeated this by using this still shot to pan with, save for the one where Armed Dragon LV3′s leveling up because of the blurring going on.

The faraway shot of Burstlady as Judai’s about to activate Hero Halo (I actually approve of the TCG change to Hero Shield because “Halo” what, but consistency) has her missing her strap again, so I just slapped one on.

As Hero Halo materializes on Burstlady, her card on Judai’s Disk is just a yellow rectangle, so I just slapped my proxy on in AfterEffects, then panned it in Vegas, masking the materializing bits over it and adjusting the brightness on part of the card as it’s lit up by the Halo’s glow.

As everyone realizes that Burstlady’s being destroyed because she has 1200 ATK, Judai gets a split-screen to talk with, but we still see him in the faraway shot on the other half of the screen. And his mouth doesn’t move while it does in the close-up. Which bugged me. So I gave him lip-flaps by masking in the ones he has as he talks before the close-up.

As Manjoume taunts Judai about De-Fusing Tempester, Bubbleman and Featherman are reversed on his Disk--after being shown the right way a shot earlier. Slapped them on the right way in AfterEffects--once as the shot starts, then tweaked as he moves his Disk, then one last frame, given it pans out--and had the two frames that panned re-panned. I feel like it wasn’t completely perfect once he moves his Disk, but it shouldn’t be too noticeable. ^^;

Judai jumping around excitedly at Armed Dragon LV7 like a dork has him just have an orange card on his Disk; since I had the proxy handy and it was an easy enough edit, I just slapped Bubbleman on.

This one was odd; as he was drawing to summon Friendog, Bubbleman’s card on his Disk was horizontally flipped like so. So I put my proxy on it. How does that happen tho

As Manjoume taunts Judai about his Monsters being wiped out, the Armed Dragon LV7 on his Disk is just an orange imageless card, which bugged me since it was a pretty close shot; I made a proxy, slapped it on, and panned the frame.

#GX #yugioh gx #yugioh #ygo #ygo gx #Judai Yuki #Jun Manjoume #my subs

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clockways · 8 years ago

Text

Things I learned by trying (and failing) to be a DM

Today my current efforts at being a DM (a Dungeon Master for tabletop RPGs) come to a close. Over the last several months I lead a group of adventures- and one shrub puppy- through a forest being corrupted by an ancient evil and the druid it influenced. They never made it to the temple to find out it was a blight akin to Gulthias or to make their way through my carefully planned traps. It wasn’t a total party kill that ended it, but a series of events. Some of these events I feel were my fault and some I chalk up to the players- but I feel all of it was a learning experience.

With D&D (and the like) finding a purchase in the current age I though I’d share them with you. (More Under the Cut)

I’m going to divide this into two parts because D&D itself is divided up into two:

The Group

The Game

After all, at it’s heart that’s what D&D is about- a group of people playing a cooperative game. They have to work together or they will fail. As a DM you’ve got to manage both the players and the game. It’s more than a little bit like managing a classroom.

(Some brief information about my group- it was online and all stranger save one. I had played a brief session or two many years ago but never DMed before. Many of my players were new or nearly new also.)

1. The Group

I thought I had prepared well. I was trying to follow the very wise advice of making sure you and your players were on the same page. I spoke about how we were going to play- using roll 20 as we would be an online group, made sure they were accepting of being run by a female DM, talked about the type of game I’d be running, and set up that we’d play Friday or Saturday night once or twice a month. I was wrong.

Herding Cats: Scheduling would be my early undoing. Anyone who’s tried to get a group of friends together for a meal knows the challenge of it. Trying to get a group of strangers together to play a game where any absence matters is even harder. Trying to be overly accommodating started off my DMing existence with extra frustrations.

What I learned: Set a fixed day and time. For us it turned into every third Friday of the month. If a play can’t make it- it’s their obligation to not only inform you, but inform a fellow player who will take over their character.

Communication Is Key: For some reason getting players to respond to questions, inquires, or just to have them tell you things is a struggle. A player left the game without a word to me after a death, though they planned out their new character already. Sending out emails for the above scheduling issue was followed up by a general lack of response. Asking player’s opinions on a possible house rule never got full feedback. Not everyone was guilty of all sin and some were worse than others, but it was an issue. And I get it, life is busy, but as a DM yours is even more so in the context of the game.

What I learned: Expect poor communication. Any question you put out there to try and accommodate/decide things with the group set a time limit on. After x days, just go with your gut or you’ll be stuck in limbo more than you’d like.

Technology: It will just hate you.

What I learned: Plan about 15 minuets of every game at least to deal with technology issues if you’re running an online game. Have back up plans. If you deal with technology day in and day out like me, consider that an online game might not be for you.

tldr: There’s a lot going on being a DM other than running the game. You’re the parent/teacher/authority figure of the group. And depending on your willingness/ability to deal with that it could ruin the experience for you. I’m a college instructor and every session just turned into another class I had to teach. Strongly consider setting up a second in command who can help with scheduling and fielding issues. This player lead can handle absent players, general questions, and scheduling- bringing things to you when needed and let you focus on the game.

2. The Game

The Good, the bad... and let’s be honest, mostly the bad: D&D is epic tales of heroes and dragons! Saving the world and slaying beasts! Except when it isn’t. Your players want epic stories, but more than not they’re not playing a hero- at least not to start. Expect your players to craft selfish, flawed, and hard to motivate characters. And be alright with this! Flawed characters are more interesting, but can screw up that campaign you had planned where they go off to save a town.

What I learned: Start off with smaller quests with obvious motivation. While some players may risk life and limb for good, money is usually a better plan for your first adventures. Don’t try to go too epic too soon or it will feel like you’re pulling teeth to get a character interested.

Grouping Up: Trying to get your characters to form that initial group is the most awkward part of any campaign. Obviously they know they’re supposed to form a group with the other players and yet this is the hardest thing to manage. It feels contrived, belligerent, and like bad writing- even when you tried your best to give them all motivation. Inevitably you’ll have that one player who just wont want to.

What I learned: Start the game off with them already as a group- or all showing up for the same job- and skip this. If I ever DM again, starting off with a version of ‘you all take up the call travel to the new village and put yourself as it’s defense out a love for gold/your god/the chance to explore the x’. Smooth past that awkward moment to start the game off better.

The Books- oh god the books: There’s a lot to learn as a DM. Even saying there’s a lot to learn underestimates how much there is to learn. It can feel overwhelming to look at that pile of books and know what’s going on. If you’re a nervous wreck about looking like an idiot as I can be, this just adds to the fun. And this is without all the other things you may not know. How far can a person walk in a day? What’s the weather like in this sort of geography? Would that burn? It can be a bit much.

What I learned: Be honest with your players about your level of knowledge. Be willing to stop the game and looking something up. And be willing for flow to say ‘we’ll say it’s this for the moment and I’ll look it up after game’. It’s okay not to know or need to do research. Be ready to not know things. Planning something simpler for the first few games will also help this along with good notes.

Home Brewing: If you’re a creative person like me, your gut is to make your own campaign. You want to get your hands dirty and build a world. To me this is where the fun of DMing is. But it’s also overwhelming and ties in with the above issue. There’s a lot you don’t know- even if you think you do- and a lot to make up on the fly. While it’s fun, if you try to go to big too fast, not only with this cause other problems, but it will cause you problems.

What I learned: If you can, find a campaign that’s suppose to be a session or two that’s already written. Edit how you need, but start with that. It will help you get your feet under you, your players settled, and then you can run with it from there.

tldr: The amount of planning you’ll need to do as a DM is astounding. If you’re home brewing you’re going to be at an hour of planing to an hour of play on average. Sometimes more, sometimes less. That means if you’re the DM and you play 8 hours a month, you’re spending 16 hours a month on D&D. Be ready for that time commitment and make things as easy on yourself as you can. Start small and then grow the world or consider using a pre-built campaign to cut down on the load.

Conclusion: Overall I really enjoyed being a DM, but I also really dreaded it. I think I would do it again, but I��ve learned a lot about how to approach it differently both for my players but even more so for myself. This is a lot of blather (with a lot of typo’s I’m sure) and at the end of the day it’s all my personal opinions. Your millage may vary and I have a lot left to learn, but maybe it will help someone.

No matter what, my hat goes off to all the DMs out there. And if you’re a player, do something nice for your DM. They work hard for your enjoyment.

#D&D #dungeons and dragons #hangs up my dm hat

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lesbianrewrites · 8 years ago

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The Martian Chapter 8

*disclaimer* This is a project done for fun, and none of these characters/works belong to me. I do not claim to own any of the material on this page.

This is a Lesbian edit of The Martian by Andy Weir.

Chapters will be posted every day at 2pm EST.

Google doc version can be found here. The chapter can also be found under the cut. Enjoy!

CHAPTER VIII

“Hello, and thank you for joining us,” Cathy said to the camera. “Today on CNN’s Maia Watney Report: Several EVAs over the past few days… what do they mean? What progress has NASA made on a rescue option? And how will this affect the Ares 4 preparations?

“Joining us today is Dr. Venkat Kapoor, Director of Mars Missions for NASA. Dr. Kapoor, thank you for coming.”

“A pleasure to be here, Cathy,” Venkat said.

“Dr. Kapoor,” Cathy began, “Maia Watney is the most-watched person in the solar system, wouldn’t you say?”

Venkat nodded. “Certainly the most watched by NASA. We have all 12 of our Martian satellites taking pictures whenever her site’s in view. The European Space Agency has both of theirs doing the same.”

“All told, how often do you get these images?”

“Every few minutes. Sometimes there’s a gap, based on the satellite orbits. But it’s enough that we can track all her EVA activities.”

“Tell us about these latest EVAs.”

“Well,” Venkat began, “It looks like she’s preparing Rover 2 for a long trip. On Sol 65, she took the battery from the other rover and attached it with a homemade sling. The next day, she detached 14 solar cells and stacked them on the rover’s roof.”

“And then she took a little drive, didn’t she?” Cathy prompted.

“Yes she did. Sort of aimlessly for an hour, then back to the Hab. She was probably testing it. Next time we saw her was two days later, when she drove 4km away, then back. Another incremental test, we think. Then, over the past couple of days, she’s been stocking it up with supplies.”

“Hmm,” Cathy said, “Most analysts think Maia’s only hope of rescue is to get to the Ares 4 site. Do you think she’s come to the same conclusion?”

“Probably,” Venkat said. “She doesn’t know we’re watching. From her point of view, Ares 4 is her only hope.”

“Do you think she’s planning to go soon? She seems to be getting ready for a trip.”

“I hope not,” Venkat said. “There’s nothing at the site other than the MAV. None of the other presupplies. It would be a very long, very dangerous trip, and she’d be leaving the safety of the Hab behind.”

“Why would she risk it?”

“Communication,” Venkat said. “Once she reaches the MAV, she could contact us.”

“So that would be a good thing, wouldn’t it?”

“Communication would be a great thing. But traversing 3,200km to Ares 4 is incredibly dangerous. We’d rather she stayed put. If we could talk to her, we’d certainly tell her that.”

“She can’t stay put forever, right?” she asked. “Eventually she’ll need to get to the MAV.”

“Not necessarily,” Venkat said. “JPL is experimenting with modifications to the MDV so it can make a brief overland flight after landing.”

“I’d heard that idea was rejected as being too dangerous,” Cathy said.

“Their first proposal was, yes. Since then, they’ve been working on safer ways to do it.”

“With only three and a half years before Ares 4’s scheduled launch, is there enough time to make and test modifications to the MDV?”

“I can’t answer that for sure. But remember, we made a lunar lander from scratch in seven years.”

“Excellent point,” Cathy smiled. “So what are her odds right now?”

“No idea,” Venkat said. “But we’re going to do everything we can to bring her home alive.”

“How’d I do today?” Venkat asked.

“Eeeh,” Annie said. “You shouldn’t say things like ‘Bring her home alive.’ It reminds people she might die.”

“Think they’re going to forget that?”

“You asked my opinion. Don’t like it? Go fuck yourself.”

“You’re such a delicate flower, Annie. How’d you end up NASA’s Communications Director?”

“Beats the fuck out of me,” Annie said.

“Guys,” said Bruce Ng, Director of JPL. “I need to catch a flight back to LA in three hours. Is Teddy coming or what?”

“Quit bitching, Bruce,” Annie said. “None of us want to be here.”

“So,” said Hermes Flight Director Mitch Henderson “Who are you, again?”

“Um,” Mindy said, “I’m Mindy Park. I work in SatCon.”

“You a director or something?”

“No, I just work in SatCon. I’m a nobody.”

Venkat looked to Mitch “I put her in charge of tracking Watney. She gets us the imagery.”

“Huh,” said Mitch. “Not the Director of SatCon?”

“Bob’s got more to deal with than just Mars. Mindy’s handling all the Martian satellites, and keeps them pointed at Maia.”

“Why Mindy?” Mitch asked.

“She noticed she was alive in the first place.”

“She gets a promotion cause she was in the hot seat when the imagery came through?”

“No,” Venkat frowned, “She gets a promotion cause she figured out she was alive. Stop being a dick, Mitch. You’re making her feel bad.”

Mitch looked over to Mindy. “Sorry.”

Mindy looked at the table and managed to say “’k.”

Teddy entered the room. “Sorry I’m late. Let’s get started,” He took his seat. “Venkat, what’s Watney’s status?”

“Alive and well,” Venkat said. “No change from my email earlier today.”

“What about the RTG. Does the public know about that yet?” Teddy asked.

Annie leaned forward. “So far, so good,” she said. “The images are public, but we have no obligation to tell them our analysis. Nobody has figured it out yet.”

“Why did she dig it up?”

“Heat, I think,” Venkat said. “She wants to make the rover do long trips. It uses a lot of energy keeping warm. The RTG can heat up the interior without soaking battery power. It’s a good idea, really.”

“How dangerous is it?” Teddy asked.

“As long as the container’s intact, no danger at all. Even if it cracks open she'll be ok if the pellets inside don't break. But if the pellets break too, she’s a dead woman.”

“Let’s hope that doesn’t happen,” Teddy said. “JPL, how are the MDV plans coming along?”

“We came up with a plan a long time ago,” Bruce said. “You rejected it.”

“Bruce,” Teddy cautioned.

Bruce sighed. “The MDV wasn’t made for liftoff and lateral flight. Packing more fuel in doesn’t help. We’d need a bigger engine and don’t have time to invent one. So we need to lighten the MDV.

“We have an idea. The MDV can be its normal weight on primary descent. If we made the heat shield and outer hull detachable, they could ditch a lot of weight after landing at Ares 3, and have a lighter ship for the traverse to Ares 4. We’re running the numbers now.”

“Keep me posted,” Teddy said. He turned to Mindy. “Miss Park. Welcome to the big leagues.”

“Sir,” Mindy said.

“What’s the biggest gap in coverage we have on Watney right now?”

“Um,” Mindy said. “Once every 41 hours, we’ll have a 17 minute gap. The orbits work out that way.”

“You had an immediate answer,” Teddy said. “Good.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“I want that gap down to four minutes,” Teddy said. “I’m giving you total authority over satellite trajectories and orbital adjustments. Make it happen.”

“Yes, sir,” Mindy said, with no idea how to do it.

Teddy looked to Mitch. “Mitch, your email said you had something urgent?”

“Yeah,” Mitch said. “How long are we gonna’ keep this from the Ares 3 crew? They all think Watney’s dead. It’s a huge drain on morale.”

Teddy looked to Venkat.

“Mitch,” Venkat said. “We discussed this-“

“No, you discussed it,” Mitch interrupted. “They think they lost a crewmate. They’re devastated.”

“And when they find out they abandoned a crewmate?” Venkat asked, “Will they feel better then?”

Mitch poked the table with his finger “They deserve to know. You don’t think Commander Lewis can’t handle the truth?”

“It’s a matter of morale,” Venkat said. “They can concentrate on getting home-“

“I make that call,” Mitch said. “I’m the one who decides what’s best for the crew. And I say we bring them up to speed.”

After a few moments of silence, all eyes turned to Teddy.

He thought for a moment. “Sorry, Mitch, I’m with Venkat on this one,” he said. “But as soon as we come up with a plan for rescue, we can tell Hermes. There needs to be some hope or there’s no point in telling them.”

“Bullshit,” Mitch grumbled, crossing his arms. “Total bullshit,”

“I know you’re upset,” Teddy said calmly, “We’ll make it right. Just as soon as we have some idea how to save Watney.”

Teddy let a few seconds of calm pass before moving on.

“Ok, JPL’s on the rescue option,” he said with a nod toward Bruce. “But it would be part of Ares 4. How does she stay alive till then? Venkat?”

Venkat opened a folder and glanced at the paperwork inside. “I had every team check and double-check the longevity of their systems. We’re pretty sure the Hab can keep working for 4 years. Especially with a human occupant fixing problems as they arise. But there’s no way around the food issue. She’ll start starving in a year. We have to send her supplies. Simple as that.”

“What about an Ares 4 presupply?” Said Teddy. “Land it at Ares 3 instead.”

“That’s what we’re thinking, yeah,” Venkat confirmed. “Problem is, the original plan was to launch presupplies a year from now. They’re not ready yet.

“It takes 8 months to get a probe to Mars in the best of times. The positions of Earth and Mars right now… it’s not the best of times. We figure we can get there in 9 months. Presuming she’s rationing his food, she’s got enough to last 350 more days. That means we need to build a presupply in three months. JPL hasn’t even started yet.”

“That’ll be tight,” Bruce said. “Making a presupply is a 6 month process. We’re set up to pipeline a bunch of them at once, not to make one in a hurry.”

“Sorry, Bruce,” Teddy said. “I know we’re asking a lot, but you have to find a way.”

“We’ll find a way,” Bruce said. “But the OT alone will be a nightmare.”

“Get started. I’ll find you the money.”

“There’s also the booster,” Venkat said. “The only way to get a probe to Mars with the planets in their current positions is to spend a butt-load of fuel. We only have one booster capable of doing that. The Delta IX that’s on the pad right now for the EagleEye 3 Saturn probe. We’ll have to steal that. I talked to ULA, and they just can’t make another booster in time.”

“The EagleEye 3 team will be pissed, but ok,” said Teddy. “We can delay their mission if JPL gets the payload done in time.”

Bruce rubbed his eyes. “We’ll do our best.”

“She’ll starve to death if you don’t,” Teddy said.

Venkat sipped his coffee and frowned at his computer. A month ago it would have been unthinkable to drink coffee at 9pm. Now it was necessary fuel. Shift schedules, fund allocations, project juggling, out and out looting of other projects… he’d never pulled so many stunts in his life.

“NASA’s a large organization,” he typed. “It doesn’t deal with sudden change well. The only reason we’re getting away with it is the desperate circumstances. Everyone’s pulling together to save Maia Watney, with no interdepartmental squabbling. I can’t tell you how rare that is. Even then, this is going to cost tens of millions, maybe hundreds of millions of dollars. The MDV modifications alone are an entire project that’s being staffed up. Hopefully, the public interest will make your job easier. We appreciate your continued support, Congressman, and hope you can sway the Committee toward granting us the emergency funding we need.”

He was interrupted by a knock at his door. Looking up, he saw Mindy.

“Sorry to bother you,” Mindy said.

“No bother,” Venkat said. “I could use a break. What’s up?”

“She’s on the move,” she said.

Venkat slouched in his chair. “Any chance it’s a test drive?”

She shook her head. “She drove straight away from the Hab for almost two hours, did a short EVA, then drove for another two. We think the EVA was to change batteries.”

Venkat sighed heavily. “Maybe it’s just a longer test? An overnight trip, kind of thing?”

“She’s 76km from the Hab,” Mindy said. “For an overnight test, wouldn’t she stay within walking distance?”

“Yes she would,” Venkat said. “Damn it. We’ve had teams run every conceivable scenario. There’s just no way she can make it to Ares 4 with that set-up. We never saw her load up the Oxygenator or Water Reclaimer. She can’t possibly have enough basics to live long enough.”

“I don’t think she’s going to Ares 4,” Mindy said. “If she is, she’s taking a weird path.”

“Oh?” said Venkat

“She went south-southwest. Schiaparelli Crater is southeast.”

“Ok, maybe there’s hope,” Venkat said. “What’s she doing right now?”

“Recharging. She’s got all the solar cells set up,” Mindy said. “Last time she did that, it took 12 hours. I was going to sneak home for some sleep if that’s ok.”

“Sure, sounds good. We’ll see what she does tomorrow. Maybe she’ll go back to the Hab.”

“Maybe,” Mindy said, unconvinced.

“Welcome back,” Cathy said to the camera. “We’re chatting with Marcus Washington, from the US Postal Service. So, Mr. Washington, I understand the Ares 3 mission caused a Postal Service first. Can you explain to our viewers?”

“Uh yeah,” said Marcus. “Everyone thought she was dead for over two months. In that time, the Postal Service issued a run of commemorative stamps honoring her memory. 20,000 were printed, and sent to post offices around the country.”

“And then it turned out she was alive,” Cathy said.

“Yeah,” said Marcus. “We stopped the run immediately and recalled the stamps, but thousands were already sold. The thing is, we don’t print stamps of living people.”

“Has this ever happened before?” Cathy asked.

“No. Not once in the history of the Postal Service.”

“I bet they’re worth a pretty penny now.”

Marcus chuckled. “Maybe. But not too much. Like I said, thousands were sold. They’ll be rare, but not super rare.”

Cathy chuckled then addressed the camera. “We’ve been speaking with Marcus Washington of the United States Postal Service. If you’ve got a Maia Watney commemorative stamp, you might want to hold on to it. Thanks for dropping by, Mr. Washington.”

“Thanks for having me,” Marcus said.

“Our next guest is Dr. Irene Shields, Flight Psychologist for the Ares missions. Dr. Shields, welcome to the program.”

“Thank you,” Irene said, adjusting her microphone clip.

“Do you know Maia Watney personally?”

“Of course,” Irene said. “I did monthly psych evaluations on each member of the crew.”

“What can you tell us about her? Her personality, her mindset?”

“Well,” Irene said, “She’s very intelligent. All of them are, of course. But she’s particularly resourceful and a good problem-solver.”

“That may save her life,” Cathy interjected.

“It may indeed,” Irene agreed. “Also, she’s a good-natured woman. Usually cheerful, with a great sense of humor. She’s quick with a joke. In the months leading up to launch, the crew was put through a grueling training schedule. They all showed signs of stress and moodiness. Maia was no exception, but the way she showed it was to crack more jokes and get everyone laughing.”

“She sounds like a great girl,” Cathy said.

“She really is,” Irene said. “She was chosen for the mission in part because of her personality. An Ares crew has to spend 13 months together. Social compatibility is key. Maia not only fits well in any social group, she’s a catalyst to make the group work better. It was a terrible blow to the crew when she ‘died.’”

“And they still think she’s dead, right? The Ares 3 crew?”

“Yes they do, unfortunately,” Irene confirmed. “The higher-ups decided to keep it from them, at least for now. I’m sure it wasn’t an easy decision.”

Cathy paused for a moment, then said. “All right. You know I have to ask: What’s going through her head right now? How does a woman like Maia Watney respond to a situation like this? Stranded, alone, no idea we’re trying to help?”

“There’s no way to be sure,” Irene said. “The biggest threat is giving up hope. If she decides there’s no chance to survive, she’ll stop trying.”

“Then we’re ok for now, right?” Cathy said. “She seems to be working hard. She’s prepping the rover for a long trip and testing it. She plans to be there when Ares 4 lands.”

“That’s one interpretation, yes,” Irene said.

“Is there another?”

Irene carefully formed her answer before speaking. “When facing death, people want to be heard. They don’t want to die alone. She might just want the MAV radio so she can talk to another soul before she dies.

“If she’s lost hope, she won’t care about survival. Her only concern will be making it to the radio. After that, she’ll probably take an easier way out than starvation. The medical supplies of an Ares mission have enough morphine to be lethal.”

After several seconds of complete silence in the studio, Cathy turned to the camera. “We’ll be right back.”

“Heya, Venk,” came Bruce’s voice from the speakerphone.

“Bruce, Hi,” said Venkat. “Thanks for clearing up some time. I wanted to talk about the presupply.”

“Sure thing. What’s on your mind?”

“Let’s say we soft-land it perfectly. How will Maia know it happened? And how will she know where to look?”

“We’ve been thinking about that,” said Bruce. “We’ve got some ideas.”

“I’m all ears,” Venkat said.

“We’ll be sending her a comm system anyway, right? We could have it turn on after lading. It’ll broadcast on the rover and EVA suit frequencies. It’ll have to be a strong signal, too.

“The rovers were only designed to communicate with the Hab and each other; the signal origin was presumed to be within 20km. The receivers just aren’t very sensitive. The EVA suits are even worse. But as long as we have a strong signal we should be good.

“Once we land the presupply, we’ll get its exact location from satellites, then broadcast that to Maia so she can go get it.”

“But she’s probably not listening,” said Venkat. “Why would she be?”

“We have a plan for that. We’re going to make a bunch of bright green ribbons. Light enough to flutter around when dropped, even in Mars’s atmosphere. Each ribbon will have ‘MAIA: TURN ON YOUR COMM’ printed on it. We’re working on a release mechanism now. During the landing sequence, of course. Ideally, about 1000 meters above the surface.”

“I like it,” Venkat said. “All she needs to do is notice one. And she’s sure to check out a bright green ribbon if she sees one outside.”

“That’s what we’re thinking,” said Bruce.

“All right, good work. Keep me posted,” Venkat said.

“Venk,” said Bruce. “If she takes the ‘Watneymobile’ to Ares 4, this’ll all be for nothing. I mean, we can land it at Ares 4 if that happens, but…”

“But she’ll be without a Hab. Yeah,” Venkat said. “One thing at a time. Let me know when you come up with a release mechanism for those ribbons.”

“Will do.”

After terminating the call, he saw an email from Mindy Park arrive. “Watney’s on the move again.”

“Still going in a straight line,” Mindy said, pointing to her monitor.

“I see,” Venkat said. “She’s sure as hell not going to Ares 4. Unless she’s going around some natural obstacle.”

“There’s nothing for her to go around,” Mindy said. “It’s Acidalia Planitia.”

“Are those the solar cells?” Venkat asked, pointing to the screen.

“Yeah,” Mindy said. “She did the usual 2 hour drive, EVA, 2 hour drive. She’s 156km from the Hab now.”

They both peered at the screen.

“Wait…” Venkat said. “Wait, no way…”

“What?” Mindy asked.

Venkat grabbed a pad of Post-Its and a pen. “Give me her location, and the location of the Hab.”

Mindy checked her screen. “She’s currently at… 28.9°N, 29.6°W.” With a few keystrokes, she brought up another file. “The Hab’s at 31.2°N, 28.5°W. What do you see?”

Venkat finished taking down the numbers. “Come with me,” he said, quickly walking out.

“Um,” Mindy stammered, following after. “Where are we going?” She asked when she caught up.

“SatCon break room,” Venkat said. “You guys still have that map of Mars on the wall?”

“Sure,” Mindy said. “But it’s just a poster from the gift shop. I’ve got high quality digital maps on my computer-“

“Nope. I can’t draw on those,” he said. Then, rounding the corner to the break room, he pointed to the Mars map on the wall. “I can draw on that.”

The break room was empty save a computer technician sipping a cup of coffee. The urgency of Venkat and Mindy’s entrance caught his attention.

“Good, it has latitude and longitude lines,” Venkat said. Looking at his Post-It, then sliding his finger along the map, he drew an X. “That’s the Hab,” he said.

“Hey,” the technician said. “Are you drawing on our poster?”

“I’ll buy you a new one,” Venkat said without looking back. Then, he drew another X. “That’s his current location. Get me a ruler.”

Mindy looked left and right. Seeing no ruler, she grabbed the technicians notebook.

“Hey!” The technician protested.

Using the notebook as a straight-edge, Venkat drew a line from the Hab to Maia’s location and beyond. Then took a step back.

“Yup! That’s where she’s going!” Venkat said excitedly.

“Oh!” Mindy said.

The line passed through the exact center of a bright yellow dot printed on the map.

“Pathfinder!” Mindy said. “She’s going to Pathfinder!”

“Yup!” Venkat said. “Now we’re getting somewhere. It’s like 800km from her. She can get there and back with supplies on-hand.”

“And bring Pathfinder and Sojourner Rover back with her,” Mindy added.

Venkat quickly pulled out his cell phone. “We lost contact with it in 1997. If she can get it online again, we can communicate. It might just need the solar cells cleaned. Even if it’s got a bigger problem, she’s an engineer!” Dialing, he added “Fixing shit is her job!”

Smiling for the first time in weeks, he held the phone to his ear and awaited a response. “Bruce? It’s Venkat. Everything just changed. Watney’s headed for Pathfinder. Yeah! I know, right!? Dig up everyone who was on that project and get them to JPL now. I’ll catch the next flight.”

Hanging up, he grinned at the map. “Maia, you sneaky, clever, son of a bitch!”

#the martian #the martian andy weir #lgbt #lesbian rewrites #lesbiansafe

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waynekelton · 6 years ago

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The Weekender: Hold My Strategy Edition

It’s been a bit of a mixed week - I’ve been trying to go back and look at some historically performing content and see what I can do with it, as well as testing the waters with things like the CoD Mobile guide, and skimming some stuff off reddit. The Mario Kart Tour Challenges article is still proving quite popular at the moment, so you may see that float to the top of the article list quite regularly.

Happy to say though that with most of that out of the way, I can start refocusing on some of our favoured topics. Quite a few games have been released recently that are more relevant to the core readership, so will be getting reviews sorted for them pronto.

Just as an FYI - I’m going to be at PDXCon next week from Thursday, so end of week posts might be a bit sporadic. It’s also unlikely that they’ll be a Weekender update next week, but if anything mobile focused comes out of the event I’ll be sure to write it up.

Out Now

There’s actually been a couple of new Apple Arcade games releases over the past week or so. We’ve updated our master list and added a ‘new’ tag to the newcomers, so check them out if you’re still looking for new games to try. We’re a little bit behind on our reviews, but we’re sticking with the batch-approach for now.

Xenowerk Tactics (iOS & Android) - $6.99 - Full Review Pending

You know what? I’m really, really glad this game exists. I noticed the other day we’d only reviewed four games between August/September, but after some digging I realised that’s about right, because there’s been nothing in the premium space worth covering lately. Xenowerk reads like it was made for us, and from what we’ve tested so far it’s a pretty decent real-time tactics game. It’s single-player only, but you control a squad of mercenaries who work for a corporation, and it’s basically your job to clean up their messes. It involves squad development and base management and all that XCOM-like goodness.

It’s free to try on Android - you get to play the first part before paying the full price as an IAP to unlock the rest of the game. On iOS it’s premium up-front. We’re going to try and get a full review on the table ASAP for you.

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Versus: Unfriendly Frenzy (iOS) - $3.99 - Review In Progress

It’s been a strangely good week for strategy gaming on mobile, with Versus: Unfriendly Friendly also releasing this week. We’ve already got Michael working on a review so hopefully that will drop next week. Versus is a real-time strategy game that boats outlandish factions and units and ‘fast-paced’ action. There’s a 29 level solo campaign, and you can play head-to-head against someone on the same device, which sounds interesting.

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And yeah, there’s another free-to-play gacha battler game, this time based on the Digimon franchise. It’s called Digimon ReArise (iOS | Android) I’ll be honest guys, I’m kinda burned out on this stuff at the moment so we’re going to wait and see with this one. If it proves popular maybe we’ll look into it in more detail but I’m not in any rush. Here’s a trailer anyway:

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Updates

A few things to update you one, some of which we accidentally forgot about:

Black Desert Online Mobile (iOS & Android)

MMO’s are an odd prospect on mobile - for the longest time, the term was appropriated by developers who made trashy F2P games, but as mobile tech improved it’s now quite possibly to put actual, ‘legit’ MMOs onto mobile devices. Black Desert Online is a fairly popular Free-to-Play MMO that’s been around for quite a few years now. It’s managed to walk that line between given players worthwhile content to engage in, and offering a business model that sustains them. Their freemium stuff is mainly cosmetics, although you can buy some shortcuts. I played it on PC for a spell and I actually had quite a lot of fun with it. The only thing was I didn’t think it facilitated party-play that well, but it may have improved since then.

We’ve known it was coming to mobile since E3, but what I forgot to mention a couple of weeks ago is that pre-registration is now available on iOS and Android. The mobile version is due to land in December 2019.

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PS4 Remote Play App (iOS & Android)

Playstation recently updated their core PS4 Firmware to Version 7.0 this week, and with that came an update to their Remote Play app. The nuts and bolts of this latest update means that Android users beyond Sony Xperia phones can now get in on the action, and iOS users can now use their Dualshock 4 controllers with the app.

For Android, you just need to be running Android 5.0 or higher although if you have Android 10 installed, you can also get in on the Dualshock action by connecting your controller to your phone via Bluetooth.

You’ll need to have iOS 13 to be able to use your controller on that end of things. You'll also be able to choose whether or not the on-screen controls remain visible as well as choose whether or not to lock the orientation.

Heroes of Steel RPG (iOS & Android)

Ticket to Earth isn’t the only game to seemingly get a fourth episode update this week. The Trese Brothers have taken a break from constantly updating Star Traders: Frontiers to release the “final” episode for their Heroes of Steel RPG, the Siege of Sur-Relliar Glacier.

Here’s the full change-log, if you’re still interested in playing this game:

Epic end-game conclusion to the tale of the 4 Harbingers

Battle across 7 new brutally challenging dungeons and maps

Lock blades and magic with multiple major bosses across the climactic siege

Face 15+ new monster types -- Ice & Fire Drakes, Orcin Ravagers, Thorn Shamans, Unrequited Blades and more

Loot 100+ new amazingly powerful weapons, armor and magical gear across the final dungeons

Once beaten, you may invoke a New Game+ mode to replay the final dungeon and bosses again! (and again!)

Fixed all issues with late-game bows named "FIX ME" and crafting out of Fierhold

Fixed crash with "Great Flats" level loading in some situations

Sales

Only two sales of note this week:

First up, following the release of Episode 4, Ticket to Earth has been discounted by $1 on iOs. Not Android.

Kingdom: New Lands is an intriguing side-scrolling management/strategy game where you must try to survive against hordes of enemies that only attack at night. It’s half price on iOS and Android.

Seen anything else you liked? Played any of the above? Let us know in the comments!

The Weekender: Hold My Strategy Edition published first on https://touchgen.tumblr.com/

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