#do y’all think we’ll see the Beast characters in the main story some time soon?? now that Fyodor has Thanos-snapped the universes👹👁️👁️💀

[lovereadandwrite]

“that day, May 5, was my birthday”🐯🌕✨

[inspector-montoya-fox]

#12 - He Who Tames The Iron Horse

Setting: what a fucking interlude of an episode. but it’s all good. after the absolute shit-show that were episodes 2 to 4, who can blame lil’ ol’ He Who Tames The Iron Horse ? this episode feels super brief and i think that’s because some of the missions feel more major than others due to the fact that the gang steals Clockwerk parts throughout. every time the gang hijacks an iron horse, it feels like a mini operation. lemme refer to my fav post by @designraccoon​ which i so often refer to. He Who Tames The Iron Horse is the first level in the series to take place during daytime. and that makes so much sense because the previous 4 levels have been an absolute epic. so the player is rewarded with an episode which leaves all the doom & gloom behind and shifts focus onto happiness. in terms of narrative, this episode is probably the gang’s best outing. as Sly says at the end cutscene The Gang and I had pulled off the impossible. We'd successfully robbed all of Jean Bison's Iron Horse trains and we were walking away with three, count them, three, Clockwerk parts. And as a bonus, we shut down spice distribution in all of North America. yeap. pretty great stuff for the gang. Carmelita is back in the fold, almost all of the Clockwerk parts have been retrieved, and it’s freakin day outside man, what else do you want. the environment is so serene and beautiful despite the killer bears and blood-hungry eagles. and everything just blends together with this pastel baby blue colour. similar to Sly 2′s previous episodes, the environment goes hand-in-hand with the narrative’s mood. the gang’s success and laid-back attitude is reflected in the nature’s peacefulness. due to the shift in narrative there’s not much to say. the overall story is obviously taking a high after a major low before taking another major low (which the game had the balls to end with). as i’ve mentioned, the player is rewarded: nothing is too serious and the missions are all bombastic and fun. i know most of y’all love Spice in the Sky, and then you get to kidnap baby bears with Murray, or jump on trains while they’re going full speed. maybe the gang shouldn’t be too cocky with their success and luck because as we know, things soon take a turn for the worse, but do you blame them? they’ve been through so much. they deserve a nice vacay in the Canadian wilderness.

Characters: this shift in mood directly results in Jean Bison’s large absence from the episode. in retrospect, He Who Tames The Iron Horse’s biggest obstacle is Carmelita, the trains, maybe Neyla or the bears - not Jean Bison. and it’s interesting because right from the get go, SP drops a huge chunk of info on us. essentially, while Jean Bison and Arpeggio are scheming and plotting the world’s destruction, their presence is reduced to almost nothing. i’m aware that Rajan and the Contessa also didn’t show up that much in their first levels, but somehow that felt different. when plotting to steal the Clockwerk wings, the plan included destroying Rajan’s party which led to his big time grudge against the gang. when plotting to break Sly and Murray out of prison, that felt more personal because of what the Contessa had done to them. whereas here, sure the iron horses are something personal to Bison, but he’s a complete stranger. he only appears at the beginning for that significant dialogue and then very briefly at the end, when he’s in one of the trains. this is good because, without Bison’s monstrous presence looming over the gang, the episode naturally orbits around them and their mass success. it’s not to say that the gang underestimates him. more like ignores him. as we’ll see in Menace from the North, eh? SP plays up Bison’s savagery and gruesome nature by spotlighting how his plans affect the environment and even going so far as to call his house ‘the lair of the beast’. but for now, Bison’s put on hold. i also want to touch on our mains, meaning the gang and Carmelita. after taking down the Contessa, both seem to have risen to the top. zenith. for the gang, confronting their inner demons and being separated leads to an increase in group missions. hijaking the trains requires all three members, Murray and Sly team up in Spice in the Sky, etc. and again, this is a honeymoon phase. everything seems to be rolling smoothly and this newly found cooperation seems to be working best, which will later on save their asses in Anatomy for Disaster, when it won’t be “honeymoon time” anymore. He Who Tames The Iron Horse seems to be a reminder that the gang works best when they work together. as for Carmelita, she might still be exiled from Interpol, but after escaping from the Contessa, she’s trying her best to keep afloat. i mean, i don’t want to say that she’s accepted the status quo, but at least she’s trying to bust the gang as proof that she’s clean. she’s emotionally back in check, which is amazing, sweetie.

Themes: a hard one. after lots of thinking i’ve come up with speed theme. this is presented via the trains and how they play a key role in this episode, but also how they reflect the good time the gang is having. time flies when you’re having fun, and the gang is having a blast. the smile on Sly’s face during the end cutscene says it all. as i’ve said, this episode feels super short. the gag and the player are enjoying themselves so much that it’s soon over. for such a chill episode, He Who Tames The Iron Horse sure seems to divulge in acceleration and the occasional adrenaline rush. battles on moving trains, getting chased by bears, eagles and Carmelita. again, SP manages to blend two major elements together to create stark contrast. the serene Canadian atmosphere is complete with shallow waters, thin ice and fluffy snow. in antithesis, most of the missions are frenzied and have high stakes, like exploding hot air balloons and wild bear attacks. but other than that, i’m stumped. like, the main thing about this episode is its serenity, but that’s less of a theme and more of a characteristic about the narrative. so yea.

What I Like: oh SP knew. they knew how every. single. person. playing the cottdamn game would want to glide off from the top of that central mountain. so they added a treasure there too. brilliant. bRILLIANT ! also in this episode, Neyla looking completely badass when she flies in out of nowhere on a freakin hover jet i don’t even know what that shit is, like something straight out of Star Wars. like that moment made me a straight furry for a sec or something. Carmelita and Murray’s exchange while she’s holding him hostage is gold too (jellybeans!!!). and lastly, that cute lil’ orange snow plow thingy carrying the guards inside. it’s so cUtE !!

What I Don’t Like: that fucking mole guard. you know which one.

Quote: Bison, you covetous troglodyte. You've already got the lion's share of the parts. or I'm grateful for the jellybeans and all but aren't you on the outs with Interpol right now?

[deliriumsetin]

So here’s the thing...

I’m really freaking hard to scare. Unlike my cat that just booked it into another room when our UPS guy dropped a package off at the door. Perfect timing, Percy. Perfect timing...

Anyways! I have NOT had a good scare in probably two decades. No matter what fiction I pick up that promises to chill and thrill me, neither happens.

Now keep this in mind.

As of right now I am launching a business and yes, this will tie into the weird opener. Be patient, please.

I am launching Vox et Liber, a publishing house for ALL kinds of stories and ALL kinds of voices. I started working on this in November 2019, what do you mean that was only 8 months ago?! I originally thought the publishing house up after learning a bunch of facts about the publishing world over the summer.

VeL publishing will be a new kind of publishing and I can say that with 100% confidence because I am building this beast from the ground up, with the help of @hazandlouwho​, my fiance, and a few other amazing people!

Because this business is getting started independently, which means no investors, we are working with a VERY small amount of cash reserved for start up. Initially all works will be published digitally. We do plan on launching a Kickstarter in September/October to get enough funds to keep this going and to do it right which means getting stories published physically and sold to both indie bookstores and Barnes and Noble. Please be on the look out for that.

If any awesome people want to donate to help us not break my own personal bank, which will be easy to do since Covid-19 forced me to quit my job working with the public because I’m high risk and unemployment has kept me in limbo for going on 3 weeks, you can tip us on Ko-Fi by clicking here. ALL donations and funds raised go towards launching VeL and all projects under the VeL umbrella.

Bringing it around to the scares. VeL is launching our first project and we need all you awesome writers’ help. As of today we are opening submissions for our first ever anthology, Graveyard Visits. It’s horror with the theme of marginalized voices written as Own Voice fiction. Meaning stories written by marginalized groups with their marginalized groups as main characters.

Submissions are going to be open from July 1st until August 12th 11:59pm EST. Stories are expected to be between 2.5k-5k words in length. We will be paying $.02 per word as well as giving you a digital copy of the anthology. Submission Guidelines can be found here.

Now the whole me being hard to scare; I want to be scared. Submit your best, your scariest, and most bone-chilling stories.

Also, not so subtly gonna add a nudge to @thebibliosphere​ because I feel like she might have something up her sleeve. If not for this anthology then definitely our erotica one that will be announced later this summer.

We also have a podcast series in the works but I will do another post on that once I or my awesome soon to be brother in law (that’s STILL weird) have a moment to do up some graphics.

Click below for my rant on why traditional publishing right now is a soul sucking leech on EVERYONE.

On average with hardcover books an author is lucky to make $1.50 off each one sold and that’s only AFTER they sell enough to cover their advance. I also found out the average advance is like 3k per book. Some (not including the wicked big names who get a shit ton more) can get as high as 5k but others can get as low as a 1k. An author is lucky to see that twice a year (selling 2 books) because they have to spend time MARKETING book 1 instead of writing book 2. 

Keep in mind fiction hardcovers are generally sold between 19.99 (usually YA) or 29.99 (usually adult). Wicked big difference, huh? I get there’s a lot that goes into making a book, trust me I do but the split between should leave the authors getting around $4 per copy instead of less than $2. That $2.50 is just extra that the publishing house takes because it can.

Then there are the mass paperbacks which an author gets paid 50 damn cents per copy. Yes, those books retail for anywhere between 7.99 and 14.99 per book and sell way faster than hardcovers. Take it from an ex-bookseller.

Most books take on average 500 to 1,000 hours of work put into them before they even get handed off to the publisher for the FIRST time. At minimum that author sees an hourly return wage of $6 which is BELOW the United fucking States shit-tastic minimum peasant wage. We devalue the arts so fucking much- arg! But that can be a separate rant for another day.

Then after doing more research I realized just how off balanced the publishing world STILL is in the year of hell 2020. Don’t believe me click the link. Sarah Park Dahlen did a great article with a great graphic on it. 

As of 2015, yes I’m paraphrasing to continue to rant, children’s books had ALMOST more books about anthropomorphic cars, household items, and animals than there were books about Black kids, Asian Pacific kids, Latinx kids, or Native American/First Nation kids combined. Talking teakettles and their kindred got a whopping 12.5% while if you add up all the groups above you get 14.2%. None on there own beat out the freaking Easter Bunny! Of course books about White kids are the highest at 73.3%. Yes, this was as of 2015 but as an avid reader who reads middle-grade and up books for fun I can tell you nothing much has changed. Books about black kids maybe SLIGHTLY higher since the BLM movement (fuck yes progress!!) but I’d be heartstoppingly shocked if they beat out talking fucking trucks.

And that’s just race. From what I gathered with all the publishing houses less than 100 books with LGBTQIAP+ main characters are published each year. Wtf? And among that as of 2015 55% percent are about cisgendered males and 31% are cisgendered females. (Thank you @malindalo​, you are awesome and I’ve enjoyed meeting you at the Boston Teen Author festival the last few years.) So, just focusing on those 2 first letters, huh? I want to read a story about a kickass transwoman that has to deal with transitioning WHILE demons have torn their way out of hell. That would be badass! Holy shit, someone trans write that!

Same goes for people that live with disabilities whether they are physical or mental, including mental illness and neurodivergents like myself. If you haven’t figured out by this rant just how ADHD I am than you might need an ADHD in your life. My brain works differently and I would have killed growing up to read about characters that have to deal with what I deal with. We have Percy Jackson now and his all ‘verse but it’s not enough and it wasn’t published until I was on my way to college.

All that aside we now have all the bs coming out about what’s been going on in traditional publishing. About all the dickweeds that have been using their power and pull to sexually harass new authors, most often the new authors are young women. I unfollowed people and canceled a pre-order because fuck that shit! Also, I don’t give a fuck how big a name someone is if the hate they spew makes all their trans fans collectively feel like shit for not believing the simple fact that transwomen are women then they deserve to get dropped like the bag of shit they are. TERFs can fuck right off. 

All the publishing bs has made me more determined to get VeL off the ground because no, no, no. We’ll have none of that. All the listed above reasons can go play in traffic. We will be paying our authors better and taking care of them from day 1. We will be making sure our catalog is so damn diverse that you’d have to be looking at the wrong website to not find a story that you can’t see yourself in and lastly, if we hear of any of our authors pulling a Myke Cole or a Sam Sykes than they are dropped. It is in the best interests of our authors futures that they aren’t shitbags. /end rant

If y’all have any questions about anything of this, I think my dms are open or if I’m wrong just tag me. My days lately have been chained to my shit dell computer with one or both cats pinning me to the couch. I finish this up as Percy settles in on my legs. Also, thunderstorm is starting up and both are sleeping through it? If only I could be so lucky when the fiance and I have kids...

[wo-the-wolf]

We Hunt The Hunter Part 1

Hello everyone! Welcome to another one of the stories, bringing back some characters, Sasha and Breka. This story was inspiried by user @quiksilvear and their requested prompt of human persistence hunting. Without further ado, lets continue!  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The crew laid sprawled out around the ship that had landed in the middle of no where. The amphibious crew took stock of the situation, some handling the injured and the shell-shocked. However among them stood one who was bandaging her gut from a bad gash. Standing by her side was the terrifying Vin’lek known as Breka, and Sasha patted her head before looking back. The crew were soldiers, but they weren’t equipped nor prepared to survive this kind of emergency landing. "Well A’rav,” Sasha said before whistling to get his attention. Her  bionic limbs had been restored to a much greater condition, and she smiled as she caught the attention of her friend Captain A’rav. “Looks like most of our supplies got torched. How soon can we expect rescue?”  Her companion looked down at a dead crew member, covered his face and sighed, “This planet is on the fringes of our patrol route. It may be a few days before we can build a beacon from scrap. After that it could be as long as a week before anyone finds us.” 

“A week?!” Another crew member shouted before holding her broken arm and gasping in pain. The crew began to look around with worry. 

“We have enough supplies for maybe three rotations! We won’t have enough to wait that long even if we ration it heavily!” Another crew member shouted. 

A’rav looked at Sasha and sighed, “They’re right,” he muttered. A’rav stood up, swallowing a lump in his throat and raising his hands, “Men and Women of the S.S. Grep’klek please, I know the situation is grim, but we’ll find a solution in order to keep everyone fed and-”

“We don’t have enough food! How are we going to keep people from starving?!” Another crew member shouted. 

A’rav swallowed again. The books demanded Officers be kept alive and given necessary supplies, though how that would work with such a green crew was not a good thought to say the least. “We . . . We will,” he swallowed. 

A’rav felt a hand lay on his shoulder and looked to see Sasha with some kind of black straw like substance hanging from her lips. “Are you crazy?!” A crew member in white robes stammered and burst forward from the crowd. “I said not to touch those weeds! They are doused with toxins!” 

“Toxic to y’all, Huuga’s don’t like this stuff but humans drink it quite often. It’s a pretty good pick me up,” she chewed a bit and patted Breka’s head. The beast seemed to grin, causing more than a few of the crew to back up in fear. “Caffeine is a good thing for us. Besides, we’re gonna do some good old fashioned hunt’en to survive this here mess.” Sasha stepped in front of A’rav. “So, who here among y’all know how to hunt? Not with your plasma blasters you’ll just melt the meat, but anyone here fire a bow?” She looked around. No hands, in fact some confused faces made her feel a bit more uneasy. “Right . . . Spears?” She questioned. “Anyone?” No response. “A’rav . . . I . . . I’m starting to think I know why pirates are such a problem in your area.” 

“My men can fight, Sasha,” A’rav shook his head. 

“Oh I’ve seen that, but I don’t think they can survive.” Sasha sighed. “Now ain’t this gonna be a pain.”

“Well excuse us for not being versed in primitive weapons of human design!” An injured crew member growled. 

“They’re in the manual for basic survival of all species within the Coalition, and you know why?” She turned to him with the same tired look as usual, chewing on the plant a bit more. “Because we humans are good at a lot of things. But the one thing we’re good at, is killing things bigger and scarier than us.” She grabbed a nearby stick and then reached into her boot. “Come on now,” she tugged and pulled out a large knife. “There ya are,” she smiled. 

“What are you doing?” Some of the crew had begun to gather as one of the injured from earlier inquired. 

Sasha sat down on the ground and began to carve, “Well I’m making a spear. We’re gonna be stuck here a bit and ain’t got much food. Now off in the woods there’s something made of meat if those growls and howls mean anything,” she spit out the weed and plucked another one from near her, chewing on it again. “So I’m gonna go hunting.” 

“Those howls come from a Tan-nanga!” One of the more veteran looking crew members growled. “No one can match their ferocity, not even your Vin’lek pet!” 

Breka growled, causing the man to take a near unseen step back. Sasha smiled, “Sounds like fun. A good ol’ rustle an tustle. What’s your name Mister?” Sasha looked up as she picked up some metal debris, and started showing it into the wooden stick to make a crude spear. 

“Malo, Malo Wendga,” The Veteran proclaimed proudly. “I have killed many enemies for the defense of my people. I have studied the beasts around our star system. These are some of the most dangerous I speak of!” he growled, “You have no knowledge of what you face, you are a blind fool if you think to fight one!” 

“That’s true,” Sasha nodded as she listened intently. “I would be one hell of a fool to fight one. But that’s because I’m not going to fight one.” She stood up and tapped her home made spear on the ground, twirling it a bit and then thrusting forward, causing some of the crowd to recoil. “I’m going to hunt it.” She stood up straight and twirled the spear a little more. “My ancestors, back before we had even discovered how to speak properly, hunted together with animals native to our home. These animals, the dog, were once creatures called wolves. They were our mortal enemy, but through sheer determination we domesticated them, because they’re the only animal that could keep up with our hunting.” 

“What? What nonsense is this?” The Veteran Malo folded his arms. 

“Many historical texts define hunting as overpowering your opponent, most ancestors of the galaxies species were prey, or predators that hunted in quick bursts, or like your kind remained still. For us, we outsmarted our prey.” She saw the crowd beginning to gather once again. She had them, and would now give them the moral they needed. “Traps, tracking, and not running but walking towards our prey got them. The prey would run, and we would merely follow. When they attack we lead them a place we can win, using our companions,” she pet Breka’s head lovingly, “And working together to bring them down.” 

“That is pure fantasy, I have never heard of any of that!” Malo scoffed. 

“Didn’t know you were a human expert?” Sasha laughed softly as Malo remained quite, clearly corned on that account. “At any rate, Breka and I will be back in roughly two days. Mostly to track some extra resources. Prey herds, water, any fruits and what not. I’ll be borrowing one of your scanners,” she began walking as she talked, and upon mentioning the scanner she plucked it out of the hands of one of the crew. “Thank you,” she clasped his shoulder for a moment and continued, “Be back soon A’rav, try not to starve while I’m gone,” she waved and then continued on towards the dense glowing woods that surrounded the ship. 

“She’s going to die,” Malo snorted. 

The rest of the crew were losing hope after she left, realizing that Malo may be right. “No,” A’rav smiled, “I know Sasha. She’s my friend, and she’s not going to die till she gets her hand on her main prey.”

TO BE CONTINUED

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HEY YOU! How’s it going? It was a pleasure to work on this arch of the short stories I’m doing to pass time during my last year of university. Once again don’t forget, if you have any prompts you want me to work on just send me them, tag me in them, anything at all! I will put them in the que if I like em! All my stories are connected so never fear, old characters will always come back! Until next time, Fly safe fellow Explorer’s of the unknown.