#edit: i fixed the font size oops >.>

[travelling-hydaelyn]

Endwalker Patch 6.55 Quest: The Coming Dawn

[wwjgyd]

edit: looks like tumblr scrambles the quality anyway uhhh

Whee I can finally post this! My contribution to mxtxremix 2022. I remixed @ehyde​ ‘s threadfic Carrying you

This Version is slightly different from the one posted on AO3 because I made some minor fixes, I won’t replace the AO3 one though because idk if all those changes are actually for the better. It wasn’t an easy choice which work to remix but this one gave me immediately a concrete visual of what i wanted to do, and then I... uh messed up. See I mixed up the creator reveal date(13th march) with the submission deadline( 26th february)

Then I didn’t check my mails around the actual submission date due to stuff happening, so on March 1st I checked my mails mortified realising I missed not only the actual deadline but even the time window to get a 1-2 day extension. *clown-emoji* But hey reveal is on the 6th, and even if I defaulted I’m still allowed to submit something, just means my target gets 2 works so good fine.

6 days, we can do this? Right? I only had some barely legible written notes(If you can read this, congrats, because I can’t) and 1 key visual sketch for the 2nd and 3rd image. (I scrapped the other sketches)

So I did pretty much the entirety of this in 5 days. (Because I can’t do math and fortunately realised early enough that if the 6th is reveal day I need to post on the 5th)

I’m not gonna pretend I had most of it done and only had to finish it because doing all this in such a short stime is a nice flex and reminds me that when I do can focus I can get things done rather fast. Shoutout to my bro  @the-archangel-of-salt​ who was a big help for parallel working with me helping a lot to prevent me from just (mentally or physically) wandering off in the middle of to do something else and forgetting what I was doing.

I guess ultimately the time constraint was a good thing because it didn’t leave me time to waffle around and instead have to settle on a style that both fits the content but also is doable. 

So lines and flat colors it is. There’s been a bit back and forth on the panels since some looked too similar or weren’t interesting or didn’t go well with the way I wanted to place the text.

It was originally supposed to be divided into 4 A6 pages but due to the time limit I couldn’t match the panel sizes to fit that, so it’s just A6 width with lenght going for “whatever matches”

I guess we got some guests...

References are your friend, even if you end up ignoring most of them. (sshhh no you didn’t notice I mixed up the arms at one point)

I also lost one text panel so I had to frankenstein things in Indesign when placing the text so the comic file is now linked 4 times just to insert 2 additional simple black panels... oops

Also fun fact, the font was chosen last minute and happens to not have an ‘ so those are actually all ,’s I’ve moved up.

Have some more sketches

[a-bit-too-much-of-a-zelda-fan]

LinkedUniverse Fanfic Ch. 10: Noontime Nightmares (pt. 1)

Stop! You’ve Violated the Law!

So, you’ve stumbled upon this original post for my Linked Universe fanfiction. That’s okay, it happens to everyone. As of March 2021, I’ve uploaded the entirety of this fanfic to my Archive of Our Own page. Along with finally giving the story a name–Oops! All Links: A Linked Universe Story–I made substantial edits to some of the chapters. These range from minor stylistic revisions to fixing a gaping plot hole that kinda completely broke the character conflict in the earlier chapters. I also renamed and renumbered (but not reordered) the chapters. Specifically, this is now Chapter 12: Noontime Nightmares.

The AO3 iterations of these chapters are the definitive versions. So, if you would like to read this fanfiction, please do so on AO3, right here. With this embedded link. Hehe. Geddit? Link?

Note: My screen name on AO3 is FrancisDuFresne. Yes, that is me. I am not plagiarizing myself.

Anyway, for posterity’s sake, the rest of the original post is below the cut.

That dark forest the Links entered last chapter of my @linkeduniverse fan narrative? Yeah, it’s pretty dark. Part 1 of 2. Word Count: 2418

Nearly all light was blocked by the forest’s dense tree canopy. The heroes were glad they decided to light their lanterns, but even they seemed to not be able to pierce more than a few yards into the darkness. Wild was reminded of a similar forest north of his Hyrule Castle. He hoped they would not encounter the monsters he did there here, too.

The Links spent two uneasy hours walking through the woods. Twilight hadn’t sensed anything strange in his wolf form, but that didn’t sate their feeling they were being watched. Wild still had two arrows nocked on his bow; Warrior instructed him to fire at Twilight’s signal. Warrior was determined to neither get ambushed nor be defeated in one.

“I don’t like this,” Hyrule whispered. Holding his lantern at arm’s length, he still could barely see Legend ahead of him.

“None of us do,” Legend replied. “Unless one of us does. Does anyone like this?”

Time smiled. At least one of them was trying to keep the mood light. “No, I can’t say I’m very fond of this.”

Wind, used to sunny days on the high seas and night sky starlight playing off the water, agreed. “Yeah, not the biggest fan.”

Twilight was put on edge by the suffocating darkness. His heightened senses as a wolf could barely pierce it. It brought to mind the dark cloud that sent the group out of the illusory world of the burning village. That thought unnerved him even more. There was nothing except the faint scent of his friends behind him and darkness ahead.

Three more hours of this? He thought. I almost want something to happen… Wait.

A new scent appeared. It was familiar. The stench of rot and death, a few yards ahead and to the right. Looks like I jinxed it.

The Wolf barked and pointed his head in the direction. With no hesitation, Wild loosed his arrows. The THWIP of the them hitting a target bounced and echoed off the trees. Now fully alert, the others clipped their lanterns of their belts and drew their weapons. Wild nocked two more arrows as Sky moved ahead of him and Twilight.

They walked slowly towards what may be a slain monster. The light of their lanterns fell upon a stag pinned to a tree. It was dead. Two arrows stuck out of its neck; that they expected. What they didn’t anticipate was a massive spear skewering the poor animal through its side. The weapon was long as Time would be tall with Twilight standing on his shoulders, and nearly as thick as a small birch tree. From what was exposed of the head, it seemed to be a jagged, razor sharp rock of some kind. It was shoddily tied together with old ropes.

The stag, pinned to the tree by the spear, seemed to have been dead for a week at least. Flies buzzed around it, and it reeked horribly. Hesitantly approaching it, Sky’s lantern showed it was missing its hind legs. He gagged. He turned back to the group and shook his head as if to say, this isn’t good.

“What the…” Hyrule said as he inched toward the carrion. “What could have done this?”

Wild’s thoughts raced. “Something big. Hinox, maybe?”

“Hinox aren’t that big,” Four said. “Only ten feet, max.”

“Yours, maybe,” Wild replied. “Mine are giants. Five times my height, easy.”

“Oh.”

“What’s a Hinox?” Wind asked. He said it almost as if not wanting an answer.

“Big, muscle-y creatures,” Legend explained. “One-eyed, love bombs…”

“Love bombs?” Wild scoffed. “What kind of Hinox are you guys used to?”

“Something more explosive than yours, apparently.”

Time didn’t like this one bit. “Cut the chatter. We need to be on guard. This thing probably likes prey that stand around and talk.”

“And something tells me we’re the perfect prey,” Hyrule muttered.

Suddenly, Twilight barked again. Following the wolf’s snout, Wild pulled his bow’s string and let two arrows fly. Another THWIP. The heroes warily followed the sound. Their lanterns’ light fell upon a what looked like a fox, again affixed to a tree. The entire font half of its body seemed to have been torn off. This time, a man-sized halberd held it in place. Time pulled it free. He shook off the fox and held the weapon out to the others.

It was finely made, with smooth curves, a polished head, and stained wood. The blacksmith who made it was clearly a skilled one. The materials looked expensive. “This is no traveler’s spear,” Four observed. “This belonged to a knight.”

“So,” Wind ventured, “where’s the knight?”

Warrior looked down at him with one eyebrow raised. “Do you really have to ask?”

“Not really.”

“Figured. Well, it looks like whatever thing is, it’s several yards tall, can use weapons, and has a taste for raw meat.”

“Hm…” Wild put all these pieces together in his head. “I’m definitely thinking a hinox like the ones I’ve seen. Funny, I had to fight one in a forest like this.”

“At least you’ll have experience, then,” Hyrule said. “Plus, you have us now.”

Twilight was still transformed. He was trying to pick up any other scents. As his companions were talking, he picked something faint up. What’s more, he felt a soft rumbling under his paws. Almost like multiple sets of footsteps… He tried to pinpoint where it was coming from, but it was all around them. He looked to the others. They hadn’t noticed any of it. He transformed back.

“Guys, we have company,” he said. “From all directions. Sounds like footsteps and smells… not good. Worse than this carrion.”

“Yep,” Wild confirmed. “Hinox.”

“Is that plural?” Legend asked Twilight.

“Yes.”

“Great.”

Warrior looked to the resident amnesiac. “What can we expect?”

“Five times our size, fat, dim, sometimes armored around the legs. I usually used spears because it’s not safe to get too close to them. They’ll create shockwaves by beating the ground with their hands, and like jumping and crushing people under their rears. Time, pass me that halberd.”

Time handed it over. He was better with a sword anyway. Wild took it and tossed it between his hands, as if checking its balance. He readied it in both hands and took a stab into the darkness. Then he twirled it into one hand, then the next, then back. The hero nodded, evidently pleased with the quality of the weapon. It also gave him an excuse not to use his shield, which he stole from a Stalfos and wasn’t comfortable at all.

“Twilight?” Warrior asked. “How many did you sense?”

“I couldn’t tell for sure. Four or more.”

“Then I’m not sure if we should split up.”

“I should be able to take one myself,” Wild pointed out.

“Right. Pairs for the rest of us, then?”

Before anyone could respond, the footsteps Twilight heard began to become audible to them. A few seconds later, the stench hit them too. Twilight was right, it was coming from all directions. “We’re being surrounded,” Sky said. “We might want to get creative with our weapons.”

“I agree,” Time assented. “If swords aren’t working, don’t hesitate to use anything you need.”

Now the footsteps were growing louder. In a few seconds, the monsters would be upon them. The heroes’ lanterns were infuriatingly dim in the oppressing darkness. Warrior pulled out his Fire Rod. “I can’t take these shadows, we’re sitting ducks!”

He held the Fire Rod aloft and ignited the tip with a layer of flame. The firelight illuminated not four, not five, but nine Hinox less than ten yards away. Wild’s description of them was accurate, the others silently confirmed. The reek of the monsters filled the heroes’ nostrils, forcing them to hold back gags. They readied their weapons. Swords and shields glinted from the fire. “New plan,” Warrior whispered. “One-on-one. Got it? Break.”

In a flash, Wild stowed his halberd and drew his bow. He nocked three arrows and fired them straight into the nearest Hinox’s single eye. The giant monster recoiled with a deafening roar, reached up to its face, and tore the arrows out of its eye. Blood splattered the ground, but the injury didn’t seem to bother the Hinox. It kept moving forward. Wild gaped at it. That usually did some serious damage. Only nine arrows left... Wild thought. Got to conserve them.

The others saw this and stared at the monster. Not many creatures can take three arrows in the eye and keep going. Wild slung his bow over his shoulder and drew his new halberd. He rushed at the Hinox. It stared down at this tiny man sprinting at it, confused by the sight. Most things ran from it. Undeterred, it raised its hand to squish the puny thing. As it was about to bring the three-fingered hand down, Wild jumped to the side. He readied the spear.

The young hero’s feet skidded on the leafy forest floor. Taking a half-second to ground his feet, he stared down his target. Aiming straight at the Hinox’s fat gut, he let loose a flurry of stabs. Again and again, the finely-crafted halberd pierced the monster’s tough skin, sending blood into the air. Wild felt flecks hit his face as he attacked. He worked his fingers furiously, turning the spear slightly with each stab, the axe-like head digging in and tearing flesh as it exited.

The monster roared in either fury or agony, Wild didn’t care. Its entrails torn, it stumbled onto its back with a deafening THUD. Wild ran around to its side and jammed the halberd between the Hinox’s ribs. He used the spear’s handle to vault onto the monster, pounded his boot into its chin, and leapt upward. He twirled the weapon above his hand, secured his grip on it, and spiraled downward.

The halberd’s head bored straight into the Hinox’s eye. After three rotations, Wild righted himself, dug his boot into the monster’s forehead, and jumped to the ground. The roaring stopped. The felled monster ceased its writhing and went limp. Wild cast a look at it to ensure it was dead. Satisfied with his work, he went on to help his friends.

…

By now, Sky was working on his own Hinox. He drew his Beetle and shot it to the side. The flying weapon distracted the brute. It swiped its hands through the air, trying to swat it down. The hero saw a moment to strike. He rushed to the monster’s leg, hoping to cripple it. He raised the Master Sword and made an inward slash. The blade struck the wooden guard the Hinox wore on its leg. It was stuck.

Sky yanked on the handle to free the blade from the wood. One tug didn’t work. Two. Three. The blade came free and Sky stumbled backward. By now, the monster remembered its prey. It turned back around to face Sky. Spotting the puny Hylian, it crouched down. It was preparing to jump. Sky remembered Wild’s words and turned tail.

He was several yards away by the time the Hinox’s enormous behind slammed into the ground. The shockwave still threw him forward. Narrowly dodging a faceplant, Sky managed to get back on his feet. The Hinox was coming for him again. Sky’s eyes darted around the monster, trying to find a weak point. There! he thought. Found one!

The young swordsman spotted what he was looking for. The wooden guards the Hinox was wearing were held in place by some frayed ropes. That was something Sky could work with. He drew his scattershot and filled the its pocket with pellets. He pulled back, aimed for the eye, and let go. He knew it wouldn’t do much to stop the brute, but it would distract it. With the monster blinking away the tiny ammunition, Sky made his move.

Taking off at a sprint, he replaced the scattershot with his sword and ran underneath the Hinox. At just the right moment, he made two deft swipes. The ropes sliced apart and their load fell to the ground. The Hinox was still trying to figure out what was happening when Sky ran back the way he came. He held the Master Sword aloft and charged a skyward strike. Lowering it to his side, he ran under the Hinox and spun on his heel. The charged spin attack sliced clean through the monster’s legs. Sky ran clear before it collapsed in a heap on the ground. It wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

…

The world froze. Wind was holding the Phantom Sword aloft, using its time-stop ability. All sound and breeze stopped as he dashed around the Hinox. He had to make the most of this moment. He took his hookshot out mid-step, held it in his right hand, and readied it. He aimed up and chose his target.

With a squeeze of the trigger, the chained weapon fired out into the stagnant air. It dug itself into the side of the monster’s head. Wind knew it wouldn’t dig deep enough to do any serious damage, but he wasn’t planning on it. He picked up more speed as he sprinted. By now he was directly behind the Hinox.

The hero kicked his feet off the ground into a high leap. At the apex of his jump, he squeezed the trigger on the hookshot again. The chain retracted, shooting Wind into the air. Using the momentum of his leap, he rushed up to the monster’s neck. He raised his sword. A split second from hitting the Hinox, he swung the Phantom Sword.

SWISH! The blade cut straight through the nape of monster’s neck, severing its spinal cord. Wind felt time begin to restart. He planted his feet on the slowly collapsing Hinox’s neck and pushed off into a backflip. He landed on the ground and was just retracting the hookshot’s tip as time resumed fully. The titan collapsed on forest floor. In quite literally no time, the young hero had felled the giant.

The Phantom Sword was exhausting to use without the fairy Ciela’s help, so Wind took a moment to recover his strength. He looked up at the rest of the fight. The others were still working on their Hinox. He could just barely see them through the darkness. He smiled at the sight. The Hinox looked tough, but his friends seemed to be having an easy enough time fighting them. Nice, he thought. Gimme a sec, boys. I’ll be right there.

[storyswept]

I just noticed some of my posts have weird formatting on mobile (like some parts of the quotes having a different font / font size). Oops. Might be because some parts of the quotes are taken from asearchoficeandfire and others from the kindle version of the books. There’s no difference in font on PC though.

Sorry for the weird reading experience.

Apparently copy-pasting in word and copy-pasting it again works. So, I’ll be fixing the posts. (Edit: it worked... once, so I guess I’ll have to come up with a better strategy -__-)

I guess I should prepare my posts in word directly to avoid the problem.

[googleplayredeemcodesfree-blog]

Get Google Play Redeem Codes 2017 Worth $25, $50 Now

Google Play Redeem Codes 2017 Worth $25, $50

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Here is a thing, Many people face this while redeeming their free Google play card code. They think it is easy, but it is not that easy as you think it is. Because we still have the record from one of our member telling us, that he did something wrong which is why his google play code was not valid anymore. I know that it is not because of official play store authority, but he might have posted his code somewhere on the internet asking for help or a guide to redeem codes for google play. So, Here is a short tutorial explaining it.

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[applitools]

Visually Testing React Components using the Eyes Storybook SDK

Guest post by Gil Tayar, Senior Architect at Applitools

React is, first and foremost, a library for creating reusable components. But until React Storybook came along, reusability of components between applications was very limited. While a library of common components could be created, it was very difficult to use, as there was no useful way of documenting it.

Yes, documenting the common components via a Readme file is possible, even useful. But a component is, in its essence, something visual. A Readme file just doesn’t cut it, neither for a developer and definitely not for a designer that wants to browse a library of shared components and choose the one that fits their purpose.

This limited the usefulness of React’s component reusability .

And then React Storybook came along. React Storybook has changed the way many companies approach React by allowing them to create a library of components that can be visually browsed so as to be able to pick and choose the component they want:

React Storybook

Finally, a real library of shared components can be created and reused across the company. And examples abound, some of them open-source: from airbnb’s set of date components to Wix’s styled components.

But a library of widely used company-wide components brings its own set of problems: how does one maintain the set of components in a reliable way? Components that are internal to one application are easily maintained — they are part of the QA process of that application, whether manual or automated. But how does one change the code of a shared component library in a reliable manner? Any bug introduced into the library will immediately percolate to all the applications in the company. And in these agile days of continuous delivery, this bug will quickly reach production without anybody noticing.

Moreover, everyone in the company assumes that these shared components are religiously tested, but this is not always the matter. And even when they are tested, it is usually their functional aspect that is tested, while testing how they look is largely ignored.

Testing a Shared Library

So how does one go about writing tests for a library of shared components? Let’s look at one of the Shared Components libraries out there — Airbnb’s React Dates. I have forked it for the purpose of this article, so that we can look look at a specific version of that library, frozen in time.

Let’s git clone this fork:

$ git clone git@github.com:applitools/eyes-storybook-example.git $ cd eyes-storybook-example

To run the storybook there, just run npm run storybook, and open your browser to http://localhost:6006.

To run the tests, run the following:

$ npm install $ npm test

This runs the tests, which generate the following output:

Airbnb React Dates test output

Wow! 750 tests. I have to say that this component library is very well tested. And how do I know that it is very well tested? It’s not just because there are a lot of tests, but also (and mainly!) because I randomly went into some source file, changed something, and ran the tests again. 

Let’s try it. Change line 77 in file: src/components/CalendarDay.jsx to:

if (!onDayMouseEnter) onDayMouseEnter(day, e);

(I just added the if to the line). Now let’s run the tests again using npm test:

Tests failing due to a change in the code

Perfect! The tests failed, as they should. Really great engineering from the Airbnb team.

(if you’re following with your own repository, please undo the change you just made to the file.)

Functional Testing Cannot Catch Visual Problems

Let’s try again. Edit line 6 in the file src/svg/arrow-right.svg, by changing the first M694 to M94, thus:

Now let’s run the tests again using npm test:

Oops. They’re passing. We’ve changed the source code for the components, and yet the tests pass.

Why did this happen? Because we changed only the visual aspect of the components, without changing any of the functional aspect of it. And Airbnb does only functional testing.

This is not to denigrate the wonderful engineers at Airbnb who have given us this wonderful libraries (and other open-source contributions). This library is tested in a way that should make Airbnb proud. And I am sure that manual testing of the components is done from time to time to ensure that the components are OK.

(if you’re following with your own repository, please undo the change you just made to the file.)

Visual Testing of a Shared Library

So how does one go about testing the visual aspects of the components in a shared library? Well, if you’re using React Storybook, you’re in luck (and if you’re building a shared component library, you should be using React Storybook). You are already using React Storybook to visually display the components and all their variants, so testing them automatically is just a simple step (are you listening, Airbnb? 😉).

We’ll be using Applitools Eyes, which is a suite of SDKs that enable Visual Testing inside a variety of frameworks. In this case, we’ll use the Applitools Eyes SDK For React Storybook (yes, I know, a big mouthful…)

(full disclosure— I am a developer advocate and architect for Applitools. But I love the product, so I have no problem promoting it!)

To install the SDK in the project, run:

npm install @applitools/eyes.storybook --save-dev

This will install the Eyes SDK for Storybook (locally for this project). If you’re following with your own repository, please undo the changes you made to the files. or otherwise you will get failures. To run the test, just run:

./node_modules/.bin/eyes-storybook

You will get this error:

Yup. To use the Eyes SDK, you need an API Key, which you can get by registering at the Applitools site, here. Once you have that, login and go to the Eyes admin tool, here. You will find the API using the following menu:

Getting the Applitools API Key

To make Eyes Storybook use the API key, set the environment key APPLITOOLS_API_KEY to the key you have:

// Mac, Linux: $ export APPLITOOLS_API_KEY=your-api-key

// Window C:\> set APPLITOOLS_API_KEY=your-api-key

Now run it again:

./node_modules/.bin/eyes-storybook

Eyes storybook will run Chrome headless, open your storybook, take a screenshot of all your components and variants, and send them to the Applitools service. When the test ends, as this is the first test, it will establish that these screenshots are the baseline against which all other tests will be checked against. You can check the results with the link it adds to the end of the tests, or just go to http://eyes.applitools.com:

Visual testing results

Failing the Test

So let’s test if the change we made to the SVG will fail the test. Re-edit line 6 in the file src/svg/arrow-right.svg, by changing the first M694 to M94, thus:

Now let’s run the test again using ./node_modules/.bin/eyes-storybook.

Failing Eyes Storybook test

Success! Or rather failure! The test recognized that some of the component screenshots differed from the baseline ones we created earlier. We can see the result of the diffs in the Applitools Eyes management UI:

Showing diffs of components in Storybook

We can either select these changes as the new baseline (which in this case we don’t want to!) or fix the bug and run the test again, in which case it will be green.

And that is the beauty of Storybook. Because it enables you to create a central repository of components, it feeds three birds with one bird feed (I’m sorry, I can’t kill three birds, even if it is with one stone…):

Creating and documenting a shared React components library, with little effort.

Testing that the functionality of the components works (albeit with lots of effort)

Visually testing the components with literally zero code.

Summary

React Storybook is a game changer for frontend development— it enables the creation and maintenance of a shared component library for the whole company.

And the best thing about React Storybook is that if you’ve already invested the effort to set it up, you get a suite of tests that check the visual look of your components… for free!

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About the Author: 30 years of experience have not dulled the fascination Gil Tayar has with software development. From the olden days of DOS, to the contemporary world of Software Testing, Gil was, is, and always will be, a software developer. He has in the past co-founded WebCollage, survived the bubble collapse of 2000, and worked on various big cloudy projects at Wix. His current passion is figuring out how to test software, a passion which he has turned into his main job as Evangelist and Senior Architect at Applitools. He has religiously tested all his software, from the early days as a junior software developer to the current days at Applitools, where he develops tests for software that tests software, which is almost one meta layer too many for him. In his private life, he is a dad to two lovely kids (and a cat), an avid reader of Science Fiction, (he counts Samuel Delany, Robert Silverberg, and Robert Heinlein as favorites) and a passionate film buff. (Stanley Kubrick, Lars Von Trier, David Cronenberg, anybody?) Unfortunately for him, he hasn’t really answered the big question of his life - he still doesn't know whether static languages or dynamic languages are best.