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sexshopshenanigans · 4 years ago

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Things I’m really enjoying about Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town now that I’ve had some time to play it

You choose your appearance and everything before setting your gender so nothing is gender locked

Same sex marriage woohoo

Cute and lovely graphics!!

Fishing is so simple (looking at you, Stardew Valley)

You get to pick your wedding outfit (which is, once again, not gender locked!)

So many cute animals

You get a camera??? To take pictures of your animal friends????

Bridget why are you so cute shut up and marry me (as long as the cow is ok with it ofc)

Multiple-harvest crops have three harvests and then go away instead of being permanent until they die (look I have commitment issues and the permanent plants stress me out! This is a perfect compromise between the financially advantageous permanent crops and not having to plan my field layout for a whole season on the first day)

The gardens that let you plant seasonal crops all year are pretty easy to access (I’ve got one unlocked and I’m in early Autumn of my first year). Another good compromise! Instead of a greenhouse that gives you access to all seasonal crops year round that only becomes available in late game, you get to pick seasons to have access to fairly early on with the trade off of limiting it to specific seasons.

Gimme those makers babeyy

Gimme those outfits babeyyyy

Wait I unlock different animals by just meeting them in my field? And making friends with them?? Yes please I love it

The anniversary edition was only five dollars more than the regular version so I got a little yak doll and a cloth poster aw yiss

Things I’m not enjoying about Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town now that I’ve had some time to play it

Wait why can’t I romance Beth

Wait why can’t I romance Lars

Wait why can’t I romance Jacobo

Wait why can’t I romance Jeanne

Ralph why does the music in your scenes sound like that :/

Hang on my house is HUGE why can I only decorate this teeny tiny square in the corner

Why can’t I put “countertop” items on top of a table

Wtf why can’t I put ANYTHING on top of a RUG

The graphics that exist are lovely, but I feel the lack when certain graphics aren’t there. The museum isn’t very interesting to look at, there’s no model for things exchanging hands in a cutscene, just the base gesture for five/receive (at least throw a wrapped gift box in there!) and you can see where corners were cut (for example, when I move with long hair there’s animation for beginning the motion and ending the motion, but the hair just stays stiffly in place the whole time I’m moving - which is especially blatant in the opening cut scenes on my moped/motorcycle)

Why doesn’t goat milk become goat cheese? Aside from just having multiple cute animals, there doesn’t seem to be much point in having “cow and brown cow and goat and alpine goat” instead of “cow and cow and cow and cow” if the end result from maker products is going to be the same.

These trees and weeds are growing back wAy too fast damn gimme a chance to breathe

I unlocked my motorcycle and discovered that “mounts” seem to be basically useless? There’s just not that much distance to cover compared to other farming sims (since your farm expands into what would be the forest/foraging wilderness of other games), you don’t move that much faster and you can’t interact with people on the bike so it’s really more hassle than it’s worth

Wait there’s really not much space to explore in this game is there? Or much interaction with the Spirit or sprites. I want to give presents to my local goddess please and thank you

There is an upsetting lack of pretty dresses in the clothing options

Hats do NOT look good on my character

Minimal deviation from character scripts. When I proposed to Bridget none of the other characters - or Bridget herself - had dialogue to go with it until after the wedding.

I’m still in my first year and the game is still only recently released so I don’t wanna lay down any final judgements just yet, but it does feel a little bare-bones and unpolished. That might be from deadline issues, since I think it was released to coincide with the harvest moon/story of seasons twenty-fifth anniversary. When there’s a specific date the game has to be out for, there just isn’t time to add the levels of polish you would see in other games. This might be solved with dlc or updates down the road, and the game itself is fun even without the bells and whistles, but it is noticeable. I dunno, maybe my expectations are a little high since I picked it up right after replaying Stardew Valley, which has the benefit of both a long time in development to polish it up as well as a long time since it came out so more features and polish got added with later updates. As it is, I’m enjoying playing it for now but I have a feeling I won’t pick it up again once I finish it the way I have with really good HM/SOS games of the past. I’m open to changing my mind though! I would be delighted to be proven wrong here.

#story of seasons #pioneers of olive town #sos pioneers of olive town #harvest moon #game review #switch games #farming sim #ramblings #look it’s COVID times and I don’t have anyone I can talk about video games to #and if I don’t talk I might die so my long and pointless ramble about video games is just gonna go here for now #long post #sorry folks

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carmenxjulia · 4 years ago

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Another Duane interview transcript, coming at you! This one was from a smaller Carmen Sandiego chatroom. There were several interviewers, so that’s why the name of the question asker changes. Get the details below the break! Stay tuned, more interview transcripts coming soon.

Duane Capizzi:

HI EVERYONE! I'M IN!

Sorry I'm late, I got lost on the way haha. Then got lost trying to change my PFP

Thanks for gathering! Shall we get started? Let's do some Q&A!

(as long as they are not geography questions haha)

Fuel:

What characters or plot points were cut from the final product?

Duane Capizzi:

Ooo, starting with a right hook to the jaw!

Let me think about that for a moment: I'm hesitant to give too much away because I'm really hoping we can tell more stories in this world at some point

Which is to say, we tend not to waste anything: if we don't use it when we originally planned, we usually find a way to use something later - and there's usually a "karmic" reason that we waited.

I'll also preface by saying this: I know season 3 was more of a mini-drop and some felt season 4 was rushed. But I wish EVERY season were longer. Season 1: ideally, i wanted the Pilot to be its own event and 10 more episodes after that (but we had to tell the post-Pilot story in 7. At the end of the day, that had its benefits: we got to the Shadowsan turn earlier and I think that's when a lot of viewers realized the ride they were truly in for). Season 2: we initially figured we'd need 5 episodes to have Carmen doing the ACME dance with Chief, and wound up doing it in 3 - mostly because it quickly became clear that Rio needed to be a 2 parter, and the Zack and Ivy backstory a rough 2 parter. So we squeezed 3 episodes worth of plot into 209. It was exhilarating!

So, we had hoped to have more episodes for Season 4 of course. We had a ton of ideas and had to compress things a bit. But honestly in many ways it was for the better. I know we all wanted to live in this world longer, but I think sometimes the flip side is true - when you have big ongoing storylines, it can get frustrating when some things drag out too long. But, we got all the "story" we wanted to tell in Season 4 - we just lost some "incident" if that makes sense. We would have taken longer to get there.

So, all that preface to answer the question: we wanted to do more musical numbers! We had a Bollywood dance sequence in a return to India caper with Paperstar. We wanted to do a famous Elvis suit theft in Las Vegas during an Elvis impersonator convention (Shadowsan's an early elvis guy; Brunt likes the Vegas "jumpsuit" era). We also wanted to do a thread where Gunnar gets captured by ACME so that Julia could interrogate him and he could play mind games with her a la Hannibal Lector and Clarice. CAVEAT TO ALL THIS: these were some ideas that were bouncing around, that may not have seen the light of day if we couldn't get them to work. But they were on our wish list.

re: "other stories" - I could live with these characters for another 32 episodes easily and there have of course been discussions. But alas, that is up to the powers that be. Let's keep fingers crossed - and keep the Carmen love alive online so that someone up there takes note

There is more of course, but those are some things that spring to mind.

Fuel:

Were there any scenes cut for time that were your favorite?

Duane Capizzi:

Not much springs to mind: our directors were amazing at getting everything in the scripts to fit naturally (and in fact, I was the one who was usually suggesting trims to let other things breathe, etc). We were limited to 22 minutes of episode time, NOT counting front and end credits so a little longer than the average show. We have a pretty good idea when the SCRIPT is too long, so the cutting usually happens at script stage before it gets to the board crew so that they don't waste efforts over-boarding material that won't be used.

We had hoped to build out Chase and Carmen teaming up for the first time, meeting at Carmen's hotel lobby etc for more scenes of them together; but had to reduce that to get that all to fit in the VERY packed episode 406. But again, tighter was fine considering. That's one area that leaps to mind. (note that when I say packed, I don't mean that in a bad way: we spend a lot of time pouring over details in editing to make sure everything gets its due).

If I think of anything, I'll circle back at a later point. But the simple answer is that scenes were usually trimmed or compressed at script rather than board or animatic. So nothing comes to mind. I know it's hard to believe, but "shorter is usually better."

except for my answers to fan questions of course

Fuel:

We saw that in s4 episode 6 that Julia's mother(?) is wearing a necklace remarkably similar to the one Julia wears all the time. Is this the same necklace and if so, why was it given to Julia?

Duane Capizzi:

Just when I thought I was detail oriented! Wow! You guys blow me away

I can't take credit for that: it was either the board artist or director who added that. They do slip things in! As I've said before, EVERYONE on the crew really brought their A-game and were as deep thinking and as passionate as I was/am about the show.

It's a nice detail and I would say your interpretation works!

It took me three or four reviews before noticing that the team had slipped in baby Carmen near the play set in Mom's front yard at the end of 408. When I caught it, I was like: bravo!

Fuel:

When they first met, Zack and Ivy said to Carmen that they were the only family they had, do you know what happened to the rest of Zack and Ivy's family?

Duane Capizzi:

I don't. At least, I don't yet until such a time that I might have the opportunity to explore that. It was important to their relationship with Carmen that they be orphans, so they had that common bond (aside from being "thieves who steal from bad guys" - even if it was only gonna be one time for Zack and Ivy).

I know there are writers out there who like to do entire bio's for characters up front but i'm not one of them. It could be a trap in many ways. I like to have a general idea but be open to the demands of the ongoing storyline. You discover things along the way - it's like you're taking a journey with the characters by writing them, and the longer you spend, the better you get to know them (that was not a prepared statement by the way - I just made that up but I'll have to use it again :). So in Z/I's case it wasn't important to the story or Carmen's relationship, we felt. Conversely, we STARTED with Shadowsan's family backstory with 203, but more important to me was that we use it as a platform to explain why he stays with Carmen and crew. He really has no home at that point, so it was relevant to the present ongoing story. Which is what made that especially powerful to me.

Also, there's always a push-pull between telling character back stories while balancing them with ongoing episodic plots. You have to service both. If you just tell back story, then you're writing a biography

Arden:

What was the biggest challenge when designing these characters, especially the pre-existing characters from the series in the 90's?

Duane Capizzi:

This is probably more of a question for Chromosphere, re: challenges. But from my standpoint overseeing that process, the first thing I'll say is that we weren't necessarily trying to be "true" to those characters since we reinvented nearly every one from the ground up. (with the exception of Carmen of course - her trademark red hat/coat weren't going anywhere! But mostly the update with Carmen was in the styling of her "outerwear"

ALTHOUGH: I will admit that I was pushing for Carmen to have shorter hair as Carmen. I thought it would be a cool update. Chromosphere were really passionate about giving her long full hair and I have to see that they were right. The short tomboy cut worked so well for Black Sheep anyway. We had a different hair style for each of her ages.

So about the reinventions: Gunnar is in spirit a similar character to the original (old colleague in Vile and an early mentor if I remember), but his presentation completely different. We weren't trying to be "in canon" with the original. The beauty of CSD is that every incarnation has been its own entity so that freed us to reimagine the characters. THE CLEANERS, for instance: gimme some Cleaner love! There were a pair of janitors from the original game named RICK AND NICK ICK. They were literally janitors, it was too silly for our purposes. But, it's one small step to make them "Cleaners" (in the sinister hit men sense) - and lo, our reinvention.

So to summarize the answer to your question, they weren't really challenges to me so much as FUN to creatively reinvent the original characters (many of which were from the game, so not really "characters" per se with dialogue and inner lives). Whenever we could, we tried to use character names from the originals and update their looks and personalities. Where we couldn't find an equivalent for what we needed, we created characters from whole cloth. For instance, it seemed a miss to do a heist show without a tunnel guy and a high rise climber guy. Hence, LC & ET, everyone's favorite taco truck vendors!

(yes, i've seen some short hair carmen fan art on Twitter - someone did a great one recently!)

Arden:

Are there plans to give us more of the characters in, say, novel/graphic novel form?

Duane Capizzi:

I know HMH has done a bunch and no doubt have more in works. There's currently a novelization of the Pilot with some additional material if anyone's interested. I consulted on the second one, Clue for Clue, because it falls in the timeline while Chase was still Interpol/pre-Acme so was tricky.

And depending on whether another series in this canon makes it to air, I may just approach them about writing one or two myself to get some "further adventures" our there. Anything is possible!

Arden:

If you could go back and change anything about the series, what would it be?

Duane Capizzi:

File under anecdote, but there was what I felt was an important expression on Gray that kept me awake at nights, from his graduation ceremony at Vile. When we revisited those flashbacks in the Gray arc in Season 4, I had them change his expression there (to be more evil less innocent). We had it corrected in 404 so was able to get permission to have Netflix "fix" the Pilot by adding that shot in. I am tenacious!

We really poured over everything, it's the series that I have virtually zero complaints with the end product to be honest. But the simple answer is: I would have gone back to 106 and "un-greek'd" Gray's nametag. It's sort of a rule for international that we scramble signage (which is weird for a show that takes place in many countries/languages, I know I know). It's mostly for localization/translation reasons. And I'm sure there are some countries where Gray's name might be spoken differently. But as a proper name, I think we could have made an exception and seen "Gray" on his name tag. See? Details! But that's about the worst of it

there's also like one small line from Chief in 208 where she indicates she knows Carmen is a good guy (something to that effect) which I felt was too absolute and would have tweaked the line to temper it a bit. It's tiny, but looking back it sort of bugs me and I kick myself for not catching it. But this is absolutely the series I wanted and couldn't be happier.

Carmen:

How did Carmen know she could trust Julia? As far as we know, she has not seen or heard Julia defending her, and in the Fashionista Caper, Julia even held up her gas gun to her, saying she was under arrest. Do you have any opinions on this? Was it just intuition?

Duane Capizzi:

I'm gonna go with intuition

Carmen was raised on an island with some hardened criminal types. I think she's a pretty good judge of character. Poor Julia, trying to be tough with Carmen didn't suit her.

But, great observation! I'd have to mentally step through everything to see if Carmen had any earlier indication but i think you're right there.

Yes, sometimes you just gotta follow your heart

Carmen:

Are there any characters that didn't actually interact that you think would get along well?

Duane Capizzi:

Amazing question! First, I'd have to think more about who DIDN'T meet - you're asking the hard questions haha. But "get along well" is very specific! Hmmm, care to volley anyone?

I'll also add that so many smaller moments get lost in the "binge" of it all, but I am surprised how few fans have noted the first meeting between Player and Julia. THAT was a good one IMO! Very sweet!

Before getting back to your question, I also want to add that we were originally going to find a way for Carmen to lose her earring in Stockholm so that Julia could pick it up and be communicating with Player. BUT, I cut it at treatment stage because I knew we didn't have room in that episode to service it. Circling back to questions 1 & 2, another case where it turned out better saved for later IMO (saving Player meeting Julia, not to mention the earring business in 402 with Ivy).

Oh of course, Julia and any of the other Vile members. It would have been Gunnar for my vote, as mentioned earlier. We probably would not have had Julia meet anyone else and mixed it up more. I like that Cleo sort of became J's personal nemesis.

YES, SONIA & XIFENG (and LUPE PELIGRO, if I can add). The intent was (and is, if we ever get to revisit) to see them again in Carmen's travels. We started to expand Carmen's world but when we finally learned the finite number of episodes we had to finish the story, we drilled back down into the essentials. Would love to see them some day!

I'm hesitant to share too many things I have in mind in this forum for hope that they will see the light of day one day. You know, "spoilers"

Julia:

Do you have any opinions on Zari? Just in general? Some thoughts on her backstory would be nice if possible

Duane Capizzi:

I love Zari! I really don't have any back story on her at this point. She was originally just "Agent B" but when the need arose to give story points to another agent, we chose her because she looked so awesome! And Sharon Muthu gave voice to her so wonderfully.

I love when we finally teamed her with Chase. Hopefully the anticipation was that she would give him a hard time. I love that we defied expectation (organically, of course) and had her respect him by the end of that episode (for believing that he foiled Carmen!)

Julia:

Do you have any thoughts on small facts about any character, major or minor, that you think are fun/interesting to think about, but don't necessarily add to the plot itself?

Duane Capizzi:

Bellum, like myself, likes cats. But you knew that!

I try to put everything pertinent on screen, doing double duty to service any given episode's story but also the overarching story. That "journey" thing I mentioned earlier - we had no idea Chase falling on his own car would be a thing when I first came up with it. But as other characters refer to the incident, it took on a life of its own and made the characters feel more real.

Sorta kinda related to this question and some earlier ones, I will say that I DO think there's more to learn about Shadowsan's past vis a vis Lady Dokuso: it's clear to me that they have a history together, and it's something I hope to explore someday soon (maybe in a book if not another series

Julia:

Are the Carmen Sandiego books a part of canon?

Duane Capizzi:

I only consulted on the first two or three (too busy with series!) and have not read them, so hard for me to answer in a definite way. They are definitely in the universe we've created, but not in the timeline that I know of (which would have been too hard to pull off with our script development running concurrently). But do know that the book team at HMH pays close attention to the series and world so they should be perfectly compatible. Look no further to their clever social media on the series for example.

Kenz:

We saw in season 4 that Julia and Carmen helped each other mid to long term; would there ever be a possibility that Julia would permanently or semi-permanently join team Red?

Duane Capizzi:

Of course there's a possibility. But in a sense, with ACME now finally on Carmen's side, in a sense if Carmen were back in the game Julia, Chase, Zack and Ivy would ALL be an extension of Carmen's crew. But, would J remain with ACME or literally come to Carmen's team at her HQ? As they said in an old radio show: "Only The Duane Capizzi knows ..."

Kenz:

Where do you see Carmen in her retirement (if she retires)? Do you think she would still travel the world or settle down somewhere? Similarly, do you have any thoughts on what some other characters could be doing years down the line?

Duane Capizzi:

That is a big question, and one difficult to answer without some potential future spoilers (and yes, I really want to tell more Carmen stories if you can't tell But I'll answer by giving you one "read" on our open-ended ending as seen in 408 (read no further if you haven't seen it - yeah, right haha). The ending suggests to me that Carmen settled down for a spell to forge that relationship with her mother, to make up for lost time. But, if that is indeed Carmen that we see on the rooftop, I think the ending suggests that Carmen doesn't stay still for very long. If Vile is back, there is work to be done! Carmen has a life mission - she's one determined lady.

But of course, it's deliberately ambiguous: "anyone with your heart, wisdom and courage can be Carmen Sandiego." Is it Carmen? Sonia? Someone we haven't met? I think both endings resonate: Caroline and I always said "Carmen is bigger than a person, Carmen is a movement" would be a great message to end the series on. And I think our ending resolves this chapter of Carmen's journey as a person, but also elevates her to mythic status. Which is why I love it!

And, that seems to me a pretty perfect question and answer to end our chat on. Thanks everyone! Again, I cannot tell you how moved I am to see that we have such a passionate, intelligent and talented fan base. THANK YOU.

Take care guys, thanks again for having me! 'night!

#Carmen Sandiego #CS Crew #Duane Capizzi #Interview #Transcript

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hirokari · 3 years ago

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Hi hey hello!

I am here to ask if you have a dni for certain ages!

Like others who will have

-14/25+ normally, sometimes -13/-15 too

ooo hmm

i've actually yet to update my DNI list soo,, i welcome any age to check out my blog, really :) maybe i'll set a boundary for 27+ (excluding current moots)

those who i prefer not interact with me are blogs that surrounds graphic 18+ content as i am a minor.

buuut if they'd like to interact without the mention of seggsy talk then go ahead!! i'd love to talk!! (just gimme a small warning first about such content included in le blog)

there arent any fandoms that i dont welcome,, im actually in a fair share of fandoms out there like MCYT, genshin impact, anime and a lot of others!

#:: announcements?#:: announcements!#:: DNI list... ish #:: DNI list!#:: ask box!#:: hiro replies!#:: hiro answers!#:: sunoo-bby !

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drake-the-incubus · 4 years ago

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This is a gift for @striderhell from the Homestuck Secret Santa 2020 (@homestuckss). I was aiming for 3000 words but uh, Dirk as a muse didn’t want to continue exploring the concept of gender given his rigid but philosophical nature.

I hope this was good, and if not just gimme a shout and I’ll try and come up with something better.

Word Count: 1521 Fandom: Homestuck Characters: Dirk Strider, Roxy Lalonde Relationships: Dirk Strider & Roxy Lalonde (Platonic/Friends)

Additional Notes: Roxy uses He/Him and They/Them, I’ve never finished the epilogues but I love NB Rox. Dirk uses no pronouns in this, as I wanted to try that out.

Please enjoy Dirk exploring his gender.

Sometimes in an effort to define ourselves, we feel trapped to conform to some rigid aspect or label in hopes to reach an understanding of who we are. At times this process can be frustrating and dissatisfying. Other people take weeks or days, and some of them take years or never figure it out.

Perhaps gender, as a construct, can’t be fully understood, but we can understand ourselves as people without it. The tale before you, is only a short of someone who wishes to take a journey many end up doing, and most have never encountered.

Dirk was sitting in a cafe on Earth-C, sipping on a coffee in between tinkering with another pair of shades. The goal was updating and adding a better set of graphics, hoping to add some additional features to make things easier.

It had been a while since the Prince of Heart had seen the rest of the gods. Jake would visit once in a while, and they would have a friendly spar or talk. Roxy would message once in a while, letting Dirk know any spicy news about the rest.

Dave would randomly show up, they would stare each other down before both Striders would give a thumbs up and go their separate ways.

Rose would often come by, trading witty banter and wisdom. Both of them struggled with the massive impact of their god tiers and would often talk about it to one another.

Today though, Dirk decided a change of area would suit this project best, specifically needing to leave the workshop and enjoy some caffeine. Recently a problem developed that would continue to nag at the Prince even through the night. Lack of sleep was the reason why Dirk had picked a coffee shop. It made the most sense.

Gender did not.

Dirk had been going through a lot lately, and when Roxy had come out as trans, it had been taken pretty well by most of them. Not that it would be different if Dirk came out either, but rather that would take knowing what was going on.

This was a laughable moment, since they all had beaten the game, made it out and enjoyed their own little home in the midst of nothing. Creating entire worlds and civilizations with the help of their space and time players, but Dirk was sitting there, in a cafe, trying to figure out what gender even was and how it related to the god’s own identity.

Pronouns were hard, but so was even figuring this shit out. Making a copy of your brain at thirteen was much easier than figuring out if you’re cis or not, and Dirk didn’t know.

The more it was thought about, the more the thought cropped up, what if it turned out the being Cis wasn’t the result. Dirk was absolutely sure about not being a chick, nothing really appealed about that, but then again there was a very similar feeling over the current gender.

Man, agender or woman. Those were the categories that presented themselves currently. Working harder to connect the shades to the newly built chip, Dirk jolted when suddenly Roxy sat down across the table.

“I called out to you, but you didn’t answer.” He said leaning over and looking over the project. “I was wondering what made you change location, you’re pretty adamant to work in your workshop Dirkie.”

“I needed to think, which I was doing when you were calling out to me. Thinking so hard about creating a new line of orange pop with more caffeine than this cup of coffee that the world died out and I was left to only the one set of thoughts for once.”

He raised an eyebrow at that, and crossed his arms. “Really now? You think that I can’t tell something bigger is going on in that Strider head of yours? You’ve come up with projects while having a philosophical discussion with Rose and texting Dave a rap battle. You’re the king of multi-tasking, which also means your attention is usually divided more, and you’re attempting to put a wire on the wrong side of that.”

Dirk frowned and sighed, putting the project down. “Well, I can’t get nothing past you I suppose. I guess one thing that’s on my mind is how much I miss AR, since he was a good source of introspection, then again I have no idea if that would have helped in the first place.” Tapping fingers filled the space between them as the Prince looked outside at the billions of humans and trolls walking over the streets.

“I’ve been contemplating what gender is and how I relate to it since you came out as nonbinary. It’s been making me think about what is my gender, and I’ve come to the conclusion none of them really fit, but that’s also something to worry about since that means I don’t relate to any of the options-“

“Before you go on a long tangent, I want to ask, what are the options?” He interrupted Dirk while cocking his head.

“Agender, man and woman.” Dirk said bluntly, staring at Roxy. The laughter that resulted made the god tip the iconic shades down to stare at Roxy with deadpan orange eyes.

“I get greeted by your eye colour, score! But no, you got it all wrong, gender isn’t rigid categories, it’s a spectrum. You can’t define it by strict labels and there’s too many to count. So you don’t fit in three, there’s millions of genders. Some might not have a word for it right now. I’m nonbinary, but that’s because I’m not a man or a woman completely, I’m somewhere in the middle, closer to a man if I were to describe it as like, a sliding scale. So don’t be in a hurry, and don’t worry if you don’t figure it out.”

“I need to. Not knowing makes things difficult. I know it might be unhealthy to obsess over, but ever since I made Auto Responder, I had the need to understand myself fully and everything about myself.” With an elbow on the table, Dirk took a hand and raked it through the mess of hair. Having done so more than a hundred times earlier, the Prince was sure it was a complete and utter mess at this point, and would need to be taken care of at home.

“Well, I have a list of some of the other more known ones, maybe one of them check out for you?” He offered a tablet.

Dirk took it, and looked over the list of options and each description of it, mumbling under breath before placing the tablet back down with a definite, “I’m going to use Genderless for now and see what happens.” It looked interesting, the excerpt specifically outlined not having a gender at all due to neurodivergence, rather than lacking a gender or having no gender, different from agender. It didn’t feel much different from everything else, but nothing did. Having several of the entries be defined by one’s neurodivergence was weird, but the more thought placed into the concept, the more it felt real to Dirk. Rather it meant that the Prince would have to take Rose up on her offer to get a fully evaluation soon, even if both of them came to the conclusion Dirk was probably neurodivergent and that it wasn’t impactful with how the god had lived life before the game.

“Are there any pronouns I should use for you?”

Pursing lips, Dirk gave a shake of the head. “None preferably. I think I need more time to actually think everything over. I have no positive or negative feelings for anything on there, and so I’m debating on if I’m everything or not. I can figure out how to make an exact replica of my own brain as a teenager, create robots, plot out the exact way I can kiss Jake and even save everyone's lives getting into the game. I’ve designed complex interactions to lead to the outcome I desire, and I can’t even pick a gender. This is quite frankly, ridiculous.”

“You don’t gotta. Dirk, it’s not about just picking a gender, it’s about figuring out a big part of yourself, and something most people don’t do for yours. You figured out you’re gay, now you’re figuring out what else you could be.” He placed a hand on Dirk’s and gave him a smile. “Whatever your result, I’m here for you. Even if you later think you’re a Cis man I’ll still be here for you. We might be siblings but we were friends first and that matters the most to me.”

Dirk gave a snort. “This is so fucking corny, but thanks Rox. I appreciate the love and support. Maybe I can treat you to another coffee since I feel like if I don’t buy one soon I’m going to be kicked out for making a mess of a window table.” Motioning towards the table, and standing up, the god stretched out. “What are you in the mood for?”

“Caramel Macchiato please.”

“Gotcha.”

#homestuck secret santa 2020 #striderhell #I fucking was gonna make this christmas eve but I got busy the past two days #Glad I waited because this Idea was much better #trans nonbinary characters #dirk is amab

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tsarisfanfiction · 5 years ago

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Fic Rec Bingo

Okie dokie, this is the Fan Rec Bingo - idea courtesy of lightvials on twitter, but I don’t have a twitter that I ever use, so I’m filling it out here instead. Let’s see if I can fill it all out!

I did, and then some. To save poor dashboards, it’s all under the cut! If I know author tumblrs they’ve been mentioned - I know pitifully few so if anyone knows the ones I don’t, let me know so I can mention them, too!

A fic you love without knowing the source material: The Dragon-King’s Temple by Kyral (Stargate SG-1/Avatar the Last Airbender)

Through the spite of the spirits or plain rotten chance, a door that would have been better left untouched has opened. On the other hand, with Fire and Earth as one's allies, sometimes escaping is the easy part. Rated: Gen. AO3 Archive Warning for Graphic Descriptions of Violence. Characters: Zuko, Toph Beifong, Janet Fraiser, Sam Carter, Jack O’Neill, and more Words: 196311. Status: Complete

I very rarely read fics without already knowing the canon, but one that I think counts would be a Stargate/ATLA crossover, because I know nothing about Stargate and I have yet to finish ATLA! This was recommended to me due to the creativity of the author regarding a language barrier (something I always enjoy, and my friend knows that).

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A fic series with a premise that shouldn’t work but it does: Crazy=Genius by blackkat (Bleach/Harry Potter)

Minerva McGonagall isn't about to let Harry go back to the Dursleys after his first year. She finds an alternative, and along the way, Bazzard Black finds that he might have more family left than he'd ever thought. Rated: Teen. AO3 No Archive Warnings Apply Characters: Bazz-B, Harry Potter, and more Words: 21682. Status: Incomplete

Okay, I cheated and picked a series. Not my fault blackkat decided to make this universe a series of oneshots rather than a single entity and you’re certainly not getting me to only pick one of the five already published ones. Bazz-B being a Black and also kinda a wizard is a brilliant concept, and having him adopting Harry is pure gold. Not sure how crazy Quincy adopting poor, neglected Boy Who Lives works, but it does!

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A fic you’ve reread several times: The Guardian (Director’s Cut) by SGTBrowncoat (Naruto)

Itachi Uchiha receives his first mission in ANBU: protecting a certain trouble making Jinchuriki. He bonds quickly with the boy, but dark forces rise to threaten Itachi, Naruto, and those they care for most. Rated: T. Canon-typical violence Characters: Uchiha Itachi, Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Shisui and more (includes Uchiha Itachi/Inuzuka Hana background pairing) Words: 35945. Status: Complete

Back to my first ever fandom, here, and a really fun non-massacre AU fic, with lots of Itachi and Shisui goodness. There are a fair few ANBU-looking-after-kid-Naruto fics but this is by far my favourite of them! There is a sequel, but unfortunately it’s not finished and hasn’t been updated in a long time (I live in hope!)

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A fic you still remember many years later: While The Ring Went South by Thundera Tiger (Lord of the Rings)

What happened after the Fellowship left Rivendell but before they came down off Caradhras? Behold the missing scenes. Rated: K+. Canon-typical violence Characters: Legolas, Gimli, Aragon, Gandalf, the whole Fellowship Words: 149624. Status: Complete

I refound this fic completely by accident the other week, after first reading it (according to when I favourited it on FFN) in 2011! It was just as amazing as I remembered, and is really the standard I hold all other LotR fics to, especially ones that involve the entire, pre-Moria, Fellowship. It has a sequel but sadly that’s not been updated in some time (but again, I live in hope!)

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A comfort fic: There May Be Some Collateral Damage by metisket (Bleach/Harry Potter)

Ichigo’s been ordered to go undercover at a magic school to bodyguard a kid named Harry Potter, and this would be fine, except that he’s about as good at bodyguarding as he is at magic. And he considers it a good day, magic-wise, if he hasn’t set anything on fire. Rated: Gen. AO3 No Archive Warnings Apply Characters: Kurosaki Ichigo, Harry Potter, Weasley Twins, and more. Words: 61209. Status: Complete

I have no idea what this means by ‘Comfort Fic’ but if I want a laugh and Umbridge getting a pile of comeuppance, this is definitely the fic I’ll turn to. As the A/N says: ‘sending Ichigo to Hogwarts is basically the same as swinging a wrecking ball directly into the side of the castle’. Beautiful chaos is what we get. Beautiful, beautiful chaos.

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A cathartic fic: See You Again by cookietosser (One Piece)

Rocinante has been through a lot in his life. Adding uncontrollable time travel into the mix? That's just the icing on the cake. Rated: Teen. AO3 Violence and (canon) Character Death Warnings Characters: Donquioxte Rocinante|Cora-san, Trafalgar Law, Heart Pirates Words: 15755. Status: Complete

You want to rip my heart out and trample it into lots of little pieces while still making it all better because Law and Rocinante? Well, this little time-traveller’s wife AU fic is just the one for all that. Sad moments, frustrating moments, happy moments, all wrapped up in this oneshot!

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A fic you’d print and put on your bookshelf: Thrower of the Dart by Vathara (Artemis Fowl/The Avengers)

What might have happened instead of Artemis Fowl book 6, if it'd happened in the Marvel Universe. Megalomaniacs ahoy! Rated: Teen. AO3 No Archive Warnings Characters: Artemis Fowl II, Tony Stark, and more Words: 101272. Status: Complete

It’s long, it’s epic, and it would nestle in perfectly at home alongside my Artemis Fowl books on the bookshelf! It’s not so much a rewrite of book 6 as a complete replacement of it, with a new plot and an all too familiar villain!

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A fic you associate with a song: Goodbye, Brother by Serena Estelle (Bleach)

Ilforte's final moments as I like to picture them-with his brother. Rated: T. Canonical character death Characters: Szayelaporro Granz, Yylfordt Granz Words: 3073. Status: Complete

Might be cheating, because the author actually names a song in their starting A/N, but this definitely brings to mind Exile Vilify by The National, and I fully recommend listening to that (on loop - there is a 10-hour loop version on youtube) as you watch this for maximum tear-jerking effect.

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A fic that inspires you: Magic of the Rose Cross by Awensweth (Harry Potter/D.Gray-Man)

In Harry's 4th year the Triwizard Tournament is brought back to live, but the appearance of a fourth mysterious school about which only Dumbledore seems to know brings new secrets with it for everyone. Who are the students of Rose Cross? Rated: Mature. AO3 Chose Not To Use Warnings Characters: Harry Potter, Allen Walker, and more Words: 66632. Status: Incomplete

I have been inspired by many, many fics, but I chose this one in particular because it was the main one that inspired me to join the HP/DGM Triwizard Tournament wave of the early 2010s - indeed, The Combat School is one of my most popular fics, but without this and other fics of the trope, I probably would never have written it! That’s not to say I’ve copied this fic - aside from the base trope I tried my best to make my own work unique against the others, and hope that I succeeded! Sadly, this fic is incomplete and hasn’t been updated for some time, but it’s still worth a read.

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A fic that brought you on board a new ship: Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell by MsChunks (Boku no Hero Academia)

Uraraka and Bakugo have a secret. It’s not what their classmates think it is. Rated: Teen. AO3 Chose Not To Use Warnings Characters: Bakugo Katsuki, Uraraka Ochako Words: 182478. Status: Complete

Putting Bakugo and Uraraka together was something I’d never considered, and I started this fic with some trepidation after a friend recommended it to me, but said friend has never steered me wrong with fics and didn’t start now! Fake dating, Uraraka actually being badass, the most terrifying couple in class 1-A? That’s this fic.

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A fic you wish could be a movie: Mission Impossible by Loopstagirl (Thunderbirds)

Being selected for his first solo mission should have been exciting for Captain Scott Tracy of the Air Force. But there was something else at play. Something dangerous and deadly. Something that could cost him more than his life. Rating: T. Warnings: Violence Characters: Scott Tracy, Gordon Tracy Words: 55048. Status: Complete

Air Force!Scott? W.A.S.P.!Gordon? On a joint mission together? Yes, gimme, gimme, gimme. Gimme Scott’s awkwardness alone on a boat of WASP personnel, gimme Gordon’s horror when he realises the suicide mission pilot is his older brother, and now give that all to me on screen! And we can’t forget the Hood, of course! Might be a bit higher rating than the current Thunderbirds stuff, but hey, I’m old enough. Gimme.

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A fic that led to you becoming friends with the author: The Gabriel Project by Aceidia (Bleach) - @thetwelvecaesars

When Szayelaporro knew Aizen's reign in Heuco Mundo was coming to a close, he took matters into his own brilliant hands. He reincarnates himself and the other nine Espadas into a new life full of surprising turns and irony. Yet, the harmony and ignorance is not forever as they begin to remember. Rating: M (violence) Characters: Szayelaporro Granz, the Espada Words: 116030. Status: Complete

Well, this fic sparked off a friendship that’s still very much there, even if neither of us write much for Bleach any more! What started off as a challenge to identify who the Espada were turned into essay-length PMs about anything and everything, and then RP groups and now random emails about whatever at random times of the day (different timezones don’t help)!

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A fic you’ve gushed about irl: Living Like Kings by CLynnB (Thunderbirds)

The world wants to know more about the Tracy brothers. So Lady Penelope takes it upon herself to show the world just who they are. Through YouTube. Rating: Gen. AO3 Author Chose Not To Use Warnings Characters: Lady Penelope-Creighton-Ward, Tracy Family (background Pen/Ink, Scayo, Virg/Brains) Words: 35348. Status: Complete

I love social media fics like this one, and my poor boyfriend got the brunt of it while we were on holiday... he knows basically nothing about Thunderbirds except for what he’s heard from me (which is a lot because he’s amazing and lets me gush). I mean, Tracy boys playing “The Floor Is Lava?” and tackling each other to the ground? Gimme.

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A fic you associate with a place: Thunderbirds Meet Thunderbirds - Alan trip in to the movie verse by ak47stylegirl (Thunderbirds) @ak47stylegirl

Crazy stuff always happens to Tracys, don't they? Add felling into a different world to the list. Rating: Gen. AO3 No Archive Warnings Characters: Alan Tracy, Tracy Family times two Words: 25599. Status: Incomplete

This might be a little random, but this fic was one that I found while I was ill on holiday to the Lake District last autumn. Sadly, it’s the only trip there I’ve ever done where I couldn’t climb a single fell (and my car’s clutch burnt out after having to reverse up a pass... thanks bus coming the other way), and this fic’s updates while I was there kept me sane! This has actually very loosely inspired a fic of my own which is in the making - which might get posted in the next year if I’m lucky... Still waiting eagerly for this fic’s next update :D

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A fic that made you gasp out loud: The Colours Of The World by MaiKusakabe (Fullmetal Alchemist/Harry Potter)

When Roy Mustang went to retrieve his eyesight from Truth, he wasn’t expecting to end up doing a job in exchange. It couldn’t even be an easy job, of course, because Edward’s assessment of Truth was a pretty accurate one. Rating: Mature. AO3 No Archive Warnings (but watch for canon-typical violence) Characters: Roy Mustang, Albus Dumbledore, Sirius Black, and more Words: 120578. Status: Incomplete

Badass Roy yesss. Twists and turns and Truth is a pretentious you-know-what but Voldemort’s even worse so where does that leave poor Roy except caught in the middle and very much a war veteran at this point... much to the horror of a few wizards!

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A fic you found at the right time: Seafaring Heartless: Exit North Blue by Avian Swallow (One Piece)

Pirates may be considered evil by the majority, but Law had met quite a few of the world's navy who were corrupt to the core and putting up a very thick facade. He reasoned that if he was going to manipulate and scheme his way into that goal, at least he was going to be honest enough to admit it. Rating: T. Canon-typical situations Characters: Trafalgar Law, Bepo, Penguin, Shachi, Heart Pirate OCs Words: 159644. Status: Complete

Is there ever a ‘wrong time’ to find a fic? (a 100k+ at 4am debatable, but shh). When I craved Heart Pirate content, this fic (and its sequel, still in progress but updating) appeared! Only loosely clings to canon at the moment, thanks to some SBS revelations, but with well developed OCs to fill the faces we have no names or personalities for at the moment!

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A fic that you would read fic of: Only a Boy by Riddle Lee (Harry Potter/Merlin)

Merlin has changed Camelot forever but while that part of his life is complete, destiny has a new task for him. Now he has to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, hide the fact that he's the Merlin, and defeat a Dark Lord that's messing with magic he knows nothing about. Rating: T. Canon-typical situations Characters: Merlin, Draco Malfoy, Hermione Granger, and more Words: 340998. Status: Incomplete

An amazing universe with Slytherin!Merlin, no Harry Potter/Boy Who Lived, and the good old ‘hiding real identity’ trope to underpin the whole series. Currently just into the start of Merlin’s third year at Hogwarts, aka “The Prisoner of Azkaban”. This universe has so much to give, although Riddle Lee is doing a fantastic job at it. It’s incomplete and slow to update but does update!

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A fic that made you laugh out loud: HOW’S THE COMA GOING by ossicle (One Piece)

Kidd and Penguin keep trying to murder each other and Law is done with their shit. He assigns them to take care of each other’s injuries so they’ll learn to get along. It doesn’t work. Rating: Teen. AO3 No Archive Warnings Characters: Eustass Kid, Penguin, Trafalgar Law (background KidLaw) Words: 2062. Status: Complete

Oh this one had me in stitches basically the whole time. Kid’s bedside manner should not be mimicked in the slightest, but a beautiful bonding fic in typical pirate fashion - beat ‘em up ‘til they have your approval. Poor, poor, Law.

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A fic with a line (or two) that you’ve memorised by heart: On Their Side by Gumnut (Thunderbirds) - @gumnut-logic

She trusted these boys with a great deal. Rating: Teen. AO3 No Warnings Apply Characters: Colonel Casey, Virgil Tracy, Gordon Tracy Words: 1116. Status: Complete

I think I have basically the entire thing memorised. This one also falls into several other categories, most notably ones that made me laugh and ones that I’ve reread several times, but it really belongs here on this list.

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A fic that gave you butterflies: it’s a long way forward so trust in me by aloneintherain (Miraculous Ladybug)

Six times Marinette carried Adrien (plus one time he carried her). Rating: Teen. AO3 No Archive Warnings Characters: Adrien Agreste|Chat Noir, Marinette Dupain-Cheng|Ladybug (all sides of the love square) Words: 5611. Status: Complete

Aaah I have a weak spot for strong!Marinette and this fic ticks that box time and time again, with a side of blushing!Adrien and general love-struck Adrien/Chat. I mean, what more could a girl need?

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A fic that embodies something you value in life: Team Itachi by Killer of thy Cookies (Naruto)

What if the Third Hokage stopped the council before they could order Itachi to commit the Uchiha Clan Massacre? Itachi is one of the village's strongest ninja, and has now been given the task of being a Jonin sensei, assigned to Team 7 with his little brother Sasuke, the 'dead last' Naruto Uzumaki, and fangirl Sakura Haruno. This is Team Itachi. Rating: T. Canon-typical situations Characters: Uchiha Itachi, Uchiha Sasuke, Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura, and more Words: 155092. Status: Complete

(Yup, another non-massacre AU.) Loyalty. Honestly, there are so many fics that have loyalty in them, especially in fandoms like Naruto, where loyalty is a pretty big thing anyway (alongside friendship, of course), but this one is Itachi staying openly loyal to the village because Sarutobi actually saved the clan, and of course lovely bonds between the team!

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A favourite AU: A Son By Any Other Name by carryonstarkid (Thunderbirds)

Cursed as a child, Scott Tracy lives a life in which everyone he encounters must follow all of his given commands. Rating: Teen. AO3 Chose Not To Use Warnings Characters: Scott Tracy, Tracy Brothers, Kayo Kyrano, and more Words: 83429. Status: Complete

I rarely read AU fics - my preferred sandbox is the canon one, or a nice slice of canon diversion, rather than completely taking characters out of their home and dumping them somewhere entirely new. This fairytale AU, however - reminding me very much of Sleeping Beauty except instead of sleeping it’s, well, what the summary says - is fantastically well done and addresses the strain such a thing would put on even the closest of family relationships.

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A fic you stayed up too late to finish reading: As N Approaches Infinity by Corisanna (Bleach/Puella Magi Madoka Magica)

Despairing as yet another timeline goes horribly wrong, Homura wanders into Karakura. There she discovers that while the spiritually-aware people of Karakura were distracted by Ichigo Kurosaki and Xcution, Kyubey had managed to contract the Kurosaki sisters as magical girls. Drawing the attention of the shinigami could be just the advantage Homura needs. Rating: Teen. AO3 No Archive Warnings but watch out for canon-typical situations for both fandoms (especially Madoka) Characters: Akemi Homura, Kurosaki Karin, Kurosaki Yuzu, Urahara Kisuke, and many more Words: 465297. Status: Incomplete

There are many fanfictions that have kept me up til dawn. Many. This one, however, has literally robbed me of all my sleep and I’ve still been unable to finish it in one sitting. It’s good, the pacing is fantastic, and with Homura as our leading lady, that means those time resets really hit hard when they happen (and they happen. They really, really, happen). Might be incomplete, but is still updating - and there’s plenty to keep you occupied in the meantime!

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A fic that made you feel seen: A Seed Once Grown by Darkestwolfx (Thunderbirds) - @darkestwolfx

Believe it or not, they did have a garden on Tracy Island. It looked a little like a… tip. And that was being kind. Rating: Teen. AO3 No Archive Warnings Characters: Ned Tedford, Tracy Family Words: 4785. Status: Complete

Okay, so I’m taking this literally because I spend a lot of time feeling invisible on the internet so having a fic written for me from someone I’d barely spoken to before was a whole pile of screaming. Not that it’s the first time someone’s written a fic for me, but the other ones have been done by friends I’d already known for some time, and not someone in a fandom I’m just starting to find my feet in.

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Free space: whoo boy, fun time! There are a few fics on the top of my head that didn’t fill any of the above prompts (or got beaten to the punch by another), so my wildcard space is going to be a few fic links without the extra detail because I’ve already spent about 12 hours on this to get to this point (did I get sidetracked and re-read a bunch? You bet) and I’d quite like to also get some fic written today, too!

Eight-Day Week (JoJo Spotting) by TrufflestheMushroom (JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure)

The Trouble With Eastern by teaandtumblr (One Piece)

Remembrance by ClioSelene (One Piece)

Legacy by MaiKusakabe (One Piece)

A Fleeting Smile by AnonymousTwit (Boku no Hero Academia)

Too Loud For Comfort by vaporeon_ninja (Boku no Hero Academia)

A Dragon’s Hoard by Chezka (Boku no Hero Academia)

Nine Lives by P_Artsypants (Miraculous Ladybug)

Chat’s Eye View (Love Letters To Paris) by Icka M Chif (Miraculous Ladybug)

Gabriel’s Lament by Chaotic Neutral (Miraculous Ladybug)

What The Cat Dragged In by Kyral (Avengers/Miraculous Ladybug)

Weekend Warrior by BlackDog_66 (Avengers)

Fitting In (Tiny Spaces) by aloneintherain (Avengers)

Autonomy by beetlebee (Naruto)

Great Minds by ScreamingViking (Final Fantasy VII)

Dear Kunsel by Sinnatious (Final Fantasy VII)

Cracks in the knight by authorettejasmin (Magic Kaito)

To Wrap An Elvish Princeling by Jael (Lord of the Rings)

There are more, many more, and I’ll probably post a few more recs around - you can also find some on my blog and I’ll try and get that updated with a few more at some point because there are many more than that!

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eliniei · 5 years ago

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Those Hard Days - Chapter 38

Summary: Rae’s brother always made sure she was tough as nails. But when her father flips her world upside down, will she find that there’s a limit on how strong she can be?

Warnings: Rape/Non-con (non-graphic, fade-to-black), child abuse, underage drinking, underage smoking, drug use, violence, major character death

A/N: I’m so sorry for lack of updates. I’ve been busy and sick and its been awful. All subsequent chapters are going to be the beginning of the end->through to the end. Good luck.

AO3: here Fanfiction.net: here

Masterlist

Previous Chapter | Next Chapter

Chapter 38 - Wait

The school week was incredibly long. Rae couldn’t concentrate on her schoolwork. She felt like all she’d done the entire time was tap her pen on the wood surface of her desks.

It felt like an eternity to her, and the weekend wasn’t looking any better. She wanted to know what was going on and no one seemed to know anything. The newspapers and television just pissed her off- sayin’ Johnny and Ponyboy had done it for fun, that they were no-good-hoods. And her brother’s involvement worried her even further. She hissed and threw the daily paper back down onto the kitchen table.

"Rae?" Bryon's voice brought her out of the long, hazy daydream she'd been in for the past few days. She blinked and looked over at him. "Are you good at English at all?"

"Yeah, I’m alright," she said with a shrug. "Need help?" He nodded. She got up and followed him back to the room he shared with Mark. "Okay, let me take a look." She sat down at his desk and looked over his paper. She irony didn’t escape her. Just a few months ago, she was helping Ponyboy with his English homework too... Rae sighed and picked up his pencil, marking any grammatical or punctuation errors. "This looks pretty good, but there are few things. Like right here-"

Her sentence was interrupted by a loud knock on the door.

"Hang on a minute." Rae stood back up and went to the front room to open the door. A familiar face stood behind it. Her stomach did a flip. She’d been waiting.

"Tim," she said, greeting him with a nod.

"The kids were found," he said. She looked behind her to see Bryon peeking out from the hallway. She stepped outside, closing the door behind her.

"Where?"

"They were injured saving some kids in a rotting church down in Windrixville yesterday. Someone set it on fire," he responded. Rae's eyes widened.

"They're okay right?" Rae asked. Tim looked down at the ground, silent for a long moment. "They’re...they’re not-?"

"Johnny, I think? He's hurt real bad, Rae. The roof fell on top of him. They said his back was broke.”

"Why…?" She asked herself and dropped into a porch chair. "I leave for a while and everythin’ goes to hell."

"There’s somethin’ else," Tim said, leaning up against the porch pillar. "Dally was there, too.”

“What?” she cried.

“He’s fine,” he assured her. “Got burned up a bit, but nothin’ too serious. I visited him this mornin’.” She leaned forwards on her elbows, rubbing her temples with one hand.

“Jesus fuckin’ Christ.”

“The rumble is tonight.” She paused and looked up at him. “Promised I’d spring ya.” She was on her feet in an instant.

"I'll go get a few things," Rae said and quickly made her way back inside. Bryon had moved back to his room, still mulling over his homework. "Sorry, kid. I gotta go. I marked the mistakes for you."

“Mom’s gonna be mad when-”

She ignored him and closed his door as she made for her own room. After grabbing her backpack and tossing plenty of clothes in it, she changed into a tight, long-sleeved shirt and slid her blue-handled blade into her back pocket. She threw her leather jacket onto her back and slung her backpack onto her shoulder.

"You can stay at my place ‘til the rumble," Tim said once she was back outside and they started walking down the street, towards his house. “You might even catch Curl’s weekly call.”

Sure enough, when they walked through the door, Angela had the telephone pressed to her ear. She turned at the sound of the screen slamming.

“Oh good, you’re here,” she said, then talked back in the phone. “Yeah, he just walked in. Rae’s with him.” She paused, listening. “Yeah, she looks good.” Another pause, followed by a smile. “No fuckin’ way you can talk to her!”

“Alright, alright,” Tim said, snatching the phone out of her perfectly manicured hand and holding it up to his ear. “It’s me.” Pause. “Yeah, you can talk to her but you gotta gimme an update first.” He nodded. “Alright. Good. Keep it up, kid. I need you home soon.” Rae swayed back and forth on her feet as they exchanged a few more words. Finally, Tim handed the phone over to her.

"Hey,” she greeted him, turning her back on the other two.

"Finally!" Curly's voice said. God, she could just hear his stupid cocky smile in his voice. It made her grin as well.

"How are you?"

"Ya know how it goes in these places. It’s shit, but I’m behavin’ myself this time ‘round. Maybe they’ll let me out early.”

"I guess Tim told you what’s been goin’ on ‘round here?” Curly’s sigh was heavy.

“Yeah. I wish I could be there for the rumble tonight.”

“Me too. I miss you.”

"I’ll be out of here soon, yeah? It’ll be in no time," he said.

"You’d better."

"Alright, Shepard," a man said on Curly’s end.

"Aw, come on, man. I’m talkin’ to my woman here.” There was silence for a few seconds. She imagined the guard giving him a look. “Alright, alright. Rae, I have to go. Good luck tonight." She opened her mouth to say something, but before she could get any words out, there was a click and he was gone. She put the phone back on the wall and went to find Tim in the kitchen, leaning on the refrigerator door, downing a bottle of beer.

“Want somethin’ to drink?” he asked once he’d emptied it. He set the glass down onto the counter and stood up straight.

“Nah, I’m good, but ya got anything to eat?”

“Not much. We should prob’ly go get somethin’ before tonight. Anything sound good? My treat.”

“I could really go for a burger and a shake.”

“Well, the best burger places are in your part of town…” He looked her up and down. “It’s cool. Let’s go to the Dingo.” He went back to his room and returned with the black baseball cap he’d had her use when they went to the county jail. She took it and fit it over her head.

“Angela comin’?”

“Nah, she ain’t a fighter,” Tim answered as they headed out the door. “She’s good at cleanin’ us up though. Got a strong stomach for blood.” An amused smile spread across his lips. “Not like you.”

“Hilarious,” Rae said with a roll of her eyes. She slid her hands into her jacket pockets. “Gettin’ cold, isn’t it?”

“What, ya can’t find anything else to talk about? You’re really gonna talk to me about the weather?” She huffed a laugh, a grin forming on her mouth.

When they reached the small burger joint, Tim went and ordered for the both of them while she found a booth, keeping the bill of her had down so no one recognized her. They ate in silence, and sat in the corner of the booth as Shepard fucked around with some of the other greasers hanging out there, also waiting for the rumble to start.

The closer the time got, the more her stomach did nervous flips. She was ready for this fight. She was ready to see her friends again. She was more than ready. But still, something was off.

Rae looked up when Tim came and stood over her.

“It’s time, kid. Let’s go see your friends.”

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nailriddenbat · 7 years ago

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Mayfield | Series - Pt. V

Summary: Max Mayfield and Billy Hargrove aren’t the only new kids to step foot into Hawkins. Meet Y/N Mayfield, Max’s big sister, who’s here to make sure no one messes with her sister.

Pairing: Steve Harrington x Mayfield!Reader (SLOW BURN)

Characters: Y/N Mayfield, Neil Hargrove, Max Mayfield, Billy Hargrove, Steve Harrington, George OC, Rebecca OC

Warnings: Language, bit of violence, graphic imagery, blood..

Word Count: 2.8k

Tags: TAGS HAVE BEEN MOVED TO THE END OF THE POST!

A/N: HEAVY STUFF GUYS I’M SORRY IT’S NECESSARY

“Come on,” you pleaded with the car to start as you repeatedly twisted the key in the ignition. The car made a whining noise but the engine wouldn’t start up and you dropped your head to the steering wheel in frustration.

“Car problems, Y/N?” Neil called out to you as he got out of his own car.

“Clearly,” you muttered underneath your breath. You stepped out of the car and walked over to pop the hood, jumping back when you were hit with a cloud of smoke.

“That doesn’t look good!” he said as he walked over to you.

You bit your tongue to hold yourself back from unleashing a ton of sarcastic comments in his direction. Instead you stuck with, “You got that right, Neil!”

He stood next to you and leaned down as if he knew what he was looking at, “Well I can call the auto shop and they’ll send over a tow truck to take it in.”

You pushed your hair back as you sighed, dropping your hands to your side. “Yeah sure,” you gave up in defeat. “I’ll just talk to Mom and see if she can spot me for the repairs and I’ll pay her back once I start working.”

“You’d have a job if you didn’t pass up the grocery store interview,” Neil shot you a look. “You can’t be asking your mother for money your entire life.”

You shot him a nasty look as you slammed the hood down before walking over to the house. Max pulled the door open and smiled up at you, holding her skateboard as always.

“We ready to go? I want to get my hands on Dig Dug,” she grinned.

“No can do, kid,” you sighed. “The challenger took a shit and the engine won’t start.”

Her face fell and your heart cracked a bit. You hated disappointing her and you turned to look at Neil, “Can you drive Max to the arcade?”

He sighed loudly as he shook his head, “I’m busy. I’ll have Billy take her.”

“No,” you shot down his suggestion.

“Billy is the only one available, Y/N,” Neil explained. “And I need you to stay here so you can talk to the person who will be picking up your car. I’m making the call for you.”

“I didn’t ask you to do that,” you could feel yourself growing more frustrated with this douchebag as he pushed his way past you and into the house.

He walked over to Billy’s door and slammed his hand against it. It took a few minutes but Billy finally answered the door.

“Drive your sister to the arcade,” Neil ordered him before he disappeared to his office down in the basement.

You glared over at Billy as he rubbed at his nose and stared over at you.

“You incapable of driving her?” he asked.

“My car broke down. I have to wait for the tow truck,” you snapped at him. “I’m warning you, Billy. Next time it’ll be more than a cigarette to your skin if you put another hand on her.”

“I’m shaking in my boots,” he smirked before disappearing into his room to grab his jacket, sunglasses and keys. “Let’s go, Max!” he shouted over at her before storming by and stomping out to the car.

“I’ll be okay, Y/N,” Max touched your arm lightly. “I can take him.”

You snorted a little and leant down to kiss her head gently. “I’ll tag along to pick you up. Go kick some ass at the arcade.”

She walked away and you watched as the two of them jumped into the Camaro. You took a deep breath as Billy sped off and you moved to sit on the steps, figuring you might as well wait outside.

They showed up about an hour later and you jumped up to talk to them, making sure they handled your car carefully. They explained that they would get in touch with you and keep you updated, and you watched with a sad look as they drove away, your car being taken with them.

You turned your head as you heard a horn and your heart skipped a beat when you saw Steve’s car pull up beside you.

You crossed your arms over your chest. You had avoided him at all costs since your freak out from the other day, feeling embarrassed.

Steve stood up and closed his door gently, pointing over at your car as it disappeared around the corner. “What happened?”

“Car won’t start up,” you shrugged your shoulders a bit.

“Damn,” he cursed a little. “Well the auto shop is pretty decent so it should be up and running soon.”

You nodded your head and looked around, feeling beyond awkward.

“I uh... sorry for just stopping by randomly. I was doing some running around and I wanted to check in, see if you were okay.”

“You do that a lot,” you pointed out to him. “Check in on me.”

“You make it sound creepy.”

“It is a little creepy,” you tried to laugh it off and waved your hand at him. You looked at his car and saw a bouquet of flowers sitting in the passenger seat. “Nice flowers.”

He turned and sighed, “Yeah. They’re for Nancy.”

You heard the rumors that had spread around school. Nancy had been MIA since the fight with Steve and a few people mentioned that she had disappeared with some kid named Byers. Despite this, here was Steve with flowers to give to her. Your stomach twisted with an unfamiliar sensation and you had to work to keep your face blank. What the hell was that?

“I figured I’d take the first step in apologizing to her, but I’m not exactly sure what the hell I’m apologizing for,” he started mumbling.

“Don’t you think you should figure that out first?” you asked him.

“Probably,” he nodded his head. “But I’m trying to not be a shitty boyfriend and do the right thing.”

You laughed shortly and he looked at you in confusion. “I’m sorry,” you apologized for your outburst. “But somehow I don’t see you fitting the description of a shitty boyfriend.”

“Why’s that?” he asked as leaned against his car, crossing his arms over his chest.

“I don’t know,” you shrugged and kicked at the grass a bit. “You’re apologizing and giving her flowers when you don’t even know what you’re apologizing. Most guys would just not even bother doing either of those things and they’d push to forget whatever fight went down.”

“Well that’s not me anymore,” he chuckled. “I’m trying to break away from that. No more crazy parties, no more asshole tendencies and whatnot.”

“Why the change in character?”

“Shit happens, Mayfield, and it changes you for good,” he looked up at you as he answered honestly.

That answer hit close to your heart and you felt your throat start to tighten up. All you could do was nod your head in agreement, keeping your eyes on the ground.

“Mayfield?” he said your last name gently but you refused to look up at him.

“You can act like nothing happened but speaking from experience, it just backfires on you,” he continued to speak. “You have to acknowledge the change and talk about it.”

“Talk about it with who?” you looked up at him and your eyes connected with his instantly. “I have no one here.”

“That’s not true,” he shook his head slowly. “I’m here.”

“Why?” your voice was growing smaller.

“Because you need a friend and I can be that friend,” he gave you a soft smile as he held your gaze.

Why were you doing this? Why were you moving to lean against his car and why were you mentally preparing yourself to tell a strange about what had happened to screw you up so bad?

“You should talk about it, Y/N,” Max’s words floated back into your mind.

“I wasn’t going to move to Hawkins,” you started off the story, avoiding his eyes and picking at the fabric of your shirt. “Mom broke the news to us the night after her and Neil had gotten married at City Hall, and I outright refused. I had a life there in Cali. I had friends, a job, I had my school. I had George,” your voice cracked as you said his name for the first time since you left California.

“Boyfriend?” Steve asked in a gentle tone.

You nodded your head and laughed a little, “Yeah. Boyfriend. His parents took me in and I ended up sharing a room with his sister for a while. I was fine with it, though. I mean it was my only way of ensuring I could stay in California. So while mom and Max packed up to move out to Hawkins, I packed up and moved in with George and his family.” You stopped talking for a minute, thinking back on how excited the two of them had been. “It was fun. We went everywhere together and we did everything together. On the weekends, he’d run into the bedroom to wake me up and he’d be screaming the lyrics to whatever Aerosmith song he could think of, because that was his favorite band. He’d almost always choose ‘Dream On’ and he was just so annoying about it.”

Steve looked over at you, his heart breaking piece by piece as he listened to you speak. He could tell this was taking a lot of you and he stepped closer, his arm brushing against yours. You took notice but stayed still.

“Our group of friends...they were always partying,” you mentioned. “Every weekend it would be someone else’s house as if it were some sort of rotation. And of course we’d go. We would dance and drink all night long, then end up crashing there. But George decided that one night, he was gonna snatch his keys up and go for a drive.”

You watched him as he jumped up from the couch, knocking his head back as he finished off whatever was in his red cup. You decided to stay sober that night, as you had a babysitting job set up early the next morning. George bumped into the wall as he scrambled to find his keys on the key rack. You jumped up a little, almost falling into your friend Rebecca, but you kept moving to get to George.

“Whatcha doing?” you asked him.

“My keys,” he slurred. “Need my keys.”

“No, baby, you don’t need your keys,” you laughed and tried to pull his hands away. You heard another song start up, ‘Gimme Shelter’ by the Rolling Stones and you gasped, tugging on his shirt. “Come on, Georgie, dance with me!”

He pushed your hands down and kept looking for his keys, shouting out in victory as he snatched them up. The others shouted with him even though they had no idea what it was for.

“I’m gon’ go drive,” he pointed over to the door and started to walk, your eyes going wide. You jumped forward and tried to stand in front of him to push him back.

“No, no, no,” you shook your head quickly and pointed to the stereo. “Come on let’s dance first! It’s just a shot away, it’s just a shot away,” you sang along to the lyrics to try and distract him.

“Y/N, babe, no more shots,” he laughed and pushed you out of the way easily.

“Then let me drive and we’ll go wherever you want,” you followed him quickly. You looked over at your friend, sending her a distressed look. You two were the most sober ones there and she ran over to you.

“I’m not letting you drive my car!” George started to yell as he made his way down the winding path and straight for his car. “That’s mah baby! You’re mah other baby, baby. Don’t worry,” he hiccuped, “but you still can’t drive her.”

Your heart was racing as you started to run after him. While he was singing the lyrics to ‘Gimme Shelter’ loudly, “The floods is threatening my very life todayyyyyy!” You tried to grab the keys but he would pull his hand away each time, laughing as he would tell you to stop.

“Give me the keys,” you said firmly. You had enough and were starting to panic.

“I’m fine, babe,” he smiled down over at you and blew you a kiss.

You tried to grab the keys again, your voice increasing in volume, “You’re not okay. I can drive you home.”

“I can drive!” George yelled as he reached the car.

“Please do not get in that car,” you started to beg him and tried to dart around him to block his path.

“Don’t do this,” you pleaded with him as your eyes started to water.

He winked at you and mouthed, “I’ll be fine!” He unlocked the car and pulled the door open.

“Do not get in that fucking car!” you screamed at him loudly and ran to grab the door to pry it open, but you were too late. Rebecca grabbed you by your shirt and yanked you back roughly just as George took off.

“Come on,” Rebecca said to you. “I’ve got my keys, we can try and cut him off.”

The two of you ran over to her car and jumped into it. She slammed her foot on the gas and drove after George, the two of you praying that you could reach him in time. You held your breath as you looked at his car in the distance, your body jerking a little each time his car would swerve.

Rebecca turned a corner sharply, saying that she could cut him off by taking a shortcut she knew of. You lost sight of the car and you leaned forward to try and catch your breath, but nothing was helping you.

Rebecca pulled out onto the main street, which of course seemed unusually busy for such a late hour, and she pointed suddenly, “There he is!”

Your head snapped and you saw George’s car speed by through the intersection. Rebecca rushed to follow him and quickly turned the corner, cutting quite a few people off. Horns were blaring as people leaned out of their windows to scream at her.

Your scream joined them seconds later. George turned the stirring wheel sharply and as if it were in slow motion, the car swerved out of control and jumped the curb. You watched from behind as his car headed right for a tree, only stopping when the front of the car smashed in. You could hear the sound of the metal crunching and people were screaming at what they had just witnessed.

Without even waiting for Rebecca to stop the car, you jumped out. You could see gray smoke rise from the front of the car as you ran fast, your chest burning as you had difficulty catching your breath. You screamed his name over and over as you got closer, but when you reached the car he wasn’t in the seat. The windshield was smashed and you sobbed as you saw George’s body laying across the mangled hood. His face was covered in blood and as you leaned over him, trying to get him to talk to you, that blood covered your hands.

“Somebody call 911!” you started to scream hysterically at the group that had gathered around you.

Your eyes burned as you wiped at your hands a little. You felt as if you were going to be sick after explaining that whole night to Steve. Not even your mother had received the whole story.

“We had a funeral,” you breathed in suddenly and shut your eyes tight. “But once he was buried, his parents kicked me out. They said I was to blame for what had happened and I couldn’t argue with that.”

“Hey,” Steve said sharply. That was the first word he had said since you started talking and you looked up at him.

“What happened was not your fault,” he was firm in his words and he reached forward to touch your shoulders. “You did everything that you could that night so if you’ve been walking around this entire time with that guilt, stop it.”

You tried to shake your head and push his hands away.

“Y/N, stop it,” he held onto you tighter. “You did not kill George.”

Maybe it was the fact that Steve had said your first name for the very first time or maybe it was what he said following your name, but it shattered the wall that had been crumbling around you and you found yourself leaning into him. You did not make a sound, but the tears streamed down your face as you wrapped your arms around his waist tightly and he held onto you.

You needed to do this. You needed to talk and you needed to feel. You weren’t sure why you opened up to Steve, but something about him had pulled you in and for the first time in a very long time, you felt like you could be okay. Maybe you could put yourself back together. Maybe you weren’t so damaged after all.

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artbyjenisse · 7 years ago

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Creative Talent Network Expo. CTNX 2017 Review

I have been going to CTN for about four years now, and this will probably be my last year at the event.

CTNX is one of the very few events (I’ll talk about the others later) that are geared to the animation industry.

Recruiters. The recruiters are all super nice and will answer your questions about the hiring process, studio life, what they like to look for, ect and yes you can connect with them on LinkedIn but I’ve had more than a few admit they don’t actually go to their LinkedIn profiles often. They also don’t act ready to give you an e-mail to contact them by, probably because they don’t want to be spammed with the whole ‘dude I am poor and need a job, pls gimme one.’ Which I get I do, but maybe I just want to drop them a line when I’ve updated my portfolio? Or see if they know a good coffee shop nearby? Also when it comes to the line ‘hey can you get me a job’ they will always direct you to the company job page, because yes you have to go through that process.

Yes, there are big studios there. Disney, DreamWorks, Nickelodeon, Sony Pictures, Blue Sky, Pixar, Blizzard, Hasbro, they are always there. I have yet to see Cartoon Network there though, I’m sure there are reasons they are just unknown to me. Disney and Pixar do offer a portfolio review but only if you a specific ticket then sign up for a review by a specific date, and your review is like 15-20 minutes long. The other studios have turned to doing reviews by sign up onsite or you can wait in line (like I did for DreamWorks). But go talk to small studios, they are usually nicer.

And yes the animations schools are there, CalArts, Animation Mentor, Pasadena ArtCenter, SCAD has been there in the past, they be there. I have already graduated college and am drowning in debt from it but it’s still good to talk to these places because sometimes you can get info on workshops you can attend online or in person. CalArts does a few and I’ve heard SCAD does, but alas that’s all I know. I did try to talk to CalArts about their Visual Development Portfolio workshop they do in the summer… but the guy at the table was not only on the phone the whole ten minutes I was there patiently waiting to ask him about it-but you could just feel the whole ‘I’d rather be anywhere but here’ vibe coming off him. You are there to do a job, please do it.

Artists. Talk to the artist. DO IT. A LOT of well-known artists go to this event and either have a table to sell their stuff or they are doing workshops/panels. Many of them are freelancers and they are happy to answer your art questions, give advice, and yes they might look at your portfolio. I recommend you make a connection/network with them and not the big studios so much. You’re learn more from the artists themselves, and they are more ready to really talk with you than most of the studio staff I ran into (I think the studio staff gets burned out fast from all the gimme-a-job talk). I will usually try go talk to about 5-10 artists, sometimes it’s hard because their tables are flooded with other fans, but hey give it a try. Find artists who do what you want to do and just talk to them, they won’t bite.

Examples: I talked to Ty Carter while I was there and he is a really cool guy, I’m one of his patreons so I made it a point to thank him in person for what he does on patreon because it helps me in my background work. I also talked to Casey Robin and asked for advice on approaching boutiques/shops so I could maybe do a few pop-up shows, because she does that. Another artists I talked with was Elsa Chang, I was asking how she balancing her work at the studio with all the shows she does.

The Venue. So this event is held every year at the Los Angeles Marriott Burbank Airport. It’s right across the street from the Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, CA. The hotel is very nice, we stayed there this year, friendly staff, thick walls so you don’t hear the airplanes taking off, large rooms, soft beds (YAY!), and it does have a small convention center attached to it. It’s easy to go up to the room and leave stuff there or just chill for a bit.

Now that you’ve read all that, let me tell you the bad things about CTNX.

Price. This event is A LOT of money. I bought the three day floor pass and spent like $97 on it. A VIP Pass will run you upwards of $300. In my opinion, that’s too much money for what little you get (I’ve been a VIP in the past). On top of what you pay for your ticket, you also pay for parking (discounted but still), and some of the other special events are a separate ticket price. I really don’t feel this event is worth the price tag it comes with.

Venue. Yes, it’s at a hotel. BUT they need to move the convention. It has gotten too big for the Marriott. In the Marriott’s separate convention space they have the workshops, VIP lounge area, and the WACOM work station-which sucked because I wanted to talk to WACOM and couldn’t. They also have workshops and panels in the rooms at the convention center AND they use pretty much all the meeting rooms in the hotel itself at the same time. It can be confusing to navigate all this and find the workshop or whatever that you want to attend.

There is a tent that takes up half the parking lot, that’s where all the vendors and studios are. The tent does NOT work. The ales they create are smaller than your average artist alley ales way and it gets really crowded around the tables, making walking through next to impossible. And when studios are giving portfolio reviews, the lines are a problem and they typically make you go outside to wait and come in. It gets loud and hot as hell. They need to have two separate tents, in my opinion, one for the studios and the other for the artists.

Lack of communication and organization. This a reoccurring problem I’ve seen at the show. When will the schedule be on the webpage? Usually two weeks before the event starts if you’re lucky. What artists/studios will be there? You might find out a month before. Might. Wanna take the shuttle to the Center Stage Gallery? Good luck! Not only is the shuttle spot not clearly marked until the end of day two, but even the info booth admitted, ‘it’s not very reliable.’ First day in and you can’t find the ‘theater’? Oh well that’s the Pasadena Room in the hotel lobby, the sign just isn’t up and it’s not listed as such on the program.

One thing they did this year that really annoyed me was an e-mail they sent out about the Disney pre-show party, you got an e-mail with an excel spreadsheet and you’re told to check and see if you got on the list. They sent that e-mail to everyone. No. You should only send that to the people who actually got in. Don’t get me all excited about something only to tell me I’m not on the list. Just don’t send it do me if I didn’t get in. It’s not that difficult.

As I said at the start, this is probably my last year going to CTN. I just don’t feel the event is worth it for me.

What other events are there?

I know of two:

ACM SIGGRAPH. I haven’t been to this show, SIGGRAPH is for those of you who do more of the tech side of things. Computer driven graphics, interactive design, VFXs (so I hear), 3D modeling, things like that. This event is held up in Vancouver around the August-September time frame so you’ll want a passport. They do also have one in Asia.

Ground Zero Animation Expo. This event is relatively new and I haven’t gone yet, but I’m really thinking about going this year. In it’s 3rd year, GZAExpo will be in Santa Ana this June. It’s been in Anaheim in the past. Admission and parking are free and while there is a separate charge for panels and stuff, it only starts at $15. Again, I might be going to this show in 2018 to see what it’s all about.

Have you been to CTNX? What are your thoughts about it?

Know of any other events like it? Spread the love!

#ctnx #my cons

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thechrispavon · 7 years ago

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Xbox E3 2017 Briefing - Reaction

Xbox One X. Basically PS4 Pro's competitor.

Just forewarning: I play on PlayStation mainly for nostalgia’s sake. I grew up with the PS1 and PS2. I’m getting used to their online services, mainly because I’m a single-player kind of gamer. That and my PS3 got yellow-lighted. My brother (who was gaming more than me at the time) switched to the X360 when it first released. Now, I have a regular PS4 while my brother has an Xbox One.

I don't have a PS4 Pro or a 4K TV. I'm rocking the original PS4. My brother has the original Xbox One. Sooo... They'll have to lower the prices on 4K TVs with HDR for me to commit.

I hear the One X has backwards compatibility. My brother has a lot of Xbox 360 games.

Forza 7. My brother is a gearhead so he'll love this game. Me? Not so much.

Oh let's show a new Porsche none of these gamers have the money to actually buy.

4K @ 60FPS seems to be the keyword that makes these gamers cream themselves. Just saying.

Do these professional drivers actually play Forza?

Next title! Oh my, an FPS. Is this a sequel to a newer IP? IDK. The trailer music screams Inception. Oh, those animal monsters look nice. I can tell the visits are going to get annoying. Idk. Nice attention to detail though. Post-apocalyptic? What kind of game is this? That bigger monster reveal was underwhelming. Metro Exodus. Meh. Haven't played the first one.

4K WORLD PREMIERE OMG Whatever. Uh? 4K Age of Empires? Oh. Another Assassin's Creed game. Whatever. AC: Origins. Apparently it's in Egypt. EPIC GAMING ADVENTURE ™.

Xbox One X sounds like a redundant name. Like Wii U.

QUALITY BIRD GRAPHICS ™ Not impressed.

All of this showcasing reminds me that I need to get a new TV for my PS4 gaming. I have a pretty thick plasma TV. It contains mercury. Not good. So all this resolution talk means nothing if it doesn't fit on my TV with faded colors. I don't want anything fancy. Just 1080p with HDR probably. Nothing too big.

Anyway, AC: Origins doesn't impress me.

Hooray, more shooters. Ugh. Player Unknown's Battlegrounds.

Another exclusive. Shooting and Mining? Bad voice acting. Deep Rock Galactic.

Ok seriously fuck the guy saying Yehh at everything.

Exclusive. Post-apocalyptic. Army? Zombies? Really? Yawn. At least be a bit creative. The animation kinda sucks. Not even fluid So it's a tower defense thing? Cars. Boomer. Yeah, this is utter shit. This fucking trailer is so long. Pretty boring. State of Decay 2. Next.

Exclusive. Ooh nice design. Uh what the fuck? What? Darwin Project. The Shoutcaster ruined it.

Minecraft? Again? I thought we were over that. Next. I don't know how you make Minecraft more detailed with bigger resolution.

Japan. Hilarious. Little crazy. Fun. Oh. It's Dragon Ball. Never mind. The layout reminds me of the old DB games. Like Ultimate Battle 22 or something. (Yeah, I’m old.) But you know, updated. Like Guilty Gear or Skullgirls or Marvel vs. Capcom or something. Dragon Ball Fighter Z. Nice.

Exclusive. Looks beautiful. MMORPG? I'd play this. Not gonna lie. Black Desert. Ok.

Exclusive. Another post-apocalyptic. That cinematography looks nice. Wait what. Pixel characters. Wow. The Last Night. Yeah, is definitely play that. Very cyberpunk.

Exclusive. Ok. I like quirky designs like this. Johnson Vendetti. Nice guitar lol. What the fuck is this. Lol. The Artful Escape. (Coming when it's damn ready.) Alright cool.

Code Vein. Sick. Don't know what it is but it's anime as fuck. Bandai Namco. Oh ok.

Sea of Thieves. Exclusive. Shared world. Yeah, but I like single player games. I'm not into the pirate scene either. Looks fun though.

Exclusive. Oohh. Space. Tacoma.

Exclusive. What. Fox thing. What. FEED ME SEYMOUR. *Exhausted sigh* I don't know anymore. Fart joke from an onion. Fantastic. I'm sure kids will enjoy this. Super Lucky's Tale.

Exclusive. Oh my God is this Cuphead? YES FINALLY. GIMME THIS SHIT. SEPTEMBER 29. FINALLY. I LIVE FOR THIS.

Exclusive. TERRY CREWS? BEST THING EVER. Is this Crackdown? I liked the other ones so this is good. Crackdown 3. Good.

ID@Xbox Game Montage Time. Let's see what looks good in about 10 seconds of footage. Unruly Heroes. Observer. Hello Neighbor, of course. Shift. Eh, not much.

Next few games.

Exclusive. Stylistic. Oooh. Wow, these characters have no faces. Light and Darkness themes. This looks really nice. Ashen.

SQUARE ENIX WORLD PREMIERE. THEY OWN MY ASS ALREADY. WHATCHU GOT, SQUARE? OH SHIT LIFE IS STRANGE 2. FUCK YES FINALLY OMG. GIMME THIS SHIT. WHATS GONNA HAPPEN NOW? BIG APPLAUSE FROM ME. IM IN. IM SOLD. WHAT? BEFORE THE STORM. 3 EPISODES? ONLY 3? FIRST ONE COMES OUT ON AUGUST 31. THAT'S SO SOON. YAAAS SQUARE. GIMME THIS SHIT.

Middle Earth: Shadow of War. Alright. I don't know what other Middle Earth game I played. I think it was Shadow of Mordor. I loved it. Oh God. So much for being an optimist. Yeah I'd play this. By the way, the acting and facial capture is amazing. Brûz is funny as hell.

Exclusive. AW SHIT. PIANO GUY. WHAT IS THAT CUTE LEMUR THING? That's a frog... and a giant spider. Nice owl. Ohhh noooooooo. Great music. Ori and the Will-o-the-Wisps. I love it.

Hey, Sony. Where's your backwards compatibility?! YOU HAVE A GREAT LIBRARY BUT COME ON. I SHOULDN'T HAVE TO SUBSCRIBE TO ANOTHER SERVICE FOR BACKWARDS COMPATIBILITY.

Your last presenter is from EA? Really? New IP. OH. BIOWARE. Anthem. Oh wow. This looks really nice. This looks pretty crazy. So is this basically BioWare's answer to Destiny? But will this have a good story? Lol they think players talk to each other like this. I'd play this. But I'll probably do it single player.

Right now, I don’t really have an incentive to upgrade to a 4K-ready console like the Xbox One X or the PS4 Pro. Some of the games showcased at Microsoft’s Briefing looks nice. I’d probably borrow my brother’s Xbox to play exclusives like Ori and Cuphead.

#I made a thing!#telegraphs

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julystorms · 8 years ago

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Your opinion on SNK and Pokémon?

My opinion on ______!

Attack on Titan: I guess if I’m being really honest, my initial reaction was to reply with the marching-band-spells-out-BAD image but then I was like, man that isn’t fair. This pure and good anon sent me this message in Good Faith™. I should be honest but also fair--and balanced! Really I think my opinion of SnK boils down to:

It had a lot of potential to be a really interesting series: gritty without resorting to sweeping pieces off a chess board. Unfortunately the potential was lost--not early on and all at once, but in increments. I feel like the series lost a lot of what it had going for it when things and issues started adding up. I’ve noticed a lot of fans have lost interest in the series and have moved onto greener pastures. Their favorites died...and while many people might screech bias at fans for leaving a series when their favorite dies, I think the issue is deeper than that when whole subsets of people leave. Like, as much as I like to poke fun at some of the fans of SnK, it’s pretty clear to me that for a GREAT MANY OF THEM, the only thing getting them to tune into monthly updates was, no surprise here!, their favorite character(s).

Because honestly, the characters are what holds the series together. The characters are what most people come for and it’s definitely what the majority stay for. And without that connection to the story, the readers tend to, well, to put it as kindly as I am able on this fine Thursday afternoon: they drop away like flies.

I won’t deny that the series has its good points. There are things about SnK I really like. But like a large number of the initial wave of fans, I came for the characters and I stayed for the characters, and now it’s just vague trainwreck curiosity and spite that gets me to tune in for each new update. Other than the occasional meta update/post/art reblog, I probably won’t manage to be super active in this fandom again.

Then again, that could be a lie. Season Two will be hitting us almost before we know it, in which case... I’ll tune in to watch a bunch of my favorites die horribly (and hope that the Rooftop Scene is spun shippier and that there’s extra hilow because UM WHY NOT amiRITE?). Also Gelgar. And Lynne. God if they take away my favorite moments with those two I’mma be livid. Gimme my garbage ship I mostly just made up PLEASE.

Pokémon: I’ve been a fan from the beginning. I stopped watching the anime sometime during Johto. I think I was an adult by that point in the series and I had work, and getting up early to catch new episodes just...was not going to happen. When I was older and had more time on my hands, the show had already ditched Misty and I was like...nah, forget it. I don’t need this anime if Misty isn’t in it. She was, admittedly, my favorite character, so...like with everything else: without my fave I was outta there. Truth be told, I wish the anime would just end.

Pokémon Generations was pretty good, and I enjoyed seeing some quality episodes. (Gimme all the Looker episodes gimmegimmegimme.) It was a nice change of pace. I honestly wish they were just a bit longer--like 10min episodes or something. An excellent idea to have a series more based on game canon.

The games, well, I own most of the games, even though I’ve only beaten Red/Silver/Stadium/Stadium2/PuzzleLeague/X/Sun. It was hard for me to get engaged in anything that came out after Silver; I think...things like natures, hidden stats, items: they all served to make me feel pretty meh about bothering with them. And the story was never very good IMO so it was like...why bother? X’s graphics upgrade piqued my interest, and it was well worth the price I paid for it. I even got into breeding! Sun was even better game/plot-wise. I enjoyed it way more than X (though I admit I haven’t been playing it much lately).

My only real gripe with the world of Pokémon is how sloppy the entire concept/world is. I’m usually pretty willing to handwave shit but sometimes I’m just frustrated with how fast and loose they play. I don’t consider myself an edgelord but holy shit is it hard putting realism into this series. The pokémon themselves are basically magical fantasy elements so you have to sorta...handwave some things. But then you start asking questions about how the centers are funded and how do traveling trainers even live and things fall apart pretty quickly. The advantage is that you can make shit up and nobody will bat an eyelash. And I guess I’m all about that.

Plus I’m eyeballs deep in this fandom so...

#and i'm sparing most of yall from my obsession #like the pages of meta i usually dump on here?#are sent via im to people #i dumepd a 1700 word meta thinkpiece on some poor fucker #this very morning rip poor human being #pokemon #snk #snk critical #cute anons #replies to friends

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