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kayteewritessteve · 5 years ago

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Beautifully Unfinished - 5/8

Description: One foolish outburst, one moment of weakness at the worst possible time, and everything goes up in smoke. Who knew finally voicing your true, deep-rooted feelings, would lead to the complete destruction of your most cherished friendship?

Masterlist HERE.

Word Count: 4,580 ish.

Pairing: Modern!Steve Rogers x Reader.

Rating: PG.

Warnings: Curse words. Lots of angst. But if you’ve read my stories before, then you know how this will end.

A/N: I sadly don’t own any of these characters. And no beta reader, so I do proudly own all the errors and this story, so there’s that.

First Careers.

You quickly make your way down the busy sidewalk, trying to make up for the few extra minutes it took to get out of work. You’d been working for Avengers Publishing House for 3 weeks now, and were loving it so far. Though it was a lot of work and you didn’t really have much free time anymore. You barely got to see your best friends lately, you all just starting on your career paths and slowly figuring out your own lives and new jobs.

Bucky had just passed his bar exam, and had started at a prestigious law firm about 2 weeks ago. You hadn’t seen much of him lately, but you kept each other informed on your day to day lives via text. He was enjoying the new job, but made it very clear that it was a learning curve and very draining work. Going from school life, to the working force was a shell shock for sure. Yes, you had all the book knowledge, but none of the real word experience, so new jobs were a lot to take in at first. You all figured they would be, but not to this extent. But he was happy, and thriving in his career choice, so that’s what truly mattered.

Steve had gotten a paid intern position at the MoMA, it was a once in a lifetime experience and he was over the moon for being chosen for the spot. But he had busted his ass to get it and you couldn’t have been prouder of him or his accomplishments. This was a huge stepping stone for him and his career, and from here more doors would be opened for him, and he’d have many more exciting and fulfilling opportunities in the future. He’d been there for 3 weeks now, having started damn near directly after leaving school.

And you, we’ll you’d been offered a Junior Editors position with Avengers, a very well known and reputable publishing house in Manhattan. It was the first stop on the climb to your dream job, and you were overjoyed with the opportunity to join their team. You’d always loved reading, and at a young age you’d figured out that being a publisher was right up your alley. And now that you had your foot in the door, you’d been entirely right on that thought. But it was a lot of work, late hours and spending your weekends at home and making your way through the stack of manuscripts you’d been given on a deadline.

So you had barely seen the guys over the last few weeks, you’d have the odd small coffee meets on rushed lunch breaks. Or the odd night you’d get together for your traditional weekly BFMMN™ (Best Friend Movie and Munchie Night.) But lately it was less of a tradition, and definitely not weekly. And when you did manage to come together, you’d all usually be out of it and exhausted, so the conversation was non-existent or minimal, at best. You all just being happy in the presence of your best friends, even in utter silence. It was better than nothing.

But today, you were all meeting for dinner, going out to finally celebrate your new jobs and your introductions to the working force. And in Classic You form, you’d lost track of time and were now running late. As per usual.

The restaurants sign finally comes into view and you pick up the pace a little, maneuvering through the swarms of people that always seemed to crowd the city sidewalks. But especially directly after working hours, all the people moving to and from their jobs, their homes and various businesses along the streets. Going to meet friends, to grab coffee or just take a leisurely stroll.

You weren’t taking a leisurely stroll currently though, you were damn near throwing elbows to get to the restaurant in a timely manner. You weren’t super late, by any means, but late was late, and awarded you less time with your best friends. Which wasn’t okay, at all. Not lately at least, not with how little you’d seen either of them the last few weeks.

You’d planned this dinner with them a few weeks ago, to make sure you all were free and clear, and wouldn’t miss it for anything else. You’d made the guys swear to set reminders in their phones so no one forgot or made other conflicting plans tonight. Come hell or high water, you were having dinner with your friends, and then the three of you were returning to your place after, for a few drinks and a movie. There was no getting out of it this time, you needed a fun, relaxing night with your guys, desperately.

You reach the entrance to the restaurant and quickly pull open the door, finding a beautiful young woman standing behind a podium. She asks for the reservation name, and you give her yours as you’d set it up. She smiles, informing you that only one other person has arrived so far and then leads you to the back where the table is.

As your eyes scan the room quickly, they land on a glorious head of blonde hair and a large involuntary smile takes over your face. Stevie, you should have guessed he’d be here first, he was always on time, or in most cases, early.

You also shouldn’t have been so worried about being a few minutes late, as Bucky always showed up last. You were positive that the guy treated being fashionably late like it was a dang character trait. He took it seriously, and never showed up on time, not even remotely.

He ran on his own clock and you’d actually lied to him a few times over the years, giving him incorrect early start times for important things, so that he’d end up late for the fake start time, but right on time for the real one. He’d always chuckle the second he arrived and saw the smug and satisfied expressions on yours and Steve's faces at him accidentally, yet strategically, arriving on time. Though you couldn’t pull that trick too often, or it would cease to work, so you had to pick your battles, and only use it in important or dire situations.

You make your way towards the table, and Steve, admiring the unfairly beautiful angle, even if it was the back of his head. But that wasn’t a shock, the guy was gorgeous and looked outstanding from all sides. It was wholly unfair and a rather large piss off, if you were honest, the guy didn’t have a bad angle anywhere. All hard lines, muscles and taut tanned skin. Then his perfect blonde hair and mesmerizing deep blue eyes, he was the walking embodiment of perfection in your eyes, and probably in many other people's eyes as well.

As you get closer to the table, you notice he is hunched forward a little and looking down, and it doesn’t take a rocket doctor to guess that he probably has his illusive sketchbook out. You have always known, from early on, that Steve loved to draw. He took his sketchbook everywhere with him and pulled it out whenever he was waiting, or no one was watching. But you’d only ever seen a few of his sketches, he was very secretive about his artwork. He didn’t like to show it off and the odd time he did, he was always humble yet embarrassed by it. Saying that it either wasn’t finished yet, or wasn’t that good.

You’d praise the artwork every time though, and not because you were his best friend, but because it was genuinely always amazing. He had a real talent, if he could just get over his insecurities and actually show his work off to the world, he’d see just how honest your praises really were.

But he’d always shrink away at the mention of showing people, saying he didn’t draw for recognition, but instead just for him. It was his stress relief and he only drew whatever caught his eye or inspired him that day. Like little snapshots of his life that were just for his eyes, and his eyes only.

You gave up trying to persuade him to share his art with the world, hell, to even just share it with you and Buck. And instead you’d just leave the topic entirely alone, it wasn’t your place to demand anything from him, especially if it made him uncomfortable. Or felt like you were pulling teeth. So you’d dropped the whole art thing completely, and instead just left it up to him to decide what, and when, he shared it with you. And each time he’d show you a little something, you lapped it up with eager enjoyment and locked away the mental snapshot forever. Taking any little morsel he offered and loving it as brightly as you could.

The fact he even showed you anything, spoke volumes to you. Made you feel so immensely special to be one of the select few who got to actually set eyes on his artwork.

“Whatcha drawing, Stevie?” You asked abruptly as you reached the table, pointedly not looking at his sketchbook out of respect for his art privacy. You quickly took your jacket off, hanging it on the back of your chair before taking the seat across from him.

Steve calmly, but promptly, shut the book and glanced up at you, no matter how many times you tried to startle him, it never worked. The guy had eyes on the back of his head, you swear. He smiled at you, before tucking the book and pencils away in his messenger bag. “Just the things around me. Ya know, the usual,” he shrugged.

You just nodded, averting your eyes to the menu in front of you, as you picked it up and glanced over the options. “Sorry I’m late, got tied up at work,” you pause, glancing around the table playfully before locking eyes with Steve and smirking. “But I see the Jerk is keeping up his personally appointed job of making me always feel on time,” you chuckled, and Steve did as well.

“Well, you know him, he always has to arrive last so we can all fully appreciate his outfit choice,” he grins and shakes his head, picking up his own menu also.

You both fall into a silence, it’s not exactly awkward, but it’s not exactly comfortable either. You and Steve have sort of drifted since he started dating Hailey, not so much physically but more mentally. You still hang out as a group, but no longer just the two of you. And you still talk, but no longer as deeply, it’s mainly surface stuff now. Your jobs, your families, your day to day lives.

He doesn’t talk about Hailey with you often, if at all, he keeps pretty mum about her actually. Barely even saying her name in your presence unless he absolutely has to. No lie, you're thankful for that, but also not at the same time, especially since their third date they’ve been damn near inseparable. Spending almost all their free time together, but he still makes the effort to join in on the group stuff. And luckily for you, he’s never once brought Hailey along, he’s never even asked, not once. He seems to understand and respect that your group time is just for your little circle of 3.

But it’s not that she wouldn’t be welcome to join, every once and awhile. You’d suck up your stupid jealous bullshit here and there, if you had to. She made Steve happy, from the small things you’d heard, and could perceive in your childhood best friend. So having her around the odd time, you could deal with, you weren’t a complete asshole. But yet you liked that he never brought her around, for the sake of your heart, but not that he did it for that reason. God no, he still had no clue of your feelings, and to this day, you’d still never voiced them aloud.

You guessed he never invited her more for the sake that you and Bucky were his friends, his best friends, and sometimes he just needed time away from Hailey. Time to just be a party of one, with people who truly knew him. He had his separate friends that he shared with Hailey, and she had her own friends that were entirely her own. It was a mutual thing for them, their own ways to escape and get the time they needed away from each other, so that the relationship didn’t feel smothering or overbearing. Little spaces here and there are so important, and needed to keep a relationship healthy and thriving. To keep it from turning toxic and becoming too codependent, because that was never a good thing.

Plus you figured he kept her separated because the three of you had so much history, that Hailey may have felt left out or like an outsider to, as she wasn’t around for most of your friendship. Nor was she present for many of the big, and memorable moments that you all reminisced about or brought up often.

Whatever his true reasonings were, you were just secretly thankful for them. And for the fact you had your guys entirely to yourself, whenever you got together. Yes, it was selfish, but most humans hate change, and with certain things, you weren’t any different. You were entirely human, after all.

“Works going okay?”

“Hmm?” You hum, lifting your eyes to find Steve studying you now, his focus no longer on his menu. How long was he staring at you? You have no clue. Are you positive that your slightly disheartened thoughts were clear as day on your face, and that he probably saw them all? Oh 100%, judging by the concerned look on his face currently. You clearly really needed to work on your poker face, it had obviously deteriorated in the last few weeks, what with your lack of needing to use it. “Oh, yeah,” you plaster on your signature fake smile. “Work is going great. How about you? How’s the prestigious MoMA treating you?”

His eyes light up, like they always do when he is excited about something. “It’s amazing, Y/N. Everyone has been so helpful and very knowledgeable. I’ve learned more in the last 4 weeks than I did in my entire time at school.” He chuckles, “or at least it feels like I have.”

“That’s wonderful to hear, Steve. I’m so happy you are enjoying it so much,” you smile fondly at him. This one a real smile for once. “No one deserves this experience as much as you, as you busted your ass in school.” You grin cheekily at him, “and I’d know, I was the one who had to drag you out of the library weekly, to force you to eat a real meal.”

“Isn’t that the truth,” He laughs at that, “did I ever properly thank you for single handedly keeping me alive back then?”

You place a finger on your chin as you hum, in feigned deep thought then shake your head. “Not that I can remember. But I take praise and apologizes in the form of baked goods, if you forgot.”

He smirks and shakes his head, “oh, I didn’t forget. Not for a damn second, not when a dozen cookies saved my ass more than a few times with you, throughout the years.”

“That they did,” you laugh, nodding in agreement to his words. “How’s Hailey?” The words slip from your mouth unfiltered and you want to kick yourself. Yet, you are curious how things are with them, you just should have waited till Bucky was here to act as a buffer. Because your conflicting thoughts on the topic of Steve's relationship caused you to do and say the dumbest things when she was occasionally brought up.

You were happy that he was, you truly wanted the best for him. But you still carried this ridiculous torch for him, and it hurt a little every time she was brought up. You were selfishly jealous of her, or maybe less of her, and more of the man she got to call her own. The one man you always wanted that privilege with, but would never get. You knew that, but just couldn’t fully come to terms with it. Maybe one day you would, maybe one day she could be brought up and you wouldn’t cringe internally and feel your heart crack a little more each time.

“Ah, good. She’s good,” he nods, focusing back on his menu. “What looks good here?”

You take a silent deep breath in, your abrupt question luckily not sullying the mood. “I was thinking the Cordon Bleu Chicken Burger sounds fantastic,” you hum, glancing over the options, “but then the Teriyaki Chicken Rice Bowl looks amazing as well.” You groan, “ugh, why can I never just pick one? Why do I always get stuck between two choices, and then literally have to decide when the waitress appears and asks what I want?”

Steve chuckles, “and then you instantly regret your choice the second the waitress walks away.”

You are just about to refute that, but a new voice joins the mix. “But then once the food arrives, she goes on and on about how good of a choice she made. And how great the food is.”

You snap your eyes over and see a grinning Bucky walking towards your table. He takes his jacket off and hangs it on the back of his chair before taking a seat in the spot beside Steve.

“Okay, I’m not that bad,” you defend and playfully roll your eyes at the guys chuckling and shaking their head in disagreement of your words.

“Oh, you totally are,” Bucky reaffirms for good measure.

Which causes you to laugh, “okay, fine, maybe I am. But just a little.”

“Try a lot,” Steve corrects and you sigh deeply, jokingly. Which causes you all to laugh before exchanging your fond hello’s, and asking Bucky the basic life update questions, before you all focus on the menu to make your selections before the waitress appears.

Once the food is ordered, you having once again left the choice to the last minute and then just threw your pick at the waitress like always, the three of you fall into a comfortable and familiar conversation. Taking about the ‘good old days’ and the more in-depth topics.

The food arrives and you all enjoy it, immensely. And once again, you are completely happy with your choice, like the guys mentioned, and your momentary panic for possibly ordering the wrong thing, also like they mentioned, flies out the window. Like every other time, which is so Classically You—as Bucky had pointed out directly after you’d all finished eating. Causing Steve to laugh and you to glare fondly at the large brunette.

Dinner goes well but just as the three of you are paying your separate bills, Steve’s phone rings and he pulls it from his bag, apologizing for forgetting to put it on silent. As was the Rule for group night, that being put in place back in high school when Bucky’s phone had gone off damn near the entire night and he’d ended up essentially ignoring you and Steve to reply to all his ‘fans’ as you’d dubbed them. So you’d implemented a silent phone policy, which basically meant no phones allowed on BFMMN™.

He steps away for a moment, saying it’s Hailey and promising to be quick. You sigh quietly to yourself and stand with Bucky, waiting for Steve to return.

“Hopefully everything’s okay,” you comment softly, slightly irked for the interruption to group night, but also a little worried as Hailey is usually super respectful of your group time. She normally never bothers Steve while he is with you, another thing you are really thankful for. You’re happy he found someone who isn’t overly intrusive or overbearing, she is good for him, as much as you hate to admit it, it’s the truth.

“I’m sure it is, she probably just can’t find the TV remote again,” Bucky shakes his head and his words cause you to furrow your brows and glance up at him.

“What?” You ask confused. Why would she call for something like that? “What do you mean?”

Bucky purses his lips, looking like he just realized he said too much. But why would he feel like that? “Ah, it’s nothing, really. She does it all the time,” he shrugs it off.

What the hell? “Does what all the time? Loses the TV remote?”

“No,” he sighs, scratching the side of his head, it’s a nervous tick of his, he does it whenever he is trying to find the right words. Which only intrigues you more. “Constantly calls him for silly little pointless things. I think she does it to ‘check in’ on him. Make sure he is where he says he is. I’ve mentioned my thoughts about it to Steve, but he just waves them off and says she is just forgetful.”

“Wait, wait,” you put up a hand as if to pause the conversation. “What are you going on about? She doesn’t call all the time. She’s never called him on group nights in the past.”

Bucky gives you a weird assessing look, “yes, she has. Every time, and multiple times per night. But Steve is usually really good with shutting his phone off before he joins us, so that it doesn’t go off constantly while we are all together.” He grins and in Classic Bucky form, he tries to fix the strange awkward atmosphere with humour. “I think you scared the Jesus out of him—or into him, whichever, when you snapped at me that one time for my phone going off all night. Since that night, he’s made it his life’s mission to never be on the receiving end of your cranky outbursts about phone etiquette during group time,” he chuckles. Then jokingly cringes, “You’re scary as hell when you're mad.”

“I had no idea,” you say quietly. Here you’d just finished praising the woman in your mind for her ‘respect’ for group night. When really, that clearly isn’t the case. How did you never know about this?

“I think that was kind of the point.”

“Why does she check in on him so much?” You ask curiously.

“I don’t know. I suspect it might have something to do with you, though.”

“Me?” You quickly ask, “what the hell? Why?”

“She has always had this weird fixation on you, for some reason she thinks there is something more between Steve and you.”

Leave it to Bucky to always give you the real tea, he may not come out and say it right away, but if it ever comes up and you ask him about it, he never lies or avoids the truth. He always tells you how he sees it, how it is, and you’ve always adored that about him. There’s no sugarcoating, and no bullshit, it’s just his own honest opinions on things.

“But we are just friends?” You asked confused, though it’s less a question and more a statement. “What could she possibly be worried about? There are no feelings like that between us.” Which is partially true, from Steve’s side at least. However it’s a complete and blatant lie from yours, but no one knows that—for sure—aside from you. Bucky raises a disbelieving brow at you, but doesn’t comment on your words.

“She seems to think otherwise.” He shakes his head, “But don’t worry too much about it, it’s always been this way and her insecurities are her own. Ya know, since both you and Steve have always been so adamant that you’re just friends.” He pauses, giving you a little side eye before continuing, once again making you aware that he probably does know of your true feelings for Steve. “She’ll either come to realize that, eventually, or she won’t, but that’s on her. Not you. And at the end of the day, it’s between her and Steve, they have to work it out themselves. Don’t stress too much about the things you can’t control.”

You nod, feeling a little guilty for possibly causing an issue in Steve’s relationship. But also slightly irked at the fact you’re just finding out about this now. And at the new realization that she doesn’t come around because she most likely doesn’t like you, when you’ve never done a damn thing to her. Or to warrant her disliking you that much. How fucking rude is that? You may not exactly like her either, but at least you’d suck it up and be civil, you do respect her and Steve’s relationship, and would never interfere with it. Ever. In any form.

Yet, she doesn’t seem to hold those same sentiments, as it turns out, and she tries to interfere with your friend time often. Go figure, you’d have never known that, if it weren’t for Steve forgetting to turn his phone off this time. Before you can think any further on this all, Steve returns looking for a split second like he is exhausted.

But the second his drained eyes meet yours, a light flickers in them and he smiles at you. It almost looks fake at first to your knowledgeable eyes, but you shake your head and ignore that thought as he approaches you both.

“Sorry about that, Hailey just had a quick question.”

Bucky scoffs quietly and you elbow him, giving him a warning look to zip it. “All good, Steve,” you smile at him. Deciding to not pull on this proverbial string for once, because you may not like where it ends up, and you fear that bringing this up to him will only stand to put more of a riff between you two.

“Should we head out?” You ask, glancing between the two guys, receiving nods then the three of you exit the restaurant and head towards your apartment.

Throughout the night, you keep your mouth shut on the topic of Hailey, Steve is never really forthcoming with you about her, and you’re realizing that it’s probably because of her insecurities about you. About your friendship with him, and you can’t be sure of this, but you're willing to bet that anytime you’re brought up, she probably has something to say about it. Or maybe he doesn’t bring you up at all, he’s never been dumb by any means, and he is probably aware of her feelings towards you. And maybe because he filters you out of his conversations with her, he just unconsciously does the same in reverse. Filtering out her from his conversations with you.

Shit, but who honestly knows? You’re so sick of overthinking every little thing in your friendship with Steve, solely because you refuse to ask him about it. You refuse to bring any of it up. But also mainly because you refuse to add anymore stress onto him. Especially this sort of unnecessary and pointless stress.

The last thing you want to do, is to drive him away, or push him away, because he can’t handle the questions and issues from both sides. Do you deserve more answers? Of course. Are you going to press Steve for them? Fuck no. So instead, you’ll just harass Bucky about it later, privately. But Steve will never know any of it, he’ll never know that you know about any of this.

Cause he’s the one that you can't lose. But he’s the one that you can't win.

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@caps-lockdown @boxofteenageideas @giggleberts @strawberry-gothchild @theonelittleone @agentbadbitch @ratwrites @bandsandanimefreak @rockyroadthepastryarchy @lovvliies @cuffski @icesoccerer @steeeeverogers @zombiepotterfour @ledandan1244 @straightforwardly @denzmallows @xremember-me-notx @gwynethjodie @lollipopdomination @capstopavenger @jemimah-b99 @rcvenqers @justkending @alagalaska @silent-loucidity @sabertooth-potato @pies-wands-and-more @interstellarmess @gabriella69816 @phantom-soilder @viarogers @kaithezaftig @the-kinkiest-goblin @hysterically-original @badassbeckettswan @heyiamthatbitch @zlixlle @givemehopenfandoms @pretendingandpreposterous @frozen-phoenix17 @emotionallysalty @saturngirlz @atomicsludgedonutbiscuit @bohemian-barbie @marvelous-capsicle @ivoryhazlewood @cjhorseback @jessiedaeum @capricornprince118 @pinkleopardss @drayshadow @wiserebelpartypie @dark-night-sky-99 @patzammit @cs-please @troublermalik @anika-ann @wxstedhexrt @rynabarnesrogers

#au fanfiction #fanfiction #long post #long read #marvel au #marvel fanfiction #steve rogers #steve rogers x reader #steve rogers x y/n #steve rogers x you #modern!steve rogers x reader #modern!steve rogers #modern!steve #modern au #steve rogers au #Beautifully Unfinished #Part 5

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taratjah · 6 years ago

Note

I just wanted to say that I think that your artwork is gorgeous and to ask you long does it take you to finish an average drawing? Lots of love from California.

Thank you!! It depends on the type of drawing, but let’s say a character drawing fully colored and shaded from the waist(-ish) up takes me about 3 hours? With a background it’s usually double that. And those face drawings (like the Kaladin one I just posted) take me about 20-30 minutes per face, but then I end up editing them a lot to keep the style and facial features consistent, so simple drawings like that tend to take a long time too. And commissions generally take me a bit longer than personal drawings because I have to prepare more and I put more care and detail into it.

#tarasasks

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flowing-paint · 7 years ago

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Myth - part 2

This the second and last part of my Myth board game review. As promised last week I will give you more information regarding the game that may or may not help you decide if this game is right for you. Let’s go!

Modules

I briefly reported something about modules in the previous part but, what are they? How do you get and play them? Well, modules are short thematic stories that unravel according to a pre arranged sets of scenarios that are designed either to teach game basics, help in character development or challenge the more skilled heroes.

They basically represent the board gaming soul of Myth and they were conceived due to the sheer amount of claims Megacon Games received after releasing the 1.0 game. Board gamers were not too happy about the sandbox nature of the game and they demanded for more structured rules to help smoothing the learning curve. The result of this bottom-up pressure were the modules. They are small books of roughly 20 pages where tile setup, pictures goals and roles are fixed and, most important, arranged to be easily understood. For what I can see they usually consist of three acts where battles get harder and harder as the heroes slowly approach the big boss for the final showdown. Rules-wise a module behaves the same as the open end game with the sole exception of icons on the tiles being ignored. Bosses and minion races are pre-defined in the story so you are not allowed to mix things up but this helps anyway to build up more climax for the story you are into and it’s basically a good thing. To wrap up the concept about modules, just remember they are the tool that will bring you experience close to other similar board games like Descent so, before starting to despair due to lack of rules or whatever, just dive into the free modules available on the site and start loving the game; start playing from the Stone of Life introductory walkthrough and you will be hooked in a couple hours.

If you want to try them, I list here the download links for all the modules freely available that I know of:

Stone of Life - (a part of Q4 Patch. It contains a learn to play companion book)

Rise of the revenant

Fury of the fireborne - (This is still in 1.1 format but still)

Character growth

When you play quests, modules or just explore for fun, your hero will end up gaining more and more power, getting stronger. This is a well established RPG concept. It usually boils down to exp points that you get and your hero picking up some new skill or magic. Together with the physical growth of your hero you usually end up with a bunch of treasures/weapons that monsters dropped. You find something like this built in the system that Myth uses to make characters grow, albeit there is not much of that. At least, with the lack of “skills” and “exp points” it doesn’t feel super-RPG. Just RPG-ish. Let me show why.

Let’s say you are playing a quest: one of the prizes for your success may be the possibility of deck “manipulation” where you go searching in the advanced cards and you add a new one from them to your deck. While this may feel as a good thing, the result is barely noticeable: it’s 1 possibility on 25? 26? to get your new card so, if you are not a lucky gamer (I am definitely not) your new shiny ability will always be on the bottom of the deck. And it’s only one anyway...

Another way to advance is earning titles by slaying a boss: these titles give you cool buffs that can really help in your quests but they come with a big downside: you can only equip one at a time! Per story! I don’t really get any plausible reason not to let you choose more of them. I mean, if killing a monster granted you enough wisdom or bravery or whatever, why isn’t that permanent? I don’t get it. And for what I have seen this far by playing the game, growth is probably the only aspect of Myth that I don’t completely like and would probably benefit of some more love from the creators. Progression indeed feels a little bit slow but I guess that’s done to stimulate you playing more open end stories that you create. Maybe. I don’t know.

Objects and treasures are however a totally different story. You get items when collecting treasure from killed monsters (3 deaths with a single attack equals one treasure) in the form of an item token you get to draw from a satchel. It may be either white, green or blue as the treasures get more rare and powerful. You start with a lot of white tokens (potions or gold) and few green items so the very first games should be used to harvest as many items as possible before moving to more challenging quests. The nice thing in this mechanism is that you get to modify your satchel as long as you keep completing quests or finishing modules meaning that you get to draw from a pool of progressively less white and more blue/green. This feels really good because you get to actually use some nice gear that adds buffs a new abilities to your attacks. I love how this mechanic affects the play even though I always end up sticking to my beloved stuff and sell all the rest for gold!

Myth journeyman

Just a couple of lines to describe the two expansions to Myth that are (somewhat) available to buy. I bought them but they are still not showing up in the mail thanks to eBay’s super-slow/super-expensive international shipping program… I thought I may put some pictures here but I guess it’s going to be matter for a future update post.

According to the information I was able to gather prior to buying, both expansion contain new mechanics like getting lost or getting on a boat to sail but most important, the ability to evolve your character. With the new expansions the Myth basic hero classes can choose between two paths, the light and the dark path each granting some special new ability and a bunch of new cards for the deck. Two expansions for two paths so… I guess if you want both possibilities you need to buy both (I did). Together with these new mechanics you also get new enemies, tiles etc. so they look nice value even if someone might think they’re slightly overpriced…

A look at the miniatures

The last aspect of the game I want to cover are the miniatures used in Myth. I can tell you that when I think to buy new stuff (either board games or wargames) 80% of the weight is put on how the miniatures look. Rule sets may not stand the test of time but good looking miniatures? They surely will and you can still use them with some of the free rules sets I already discussed about. Myth definitely has some cool miniatures up to a point that pulling the trigger was really easy.

They are not however what you expect as your standard fantasy miniatures. In fact, as you probably noticed, the artwork in the game is slightly off from what you usually see in fantasy: yes, the "factions" may be familiar with different names (grubbers are goblins, shamblers are undead, etc) but the look of the minis is totally original and totally awesome. They have that cartoonish look that I totally love. I mean, take a look the Shamblers I painted in a previous tutorial (here). Here is a crop of the last photo:

I happen to also have painted some of the insect critters (the Crawlers) that I was planning to use as another tutorial. Meanwhile, just have a sneak preview of a finished ranged Crawler.

They look so awesome and yet really easy to paint even for beginners. Surely, they may not be super detailed but they are dynamic sculpts with a cute fantasy look, what else do you want?

I am sorry I don’t have more painted ones to show but you can find plenty of examples if you do a Google images search so just go check them out.

Final thoughts

So, if you read past the whole review this is probably what you were waiting for. My wrap-up with some final thoughts. Myth

Myth seems to be a highly polarizing game: a huge successful Kickstarter and a company that screws everything with a bad rules set all obviously followed by flame wars between haters and fanboys. Years have passed and Myth 2.0 new rule book was released together with two new expansions and still it seems hard to find an unbiased review of the game. This is why I tried to give you an objective description of what goes on in this game. It is definitely not a game for the casual gamer and don’t bring it to your friend’s house for the usual board game night (unless your friend is into this kind of games). The target is a more hard-core gamer as you have RPG elements, board game elements together mixed up with a strong tabletop wargaming flavor and this is clearly not going to work for everybody. But Myth is still a pretty fun game if you know how to enjoy it. Remember that it’s a sandbox style of game so you can just do whatever you want with it as long as the rules are respected. Fore example, take a bunch of grubbers and a bunch of Crawlers and unleash them against each other: there you have a small skirmish tabletop wargame. Add some terrain and you can have some pretty solid fun. Or you could just write a custom campaign and create your own monsters.... like you do in RPGs? I have a dungeon master book that would fit perfectly the atmosphere and I’m planning to couple to this game. You know... some day... So, randomize things, add your own stuff and fluff, put your brain at work and unleash your fantasy. Have fun! This is what games should be about and Myth can surely give you lots of fun. With tons of cool minis!

We are done with this but stay tuned or the tutorial that is about to come next Friday!

...game on!

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kennethanliveblog · 7 years ago

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PAX West 2017 Kennethan Notes

Its been over a month since PAX West 2017 has ended and I have had a chance to digest and calm down. Time for my quick thoughts (or data dump) for what I saw this year.

Day 0

Check in to hotel

Dinner at Yardhouse

Drove to Travour (SODO area)

Open house at Travour with beer samples

Drove back to hotel

Walked to find places to WABL passport stamp

Beer and food (surf and turf) at Tankard & Tun which is part of The Pike (and a stamp)

Back to hotel

Board game fun at pre PAX event

Played Machi Koro

Bed

Day 1

Exercised

Solyant breakfast

Queue line in road between convention and WSCC garage

Corsair booth with PAX discounts and if you earn coins can try for a prize. Booth also playing Dreadnaught

Explored most of north expo floor

Bethesda has VR stuff along with Quake Champions, Wolfenstein, The Dead Within, Elder Scrolls Legends (played)

Trion Worlds has usual with Rift, Atlas Reactor, Defiance, ArcheAge, and Trove (did not play any)

PS 4 with a bunch of games. Detroit is here

Digital Extremes game The Amazing Eternals is an Overwatch and CCG type game (played). Was fun and won founders pack.

Xbox with a bunch of games. Want to try AC Origins and M-E Shadow of War

Klei game Griftlands (played) that I saw on the E3 PC Gamer show. Looks good.

Hi-Rez Studios game Hand of the Gods: Smite Tactics (played) was fun and I won the game I played. I signed up for Sunday 2 pm tournament. Won a shirt and other game codes.

11 Bit Studios game Frost Punk (not played) looks cool as a building sim. Game Moonlighter (not played) looks interesting too.

Ubisoft game Far Cry 5 (played) is here on console but will be on PC. FPS with story and open world (I think) could be good.

Paramount Theater for Bungie and Destiny 2. Cosplay contest had amazing builds. Played PC version of an older build than I have played on beta.

Walked to PAX Lot 73 for free Mutant energy drink. I did not pick up any Cup of Noodles.

No lunch just snacked on a Larabar and granola bar

Food wine and beer at Middle-earth party with swag pin and artwork

Walked back to hotel and gave Kim my day update

Walked to Westin

PAX 10 panel - excellent panel and good moderator. Makes me want to try all of the games even though some are on my initial NO list

Easy Credits panel - lively and fun. Not their sole earning as they have day jobs. Funny and great end of panel video

Back to hotel

Write up day 0 and 1 journal

Bed

Day 2

Worked out

Queue was out in freeway park like other years.

Corsair coins won mouse mat. Second try didn’t pick up ball.

Bought Corsair headset.

Played Dreadnaught again. Looks better than last year but when is it coming out?

Indie Megabooth.

Some cool games. Hope I remember them based on what they passed out.

Bought a Thumbleweed Park t-shirt. Got a L since no XL so they gave me a pin for free.

FFVIV panel with free art print

Grilled Cheese Gran Prix at South Lake Union popup. Nosh and Chicagowest.

Swag bag at the Westin. LoL skin is the prize item every one wants. I see tons of bags left behind by folks after they got he skin for recycling.

Went by to see Frost Punk and talked to a dev about it. Looks like an interesting.

Day 3

Church

Swag bag

Changed shirts and bag contents

Corsair first for more coins

6th floor exploring

Indie box sign up with free game. Didn't sub

Several interesting games

Smite Tactics tourney. I lost 0-2.

Lunch was Seattle dog and half can of Monster.

Monster Hunter World was down when I went by around 3 ish.

Played Shadoverse at the Twitch booth. Its a CCG with some different mechanics. I think it’s free like Hearthstone.

In line for Biomutants (not played) console? I watched another play so got the feel for it. Need to see if on PC.

Acquisitions Incorporated panel at Beneroya Hall

Came back

Day 4

I made a to do list for day 4 based on what I saw and missed the previous 3 days. I was able to accomplish most of it.

First up was logging into the Playstation Experience so I can RSVP for Detroit: Almost Human. I wasn’t fast enough for the for the early ones and triued again later and was also too slow. I actually pulled off the show floor and keep refreshing the app to get the queue and once after 1 refresh ALL of the RSVP slots were full. I am not liking this system as I tried it last year too.

Second on my list was to win the Final Fantasy XIV t-shirt for taking down Susano to go with my other two t-shirts (Titan and Ravana). Tried (3) times and failed (3) times. Kim succeeded in one try. Three times in three lines was quite the time commitment but being a single person I was able to get to go ahead of some others to fill out a team

Third was to try Monster Hunter but the line is way too long (3 hours) to even try. Should have made it a day 1 line queue like Kim did

Wolfenstein line also was long too. Another reminder to do it first thing in the morning or the first day.

On my list was to pick up another Amazon PC Gamer bag (which I did) but not a golden ticket winner.

Of course I had to make another attempt at the Corsair booth to win the gaming chair (which I didn’t) but will buy once I get home with the 15% discount. I checked with the folks there and I can use the discount on the chair once I get home. Overall, i got a mouse pad and b-ball cap so I did win.

Picked up a Firewatch t-shirt (again L as XL was out of stock) and a 11x17 print.

Last on my list was to purchase a AC Racing Chair but after checking oiut the Corsair chair and with the 15% discount determined to go Corsair.

To round out the day and the PAX experience, Kim and I finished the day at the Omegathon championships where they played Nidhogg 2.

We got our luggage and car and drove north to meet Chris for some food at McMenamins’ Anderson School.

#PAX #PAX West 2017

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