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righetousdude · 2 years ago

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“ To unlock there POWER”

Discharge: That fight was… INSANE how did I survive that… error guy!!

Discharge was breathing hard the fight with error was insane the battle felt like he was going to die.

DS: Calm down… I can’t be controlled by anyone nor puppeteers ,so where in the clear from that.

Discharge: yay thanks we got the souls. They will be very useful for the plan I will create the prime reset and bring everything back to normal… my home.

DS: I sent them to the FZ for now, but we need to talk about your powers.

Discharge: what about them

Discharge asked curious

DS: remember that dead timeline we went to with all the human souls where

Discharge: yay why ?

Discharge: I will teach you the form of using files to make you stronger forms or boost may you say “enchanting” abilities.

Discharge: Why don’t I just ask that omno guy he’s strong

DS: he doesn’t know anything about code and is just mean’t to teach you how to control your powers; along with teaching you skills, combat, powers, and to mentor you so your power grows ten fold.

Discharge: alright… but give me a sec I need to repair my wounds I got hurt pr-

DS enraged: you don’t need a break Phanes did things to you so the pain is just a illusion or do you want to feel that again ?

DS smirk

Discharge: no… it was awful

DS: good

Understanding

DS: tell me what all the soul traits are.

Discharge: there is about 9 of them determination, kindness, patience integrity, perseverance, bravery, justice, hate, and fear. In this multiverse at least

DS leaping out of discharge

“Correct and now summon a file of determination.

Discharge did what he was told and summoned a file of determination.

Discharge: know what ?

DS: …. Put the file beside you it’s invisible to the naked eye ,but only glitches can see it or touch them.

Discharge felt the power go inside him and his body became a bit of more taller and stronger.

Discharge: wow I feel strong… how long does it last for.

DS: it’s like those phone things it goes for a certain amount of time and also depends how much strength you gather form it. The DT soul gives the user a feeling of not giving up and increasing attack and speed, but it decreases your defensive powers by a bit. Now put it away your just wasting power.

Discharge: right… so these file gain more of that pacific trait over time ? How though

DS: it’s pretty messed up. The file gives the player a illusion making them think there still in the world they love like a hamster running on those… wheeling things. Nothing beneficial to the hamster ,but you gain the power.

Discharge: that that’s pretty fucked up.

DS: there timeline was going to die anyway so why not take some free loot.

Discharge: yay… your right.

DS: now summon a patience file

Discharge: right !

Discharge started feeling of calmness.

DS: the patience file increases speed, evade, and accuracy, but decreases your attack power making hits harder to pack a punch. It has it’s uses from time to time.

Discharge: alright that’s good to learn.

DS: there is only 2 more I want to show you the others are a bit more advance.

Discharge: ok I can wait.

DS: summon a kindness file.

Discharge did what he was told. Then felt a urge to be happy ,but controlled it.

DS: this file gives the user stronger defense, and Commonsense, but decrease attack, speed, and the will to kill somebody.

Discharge: yay this soul sucks.

Discharge put it away and asked for the last one.

DS: the last one for now is bravery.

This soul trait increases everything, but makes the user cocky and deceased IQ and commonsense.

Discharge: ok

DS that’s the end of the lesson the last ones will be used once you try ever soul for a actually battle.

Discharge: I know. WAIT I got a question.

DS: what ?

Discharge: why Omni training me but, not phanes.

DS: I don’t-

Phanes: because I’m go business. I missed a lot of things since of my slumber there’s beings like ten,malware, Islathorn, astral mother, 100, faker, sol, and brimm a fucking reality eater which I need to kill ,but my presence is dangerous to the realities and to other gods who want to protect it. I saw Omni and islathorn to please train you…

Discharge: ok this all sudden all ,but why did they even agree if there “powerful” wouldn’t they take you for a threatening person.

Flashback

Islathorn: ok ok… fine… I’ll tell Ares

To train him.!

Phanes: good… now get back up or I’ll smash you atoms and head.

Present

Phanes: …. Yep used peace there old buddies of mine. Yay…….

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grailfinders · 4 years ago

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Fate and Phantasms #136: Illyasviel von Einzbern

Today on Fate and Phantasms we tap into our inner magical girl to build Illyasviel von Einzbern! So weird how they made a servant with absolutely no media depicting her other than FGO. Maybe they were going to do something else with the design and never got around to it, like with Proto Cu?

Anyway, it’s time to suit up and punish evildoers in the name of the moon cell!

Check out her build breakdown below the cut, or her character sheet over here!

Next up: Oh hey another Emiya.

Race and Background

Like Mash and many other Homunculi, Illya’s race gives us a bit of trouble. Unlike Mash, however, Illya is being made after Tasha’s Cauldron came out, so we can always make her a Custom Origin. This gives her +2 Charisma for extra magical abilities, the Tough Feat for an extra 2 HP per level so she doesn’t die on impact with existence, and Persuasion proficiency to convince Emiya to let you have cookies before dinner, even if this one is from another universe.

You’re part holy grail, which is one hell of an inheritance, so the Inheritor background should be perfect for you. This gets you Survival and History proficiencies.

Ability Scores

First, make your Intelligence your highest score. Most innate magic comes from charisma, but a lot of yours got siphoned into your sister, so you’ll have to be clever with what’s left over. Second highest is Charisma, of course- even with a lot of your magic missing you’re still a force to be reckoned with. Also you’re a kid, and kids are cute. After that is Dexterity, because fighting Bazett is more “avoiding Bazett” than anything else. Your Strength isn’t great, you are still a child after all. Your Wisdom is even worse though- you go with the flow, and that includes making a deal with Ruby, so... not great decision making on your part. Lastly, dump Constitution. Some people would argue that surviving Quintett Feuer’s effects on your body makes you pretty tough, but that also means your own magic is already weakening you from the inside out.

Class Levels

1. Wizard 1: I promise we’ll get Ruby in a second, but first we have to make sure we don’t die on the way. As a first level Wizard you get proficiency in Intelligence and Wisdom saves, as well as the Arcana and Medicine skills for more magical girls and magical medicines. You also learn how to cast Spells prepared from your spellbook by using your Intelligence. For the sake of brevity here we won’t go into all of them, just expect all the big blasty ones to make the list.

Aside from that, you should definitely pick up Mage Armor to make your AC 13 plus your dexterity modifier. 14 is definitely better than 11.

2. Wizard 2: Second level wizards pick their specialty, and I’ll be honest I was super close to going with Evocation for their overcharge ability at later levels. That being said you’d probably like immediate results more, and nothing more immediately changes our options than Bladesinging! As a bladesinger you could wear light armor if you really want to, but your magical girl armor will be protection enough. Similarly, you get another weapon proficiency, but you’re already proficient in quarterstaffs, which is the closest thing to magic wands we have. You also get Performance proficiency to really sell the magical girl bit.

You also learn a Bladesong that you can start as a bonus action. It lasts for a minute, or until you’re incapacitated, put in heavy armor, or use two hands for an attack. While active, you also get a bonus to your AC equal to your intelligence modifier, get an extra 10 feet of movement speed, have advantage on dexterity checks, and add your intelligence modifier to concentration saves as well. You can use this a number of times per long rest equal to your proficiency bonus.

You should also learn the spell Healing Elixir either this level or the last for some experimental medicine!

3. Wizard 3: Third level wizards get second level spells. I’d go for the destructive ones.

4. Wizard 4: Use your first Ability Score Improvement to round out your Dexterity and Intelligence. Remember: odd numbers make PCs cry! You can also get Levitate for some early flight, and Alter Self to take care of your magical girl transformations.

5. Warlock 1: With base defenses secured, it’s high time to get a stick we can shoot magic out of. Your magic comes mostly from the Holy Grail, so Genie sounds like a pretty good translation. You get Pact Magic that you can cast using your Charisma, plus some extra spell slots that recharge on short rests. They don’t mix with your wizard slots, but you can use any available slot for a spell, so don’t worry too much.

You also get a Genie’s Vessel, a tiny object that you can jump into for a Bottled Respite. That’s not in character though, so we won’t go over the exact details here, but you can do that once per long rest.. While touching it, you can also invoke the Genie’s Wrath, adding your proficiency bonus in thunder damage to one attack roll-based piece of damage per turn.

For your warlock spells, Eldritch Blast is a must for any caster on the go, and Prestidigitation will help with minor magical effects. You can also Detect Evil and Good to seek out cards wherever they may hide, and Charm Person. That last one’s not really magic, you’re just cute.

6. Warlock 2: Second level warlocks get Eldritch Invocations to customize their magical girl journey. We’re taking Agonizing Blast now for extra damage on eldritch blast attacks, and a little something something at level three.

To keep up the damage even when it’s not your turn, grab Hellish Rebuke to blast enemies as a reaction.

7. Warlock 3: Third level warlocks gain the Pact of the Blade, allowing you to summon Ruby as an action, creating a magical weapon. You should also pick up the invocation Improved Pact Weapon to turn her into a spellcasting focus (and get +1 to attack rolls and damage) now you have your own magic wand!

You can also cast Phantasmal Force to create any kind of magical effect you might need to blast a single person. They have to make an intelligence save (dc 8+proficiency+charisma modifier) or they fall for the illusion completely, to the point that they can even take damage from it.

8. Warlock 4: Use this ASI to bump up your Strength so we can actually use Ruby, and you also learn the cantrip Sword Burst for some cutting magical attacks, as well as the UA spell Mental Barrier, which gives you advantage on Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma saves as a reaction. You also get resistance to psychic damage! You may not be that wise, but you do have magical defenses.

9. Wizard 5: Fifth level wizards get third level spells! Fireball is a typical blaster choice, and Fly will give you your first bout of liftoff that you can actually control! Every good magical girl can fly, after all.

10. Wizard 6: Sixth level bladesingers can make an Extra Attack each attack action, and you can also replace one of those attacks with a cantrip for proper magic wand attacks.

11. Wizard 7: For your fourth level spells make sure to pick up Otiluke’s Resilient Sphere so you can turtle up using your magic barriers. It creates a magical hamster ball for a large or smaller creature for up to a minute, and nothing can pass though it, and nothing inside can damage anything outside or vice versa. If the creature you’re enclosing is unwilling, it can avoid entrapment with a dexterity save.

12. Wizard 8: Use this ASI for more Intelligence to gain extra AC and stronger spells.

13. Warlock 5: Fifth level warlocks get third level spells like Wind Wall for another kind of magical defense, and you can also use your Mask of Many Faces to Disguise Self at will for unlimited card use.

14. Warlock 6: As a sixth level genlock, your Elemental Gift gives you resistance to thunder damage, and your ultimate magical girl transformation gives you a flying speed for 10 minutes as a bonus action. You can use this a number of times per long rest equal to your proficiency bonus.

Since your concentration is no longer needed for flying, you can use it for spells like Spirit Shroud instead to make your attacks with Ruby a little bit stronger, adding cold, radiant, or necrotic damage to your strikes.

15. Wizard 9: Fifth level spell time! Just grab the big blasty ones, that’ll be fun.

16. Wizard 10: Tenth level bladesingers learn a Song of Defense, letting you burn spell slots to reduce incoming damage by five times the slot level while transformed. Blocking Bazett entirely would probably cost a ninth level slot at least, but it’ll hurt a bit less when she slugs you! yay....

Also, Legend Lore lets you ask Ruby about whatever magical nonsense you run into, and Wall of Force gives you yet another magical blockade to keep your friends safe.

17. Wizard 11: Another spell level obtained, another new tier of blasting spells for you to play with!

18. Wizard 12: Use your last ASI to bring your Strength up one last time. Now you and Ruby are a force to be reckoned with!

(Also, Create Homunculus will let you, that’s right, create a homunculus. I’m sure Irisviel would love to see her daughter get into the family business.)

19. Wizard 13: Your seventh level spells are as high as we can get this build, but that’s still another set of blasting spells you can use!

20. Wizard 14: Your capstone level grants you a Song of Victory, adding your intelligence modifier to melee attack damage while using your bladesong.

Pros:

Thanks to your warlock slots and arcane recovery, you recover spell slots at a prodigious rate, meaning you’ll rarely be completely out of magical power.

Concentration free flight is fantastic, especially on a build that can abuse the range like you can. Fling fireballs all you want, with no fear of reprisal!

On the rare occasion where you run out of mana, you can still be a respectable melee fighter, with 19 AC and a very painful Ruby Wallop with Bladesong active.

Cons:

You’re mostly wizard, and we dumped constitution. Even with tough helping out, your HP is still really low. If you take a paper cut you’ll be in Power Word Kill range.

You have limited time transformations. Generally speaking I’d think six minutes of Bladesinging and sixty minutes of flight would be enough, but if your DM likes to space out encounters you might be in trouble.

Multiclassing bites us in the ass again, locking you out of ninth level spells and splitting our casting modifiers. Trying to be good at hitting people also doesn’t help much.

#Fate Grand Order #FGO #D&D 5e #Illyasviel von Einzbern #Fate and Phantasms #Wizard #Warlock

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rainofaugustsith · 4 years ago

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Rain Plays SWTOR: Oricon

Let's do the Oricon daily area! Thank you for the request @thatmmolesbian ! . :) You gave me an excuse to head over there to finish the remaining combat achievements. The Oricon daily area is one of the more difficult in the game, especially if you're approaching it below level 75. I distinctly recall dying several times when I first attempted it on my first character. I hope that doing a daily guide will help some newer players. Caveats about Oricon: 1. Remember, if you are going in solo: you will not be able to complete the entire storyline. You will be able to do most of it, but not all. Be prepared for the fact that it will be an unresolved storyline for you. 2. The daily area quests do not unlock until you have completed the solo story arc. Thankfully, this does NOT include the Operations. 3. Oricon's map is relatively small, and if the daily area is crowded it can be hard to complete the dailies solo. You may wish to hit this planet when it's less crowded. 4. The quest objectives are mostly open world. Be prepared. 5. There are several PvP specific achievements associated with Oricon, but you don't have to touch them or encounter PvP at all if you don't wish to do so. 6. You may find it easier to use a melee companion here. For some reason, I always do. 7. There are a lot of quests with several steps at the end - clicking things, physically exiting the area. It's easy to forget them and QT out. And then you have to come all the way back, which is a pain. So remember all the steps. Why do I want to do it? Oricon has a really interesting story, even the limited amount that solo players can experience. The environment is unlike any other planet in SWTOR. It's spooky, and it's fun to play through at least once. You can earn reputation points for Oricon, and the reputation vendor sells some cool stuff, including a Sith decoration, the Hallowed Gothic armor and the Gurian Volcano mount.

There are a bunch of achievements you can complete on Oricon - loremaster, exploration, rampage, and more. Oricon is also a great place to do Conquest rampage objectives, as well as work on companion kill count achievements. As you can see, they had fun naming some of the achievements.

Caption: It’s a Dread End Job 1/20/2021 12:24:48 pm Completed all combat achievements on Oricon - Brain Dread - Dawn of the Dread - Day of the Dread - Dread Annihiliation - Dread Eradication - Dread Head - Dread Rampage - Dread Tyrant of Irocon - Night of the Dread - Ungrateful Dread End Caption How do I start? - You can pick up the Oricon quest on your ship, but you will still need to talk to the astromech quest giver on either the Fleet or Section X. They are easier to find on Section X, since the base camps there are very small. I think one other planet has an Oricon quest giver - maybe CZ-198? - After the initial cut scene, go to your ship and travel to Oricon on it. There will be another small cut scene before you land on the planet. - The quest giver NPCs who will guide you through the story are very close to your landing point on Oricon. What then? The story quests on Oricon are essentially the daily quests, albeit with a different number of objectives. I'm giving the daily quest names. But you will know them as you go through the story chain. The bonus, macrobinoculars and seeker droid quests will not be available during the story chain. They will be available once the daily area is unlocked to you. 1. [AREA] Oricon Decimation: defeat 50 enemy NPCs. You don't pick this up at the terminal. It will be granted to you as soon as you walk into the combat area just outside the base. Trust me, you do not have to put any special effort into this. None. You can easily defeat double this number just questing. Don't even worry about it - unless you are a stealther who is skipping most mobs, you will meet this kill count without trying. 2. Fallen Forces In this quest you will free Republic soldiers from the escape pods scattered in the crash zone. Click the escape pod first, even while you are fighting. Let your companion handle things for a few seconds while you click. This is an open world area and if you don't act fast, another player can take the objective as you're fighting.

3. Dread Engines Just beyond the escape pod zone, you will find these terraforming devices. Remember what I said for Fallen Forces: click them first, then fight.

BONUS: If you are doing the daily area (not the story mission) there's a chance for a bonus quest here. After destroying the terraforming device, grab this crystal from the center. You'll need it in a second.

After you have destroyed the correct number of terraforming devices, go to the southern tip of the map. IF you have the crystal, stop here and click this holocron. It will summon a subteroth that looks scary, but isn't particularly tricky to defeat. Make sure you loot the subteroth to gain the sample you need to finish the quest. Turn it in at the mission dropbox. Yay! Bonus quest complete!

If you do not have the crystal for the bonus quest, or you've already defeated the subteroth, go into the cave at the top of the stairs. Click the last terraforming device, fight the subteroth, click the console at the very back of the room and physically walk out of the cave. 4. The Tower's Core Close to the terraforming area, there's a small tower fortress. Go up the steps. At the top, go into the cave. Click on the holocron to be transported upstairs. BONUS: If you are not on the story mission, these panels on the wall will be lit up. Interact with them and collect the cores. There are some both upstairs and downstairs.

Fight your way up the ramp to the tower Be careful- some of the NPCs have knockbacks, and you can get tossed over the edge. Try to stand away from the edge if you can. If you have picked up enough cores, go to the right at the top of the ramp for the bonus mission. After you clear this area, you can click on this panel to summon another enemy NPC to kill. Yay, second bonus mission complete!

If you're not doing the bonus, go left at the top of the ramp. Fight your way down the corridor until you reach the instanced area on the right.

You will need to click three panels in here, and there's a specific order to it. Facing the panels, when you enter the room: Click the one on the left first, the one on the right second, and the one in the back of the room last. Some droid guards will be summoned to fight; they're not difficult.

If you are on the story quest, there will be a cut scene at this point when you interact with the holocron/panel. If you are on the daily quest, click the panel. It will summon a Sith NPC, Commander Zaoron, to defeat. He's got Sith Warrior mara skills. After defeating the NPC, remember to click the holocron to pick it up, and physically walk out of the instanced area. When you leave the instanced area, interact with the holocron directly across from you. It can take you back down to the tower steps. If this is your first time through Oricon, I would recommend swinging over toward the Dread Fortress and the heroic area until you've "discovered" the quick travel spot. This will make it easier for you to return when it's time to do the H4. 5. Dread Paradise From the tower steps, go north, and fight beasts, beast masters and tentacles. They'll drop yellow Bioenergy Enhancers. When you have enough, click on the purple energy cell you will find in your Mission Items tab in your inventory. This will unlock the location of the cave you need to find, at the very top of the map.

Inside the cave, you will have to fight a Bothrium beast. This fight can be very quick if you know what to do, and interminable if you don't. The beast stays in one place and doesn't have a lot of fancy tricks, but you need to know the ones it does have: 1. When the beast channels healing, interrupt it. 2. The beast will periodically summon tentacles to take their power. Kill the tentacles ASAP. The moment they appear, focus your energy and your companion's energy on killing them. Once the beast is dead, again, physically leave the cave. BONUS: If you have the seeker droid, it will sense something in the area around the cave. Look for these twisted red roots that are wrapped around small obelisks. If you position your seeker droid right on them, you can pull up a root. Pull up three roots and turn them in at the mission dropbox to finish a bonus quest and get an achievement.

6. H4: Pre-emptive strike This H4 can be done solo. If you are a stealther, this will be easy peasy. You can stealth past the mobs, get on the ships to sabotage them, stealth out again and move with ease through the heroic area. For the rest of your toons, it may be very tough. Like, tough enough that if you pull the wrong mobs at the wrong time, they can kill you even at level 75. If you are attempting this at a lower level, even more of a challenge. Hopefully, you picked up the Dread Fortress QT point earlier. If not, if you are doing the daily areas, I believe you can use the speeder to get to the Dread Fortress medical droids. This is also where you will land if you use the activity panel to return to Oricon later. The heroic requires you to sabotage a number of Dread ships. Run up the ramps and click on these panels. You will need to get close. Be careful when you jump down from the ship - there is a chasm underneath each launch pad. The mobs you will fight are strong, so try to pull only one at a time.

The other objective in the heroic is to kill a number of commanders. These NPCs are all individually named gold enemies with "Dread commander" name plates. Some are Force users; some are officers. They roam through the heroic area. There are achievements for defeating each of the named commanders. You want to get the commanders alone. Don't even think about fighting them and a mob at the same time. Doubly: don't think of fighting two commanders at once; they can wear down even strong characters very quickly. If you see one walking near a mob, the best bet is to try to wait to engage them until they're on the steps, in the corridors or away from the other NPCs. The Commanders have varying skills, but what they have in common is a lot of stuns. Your stun breaker abilities will not cool down in time to handle all of them. So they'll pull you and your companion into long, unbreakable stuns and cause a lot of damage. Specific caution: these two fellows walk the hallway down the stairs near the medical droid area. If one of them happens upon the other while he's fighting a player, he will jump in and help kill you. You do not want to fight these two together. If you see one, be very careful. The other can stroll in even if you don't see him at first. I personally prefer to avoid them both and look for other Commanders to fight.

BONUS: If you have the macrobinoculars, you can pick up another mission here. Interact with this console. It will give you four towers to scan.

The towers are on the perimeter of the Dread Fortress, so you need not wade through the heroic area to scan them. You can get two of them from the area close to the console, and get the other two standing outside along the Fortress perimeter. They are marked on thsi map - the fourth is where the player marker is.

Now go to this box and click on it to summon the Launch Commander. Like the Commanders in the H4, he has a lot of stuns, but he's easier to defeat. All the same you want to get him on his own and not with a mob. Go bacl to the console, click it and go to the mission dropbox in the landing area to complete the mission and get an achievement.

Once you've finished the H4, you'll head back to your base camp. For the story mission players, there will be one more cut scene here. For those of you doing the daily and weekly quests, you will find your mission dropbox here. And...you're done. Unfortunately as a solo player this is where the road ends. Hopefully in the future Bioware will consider adding some solo way to finish Oricon. Until then, enjoy the daily area.

#rain plays swtor #oricon #solo swtor #oricon daily area

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notorious-fiction · 7 years ago

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The Christmas Prince (A Whoever You Want to Read With One-Shot)

You two had made a deal.

Shook hands and all, very solemn looks on your faces, promising one another a very simple thing.

No gift exchanging on Christmas day.

(You'd just been laid off your job and it sucked balls, and he knew money was a bit short on your end and also knew you would never, in a gazillion years accept any money from him, so he started to come up with a bunch of lame ass excuses to make you feel a bit better.)

("It's cliché", he had snorted when you touched the subject "Exchanging Christmas gifts. Ugh. It was meaningful before but now it's just another "especial" date that lost it's core value to boost capitalism. I mean, you can be a crappy boyfriend all year round as long as you buy your girl an extra glittery Hallmark card and a Tiffany Bracelet, right?")

("Right." You had agreed, although not really, because as much as you found sexy as fuck when he used pretty words - core value, damn - you still flipping loved Christmas and looked forward to it all year long.)

So no gift exchanging it was.

You'd spend Christmas day with you family and he would spend it with his - you knew how rare it was for him to take some time to see them - but the day before, the 24th, you had him all to your own.

Just "a casual dinner, the two of us" (his words, not yours) with some "classic Christmas movies, deal with it, loser" (your words, not his) at your place.

Going out was a real pain nowadays, with the whole paps, fangirls, Snapchatters, etc thing, so to save yourself from the stress (how come he never failed to look like a Goddamn model on those candids whilst you looked like you were about to sneeze? Ugh.), staying in it was.

In, with no gifts.

Or at least you thought so, because mid afternoon on December 24th your iPhone seemed to gain a life of its own, all your social media accounts on a frenzy of notifications as, oh well, your famous as fuck of a boyfriend was spotted loading a box the size of a small poney into his car.

("She is so lucky!!!!!!")

("What did he get herrrrrrr i'd be happy just with his dick on box and by the size of it its prob that lol")

("Ugh i hope its a bomb")

(Insert other very sweet comments here.)

You controlled the urge to text him (going against your über curious personality with all the strenghth your posessed), instead focusing on the fact that you were...

Fucked.

Because whilst your boyfriend was on the posession of a very big, flashy box (what you had no idea what was inside, Christ, what the hell was inside of it?!), you were in the posession of...

"How The Grinch Stole Christmas", "Elf" and "The Polar Express".

(All masterpieces, in your humble opinion.)

And the phone of the thai take out two blocks from your place.

(Best pad thai and sticky rice ever.)

(Plus it gave tons of free sriracha packets! Yay for free stuff!)

But seriously, what the fuck were you supposed to give to a human being who seemed to have absolutely everything?!

It'd be stupid to give him clothes - he got those for free -, you had no idea what his shoesize was (did that make you a horrible girlfriend? oops) and anything else you could think of was undoubtely lame.

What if you made him something?

Okay so you didn't know how to draw or paint or knit or rhyme or write a song or do anything that required a minimum artistic vein slash handicraft talent but you could...

Try?

Throwing your body on the couch, your laptop literally on your lap, you sat on your ultimate comfy position - which he had lovingly nicknamed "Cirque Du Soleil's contortionist catching up on reality TV on it's free time" or "how you don't have a back problem is beyond me" (when he said that last one he totally reminded you of your mom) -, typing on the words that were responsible for many delayed papers at Uni and scurries off the house whilst almost tripping on your shoes as you were late as fuck.

Pinterest dot com.

(A blessing and a curse to womankind, honestly.)

D. I. Y.

(Do it yourself.)

(Although you actually never did.)

Scrolling down the screen - DIY baking soda shampoo! DIY mosaic tile birdbath using recycled DVD's! DIY Glittery Bath Bombs! - you noticed that all of them seemed to involve stuff everyone apparently had at home except you like glue guns or spray paint or Scrabble tile holders (...seriously) so after five minutes of Pinterest searching, you sighed in defeat.

(Hard effort wasn't your forte, you had to admit.)

Even friendship bracelets are a hard task to accomplish when you have the skills of a three year old toddler and if you actually purchased a glue gun you could already picture yourself glueing nothing but your own fingers and spending Christmas Day at the ER.

But you did have glitter glue, and that wasn't so dangerous was it?

You also had an old, slightly crumpled piece of cardboard and a "DIY Easy Glittery Hallmark card tutorial!" (snort) at your screen, so you decided to give it a go.

If it came out okay you'd be able to give him as an ironic gift?

("Oh hey, I know you gave me a super awesome/expensive/fancy/cool/thoughtful - insert whatever the hell could be inside that massive box here Christ the curiosity was killing you - but ha-ha-ha remember that snark you made about glittery Hallmark cards?! Instead of giving money to the greedy capitalist men I made one myself, how about that?! Aren't I the Best Girlfriend Ever?!?!?!")

And if it came out like crap you could, y'know, throw it in the bin...

...So of course it came out like crap.

Because you somehow managed to put more glitter glue on the tip of your fingers than on the goddamn cardboard, more glitter glue on your clothes as you absentmindedly rubbed your hands on it as you tried to think of what the hell you could do to save your "Merry Christmas" masterpiece.

(Trash.) (That was how you could save it, your dignity, your boyfriend's poor eyes and your dignity.)

(By throwing your masterpiece on the garbish.)

(Fuck ironic gifts.)

Of course that instead of coming up with another idea after the Glittery-DIY-Hallmark-Card fiasco, your procrastinator side spoke louder, and click after click after click you found yourself going deeper and deeper of that pit called Pinterest, until you blazed on a section you'd never dared to venture on before.

The recipe session.

There were gooey chocolate chip bars, chocolate fudge brownies, kale and artichokes dip, quinoa fried "rice" (...why would someone all it fried "rice" if it had no rice in it only quinoa, you wondered...) and everything made your mouth water and stomach growl and you deeply wished there was someone who could make it for you.

Everything sounded too tempting (and too hard and with too many fancy ingredients and kitchen appliances you'd never even heard of) until you found...

"Easy adaptable chocolate chip cookies with ingredients everyone has at home!!!!! Can be made vegan gluten/lactose/nut/anythying free paleo atkins insert random diet you'd never heard of before here"

Well...

Following a recipe wouldn't be that hard... Would it?

Especially when you could sub eggs for oil if you didn't have any or oil for mashed banana or mashed banana for applesauce or applesauce for honey or honey for agave which were all obviously so much alike, right?

Throwing everything you had into a single bowl - did you mention it was a single bowl recipe? Seriously, it could not get any better, your dishes-washing-hater-side thought - you frowned as you compared your final result to the one on the screen.

Pinterest's batter: gooey but firm, looked so good you wouldn't mind spooning it raw directly into your mouth.

Your batter: two year old's diarrhea, you wouldn't want to spoon it raw directly into your mouth not even if they paid you.

You somehow managed to put little (balls, on Pinterest, blobs, sounded more accurate to your situation) blobs of the batter onto the baking sheet and onto the oven, too busy freaking out slash trying to understand what the hell you did wrong (ooh two american cups of flour? what were american cups? weren't your cups american? why america has to control everything for god's sake?!) to notice the door being unlocked, only realising you had company when you heard an amused chuckle behind you.

Turning around so quick you almost broke your neck - fouet filled with sticky disgusting batter held in hand in a threatingly way - you found him staring, all long legs and perfect hair and mocking grin and...

Empty hands?

Where the hell was the box the size of a toddler he was seen loading into his car?!

Goddamit, internet!

(And why did you feel a lil' bit disappointed I mean...)

(...you had him, hadn't you?)

(Best Christmas Gift Ever, am I right.)

"Hi."

"Hi. Were you..." A cute little frown appeared between his brows, pearly white teeth still on show as he asked "Baking?"

Getting a bit defensive - why did he have to sound so confused/terrified? - you dropped the fouet on the sink, replying "Yes, why?"

"Oh, for nothing! I mean, it smells..."

(Awful.)

"Pretty good."

(Damn, he was a liar.)

Leaning to check the oven temperature just one more time - I mean, better safe than sorry, you couldn't push your luck (any further) - you ignored your boyfriend's stare (a cute little smirk on his lips because well, he thought it was cute how you hadn't noticed the chocolate batter on your chin or how you wore an apron thrice your size), asking maybe a little too cheery "So, how's your Christmas eve going so far?"

( "...Loading too many big ass boxes onto your car?", you rhymed mentally.)

"Well, not too good I mean, I only got to see my lovely lady today." He replied with a charming smile, expecting for you to giggle - alright, fine, he knew you weren't one to giggle, or at least give him love eyes.

You squinted skeptically.

...Okay.

"Empty handed, I see."

"Yeah, kinda glad we decided to skip on that Christmas madness. Had to help a mate out with picking up a complete set of one of those fancy Le Creuset cooking things. Said his girlfriend would love it." He added with a scoff, rolling his eyes "I told him that if I gave you anything kitchen related you'd throw it in my head, but seeing you're apparently into cooking now..." He paused, pursing his lips "Should I write it down as a suggestion for your birthday?"

Her mind went black.

Kitchen appliances.

His mate was giving his girlfriend freakin' casseroles and frying pans.

(Oh poor girl.)

(Poor, poor girl.)

(The disappointment when she opened that huge heavy box.)

(Damn.)

And you had been freaking out the entire day thinking he'd gotten you something big and awesome and you'd look like the awful ungrateful girlfriend.

Man, that ugly glittery card would look like heaven next yo, y'know... Nothing.

"If you ever give me a damn casserole pan I shall rip off your little buddy of you, cut it into tiny little pieces, cook them in the freakin' thing and serve you for dinner." You stated, and he replying, giving you a kiss on the forehead "Aw, see? I know you so well."

God, you were glad he didn't get you anything.

Because being with him was the best gift you could've ever asked for.

(Insert vomiting and cringing here.)

(Fuck you never thought you would be THIS gross and disgusting and loving about any human being in your life after your miserable string of awful break-ups.)

(Yet there you were, with your very own prince charming.)

(Yup, that was it, you guys would be watching The Christmas Prince on Netflix.)

You showed your appreciation by getting on the tips of your toes and pecking him on the lips, the little wrinkle of confusion between his forehead making you want to kiss him even more.

(How was possible for someone to be so cute slash sexy at the same damn time?)

(Seriously.)

(Ugh.)

But then, maybe you'd been too distracted by his pouty pink lips - no chapstick or anything, you wondered how the hell he managed to get them always so soft and puffy and kissable - to check the oven...

And the whole room started to smell a bit smokey.

And look a bit smokey.

"Fuck, my Pinterest cookies!" You squealed, startling him.

You were sort of thankful your fire alarm wasn't working so well, because if the firemen showed up because you almost burned your kitchen down, your landlord would have (even more) reasons to hate you.

"It looks... Edible." Your boyfiend said matter of fact, poking one of your cookies at the tray with the tip of his fingers with brows furrowed.

They looked like baby alien fetus.

(Edible, in some outer galaxy cultures, probably.)

"Want to try them?" You knew by the raise of his eyebrow that it was a challenge, a thing you rarely passed.

Daringly, you got one - dropping it back to the tray because damn they were hot -, trying it again after a few seconds of you two staring at each other with "Who Shall Quit First" eyes.

Was he going to make you eat them first?

By the fake tight ass smile he was giving you, he was...

So with the biggest grin you could muster, you squeaked "Merry Christmas baby! I made these for you! Hope you like them!"

(Or at least don't get food poisoning and die! Please don't get food poisoning and die! I kinda really really really really really like you!)

(And if you die because of me slash my cookies your fans will murder me!)

With a small gulp, he picked one of the alien fetus cookies, shaking it off so they wouldn't be "too hot and burn his tongue" for about three minutes.

You kinda knew he was trying to make as many tiny pieces of it fall out so he'd eat as less of a cookie as possible, but you didn't call him out on it because oh well, he was at least going to eat a teeny bit of them.

And in the end, after a bit of fake awing "Oh, tastes so good babe" and maybe spitting on a napkin when you turned around to throw the dirty dishes on the sink, he did eat your alien fetus cookies.

What made him the best boyfriend slash Christmas present ever.

And after drinking maybe a bit too much wine and watching The Christmas Prince, he drunkenly vowed to never ever give you anything cooking related - as the cookies now rested in peace in your trashcan, on top of your ugly ass glittery card -, and that vow would be proved to be a gift that kept on giving.

(I mean, it would give stomach aches and calls to the fire fighters and be a total waste of ingredients, so you were cool with that.)

(And even if he never gave you anything at all, he dealt with your craziness, your PMSing, you overreacting whenever you let your - very expensive - makeup fall onto the floor, never watched Game of Thrones episodes without you and always let you eat the biggest last slice of cheesecake.)

And if that wasn't much of a proof of real, true love, you had no idea of what the hell it could be.

And that was the greatest gift of all.

(Cue to cringing due to cheesyness again.)

-------

MERRY CHRISTMAS U GUYSSSSSSSSS!

Hope y’all have a fantastic one and find all you wanted under the tree! ooh and if you liked it pls don’t forget to click on that like button (i’ve been watching too many youtube vids send help)

lots lots of love

Gabe

ps: i’d like to dedicate this to my favorite humans on earth victoria, nina and lari, who are still my friends even after i’ve been through probably 30 different mental breakdowns this year, love you guise so muchhhhhhhh thanks for always encouraging me to write!!! oh and if you haven’t read my stories based on them you can find them all here

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newbiemarvel-writer · 7 years ago

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The One: Part 1/?

T’Challa Udaku x Reader

So this is my first Mini-Series/ writing ever! YAY! I hope you enjoy and Im really sorry if it's cringy. Keep in mind this is the first thing I have ever written for tumblr so it's probably really bad! Ps, if my russian is off im sorry… im using google translate… oops?

Summary: When HYDRA tortured you and experimented on you, you gained the best fighting skills to exist, and an unbelievably high HQ. You specialize in everything really. But one day when you escape from your torturer, The Winter Soldier, your free and you live in hiding till Captain America and the King of Wakanda show up at your doorstep.

Italics= your thoughts

Warnings: Swearing (not too much)

Words: 1502

*your POV*

“Good morning Y/N!”

“Good morning to you too Mrs. Tuffer!”

You replied just as enthusiastically as she did (if that was even possible) as you strolled out the door from your crappy apartment building. Now you started your everyday routine, walking to your decent-paying job as a waitress at Jimmy's Coffee house.

You arrived at your job early (like usual), unlocked the doors, gave the tables a quick wipe and waited behind the counter.

It must've been 10 or so minutes before a customer came in, and you immediately took their order with a cheerful𑁋but fake𑁋smile. He made his simple order of a black coffee without looking up from his phone once.

‘Can't anyone just focus on the thing they are doing?’

You gave him his coffee with a quiet enjoy and he left. Your coworker, Ann, entered and said she could take over the counter which you gladly replied yes to. You went into the back room and found a piece of paper in the trash and a pen nearby. As soon as you sat down with the pen and paper in hand on a crate, you spotted a piece of metal and immediately got one of your worst memories.

“попробуйте его” Program him.

“Сэр?” sir? You replied, your voice wavering and questioning as to why he was asking you to program a man.

“Я сказал, что программа его или эта пуля проходит через ваш череп” I said program him or this bullet goes through your skull

Your handler said simultaneously as he pulled a gun out and pointed it directly between your eyes. You nodded, knowing what would come after if you refused anymore: brutal torture. You would always fight back, and you could easily win, but since they barely fed you and tortured you excessively, you could barely walk.

“вот слова. закончить его к концу дня” here are the words. Finish it by the end of the day.

He said solemnly as he handed you a red journal with a black star on the front.

“Это займет больше одного дня.” It’ll take longer than a day sir

“теперь не врать мне доктор, я знаю, что ты умнее этого. но плохо пусть это скользит. просто закончите.” Now don't lie to me doctor, i know you’re smarter than that, but ill let it slide. Just finish it.

You nodded quickly, and heard his boots clicking away. You smirked to yourself as you heard the door slam shut and lock. You knew you had to program him, and for that you were deeply sorry. But as you were programming him, you were creating a reverse chip to disable the program. You turned back to “the asset” and smiled apologetically, glancing at his metal arm every now and then, as he stared blankly at your face, remembering every detail, so that if he ever escaped and saw you again, he would kill you.

“Yoohoo! Y/N! Hey get up, we need you upfront! There are to many people for me! Cmon!” Ann exclaimed rather loudly. And you got up and started to make coffee and whatever the person ordered.

An hour later, a tall, bulky white man with sunglasses and a hat came in with his shorter black friend, with the same accessories. You could've sworn you’ve seen both of them before.

A couple minutes later, 2 attractive tall black women with buzz cuts walk in and sit beside the black man that came in earlier. You could see a very faint outline of a blade in one of their jacket pockets. They conversed for a couple seconds before both women turned and looked straight at you, as if they could feel your stares. You quickly turned around and headed into the backroom.

Weird. You thought. Could they be hydra? No, they can't be. Hydra would have guns not knives.

Since there wasn't a rush anymore, you went and sat back onto the crate, picked the pen up, and thought back to that memory you had a earlier. You remembered the mans striking blue eyes, but not as much as his metal arm. It intrigued you. You remember creating it for him when they first brought him back, half dead. So, you started to draw the arm. You started to draw a template of a new arm for him. Every wire, and every metal plate. It was different from the one he had back then, but it looked nicer.

I wonder where he is now after that thing with the government. I hope he's still alive.

You stuffed the drawing in your pocket and got back to work.

Throughout the day, you kept going back and forth from the counter to the back. Every time you went out front, both men and both women were still there, but the men had taken their sunglasses off.

Gosh, the black man is unrealistically attractive. Where do I remember him from?

But as soon as that thought came, it was gone and interrupted by Ann telling your shift is over. So you started to pack up, and were walked towards the door. You had a strange feeling and it didn't feel good. With your hand on the door handle you turned around to see the 4 mysterious people staring at you. As soon as they saw that you caught them staring, they all turned back around and continued talking.

As you got outside, you turned left, when your apartment building was down the right street. You picked up your pace, looked over your shoulder and noticed the two men following you. You started walking even faster.

Shit shit shit shit shit.

You turned down an alley and started to run but before you could make it out, the two women from earlier came out and blocked it.

Well great. Isn't this a cliche.

You stopped right in front of them, and started to prepare for a fight. The two women were not the least bit shocked.

I need to get out of this quick. If the two men are with them, I have no chance.

They threw the first punch. Both of them, at the same time. You started to fight back, kicking and punching where you could, and getting hit only a couple times.

Damn. these two are good. But where are the two men?

You continued to fight. If anyone walked by and saw this fiasco, they could easily see you were beating them. As you started to get more tired, you decided to end this. You slid between one of their open legs𑁋earning some cuts from the gravel𑁋turned sideways before halfway running up the brick wall, spinning your legs and kicking each one of them in the face, neither of the expecting it. When you land in between both of their unconscious bodies, you looked up and noticed the two men standing at the other end of the alley, clearly shocked. You turned around and ran up the street hearing their faint calling telling you to wait. You turned a couple more times and ran straight home, out of sight immediately.

When you got past her and into your room, you immediately grabbed your duffle bag, packing the very few items you had. You reached in your pocket to grab the blueprint for the arm to pack it as well, but couldn't find it. It wasn't in your pocket.

It must've fell out during the fight. Shit. They can use that now. fuck.

When you were running through the office of your complex, Mrs. Tuffer stopped you and said she would be coming up in a few.

Good. they can't take me if there is a witness and they wouldn't kill her.

As you were about to climb out your window, you saw the two women standing there looking both pissed and embarrassed. They also had knives in each hands.

Should I risk it?

You thought, but heard your crappy doorbell sound ring throughout your apartment. Fighting through the front door would be better.

If my guess is correct, it's probably the two men at the front. They can't possibly be as good as the girls. I'll take my chances with the men.

You grabbed your guns, one in each hand with your duffle over your shoulder and started to slowly and quietly walk towards the door. Before you could reach the door, one of the men spoke up,

”Miss, my name is Steve Rogers, also known as Captain America. I'm here with T'challa Ukaku, the king of Wakanda. We don't wanna hurt you. Can we talk? We need your help.”

You made your way to the door,looked through the peephole, and saw the Captain holding up your blueprint. You opened the door quickly, guns still in hand, and pointed the guns right between each of their eyes. You almost lost focus when you made eye contact with that really hot black guy from earlier and…. Wait. That is the King of Wakanda. Holy shit.

“Captain. Your highness. Talk.”

#@imamotherfuckingstar-lord #tchalla #marvel #imamotherfuckingstar-lord

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kanaiicun · 7 years ago

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You can Ignore this :)

Okay so I'm just gonna write down everything that is currently swamping my mind right now to just help me get out of this stupid anxiety attack. Nothing I write will be in anger towards anyone or anything. I just need to decompress.

There are so many things I need closure on from some people. Why'd one person ignore me for a year, even when I attempted day after day to make things better? Why'd another think it would be okay for them to just manipulate my relationship with my best friend then expect me to be okay with them after she and I almost didn't make up? WHY DOES MY GOV TEACHER THINK I AM CAPABLE OF REMEMBERING A CRAP TON OF PEOPLE AND THEIR JOBS IN CONGRESS RIGHT NOW?????

Why do couples feel the need to tell the other person their whereabouts at all times? Like you aren't living together and let's be real it's a high school relationship. You probably won't last past the first semester of college so why even bother in the first place? If you were married and had kids and lived together that would make sense but like give each other some breathing room.

Relationships: when it is acceptable to stalk and be stalked.

Okay so I like someone and WHAT DO??? I wanna wait til college to try a relationship but like agh this guy is so great, but it wouldn't last. But this guy is sooo great. NO. WAIT TIL COLLEGE. I don't wanna. Help?!??

WHY. CANT. PEOPLE. BE. RESPONSIBLE. AND JUST. DO. WHAT. THEY. SAID. THEY. WOULD. DO?!?!!!!

I've had to pick up this persons slack for the past year and a half and I'm like dude just freaking quit already. You think you are much better at this than you are and your douchy ways are really hindering everyone else. Agh.

GOVERNMENT CLASS. AGAIN.

Everyone is bitching about my English class being "a waste of time" but it's the only class I look foreword to and I've actually gained something out of it.

I stg the next time someone is like "we never fucking do anything in here I'm wasting my time" WHILST WE ARE IN CLASS MIND YOU, imma throw something. Like I'm sorry that your FIVE STUDYHALLS apparently aren't a waste of time?? You don't complain about that but when our teacher teaches us [how to succeed in business without really trying] (musical reference) you're like Oh FuCK wHY aM I iN hERe tHis Is SuCH a WaSte oF mY tImE. Like BITCH. She doesn't have to teach us about resumes and cover letters and eventually taxes and stuff. SHE IS DOING THAT SO WE WILL BE PREPARED FOR LIFE. not just prepared for college but for LIFE as well. "I don't need to know how to write creatively" so what?! It's still helpful to your writing and comprehension skills. You. Are. Going. To. College. To. Learn. How. To. Do. This. Stuff. Chill the fuck out. You know how to fucking write. You took 3 years worth of collegiate level writing courses. This is just not an essay for once in your life. Stop bitching about our teacher you little cunt. You want her job? Do you want to be teaching this class for us because you will NEVER be able to teach this to anyone as well as she is. So fuck you for not giving our teacher the credit she deserves you piece of shit student. (I don't really mean that I'm just agh right now so take all of this with a grain of salt).

I really want to sit with my best friend on the bus to Disney but our director likely won't let me because I am sexually a boy (lol um hey bitch I'm n/b and GAY. SHES ALSO PRETTY GAY).

Also, to the two of you who told me you won't even try to use the correct pronouns for me, that fucking hurt. A lot. It wasn't funny. It's just rude and literally not asking much of you at all. JUST USE THEY THEM AND THEIR. like I think about you two just laughing and being like "lol sorry I'm probably never gonna call you non-binary. Like you can introduce yourself however you want to in college but not here." Fuck you. That was such a horrible thing to say to me. That hurts me so much. I at least have two friends who are trying to use the correct pronouns. And to you two, Nat and Leah, I am so appreciative of you. But to the other two of you, don't expect me to be friends with you in college. Because to you, I apparently can't be non-binary because YOU ARE TOO FUCKING LAZY TO SWITCH OUT A FUCKING PRONOUN. you are literally such assholes. I love you both but how about you swallow your pride and actually care to think about someone besides yourself? It's ONE FUCKING PRONOUN. don't be a lazy douche. You are both being lazy douches about this and fuck you. (That's not me being agh. I'm seriously so hurt by you both and I mean what I said to you).

The United States.

Just why.

Like why are y'all proud of this country? The only good that has come out of it are doctors, music, and Hollywood. In terms of human relations since I've been alive, The Us has really fucked over a lot of people.

Where is the free education?

The free health care?

AAAAANNND YOU. WHERE THE HELL DO WE STAND? SOMEDAYS YOU IGNORE ME AND OTHERS YOU ARE ALL CHIPPER. WHICH IS IT??

Thank you for your time. My heart rate is still up but I'm breathing normally now at least so yay for that??

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berserker-official · 7 years ago

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Livestream 11/9

More Season 4 stuff! Yay! Remember that this Saturday is the Season 4 Reveal event, with a dominion tournament with the European and North America teams facing off, as well as some of your favorite content creators in some dominion and tribute mode matches with the Season 4 heroes. This happens this Saturday, 11/11, at 2pm EST.

News of the Week

This weekend is pretty special. We get an event order. All you have to do is play as many matches of any mode as you can, both PVP and PVAI will work, to win 3 scavenger crates. However, it doesn’t stop there.

It’s also a free weekend! People that don’t own For Honor have another chance to play. If you do play and do enjoy the game, it’s also 60% this weekend as well.

But wait, there’s more! In addition to the free weekend, the FH team is introducing the Warrior Training Program! If you’re a veteran player, you need to find a newcomer and group up with them, play 5 matches with them, and both you and the newcomer will win 5000 steel when Season 4 begins. Newcomers can also be in a group entirely of new players to get the 5000 steel, but the FH team recommends that you find someone that has experience, in order to learn the ins-and-outs of the game with them. So if you know someone that’s still on the fence about the game, tell them to try it now! Team up to benefit together.

After announcing all this neat stuff happening this weekend, Eric and Damien wanted to clear up some news that they announced last week. One part is about the dodge roll. Apparently they said that when you roll you will no longer be immune to guardbreaks. This is not true. You will still be immune to GBs, but you don’t block when rolling. The second thing is something they forgot to mention altogether, but they are merging Elimination and Skirmish into one playlist, like how it was when the game first came out. This is because the orders back then were incredibly specific on which game mode to play, but they’ll be changing things up with the orders to be more lax on Elim and Skirmish.

Content of the Week

Executions! Finally! This week we get new executions for all heroes in Seasons 1 and 3. Centurion and Shinobi don’t get new ones due to the amount of content designers have to make every week. Making something new for all 16 heroes is hard work, so sometimes heroes will be left out. The executions are as follows:

Warden (Blackstone Bash), Conqueror (Dislocator), Peacekeeper (Ole!), Lawbringer (Oh Come On!), Gladiator (Skilled Performer), Raider (Chokeslam), Warlord (The Heartattack), Berserker (Punch Drunk), Highlander (360 Takedown), Kensei (Lose Something?), Shugoki (The Mountain), Orochi (Toro! Toro!), and Nobushi (5 Deadly Stabs)

If you notice, Valkyrie is left out. Someone in Twitch chat said that there are sound issues with her execution. I don’t know if this is true or not but hopefully she’ll get her new execution soon!

New Heroes

Today the gameplay reveal trailers for the Aramusha and Shaman were revealed, as well as an in-depth look into their and their weapons designs.

Aramusha. Based on first glance it appears as though he has a poof dodge, similar to Shinobi, while also having a grabbing stamina hit, like Centurion.

According to the design team, Aramusha is a slang term for rough samurai or outlander. The Aramusha belong to the same secret order that the Shinobi are from, but they belong in different sections. Shinobi do everything from behind the shadows, while Aramusha are on the frontlines of the battlefield. Similar to Ronin lore in real history, Aramusha act as bodyguards for high ranking samurai. However, the samurai were corrupt, so the Aramusha abandons his oath and is now a mercenary.

The Aramusha is made to look cool. So cool, in fact that he has a straw sticking out of his mouth. Really cool. All of his armor is cloth, which makes sense because he needs to be mobile while defending with his dual katana. He also has tattoos! However, the tats are a part of the armor designs. The hats he wears can vary in size, as well as material. It looks like some of the higher-level hats will be metal. The weapons are also neat, because the design team really wanted to keep moving forward in terms of creativity with the new heroes. Some of the weapons look like they’d never belong on a real battlefield, but look fucking cool. I’m going to guess that the weapon customizations will be the left and right blades separately, hilt, and handle. It looks like they want to give some diversity between the two blades, but I might be wrong. We’ll find out.

Shaman. Again, at first glance, she plays similar to Berserker, where she gets up in your face and relentlessly attacks. She also appears to have a pounce attack that knocks players onto the ground, like Conq’s shield bash, as well as a pouncing finisher like Cent. I also noticed that in the trailer she cuts her hand and wipes her blood on her face. I’m going to guess that this is a feat or ability she can use to deal a little damage to herself and gain an attack boost or something.

The Shaman lurks in the forests surrounding Valkenheim in solitude. This isolation leads others to believe that she’s savage. Her armor consists of leather, cloth, furs, bones, and face and body paint. Like Highlander the paint will change depending on the color scheme you choose for her. The faces are again, similar to Highlander by way of different hair styles and face paints depending on which face you choose. Her weapons are the tomahawk and kukri knife, and I’m guessing the customization options for weapons are axe head, handle, and knife.

The design team are also focusing on creating colorful ornaments all around, depending on your color schemes.

After showing off the new heroes and their weapons, they wanted to tease new weapons for the heroes we already have. Each hero has new legendary and epic rarity gear, and they’re really expanding on creativity.

Finally, the maps.

The Gauntlet. This map will be available in every game mode except for Tribute. A stronghold located in-between a viking city and the outside world. Meant to be imposing, the attacker’s entrance reminds you of a slaughterhouse, forcing the viking’s next victims to move along a confined area, before opening up to “The Killing Field,” where the minions will meet up as the middle lane. The two points are actually found above the middle lane, so the attackers are pushing forward into the map like it’s a direct frontal assault. There are bridges connecting the upper points together, but there’s a surprise waiting: trap doors on the bridges. Each bridge has a lever that activates a trap door, causing anyone there to fall below. Two of the bridges will drop players off the map and to their death, while another two will drop players into the killing field. These falls won’t kill you, but it will hurt. So you can drop players into middle lane, drop players into their death, or you can strategically drop the bridges to drop attack enemy players below that are in mid lane. You can also use these bridges to halt players from advancing across that bridge and forcing them to go around into an alternate patch. Duel locations include attacker spawn, near the huge skull statues, The middle lane, and the ramparts by the bunker zone. The mid lane and ramparts have areas that are blocked off so players can’t run. The brawl area is the mid lane.

Market Town. This map will be available in every game mode except for Dominion. A market area where people can come and purchase things needed to live. Players can spawn at the top or the bottom of the map, so while players starting at the bottom have to work their way up, it’s possible to grab a tribute staff and zipline back down. Players spawning at the top may be able to zip to the tribute staffs faster, but they will have to climb back up to their points. There are hills, ladders, and rooftops to climb around on, creating a varying sense of verticality. One of the duel locations include an area near the top of the map, by some frog statues, that has a stairway with some temple gateways.

Duel and Brawl Map Updates

Along with new maps, we also get updates to older maps that are problematic.

Duel Maps-

Sancuary Bridge: The ledge hell spot will now be the larger spawn area nearby.

Shipyard: The bridge hell spot will now be a larger area across the map. The location below the ship will now be the storehouse nearby.

Brawl Maps-

Tower Ruins: Players will no longer spawn by or in the tower, and will be spawned by the fountain. The fountain will be closed off so ledging won’t be an option there.

Shipyard: Below the ship will instead be the saw mill. The double doors will be opened more, making it easier to enter or leave.

That’s all we get today, but be prepared for this Saturday, where we get a deeper look into the new heroes and their movesets and first looks at how they play!

#For Honor #For Honor season 4 #berserker speaks

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violecentstrs · 7 years ago

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Memories of Us - Chapter 14

☀ Next Chapter >> A/N: Ufufufu. It’s almost the holidays for me! Yay! Hopefully I’ll finish up this one soon so I can get started on “Our True Love 2″. Huuu. Classes can be a pain. So good luck for the ones out there who have final exams, final assignments and etc! I wish you all the best! <3 Without further ado, please enjoy this chapter~

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Reader Warning(s): Angst and tension Word Count: 3,848 Summary: Soldier Reader looks exactly like Linda, a woman Bucky used to love. Little by little, she uncovers his past with Linda and what had happened between them through her visions. As she does, her feelings for Bucky grew as well. But, one question remains: if Bucky returns her feelings, will it be for Reader or for Linda?

<< Previous Chapter ☀

★ ★ ★

• • •

“You know, the soldiers are saying you and Charles are having a thing together now.” Bucky says with a hurtful tone. I ignored him.

It was only a week and a half ago when I caught him, but of course I’d never let that go. In my mind, our relationship ended when he kissed another woman. So I had no reason to say anything to him or see him again. I won’t lie, it did hurt that Bucky didn’t even try to come and see me until tonight.

“You’re just going to ignore me? What’s wrong with you?” He says angrily finally. I flip my page and continue to read on my bed. He grabs my book and tosses it aside.

“What the hell do you want?” I say angrily at Bucky. My tone of anger seems to surprise him too.

“What is wrong with you? You’ve been avoiding me and don’t try to look for me lately. I thought you were busy or something. But no. If you had time to go out with Charles and Miss Carter, even with Steve, I’d assume you’d have time to talk to me too!” He shouts at me. I push him away and pick up my book again.

“I don’t need to explain myself. There is nothing between us anyways.” I say a little too harshly. Bucky grabs my shoulder and spins me around. That grip was enough to leave a stinging pain behind.

“What the fuck do you mean by that??” He yells at me. I can see the anger and hurt burning behind his eyes. I furrow my brows. I respond back calmly.

“That little blondie is waiting for you in your tent. You shouldn’t keep her waiting.” I say nonchalantly. I can see a small fear in his eyes followed by defeat.

I no longer want to cry or obsess over it. I simply don’t have time to think about his betrayal anymore. I free myself from his grip.

“What blondie? What are you talking about?” I sigh out before flipping my book open and sit on my chair.

“That blondie who has been flirting with you. The one that would wrap her arms around you. The one you kissed at the bar.” I say without glancing up. I can hear Bucky’s heart beat fast in his chest. He swallows before sighing out.

“I was drunk.” He says hesitantly. I scoff.

“I don’t care.” I say simply while continuing my reading. Bucky’s muscles tense.

“I’m sorry…” He says simply. Anger boils up in me, but I keep it contained.

“Like I said, I don’t care.” I say again.

“Stop this.” He says. I look up at him. He looks very weak all of the sudden.

“Stop what? I’m trying to read my book.” I say, still keeping my cool.

“Stop treating me so coldly.” He pleads quietly. I scoff again.

“You’ll receive no special treatment anymore from me, Sergeant. If you’ll excuse me, I have to finish this reading.” I say again before turning back to my book.

“Linda!” He shouts at me. I look at him. I could have sworn I can see the tears threatening to spill from his eyes. That made my heart jump.

“I told you. You do what you want. You found a better woman, right? So go and be with her. You owe me nothing. There’s no reason for you to stay.” I say as I clap my book close. I set it down on the table.

“Stop it.” He says a little darkly. I slip my coat on.

“Really. Just leave. You don’t need to force yourself to be with me anymore.” I say again.

“Stop it! Stop pretending that this isn’t hurting you, Linda!” He shouts at me.

I stop briefly at his statement. I know that there is a burning pain inside my chest. But the more I pretend not to feel anything, the better I can move on. He finally found someone better than me. Why should I cry over it?

I look at him with a smile. His eyes widen with surprise.

“Be happy with her. You don’t need me.” I walk past him.

I walk out of my tent and make my way around the camp. The longer I stay there, the more my hurt is surfacing. I don’t want to deal with him. I’m over it. I don’t want to bring that pain back up. We have a war to worry about and the last thing I need to think about is this pain.

I walk past groups of soldiers marching by the office building. I make my way inside and into my father’s office. I remembered I need to get something from there. When I entered, I see my father and Brian talking to each other.

“Ahh, Linda. I was about to send someone to get you.” I look at both of them.

“I have some good news for you, child.” My father continues with a smile. Brian is wearing a smile as well. My heart drops when I realize what was going on.

“I couldn’t be even happier…” My father starts.

• • •

My heart beats wildly in my chest as fear consumes every inch of my body. I watch in horror as the Commander holds a shotgun right in Razak’s face. We had been waiting for the Commander in one of the meeting rooms. When he came with Steve and Bucky, he didn’t say a word. He just walked over with a shotgun and pointed it straight at Razak.

I stand in silence, holding myself back from pulling the shotgun away from him. Horace, Maria, Kelvin and Bella are all equally horrified at the very scene in front of them.

Bucky and Steve stand in silence behind the Commander, letting him do as he pleases. I shift glances between them with the hope that either of them would intervene. If anyone has the power to order the Commander to stand down, it is the Avengers themselves.

“Obeying the orders of your leaders, captains and commanders are the very first step you need to learn in order to be a complete soldier. But you have failed to even do so. If there is no order within a team, then there will be no order in completing a mission. You have no place in A.C.T.I.S.” The Commander says with no emotions in his tone. I can feel my insides quake with fear.

“Now, tell me one more time. Why have you decided to join A.C.T.I.S. when you lack the discipline?” He says again.

I lean forward. If I let the Commander do as he pleases, then I won’t have to deal with Razak. But if Razak is gone from the group, then we’ll lose a skilled marksman. I can’t have that.

He holds the shotgun right to Razak’s forehead. I can see the fear in Razak’s eyes, but he seems quite calm on the outside. He looks up at the Commander right in his eyes. That little fear vanished.

“I joined in order to improve the states over in Syria. I would like to help end the war there by doing what is necessary from here. Avengers have proven to stop wars from spreading any further before, which is why I joined.” He says confidently. I was glad to hear that answer. It was a good one.

“Then you should have just joined the army, boy. You are far too eager to join A.C.T.I.S. if that is your only goal.” The Commander presses the muzzle of the shotgun right into Razak’s chest now. Bucky and Steve are quieter than a mouse. I have no idea why they are not stepping in right now.

I step forward from my place but Bucky shoots me a look and tells me to stand down. But I can’t. I need to do something.

“And also to gain knowledge and skill necessary to improve my own performance.” He answers again confidently. His answers are similar to that of our own, so I don’t know why the Commander is still keeping up with this. He shoves Razak back with the gun. I can see his finger itching to pull the trigger.

“Is that all?” He asks again dangerously low. His eyes growing darker by the minute. I can practically see steam emitting from the Commander’s head.

“Yes, sir.” Razak answers.

“Then tell me, why is it so hard for you to obey orders? Is it because your leader is a female?” He points the shotgun towards me. I hold my breath. Razak looks over at me before back at the Commander.

“No, sir. It is because taking orders from someone else makes you lose your own creativity. I believe I can solve missions with my own ideas and ways. The previous missions have proven so.” He says proudly. Before he had a good soldier’s tone, but now his bratty and prideful tone is surfacing.

I can see the Commander breaking into a smirk.

“So you disobey and disregard other’s opinions just to feed your own pride?” His words stung Razak. I can see by how he twitched.

“I am not being prideful, sir. I am stating my own beliefs. I work better alone than within a group, sir.” He says while glancing over at us. His childish attitude is out again.

“That is where you are wrong.” He cocks the shotgun and points it back at Razak. His finger moves on the trigger. Time stopped, but I didn’t.

I flew right in front of Razak without thinking. I immediately try to push the gun away, but I was a little late. When the Commander pulls the trigger, I can see my life flashing before my eyes. I waited for the blow to end my own life, but it wasn’t what I was expecting.

I felt something punch me right in my chest, sending me to fall backwards right on Razak. I cough and hold my chest from the throbbing pain.

“Y/N!!” Maria runs over to me. I run my hands over my chest to find the bullet wound, but I felt nothing. I look up at the shotgun in the Commander’s hand; there is a small boxing glove with spring hanging out from the end of the muzzle. I freeze in place.

What. The. Hell.

The Commander laughs out loud like a snorting fucked up pig. I sit on the floor, frozen in confusion. My whole team is, as a matter of fact. Bucky and Steve musters up small laughs.

“That was a good show, wasn’t it, Captain, Sergeant?” The Commander throws the gun onto the table.

“I have to say. You had me convinced.” Steve says while straightening himself out. Bucky clears his throat and turns his attention towards me.

All six of us couldn’t say anything. We didn’t know what to say. The horror didn’t leave us. We were frozen right in our places. The Commander looks over at us before putting his serious face back on.

“You all look like you had just seen a headless ghost. Back in your formation!” He orders. When I got my composure back, I was boiling mad. So angry at this cheap trick he pulled on us. I want to choke him, murder him, and cut him up: everything. How dare he pull such a prank on us?

“Commander, with all due respect, that wasn’t a laughing matter. It could have ended up horribly.” I start after getting back to my original position. I kept my tone at a respectful manner despite my boiling anger. He scoffs before looking over at me.

“I am aware, Miss L/N.” He says while looking over at Razak. I look over at him as well. I can see both guilt and surprise plastered all over his face. He looked so big and mighty just now. But after that, he seems to have shrunken into himself.

“You see that, boy? Despite your disobedience to your leader in your past missions together, she still thought about your life over her own. You should consider yourself lucky to have a leader willing to step out of the line for the sake of her team.” He answers.

That silenced my anger. I didn’t know what made me, but I did end up stepping in between them. I know I shouldn’t have, but I did anyways. Even then I knew my life is worth more to me than Razak’s. But, I just flew in immediately without thinking.

I look over at Steve. He is smiling at me. I glance over at Bucky, but he wasn’t smiling. He looks like he’s concerned over something.

“And you.” The Commander looks over at me. My body stiffens.

“I admire your stupidity to risk your life for someone as unworthy as him. But you did a good thing as a leader for your teammates. I don’t doubt that you’ll lead these monkeys through the ranks easily and effortlessly. Congratulations, mother of monkeys.” He says while clapping his hands.

I don’t know if I should feel insulted or not over that nickname.

“Now, Captain Rogers and Sergeant Barnes will brief your team on your next assignment. I’ll let you have the spotlight now, gentlemen.” He says while walking towards the door.

“Sir!” Bella yells quickly. The Commander stops to look at her.

“We have yet to know who you are, sir.” Bella continues. I shift my attention between the both of them. The Commander scoffs before turning to face towards us.

“Of course. I am Rufus McDarrow. Your current Commander of A.C.T.I.S. a.k.a the Great-Grandpa of Monkeys. Those two super soldiers over there are your Ancient Ancestors of Monkeys. Don’t forget that.” He says with a serious tone. With that, he walks out of the room. I felt a sense of electricity throughout my body at the mention of his name. That last name. Why does it sound so familiar?

Though, seriously, how can this asshole be our Commander? He has a sick sense of humour and is quite ridiculous. His behaviour does not match his physical appearance at all. My thoughts of that soon drowns out when I think back to his last name. I can feel it in my chest I know that name somewhere.

I slip the papers back into the file as my teammates make their way into their own combat rooms. I sigh out quietly, waiting for my moment to yell at Steve and Bucky for not warning me about this. Though, Natasha did warn me about him before. I tap the file on the table a couple of times as Bucky and Steve finishes packing their own files back.

This feels like old times. I’d sit down and write down notes from their meetings and the three of us would always be the last ones out of the room.

I blink and shake my head. That feeling is back. I sigh it out of me.

“Care to explain to me why you both didn’t bother to warn me about the Commander’s sick sense of humour?” I ask them with my eyes glued to the papers. I can feel their eyes on me.

“What is there to warn?” Steve answers. I can hear the amusement in his tone.

“Where is the fun in that anyways?” Bucky continues with a similar tone.

I look up at both of them with a glare. None of them were shaken by that. If anything, it made them giggle like children. Despite my anger directed at them, I can’t help but sense a little relief at the scene in front of me. How often do they find joy in their everyday life anyways? Especially with what they have been through. I sigh it out before holding the file to my chest.

“Miss Y/N?” I hear Razak calling me out. I even hear Bucky and Steve stop moving the papers around when he did. He looks down at me guiltily.

“I… I don’t know what to say. I know it’s only been a couple of missions, but I’ve always disobeyed you on them. Yet, you still went out of your own way to protect me. Always, no matter what. I’m honestly touched by your kindness.” He says apologetically. I scoff before looking down at the file. Well, it was easier to straighten him out than I thought.

“You’re still not out from the boiling oil with me. The Commander taught you a lesson, now it is my turn.” I say while slipping my pen back into the file. He clicks his boots together and nods.

“I will gladly accept whatever punishments there are for my past mistakes. I will make it up to you and prove my worthiness as a soldier and as a person to you. I will not let you down every again, Miss Y/N. That I promise you.”

“Are you sure, soldier? I dislike those who breaks their promises.” I say calmly while holding the files to my chest. Razak nods once more.

“I promise to you, Miss Y/N. I will not break this promise.”

“Good. For now, follow the discussed plan and we will meet again on Monday at 5AM for our mission. Dismissed.” Razak salutes me before stepping backwards and leaves out of the room. I sigh out and turn my attention to Bucky and Steve.

They are wearing such unreadable expressions. There is a hint of surprise, sadness, confusion and happiness in them all at the same time.

“What?” I break them out of their trance. They shake their heads in sync.

I walk out of the room without another word. My boots echoing in the hallway followed by the hurried ones from behind me.

“Y/N!” Steve calls out to me.

“We’re having a little gathering with the Avengers at Stark’s tower tomorrow. You should come and we’ll celebrate your achievements!” He says excitedly. I shift my attention between both Bucky and Steve.

“What achievements? I barely achieved anything.” I say truthfully. Bucky smiles and wraps his metal arm around my neck to pull me close to him.

“Come on. You’ve gotten this far. You should at least celebrate a little.” He says. My heart beats wildly in my chest. With him being so close to me like this makes my head dizzy. I didn’t move though. I stayed close to him.

“I’ll have to see. I don’t know if I have the time.”

“Come on. Drinks, chats and food.” Steve persuades me again. I bite my bottom lip before sighing out.

“Well, you know, drinking can lead you to do some stupid things and I need to be fresh on the following day if I am to lead my team.” Bucky’s arm loosen itself around my neck before it falls down to his side. I don’t know what made me say that. Everyone knows it is the truth, but for some reason it made me feel as though I was saying it with such a harsh tone.

“One drink won’t hurt.” Steve says again while patting my back.

I honestly don’t know. To be hanging out with the Avengers makes my heart race. Even though I see Natasha, Steve and Bucky as my teachers and friends, I still haven’t officially met others yet. It’ll be nerve wrecking for me.

“It starts with one, then another, and then another, and until you’re piss drunk.” I protest again while looking at Steve. I didn’t realize that Bucky is walking behind us now. He had slowed his pace down.

“Fine, then chat and food.” Steve continues again. I rub the back of my head before sighing. It won’t hurt just to spend time with people you’re going to work with, right? I may need a break after all.

“Okay okay. Don’t make me drink anything, all right?” I insist. Steve nods. His eyes twinkling with excitement.

“Great! Bucky will pick you up on your way there tomorrow evening! Right, Bucky?” Steve turns to his friend. I look at him as well. My heart wrecks at the sight. He looks so troubled and lost in his own thought.

“Bucky?” I call out. He snaps out and looks at both of us.

“Oh yeah. I’ll pick you up, Y/N. Just be ready at 7 okay?” He says with his cheery voice. I keep my eyes on him. Even though he is wearing a smile, his eyes seems rather troubled. I’m curious to know what is going through his mind right now.

“I have to see the Chief for a moment. Wait for me.” Steve detours quickly towards the board room. I stand there alone with Bucky, waiting for Steve to return. I swallow to myself. I haven’t been alone with Bucky ever since that day when he made my anger disappear momentarily. It feels a little odd.

“What’s wrong?” I ask quietly and carefully.

“What do you mean?” He asks me back. I look at him. The sadness in his eyes lingers.

“You suddenly lost your enthusiasm when I was talking to Steve about drinking.” I continue, gripping the file against my chest. He brushes his metal fingers through his hair lightly.

“No, just that it brought up some memories. That’s all.” He says while looking away. I simply nod.

“Bad drunken memories or good ones?” I prod further with a small smile. He lets out a scoff while staring off into the distance.

“Just regretful ones.” He answers weakly. My heart jumps at the statement. The pain brushing over his expression momentarily made it feel as though I knew exactly what he was talking about.

I blink the feeling away.

“What, did you kill someone?” I playfully say to lessen the tension. Bucky manages a weak smile while petting my head. He opens his mouth to say something before stopping. I wait for him to say something.

“No. Just kissed a girl.” I blink before laughing out loud. Bucky seems to be surprised by that reaction.

“The bad memory is of you kissing a girl? Really?” I say while wiping that little tear away from the corner of my eyes.

Even though I was laughing, and truly find that kind of reason quite hilarious, I do feel a hint of pain lurking somewhere deep within. Bucky remained silent before giving me a small smile. He looks away with a quiet sigh. That kind of reaction from him surprised me. Then it hit me.

“You were with Linda at that time, weren’t you?” I ask quietly. His expression didn’t move, but I can see his lips quivering. I move my hand to pull his face towards me. I look at him directly in his eyes.

“I’m sure she has forgiven you, Bucky. If she truly loved you.” I say with a smile. I wanted to say that for some reason. It hurts to see how hurt Bucky was over one simple memory like that.

He holds my hand that is resting against his cheek before closing his eyes. He breathes out before smiling sincerely. His breath tickled against my wrist.

“I know she has.”

★ ★ ★

☀ Next Chapter >>

A/N: Oohhh~ I wonder what is in Linda’s father’s mind there. I think you guys can pretty much guess where that is going, right right? Anywho, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Feel free to comment or ask me questions. Hearing and reading your comments always make my day. <3

Thank you so much for reading and much love! <3

Tag(s): @shamvictoria11 @munsurieya @inumorph @38leticia @anbrax5553 @queenayles @inspirevato @zxcorra @bucky-barnes-pls @soymikael @summeralexander @ninjayjumper @buckybarnesbestbabe @elaacreditava @tchillx @find-the-new-adventure-barryc

#bucky barnes #bucky barnes x reader #sebastian stan #sebastian stan x reader #the winter soldier #steve rogers #captain america #captain america fanfiction #memories of us #mou

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theillustratorscourt-blog · 8 years ago

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Picking yourself up<3

Okay so lets get started.

I had sat down to start working on sketches for a commission from a repeat client (exciting!), but this needed to be addressed first because I am just not in the best head space.

We did not find housing. Nothing is affordable where I’m at (CA). My roommates and I will be parting ways and moving to different states (I’ll be headed to OR with my kids, my boyfriend, near where my folks live) by the end of the year, when the new lease that had to be renewed, is up.

That being said, It actually worked out. (That :“All things happen for a reason,” crap my dad is always saying sometimes rings truer than i’d like to admit.) We all found out it was a lot harder to live together than we thought. Between parenthood, mental health issues, and just the stress of surviving the everyday stuff life throws at you, I have learned a lot about myself. I’ve taken the bad and continuing hurt and stress of what almost seems like an impending “friend breakup,” to back up, breathe and remember: try not to judge people. Be kind. It’s hard, boy is it hard but just know even when you’re doing everything you personally can for a situation, sometimes, it will never be good enough. You may always seemingly fall short for some people and that is okay because YOU CANT PLEASE EVERYBODY.

Another thing I learned? Do NOT ever, under any circumstances, compromise yourself as a person for anyone. YOU are the person that you will live with forever, first and foremost. By all means, change, evolve and work with other people to find compromise and sacrifice to create healthy space but do not compromise who you are. If someone, whether they’re your friend or not, puts you down, they are insecure themselves about something and that’s the truth. My mom would say it to me all growing up but it’s literally taken me to be in the late half of my 20′s to fully realize it and see it in action. You can kindly communicate about something bothering you without shitting all over people, or them on you.

Self care is SO IMPORTANT. Do not neglect yourself! I have gained like 20lbs in the last 2 years that i need to shake off and get back into the swing of walking but, alas, I sit at the computer so often that I just forget. Plus, I personally have kids most of the time so its hard to consistently form a work out routine but its no excuse! There’s ripped mamas out there with less time that I probably have so I should...i dunno...do more squats? lol. I swear, I’m making a list of things to work on upon moving into my own apartment. Cooking and meal planning being one of those things...Hey, I can make a mean sandwich...

^^^Now, back to art. I’m thoroughly enjoying the Will Terry webinars (they’re free and about once a month). I get to see a lot of myself in them and they’ve got some great advice that really ties all artists together with the journey we are on. I’ve yet to take a class but one thing at a time.

I did, however, bite the bullet and sign up for the SCBWI membership (https://www.scbwi.org/) and created a portfolio and profile there. I’m submitting a banner for their consideration for the Oktoberfest fall conference, since I can’t afford to go to the big ones in LA or New York. The fall one is the only one nearish to me. I’m really excited. I had been putting off signed up for ages, as I often do, because I just never have confidence in my artwork. I never think it’s ready or good enough or skilled enough. I’ve just had to get over that and feign a little more confidence in the meantime. Many art teachers of mine have consistently stated that artists never really get over that little fear of, “am i good enough?” Which is good and bad to know. I always hoped it would go away with time and practice but maybe that is just a part of the creation process.

I’ve made 2-3 more digital paintings, made a website logo/banner, (all last month because lately I haven't felt very creative) and I’ve received 2 big commissions. One, as I referred to earlier, is with a previous client. I’m signed on to do the next 2 years of poster campaign work (yay!), and another is a slow progressing graphic novel project.

This brings me to discuss the anxiety of discussing work with clients and answering questions for more than a week, only to have them disappear. There was a very fun children's book project that I discussed with someone for ages and they seemed on board and then just flaked. Two follow up emails about if they’d found someone else, so that I could space that time I had dedicated out, and I received nothing back. That sucks. I try not to let it discourage me but it always leaves me wondering. I had a nice, almost-client, who went with someone else but we had pleasant conversations and she didn't leave me hanging. I wish they could all be like that.

Some friends and I were remarking on the Myers-Briggs test for personality types and I took it awhile back (firm INFJ here). Makes me think about the bigger picture and how we need all kinds of personalities and learning types to make the world go round for lack of better words. I’m actually finally getting proper learning disability testing, since my mathematics-conceptualization is nonexistent. It’s been very insightful and I’m excited to finally have paperwork to bring with me on-going to a new school (I was accepted to a university for next year in OR).

Still working on looking over my portfolio for mailer worthy art. I’ll probably make something specific, as the art I've aimlessly made (my favorite kind), isn’t always as kid friendly as i’d probably need for kids book agencies. Although, i’d like to find the right places for my more adult art. The children’s banner I have created to send to the SCBWI will probably double as great mailer material. I’m proud of it and like the fall colors I achieved.

Another thing I've been putting a lot of thought into is the lovely Picasso quote, “good artists copy, great artists steal.” This quote could sum up all art for the rest of time and the importance of it for artists couldn’t be stressed enough. I’ve only recently started learning HOW to actually implement this and how keeping a folder of your favorite art and artists is useful. Kienan Lafferty did an entire video recently on this and I continue to highly recommend his channel. He’s an excellent resource and is fun!: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CAlo0IU-UI

I’ll be spending the rest of this year getting my ducks in a row, preparing for the move, working on art for clients and hopefully, getting around to creating mailers and more advertisement! That’s the hardest thing for me is figuring out consistent and real ways to advertise my services! I have a website and I’m trying to manage google analytics. I throw a craigslist add up most weeks (that’s actually gotten me all of my work thus far!) but i need to find where i can send my work and maybe, where I can hang little post cards on physical bulletins. They have those out here in restaurants and such. Community services and what not.

Till next time, I’m guessing i’ll find time again in June to write?

Stay tuned!

Sincerely,

An Illustrator

#self love #body positive #art #artist #artjourney #illustrator #illustration #freelance #artresources #svs #kienanlafferty #willterry #scbwi #kidlit #kidlitart #motherhood #parenthood #momblog #mommyblogger

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metawitches · 8 years ago

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After I threatened to never speak of Jasper again in last week’s recap, he earned his keep this week, starting with the screen cap above. Yep, Jaha finally got floated. While I’m starting to feel like I need to post a Talking Dead-style “Who Did We Lose This Week and How?” montage every February and May, unfortunately Jaha wasn’t one of this week’s losses. He’s this series’ archvillain/cockroach, that guy they can never quite get rid of, and always want to find a way to redeem, because they see themselves in him. Or Isaiah Washington has an excellent contract lawyer whom the rest of the cast should hire immediately.

Instead, we lost another series-long recurring character this week, and the loss was barely acknowledged. I’ll look at that in more detail after the episode summary.

Once everyone’s done chuckling over the prank, and Jasper reassures Jaha that whatever drugs he used to keep Jaha asleep were ultimately harmless, it’s back to work on repairing the Ark. Clarke is worried that Bellamy’s hunting party hasn’t checked in, and feels useless since she didn’t get to go on the mission to Becca’s island to look for information on recreating a nightblood serum. That’s right, they remembered that Becca’s island exists, with technology and other possibly useful things like a fallout shelter. Clarke was left behind as medical back up, while Raven, Abby and Jackson went as engineers and geneticists to work in Becca’s lab. Jaha told them where to find it on the island.

A storm comes, and everyone except Jasper runs inside, fearing black rain. It turns out to be okay, but he just used up all of the good will from his earlier prank, especially since Monty ran out into the rain to try to save him.

Kane calls Octavia into the Trikru embassy to lecture her about unnecessary killing, but he loses her when he lists Pike among the mistakes. He tells her she’s off of his security detail and being sent back to Arkadia. The horse Helios has been saddled for her. Octavia plans to talk to Indra before she leaves. King Roan sends a messenger for Kane.

Abby, Jackson, Raven, Miller, Luna, Nyko, Murphy, Emori, and a few others take the boat across the lake to Becca’s island. Luna feels like a prisoner because Skaikru wants to use her for her blood like everyone else. She doesn’t believe she’d be allowed to say no or leave. Nyko tries to reassure her that he trusts them, so she should, too and that Skaikru is trying to save everyone. Luna is so mentally ill at this point that she assumes everyone is lying to her and using her solely for their own gain.

They reach the border on the beach that those with genetic defects weren’t allowed to cross. Emori stops, because she’s never been past it. Murphy encourages her past, saying he’s never met a line he wouldn’t cross. Just as everyone crosses into Becca’s territory, drones appear in the sky and start shooting at the group. Nyko grabs Luna to protect her as they run through a clearing, and is killed instead. Not feeling a lot of respect for Luna right now. Or the writers. It’s unlikely that the grounders of TRIKRU would be the ones who couldn’t figure out how to find cover amongst the trees and would just stand still in a clearing to be shot. They lived near Mount Weather, guns shouldn’t make them panic. Raven, with her bum leg, made it to cover no problem; twice as fast, in fact. But, just like that, Nyko is gone. Miller shoots the drone down, and Luna manages to finally find cover.

The team splits up into smaller groups to look for Luna. Raven stays behind because of her leg, and because she intends to work on the drone.

Roan wants to know about Skaikru’s plan to survive the radiation. Kane tries to put him off again, but there’s a reason Echo wasn’t in last week’s episode. She’s been spying on Skaikru, as promised, and captured Bellamy’s hunting party. The red shirt with Bellamy spilled his guts and told Echo and Roan everything. Echo slits his throat, because he��s an unworthy warrior.

Roan tells Kane that if Skaikru were on the level they would have told him what was going on. He’s got a point. Kane can say that shoring up the Ark is just a back up plan, but it doesn’t change fact that their resources are obviously being poured into that, with little to nothing going to help grounders. Roan takes Bellamy and Kane hostage, and orders everyone in the Trikru embassy killed, except Octavia and Indra. They are to be brought to him.

Monty and Jasper break into Clarke’s quarters for another prank. Jasper sits down at Clarke’s desk, and notices her list of the new 100. He pulls it out and gets predictably critical of Clarke once he realizes what it is. Monty explains what he knows of the situation. Clarke arrives and panics. Guards have arrived following the prank, so she grabs a tazer from one, tazes Jasper, and then has him locked up.

Octavia checks back at the Triku embassy for Indra. She’s not there, but everyone inside has been slaughtered by Azgeda. A dying man tells her that Roan plans to attack Arkadia. Octavia gallops away to warn them.

Clarke explains to Monty that he’s not on her list of 100 because Raven and Jaha are better engineers. Monty tells her that he’s not upset about himself. He’s upset about her continuing to lie and make important decisions on her own that should be opened up to the group. Clarke responds that it’s too risky, too many people would panic. Monty reminds her that she’s doing the exact same things as Jaha used to do, for the exact same reasons. He takes matters into his own hands, and reveals to everyone that there’s only room for 100 over the camp radio, then reads out Clarke’s list.

Emori tells Murphy that there’s scary stuff on the island beyond the drones, and they should stock up his bunker, then hide there. Yay, someone remembered it exists! Abby interrupts them before he can answer.

Meanwhile, back on the island, Luna continues her self-righteous death wish speechifying from last season while the team risk their lives to keep her alive. Let’s assume she couldn’t handle the childhood training to be Commander and her mind snapped. All that talk about being able to beat Lexa was delusional, judging by her skills in this episode. Raven talks Luna down from trying to leave the island or drown herself or whatever, then elicits her help in disarming the drones.

The Arkadians are upset about the list. Clarke explains her priorities, which make a certain amount of sense, but you’ve got to question a system that puts Jaha over Monty. Jaha swoops in and takes over the discussion. He promises a lottery system to determine who will be inside the Ark when the radiation comes, based on how much work each person puts into the repairs. He explains to Clarke that this gives them some sense of hope and control. Actually, a compromise plan that included some people chosen for their skills and some chosen by lottery is probably ideal.

Echo and her troops catch up with Octavia on the edge of a cliff over a river. Octavia easily kills Echo’s soldiers. Echo tells Octavia that Roan wants her taken alive, she doesn’t have to die. Octavia looks over the edge of the cliff several times, and you can see her thinking that if Oliver Queen, Aragorn and Bucky Barnes can survive that kind of fall, so can she. She practically stops fighting and walks forward onto Echo’s sword, to make sure that it enters her abdomen in a spot that looks bad, but misses vital organs, then throws herself backwards over the edge.

Echo’s shocked face is priceless. She doesn’t know what the heck just happened. Octavia should not have gone down that easily, and now she’s going to have to answer to Roan, and have an even harder time getting into Bellamy’s pants.

Clarke frees Jasper and apologizes to him. He earns his keep again,telling her, “If you think you have the best idea, you have to convince people, not lie to them. Not lock them up…When Jaha’s looking reasonable, it’s time to reassess.”

The island gang finds the lab. Abby tells Luna she’s sorry about Nyko. Raven and Murphy share a moment. Murphy wonders what ALIE was protecting the lab from. No one answers, but Emori stands very still and tense, and looks very scared. Is it Voldemort, so she can’t say the name? Inside, the lab is still functional, pristine, and fully stocked. I’m feeling cynical today, so I wonder how long before Luna or whatever’s outside blows it up like Mt. Weather.

Kane and Bellamy are in the Polis jail. Bellamy feels like all he ever does is fight wars. Roan and Echo come in to get them, ready to march to war with Skaikru. Roan is going to take the Ark from Skaikru to ride out primefire. Bellamy warns him that Octavia will get there first with a warning. Roan and Echo freeze, as Roan signals to a sick looking Echo to break the news to Bellamy.

Echo takes Octavia’s knives out of her clothing, and Bellamy realizes immediately what it means. Roan tells him that Octavia wouldn’t be taken alive. Echo says it was a good death, as Bellamy collapses in tears, screaming, “No, no.” Octavia has always been the center of his emotional world. It’s rude of the show to put him through this fake out death while ignoring Nyko’s actual death.

Because, yes, as we all expected, the next shot is of Octavia, washed up on the riverbank, with Helios the miracle horse there to lick her fingers until she wakes up. Octavia drags herself onto the horse, and tells him to take her home.

Nyko deserved better than a death that didn’t make sense. He was an important recurring character, appearing in 10 episodes over three seasons. He was like a brother to Lincoln, and saved both Lincoln’s and Octavia’s lives. He was present in the village that Finn massacred, and it was his calm negotiating that kept the situation from becoming even worse. His skills as a healer were important to the story over and over again. He was often an important liaison between grounders and Skaikru. He has been one of Arkadia’s few consistent allies among the grounders, along with Lincoln and Indra. To dismiss him as if he didn’t matter to the other characters on the team who had been working with him for three seasons was disrespectful to the character and poor writing.

Nightblood is only going to do so much to save them if the planet is going to burn the way we saw at the end of episode 1, and/or if all of the smaller plants and animals that make up the beginning of the food chain die. They’ll have to give livestock and food plants nightblood as well, or find better protection from the radiation where they can protect animal and plant species. I have my doubts about whether the Ark can survive what’s coming, no matter how well the repair it.

Which one of Zach McGowan’s current TV looks is the creepiest? The Azgeda king with the bone crown and war paint on The 100, the LMD on Agents of SHIELD, or the severed head in a jar on AoS? It’s a toss up.

I want Jaha’s sweater.

Monty and Jasper have a point about the list, but it wouldn’t be needed if others hadn’t made the decision to destroy the hydrogenerator. Once only 100 people could survive on the Ark, everyone defaulted to Clarke to make the hard decisions, as usual. The people who lived on the Ark in space were used to living in the shadow of death and making sacrifices to survive, even sacrificing their lives. These are still the same people. But Clarke was already on the ground for the events that showed the Arkers’ selflessness. All she knows is what Jaha and Lexa taught her, which is to make decisions, then do whatever is necessary to make sure the plan is protected. So, she acted in secrecy.

Clarke still hasn’t completely recovered from pulling that lever in Mount Weather at the end of season 2. She hasn’t grown as a leader since then. And the hits keep coming. She’s really only effective with Bellamy at her side. The same is true of Bellamy.

The 100 Season 4 Episode 4: A Lie Guarded Recap After I threatened to never speak of Jasper again in last week's recap, he earned his keep this week, starting with the screen cap above.

#bob morley #Eliza Taylor #Henry Ian Cusick #lindsey morgan #metacrone #recap #science fiction #the 100 #zach mcgowan

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thegoddessprose · 5 years ago

Text

Survey Survey Survey

Looks and Personality

What do you look like? >> Pale, brown hair high back, some curve, heart face, brown eyes... Yeah, no, sorry, I’m just going to be vauge How often do you bathe? >> Every other day How do you wear your hair? >> I like to keep it down

What colours do you tend to wear? >> Black, usually, maybe also blue, purple, and pink Do you have any tattoos? What, where and why? >> No, I have not

What kind of clothes do you wear? >> Usually graphic tees, tunics, blazers, slacks, sweats, leggings, crocs, and such What kind of jewellery do you wear? >> Nothing too often, I have a bracelet I love, and a few fandom necklaces Is there anything else you often wear? >> Not really Would you say you had a “look”? >> Yeah, I’d think so When going out, do you dress up or down? >> It would really depend on where I’m going What do you wear to bed at home? >> Sweats and a t shirt What do you wear to bed when your somewhere else? >> The same Is there a place you keep any prized/secret things whilst you’re away? >> If I told you, it wouldn’t be a secret anymore, would it? What’s your favourite food? >> Mashed potatoes in gravy. No skin. No chunks. What’s your favourite drink? >> I like a good strawberry daiquiri What’s your favourite desert? >> Mint ice cream with oreos What’s your favourite type of food (e.g Mexican)? >> American, as lame as I am Do you have any mental problems? >> Yep... Yay for Anxiety.... Do you have any phobias? What? Why do you think you have this/them? >> Yes, needles (Medical problems at a very young age), dogs (Bad experiences with them, and I don’t like attention or loud noises), thunder (Loud noises) Why might somebody dislike you? >> I guess because I don’t act like everyone else What skill do you possess that you are most proud of? >> I’m a pretty good writer, and I’m not being vain, I’ve had other people tell me this What is your greatest strength (e.g. honest, loyal, brave)? >> I don’t take other people’s BS, I’m not gullible, I know what I want and I don’t let other people influence me too much What’s your greatest shortcoming or flaw (e.g. cowardly, alcoholic)? >> My anxiety makes me reluctant to try things, and I can be a little fussy Who do you most admire? >> It’s hard to pick one person Who do you most love? >> Uh... What three things do you look for most in a partner? >> Open-minded, a gentleman (But not TOO old-fashioned), an individual Do you like crowds? >> NO What are your hobbies? >> Travel, browsing the internet, theater If you can’t get to sleep in the middle of the night, what do you do? >> Read, daydream What is your favourite animal? >> Not really sure at this point What is your favourite colour? >> Hot pink or black If you could ask God (to athiests - IF there was one) one question, what? >> Well, if is there really a heaven or hell is off the table... When he created people, did he know how destructive they were going to be... And is there any way to undo the mob stuff? Rate yourself on these traits from 0 to 10. 0 - do not possess this trait. 10 - you have great amounts of this trait. Calm temper 6 Charm 4 Cheerfulness 2 Confidence 7 Courtesy 6 Curiousity 9 Forgiveness 8 Generosity 5 Greed 3 Helpfulness 5 Honesty 7 Loyalty 8 Optimism 1 Patience 6 Self-sacrafice 1 Wit 9

Background

Where were you born and raised?

>> Maryland

Briefly describe your family.

>> Your run of the mill suburban family. No real toxicity or anything like that.

You must choose one - your childhood was calm/peaceful or tragic/turbulent?

>> Pretty fairly turbulent because I grew up with a chronic illness, but thankfully I have access to pretty good care

Did you have any rolemodels?

>> A few

What is the worst thing that has ever happened to you?

>> When I was 12 I got super sick, I couldn’t move, I couldn’t sit on any hard surfaces, I gained a lot of weight that’s taken me a decade to lose... I got better, but I had to go into the hospital

How did it affect you?

>> Again, I gained a lot of weight that took forever to lose, I still have stretch marks, I’m scared to death of flaring now because of it

Have you ever had any recurring nightmares or themes in nightmares?

>> No, not really

What were they?

>> N/A

Do you currently have a boyfriend/girlfriend? >> No Do you have any close friends? >> Yes Briefly describe your best friend: >> Long distance, but still one of my best friends, we go to each other during both the good and bad, we share our work, she’s like my long lost sister Any enemies? >> Not that I know of Who? What are they like? >> N/A? Would you risk your life for your best friend?(not lover or family member!) >> I don’t... Probably With who was your most important romantic relationship? >> I’ve never exactly... Been in a relationship Of what are you most proud? >> I’m proud of my writing Of what are you most ashamed? >> I can’t always do everything by myself, I don’t like my stretch marks

Alignment, Ethics and Religion

What is your religion?

>> Ah.... Agnostic, I’d say

Where do you stand on abortion?

>> Pro-choice

Where do you stand on the death penalty?

>> No opinion

Where do you stand on wearing fur?

>> Doesn’t matter to me unless it’s an endangered species

Do you have a moral code that you follow? What?

>> Try to do the right thing, even if other people don’t think it is... Is that a moral code? Sure.

Could you kill somebody?

>> I’d say only if my or someone else’s life depended on it.

For what reason would you kill somebody?

>> See above

Would you SERIOUSLY CONSIDER killing anybody right now?

>> No.

Do you trust easily, or not?

>> Not.

What are your political beliefs (anarchy, communism, democracy etc.)?

>> I don’t really have a set... Well, set. It would really depend on what issues we’re talking about.

What, if anything, WOULD you sacrifice your life for?

>> I can’t really think of anything

Would you ever, for any reason, abandon your friends in an hour of need?

>> Well, I’d do my best not to, but anything can happen.

Motivation

What are your dreams/ambitions/goals? >> Write bestsellers, have good health, live somewhere interesting where I don’t have to drive How do you plan to reach them? >> Uh..... How would your ideal partner look? >> I’m not too shallow... But tall(ish), dark hair, and bespectacled would do just fine

Do you ever want to have a family someday? With children? >> Children? No way. I can’t deal with being pregnant, and even outside of that, I’m not selfless, conformist, or patient enough. Who would you want to start this family with, or do you not yet know? >> N/A What would stop you from reaching your goals (e.g. death, retirement fund)? >> Needing a warm place to live and good healthcare... And procrastination? What do you see yourself doing next year? >> Don’t ask me What do you see yourself doing in twenty years? >> Hopefully having written a bestseller Would you ever have an affair? >> I guess it would depend. In a perfect world I’d answer no, but that’s not how the world is, and anything can go wrong, so I can’t say it’s impossible. Would you ever have a one night stand? >> No, I’m not that kind of girl What are your greatest fears? >> Failure and death are pretty big, I guess

More information

If you had a month of nothing (no work, no obligations) what would you do?

>> TRAVEL

How do you relax?

>> Internet, solitude

What one thing would you change in this world (free Tibet, abolish Sweden)?

>> Uh... Free healthcare?

Would you ever choose a career or job where your life was at risk?

>> No.

How would you like to be remembered after your death?

>> I’d rather not think about this... I hope well and for a long time as someone talented, I guess.

Random questions

Where you present at any major historical events (e.g. 9/11)?

>> I saw a bunch of Brexit stuff while in London

How did they affect you?

>> I was mainly thinking, “well, at least they’re not rioting”

Do you have any famous relatives?

>> That would require me to reveal my real last name, and that’s not happening

Do you have to try and live up to your family’s expectations?

>> No

Are you a loyal member of any organizations?

>> No.

General Information

Name:

>> Persephone

Age:

>> 21

Date Of Birth:

>> September 1st

Race:

>> White

Height:

>> 5′3

Weight:

>> 120 lbs

Are you happy with this?

>> I would have liked to be taller

Desired weight:

>> This is fine

Sexual orientation:

>> Straight

First language:

>> English.

Second/Third/Fourth etc. languages (if any):

>> French (Not fluent)

Why did you take this survey?

>> I was bored

#survey #surveys #bored

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mi4011annabodgal · 6 years ago

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ANIMATION DAY - 31.10. 2018

Task: Let’s create a spooky Halloween themed alphabet together, all the students, from all levels, like a big happy family what

Animation day is an optional program organized for all animation student from foundational year to masters to gather together and in small groups let’s do together a piece of animation by the end of the day. How you solve the lunch is your problem.

Egh… I’m not gonna lie, that was my first thought about it on that morning. Don’t get me wrong, just one day before I was head over hills by that idea, because I was pretty aware of how much I could benefit from it. Building connections, meeting with new people, gaining experiences, chances of free pizza and candy, yep, sure I wanted to dive into it, who doesn’t?!

Then on that specific day, somehow the exact same reasons become the cause of your anxiety because your lazy introvert mind recognizes what is it up to for real:

Meeting with new people - greeeeat, I need to socialize, go through countless small talks to warm up to strangers, like I’m not doing that since the past 2 months heh?

Building connections - oh sugar honey ice tea, so I even have to do a good first impression

Gaining experiences - aka showing how poor skills I have compared to demigod 2nd and 3rd-year peers

Free pizza - Free pizza DECLINED… Oh…

So after waking up to thoughts like that, I don’t think that it’s surprising that I had even considered the idea of ditching that day because first, it’s optional, second I had so so so many other things to do such as finishing storyboards or updating blogs… but worry not, I go through thoughts like that in relation to almost everything, some call it worrying, I call it listing my options and the possible outcomes before I start anything. I usually have my priorities sorted out right, so a little social anxiety won’t stop me of living up all my possibilities, and also funnily, the exact same reason to cons can become a quite supporting statement to pros… I could put it on the blog…

Talking from experience, an attitude has a lot to do with how we handle stuff and what we end up with. So I walked in taking big steps, deep breaths, putting on a smile and deciding that I will do everything in my power to collaborate and make it as good of an experience as I can. I have to make the best of it. I have to make it worth it.

And I immediately got much much more relaxed when I realized that there were others in nice numbers from my classmates who turned up too. Probably with the same bothering thoughts. And we stayed like that. Together. For some time.

After the 3rd and 2nd-year students were sorted out equally for different letters we came to the part that where we had to sign up for letters. Now by that time excitement took over most of the place of my anxiousness so while some of my classmates decided to stay together and sign up for the same letter, I boldly chose a random letter with an unfamiliar name. Long story short, I ended up being in a group with a girl from 3rd year, two guys from 2nd year, and 3 other boys from my class to make animations for 4 letters. Now comes the interesting part, teamwork.

I have always found teamwork the most interesting but also the most challenging task of all. The basic concept is quite admirable, people with different views and ideas create something phenomenal by making compromises and working toward the same goal together. Now here comes the problem, the phrase “working together” has as many definitions as many people exist, that’s why sometimes it can result in a rather unpleasant experience. Who doesn’t remember from group projects from preschool and secondary school when usually one person did 80% of the work, one person ditched completely their part, and the others did only the minimum?! We are all one of them. It also hides lots of conflicts, tension, and disagreements of who wants to do what part, who’s idea are we keeping, who is the leader etc. I personally think part of the conflicts wouldn’t even exist if we didn’t take so many things personally. Look at the questions above, who’s who’s who’s. It emphasizes the importance of the person behind the idea. Change some of them to which. Which idea do we keep, which parts should be done, it’s not perfect but you get the idea of this phrase sounding more objective. It emphasizes the idea itself. Just because your idea didn’t make it, that doesn’t make you stupid. The decision is not against you, and not even against your idea, it is for a concept that will have the most efficient result.

Every group needs a leader otherwise, it’s chaotic. We are humans, we don’t know it but we like to be told what to do. Let me give you an example. At the beginning of a project, the same question crosses through our minds, what are we doing? At a group project, the leader is the one who knows. They keep it all together, usually because they are the ones who know which step comes after what mostly because they have the most experience in it. They see the whole picture. They don’t oppress or boss around but supervise and make sure the group stays on track. At least that was how we sorted it out and made the girl from 3rd year - let’s call her A - the leader. We hadn’t had to discuss it really, from the first minute it was visible that she has the most experience and she had known where to starts and how to go. And we just naturally felt it right. Of course, it had to have to do a lot with the fact that we discussed everything together and everyone’s thoughts were listened.

First thing first was to decide if we wanted to do 2D or 3D. Who was not a newbie preferred the idea of 3D but we greenies were absolutely terrified of it. Given that we did not have any mentionable experience in using Maya and that we were a majority of the group, they ended up making compromises and agreed to do 2D or anything that does not include advanced software knowledge. Even tho they were incredibly nice and offered to help us learn to use the software or they just wanted to see us suffer as and I quote them: ”Maya is a special kind of hell”, we only had one day to make 4 pieces of 2-3 seconds of animation, it was pretty clear that there was just not enough time for that.

We chose to work with charcoal mostly in one paper for every animation because it has a special unique effect. Our teachers even suggested that we should shoot it on putting it on easels, vertically. Do you remember the part when I said an idea should be accepted when there are more useful things resulting from it than problems? Well… Now tell me how do you say no to a teacher, if you wanna build connections and you are also just a dummy newbie and it’s only been your first month here? Exactly, you don’t. Well, it was definitely interesting and challenging to work on. I am not entirely sure if it was worth it, because we sometimes accidentally bumped into the easel so it moved a bit off place and we couldn’t put it back to the exact same spot it was so it resulted in small jumps in the animation, and also the camera was extremely close to the paper for small details and high resolution so we had to work in a rather interesting poses, very very carefully. But one more experience to gain. Yay!

We decided to dissolve into smaller groups within our group so we can work on the animations more effectively. When we had some solid designs we discussed them together and gave critique to each other. Getting feedback from your peers is incredibly useful as they are also part of an audience you will want to make stuff for. I ended up being with A and we were given the letter “M”. Which was awesome because we know many words starting with M which had a spooky vibe. Monster, mystery, murderer, moon… And by saying moon I did get some extra knowledge about the course. There are 3 banned cliche things, that under any circumstances should not appear in animations, these are dragon, robot, and vampire. Vampire or werewolf, she was not sure which. That was one of my favourite aspect of it all, that we ended up talking about all sorts of kind of things, and not just with my group mates but with others too through them. I was disappointed in a pleasant way, I don’t know what did I expected but it was half as not friendly and open-minded as it turned out to be.

We agreed on making a monster who has mad cow disease and committed mass murderer and adding mystery by it’s appearing from the fog.“A” did the design as I was pretty clueless of how this should look like or where was I supposed to start. Seeing my distress she asked me what were my specialties. I immediately said character design. She asked me if I do stuff like taking random words and design a character from them. And I said no, I meant humans, I draw human characters. Until that moment I did not realize how boring that sounds, but yes it is boring. Only humans are boring. Sure anatomy is important and gestures and poses too, and yes you can have a bunch of own humanoid characters with a whole storyline that you promised yourself to bring alive once you have all the skills you think are required to have before starting and concept arts and designs and mood boards, hell yes, of course, I do have, but you need to realize that they are incredibly interesting for you because you have a strong emotional attachment to them, because you created them, you know everything about them, you love them, and it could easily happen that strangers without that amazing backstory knowledge won’t find them as captivating as they are in your eyes. Additionally, it’s always better to be good in more stuff than just in one. You stand in more legs you have more opportunities, so just have the courage to move out of your comfort zone, it can only benefit you in the long run.

At the end of the day, which we previously decided to be 5pm, all the animations were done and we even had a look at them as a whole sequence. It turned out pretty amazing, seeing so many different styles and solutions was really fun.

To sum up, all, if one thing to learn from this day was to dare to move out of our comfort zone, whether socially or artistically, chances are we are gonna end up with more benefits than regret. I know now that I have a lot to improve in terms of creative character design, need to leave humans alone for a while for sure. Also, let’s be brave enough to collaborate and get your ideas out, being wrong is not a failure. Doubt kills more dreams than failure ever will and a wrong idea written down whorts a thousand times more than keeping it in and contemplating whether it’s good or not. We can soon realize that something is off and it can give space for new ideas if it’s out early. If we keep something in for a long time we become over biased for certain concepts and don’t notice the black holes in it. We need feedback from the outside world because their opinion is objective, and that is something that every artist who wants to move an audience is in desperate need.

#uni #animation day #thoughts #art #animation #team work #art project

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mylifeatwar · 6 years ago

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Book 2, Chapter 1, Page 4

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And up he goes!

As some of you are so astutely noticing, the Dhuvalians are very different from our beloved Free Marketeers. I’m often fascinated and delighted by stories of culture clash, where two very different ways of thinking collide and the results therein.

Stories of American Marines snapping Japanese Officers’ katanas in half because the mangled, master-crafted weapons made fantastic trench knives. Stories of Colonists in America defecting to the Native American tribes because the quality-of-life among the ‘savages’ was so much higher. Stories of how the Medicis, when they visited France, found the food so appalling that they imported their own cooks from Italy, which ended up becoming the foundation point for France’s culinary tradition.

War is the most obvious form on conflict, but when groups fight each other, they end up interacting in a myriad of ways beyond the martial level. I hope we can take the time in MLaW to witness some of those moments…

Thanks for reading,

– Luther out

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Killercow - Yay! Thought he was gunna fall right back down again there. Nothing like the elegant movements of the Duke we saw way back in the prologue, but he certainly must have started off this way! I wonder how the free marketeers train with such limited space, if their entire county is essentially one mega city.

Sophisanmus - If I had to guess, Free Marketer Limbs don’t require as much training, at least with regards to basic locomotion. They seem to rely on more utilitarian propulsion and what articulation they do possess is likely more automated than Dhuvalian counterparts. I’d even expect Free Marketer basic training to make use of sims, possibly eschewing field training entirely in cases. Pilot skill seems tertiary to squad tactics and quick turnaround on the broad scale. The Dhuvalians have superior tech and training, but I’m curious to see what kind of army the Free Market economy can raise when … motivated. That is, if the Dhuvalians manage to piss off more than just one sector.

folti - Or probably this training LIMB’s control software has been dumbed down seriously, to allow a more in-depth training about how to handle a LIMB. It’ll take more time, but probably the pilot gains more understanding of how the vehicle behaves compared to the Free Marketers’ “let the software handle that low level stuff.” approach. It might be necessary for the more acrobatic stuff their LIMBs can do, compared to the more limited ability FM LIMBS. Or maybe it’s just a silly tradition those snotty Dhuvalian nobles espouse…

Plaintextman - I would guess that the FM LIMBs we’ve seen so far are a little easier to pilot, though a little less capable overall agility-wise. If they really were “easy” and required little training, I don’t know how the heck Dizee maintains his position as a pilot. He’s obviously got the raw skill and sense to pilot a limb, but little sense in other areas.

Grudgesettler - They seem to have more LIMBs then pilots, at the very least. Leaves me really curious as to the training involved for their pilots. I can’t imagine automation being a massive thing, otherwise I would expect to the opposite situation; a metric ass ton of pilots (that’s still an accepted unit of measurement, right?) to a smaller number of LIMBs. And in such a situation, Dizzee wouldn’t be piloting for very long. That said, there were a number of computerized-looking systems during the cockpit shots, so I have no idea.

Bounty Red - I think you guys are not giving the Free Marketeers their due credit. I’d bet no Limb is easy to handle, look at them, mechanical behemoths. While the free marketeers are less educated I bet it’s the same thing as being a mechanic, or learning to ride a horse. Not something the average person wants to do, so being a military killer is left up to those who can’t do anything better. While I think it’s more of an honor and a privilege for the Dhuvies, similar to how flying a jet is a right for officers.

SteelRaven - I still remember Dizz’s thoughts of the Dhuvalians, can only imagine what they think of the Free Marketeers. Another fun fact regarding the cultural impact of past wars; When the Ottoman Empire invasion into Europe was stopped at Vienna, the fleeing Ottoman army left bags of coffee behind in the hasty retreat. It didn’t take long for the people of Vienna to take a liking to coffee bean themselves and soon Coffee houses pop up throughout the city and soon all of Europe.

Grudgesettler - I recall an earlier comment, can’t remember who said it, on the comic when Vulture is struck by the Dhuvalian pike. Basically, “let’s see if the filthy lucre can balm his soul.” That would strike me as something the Dhuvalians would think; mercenaries, they be scum. On a related note, I now want a mug of coffee.

Plaintextman - Ah yes, there just isn’t anything like a good look at different cultures and people, their history and how they interact. Bonus points if you get a nice look at their respective languages and their subtle yet dichotomic differences. Well, at least in my case — keep it in mind if you guys want extra kudos from me, Matt haha I’m already liking this Christophe Sagnier character. He really seems cut out for his position as a high-up in the monarchy (whatever exactly his position entails).

Jack Mcrary - Just a minor point of order: Those Japanese swords were very cheap (one of the reasons they broke so easily) mass-produced items, not the masterwork pieces from the days of feudal Japan.

Mr. Patenge - While it’s true that the enlisted Japanese soldiers were issued low quality mass-produced swords, the officers often outfitted themselves with high quality swords (masterwork may have been an exaggeration). US Marines were unable to tell the difference between the two until they devised a system of smashing looted swords with rocks.

Grudgesettler - While I’m not sure of masterwork, I know many of the Japanese officers whose families had served as samurai in the previous centuries had ancient family blades, many of which had seen multiple generations of combat. Because these were considered items of cultural heritage, they weren’t allowed on the battlefield. But tradition dies very, very hard. In order to use their blades, these men got one of the mass produced weapons, removed the blade from the hilt, and had the blade from the ancestral weapon placed in the cheap hilt. By all appearances, it was another government sword. *the corny music from The More you know*

BeerWolf - Another fine point, if I may. The Marines felt they needed trench knives to stay alive far more than they needed swords for their collections. Perhaps they were more discriminating after the fighting stopped, but in the hells of WW2 jungle fighting, the needs of battle came first. ( and 2nd, 3rd, etc.)

TKG - its kind of interesting to see the artistic design differences between free market and Dhuvalian limbs on a basic level. The free market ones are clearly the process of a corporate process, very boxy and rather limited in what they do where as the Dhuvalian ones seems as much works of art, as they are combat machines. I wonder what the trade off is?

Deoxy - “I wonder what the trade off is?” COST. In WWII, the German tanks were completely and utterly superior to the American tanks. The American tanks were cheap… and thus outnumbered the German tanks rather a lot. The end result was higher tank losses on the side of the Americans… but still victory, as they had tanks left, and the Germans didn’t. RTS spam tactics, basically – cheap, replaceable units that do more damage to the enemy (as a group) than they cost to replace. When you can only take a limited number of units (for whatever reason), quality is of the utmost importance. When that limitation is removed, quantity usually wins.

TKG - Since we do not know what a front line Dhuvalin Limb costs without that information it is not safe to assume cost is the factor/only factor in play. It could be limitations on manufacturing, as the Dhuvalian units as seen seem to lack as much weapons system variability. But they do have fancy looking stealth systems which may suggest otherwise.I might also point out we do not know the full extent of either side’s manufacturing capabilities so we don’t know who’s pushing quality or quantity. It is clear from a pure aesthetic standpoint though the Dhuvalian limbs are easier on the eye. As a final note we’ve seen what three or four variants on the free market Limb so far but perhaps maybe two Dhuvalian Limb variants? It may be that the rest of them hav enot shown up and it’s more a battle of culture then technology or manufacturing. As a final note, in the RTS bit I got a very ‘GDI medium Tank vs. Nod Stealth Tank’ vibe from the straight up line confrontation earlier in the comic.

Grudgesettler - I wonder if manufacturing costs is even a particularly big consideration, really. One thing to remember is that the 1st Investment Recovery Battalion isn’t an army, but a company. Their assets are obviously considerable, but they’ll operate in the manner of a business, not an army. As to how that would effect equipment, I picture them buying in lots, either per year or quarter, rather then having a permanent manufacturing base and a logistics engine. Simply put, they brought all their stuff with them, and unless the company decides to ship out more, I suspect that’s all they’ll have. That will put them in a rough position against the Dhuvalians. As Betsy-Ray said earlier, they are an army. They have a nation of resources, a logistics train, a stronger battlefield ethos then our beloved Marketeers, and the propaganda brought about by an invasion. From where I sit, they have both quantity and quality on their side. Our Free Marketeers are in a tough place.

TKG - Since they’re corporate assets we also don’t know if the 1st literal size. the word battalion could be an understatement or an overstatement of their actual size not counting dependents and non-combatants. It would be absolutely ironic if it turned out they were the corporate equivalent to rent-a-cops.

Grudgesettler - Sorry, I’d meant company as in a business venture, not as a military unit.

Bounty Red - Good point. Think about how long Dizzy had to wait in line to get his Limb repaired. 7 minutes. Crazy.

Mr. Patenge - Well specifically, they didn’t even both to repair his LIMB, they just slotted him into a new one and got him back out on the field. By the way, I notice that you’re a new reader. Welcome! How’d you find out about us?

#comic #webcomic #mecha #progress

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