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botwstoriesandsuch · 5 years ago

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P-please talk about your Rito OC, please... ramble without any context, please... I have one too... please make me feel less alone...

Ok ok let me just *unloads all of Illeka’s super angsty self-indulgent backstory*

I technically have two backstories, one for botw that I’m gonna use for my fic Where Time Takes Us, and another I use for my dnd campaign. My dnd one is more fleshed out (thanks to my amazing GM) so I’ll probably just share that one.

Warning for super duper long post that is barely coherent and I haven’t checked for typos and also rip to ADHD folks because I have no pictures to ease your brain with. Anyhow prepare for like thousands of words worth of rambles this is not edited at all

This is just a copy paste of the random incoherent shit I sent to my poor DM. Anyhow, I technically have 3 ocs here, but Illeka is the one I play

A weird Rito, that one is. I hear they’ve only cried at birth...

- Illeka was born on the Day of Living Fire, its a celebration of the dead essentially, where you mourn and remember your loved ones and ancestors and all that. It’s superstition to be *born* on this day, because your life/creation takes away from the day that’s supposed to honor the dead, and some people on birb island believe these things, that if you let the kid live it’s a curse. But most people are like no wtf you boomers it’s fine there’s no such thing you crazy old people are weird, which to be fair is kinda true.

- When Talako is around 6, his single mom dies. He’s adopted by a new family, Kala (also around 6 years old) and her parents.

- Illeka meets Talako after he kinda follows her around, because he’s an innocent cinnamon bun that admires Illeka’s calm and stoic demeanor after they help him with some bullies. Through this, Talako, Illeka, and Kala all become best friends.

- The events in Illeka’s life aren’t really helping their whole curse case. Every bad event, from their dad getting injured and having the slightest limp, to their brother, Zekk nearly setting himself on fire— it’s all a supposed punishment for not killing them when they were bored. But at this point most people brush it off as coincidence, besides, nothing THAT bad has happened yet.

- the trio of friends grow strong, becoming some of the best in their arts on the island. And their relationship is seemingly adorable. The serious ~~cursed~~ one, the optimistic sunshine one, and the sarcastic firey one. Prides of their village, set to protect their people from harm.

- Illeka is the best in the village when it comes to physical fights. Trusty halberd, and a keen shot with a bow, they’ve never lost a sparring match on that front. Their personality is offputting to some, there’s a rumour that they’ve never cried. The easiest of jokes, and the vilest of insults don’t spark much reaction from them— except in the presence and topic of their family, Kala, and Talako. But otherwise, the story goes that the cursed kid doesn’t have a soul, and hence, no morality or emotions.

- When they train with Talako and Kala, they never back down, if only out of respect, Illeka wouldn’t want to embarrass them with pity. Talako always laughs at his inevitable defeat, though he tries nonetheless. He promises that one day he’ll be strong enough to beat them.

- Talako is a pleasant soul, but has an nack for adventure and a hint of chaos. He prefers to dual wield daggers, and on occasion a short sword or two. He’s great with the blade, loves the thrill of the fight, but is more skilled with cooking and physical healing and remedies. He’s always the one encouraging fun celebratory hang outs at the tavern, with his two closest friends after a day of guarding the village. Kala always sides with him, and Illeka typical gives in after at least putting on a show of reluctance. He humble and happy and loved by most of the village, if only things would last

- Kala is of wit and cunning, she’s typically the first to speak. She’s headstrong and not afraid to insult whoever she displeases, and a bit too arrogant in her abilities. She laughs at all of Talako’s jokes, if perhaps only to spite Illeka’s groans. She’s also the most strategic of her friends, being the “one with a plan” in battle. While she’s a decent wield of two khopesh, Kala’s mostly gifted with magic. She’s got a knack for conjuring, though is well researched in other types as well. Illeka and her are an even match, with decent win ratios on either end. Illeka doesn’t take it that personally, they suck/hate magic after all. Kala’s a bit more competitive tho.. While her power in magic is certainly the best on all of the island, she can’t help but feel salty/jealous for always being overshadowed by Illeka’s feats, since the people prefer/understand the physical over the magic.

- Oh, and she was born on day after the Day of Living Fire, according to her parents. How lucky.

- In a sense, they’re all a bit of an outcast. Kala the fiery independent one, a bit sidecasted for prefering magic over steel. Talako the weird orphan, for being a chirpy, happy boi, which is a bit annoying for some. And Illeka…well lets just say their situation isn’t going to be improving

- One year, Illeka’s family is expecting more kids, twin sisters at that! It’s the most excited anyone’s ever seen Illeka, thought perhaps that’s not the right word… They’ve still got their usual demeanor, but they did spend nearly a week crocheting little baby hats and tunics and scarves. They threatened to kill their brother if they told anyone, although Zekk was allowed to let it slip to Tal and Kala

- [They are absurdly good at crochet btw. They never do it anymore to try and maintain their “reputation,” but their family will never forget the time they crafted matching blankets and hats to win a little competition in their home town.]

- Then the Day of Living Fire arrives for that year. Theres a little celebration for Illeka’s birthday, before moving on to other activities.

- The twins die that night.

- The village was in a bit of shock…and rumours grow considering the timing of it. The mysterious circumstance of it…well it does turn the heads of even some of the less-superstitious. The rumours, the death, the silent thought that perhaps that cursed bird caused some babies’ death, Illeka endured it.

- Years later would it get worse.

- Illeka is still publically respected at this point, weird rumours sure, but try telling that to the edge of her halberd. Their mother had made the twin’s shrine, but they say Illeka didn’t visit that often. Talako was always by their side, trying to help them, which was always appreciated, even when they tried to hide it.

- Kala was busy in the library these days.

- Zekk had started a family by now, a little baby birb named Mili hatched into the world. Illeka would often steal her away for little cuddles when they (thought) no one was looking. Zekk would jest that they had to fight for the right to hold his own kid. Kala would also occasionally tease them about it, though Tal was mostly happy to see them in better spirits

- Then, another Day of Living Fire.

- Talako and Illeka were usually on guard duty together, the northern patrol by the village edge. But tal was still a bit worried about his friend’s state of mind, he’s not sure he’d even seen them mourn. He pushes for Illeka to take the day off, it’s technically their birthday after all, plus they can pay their respected at the shrines and attend the festivities and do the ceremonies and all that. Illeka denies it, brushing it off like they always do.

- Soon, their nightly patrol begins, and Illeka is about to set off to met up with Talako, but Kala intercepts. She has a talk with them, similar to that of Talako’s, but with…more well crafted and laced words. It’s nearly the same message that Talako tried to tell them, “It’ll be healthy for you, visit the shrines, be with your family, maybe brush off some rumours in the process.” Illeka nearly denies again, joking that Talako would get afraid of the dark if they didn’t show up. But Kala interjects, stating that she’s already made plans to take the patrol that nigth with Tal. Trusting their friends to be safe in each others care, Illeka relents and takes the day off.

- …yeah. so

- perhaps you can see where this is going.

- Kala’s jealousy had been growing over the years. Not only was she being shadowed by Illeka and their non magic ways, but it was irritating even more that all the talk about magic in the town was not of her exceptional abilties, but of stupid rumours and non-existent evil curses. If the people wanted show, she’d give them a show

- This mindset made her spars with Illeka a bit more personal as of late, getting it in her head that she needed to get stronger, strong enough to best Illeka with ease. Strong enough so that there would be no question who was the best warrior on the island, magic, bows, halberds, or no.

- The library had many forgotten books that she had been studying. Conjuring, rituals, illusions, necromancy. It was all…beautiful. Kala soaked in every word, sometimes berating the bookkeeper offhandedly for not keeping them in the best condition

- In her research she eventually found a beast. A..thing, a demon? A monster, the specifics weren’t there, but the gist of it was, if you had the courage to summon it, it would grant you the knowledge for attaining anything you desired. All it asked in return was…to eat some people.

- But not just any people mind you! Supposedly the ritual only worked for the people with the greatest of ambitions, willing to sacrifice the lives of people they might care about. The sacrifices had to be of someone with great trust and bond with the person.

- Kala’s parents disappeared that day, a few feathers laid about, but there was no blood.

- Near the northern border, by a open field, a weird circle dripped the grass red

- Talako waited by the village edge, ready to fly off with their patrol partner when they arrived. When Kala greeted him, he was a bit surprised, but happy when she explained that Illeka had gone off back to town.

- Indeed Illeka was with their family now, as the sun started to set. Occasionally, a passerby would give them a weird glance before walking swiftly away.

- Somewhere in the northern border, a warrior is knocked unconcious, and dragged upon a blood red pattern

- Illeka is by her sisters’ shrine. For the sliver of a moment, they contemplate crying.

- Then an explosion is heard off in the distance

- Talako was wide awake at this point, although his wings being pinned to his sides wasn’t that helpful considering there was a giant, *giant* dark monster in front of him.

- Kala lets off a final remark, saying it was for his own good. The death would be swifter if he didn’t squirm.

- He whipped back at her, glaring with a fire she hasn’t seen before. He calls her a coward for tricking Illeka, a coward for kill their parents, a coward for not even giving him the decency to fight for his life.

- She nearly smiles at the last remark. “Fine.” She tosses him his blades. “You were never much of a warrior anyway.”

- Illeka was flying towards the booming sound at full speed, nearly knocking over their family and other mourning, people in the process. A few others had tried to slow them down, claiming they should suit of better first, before confronting whatever had been the source of the explosion. Illeka didn’t listen.

- They barely had time to grab a weapon, before approaching the northern border. After gracing the crests of the hill tops, they finally saw it. A giant demonic beast, snapping it’s jaws against a flying dash of black feathers, Talako.

- Illeka called out to him, nearly dashing off into the air again, but they stopped when they spotted Kala, standing idlely by next to her.

- Before they could even speak, before they could even question why she was acting so nonchalantly while their best friend was fighting for their life against an evil monstrosity, Kala shook her head and spoke. “You always have to ruin my fun, don’t you?” She struck a magic blow and Illeka, square in the chest.

- It knocked them to the ground, but they got up, setting their halberd and pointing it at them.

- Then insert some dramatic scene where Kala is like “you’re so selfish, hogging all the attention, thinking you’re better than me, but today I’m gonna finally best you mwahaha” and Illeka is like “wtf why did you do this? I thought we were friends? I trusted you?? the fuck? also talako is our friend!!?” and then its “yeah thats right I manipulated your stupid feelings to gain the upperhand. you’re super pathetic honestly for falling for it. anyhow yeah talako will probably die, i tried to give him the luxary of a swift death but he wouldn’t listen, so now he’s probably gonna get brutally slayed lol” and illeka is all “I’ll kill you” and kala is “no u. This whole thing is gonna give me so much power no ones gonna question me again” and then they fight each other

- The duel is nearly a draw, Kala’s magical ability is certainly is certainly stronger, but she’s not as all powerful without that knowledge from the demon monster guy that needs to eat his meal. Illeka is fighting with all theyve got, but all they brought was a halberd, but they are very fueled by rage and spite so it’s still an even match. Illeka eventually lands a blow that’s got Kala bleeding severely, but Kala pretty much almost kills them with a direct attack. Kala’s too weak to finish the job, plus those other guards have finally started to fly and approach in the distance, so she flys off. Illeka finally slips into unconsciousness.

- When they wake up, it’s almost sunrise. Their mom is shaking them awake, part of the party that was investigating the explosion that summoned the beast. Illeka bolts up, they’re still in the field were they had fought Kala, but she and the beast are no where to be seen.

- They run off, trying to find Talako, and ho boy do they find him alright. His body is crumpled by some rocks, his wing nearly ripped clean off, theres so much blood, even a warrior like Illeka can hardly bare it. Some small bit of hope in their head thinks that he might still be alive, and they listen to his chest to see if he’s still breathing.

- His eyes flicker once at Illeka, his chest rises, then falls for the last time.

- Illeka cries.

- Then, still pretty wounded and tired, they collapse again

- The days following are living hell. Kala hasn’t been found, and their her parent’s [bodies]. The rumours are creeping as ever, at the coincidence of Illeka and this disaster. They spend nearly a weak in bed at home, recovering physically, thought probably not mentally.

- As soon as they’ve fully recovered, Illeka’s mind is set. They are going to leave, no more warrior/village protection for them. They’re going to travel far off, train and hone their skills in combat, and find and kill Kala.

- Their family is opposed to this at first, but in the end nothing they say changes Illeka’s mind.

- In a sense, there was another, unspoken reason Illeka was leaving the islands. They didn’t want to hurt anyone else.

- Hell, the rhetoric is even stronger down the line, concerning the fate of poor Mili. Illeka has given in and accepted it, they are cursed to cause pain to the people they care about. [It’s basically that trope of the character isn’t actually cursed but they believe they’re cursed] Illeka will stay away, and go it alone for as long as they can. Then once the deed is done, once they draw Kala’s corpse across the mud, they’ll probably fly off somewhere far to die, before anyone else gets hurt. It’s probably best for their family never to see them again.

- - - - - -

Wow you did it, you made it through the super angsty self-indulgent backstory congrats. Illeka is my lil baby and I love them and I’ve gonna send them on a revenge quest and then they were gonna have a cool character arc probably about learning to grieve and have self worth and all that and to actually allow themselves to show emotions for once in their lives. That’s the general plan I had in my head anyhow

But you know what my dm thought?

They were like how about mORE ANGSt

Fucking shit you not, session three of the campaign, I’m heading back to birb island because of circumstances, and I’m getting supplies from my blacksmith dad and showing off this sword that says “fuck” a lot that I got from a dungeon that took a selkie’s soul which they gave up willingly in exchange for fire hair...long story

but THEN I meet up with my bro Zekk and it’s like “wassup bro just passing through” but then I find out that Talako’s shrine thing was DESTORYED by some unknown entity and that’s very not good because spirituality and all that

and also I find Mili and they’re a cute lil toddler birb now aww it’s so great hope nothing happens to them because I sure do have enough emotional traume to burden right now. anyhow due to CIRCUMSTANCES our only lead to the thing that destroyed Talako’s shrine is 1) a delinquent named Chesio [that our party nicknamed cherrio because the GM misspelled it the first time i think] who apparently was Talako’s shitty cousin and his only living relative who could build his shrine and 2) the destruction of the shrine lines up with a period of time where Mili went missing but its ok she came back so her parents were like “chill we gucci”

Our party decides we should go down the Mili lead [because I accidentally knocked Cherrio i mean Chesio to near death with a crit roll with my halberd so they’re in the infirmary now but it’s really not my fault that they triggered my emotional trauma by mentioning how I keep running away from grief and never staying around to confront it it’s fiiiiiiiiiiiiine] so we stop by Zekk’s house and we’re like “hey so remember when you disappeared for like a week where did you go, and then mili was like “oh it’s in this cavern that no one knows about and I can’t really give you the directions but I can lead you there if you take me with you” in which I then glare at the GM for this obvious attempt to force us to take Mili with us to put her in danger and apparently I was the ONLY one who cared about this because everyone else in the party was ready to adopt this birb child, and Zekk was like “sure take the kiddy harness” so here I am, watching my niece run around in a kiddy harness that’s also attached to me, while my Chaotic neutral party someone gets grilled cheese sandwiches in the background

Badabing, badaboom, we come to some crystal caverns. while I, being one of the only members of the party with morals other than one chaotic good dragonborn, am watching the selkie, halfoot, and elf girl steal a bunch of crystals, Mili fucking DISAPPEARS the fucking KIDDY HARNESS fucking NOT GOOD she FCUKING SLIPPED OUT AND SHES GONE AND IM FREAKING OUT

after about an hour or two of searching through the deeper parts of the cavern and tunnel and also fighting a minotaur and discovering an abandoned arena and a cleric, long story. We find Mili fucking laying on A NECROMANCER’S RITUAL CIRCLE WHAT THE FU-

I pull a “I don’t hesitate bitch” on the hooded dude that’s hovering and chanting shit. He’s dead, it’s all swell. Saved the day, the evil’s dead. Mili’s fine she can go back to being a cute lil baby who loves shiny rocks and-

oh wAIT actually Mili is still transformed into a demonic monster and the necromancer dude was actually in the middle of completing a ritual to bring her back to life after he killed her a few times

So turns out, necromancer dead dude was hired by a mysterious someone, to steal something from Talako’s shrine, and to destroy any evidence. Turns out, his methodology for doing so was to kidnap some birb kid who had the misfortune of wander too close, killing them, turning them into some demonic monster that does their bidding, using that monster to steal and ruin some shit, and then when the day’s done he turns them back like nothing happened. Sure do wish he was alive to redo that last part

I’m freaking out, the party’s freaking out, that sword from earlier is cursing to high heaven for no apparent reason. Cleric unhelpfully remarks how it was a bad idea that we impulsively killed the evil dude bro, yes wow thank you for the help

Eventually everything’s fine. After a few round of shouting “NO ONE TOUCH MY FUCKING NIECE OR YOU DIE” after said demonic niece is kinda mindlessly attacking everyone, we eventually do some good ol blunt force trauma and a bit of magic and BOOM. Mili’s back. Although they do have permanent black ritual markings on them but its fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinee (its not)

We find a note on necromancer dude bro that his employer was from another island, so that’s a lead yay Find Out Next SessionTM but at this point I really don’t care as I’ve already started tying Mili to my chest and walking back to the village

I go back to Zekk’s house, hand off Mili, explain everything that happened, give a super heart feel apology about how I pretty much killed Mili (even though I really didn’t but also as we all know Illeka is an angsty birb who’s steadfast in the idea that their existence hurts everyone they love so yay <3) and then I leave as fast as I can before anyone can protest sure was nice visiting my family after i’ve been away for a few months sure am glad that my inner thoughts about staying away weren’t justified whatsoever hmmmmmm

A session or two passes. We try to assassinate and elf’s evil parents and fail, we get into a Fake Dating Being Someone’s Children Au with a dragon. The selkie keeps trying to date everyone, even thought they’re already married to a necromancer princess and a boat (long story) and inbetween we head to that island that note i got was talking about and turns out it was to a place where all your inner demons and anxieties manifest into reality and taunt you, until youre slowly broken down to the point where the evil dictator on the island can “magic” away your problems with puppet strings. fun for the whole family!

Anyways, after our party fights out evil neon-blue clones, I get a lead from dictator dude that the employer I’m looking for is a Rito that’s good with magic, and was last seen headed east, in the same direction we just came from. fun.a

So I’m kinda low on leads, other than the fact that theres a magic school in the east, but in between we have to deal with the fact that husboat (again, the boat that is married to the selkie who is also our entire party’s form of transportation across the ocean. wait a sec did I mention that we weren’t in Hyrule? We’re not in Hyrule, this is a flooded land with a bunch of islands. Think wind waker) was being chased by pirates. also these pirates were the ones that raised the selkie, and also they kinda also slaughtered an entire island of halffoots in their time with the pirates, and also that island was the one that the halffoot in our party grew up in. So basically that’s some cool tension and drama. Anyhow, back to moi

One talk about how “no we cannot kidnap aNOTHER priest” to the selkie and elf later... magic school! Magic school is pretentious and I hate it. Everythings glowy, they don’t allow you to fly over the gates. There’s puffy noble middle aged men and children in bedazzled cloaks. There’s magic in the air and I swear I would choke and die on the glitter and rainbows of it all.

Half the party is off getting into cloak fashion, I head off with my dragonborn friend Ness because highfive! We’re the only one’s with morals in this party! Morality pals! (This is saying something considering I am true neutral and she’s chaotic good but we might as well be clerics in this party...)

My morality pal and I and hanging around, then we catch word that there’s this transfer student that no one has seen in a while and “oh I wonder where she could be” and all that jazz from other students. Mortality pals are like “ok let’s go look for her” so we drag the rest of the party off of their larceny spree and look around.

Eventually, after I spot a tattered cloak roaming the halls that matches the description of the gossip, we find the transfer student.

TURNS OUT (unsurprisingly honestly given the way the dm framed stuff) this transfer student is someone I know. She’s standing there, in the middle of the room, preparing to do some ritual or something. She’s standing there, my life purpose, my one and only goal, literally the only reason I’m still going in life, my arch nemesis, my target, my mortal fucking enemy. It’s Kala.

Ness sees a demon dog in the background and says hi, ruining our element of surprise, but to be fair, she doesn’t know it’s Kala.

Kala whips around from her table thing. We make eye contact. Her face suddenly shift from confusion to surprise to bewilderment to shock to happiness.

Happiness.

“Illeka I thought you were dead!” Kala runs towards me, but I’m too shocked to move.

She’s smiling. It’s not sadistic, it’s not...harmful, it’s just genuine joy. For a moment I thought I saw a tear in her eye.

Kala hugs me for a long moment, before letting go. “So how did you survive?”

...

In my head I’m thinking, “oh you fuck face”

THE. AUDACITY. OF. THIS. BITCH.

“HOWD I SURVIVE” UH NO THANKS TO YOU FOR ALMOST KILLING ME FOR YOUR STUPID RITUAL WHATEVER THAT KILLED TALAKO WTFFF

ARE YOU REALLY TRYING TO PULL THE SAME TRICK AGAIN??? GONNA PRETEND TO BE ALL SENTIMENTAL AND NICE JUST TO TRY AND KILL ME LATER ON? HA OK OK

how about instead, I do the one good thing, the one worthwhile thing I can do in my entire life...just one simple course of action that might hope to make up for the mountain of regret that is my entire existence.

I am finally going to kill you.

Kala’s staring at me, eyes curious, head tilted as if all she ever did was ask what I had for brunch.

I blink once, and my neutral expression, faintly coated with shock morphs into determination.

I roll for initiative.

- - - - - -

It’s 1am.

So have a cliffhanger, kinda.

If anyone bothers to read this far, congrats! Your reward is me being lazy. I’ll tell you what happened sometime tomorrow if anyone really wants to know :P Long story short, it doesn’t end how I, and therefore probably you, would except.

#haha brain go- shamelessly talk about Illeka for 3 thousand words #i actually dont know the word count i didnt check i think it's 4k??#the thing i copy pasted is like 2k and the campaign stuff i added is....idk #not botw kinda #rito oc #kinda #dnd #kip talks for too long #i'd write this better but its 1am #good luck if you can actually read this

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sirsapling · 5 years ago

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I got tagged in a bunch more things I didn't respond to fast enough, so UNDER THE CUT THEY GO.

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IT’S THE LITTLE THINGS

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Pass the happy!🌻🌿 When you receive this, list 5 things that make you happy and send this to 10 of the last people in your notifications!

Lying in warm blankets in an cold room. Bonus points for snow outside.

A fresh Buzz cut

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Hashbrowns, bacon, maple syrup, maybe a pancake, and a sausage too.

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top 3 cities you want to visit: Toronto, again. Colorado (I know its a state not a city I just want to visit ashes AND GET SNOW). And I would like to go back to Italy again. (I also want to visit, just, all of my fandom friends but I don't want to drop all their locations lol)

favorite marvel character: Ults!Steve Rogers and then Ults!Tony Stark. Not counting stony, Anthony the brain tumor, and not counting clones, Gregory Stark.

white chocolate - yay or nay?: Love it, love it, love it.

favourite board game: God Save The Queens- A board game about Bees I invented with 3 other people at University last year for a project.

how many countries have you been to: 10, I have been very luckily graced with the ability to travel to Europe with school a lot.

(Wales, France, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, America [Florida, Boston, New York], Spain, Portugal, Italy, and finally Canada.)

favorite thing to do on a rainy day: Anything indoors I might usually feel guilty about doing when its sunny. Tv or games particularly

favorite holiday: Christmas. I am a Christmas slut, call me festive sapling I LOVE Christmas.

pen or pencil: Pen. I once bought 7 in lisbon at the same time bc they were perfect and I didn't want to run out.

favourite kind of soup: Cupasoup Chicken noodle, I don't really like soups tbh, I like broths, and gravy type things I make too much of and eat like a soup (like golden Currys or korma sauces)

your typical order at a cafe or coffee shop: Caramel Frappucino or an iced Mocha. If I'm gonna pay a fuck tonne for coffee I'm gonna get a drinkable dessert.

favorite ride at an amusement park: Any slow rides that show you shit, like spaceship earth at EPCOT. I’m not really a speed dude.

the color of your sneakers: RED, red shoes are the shit folks, a good pair of red converse goes with everything.

favorite pbs show (or little kids show if you didn’t have pbs): Uh I used to watch pokemon then winnie the pooh every single night. But little little kids show I used to watch a show called 64 zoo lane with my grandma so I have fond memories

Rules: name your favorite female characters from 10 different fandoms, then tag 10 people.

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Natasha Romanov - Marvel Cinematic Universe

Carol Danvers - Marvel 616

Janet Van Dyne - Marvel Ultimates

Izumi Curtis - Full Metal Alchemist

Martha Jones - Doctor Who

Garnet - Steven Universe (if she doesn't count bc, space rock, Connie)

Rosa Diaz - Brooklyn 99

Ann Perkins - Parks and Rec

Princess Caroline - Bojack Horseman

Pam Poovey - Archer

LOOK I know there was a lot of cheating here, but I don't have non marvel fandoms really, and I have a hard time remembering a lot of the TV I enjoyed.

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look I don't know if I have enough tags to make this a justified representation, but the ones shown are v much on brand.

Fanfic trope meme

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What is the colour of your hairbrush?

I have a buzz cut, I don't have a hair brush anymore.

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What were you doing 45 minutes ago?

Working on a sketch for an MTH fill (update from the end of this: I have spent an hour doing this fuckin thing)

What is your favourite candy bar?

Bounty. My favourite candy is Reese’s Pieces but I like a bounty. Or like, and chocolate without fruit in it tbh.

Have you ever been to a professional sports event?

Yes, one of my parents referees Championship Football here in the UK. I have been to a few of his games. I also went to the London 2012 Paralympic closing ceremony, if that counts.

What is the last thing you said out loud?

‘Oh, this will last me a few days’ I was talking to my mother about 1/2 a can of pringles, I was lying.

What is your favourite ice cream?

Vanilla. I am boring. But the best ice cream i’ve had was a cream/milk flavoured gelato in Florence, that shit slapped. I also like cheap strawberry ice cream when no one is trying to put strawberry bits in it.

What was the last thing you had to drink?

Dinner. A spinach, banana, summer fruits and coconut yoghurt smoothie (with extra raspberries). Its my nightly dinner to cheat more veg into my body.

Do you like your wallet?

Very much. It’s about 7-8 years old, it is faded to hell but it has spiderman and a pony ride stony pin

What was the last thing you ate?

See above smoothie comment, but if that doesn't count, a sugar free mint polo.

Did you buy any new clothes last weekend?

Nope. I don't buy as many clothes as I want to, bc mens clothes in larger sizes are hard to find or expensive here.

The last sporting event you watched?

F1, I don't keep up but I watch a little with my dad every now and then.

What is your favourite flavour of popcorn?

BUTTER. They don't really have it here, and I don't go to movies much when in the states. But @festiveferret introduced me to it when we saw Ant-man and the Wasp, and much like poutine and Tim Hortons, I still crave it.

Who is the last person you sent a text message to?

My dad.

Ever go camping?

Yes, I was a Scout. I have done enough camping to not want to do more, it was fun when I wasn't organising it.

Do you take vitamins?

Yes, but not as often as I should, and as much as my mother bothers me too.

Do you go to church every Sunday?

Nope, not even when I considered myself christian. I go only go to church for other peoples events, and I’m an agnostic now.

Do you have a tan?

I cannot tan. I just can't, I burn lobster red in 5 minutes outside without literal sun cream for BABIES

Do you prefer Chinese food or pizza?

Chinese food, It was easily what taught me to like more foods also, I don't eat tomato so I can't have most pizza. I love a good garlic base/bechamel, but you can't really get that here easily (yes yes I could make my own but that ruins half the point of pizza)

Do you drink your soda with a straw?

I don't drink carbonated drinks, because its like drinking pain. The fuck is wrong with all of you.

What colour socks do you usually wear?

Various colours, but I consider red on the left, blue on the right, my lucky socks. No I don't know why, but I take all exams and interviews wearing them. It’s just a thing.

Do you ever drive above the speed limit?

I don't drive, but if I did, No. Theres a lot of questionable laws out there but Traffic laws aren't one of them.

What terrifies you?

Pfft, most things from spiders to rollercoasters. But more seriously, Being shouted at. Shout at me and I start hyperventilating, its a thing. Also not knowing if someone is mad at me. I’m not good at reading people,

Look to your left, what do you see?

The wallet shown earlier, and the sugar free polos mentioned after that.

What chore do you hate?

Vacuuming. It makes everything in my body hurt. I would rather clean toilets.

What do you think of when you hear an Australian accent?

@s-hylor

What’s your favourite soda?

See above. I do not like your pain liquid. Apple juice for life.

Do you go in a fast food place or just hit the drive-thrus?

Either delivery or kiosk, I don't like talking to people where possible, I often need tweaks I don't want to have to remember to repeat.

Who’s the last person you talked to?

@downeyhills

Favourite cut of beef?

I don't generally eat beef, lamb, or most red meats. I love crispy chilly beef, but as anyone can point out its bc your generally don't feel the texture of the beef.

Last song you listened to?

Everybody Wants to Rule the World | Tears for Fears | Pomplamoose

I’m on a Pomplamoose kick, and I also just love this song anyway.

Last book you read?

Understanding Comics (The invisible Art) - Scott McCloud

Favourite day of the week?

Friday nights. The weekend is ahead and @loraneldin and I take to wrangling our beloved usual suspects through another week of Ults Book Club.

Can you say the alphabet backwards?

I can barely say it forwards.

How do you like your coffee?

With milk and sugar, or ultimately, in a Caramel Frappuccino bc I'm a bitch like that.

Favourite pair of shoes?

I have walking boots that don't make my flat ass feet feel like they’re dying. OR my black and green crocs (Fight me, they’re useful).

The time you normally go to sleep?

9-10 is what I'm working on, but I fluctuate depending on if I'm working on something or not.

The time you normally get up?

5-6 If I have a choice in the matter, but often 7-8 if I didn't get to bed at the right time. I’m more about getting the right hours in for my diet than time specifically.

What do you prefer, sunrise or sunsets?

Sunset is the prettiest, but I like to be awake to see the sun rise.

How many blankets on your bed?

One big thick comforter, because that's the uk standard, and I get too hot otherwise.

Describe your kitchen plates

Two types, big wide white ones with a navy blue rim. They are so large I never use them, and little Navy saucer plates I use a lot.

Do you have a favourite alcoholic beverage?

I don't drink, so no. I drink apple juice or Shirley temples when I'm in pubs/bars

Do you play cards?

Sometimes, I like to teach people to play Old Maid. It’s the monopoly of card games.

What colour is your car?

Again, I do not drive.

Can you change a tire?

I am aware I just said I don't have a car, but I do know how to change a tire. Everyone should go learn its pretty simple.

Favourite job you’ve ever had?

I have only had one job really and two job experience jobs. I did experience in a school library for a week and that was v fun and chill. I did all the jobs they had prepared for me in 2 days so I alphabetically reorganised their fiction section for the rest of the week. I LIKE ORDERING.

How did you get your biggest scar?

I no longer have a gallbladder, so I have 3 scars across my torso from that, the biggest right in the middle of my ribs. Non surgical wise I have matching scars on my knees from ripping holes in them when tripping. I have weak ankles and also I got both of those at different times.

What did you do today that made someone else happy?

I gave my spare animal crossing Iguanodon skull to a wicked artist I follow on twitter so he could complete his dino park.

#text post #tagged in #wow long post #wow x2 #tag memes

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pengiesama · 6 years ago

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The Real Library of Alexandria Was the Friends We Made Along the Way (Fic, TOZ/TOB, school AU)

Title: The Real Library of Alexandria Was the Friends We Made Along the Way Series: Tales of Zestiria / Tales of Berseria Pairing: Gen Characters: Laphicet, Mikleo, Sorey, Velvet

Summary: Phi crusades against two Bigger Kids making noise in the library. He winds up discovering some common ground, and becomes leader of the nerdiest gang this side of the hemisphere.

Link: AO3

This was written for After School Heroes ( @ashtaleszine ); a Tales Of zine focusing on school AUs!

The zine's purchase period is now over, but you can check out some of the other fic and art from the zine in the links below.

ASH's Tumblr: http://ashtaleszine.tumblr.com/ ASH's Twitter: https://twitter.com/ashtaleszine/

Read on Tumblr!

“…I’m not saying that you’re wrong. I’m just saying that you’re vastly misinformed.”

“So, really, you’re saying I’m wrong.”

“No, I’m saying that you’re misinformed, and that your flair for the dramatic has led you to an incorrect interpretation of our sources…”

Phi did not mind listening to debates on topics that interested him. And this one did -- he’d always liked Ancient History and was happy to hear someone discussing it with such knowledge and passion. His own class at school was currently covering the period, but...well. When all they were expected to do was to be able to name city-states and list off a handful of gods, trying to engage his classmates in discussions was an exercise in futility. Even his teacher wasn’t much better. Such was the struggle of being ten years old and maybe a bit too well-read.

No, no, the topic wasn’t the issue, nor was the debate. There was just a time and place for this kind of thing, and the public library after school fit neither of those items. There also was a need for one’s indoor voice. Phi peeped over the top of his book, scowling. His baleful stare, full of judgement and righteous fury, went entirely unnoticed. This wasn’t really that surprising, as Phi was halfway across the reading room and half-buried under a pile of heavy books at his table. He thought of clearing his throat in an accusatory tone, but the idea of making a peep in the library was anathema to the very core of his being. Sure, this section of the library was deserted except for Phi and the debaters, but...but it was the principle of the thing, and that principle was what set man apart from beast.

The two intrepid historians were wearing uniforms from a high school across town. Their status as Bigger Kids gave Phi some pause in confronting them. But with the library’s honor to defend, could he ever forgive himself if he let cowardice win? Phi thought briefly about how his babysitter Velvet might handle the issue, then paled, and stopped thinking about it, because it was kind of scary.

“—Sorey, your arguments show a level of understanding that I’d expect from someone whose historical knowledge came from half-remembered edutainment cartoons from ten years ago, not from someone who I thought knew better,” said the white-haired boy wearily.

“Look, Mikleo, I know that attributing the destruction of the Library of Alexandria to a single catastrophic event ignores other things that led to its decline—”

“And leads to more public disinformation about a section of history that’s already rife with it.”

“—but,” said the brown-haired boy (the other boy, Mikleo, had called him Sorey), pressing on. “Even if there were other events which led to its eventual decline, dissolution, destruction, etcetera, what I’m saying is that the most important and impactful of these incidents was it being set ablaze in the Siege. Aurelian’s attack on the city and the destruction of the Serapeum are drops in the bucket in comparison, when the bulk of the collection was already lost at that point!”

“But they were still important events in its final decline, no matter what your little fanfic daydreams of travelling back in time with a magic firetruck to play hero! And all this assumes that the Library even was damaged in the Siege, considering that accounts of the time are contradictory.”

“Ancient accounts from any ancient historian worth their salt all agree that the library was damaged by Caesar’s short-sighted shenanigans! And it’s not a magic firetruck. It’s—”

“Yes, yes, it’s powered by advanced technology made possible by a time loop that hinges on the hero saving the Library from being burned. You act as though I don’t pay attention when I edit your work. But if you really want to be taken seriously, you have to address the other aspects of its decline that can’t be solved by a firetruck falling from the sky.”

Sorey squinted at the ceiling in thought. “...the firetruck could fall from the sky onto Aurelian.”

“Then you’re getting into further divergent history when a Roman Emperor gets killed like a wicked witch from the Land of Oz. And there’s still the Serapeum to consider.”

“The firetruck could fall on Theophilus too.”

Mikleo appeared to be dumbstruck by this statement for a brief moment, then nearly flipped the table in rage.

“You can’t solve every tragic historical event by dropping firetrucks on it!” he all but shrieked.

“It’s called poetic irony!” Sorey shouted back. “And it’s art!”

Phi agreed with both boys on their more intellectual points, and neither of them on their thoughts about art and literature. More importantly, he also agreed with them on the importance of preserving cultural institutions, which meant that he was duty-bound to intervene in this fight before they destroyed this library too. Luckily, he knew the Dewey Decimal System like the back of his hand, and quickly collected a volume of text that might be able to smother the flames of this debate before they spiraled out of control.

Phi marched over to the older boys’ table, and – taking a page out of Velvet’s book on confrontations – slammed the volume down as hard as he could onto the wooden surface. But, as he was still a polite boy, he was sure to scream “excuse me” while he did so.

The two older boys stared at him, wide-eyed and silent, as the bang and scream reverbed off the library’s walls. Taking the opportunity for their undivided attention, Phi opened the book he’d brought over to the appropriate page and tapped a heading.

“Ptolemy VIII’s mass purges of Alexandrian intellectuals who opposed his seizure of the Egyptian throne, and the accompanying political turmoil in the Ptolemaic dynasty at the time, weakened the Library considerably,” Phi began, confidently. “This sent the Library into decline, well before Caesar’s invasion over a century later.”

The shock and confusion melted away from Sorey’s face. He reflected quietly on Phi’s thesis and gave an embarrassed little smile.

“...I guess I really did kind of get hung up on the dramatic events, huh?” he said sheepishly. “Man, with all the craziness going on during that period, it’s kind of a surprise the Library didn’t get set on fire sooner…”

“I don’t think there are enough time-travelling firetrucks in the world to drop on all the troublemakers back then,” Mikleo agreed. “But I’m guilty too, of only looking post-Siege, and at the Roman side of things.”

“And you’re both guilty of yelling in the library,” Phi added. “I could hear you all the way over there.

He pointed accusingly towards his table, which was still piled high with books. The two boys looked abashed.

“I’m so sorry,” Mikleo said. “We...we didn’t see you over there.”

Admittedly, from this table, it was quite hard to see where he’d been sitting, buried behind the books. Sorey, for his part, was already on his way over to Phi’s table. He looked over some of the volumes, interest clear on his face.

“Wow...no wonder you schooled us on this. I’ve been meaning to read some of these!”

“Well, don’t start with that one,” Phi said, gesturing to the volume in Sorey’s hand. “You’re not going to understand it without some background knowledge...”

When the time came for Phi to leave, he had lectured both boys quite thoroughly on history – and what’s more, he had quite completely forgiven them for their sins. Despite their...eccentricities, Sorey and Mikleo were very knowledgeable on ancient topics from around the world, and treated Phi as their equal -- not just some novelty to be humored and “corrected” on topics he knew like the back of his hand. They promised to be here again tomorrow, to talk more, and...and Sorey had talked about making an Ancient History Club, for the three of them, and that would just be too cool…

“It sounds like you had fun,” Velvet observed, after Phi had breathlessly explained to her all the above. “Give me your hand until we’re done crossing the street.”

Idly, Velvet wondered whether she should go through the trouble of inspecting these two new friends of Phi’s – and by “inspecting”, she meant putting the fear of god into them, and by the fear of god, she meant the fear of her.

Phi dutifully grabbed Velvet’s good hand and continued. “We’ll have official meetings once a week and unofficial get-togethers on the other days of the week, except Tuesdays, when Sorey has Track club and Mikleo goes to Home Ec club, but that day I think I can go to the library anyway and just plan our activities for the rest of the week…”

…but, honestly, they seemed like they were a perfect fit for Phi already. Velvet walked with him, hand in hand, and decided to hold off. At least for now.

#tales of zestiria #tales of berseria #tales of zestiria the x #i guess this is my personal tales of zestiria tag now #a tenderly crafted fanfiction #zines #afterschoolheroes

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felix-loves-albert-and-ralb-blog · 6 years ago

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Headcanons about the Jacobs family (because we need more Jewsies content)

so the entire extened jacobs family is huge

HUGE

there is always at least one huge jacobs family holiday family event every year

sometimes its a giant passover seder, sometimes its a giant hannukah party

davey, sarah, and les have like 20 cousins

the jacobs have a hannukah party every single year

theres an entire room dedicated to playing dreidel, complete with different tables for different types of gameplay

theres super competitive dreidel, in which see’s candies gelt is bet

theres the kids table, where no rules apply

the “crazy table” as race (who is an honorary member of the jacobs family) has named it

the crazy table is where race is if hes not at the competitive table

you see, the crazy table is the table of people who chant “SHIN SHIN SHIN SHIN SHIN SHIN” whenever someone else spins and “GIMMEL GIMMEL GIMMEL GIMMEL GIMMEL” whenever they spin

its super obnoxious and loud

davey has made an itemized and color coordinated list of rules for the dreidel league

its basically a bowling league but with dreidels

davey wins every single year

he is the dreidel master

theres also the tricks table

upside down dreidel, “yeeting” dreidel, every single possible way to play dreidel

sarah is the best at that table

mr jacobs makes a shitload of latkes

his latkes are the best latkes

there is no competition

mrs jacobs has a hannukah playlist

every single hannukah song youve ever heard, plus more that youve never heard before

all of the jacobs sing along to every song

davey and sarah are in charge of decorating for the party every year

GLITTER EVERYWHERE

les helps his dad in the kitchen

his life dream is to be able to make better latkes than mr jacobs

the jacobs always invite the other jewish newsies (jewsies!) over for at least one night of hannukah

(i headcanon katherine, mush, mike, ike, elmer, jack, and crutchie as at least partly jewish)

sarah’s favorite holiday is sukkot

she loves sleeping outside

she also loves decorating the sukkah with fake fruit and paper chains and cheap christmas ornaments she found on sale

she also loves cuddling with katherine under the stars

daveys favorite holiday is passover

he literally loves everything about it (even not being able to eat bread products)

he will turn matzah into all of these fancy dishes

he made matzah salad once

and he loves the seder

before les learned the four questions davey always loved singing them in hebrew for everyone

les always beats him at finding the afikoman, and davey gets really frustrated every year because les ALWAYS finds it

davey’s favorite passover joke: there was once a jew who had trained all of his life to become a knight. he trained and trained and trained, and he eventually got his turn to go to be knighted by the queen. when you get knighted, theres a special phrase in latin you have to say. however, this soon to be knight was so nervous when he kneeled down in front of the queen he recited the first thing he could think of, “ma nishtana ha lailah ha zeh mikol ha leilot”. the queen whispered to one of her advisors, “why is this knight different from all other knights?”

HE TELLS IT EVERY YEAR

les’s favorite holiday is tubishvat

HE LOVES THE TREES

he will run around shouting “TREES TREES TREES ITS THE BIRTHDAY OF THE TREES”

he climbed a tree on tubishvat once

sarah had to rescue him

but he also makes sure that he and his family go plant trees every year!

this boy just loves trees

these pure children go to hebrew school every single week

davey and sarah were in every single hannukah play and purim spiel

EVERY. SINGLE. ONE.

their greatest fear is that one of the newsies will find the videos

davey and sarah both speak hebrew

les is learning it

mr and mrs jacobs are relearning hebrew

they both speak yiddish though

davey, sarah, and les go to jewish summer camp

none of the newsies believe that davey would ever play sports, but at camp he plays basketball, volleyball, frisbee, and gaga

sarah is a queen at arts and crafts

since davey and sarah are twins they had their bar and bat mitzvah on the same day

they each read 3 aliyot (sections of the torah)

they had a huge party after

THE CHA CHA SLIDE WAS PLAYED

SO WAS THE CUPID SHUFFLE

davey went outside for fresh air at one point because it was really hot inside from all the people

crutchie came outside to join him

they both had their first kiss that night, and when they went back inside for cake they were both blushing really hard

davey wants to be a rabbi when he’s older

davey has a white tallit with blue stripes

sarah’s is pink tie dye that she made herself

hope you enjoyed these kinda random jacobs family headcanons!

#newsies #jewsies #david jacobs #sarah jacobs #les jacobs #mayer jacobs #esther jacobs #katherine pulitzer #jack kelly #elmer sagloo #elmer kasprzack #mush meyers #crutchie morris #racetrack higgins

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booksandtea · 7 years ago

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Video Game Recommendations| #Blogoween So I wanted to do a post on horror games to fit into blogoween but I realised I haven’t really played that many. Or at least many that people may think of when thinking of horror games.

You have the big names; the Amnesia series and Slender: The Eight Pages games that shot pewdiepie (one | two) into the spotlight and which for me at least are when horor games became more popular. I tried both of the games named but neither really did anything for me.

Much later we see the rise of the Five Nights at Freddy’s series which I also tried at the height of its hype and wasn’t fond of.

It wasn’t a case that any of these games were too scary to play, they just didn’t offer enough for me to get invested in them. If I were to return to any of these games it would be Amnesia as its a lot more story focused.

But fear not. Or do fear! I do have a small list of games that I can recommend in the horror genre, or at least have horror elements to them.

RESIDENT EVIL 5 (2009): “The Umbrella Corporation and its crop of lethal viruses have been destroyed and contained. But a new, more dangerous threat has emerged. Years after surviving the events in Raccoon City, Chris Redfield has been fighting the scourge of bio-organic weapons all over the world. Now a member of the Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance (BSAA), Chris is sent to Africa to investigate a biological agent that is transforming the populace into aggressive and disturbing creatures. Joined by another local BSAA agent, Sheva Alomar, the two must work together to solve the truth behind the disturbing turn of events.”

I probably played this back in 2009 or 2010 on the XBOX and its actually the only Resident Evil game that I’ve completed all the way through. I actually really enjoyed this game and at the time the hardest thing I found was keeping an eye on my health.

Lots of zombie fun which means its kinda gorey! But yay to weird mutations.

RUSTY LAKE HOTEL (2016): “Welcome our guests to the Rusty Lake Hotel and make sure they will have a pleasant stay. There will be 5 dinners this week. Make sure every dinner is worth dying for!

Rusty Lake Hotel a unique puzzle-escape game with a surreal, strange setting inspired by David Lynch’s TV series Twin Peaks.”

I love the Rusty Lake series, I’ve only played Hotel but I do also own Roots. Both of these I’ve seen Dodger play through but Hotel is probably my favourite of the two.

In RLH you have 5 guests staying and for 5 days you have to procure the ingredients for a meal by doing tasks and puzzles for one of the guest. In the evening everyone sits down and eats a meaty meal that they can rate depending on how many of the ingredients you were able to get. The puzzles can be pretty challenging at times and none of the guests ever seem to care that every evening there is one guest less…

I highly recommend you check out any and all of their games and the best thing is many of them are on mobile and they’re not huge or powerful games so I would imagine most PCs can handle them. I also think the horror in this is tame so if you’re a fan of puzzles they’re definitely worth it, my only complaint is theres no achievements.

YEAR WALK (2014): “In the old days man tried to catch a glimpse of the future in the strangest of ways.

Experience the ancient Swedish phenomena of year walking through a different kind of first person adventure that blurs the line between two and three dimensions, as well as reality and the supernatural.

Venture out into the dark woods where strange creatures roam, on a vision quest set in 19th century Sweden. Solve and decipher cryptic puzzles, listen for clues, and learn about mysterious folklore creatures in the built-in encyclopedia as you seek to foresee your future and find out if your loved one will ever love you back.

Mysteries and clues await everywhere in Year Walk, but to fully understand the events that took place on that cold New Year’s Eve, you will have to delve deeper than the adventure and lose yourself between fact and fiction.”

I’ve also completed Year Walk and I really enjoyed it, the art itself is super cool and at times very pretty. The story itself is rather sad too but you learn a lot about this Swedish phenomena.

This game does have achievements which is great but I will say it can be tricky to navigate to each area so if you can have the map pulled up elsewhere that makes it easier – also will help you get an achievement.

This is definitely a fairly straight forward game to play but it is on the spookier side of things, both story wise and because there is a jump scare or two. I know at least one of them can be avoided.

LAYERS OF FEAR (2016): “You take another drink as the canvas looms in front of you. A light flickers dimly in the corner. You’ve created countless pieces of art, but never anything like…this. Why haven’t you done this before? It seems so obvious in retrospect. Your friends, critics, business partners—soon, they’ll all see. But something’s still missing…

You look up, startled. That melody… Was that a piano? It sounded just like her… But, no—that would be impossible. She’s gone. They’re all gone. Have to focus. How long has it taken to get to this point? Too long, but it doesn’t matter. There will be no more distractions. It’s almost finished. You can feel it. Your creation. Your Magnum Opus.

Dare you help paint a true Masterpiece of Fear? Layers of Fear is a first-person psychedelic horror game with a heavy focus on story and exploration. Delve deep into the mind of an insane painter and discover the secret of his madness, as you walk through a vast and constantly changing Victorian-era mansion. Uncover the visions, fears and horrors that entwine the painter and finish the masterpiece he has strived so long to create.” I picked up Layers of Fear the other month when … humble bundle? was offering it for free. I figured why not! I dont play many horrors and this seemed interesting.

So far its mostly a walking simulator where you explore a mansion that evolves over time. Its very atmospheric and creepy, theres no real guidance as to what time line you’re in but you slowly get to know more about the people who live here. I’m very excited to see where the story goes.

As I’ve not finished this game yet I can’t fully say how scary it is but the bit I’ve played there are definitely the odd jump scare here and there and overall a very eerie vibe.

ABZU (2016): “Immerse yourself in a vibrant ocean world full of mystery and bursting with color and life. Perform fluid acrobatics as the Diver using graceful swimming controls. Discover hundreds of unique species based on real creatures and form a powerful connection with the abundant sea life. Interact with schools of thousands of fish that procedurally respond to you, each other, and predators. Linger in epic seascapes and explore aquatic ecosystems modeled with unprecedented detail. Descend into the heart of the ocean where ancient secrets lie forgotten. But beware, dangers lurk in the depths. “ABZÛ” is from the oldest mythologies; AB, meaning water, and ZÛ, meaning to know. ABZÛ is the ocean of wisdom.” Okay, so technically Abuz isn’t a horror game. For the most part its very pretty and tranquil, but there is a part full of exploding bombs whic is a bit tense. Additionally the full story of Abzu is one of horror and warning as at its core its a commentary on how we’re destroying worlds and pollution.

Rather than going into full depth on its story you can read up on it here as I think its a very important and powerful game. Plus if you don’t like being underwater then this might have a layer of fear for you!

And thats that for horror video games I think you should play. Of course honorable mention to Until Dawn but with that being a PS4 exclusive its a lot harder for people to play – instead try watching a playthrough of this game on YouTube perhaps? This has a lot of gore, jump scares, and Josh is my favourite character in that game as realistically we all need to protect him.

Please note: all images were taken from their own Steam store pages.

Have you seen played any of these games? Are there any games that you’d recommend?

If you enjoyed this post consider supporting Northern Plunder Ko-fi | Twitter | Book Club | RedBubble

5 Horror #VideoGames You Should Play | #Blogoween Video Game Recommendations| #Blogoween So I wanted to do a post on horror games to fit into blogoween but I realised I haven't really played that many.

#Abzu #Blogoween #Blogoween 2018 #Layers of Fear #Resident Evil 5 #Rusty Lake Hotel #Video Game #Video Game Review #Video Games #Year Walk

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zaptap · 4 years ago

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just hit 300 days on active island resident on acnh which means i can now time travel without it having an effect on nook miles stamps (as long as i dont time travel for extra gulliver/kk visits)

im going to keep playing every day through the end of february at least to check the able sisters, since the majority of what im missing from them is winter exclusive (35 of them, and 19 summer exclusive and only 6 things sold all year). also if i fly to harvey’s island every day i will get the dal model plane (the last dal item i need) just before the end of winter

aside from that im mainly concerned with the special visitors. i need 8 more gulliver visits for the gold shovel. probably will get at least 6 more in a month and a half, so i’ll be mostly done. i only need 5 more gullivarrr visits to get all of his items, so thatll probably be done by then

ive been using my two alt characters to get 3 models from each flick and cj visit. i only need flick 5 more times, and c.j. 8 times, and then i’ll have all the models in the game

im already done with label and leif, and saharah’s rugs and kicks are so rng-heavy that i dont think i’ll bother beyond the point that i finish with everyone else. from redd, i still need 16 more pieces of art, so i might just time travel since i had to in acnl after i waited week after week to get everything

15 more celeste recipes. i feel like not time traveling for those (thanks to meteonook i know the exact nights she has a chance of appearing, and specific nights on weeks where theres only one valid day)

not even halfway to 100 kk concerts, im at like 43. it would take another year to get that final nook miles stamp, and even though its just a few minutes of opening up the game every saturday (or sunday/monday if he gets displaced by an event) that seems like a long process just to get a little stamp and the option of selecting a couple more words on my passport so considering im nowhere near done and im definitely not going for every single nook miles stamp (ive realized certain ones, like crafting 3,000 tools, are definitely not worth the trouble) i might just stop when im done with everything else im focusing on

so yeah after march im probably going to step back a bit. then once ive finished off those visitors i can finally take a break. then maybe come back someday and actually start designing my island lmao the completionism has distracted me for far too long from the plans i had made for it

#acnh #animal crossing

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astro-ocean · 8 years ago

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11 Questions

RULES Always post the rules Answer the questions given by the person who tagged you Write 11 questions of your own Tag 11 people (or however many you want)

I was tagged by @beckettsthoughts !! this was fun to do, so thanks, lol

Ok so I know that this might take a while to answer so to those I’m tagging i totally don’t blame you if you don’t feel like doing this lol, @venterry @peridapple @penguin2024 @kitty-divine @hesitantollie @high-metafive @momomomoomoo @itsthevoiid @girl-nese @dominicunt-republic @anathemic-hearts

The questions you guys answer are at the bottom btw

Questions I’m answering

1. Do you remember your dreams? If so, what’s the weirdest dream you can remember?

THIS IS LONG SO SKIP THIS IF YOU DONT LIKE READING.

Yes, bc most of my dreams are very vivid. Ok so in my dream, my family and I were going to visit Willy Wonka’s factory. We parked in this extremely large parking lot, right in front of the factory (which looked like the one from the 2005 movie even though we were visiting the one from the 70′s and is in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by forests), but in order to get to the it we had to cross under a fence made out of electricity. So we all had to like shimmy underneath it, only when I went I got electrocuted, and I remember that I felt actual physical pain when this happened??? So we go inside and have a good time. Willy Wonka is there (the Gene Wilder one), theres a huge ass chocolate funnel, and a ball pit for some reason (???) and everyone was having fun. The weird thing though is the factory looked like a McDonalds play land place bc everything was made out of plastic and no one else was there for some reason. Anyway after what felt like a couple of hours, we decide to leave. The parking lot electricity fence is down, so we don’t have to risk electrocution, but, however, we find that there are around 20 race cars with angry oompa loompas in them, surrounding the parking lot. My family thinks this is weird and they all naruto run to the car (???) and leave without me?? So in this fucking blue minivan they ram into the race cars and escape, leaving me behind. I then am suddenly aware that Wonka’s factory is in the state of Kentucky, and realize that I have a long walk home to Maryland. I grab my phone out of my pocket, which is this, and try to call my parents, who do not pick up. After this, I literally have a movie montage of me walking home through suburban roads, only when it ends, I”m only on the road that leads to Wonka’s factory. Suddenly, a white van pulls up and the door opens to reveal 20 boy scouts who tell me i’m an honorary member and pull me in. They speed down the road, only for the oompa loompa race cars to appear out of the forest and chase us. We swerve off the road and die from being crushed under the van. The end.

2. Describe your favourite cinema. Is it nearby, or hard to get to? Why is it better than the others?

My favorite cinema is 15 minutes away and I only go to it bc its not that far. Idk how to spell it, its called like, Lietersburg or something. IT has a really big parking lot that I use to practice driving.

3. What was your favourite class in school? In terms of atmosphere, classmates, teacher, anything.

My favorite class in school was my junior year of high school english class with Ms. Mattu. I was friends with everyone in the class, which by the end of the year only had around 7 or 8 kids, and we spent class joking around and writing stupid messages and memes on the board, which, most of the time our teach would let us leave up there. Ms. Mattu was (and is) an excellent teacher who would push us to the limit in terms of our ability, and really helped me improve my writing skills A LOT which is great for someone who’s gonna major in something that might need a bunch of writing ability. We also had food days which were cool and watched some really good movies like, The Help or The Shawshank Redemption.

4. What’s one hair colour, piercing or tattoo you’d love to get someday but probably never will?

I would really love to get a septum piercing bc I think they look awesome, but knowing me I would probably get tired of it and want to take it out after a while. So sometimes I just wear a fake one lol. I’d also really love to get a tattoo of No-Face from Spirited Away, bc that movie is very close to my heart.

5. Describe one person who you’d love to be friends with, but only know as an acquaintance through work, school or other friends. What about them makes you want to know them better?

Oh jeez, there was this girl at school (who I absolutely will not name bc some of u went to school with me) who was like really cool??? Amazing fashion sense, super funny, and really cute. We had only talked a couple times, but I would literally be so starstruck by seeing her that I would stumble on my words. Everything she did was just so effortlessly cool, and I probably definitely had a small crush on her lol. She pulled off stuff that I could only dream of doing. I really wanted to learn more about her, but I don’t think we would have had a lot in common rip.

6. What is your personal “white whale”? Something you encountered in the the past and have never been able to find since, no matter how hard you try?

Honestly, I don’t think I have one? While I do enjoy obsessing over things, I always will let go of something after a while, whether it be a thought, idea, or thing, bc truthfully I just get bored with it. Like, if I want something, the longest that feeling will last is probably at most a couple years before I go, “well i guess I’m not getting it. Better move on”. I don’t like to chase after or they to find things that I deem as too hard or bothersome.

7. What was your favourite movie when you were a child? Does it still hold up now that you’re older?

SPIRITED AWAY AND LILO AND STITCH. Both are tied as my favorite movies ever. I’ve been watching Spirited Away since I was like a fetus, i watch it at least once or twice a year now, but as a kid i’d probably watch once every two weeks. It was my first anime, I loved how it was drawn differently than Disney, how it took place in Japan, a place i had several friends from, and how everything. Looked. So. Delicious. Not to mention how funny it was. It definitely still holds up today, and now as an artist I appreciate it even more. Meanwhile, I love Lilo and Stitch bc I’m a pacific islander! At the time, it was the only movie I’d ever seen about someone else who grew up on an island, and I really connected with Lilo. It was and is still SUPER hilarious. And now I actually connect with Nani a lot because I have a little sister. The bond is portrayed so well, which I couldn’t understand as a kid because I was an only child at the time. Even the way the characters speak and act is in such a relatable way that i can’t help but feel homesick. Also, i cry when i watch the movie during the scene where Nani sings. Super sad.

8. Do you have a favourite ‘local’ food? It could be a local delicacy unique to your town, but it could just be a particular snack from a particular shop. A favourite meal from your favourite restaurant, maybe, because nobody else makes it the same way that they do?

There’s this local donut shop called Krumpe’s which everyone in town goes to. Their donuts are pretty good, and even better warm. During New Year’s Eve they hand out free donuts during a “Donut Drop” (mocks the ball drop) we have every year. My brother is friends with the family’s son and i quite like the mother, who I once had a long talk with while we were sitting on a bench overlooking a pond.

9. Have you ever skipped school or work to hang out with your friends or to go to a particular event?

Haha, NO. I could never get away with leaving school, and honestly, I don’’t really have any friends I could ever do something like that with. My school calls our parents if were absent and attendance is really hard to get out of. The only thing I’ve ever missed school for was a field trip or college visit. When i was a sophomore however, I did tend to leave my last period class 15 minutes early to walk around and talk to the janitor (he’s really nice) bc we had a long term sub who was really cool.

10. What is something you’d love to collect but haven’t yet?

Sweatshirts i guess? I’d love to have sweatshirts from all over the world and places i’d visit. With how often I wear them I think i’d be pretty useful too.

11. Are you the kind of person who saves tickets from travelling? If not, what’s your favourite type of souvenir to collect?

Yup, always. I never really get to travel because of costs, so whenever i have a field trip i keep the ticket. So far, I have some Pentatonix and Two Cellos band tickets, and one from the MOMA and a couple other art museums.

Questions to answer

1. Is there a celebrity you often are said to look like? If not, then who is someone you wish you did?

2. What is one of your favorite bands or musicians? Why do you like them?

3. Who inspired your sense of style? Who is someone you look up to in terms of fashion?

4. If you could get rid of any one emotion, what would it be and why?

5. How do you see yourself versus how you think people perceive you? What are someone’s first impressions of you?

6. What’s your phone case and background? Why did you pick them?

7. What is something you’ve done that you’re very proud of? What is something about yourself that you’re very proud of?

8. What is your favorite climate and season? What’s your favorite thing to do in that weather?

9. What is something you own or have a lot of and why?

10. Have you ever gone through a “phase”? What is the worst/funniest one you’ve gone through?

11. What is the craziest thing you’ve ever done in the middle of the night? If nothing, whats something you’ve always wanted to do?

#i had to do this on the family computer in the middle of the night bc my laptop doesn't work rip #nikita says stuff

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stellar-stag · 8 years ago

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Wow it’s been a while since I did a personal update here huh

I’ve honestly transitioned a lot of my venting/personal stuff to twitter

(I promise I havent abandoned you for my furry friends)

(I kinda have)

(I totally have)

(sorry)

But I feel like the last couple months have been a whirlwind for me, so I may as well keep y’all in the loop. I’m gonna sort these by topic.

First off, I had some issues with my romantic feelings. There’s a guy, a very very good friend, who is just fantastic in so many ways. Friendly and kind and supportive, progressive and enthusiastic, and shares so many of my interests. Seems natural that I would fall for him, right?

Well I did, and it resulted in a lot of emotional duress.

He has a girlfriend, and I knew this going in, but I didn’t fight my attachment. In the process of admitting my feelings to him and working through everything, I learned a lot about myself and got some practice in controlling my emotional state and how I react to things. But I also relied on him as an emotional crutch and used him for validation, especially during some particularly low emotional points, which is unfair to him. It is only because he is immensely understanding that we remain close friends, and this could have easily resulted in disaster.

But through this process I have grown, and identified a new issue blocking me from being of completely sound mind: Low self-esteem and reliance on others for validation. During my more anxious periods, I would slip into joking self-deprecation, and somewhere along the way it stopped being so joking. But surely, now that I’m taking meds for anxiety it would stop, right? Well, no. Turns out, even if I stopped consciously having thoughts of “Wow, I’m so bad at this”, I didn’t automatically gain appreciation or acceptance of myself. This manifests in a particularly dangerous manner when guys who are attractive are nice to me.

I end up conflating kindness with romantic intent, and decide that obviously, if someone doesn’t have romantic interest in me, I must be irreparably flawed in some way. This is bullshit, and I consciously understand that, but my subconscious doesn’t play by the rules. So I end up in a self-loathing spiral that only manifests in periods of intense romantic desire, and a month later I’m exhausted, bruised, and have run the risk of alienating those around me who care about me.

So how to fix it? I suppose I’ll need to work on drawing validation from within, so that rejection feels less of a condemnation of my character and everything I am. It won’t be simple, to be sure, but understanding the issue is the key to overcoming it.

Here’s hoping.

Secondly: I started working out! As of today, March 24th, I have been to the gym 12 times this month (half the days, holy shit) and thats because I, last week, decided to go from 3 workouts a week to 5, solely because I wanted to. If you told me a year ago that I would, of sound mind and body and my own volition, wake up every weekday at 5:45am to go workout for an hour, and enjoy the experience, I would have called you a liar.

But I am, and I do. I think it’s benefitting my mental health and self confidence, and I’m thankful that I’m in a place where its even an option. This is only possible due to a coalition of so many factors: A free gym in my office and a natural predilection to waking up early to remove barriers, I started taking Vyvanse in January to aid in my attention issues (not sure if I have ADD/ADHD or what, but it’s helping me remained focused in all aspects of my life and for that I am grateful). And, of course, two people who aided in the impetus for beginning and making it a habit: My dad, for giving me crippling self-worth issues my entire life and then visiting in February and criticizing my health and weight (because I was sweating after walking up a hill, which more and more I realize is not actually an indicator of my exertion! I am just a person who sweats easily, and its more a function of temperature and endocrine system than anything else) and giving me the sheer spite to begin working out, and the guy I was crushing on (who is intensely into working out, and I wanted to impress him. Yeah, I was hella thirsty. Sue me).

Regardless of the reasoning, I found that (once I cut cardio because seriously, fuck cardio), I enjoy working out in the mornings. It’s calming to wake up by exertion and then cool down slowly at my desk before other people even wake up. It’s given rise to a ritual of sorts where I get to my desk, deal with my emails, make breakfast and tea, all before anyone shows up, so that I can really hit the ground running. And more than that, I don’t have a goal in mind. I’m doing this because I know it’s good for me and I want to be healthy, and I enjoy the exertion and following “good” tiredness. If I was trying to lose weight or trim fat, or stuck only to cardio, I would have given up by now. But its a habit, and I love it, and I’m sleeping better, eating better, and feeling better.

Again, this is only possible because of an alignment of several factors, but I’m thankful for it, and I’m glad I got out of the mindset that “workouts must suck but people do them because they wanna lose weight”. You don’t gotta do anything you don’t want to do, and I wish I had realized that sooner. Im feeling way better about my body, even, because despite the fact that I haven’t lost weight or gotten trimmer from working out, I know I’m eating (pretty) well and working out, and that my body does everything I need it to. I can take pride in the callouses on my hands and the soreness of my body, because they’re proof of dedication, exertion, and effort, and those are way better things to feel good about than shape and size, anyways. If people think I’m unhealthy because I have fat, they can suck it.

Thirdly, I’ve begun looking for a condo to buy! Housing in the bay area is STUPID EXPENSIVE (and yes everyone knows this, and I know this, but it bears repeating). But I can put a down payment on a one bedroom in a good location, and I’m prequalified for a loan, and I just need to keep waiting and pouncing on leads. I think I’ll be happier living by myself with a kitchen to myself, and still going out to social events to prevent becoming a hermit. Plus, with this setup I can maybe bring dudes back and not have to show them the pigsty that is our living room or the shoebox that is my bedroom. I was terrified at the start of this process, but my mom and the realtor have been awesome about taking this step by step and ensuring nothing is confusing or surprising, which is sweet.

Fourthly, possibly because I’ve been taking Vyvanse but also possibly because I’ve finally begun understanding what the hell I’ve been doing, I’ve really hit my groove at work. The project I’m working on is complex but interesting, challenging but well understood, and I don’t feel alone but still get to feel a sense of ownership. It’s not the most fulfilling thing ever (I don’t know that working on payments platforms for a corporation ever will be) but I enjoy work, I don’t loathe going to work, and despite the fact that I was sick as a dog all this week, I came in everyday (after working out) to work full productive days, and I was happy at the end of each of them, more or less. Its not perfect but its head and shoulders above what most people get from their jobs, and I’m immensely fortunate to be in this position.

Fifthly, this is more a continuation of already known things, but I’m making cool friends in the furry fandom. I’ve made good friends, some who I hope I will keep as friends for the rest of my life, and I’ve already made plans to go to Reno in June and Disneyworld in November to hang out and have fun with them. As nerve wracking as being an adult is sometimes, the freedom is something I wouldn’t trade for anything.

Sixthly, I’ve been taking a creative writing workshop in SF! It finished last weekend and I’m happy to not need to commute each week anymore, but I learned a lot about reading like a writer and choices you can make as a writer to achieve desired effects. The workshop focuses on narrators and how who is telling the story tells it, and the model they use for exercises is SO HELPFUL. We would read an excerpt of something, discuss how the narrator/choices/tense/mood all work together, and then we would write something in a similar format about whatever we wanted. Lemme tell yall, that is so much more helpful to me as a student than just prompts. Having a guide to format is like drawing from references, its helpful and and great for learning and gives you the tools to make your own things later on. I highly recommend it, and I can’t wait to get back to my book.

Got a lot of art to make first, though. I’ve definitely improved a lot in artistic skill and confidence, and I’m loving finding niche styles that I like and mimicking them. The stained glass pic I posted yesterday is proof of that, I feel. Its drawn from Mucha and various real life stained glass windows and a bit from Kingdom Hearts, but I took these and the tools at my disposal and wove it into something that feels complete. I figured out how to apply a cloudy “glass” texture, glows, stabilization, symmetry tools, pattern design, and more all through the process, and I know theres so much room to iterate and grow, in shading and coloring and proportion. But even knowing I have room to grow, I’m proud of what I put out and I put a lot of my heart into that piece (yes, its a birthday gift for workout boy. Shut up). I think I’m going to accept commissions for pictures in this style, even. It’s great fun.

So yeah, the last couple of months have been intense. I’ve had ups and downs, but I’ve learned and grown a lot, and I think I’m in a really good place in my life right now, and I hope that every one of you achieves a similar level of peace.

#ramblings of a gay man #long post #life update #wrote almost 2k words about myself #vanity thy name is george

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stairwaytomidnightfm · 6 years ago

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A Stairway To Midnight Radio-with I.M

DJ Yoo Han With I.M As The Special Guest

DJ: Good evening, Earthlings! How was your Thursday so far, in this not-so-hot night as the summer is coming to an end. For the next two hours to your Friday, I, DJ Yoo Han as usual will be your company and slowly send you to your slumber. For those who are still at work, or on their way home, stay safe and be careful~ Starting from now, the phone line and the comment section is now open! Leave your song request, or share any stories about your week. Let’s share those story, type them in while I play the first song for tonight. Also, before the song starts, I would like to say that we have a special guest, who is currently sitting right beside me. If you’re wondering who it is, stay tune to our midnight radio~

( NOW PLAYING ► WHO AM I by I.M )

DJ: Alright, that was a song from I.M with “Who Am I”, which is currently my favorite song to listen to at night. How was it? It helps you to relax even more, doesn’t it? Speaking of the song, based on what I mentioned earlier, we are having a special guest for tonight! Without further ado, please cheer for I.M !! (the loud cheer from the staffs heard in the background) Please introduce yourself to our audience~

I.M : Wow thank you. So much. Ah, hello, good evening, ( in english ) I am I.M ( back to korean ) and I’m a rapper-slash-producer from SELFMADE. Though I haven’t made an official debut yet, I’ve got a lot of other hobbies as well. I’m happy to be a guest today, please take care of me!

DJ: It’s so nice to finally meet you, I.M-ssi! All of the sudden, the room has turned brighter since we have a new face to be with us for the next two hours! The staffs are all smiling now! First of all, let’s talk about the song we played earlier on, ‘Who Am I’. What kind of story you can share to everyone here who’s listening the radio right now, when it comes to this song? To me, it speaks about finding our true self, giving our best to do what we want. Is there any inspiration or a backstory to why you wrote this song?

I.M: It’s my pleasure to be here! I hope everyone enjoyed my song, one of my earliest releases. The lyrics are personal to me and it’s special because it goes so far back. When I younger, I wanted to be a genius like my father. I tried to enroll into a science academy and studied well, but even when I forced it it didn’t feel right. So I left school and thought I wanted to travel. I ended up being passionate for music and art, I finally decided to become a rapper. I wanted to be refreshing and put my name down somewhere. ( laughs ) This song was written years after I changed my path but still, it was relevant as I wrote it. Starting with a new blank slate is okay but it is hard work to find your true self. I’m a confused kid sometimes but at least I have something I’m passionate in.

DJ: That’s interesting...I guess if you really have found your passion and worked hard for it, then anything is possible. Since you have been creating music for a while, what was the biggest obstacle you have experienced so far? I’m not asking this to cower our listeners, but to motivate them to pursue things just like you. Do you have any memorable events that helped shaping you for who you are now?

I.M: Yes..I’ve been working for a few years now, and even though I was still a teenager, I felt like I was late. Like I wasn’t experienced enough. But now I understand that a good drive will get your further than you may expect. Don’t ever stop, or give up. Hard work is the secret. There’s times where it’s not easy but the last thing I wanted was to quit. I just wanted to feel satisfied. When I was finally satisfied with something and shared it, I never got tired of it. Every time I hear that people I love also love something I’ve done, I don’t forget those moments. To be proud and have everything pay off, it’s worth everything.

DJ: We’ve jumped to a deep talk right away, haven’t we? (laughs softly) But I’m 100% agree that working hard and giving your best to the things you love will give you the best result as well. I think many of our listeners would feel they’re about to give up when the day is ending, but always keeping a positive mentality for tomorrow is also one way to go. And if we’re willing to change our perspective, then nothing is really impossible, isn’t it? Say, I.M-ssi, let’s talk about your music intensely now. What’s new from you? Are you going to release any new songs in near future?

I.M: Ah, no.. ( chuckles in response ) You’ve got to look forward, and find beauty in times that still feel dark. Keep an open mind, at least that’s what I learned. Oh. The last personal thing I released was a mixtape in February. But I do have plans for the future. Keep a close eye on other SELFMADE artists too, haha. But I would like to release a complete album sometime next year. But the dates are undecided. In the meantime I’ll still be hard at work so if anyone expects anything before the year ends, don’t worry. I don’t think there’s more I can say.

DJ: If you reveal everything here, there will be no more surprise for your fans, isn’t it? I see how it is~ I’m looking forward to what’s coming from you next, I.M-ssi! 2019 is just...3 months away from now? If you think about it, it won’t be long until you release it! Once it’s out, please come here again and we can let our loyal listeners listen to it to. And please ask SELFMADE’s artists to come to my radio show as well~ (laughs softly) and for the recent song you released this year, shall we give it a listen before we take a break? Please introduce the song to our listeners.

I.M: I can hardly believe 2018 is ending so soon.. I hope to come back next year too! And with a complete album I’ll have more to talk about. I’ll ask them to come but.. If anyone at the company is listening! Please join A Stairway to Midnight too! I think any of the other artists will enjoy it. They’ll be a lot more fun than I am. But yes, let’s move on. This is Fly With Me by I.M, enjoy it well listeners!

DJ: Alright, we’ll be right back after a short break.

( NOW PLAYING ► FLY WITH ME by I.M )

#live:broadcast

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therealestatesparkblog · 6 years ago

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What Being a CPA Has Taught Me About Becoming a Millionaire

Usually my articles are all about taxes and how real estate investors and business owners should approach various scenarios and apply sets of tax regulations. I always try to share my knowledge to help you improve your bottom line. What Ive come to realize through speaking with and advising hundreds of real estate investors and having a front row seat to their financial lives and mindsets is that Ive learned quite a lot about wealth over the past two years. Ive learned about creative and unique means to generate wealth. Ive learned about market niches that are rarely brought up in the BiggerPockets Forums that turn out to be quite lucrative. Ive learned about ways to mitigate exposure to various financial and market risks. However, one of the most beneficial thing that Ive learnedand the topic of todays postis how millionaires build their wealth. Im not talking about the mega-millionaires. While Im sure everyone would love to be in the mega-millionaire category, frankly its unattainable for most. Im talking about the Millionaire Next Door type of millionaires. This type of millionaire is, as Ive found, relatively easy to become. Full disclosure: Im not a millionairenot even close. However, I have been lucky enough to interact with and advise many homegrown millionaires. Hopefully, youll still be able to take away something of value from my article. So what does the everyday millionaire do differently than the rest of us? They develop key habits, defer their gratification, and treat their passive income like the most important business theyve ever run. The #1 Non-Money Habit of Millionaires The number onenon-money habit that will make you a millionaire is waking up earlier than the rest of the world. I know its hyped up and over-sold. I always rolled my eyes when I heard about this habit, too. Im not a morning person, and the thought of waking up before the sun was dreadful. But that was before I got into the business of advising successful real estate investors and business owners. That was also before I established this habit for myself. Waking up early has plenty of benefits;however, the two that stand out the most when Im conversing with clients are that it gives you time to work on projects you never have time for and it jump starts your productivity. Related: Building Wealth: What Key Practices Separate Millionaires From the Middle Class? The difference between people living mediocre lives and people living successful lives is that the successful people create time to work on the projects that the mediocre people dream about. Dont have time to review three real estate deals a day? Wake up early! The projects dont have to be real estate-related; in fact, they dont even have to be business-related. Maybe you dream about starting a podcast or writing a book about the tea and food pairings. Maybe you just want to paint more often or get in shape. When interviewing my clients, other investors, and business owners, Ive realized the most successful ones have some sort of cool project theyre working on. As I noticed the trend, I began inquiring not only about the projects, but also about how they have time. The answer almost all of these successful people provided was that they wake up early. Its that simple. And think about itwhen you wake up early to work on the project youre always putting off, do you think youll be excited to wake up? Not only will you be motivated to get out of bed, but your entire day will essentially see a jump start in productivity. You will create this sort of productivity momentum, which will result in you performing better throughout the day at your job, business, real estate, or whatever it is youre working on! I dont have scientific data. I dont know the neurology behind it. But I do know that almost all of the successful investors and clients Ive collaborated with wake up early to work on their various projects. I was skeptical at first, but I tried it. I read Miracle Morningfor some motivation, and Ive now created a habit of waking up early. My productivity has exploded, and Ive seen the benefits spill over into other areas of my life life business, investing, relationships, and overall health and happiness. Best of all, waking up at 5:00 a.m. isnt bad at all after a week or so. Im used to it and have a routine that motivates me to jump out of bed every morning. If you get nothing else out of this post, I highly recommend trying this for 30 days. The benefits will exceed your expectations. Deferring Gratification and Value-Add Spending All, let me repeat, ALL of the successful people Ive spoken with understand the art of gratification deferral. The thought process goes like this: That purchase will make me happy, but is it necessary today? Do I really need that product or service? Will it help me reach my goals? Oftentimes, the answer is a simple no. So they put off buying the new shoes, fancy dinners, and concert tickets. They buy used vehicles rather than new and expensive cars. They focus on saving and investinggrowing their dollar and paying their future selves. This allows them to get out of the rat race and snowball their investments into financial freedom territory. Buy the Tesla once your net worth reaches $1,000,000. Your future millionaire self will thank the present you for waiting. Another key trend semi-related to this topic is that the successful investors and business owners focus on value-add spending and savings. For instance, one of the investors I know built up an enormous amount of wealth by simply owner-occupying multi-family properties and slowly rehabbing all of the units. He would buy a four-plex, live in one unit for a year, rehab it, then move to the next unit and rinse and repeat. While he was flipping the unit, the other three would be rented out, covering his mortgage and then some. He used this strategy for two four-plexes, and it took him about eight years to complete. He was able to 1031 exchange those properties into a much larger apartment complex, which is valued at over $1,000,000. Related: 5 Habits of the Wealthy That Helped Them Get Rich One of my clients spends tens of thousands of dollars each year on seminars and trainings. However, she has a high net worth and has determined she can do this without it negatively impacting her financial position. Her business is centered on building a network of people, and shes quantified the value of every $1,000 she spends at these seminars and found that she will eventually earn revenue about twice the size of the cost to attend. But it wasnt always this way. Had she spent thousands of dollars going to a seminar while her business was trying to get on its feet, she may not have succeeded at all. In the early days, her money was better spent creating content, advertising, building a local network, and implementing business systems. She understood that while the seminars may be valuable, there were better things to spend her money on at the time to grow to a level where it was financially feasible to attend these larger events. Treating Real Estate Investing Like a Business One of the more eye-opening conversations Ive ever had was with a gentleman who invests in apartment buildings. I was showing him a property I thought was a good deal, and before he even looked at the deal, he asked me how the local economy was. The investors that see large-scale success analyze real estate in a completely different way than the rest of us. The successful investors start by analyzing economic conditions of various cities, towns, etc. When they find one they like, they narrow down their search and identify the best locations and neighborhoods in the area. They dont start with Realtor.com. They also dont necessarily start by contacting a real estate agent. They want to understand the macro and microeconomic conditions that may affect their investment performance to determine if its even worth their time to continue looking in the target area. Then they worry about building relationships and getting boots on the ground. And when you think about it, that simple reversal of the typical methodology many of us employ makes complete sense. Why invest in the best neighborhood in a city that has declining economic conditions? Its backwardlogic. On top of that, before they even attempt to identify a property, they learn all they can about the competition in the area. If they want to invest in apartment buildings, they will find out exactly what the other apartment buildings in the area have to offer. If they find a value gap, they exploit it. For instance, the gentleman I briefly mentioned above told me that his apartment building has washer and dryer hookups, and no other apartment building near him has washer-dryer hookups. Something that simple can give you a huge competitive advantage over all the other investors in your area. Thats how businesses are run. Theres a constant jockeying of positioning to have the best value-add offerings. The investors who understand and can identify competitive advantages will win every time. The Wrap-Up Being a CPA has allowed me to peer into the financial lives of many successful real estate investors. Though Im not a millionaire myself, Ive identified habits, mindsets, and logic that I believe can make anyone a millionaire if they are all applied. I find wealth a fascinating topic, and I hope you are able to take something away from this article. Until next time! Were republishing this article to help out our newer readers. Which of these lessons strikes a chord with you?What would you add? Leave your comments below! https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2016/01/31/cpa-taught-millionaire/

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somedaypast-thesunset · 8 years ago

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i feel upset today because there is a continual expectation for me to put myself out for other people and get next to nothing in return as they ask for everything. and if i ask for something, it just goes ignored.

i’m tired of my work being devalued. i’m tired of people just taking it for granted and using it to their own benefit. i felt nothing but anxiety and animosity at the last show our group put on because i was knowingly bullied on more than one occasion by another member and then forced to put on a show with them - and was even questioned why i might pull out my art.

i was going to perform at this event. but as the weeks passed i realized i was putting in more work than anyone else and when i asked for certain things, they were ignored or put off. and yet there was an expectation for me to complete something for them ‘asap’. this made performing for the first time really devalued. like sure, i worked hard to create the event but why? what was the purpose of this? it was never to bring anyone together, it was never to showcase anything but the organizers themselves and the lack of good promotion means the likelihood of selling something at a venue not known for after hours shows and not joining our marketing is pretty low.

i am 27 years old now. i have no fucking desire to put on shitty teen shows that are half assed thrown together with a bunch of my friends. thats not what this is about for me - it lacks a certain amount of organization and class. it lacks a curation in performers. i thought i might be the worst one - and that’d be okay. they cant all be winners. but now it’s just open mic - and if i really wanted to perform at a open mic, i’d go to a real one. if i’m going to do a large amount of the work - outside of meeting with the owner one time and putting up 5 flyers on street poles - i want the results to be worth the work i put in. and IMO it’s not. it’s mediocre and thrown together.

and i feel a personal insult about this because of how much work i put intothe group itself. ive dedicated time on a semi regular basis to all the admin work, the promotion, keeping social media active, posting new submissions, fielding a majority of the questions and i’m not asking for praise - i’m asking for people to respect the work i’ve done. don’t come in and draw on it with magic marker and tell me its acceptable quality when theres folks painting in oils. i dedicated time to create an entity that could be used and harnessed; i ask for the quality of our output to match whats already there.

and i think it’s asinine that i would hve to argue doing better than average. if this is just a hobby or random activity for you - fine. it’s not serious. you’re not serious. none of this matters. but it was presented as serious. it was presented as a showcase of people’s craft. there is no effort into making it somewhere one would wnt to be. we’re all going for the ~decor. we print posters because we want to see our name on a poster in the street - not becuse we’re really advertising an event. it was acceptable that the only people in attendance would be the performers and a few of their friends. acceptable!! that’s an unsuccessful house party, in my opinion.

you know whats missing locally? proper use of social media to network between people. it’s impossible to find other artists in the area unless you scour through obscure hashtags. but yet theres dozens and dozens if not hundreds of artists in the local area. this means you get stuck in one influence and within that influence you may be chastised for going against the “norm” of their influence. instead of new ideas being welcomed, they’re constantly turned down or argued against.

i’ve met all of the people i know through facebook and instagram in my art world. thats a very powerful tool.i know models who only book through instagram. and ive had arguements about the use of hashtags. as if theyre not relevant.

i’m tired of questioning what i know. tht honestly gives me the most anxiety. and its not like im tired of questioning what i do - its healthy to question your actions - but what i know and believe makes me feel unsure of myself and the skills i have. i have had experience working in the creative industries since i was 17, freelancing. and i have a wide variety of skills in graphic design, retouching photos, photography of models & landscapes & products, glamour modeling & product modeling (of which i’ve done for dozens of photographers in the local area), web design & blogging + knowlege of e-commerce platforms, wordpress, seo, promotion & marketing both online & offline, i’ve sold crafts online for almost four years and switched my primary creative tool from artisan crafts to trditional & figure art that i studied & practiced extensively for over two years, i have skills in copywriting & journalism, i have a handle on the basic laws of creative works & how they can be used, basic knowledge in building & selling a brand, communicating with clients & customers (of which i’ve had no complaints in regards to my communication - ive had complaints about shipping because post offices are not so nice), creating organized file systems which can be used by multiple people -- i have paid my dues. i am still growing, absolutely. i am not the best at any of the above things i listed. i could be even better. i could spend two hours today on one of these skills and be better than i am right now. i can always be better.

but just because i can be better doesnt take away from what i know now, what i have learned, what i have studied - like i took the time to study and read up on research and marketing & promotion techniques. a good portion of my first shop was spent reading about how to sell stuff, not so much making stuff to sell. as i did not realize at the time how much work went into being successful online. and i did not realize until my shop closed how i had taken that skill for granted - because i had done all that work & effort, it was able to pull in a few sales a month with little to no effort now. if i worked harder, maybe i couldve been even better.

i also (un)willingly have worked full time as an artist and only an artist for at least two years. this is the “luxury” ive been allowed in life even though i am the definition of starving artist. i didnt have it as a part time job or hobby - it was something i did every single day and i marketed & promoted for hours a day. an acquaintance of mine upon hearing of my mental state now told me that i had gone so hard for so long - and i kind of appreciated that he saw that on the outside. that someone could see that i actully did work incredibly hard. that i was dedicated.. that i AM dedicated.

i’m not saying any of this makes me better thn anyone else or knowing more - it just means i’m experienced. i am very very experienced in not only practicing a craft but marketing that craft to sell, displaying that craft in it’s best light, knowing the best places to sell. i also work in quality over quantity. i am not interested in doing 9 - 10 shows a year. i’m not interested in shitting out 5 - 7 paintings at a time. it means before i touch anything to paper or canvas or wood - i’ve thought about it. i’ve really, really thought about it. i didnt just sit down and throw paint on the canvas. i couldve been thinking of this image for days before i do it. or the craft itself - my bone jewelry came because i absolutely neded to make a necklace out of fish bones i found and they needed vials attached. why? i dont know. but it just needed to be.

when i started the group, i asked about names. i didnt choose a name or dictate the name. i was given a suggestion by someone i actually dont like at all and was given a reson for why he felt it was a good suggestion and i agreed because business-wise it was a good suggestion. i respected that he hd different ideas and experiences that shaped that suggestion that i did not have. i learned through it that i should expand my reach - both in my personal creative life and my ‘business’ creative life.

my ~partner was disappointed i wasn’t going to perform. i could tell it was frustrating and dissappointing to him because i think he thought it wouldve been good for me and that i would hopefully find something in it that would bring me something. and through his disappointment he told me that it wasn’t totally right to drop out of something you planned to do or that peopl expected you to be at.

but i’d like to turn that around - my partner is someone who also puts himself out for others on a regular basis. and for a long, long, long time he was fucked around and fucked over by many people. an old friend came to his door and asked to borrow money and he allowed him to despite knowing he might be a drug addict now. he had no obligation to this person but it was like since he was asked, he should. and i think if he lerned to say no, or learned to walk away from an unhealthy situation, he would be happier as well. i’ve learned first hand the benefit of walking away from something toxic. and you will feel misplaced guilt for a bit, i feel some guilt now but it’s for the best.

i try to think how i can change my perspective on it but i cannot. i wold not walk down the street if this was held in the local gallery, nevermind 20km away. like once i took myself out as a performer i realized i wouldnt even want to go. i dont want to see anyone perform but my partner; who will already be subdued because of the venue. ive been completely taken out of the organization of the event - despite having been continually involved in the promotion and a few conversations since the lst one where i said i didnt want to keep doing this. so ive deleted my advertisement efforts online andi’m just halting any further promotion on my part of this event. i’m 97% sure i’m personally not even going to go. i no longer ant to see half of the people there on a personal level so it’s not even worth going to to hang out and i dont care about displaying my art.

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viralhottopics · 8 years ago

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Microsoft Surface Studio scores big for creatives, but the Dial is just lame

Mashable illustrator Bob-Al Greene draws in Sketchable with the Surface Pen and Surface Dial on the Microsoft Surface Studio.

Image: Lili Sams/Mashable

For the two weeks that the Microsoft Surface Studio sat at my desk, it attracted a lot of attention. I’m an illustrator and I work with a lot of other creatives, and artists love to look at something beautiful. There were plenty of Oohs and Aahs, and the beautiful simplicity of the device was demonstrated when, for about 15 minutes, five co-workers gathered around my desk as we went on a tour of the world via Google Maps.

SEE ALSO: Dell Canvas gives you Surface Studio abilities without the luxury price tag

Navigating a 3D satellite view of New York City became a magical experience. Swiping a single finger on the screen allowed for rotating vistas that looked incredible. Was this a high point of artistic achievement? No. Was it insanely fun and beautiful, just because it was on the Studio? Yep.

3D Google Maps on the Surface Studio is an insanely fun and beautiful experience.

Image: Lili Sams/Mashable

Let me back up for minute: I’m Mashable‘s senior illustrator my job is to create the art and graphics that accompany our stories on our website and across our various social channels. In other words, I’m exactly the kind of person Microsoft is trying to appeal to with the Surface Studio, the company’s sleek and powerful all-in-one PC.

In a splashy press event last fall, Microsoft unveiled the Surface Studio and showed off its arsenal of tools and toys for drawing, drafting and painting on its large digital canvas. The news immediately piqued my interest since I spend almost all of my time at work on a Wacom Cintiq 22-inch touchscreen tablet, making things like this:

Image: bob al-greene/mashable

The Cintiq is a top-of-the-line device and allows artists to draw directly on the screen almost as if they were working on paper. Ive worked on various models from Wacom over the years, and the experience on the Cintiq is closest to the feeling of “traditional” tools of pen and ink. However, it functions as a second screen that I use solely for art creation; my everyday tasks, like web browsing and email, I do on an iMac.

The author’s Wacom Cintiq tablet workstation.

Image: Bob Al-Greene/Mashable

That would change with the Surface Studio, which puts all of your tools in one machine. I’d been thinking about the device’s promise an enormous, beautiful screen housing an all-in-one creative suite so I jumped at the opportunity to switch out my 27-inch iMac and Cintiq for a week or two and work exclusively on the Studio.

At the same time, I was apprehensive: I havent owned or regularly used a Windows device in more than five years. But the transition from macOS to Windows 10 was smooth, and with the exception of some hot-key confusion (curse that Ctrl button!) I was able to focus entirely on the hardware which is a good thing, because there is a lot to take in on the Surface Studio.

Elite Studio

The Surface Studio is a remarkably simple and elegant device. The massively immersive 28-inch screen is attached to the rectangular base by a pair of dual-hinged struts what Microsoft calls the “zero gravity hinge.” The base has to be heavy so you dont inadvertently shift your entire workstation every time you adjust the reclining screen. Ports are in the back of the base four USB 3.0, an SD card slot, a Mini DisplayPort, a headphone jack and Gigabit Ethernet along with the lone power cord.

The Surface Studio makes for an impressively austere workstation.

Image: Lili Sams/Mashable

I tested the fully tricked-out Surface Studio with an Intel Core i7 processor, 2TB of storage, 32GB of RAM and an Nvidia GeForce GTX980M graphics card with 4GB of GPU-dedicated RAM. All that power means a price tag of $4,199, up from the base model at $2,999. The high price might be a turn-off for some, but consider that a 22-inch Wacom Cintiq retails for $1,799 and it needs a separate computer to function.

All the ports in back: 4 x USB 3.0, Gigabit Ethernet, Mini DisplayPort, microSD, headphone jack.

Image: Lili Sams/Mashable

As I disassembled my usual workstation, I was frustrated by the tangle of cords and adapters connecting my Cintiq to power and to my iMac. Despite my best efforts to keep them organized, theyd become tangled, making unplugging a chore. Replacing it all with the Surface Studio doubled my extra desk space instantly and made my whole area feel cleaner and more organized. All I had to plug in was one cord, for power. I booted it up, and within minutes I was creating art.

Getting Immersed

The Surface Studio boasts an expansive 28-inch display, and, at 192 pixels per inch (ppi), everything on it looks and feels crystal clear. The experience of using it is incredibly immersive: The screen is so large that it hides the heavy base and hinge from view, so the display seems to float on its own, magically just “there” in front of your face. In the words of one of my animator colleagues, five minutes after sitting down with the Studio: I feel like Im in my art.

Id never worked on a touchscreen computer before now. I have an iPad at home and Ive experimented with the iPad Pro and Surface Pro, but the ability to touch a screen and manipulate programs with my fingertips on a desktop computer seemed extraneous and unnecessary.

The Surface Studio’s 28-inch screen bestows the feeling of getting immersed in your art.

Image: Lili Sams/Mashable

The Surface Studio taught me the exact opposite was true. I quickly eschewed the mouse in favor of the more direct interaction offered by the Surface Pen and the five styluses on my own right hand.

With 10-point multitouch, you can really do anything you need to on the Studio with your fingers. Pinching to zoom or rotate an image, scrolling with two fingers, tapping a link quickly with the pad of my index finger, all of this quickly became second nature, as the Studio recreates the feeling of manipulating flat paper on a desk. The ease and simplicity also makes switching between programs a necessity when working on one screen rather than two less of a chore.

After you work on the Surface Studio, you’ll want to touch all your screens.

Image: Lili Sams/Mashable

In fact, when I did some work on my home workstation later that evening, I caught myself intermittently trying to tap my iMac screen and wishing I had touch capability on my 13-inch Cintiq (a smaller version of my work tablet). I turned this function off within a week of setting up my Wacom tablet, but now I want to give it another try. I suspect the palm rejection on the Surface Studio is more advanced than on the Cintiq, and Ill probably find myself missing the intuitive interface of this gorgeous device. Apple, give us a touchscreen iMac already!

Using the Surface Studio mouse a cheap-feeling, dull gray, plastic blob with a scroll wheel felt unnatural and often unnecessary compared with the touchscreen. That’s partly because the mouse is overly sensitive and twitchy compared to the Apple Magic Mouse Im used to. But also, when a device features five input mechanisms a keyboard, a mouse, a stylus, a dial (more on that in a minute) and your own hand youre bound to start ignoring one.

One sleek all-in-one

Two things about the Surface Studio cant be overstated: the crystal-clear display and the thinness of the screen. At only 0.34 of an inch (8.6mm) along the edge (and 0.49 inch at the center), the Studio puts the bulging back of the iMac to shame. And the ridiculously high resolution (4,500 x 3,000) means 4K videos look next-level gorgeous (heck, I was thrilled enough with a 4K desktop wallpaper).

The Microsoft Surface Studio is an unbelievably slim all-in-one.

Image: Lili Sams/Mashable

As loyal as I am to my Cintiq, its worth noting that the color display has never been perfect. No matter how many times Ive adjusted the RGB settings on both devices, they never quite match their accompanying iMacs in terms of color saturation and tone. This means double-checking and adjusting every piece of art I make on two screens. But by using just one screen with an sRGB display, this problem disappears on the Surface Studio.

I would be remiss without mentioning two other functions the Studio boasts over my usual work setup: Cortana and Windows Hello. The former, an easily accessible voice-controlled desktop assistant, I found competent but superfluous. Id expect to use it about as much as I use Siri on desktop, which is to say: not much. But Windows Hello which uses face-scanning technology to recognize me and automatically log me in every time I sat down at the Studio was easy to set up and felt pretty cool every time. Again, the word I keep coming back to with the Studio is magical.

Call it a draw

Im ambivalent about making the switch from a Wacom stylus to the Surface Pen. On one hand, its a fine-looking instrument: Sleek and silver, it’s slimmer and shorter, yet heavier, than the Wacom stylus.

The Surface Pen feels natural in my hand, and I was surprised to learn that many of my colleagues dislike the fatter Wacom stylus, which does feel like a fat kindergarten crayon by comparison. To me, both are more than fine.

The Surface Pen was very capable, but lacked the same precision and tools as a Wacom stylus.

Image: Lili Sams/Mashable

Where the Surface Pen loses out is functionality. To start off, the Pen touts 1,024 levels of pressure sensitivity precisely half of the Wacom Cintiqs 2,048. So expect less pressure control right off the bat. I do a lot of drawing and often need to vary line width based on how much pressure Im applying, so I want the highest level of pressure control possible. The Surface Pen is just not that.

The Surface Pen touts 1,024 levels of pressure sensitivity precisely half of the Wacom Cintiqs 2,048.

Beyond that, theres the issue of customization. Every Wacom stylus Ive used has two buttons on the side that can be programmed to suit the user. I personally use one button as a Pan/Scroll shortcut, and the second to right-click. The Surface Pen has only one button on its side, with only one programmable action: a right-click function I found sluggish.

The Pens shortcut button, located where you would find an eraser on a pencil, offered more promise to me as a first-time user. Its Eraser function not so much its quicker and easier to just use a keyboard shortcut than to constantly be flipping the Pen back and forth in my hand but the Windows Ink Workspace allows for some cool tricks.

A double-click, for instance, brings up Screen Sketch mode and instantly creates an editable screenshot that I can draw on, crop, and save. I take a lot of screenshots on my Mac, so having this function programmed right into my Stylus was refreshing.

Another big feature of the Surface Pen is that it can be magnetically attached to either side of the Studios massive screen at any time. Im a bit absent-minded and I often misplace my Wacom stylus or let it roll underneath my tablet, then have to scrounge around my entire desk looking for it. Not so with the magnetic Stylus Pen. Kudos, Microsoft!

The power of gravity

A lot of the Surface Studios reputation as a revolutionary device hinges on one element: namely, the “zero gravity” hinge. Because its been designed as a multi-purpose creative tool for artists, photographers, designers, videographer and musicians, the Studios screen can be tilted and readjusted almost instantaneously based on what you want out of it.

The Surface Studio’s “zero gravity” hinge.

Image: Lili Sams/Mashable

So if youd prefer to work on a nearly flat 20-degree incline in Studio Mode, or the more traditional 90-degree Desktop Mode, or somewhere in between, the choice is up to you.

Angling the screen is effortless and cool every time the ease of adjustment makes it a cinch to find your preferred angle instantly. I typically grabbed the screen by its left and right edges to adjust, but you can lift it from the bottom with one hand or press it down with a single finger. Its that easy. The process is smooth and virtually silent, reinforcing the illusion that this is not a grounded device but a levitating screen.

Detail shot of the Surface Studio’s elegant rear #hinge http://pic.twitter.com/dxv7wfYG1v

Bob Al-Greene (@BobAlGreene) February 15, 2017

This light-touch adjustment is both a great strength and one of the Surface Studios few apparent flaws. I prefer to have my screen closer to a 45-degree angle when Im drawing. The Studio accommodated me and it was easy to find my perfect position and begin drawing but I found that applying too much pressure with the stylus would push the screen down slightly, changing the angle.

This happens because the hinge was designed without the locking mechanism seen on devices like the Wacom Cintiq. Of course, the absence of a lock also makes the experience intuitive and smooth, but it’s a trade-off. I hope Microsoft can incorporate some kind of locking mechanism into a future model of the Surface Studio while keeping the adjustment process smooth, simple and elegant.

Dial me out

The other big star of show, if less central to the Surface Studios function, is the Surface Dial. Microsoft has hyped it as a completely new way to interact with technology, though third-party dials have been available for years. This Dial is sold separately from the Studio, retailing for $99.99.

I found it to be a confounding little device.

The Microsoft Surface Dial

Image: Lili Sams/Mashable

Smooth, sleek and silver, the Dial feels heavy in your hand, like a paperweight, and at first it seems far more impressive than the Surface Studios mouse. The Dials high-friction rubber underside allows it to stick to your screen (sort of), but most of the time I left it sitting on my desk behind the keyboard. In this default mode the Dial has five basic functions (with two extra programmable slots): Volume, Play Next Track, Scroll, Zoom and Undo. Users can switch between these functions by pressing and holding on the dial, which brings up a circular pop-up menu.

The main functions stay the same, but some programs grant the Dial extra powers. Placing it on the screen makes it even more powerful; in the drawing program Sketchable, for instance, the Dial becomes a super-charged homebase for brush controls. Line weight, opacity, brush shape, color and more are all editable, on the fly, while youre drawing. It makes for some eye-catching demonstrations, but Im not convinced its useful in my day-to-day workflow.

The Surface Dial lets you change the color of your brushstroke on the fly.

Image: Lili Sams/Mashable

The Dial started to frustrate me when I realized it didnt truly stick to my screen. I had assumed, based on the demo videos Id seen, that its sticky base would allow it to cling to the screen wherever I placed it, like a phone on a car dashboard. Even on a tilted screen, I expected the Dial to hold on (at reasonable angles anyway).

Instead, I found that the Dial immediately starts to slide down the screen when you place it, no matter how gentle that angle is. Even at the Studios flattest setting 20 degrees the Dials slow creep downward is visible, made more obvious by the way the devices circular menu lags behind before following the Dial downward every few seconds.

At the 20-degree setting, with a freshly cleaned screen, the Dial takes about 6 minutes to slide from the top of the screen to the bottom. It moves twice that speed when the screen has been in use; it seems the oils from my fingerprints and smudges make the screen slicker. Such is touchscreen life.

“Dial creep” on the Surface Studio after cleaning the screen with a screen wipe. Noticeably slower descent. Time lapse by @KeithHopkin http://pic.twitter.com/RB6k7waPYO

Bob Al-Greene (@BobAlGreene) February 15, 2017

“Dial creep” on the Surface Studio screen at its lowest setting. Time lapse by @KeithHopkin http://pic.twitter.com/ExCDritEWR

Bob Al-Greene (@BobAlGreene) February 15, 2017

All of this simply means that the Dial cannot be placed onscreen and left until you need it again if you want to use the Dial onscreen, Microsoft wants you to hold it there. Its not an oversight or flaw on their part; this is how the designers want you to use it.

This essentially confirms one of the biggest fears I had about the Surface Studio: that using the Dial would be a constant routine of picking it up, placing it on screen, then placing it back on my desk. For what the Dial offers, this extra work isnt quite worth the payoff.

But the sliding was only the beginning.

Mo’ Dial, mo’ problems

I found the Surface Dial to have problems in almost every way I used it. Lets take a look at its five core functions:

Volume: This is probably the most intuitive of the dial’s “main” functions. Using a dial to control volume is not a strange concept to anyone, and the fine-tuning of the dial allows you to quickly and naturally find the perfect volume. If youre listening to music while you work, it makes the most sense to leave the dial in volume mode.

God help you, though, if you then decide to use the Dial for something else: If it’s in a different mode and you want to change the volume with it, you’ll have to hold down the Dial for a moment, navigate to the volume control function, click it, and then rotate to change the volume. Thats four steps to do something I can do now by hitting one key at the top of the keyboard (or by using the volume buttons on the righthand side of the screen).

The Surface Dial is often more trouble than it’s worth.

Image: Lili Sams/Mashable

Play next track: Brings up a widget with Play, Pause, Next and Last Track and Volume controls. I found tapping the screen more intuitive than using the Dial to skip tracks.

Scroll: Scrolling with the dial is a pleasant and smooth experience, but just marginally more pleasant than the mouses scroll wheel. I’d still rather use my iMac’s Magic Mouse or Trackpad both of which allow for side-to-side panning, not just vertical scrolling.

Zoom: Working in art programs like Photoshop and Sketchable, I found myself far more likely to use the pinch-and-zoom capability of the touchscreen, which is more intuitive and precise, and allows for rotation at the same time.

The Surface Dial and the Surface Studio mouse.

Image: Lili Sams/Mashable

Undo: This is a big one. The Dial becomes a full-on time machine in Undo mode. When activated, the onscreen Dial display shows your work progress as a percentage 100% is your current stage (the present), and 0% is the first stroke you made (the past). By turning the wheel counterclockwise, you travel backward through your work at the pace you decide.

The Dial so sensitive that getting back to any specific point, even one or two steps backward, is a challenge bordering on impossible.

It might sound cool, but this function is the most frustrating to me. With the super-sensitive Dial, moving just one step at a time takes a light touch. In my workflow and that of the artists I talked to, the Undo command is usually used to go back only a step or two to fix an error. For anything more than that, I typically use the History panel in Photoshop. This panel displays dozens of previous steps and labels them, allowing me to quickly navigate to a point in time.

The problem with the Dial is it’s so sensitive that getting back to any specific point, even one or two steps backward, is a challenge bordering on impossible, and I found myself repeatedly getting stuck in loops erasing too much, then jumping too far forward, then too far back, then too far forward.

Moreover, I frequently experienced lag when rewinding quickly or going backward more than, say, 10% at a time. This led to several frustrating moments spent helplessly watching my art unmaking itself far beyond what I intended, knowing I would have to immediately turn the dial back forward again. The effect of rewinding the creation of art makes for a flashy visual, but not when you cant control it effectively. More feedback from the dial or a ratcheting effect within the mechanism could increase the precision, but for now, Undo is an monster you should never unleash on your work.

One last note about the Dial. Just like adding pressure with the Pen, pressing the Dial can occasionally cause the screen to tilt down. In this way, the two premier aspects of the Surface Studio the Dial and the Hinge work together to make the overall experience imperfect. Oh, well.

A Studio worth visiting

At the end of my time with the Microsoft Surface Studio, I did not want to give it up. Considering what a joy it is to work on my regular Cintiq, thats saying quite a bit. Despite its few obvious faults the lack of a locking mechanism on the hinge, and a Dial that I have all but given up on it remains a compelling and undeniably gorgeous instrument.

One of the pieces of art the author created on the Surface Studio.

Image: Bob Al-Greene/Mashable

As a graphic artist and designer, I was able to adapt the Studio to my daily workflow fairly quickly. An animator colleague of mine used it for an afternoon to create motion graphics and found it up to the task of her workload as well. I have no doubt that artists of all stripes illustrators, musicians, filmmakers, architects, and more will find uses for the Studio and create beautiful things with it.

As hard as I am on the Dial, Im likewise sure some artists will find it an interesting and eventually an intrinsic part of their creative process, but its not the right device for me right now. Luckily, Microsoft isnt pushing anyone to buy it you certainly dont need it to fully enjoy the charms of the Surface Studio.

The Microsoft Surface Studio.

Image: Lili Sams/Mashable

So, is this the next big thing for digital artists? After years of Apple being the default brand for young creatives, is Microsoft going to carve out some of that space with the Surface Studio? Well, your mileage may vary. If youre a creative just starting out in your career, or if you dont have a significant chunk of change to drop on it, then there are certainly more affordable ways to piece together your own creative studio.

But if, like me, youre in a place where you can request devices from your employer for your professional work (wink wink), or if youre ready to take a plunge and switch up your creative process at home, then you’ll find lots to love within the Surface Studio’s canvas.

Microsoft Surface Studio

The Good

Huge, gorgeous, immersive 4,500 x 3,000 display Easily adjustable hinge True color sRGB gives it an edge over Wacom Cintiqs wonky color settings

The Bad

Sensitive rear hinge needs a locking mechanism Surface Dial is a clumsy peripheral High price tag and Windows 10 are a hard sell for Mac loyalists

The Bottom Line

Artists will love the immersive, creative workstation that is the Microsoft Surface Studio, but the Surface Dial is a poorly thought out accessory.