#i would have an enourmous list

[scrunkledorf]

I saw you doubting that you could tell a moose from a deer on a post, and to be clear, when seen in person you really can't mistake them for eachother, even at a glance. I understand why you'd think it would unrealistic to tell and respond accordingly if you have only seen photos of moose, but they're wildly different sizes and your brain can definitely rapidly tell that an animal is enourmous when it is THAT dramatic. It would be like mistaking a clydesdale for a goat, moose are 6-7 foot tall at the shoulder, the average white-tailed deer is 2.5-3 foot tall at the shoulder. Really, the species isn't the important part, it's recognizing the size of the animal. Swerve for the one that is larger than your car. Don't swerve for the one that is the size of a large dog.

yeah that’s fair lol. i have seen moose and deer and you’re right. i was mostly laughing at how the list of things to consider in a split second kept getting longer

[ntls-24722]

God please, I want to marry all your DJ designs

That question for all of the DJs

Will you merry me Mr music man ?💍

Not:(LOVE YEAR ART)

#DJ MM LOVER FOR LIFE

THANK YOU BOOK AGARGARGAGH🦀

but as for the proposal...

this is an ambitious ask to answer, because of right now, there are 62.5 DJMMs out of the list of 86 Music Men and counting i have

and i am going to personally go on the mission to draw... each of their responses.

But I should probably eliminate the ones that are taken just to make this easier since it'll just be a hard "no,I'm taken" and Deejay Memento Mori + Meeboop are kids, so they're also eliminated, which leaves us with.... 44.

like... slightly more manageable.

I haven't talked about a lot of these guys, So I'll put a little desc for each!

Without further ado

"Will you marry me?"

1. Clavier! Sorry, it's a little hard for her to imagine marrying anyone after she killed her girlfriend on the day said girlfriend was going to propose to her. That's what being a religious fanatic drove her to do, not out of a devotion to a god, but in order to ensure herself an afterlife. The concept of a soul and a supposed afterlife for everything with a soul for someone without a soul and has seen nothing after her death, is very troubling

2. Lieutenant Armadillum is a requested MM based off of the prompt of just. "rolly polly." So I made her a part of security. With all those armored plates I wasn't sure what else she could be. She can be nice, but she takes everything literally, or as an order, and has a problem with volume control. Congrats to you and your new, loud wife

3. Walbergi/The Entertainer Piece... um. Hmm. I was almost not going to put him here because I would think he's more similar to MM than DJMM but him alongside the next two are actually just pieces of DJMM, all his jobs just assigned to their own Music Men. Walbergi (and the eliminated singer duo Lovebugz, which namely are taken) Are composers/musicians, but Walbergi is specifically a mantis entertainer that has the entire dancefloor as his wings. He is also really arrogant and feels superior to everyone around him... including you. Sorry.

4. The Security piece is, to some degree, also arrogant. At least he's quieter. He's the bouncer, and he has accepted your request, but with his constant desire and and usually ready opprotunity to beat the tar out of things he's around, I'm not entirely sure if that's a good thing.

5. Custodian Piece! He's the janitor and he's very lonely since he spends most of his time in the tunnels and slithering across the floor to clean it, he's kind of a people pleaser and would be over the moon to be proposed to. I'm not sure if he's good for hugs considering his entire underside is a mop. he recplaces it often, he showers yes, but he is also a full time custodian... i'm not sure if the feeling of hugging a damp wet mop would ideal

6. Polybius. um. Not sure what to say? He's haunted, he's enourmous, and he's single, and ready to mingle (htough, take caution, because he might be trying to trick you into playing a game and hypnotising you. or something.) Gamer bf?

Blood and organ exposure (more like an organ diagram, ish) below the cut!

7. The masquerader. Now we're getting into the SOS lore section of the list. This guy was the first success in shapeshifting, and could've been a lot more if he didn't try to escape by killing and taking the identity of a researcher. It almost worked, but he messed up the eyes. Typically, you only have 1 pupil in each, not 3. He was shot dead the moment his back was turned, and totally died. He doesn't like humans... at all. Sorry.

8. The entertainer does, though! He's the one survivor of the brain surgery done to instill robotic motions and an "algorithm" for their behavior. He died not due to surgery, but being left to starve to death, but in his lifetime he was able to figure out that the scientists in the Oort Cloud are not there on their own will, and he convinced the Vanessa of SOS to do something about it. Nonetheless, he doesn't have the same resentment, and he accepts your proposal, mostly due to having no idea what marriage is.

9. In SOS, the mastering of shapeshifting was a detrimental time for the creations of the Oort cloud, as now they could make living concept art. While some were whimsical re-imaginings of what the final product could be, like a more welcoming and humanoid "bee" design, some were made for shits and giggles, which is a horrifying concept when someone has to live through being a living product of "shits and giggles." Nonetheless, this bee is a queen bee, made her own hive, and does not want any other royalty around, especially not human royalty.

10. Dolomedes is another weird concept, less based off an idea but from a pre-designed mask - a fisherman... who has no idea what a fish is. His head is in the clouds, and he accepts the proposal.

11. Lucorum is not just any member of the queen's hive, but the queen's personal guard and is the loud and proud bestie of Dolomedes. That being said, she cares few for any other people. Sorry.

12. This is just one individual from a massive colony of asexually reproducting failures for shapeshifting - instead of exhibiting changes to themselves, they literally have a new person grow out of them that instead exhibits those changes. Most of them don't feel romantic attraction - And due to human trauma like 99% of anything from the Oortcloud, none of them would accept the offer.

13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18. Volupe's polycule may be a very open relationship, but none of them at least even know you. The council has decided not to accept the proposal.

This will be continued soon. I just need a while to draw + write the rest (ToT)

[lairofdragonagelore]

I've finished DAV, and I'm quite worried about the fact that this game simply destroyed every aspect of the Lore in a way that makes no sense and it's beyond "fix" or intention to blend it with the one that exists already.

The enviroments have nothing to say, since they were made by reusing a lot of nonense assets: Nevarra has plenty of Avvar statues and DAI Tevinter assets, Anderfels is filled with Ferelden statues to the point you see torches with the Calenhad symbol on them and nobody cares. DAV Tevinter is made out of DAI dwarven assets with some new ones based on a strange "china-town" design, with squared snake-dragons and mao neck dresses. Even the colours of its pallete were changed: jade green and red, instead of the black, grey and dark yellow [Patterns and Styles: Tevinter].

Elvhenan assets were remade uselessly, because you could have used the ones in DAI and it would have been perfect. The Elvhenan were a timeless civilization, you show that by showing no change or evolution in their buildings and statues... yet... The disappontment has been enourmous. Especially in the aspect of the Lore. Instead of having answers, we had oversimplification of complex details that simply break apart all what we know. So, I'm still in shock, not knowing what to do with this game, realising it was the culmination of a long list of things that were breaking the lore slowly [the comics after Until We Sleep, the Netflix series, the podcasts]. For the moment, I leave this link of this Reddit user who expresses exactly my sentiment of sadness with all the Lore and the character richness that were the main identity of Bioware games in general and in DA franchise in particular. I'm not even sure if all the analysis I've been doing have any sense to be finished now. DA lore has been reseted to become a generic fantasy game without complexity at all. We mourn what it could have been a good story and an epic lore.

Since this user's posts seem to have been deleted in previous opportunities I copy-paste their words here because they express exactly what I feel about this game. Dragon Age has died, unfortunately.

I'm a big time Dragon Age lover and have enjoyed every game in the series. Personally, I think Inquisition is the best in the series. And I was excited for Veilguard right up until I actually began playing it. Now, I want to clear things up at the start as to what I look for and believe makes a good Dragon Age game. To start, I DON'T CARE ABOUT COMBAT. I. Do. Not. Care.

You can make it Origins tactical. DA2 fast tactical. DAI hybrid. God of War action, I don't care. Dragon Age has always had combat that was...fine. A nice distraction and breakup in between the bits I actually care about: narrative ROLEPLAYING, story, characters, and exploration. I don't give a crap how great the combat is if the narrative roleplaying and writing are poor, I'm not playing BioWare titles for amazing gameplay. I am here for the story, the characters, and the roleplaying. Truth is, for a time I considered DATV's combat to be the best in the series.

And this is why I feel the game is a terrible Dragon Age, because it lacks or fails to respect those elements concerned with narrative roleplaying, story, characters, and exploration. Now, in many reviews and online videos you'll hear some reference often to the drop in writing quality. And a lot of time people will incorrectly say that the writing with the characters is to "modern" or "Marvel quippy" or not "dark" enough. I think these people are wrong, they recognize there is a drop in writing quality from previous games but aren't able to articulate why that is.

Dragon Age has never adopted any sort of faux medieval speech and vocabulary (though we'll get into this more later). This is a series that used "epic fail" as a thing someone uttered in the very first game. It's always had anachronistic dialogue and banter. So why is it such a drop then? Why is it considered poor? Simple. This is a game that does not believe in the world it has setup for over a decade. It does not believe in or engage properly with its own world and lore. I mean, look no further than the title "The Veilguard" a phrase that is never uttered by anyone in our group, and further proof it was a last minute marketing change. Compare to Inquisition where the title is apparent from the start in the game and has actual meaning.

You see, characters in DATV do not feel or react to events the way they should based on the lore. Why is no one constantly asking what the hell the Inquisitor is doing? The Inquisitor is kind of a BIG DEAL when it comes to Solas and Elven Gods, my Inquisitor drank from the WELL OF SORROWS! So why are we sitting around thinking at the start, "hmm lemme think who I can contact who might know more." The Herald of Andraste! They know more Rook, the guy that is technically your boss. The Inquisitor! Who else have you been working for this entire time? Who do you think told Varric to recruit you?!

But even removing the Inquisitor, the Elven Gods being real and also near synonymous with the old Tevinter Gods is kind of a BIG DEAL. It was only a theory fans crafted long ago that slowly revealed itself to be true. And it completely upends known religious dogma on all sides. Yet, why aren't people we meet going through a massive existential crisis? For instance, the Veil Jumpers we initially meet were presumably told off-screen about Fen'Harel, and are seemingly cool with this massive knowledge alone. But then we talk about those two other Gods being released and they're like, "well, shit those two aren't good." As if they have any clue if the fables about those Gods are real when we previously just upended everything they thought about the Dreadwolf! Why are you acting like this is another Tuesday?! Your entire religion is wrong. In that same conversation, Strife notes "Solas might be a bastard, but compared to the Evunaris? Let's just say they weren't know for being kind rulers."

My brother in Anduril, what are you talking about! Elven religion teaches that Elgar'nan was so beloved by the Earth that it "the land brought forth great birds and beasts of sky and forest, and all manner of wonderful green things." And that he fought the jealous Sun that tried to burn the land and all beasts away. Custom says that he and Mythal, "created the world as we know it" after defeating the Sun. He is literally described as one of the "good" Gods. WHY ARE YOU ASSUMING HE IS EVIL! It's like finding out Satan is real, but not as evil as have come to believe and then being told Jesus Christ is back and a devout Christian going, "well shit, that can't be good." WHAT?!

The same goes for Andraste and the Chant of Light, it took me 30 hours of playing before ONE character mentioned Andraste and the implications with the Chant and it was never brought up again. Our entire party is seemingly made up of unphased atheists. Now compare to something like Inquisition which explored this aspect HARD and was amazing for it. You'd get into great debates with religious figures and party members about the implications of Corypheus actually being a Tevinter Magister of old. And you'd talk about what it means towards the religious dogma preached and how much is true. And these intense political and religious discussions are present in every previous game, and not confined to a single conversation with one party member where it is seemingly resolved.

These conversations do not happen in DATV because there is no depth to the writing or engagement with the world. The Elven Gods are evil and need to be stopped. That's it. We don't need to think about the implications this has on Dalish customs and religion. Fuck it, all the Dalish are going to still wear their Vallaslin slave brand tattoos. Let's forget about Trespasser implying Solas was removing them from followers coming to join him. Let's even forget they were likely all told at this point that they are slave brands, nope still going to wear them yet speak blasphemy with every sentence against our Gods. No one cares about Andraste or The Maker or the Chant. Big deal if these Elven Gods contradict the overwhelming majority religion in Thedas. Not a single party member has religious or cultural objections to killing the Elven Gods; not a problem. Not one single elf wants to join Solas in tearing down The Veil and getting immortality again?

Again, let's forget about Trespasser setting up Solas gathering MANY Elven followers from Dalish clans who would be super inclined to join him after experiencing CENTURIES of discrimination and slavery by humans. The better question is what Elves wouldn't join Solas at the start? And what Elves wouldn't look at the other two Gods and go, "meh, maybe we should give them a try. They can't be worse than humans, right?" In DA2 you had elves joining The Qun to escape the discrimination of humans, but not ONE ELF wants to join Solas or Elgar'nan? Those Ancient Elves in the Temple of Mythal? I guess they all died, right?

This extends to EVERY single element of Dragon Age that previously had depth to it, it now has been completely removed. Those murdering Antivan Crows? Oh, they're just good Italian Mob Family that protect their city. Tevinter? Yes, it has poor people, but we're trying to do better. Oh, slavery? No, no we don't show that here. The Qun? The what now? No, they are all Antaam now, and so that means they are all generic evil warlords. No, they don't even attempt to follow their own hardcore view of The Qun like when Templars split from the Chantry, they're just warlords now that like plunder. Dwarves and their rigid Caste society? We don't do that here. Elves and racism across Thedas? Elves used to experience racism? News to me, what's a Shemlen? Never heard of that term, we like all humans. Pirates? That is insensitive, we are Lords of Fortune and we are sure to return any cultural artifacts found to their rightful owners; it belongs in a museum after all. The fucking Fade and spirits? Wait, you mean its different than generic fantasy spirit world? I'm sorry, that's too complicated here.

This either intentional disregard of the lore or plain ignorance also extends to environmental design. The asset reuse from Inquisition is particularly hilarious and must speak to the developers not having time after the switch from MP. Why are the same statues found in Val Royeaux in DAI also in Tevinter and Antiva? Why are those stupid Fen'Harel Wolf statues EVERYWHERE? Even in the catacombs of other Elven Gods! There are no statues of Elgar'nan or Ghilan'nain. Nothing for June or Anduril. Dirthamen. Falon'Din. Nothing. No, the only Gods that seem to get statues are coincidentally the ones who already had assets created for DAI or past titles that could be reused. Hmmm.

This continues into character designs too, why do the Veiljumpers and Shadow Dragons all dress richly? They are supposed to be poor as fuck. There's a codex entry about Veiljumpers finding a lost cache of old ancient elven armor and weapons and so boom they all get to dress like High Elven Lords and not the dirty, poor, wandering Dalish clans they are supposed to come from. Why do this? There isn't even an attempt to explaining why the Shadow Dragons, an organization supposed to be secretive, has branded clothing in bright rich colors and fabrics for all members. Naturally, it must be incredibly difficult for Tevinter authorities to not identify them.

This lack of depth and verisimilitude, naturally, affects all the characters. Because in this game you cannot roleplay and you cannot ask questions. In Dragon Age Inquisition, once you started the game, you could immediately interrogate Varric about what happened to every DA2 character despite the Inquisitor never meeting them, you know because it respects its players. You could speak to shop keepers, blacksmiths, your horse master. You could interrogate every single person to learn more about them and the world. The same goes for your player character in DA2 and Origins. You show in Denermin and find yourself knee deep in a quest to help Wade the Blacksmith craft the perfect armor. Here you can't actually speak to a single shopkeeper to ask questions and get some lore bits. You can't ask party members questions about their background, religious beliefs, upbringing, their factions, etc. You can't ask any returning characters any questions either about what they've been doing. Enter a brand new area? Great, you're not asking anyone questions about this never before seen place.

How does a lost Dwarven thaig survive every single blight? How are their immortal lichs in Neverra? How long has that been a thing? Why haven't they told anyone about the Elven gods or any other knowledge they've accumulated in an immortal lifespan? If immortality is so "easy" why can't Solas just do that to restore the Elves? Why are the Venatori, Tevinter Supremacists, following Elven Gods? Wouldn't that be a major identity crisis? Why would Antaam, who still preach the Qun, follow an Elven God that speaks blasphemy with ever breadth? Sshhhh, no questions. You get what is directly told to you and that's it, no follow-up questions.

Party members do not conflict with each other or interrogate each other's beliefs which is why their banter feels inconsequential and meaningless. Lucanis is a assassin, he kills people for money. The same organization that marked Zevran for death for failing a contract. The same one that took him as a kid and trained him to murder, often brutally, for coin. And yet no one really seems to care. He's just a nice Italian assassin from a nice assassin organization. Who cares. Let's instead talk about cooking, at length. Harding, a devout follower of Andraste, has no qualms with Elven Gods wreaking havoc on known religion. We get one conversation you can tell her to believe what she wants, and that's the end of that debate. Bellara also gets about two whole conversations about the conflict concerning her Gods wreaking havoc, both easily resolved. We don't need to think about any larger implications or doubt her loyalty when the Elven pantheon are seeking to restore her people that have been discriminated against since forever. Emmerich, a necromancer of Neverra, apparently has no religious belief. A codex entry even states that those of the Mourn Watch don't know where the soul goes after death. They don't like to think about it. Buddy, Mortalitasi belief is literally that our souls return to the Void alongside The Maker, but to keep balance a exchange must be wrought with The Fade to allow a spirit to house the now empty vessel. How do you not know the religion and customs of your own faction and land? This man has a whole quest line about funerary rights, yet not ONCE mentions religion and what he believes happens after death?! Sshhhh, no questions. No thinking.

Hey, remember The Fade? Remember how mages go to dream there every night. Remember how The Black City is always visible there? No? Well, we don't either. You won't see The Black City in The Fade. You might see it in The Crossroads in a closed off section, even though it is NOT The Fade. Oh, we're going to have you physically enter The Fade in multiple quest lines and no one will think it's a big deal. No, you still can't see The Black City. Now, The Fade is reduced to nothing more than your generic fantasy spirit world. It has none of the previous rules and lore that bound it before. Demons can bind to non-mages and we won't attempt to explain it. Solas fucks with The Veil and not a single mage notices a change in their dreams when they sleep at night. No biggie.

Lastly, let's return at last to the actual minutiae of writing. I stated at the start the writing isn't bad because of Marvel quippiness, which the series has always had. I was partly lying. Yes, the series has always had anachronistic dialogue. It has had meme language in its own previous titles. But, it was just that, a small joke here and there. For the most part the series actually tried to use it's own sort of "older" speech patterns. I think a perfect example has to do with Taash, she eventually finds her own identity and declares she is proudly "non-binary." Literally stating, "so, I'm non-binary." I have no issue with this sort of inclusivity in Dragon Age, it's what the series is known for. Yet, why does that sound wrong? Simple, it's far too anachronistic. It doesn't belong in Dragon Age. In Inquisition, Dorian let's us know he's gay. But he doesn't say, "I'm gay!" or "I'm a homosexual" those terms would not exist in his world. Instead he says, "I prefer the company of men."

And it's these little subtle changes in writing that makes it feel all the more different. We went from "I once ventured in to The Fade to serve the Old Gods of Tevinter in person. I found there only chaos and corruption. Dead whispers. Now I shall return under no name but my own, to champion withered Tevinter and correct this blighted world gone wrong. Pray that I succeed, for I have seen the throne of the Gods. And it was empty."

To: "Well, shit. That can't be good."

So, what do we have when all is said and done? Well, we have a decent generic fantasy action game. An intentional attempt by the developers to remove every edge from the world of Dragon Age in place of a very simple, easy to understand world with not much depth beyond what you see. You don't need to think, just play and have fun. This is beyond turning a MP game into a SP game, which so blatantly obvious in this game. DA2 was developed in 16 months, but is carried strong by its writing. You see, nothing prevented them from just acknowledging their own world they created. It costs very little to write around what already exists. Even if you can't make no assets or redesign the world. Writing is cheap and having characters voice these elements is not as costly as a redesign. No, they chose to remove the edge in every element because this was design intentionally for the masses with easy to understand world and zero depth.

But I wanted to play Dragon Age. I wanted to get into intense religious debates with party members as known lore is completely upended. I wanted to debate Elvish clans deciding to join Solas or the other Gods due to their treatment by human society. I wanted to debate the ethics of necromancy with the Mortalitasi of Neverra's Crypts. I wanted to engage in intense debating with Solas on the ethics of his goal. I wanted to see Tevinter react to a real push for anti-slavery and actually see the slavery in the slave capital of the world. I wanted to butt heads with the Antivan Crows and call them out for the murderers they are. I wanted to see the Black Divine and debate the Chant of Light with them. I wanted to speak to the Archon of Tevinter and see how he felt about the Venatori's past efforts in Inquisition. Hey, what happened to Meredith Reborn in Kirkwall and her idol and Red Templar worshipers? Forget about it.

We got none of this. I got a game that is pretty much disrespectful of its own world. I waited 10 years for this? Why even bother if this is the result? They may as well have just killed every previous character we ever knew, including Solas, offscreen and started anew with this game. Because as a Dragon Age game and sequel, it's terrible and no returning character is how they should be.

And when we get to the ending, that's pretty much what they did. Everything you did in all the past games? Well, that was pointless. Everyone is probably dead. King Alistair. Gaspard. Celene. King Bhelen. The Arl of Redcliffe. The Divine. The Circle of Magi. The Templars. The Seekers. Everything, everyone, and every organization that existed in the South is likely dead and destroyed. And now Dragon Age can become what they wanted, a generic fantasy IP.

But I just wanted to play Dragon Age.

[suchalonelysunflower]

2, 6, 7, 17! 😊

Hiii love ❤️

2. What’s next on your ‘to-read’ list? (Fan fiction or otherwise)

Fanfiction, well my dear @devilatmydoor has something really spooky and sweet for the Halloween season so I’m very excited about that 👀 And I know @spicycal will do a continuation of that little blurb so I can’t wait! Also, I know that many people here have some amazing ideas and it’s a delight everytime they post something so I’m always very excited to see what’s next❤️

6 What’s the last thing you read that made you laugh?

Oh, in terms of fanfics it’s not the last thing I read but it’s actually a series of moments that made me laugh the hardest: literally any scenes with Layla and Niall in the midst of chaos that were Y/N and Harry in the flat are series of @heyyyharry And obviously all the post and tags I find on my dash, especially when @kindahoping4forever is online and there’s new content.

7 What’s the last thing you read that made you cry?

Uff, okay. A lot of things make me cry and for very different reasons... I live for the Angst and you all write some amazing amazing pieces.

The last thing I read that made me cry is actually something I wrote for an upcoming fic, however, if we are talking about one that made me cry, even though it wasn’t the last thing I read, I have to give it to, first of all you with your “Out shining star” fic with dad!Ashton (tho those were happy tears) @karajaynetoday with her series called “it’s not the pain they’re getting over, it’s the love” and @littledrummeraussie with her “getaway” series. Also shout out to @cal-puddies for the Angsty Ash fic today (I’m still not recovered) and Hailey @talkfastromance4 that just knows how to hit you right in the gut... ugh the feels 🥺

17 Describe a fic that is still in the ‘ideas’ stage.

I have: songfic, a Grayscale song, ANGSSST + Calum

And I also have another songfic, A Day to Remember’s classic, Angst! + Ashton.

Probably a Luke fic in the middle but who knows? 🤷🏼‍♀️

Thanks for the questions, dear ❤️🦋 I enjoyed them very much ✨

[teyvat-imagines]

Hi can I request Hu Tao, Ganyu, and Kazuha helping the reader to get motivated to do stuff again? Feel free to ignore

Hello!! Of course I'm more than happy to do that! ^w^ I know that life can get pretty rough sometimes, so please try your best to take care of yourself okay? <3 I really hope you like these and please feel free to send in requests like this again if you need a little pick me up!

These ended up very long honestly, so I've popped them under the read more! :)

Helping the Reader Get Motivated

How Hu Tao Helps:

○ Hu Tao sees that you've not been feeling good for a while now. She knows something's wrong, you don't seem as motivated as you were before and she can tell your struggling to do even the things you once enjoyed. ○ She really wants to know what's made you feel this way, but she's got enough sense not to push. Hu Tao trusts that you'll talk to her in your own time. ○ So instead, she puts her full energy into helping to pick your mood back up! She's by your side almost first thing, grabbing your hands with an infectious giddy energy, proudly proclaiming you're going to be helping her today! ○ Before you can protest, you've been dragged around Liyue with her, helping on odd jobs. They aren't particularily difficult, and you're not really sure why she's brought you along honestly... But no matter how easy the task was, she's sure to praise you each time! A little "Nice!" or a "Good job!" and she says it with complete sincerity. ○ It takes a while, but it starts to feel nice to do things again. Each job starts to get a little more fun, and before you know it, the day is done and all the odd jobs have been wrapped up. You didn't notice it at the time, but she had switched gears on you. Halfway through she'd started dragging you to do tasks you'd mentioned in passing. Little things that you knew you had to get done but that even the mere thought of had taken so much energy out of you. And yet, they were done now. ○ Hu Tao smiles at you, warm and welcoming with a dash of concern hiding in her bright eyes. She praises you again. It's a little more solemn, and it almost seems wrong on the normally peppy girl's face. "You did good today, you know? Our lives are short and one day we'll each arrive at the border. I don't want you going there with any regrets. So, if you're struggling... Come see me, yeah?" ○ She takes your hand again as you walk home together, a reassuring squeeze reminding you that you had her full support whenever you needed it.

How Ganyu Helps:

○ It took Ganyu a little while to pick up on the fact that you weren't feeling as motivated as you normally would. She's often busy with the enourmous amount of paperwork that's fallen on her shoulders. But, even busy as she is, she will still pick up on the difference in your mood.

○ She can tell you aren't as enthusastic as you once were. You didn't seem to be doing things you used to enjoy and even when you were able to do something, there was never any enjoyment. It seemed like you found it a chore...

○ When she realises how much you've been struggling, her stomach drops. You're an incredibly important person to her, how could she not have seen that you needed support?

○ Still, she shakes the thoughts from her head. Now was not the time for self pity! Now, it was time to take care of you. She starts work hours earlier than normal, dutifully getting her work completed so she could spend the free time with you.

○ Ganyu would sit you down with her and ask how you're doing. She would give you the chance to tell her yourself, before admitting that she's seen the way you've been struggling with motivation. She doesn't want to make you uncomfortable at all, but it's an important conversation to have. Only when she knows the root of the issue can she prepare a suitable plan after all.

○ She would take her time with you, adjusting her work schedule to fit in time with you each day. Together you write out a list of the things you've needed to get done, and each day you pick out something new to work on. It doesn't matter how big or small the task is, between the two of you it gets done. She gives you gentle encouragement and praises you for each job done.

○ On days when the task has been a fairly small one, she'll still only let you complete the one job, insisting that rest and pacing yourself is important! You laugh softly at that before you can help it. Given her work life, Ganyu may need to take her own advice after all!

"Please remember, I am always here if you need someone to talk to. You've always listened to me talk before, now it's my turn. Let me hear your struggles, and together we can work on them."

○ Ganyu is all gentle encouragement and plans of action when you lose your motivation. She has stood firm for 3,000 years already, of course she will stay as a pillar of strength for you when you need it most.

How Kazuha Helps:

○ Kazuha can tell almost immediately when you're struggling. He's very in tune to the world around him, especially for those he places great importance in.

○ He can hear the silence around you. Typically, your energy to him feels like a playful breeze on a summers day. It whips around, darting and dashing from place to place. Yet as chaotic as this should feel, it's instead refreshing and warm. So when the winds around you have ceased and your normal warmth as grown cold, he's immediately aware of the difference.

○ Kazuha isn't one to act in haste. He waits for a day or two, watching you closely to see if this truly is the calm before the storm, or if the warm summer breeze was simply taking a break. He soon realises the winds are not coming back and your struggles seem to grow worse each day.

○ It's at this point Kazuha acts. He wants to truly understand the source of your struggle. So for once, the wanderer stays still. He sits with you and just listens. It doesn't take much coaxing from the bright eyed samuri before you're letting your worries spill forth.

○ The heaviness in your chest is steadily starting to lift as you continue to speak. Kazuha does not respond once during this time, but you can tell he is listening intently. The look in his eyes tells you he has taken in every single word you have said, processing them and considering where to go from here.

○ When you've finished, he asks you what it is you want to do. He will of course support you wholeheartedly, but he knows the decision needs to be yours. You spend some time mulling the question over, before responding that you want to be able to do things again.

○ At this, Kazuha smiles warmly and offers you his hand. It's warm and it's a welcome change to the chill that you had felt looming over you for some time now.

"If that is what you wish, allow me to stand by your side and support you. Please be patient, this may take time. But remember even the mightiest of gales starts off as a humble breeze. We will restore your energy together, no matter how long it takes."

○ Kazuha is sincere in his words. He takes time with you. There are good days and bad days of course, steps forward and steps back. But through out it all, Kazuha has hold of your hand and stays by your side until one day, the summer breeze returns.

[tokimihyachi]

Hi! I really love your one shots! Can you do Nozel where the reader wants attention but hes too busy? Thank you! 😍❤️

AHHHH TYSM!!! (>~<) and thank you for the request! Luckily, I already have one pre-written! </333

AFFECTION

Pairing: Nozel Silva X Reader

Warning/s: None

Bravery is most likely written on top of the list of elements that make up a strong-wielded Magic Knight. When I was a younger, I've convinced myself that if I wanted to protect my family and be a fortified example people would look up to, then I had to be strong.

So I trained myself. Not as hard as that young magicless boy named Asta, but I trained hard— hard enough that qualified me to join the Silver Eagles.

The probability of me joining any squad at all was slim, but to think that a group of mages filled with Royals and Nobles would accept me into theirs was prune. But he raised his hand for me.

A few other Captains did, but something about the impression he has given me upon our first meeting lured me, tantalizing every part of me that this was the squad I wanted. Soon enough I realized I liked the Captain.

And after years of rejection from him, he noticed me, after he found out that I could braid a person's hair; he found out during a visit to our village near the boarders of Spade Kingdom, my sister came to me one night and asked me to fix her hair.

He summoned me days later and asked me to display my skills in weaving hair, and so there everything began, which leads me to the present, a ring in my hand: a sign of our engagement, where we're madly in love with one another.

At least that's what I wanted to believe.

The stack of his paperworks grew by an enourmous rate since the successor of the current Wizard King, Julius Novachrono, would be chosen in a few weeks, and the stupid eagle's assed man wanted to impress him so badly that he would carry it out immediately.

I've tried to convince him that doing so would not impress Julius since that Wizard King never payed much attention to this, and yet he didn't listen and did not show any interest at all.

But tonight, I'll settle everything and convince him to rest.

I knock on his door a couple of times, a faint sigh comes out of his mouth followed by the words, 'come in' and I enter his office closing the door behind me.

"Is there something you need, darling?" he asked, the name we've given each other sounded forced for one second but I shrug it off knowing well he didn't intend whatever I was overthinking.

My feet dragged me closer to him as I circled around his table and place both of my hands on his shoulders, "Rest." I simply say, earning an eye roll from him as he removed both of my hands.

"Y/N, you know better than anyone that I can't."

"You can, but you're just stubborn."

He glares at my figure, dropping the writing utencil he was using before heaving another sigh and pinching the bridge of his nose, "Can we discuss this later? These papers are rather urgent and my attention musn't be strayed from it." he says, turning his chair to face me, both of his hands clasped together.

"But I want attention…” I pouted, trying my best to look cute, "No."

Pivoting his chair, he returns his gaze on the papers once more.

Oh, I'm not done yet, Silva.

As he kept writing, I tried playing with his hair, massaging his back, peppered his cheeks with kisses— still paying no mind, I sat on his lap earning an annoyed groan from him as I hugged his figure and playfully pressed a quick kiss on his lips, "Y/N." he said strenly.

I looked at him innocently, concealing the smug look my face wanted to contort, "What are you doing?" he questions, fully knowing what this whole act is.

"Showering you with love and affection?"

"It's disgusting."

"Ouch." pretending to clutch the fabric in the middle of my chest, he still kept ignoring. Pushing strings one last time, I connect my lips with his, kissing him more greedily this time, pushing my tongue inside his mouth that catches him off guard as he drops his pen and I pull apart, nibbling his ear before standing up and trudging towards the door.

He stands up from his desk, pulls me, and places me back on his lap, "What is it, darling?" I teased, his eyes glinting with a knowing look, and despite the lamp being a few feet away from us, the light of the moon cascading through the windows revealed his cheeks that were dusted in pink.

"What was it you were doing?" he asked again.

I tilted my head to the left, "Leaving your office?" he holds me tighter as he scowled at my answer, "No, before that."

"Huh? You mean showering you with love and affection?"

He nodded, "Do it again." he commanded, looking away from me. The heat on his cheeks travelling to his cheeks until it reached his ears.

Cupping his face, I stared into his eyes and smirked once more, "Gladly, darling."

[kittyprincessofcats]

Stepping away from Harry Potter

Melina Pendulum, Lindsay Ellis and Dominic Noble’s respective videos about quitting Harry Potter or why the concept of “Death of the Author” can’t really be applied in this case gave me a lot to think about.

Harry Potter has been a huge part of my life growing up. And even not too long ago, I was one of the people who still bent over backwards to justify some of JKR’s bullshit. Only 4 years ago, I went to see the Cursed Child in London two weeks after its opening, and made my brother a Hogwarts acceptance letter for his 11th birthday. (I could go on with other important memories in my life that are somehow connected to Harry Potter, but that list would get way too long and we don’t have all day. The point is - these books were a very big influence in my life.)

After JKR’s general shittyness became more and more obvious even for someone who idolized her as much as I did, I started to distance myself and expressed my disappointment in her over the years - and as much as I want to say it didn’t taint my love of the series itself, it did. I just couldn’t find the same joy in it anymore, and the only HP related things I still really enjoyed were Hogwarts Mystery and the works of fan creators like The Mischief Managers.

Now that JKR has completely gone full-blown TERF, I really wasn’t sure what to do at first. I thought I could separate art from the artist. I thought I could simply still enjoy Harry Potter guilt-free, while not supporting JK Rowling financially anymore (meaning: no movie tickets, no more merch or books, nothing that could give her another cent of my money). But as those very good videos^ explained better than I could - it’s not that easy. You can’t completely separate an author from their work if that author is still alive, has a huge platform that they’re using to hurt people, and is as deeply connected to their work as JK Rowling is. She’s made sure all the rights to Harry Potter belong to her alone. She acts like her word on the charactes is law even so many years later.

As much as I’d love to reclaim Harry Potter and say it belongs to the fans now - it does legally still belong to her. People add disclaimers to their fanfictions for a reason. I also haven’t forgotten that time JKR went to court against a fan because he’d distributed his French translation of Deathly Hallows before the official translation was released. Legally speaking, not amount of reclaiming can change that these characters are hers. And personally speaking, I also find it hard to disconnect her from this world. I’ve spent years reading and watching interviews with her - I can’t re-read Harry Potter now without remembering what JKR has said about this or that scene, about this or that character. I can’t read about Rita Skeeter’s “mannish” hands without remembering that JKR is TERF. I can’t read about the stairs to the girls’ dormitories turning into a slide to keep the boys out without remembering that according to JKR’s worldview, those stairs would keep trans girls out, too. I can’t hear JK Rowling say “Hogwarts will always be there to welcome you home” without remembering that according to her, there are people who wouldn’t be welcome to see Hogwarts as their home.

I’ve spent years being a fan of JK Rowling because she wrote Harry Potter. I bought The Casual Vacancy and The Cuckoo’s Calling not because I was genuinely interested in those stories, but because she wrote them. I’ve spent years admiring this woman - I can’t suddenly pretend Harry Potter wasn’t written by her (and I also don’t think statements like ‘Daniel Radcliffe wrote Harry Potter’ are really helping the problem).

And just a few days ago I saw so many Harry Potter fanpages and general fans wishing “Harry and JKR” a happy birthday - as if everything was fine. As if nothing was going on. As if she wasn’t using her enourmous platfrom to dehumanize an extremely marginalized group of people. A few people had the decency to say “Happy Birthday to Harry Potter an f*ck JK Rowling” instead - but even that is a reminder of who the author of this series is and how deepy entwined she is with her creation. 

Long story short: I personally can’t separate the art from the artist in this particular case. Like Melina brilliantly said in her video: “I love Harry Potter, but I love trans people more.” I know so many amazing and kind and courageous trans people and I admire them so much. Back when I was a closeted lesbian scared of coming out to my family, a group of trans people I barely even knew showed me kindness and support. They were there for me, while JKR and her books were not. (I find it insanely hypocritical that she’s pretending to “defend lesbians” from “predatory trans women”. Lady, you don’t even have a single lesbian character in any of your books. As a lesbian, I’m telling you to kindly shut up and leave my trans sisters alone.)

And this is why - at least for the foreseeable future - I’m not going to be talking about Harry Potter on here anymore. I won’t be supporting JK Rowling financially, I won’t get inolved with any of her future projects, and I won’t support Harry Potter creatively (through fanfics, metas, fan discussion, etc.) I’ve put my Harry Potter books and merch away in the same box all the old stuff from my ex is in. And I’m not saying that I’ll never open that box again, but for now I think there are way better things for me to be spending my energy on.

(And just to be clear: I’m not going to judge anyone else for still enjoying Harry Potter. That’s a choice you all have to make for yourselves and I’m not going to tell anyone what to do - especially since I’m not a part of the group most hurt by her transphobic ‘essay’. This is just about me personally.)

[futuramb]

When thinking about the enourmous challenges humanity now see and sometomes even feel, how could we ever be able to meet them? This is why I think Anders Sandberg's article in BBC Future is an important read here. We can criticize the intsitutions and processes science and technology in many ways, but we can't ignore the results. And Anders's point here is that what we should neither ignore the albeit wierd, but really huge ideas that springs from the minds of visionary thinkers armed with the mental tools that science, technological development, philosophy et al:

For as long as we have had mathematics, forward-thinking scholars [...] have tried to imagine the far limits of engineering, even if the technology of the time was lacking. Over the centuries, they have dreamt of machines to lift the world, transform the surface of the Earth, or even reorganise the Universe. Such "megascale engineering"  – sometimes called macro-engineering – deals with ambitious projects that would reshape the planet or construct objects the size of worlds

If we don't acknowledge these ideas we might not even see the enormous structures we actually build and surround us with.

But the most important point might be that among these large scale ideas some of the solutions to the greatest and most important challenges of humankind might be found.

The challenge is of course if we could organize ourselves so we could build these mega structures?

In fact, we are living amid megascale structures we hardly notice. Some large-scale engineering of our environment is nearly invisible.

We can just point to the Internet, the electrical grids, the great road infrastructures and connected systems of global trade to see that it is possible and that we are actually doing it.

Experience with large projects typically show a mix of cost overruns, pathologies of planning and bad project management. If we are so bad at it, how come some do succeed?

Here the article becomes a bit fuzzy. I think the reason is that it is very seldom the people who comes with the great idea have the organizing mindset required to realize the result.

Anders correctly points out that in order to succeed mega scale projects must

consists of projects that can be implemented piecemeal, where work can cease and resume after learning experiences, and where the system is not dependent on every part functioning perfectly. They can be maintained, and it usually makes sense for the people involved to maintain their homes and servers

But I think we already can add some things to list. Some that pops to my mind right now is

the project must be captured and conveyed in shape of a greater story/vision that explains the value and connects the small individual parts with the end result

the story and the greater vision must be carried and embodied by one or a few revered individuals

there must be incentives for people to provide value on all the different levels - from every single component to the end result

It might be that it shouldn't even be formulated as one large project, but small projects that lead to a vision?

I think we can add more aspects to this list, and I think we should because we might need to do employ projects of this kind much sooner than we think.

[caustic-light]

Body Positivity and Fatphobia in Disney’s Recess

So I am a huge fan of this show and have been sort of hyperfocusing on it for the last couple months. One of the reasons I love this show is how it does body positivity, however not all is perfect when it comes to that either. There is good examples of fat representation in this show and there is less good examples.

Lets start with the obvious:

Mikey is a very mixed bag, though I believe he’s not nearly as bad as he would seem at first glance. He is the closest this show has to a token fat character. He is associated strongly with food and he is the archetype of the fat bumbling idiot. That is not where the depth of his character ends. He is also the big softie archetype, he cares a lot about poetry and he’s basically a stereotypical hippie boiled down into a nine year old boy. There are some jabs made at his size throughout the show, but they are shown to be in bad faith against him, and not encouraged or normalized. Most other remarks about his size are more neutral and non judgemental (like him being called “big guy” occasionally by friends). So overall he is what I would call very not ideal, but mostly inoffensive. It helps that while he is definitely a fat strereotype he is balanced out by a lot of characters who are not stereotypes. It doesn’t make it less.... ugh... to see his defining character trait in the shows intro to be eating a lot, but it makes me forgoving if there is one super stereotypical character in a pool of a whole lot of characters.

Another character of the not ideal variety would be Gelman.

He’s a bully and he’s very big and intimidating. That about sums up most of his character. He has some depth beyond that but it’s not anything out of the ordinary. I also don’t have a lot to say here. I am actually not mad about the fact that he’s fat and a bully, because this show has a lot of fat characters and multiple bully characters. What I however am not very happy about is how he is drawn differently from more sympathetic fat characters. Where most fat characters in the show don’t have a defined chest outside of shirtless scenes, and instead just a horizontal line that is meant to imply that they have a chubby chest (if anything at all),

Gelman is drawn with moobs. This means that different looks of fatness are presented with different sympathies associated to them and is one thing I am not very amped about. Associating moobs with being bad is just not a good look. Another example of this would be Clyde Philmore, a minor characters minor character, but another bully who is drawn with a much more defined chest than any of the more likable characters.

There is also Kurst the Worst who... let’s not talk about her.

Lets move over to the positives, because this show does have a lot going for it in terms of body positivity.

Let’s start with the obvious again.

TJ is the main character of Recess and while he is one of the slimmer fat characters in the show visually, there is no mistaking that he is a fat boy. He is described as fat in the show at one point and he has a canonical weight given that puts him right at the edge between overweight and obese. The artstyle doesn’t always reflect his size on the same level (I assume the storyboarders all knew he was supposed to be fat, but weren’t very unified in how fat he’s supposed to be exactly) and so his size varies, but even at his slimmest (apart from a few instances where he looks almost off model) he is noticably thicker than the skinny characters on the show.

As you can see a lot of his pudge comes and goes, but he is always noticably bulky. Especially compared to how skinny characters look on this show.

TJ overall is an amzing character. He is complex, well rounded and extremely likable. And he is the leader and arguably the main character of the show. He is never reduced to his weight (even when it’s explicitely mentioned it’s a part of hyping him up in the style of a sports commentator). He is not very conventionally attractive in general, but he is so incredibly charismatic that it couldn’t matter less how he looks. He radiates coolness with everything he does. He is extremely popular. Everybody loves him. He fights for justice and he is extremely loyal to his friends. And he is fat. He is the kind of fat representation kids should see so much more of. He reminds me a lot of Steven Universe in that sense. Both are amazing characters, and role models who do amazing things and happen to be fat without it ever being an issue or presented as something negative. The only negative remark TJ gets over course of the whole of the series is one made out of jealousy towards him.

One detail about TJ that I noticed that may well be a coincidence, but that never the less intrigues me is his choice of clothes. He is wearing a very warm looking jacket when most characters are dressed for much warmer weather. This is something that might be familar to a lot of people who grew up fat, as clothing like that serves to conceal ones own shape and especially comes in handy for hiding a chest that is more pronounced than one would like. It’s certainly something I used to do and seeing that maybe TJ is struggling with some body image issues himself, despite how confident he is usually portrayed, is an interesting thought to me. I should also note that I noticed that he seems to be drawn slimmer in scenes with his jacket on and the line implying his chest tends to only appear when he is without his jacket, but that might be confirmation bias on my part.

At this point I could start listing characters and going over them like I have done up to this point, but I find that would get a little old. Most fat characters in the show are never adressed as fat, or have the fat become an important thing. It never defines them and there is no jabs at their expense, or stereotyping (aside from the characters I talked about earlier). And that is what overall makes this show amazing at fat representation for me. There is a lot of characters with a lot of different shapes and sizes.

There is fat main characters:

Side characters:

Unnamed extras:

Antagonists:

Characters who are somewhat chubby, but not really fat:

It’s beautiful to see so many non skinny characters, and so many different kinds of bodies exist in a show from the 90s of all things and Recess is not given the credit it deserves for it.

So to close it off with some miscelaneous thoughts I have two things I wanna mention.

There is one character who I have not mentioned yet. Tubby.

I do not like Tubby. He is thankfully not very present in the show, but he is a lot of stereotypes that just do not sit well with me. However I think I should talk about the one episode of recess that actually adresses the topic of weight and fatphobia and it’s about him and Mikey.

In the episode “The Kindergarten Derby” all the older kids get to choose a kindergartner and they compete in a race. Mikey never finished the race when he was a kindergartner because he tripped and fell and he refuses to participate now because he sees it as humiliating and exploitative. Untill he meets Tubby who is convinced he will win and wants him to mentor him. Tubby wants to show that a fat kid can win the race and Mikey wants him to focus on just finishing. In the end Tubby does win and uses his prize (a wish for basically anything that the playground monarchy can reasonably give to him) to wish for an end to the kindergarten derbies because they are humiliating and cruel. (To all the kids participating, not just fat ones) There is kind of a lot to maybe mention in that episode, but honestly this post is long enough as it it. Maybe I’ll rewatch and dissect that episode another time.

The other thing is that I am not sure of the representation for fat girls is as good as it is for fat boys. While rewatching the show I noticed a lot of boys of all sizes being in it, but I am biased in favor of noticing them because I am a fat man and seeing male fat representation simply does more for me on an emotional level than female representation. I should rewatch the show and specifically watch out to see if female representation is as plentiful as male representation. TL;DR: This show has some issues, but it also has an enourmous cast of characters and it has plenty of fat characters in pretty much every category of characters with their fatness being (almost) never brought up, or a factor to their character. (Even with the more problematic characters) People are sleeping on it and that is unfair. For a cartoon from the 90s this is fucking amazing and people should give it credit for all it does.

[the-mangled-readings]

Project AI0.043 (Part 4)

lA/N: Sorry it took me this long! 

Pairing: Five Hargreeves x Reader

Story Summary: On the 12th Hour of the first day of October 1989, 43 women around the world gave birth. This was unusual only in the fact that none of these women had been pregnant when the day first began. Sir Reginald Hargreeves, eccentric billionaire and adventurer, resolved to locate and adopt as many of the children as possible. He got seven of them but never found the last one.

Chapter Summary: We get a closer look at The Reader and The Handler’s relationship.

Warnings: None

Word Count: 1,525

Tag List: @featuringcone9​ @lesbianismybitchname​ @fiveisadorable​ @here-in-never-land sweetingcas @whatawildone

PROLOGUE | PART 1 | PART 2 | PART 3 | PART 4 | PART 5 | PART 5.5 | PART 6 | PART 6.5 | PART 7  

“So you're going to help me, Miss ?” You questioned as you tried to keep your balance on the edge of the sidewalk, The Handler followed beside you, watching you, knowing you were going to fall any moment. They were in a large garden, filled with trees and flowers of all kinds. The air smells sweet, and you could hear the birds chirping accompanied by the buzzing of the bees, and the sky was clear blue. It looked like you were in one of your fairy tale books, that your mom would read to you before going to sleep. 

“I wouldn’t say help, my dear, more like ...” She cut herself off as she quickly caught you by the arm. You noticed the annoyance in her face and just looked down. “Rectify.” She finished, with a harsh tone. 

“Rectify ?” You questioned still looking down, as you fidgeted your fingers.“You don’t know what that word means ?” You only shook your head. Kneeling herself down she held your chin up, making you look at her. “It means I gotta correct you in some things ... Anya.” 

“For example, what do you think you did wrong right now?” She asked as she folded her arms, looking down at you with a quirked eyebrow. “I didn’t keep my balance ...” You said with a rather questioning tone. “And also didn’t keep your focus.” The slender woman turned and began to walk away, leaving you behind while you stared at her blankly. “Anya ...”

“Coming !” You yelped as you quickly ran to her side. “It’s almost lunchtime ... What would you like to eat?” She asked, looking down at you. “I dunno ...” She took a deep breath and stopped walking. “It’s okay, if you’re afraid, I would be too.” She said chuckling. “But ... we’re all you got now, Anya. Come on, let’s get you something to eat.” Offering her hand, she waited for you to take it. “My mom used to make me Pelmeni, I would like to have some.” You smiled, taking her hand. “Then let’s get you some Pelmeni.” She smiled back and both of you began to walk. “Where are we, Miss?” You asked curiously as you looked around the large garden. “In the garden of The Commission, of course.”

“No, I mean, where exactly are we?” You turned to see the slender woman frown at the question. “We’re very far from danger if that’s what worries you, dear.”

“No ... I-um” You insisted, only making her gain her annoyed look again. “Why do you want to know? If I may ask?” 

“I-just ... Just want-ed to know in case-I get lost an-need to come back.” You mumbled with fear, making her chuckle. “Oh my dear Anya, I don’t see why that would be necessary. You’re only going to go out when we ask you to, for now, you’re going to play here in the garden and live and learn everything inside headquarters, that large building that’s over there.” She pointed making you gulp. “Okay ...”

“Okay then, let’s get you that Pelmeni we talked about.” She said excitedly while both of you walked through large doors that took you inside the headquarters.

You waited anxiously in a large dining room, the slender woman sat across from you, right at the end of the table. Were there other kids? 

“Something bothering you Anya?” She asked, catching you off guard. “Is there any other kids?” 

“I’m afraid not, you’re the only child in here.” Frowning at the answer, you insisted again. “How come?” She looked away, scanning around the room for something, but quickly landed back in your small figure. “I’m afraid that we haven’t found other gifted kids like you, and if they were, they’re all gone.”

“Gone as in ...” You stopped, quickly recognizing the smell. “Ah! Pelmeni.” You jump excitedly on your seat, making The Handler chuckle. “You must be starving, eh.”

“A little ...” 

After eating, The Handler gave you a tour of everywhere you needed to go to and where you shouldn’t go to. 

Here’s where you’re going to study ...

Here’s where you’re going to train ...

Here’s where you’re going to meet me ...

Etc ...

As time passed, you began to feel tired, quickly noticing, The Handler decided it was time to sleep. She took you to the top floor of headquarters, it looked empty and it was very cold. “Here’s where you’re going to stay ...” The clicking of her heels echoed through the halls. “We made it just for you ...” She said while unlocking a large wooden door. Inside the room, the size was neither small or big, it was just like your last one. The bed was enourmous, and right across from it there was a fireplace, next of the bed the wall was filled with books of all kinds, a couple of toys were scattered around the floor and there was a small balcony right ahead of the door with two large windows on the sides.  

“Well, What do you think?” She asked while you stood right in the middle, admiring your new room. “I love it!” You smiled back at her, making her grin with pride. ”Well, so you know, I picked everything on the room ...” She admitted while rocking back on her heels. “I love it, thank you ...” You quickly ran to her and tried to hug her but she stopped you. “I’m sorry Anya, but I’m afraid we can’t have that type of relationship.”

“I’m sorry ...” You apologized to her while looking down, and turning away from her. You began to walk towards the balcony, getting a small cold breeze from outside, and then, out of the blue, you noticed something flying directly at you. It was a small blue butterfly, landing just in front of you, at the edge of the stone rail. “Wow ...” You carefully pulled your hand closer to the small insect and surprisingly, actually getting it to walk directly to your small right hand.

“It’s pretty, isn’t it ...” She leaned over your shoulder watching the blue butterfly on your hand. “Some say that butterflies are deep and powerful representations of life, like Hope.” You turned smiling at her. “Especially Blue Butterflies, they symbolize joy and happiness ... but also transformation and change.”

“I touched one once... but my mommy said that I shouldn’t touch them, because they’re very special and I could hurt them.” 

“Well, she was right, they’re very fragile ... but I’m guessing they’re your favorite.”

“Yes ... I like their colors, especially blue ones, it’s like they glow in the night.” You admitted before the Handler snatched it from your hand with a glass bottle. You gasped, seeing the small butterfly flapping her wings inside her new cage. “Here dear ...” She said as she handed you the bottle. “Hope you understand that ... everything that’s fragile, needs to be protected ...” Running a hand across your cheek she got up and began to walk away. “I want you asleep within five minutes because tomorrow is going to be a big day for you Anya ... Goodnight.” She smiled and turned the lights out, leaving you in the cold darkness, only having the moonlight as your comfort. 

You looked down at your new blue bottled friend, whose flapping were now merely visible. “Don’t worry Ms. Butterfly, you can leave.”Quickly setting it free, you watched as it began to fly out of the bottle and around the room, but then landing on your index finger. Her antennas slightly moving. “You can go ... She won’t hurt you, I promise.” 

And with that, the blue butterfly began to flap her wings, and fly away through the big open window. “Bye-bye Ms. Butterfly.” You watched as it disappeared through the dark night. 

Click ...

Click ...

Click ...

“Oh no ...” Quickly hurrying into your bed, pulling the covers and leaving the glass bottle on your side table. Closing your eyes, you began to remember the blue butterfly, a slightly blurry version of the butterfly started to appear inside the bottle, giving you a small headache. The door creaked open, and there was a pause, you could see the light from the hallway. Thought I heard something. You heard The Handler’s voice echoed through the room, and the door creaked again, taking the light and The Handler away with her. 

Click ...

Click ...

Click ...

The clicking began to fade. Sighing in relief you stopped thinking about the butterfly, making it disappear instantly. Taking a deep breath, you closed your eyes and began to focus on The Handler; instantly starting to hear distant voices, and then hers: 

“Tomorrow we’re going to start Project AI0.043, so I’m going to need everybody ready. I’m a make sure she doesn’t suspect anything, so this doesn’t fail. We’re going to do this right, so there should be no mistakes, Okay? ... Dr. Mierzwiak, this machine you have, will it guarantee what it promised?” 

“Absolutely, with no doubt, Ms. Handler. It will erase any part of her memory you’ll like.”

“Good ...” 

[6505-blog1]

The Greatest Rock/Metal Albums of the 21st Century.

21st century marks the most diverse decade for rock and metal continuation. Absorbing, if not radiated by the long progenitors from Led Zeppelin who cranked up their amps and Black Sabbath that turn it out murky and sinister grim, to the dazzling theatrical persona of KISS and Motley Crue, to the new level heavy metal confronter of Judas Priest and Iron Maiden, to the head crusher of Motorhead and Metallica, to the destructo maniac of Slayer and Kreator, to the prog menu offerer of King Crimson and Tool, and finally aligned to have some peculiar layers and brooding tendency of Korn. We have come a long way. Yet our engine keeps raging.

I have cumulated the finest, the most influential, and the most prominent albums released in the new millenium by the descendents that took their predecessors to a whole different level, sustain the genre, and move myriads of people to mosh.

In a particular order:

10. Avenged Sevenfold - City of Evil (Warner Bros, 2005).

Rolling Stones magazine has named the sonically-punk with the flames of Iron Maiden, City of Evil on the last number of their 100 Greatest Album of All Time list. That should be a fair consideration since the extravagants like Beast and the Harlot, Bat Country, and Seize the Day altogether with the rest of the setlist ultimately transced the whole level and the destiny of the band as a leading force of eliticians in not so distant future. The 11 tracks have also successfully resurrected the triumph of classic guitar virtuosso portrait demonstrated on 80's as the talisman, Synyster Gates embarked over tons of appealing riffages and dueling solos which was buried after Nirvana and grunge breaktrough on the early 90's. Veteran and Ozzy Osbourne/Black Label Society guitarist, Zakk Wylde acknowledged him as a "Torchbearer" for arguably giving a birth and cultivating the guitar culture to the next generation.

9. Behemoth - The Satanist (Nuclear Blast, 2014).

The tenth album of Polish most profound extreme metal giant after Adam "Nergal"s battle with leukemia. Unlike the speed and precision exhibited over prior releases, the coagulated dense and horified cultish doom are found intensely throughout the setlist as to explicit the heretic messages. The result is astonishing and stronger than ever. More to add, The Satanist is pure, cathartic, flawlessly emotional, carefully-savage, and conquering by its complexity of repertoire within vivid and cinematical gradation as multi-dimensional tracks Messe Noire, In the Absence ov Light, Ora Pro Nobis Lucifer, and the leadoff Blow Your Trumpets Gabriel ravage in none but diabolical fervor. This album expansive flair has comprehensively unfolded the darkest caverns and creates the new standard of underground craftmanship.

8. Bring Me the Horizon - Sempiternal (RCA/Epitaph, 2013).

I wouldn't believe that i need to make Sempiternal in the cut. Who would have guessed? But i will beat every negation towards it. It is the album that eventually transforms Bring Me the Horizon from bunch of hipsters to one of the most important unit in the 21st century modern rock landscape. A year and a half after the release, Oliver Sykes and co. took over the world attention of rocking Wembley Arena, the same monumental venue where Queen — one of the biggest rock band in the history — was there doing the same story. It was approximately 12.000 attendees which made Sykes stated: "So this is our biggest show ever". The soaring Can You Feel My Heart, the furious The House of Wolves, the euphoric Shadow Moses, and the melodic of Sleepwalking are undeniably the new testament of rock music.

7. Lamb of God - Ashes of the Wake (Epic, 2004).

Count how many metal bands on the planet started after invented Laid to Rest or Now You've Got Something to Die For! It was countless. Lamb of God has became the crowned icon of "New Wave American Heavy Metal" and one of the most distinctive band in the scene. Their ferocious riffs, blistering drum works, lyrical contents, sound, even how to sing like Randy Blythe are largely imitated and seem to be the ideal menifesto of modern metal anatomy with obviously Ashes of the Wake as the highest pedestal. It contains tremendous chaos of 11 front-to-back blazing tracks immensely portrayed after Mark Morton - Willie Adler's virtuosity and of course, Chris Adler's voraciousity. Implying both abundance and how well they grasp the roots that will less likely be outnumbered.

6. Mastodon - Leviathan (Relapse, 2004).

We are now talking (and unravelling) the true genius minds of Atlanta-based extraordinary quartet. The newborn Metallica, Mastodon — the group that always exceed anyone's expectation — has seamlessly ranged their pinaccle from sludge to prog to avant-garde to even folk with staggering exponents of highly sophisticated masterpiece. With any fruition that comes in, the sheer Leviathan is believed as the opener tap. Written after Herman Merville's 1851 novel entitled "Moby Dick", the 46-minutes concept album is nothing but endless breathtaking experience of capturing bizarre Ode to the sea soundtrack. Blood and Thunder, I Am Ahab, and Aqua Dementia are torrent of forceful yet fascinating guttural power chords with Brann Dailor's tracherous drum tempo reflecting the theme while Iron Tusk sets sail upon muscular stoner riff and Naked Burn for menacing-tactical intro and flaunted visceral jarring chorus are hulking the imagery of the beast. Until the epic Hearts Alive with a glimpse of Metallica's The Call of Ktulu patiently reigns and all the greatness rendered.

5. Evanescence - Fallen (Wind-up, 2003).

The album that made Evanescence �� a small town band from Arkansas — a megastar in the blink of an eye. It was the second semester of 2003 where the breakthrough hit single, Bring Me to Life played million times on the radio around the globe (and MTV as well) picturing the female face lead singer and her gleaming voice, Amy Lee who started the band with the co-founder guitarist, Ben Moody (though the relationship didn't survive and separation happened in the midst of suporting Fallen tour). The fame that nowhere expected begun when the terrific duo met on a camp and cliche of having the same musical taste brought them to finally sign the major label Wind-up and dominated the world stages in a brief. Fallen with the added values of enchanting piano, symphonical strings livery, and haunting soundscape that most nu-metal groups didn't have at that time effortlessly stood-out and arised in comparison to even Linkin Park. Other songs served like the down-tuned goth Going Under and the everlasting ballad My Immortal are only legitimating their popularity.

4. Ghost - Prequelle (Loma Vista, 2018).

In our nearly five decades of heavy music, such names as Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd, Van Halen with their fantastic works and spirits have became a catalyst that will be remembered greatly in the faraway future for causing an enourmous impact to our community. Those that have bloomed and paved the way many artists to follow. And if there is a chance for this millenium bands to extend the list, Ghost will be the first to step up the grace.

This year, their most recent release Prequelle has been nominated for The Best Rock Album and its single Rats for Best Rock Song of 61st Grammy. An award that should be familiar since they have been winning it two times with Infestissumam (2013) — their second major label album — as The Best Hard Rock/Metal Album and Cirice — the single taken from previous album Meliora (2015) — as Best Metal Performance. A peak of a decade existence for one superior man behind the wheel, Tobias Forge. Appear himself as a satanic pope, Papa Emeritus I, II, III, Zero, and now with the newest fully renowned ascencion clergy Cardinal Copia has completely shaped the band's identity. But the latest Prequelle has more than to be attained to an award. Forge's admiration to film makes no surprise if any substance on the record is prone to get visualized and draw medieval realms so alive and real. He could blend joyous disco with scattered shock rock backbone for Dance Macabre, provide brilliant exotic pop-esque instrumental opus for Miasma, and close all the novelty and intellegiousness by a soothing grand finale of Life Eternal. That is the last strike.

3. Greenday - American Idiot (Reprise, 2004).

With the overwhelmed mainstream-breaking punk rock hit single American Idiot, it was an album (a concept album, for specific) everyone knew which handfully restored a big disappointment both sales and critical of their previous release. Taking the power back after four years gap with anti-Bush vitriol narration over long and merged tracks was everything we could expect from an ambition. Performing sarkastic American-post 9/11 political singable outcry and dragging down to emotionally-related suburban decline on Holiday/Boulevard of Broken Dreams, followed by californian sunset accoustic staccato and straighforward revv Give Me Novacaine/She's A Rebel, a love story of Whatsername where a street punk main actor St. Jimmy fell and how it all ended on Homecoming.

The grandiose worths 16 millions selling CD is the anthem of this generation where a generation ago pridefully have The Clash with the classic London Calling.

2. Slipknot - Iowa (Roadrunner, 2001).

The most brutal and confrontational album of 21st century nothing to this day can bear. That is the deal. A remorseless turmoil just from the first second of welcoming to the house of pain intro, (515) to the last 15 minutes epilogue of magnificent unrelenting drama title track, Iowa. Please recognize the insolent hate mantra "Here we go again motherfuckers" as Corey Taylor opens up and rips off anything with hammer to the face misanthropic followed track, People = Shit that seems a vulgar warning to extend the torture of their 1999 debut phenomenal self titled album. But things got tenfold. They were all damaged animals, making it excuriatingly worst instead, and wanted any living to hear them. That they fuck what trend you live up on bludgeoning bestial Heretic Anthem, that they are adamant bastards you can't bleach their darkness out on atmospherical assault New Abortion, that killing is their primal instinct on grinding jaw-breaker scorn Disasterpieces, that they are fucking obsolete machines on the scorching psychosis Everything Ends. There lies Neurosis-ian dressed Gently and never eschew Grammy nominated singles, Left Behind and My Plague.

All the violent rampage should be addressed to Ross Robinson (producer) for being able to wrap up the devastating times the band encountered in the studio and that was how its ruthless resonated the world where many people are pissed-off to everything. An absolute impossible album to be re-recorded due to its hell of organic material. Yet apart of any malevolence, Iowa is sadly, a gift to liberate your heart and soul.

Honourable mentions:

System of a Down - Toxicity (American/Columbia, 2001).

Converge - Jane Doe (Equal Vision, 2001).

My Chemical Romance - The Black Parade (Reprise, 2006).

1. Linkin Park - Hybrid Theory (Warner Bros, 2000).

The world seriously gives us no chance to break. After Lemmy, Bowie, now we have lost the most beautiful voice that represents our generation.

May rest in peace and honour, Chester Bennington.

We miss you everyday, and we do care if someone whose time runs out is you.

The album that took nu-metal to a whole different level forever and highly contributed to shape the sound that outbursted the 21st century. For two decades, Linkin Park has became the most iconic group on the planet. Breeding the bands like Bring Me the Horizon, Asking Alexandria, and Bullet For My Valentine (with their recent 2018 album, Gravity).

Hybrid Theory (which was the actual name of the band before settling to Linkin Park) is the sublime fusion of heavy metal, alternative rock, hip-hop, pop, and electronica desired only to make a lifetime change. It is truly no derivative. Yet recalling back, it was multiple rejections of label after label before it took off with Don Gillmore (previously worked with Eve 6, Lit, Pearl Jam) to produce the album and pushed the band excessively. It was the part that would not have regretted where all they saw afterwards and going on was all miracle. 28 millions copy sold should be a very serious sensastion everyone must have a seat to talk about. A rock n roll revival after Guns N' Roses's Appetite For Destruction (1987) so to speak. With angst to fuel, Hybrid Theory yielded the catchy single opener One Step Closer, the drug abuse easer Crawling, the unhinged paranoia Papercut, and the most well-known last single sung by anyone In the End. Not to mention its cohesive supplementaries A Place For My Head, Runaway, and My December that blur the foursome due to their equivalent prowess. Admit it, Linkin Park and Hybrid Theory are the gateway to rock and heavy metal empire.

[jinndevil]

Ten years ago I started posting my Pixelart.  At the time, I wasn't confident in my skills. I had a lot to learn. It was not easy to be part of a community with such tallented artists and compare my skills with theirs, realizing the enourmous path I'd have to follow to be with them some day. Criticism broke once, and broke me twice. But I learned with it. I studied. Every single day I studied, not to surpass them, but to surpass myself. It's funny to think how much proud I was with each result I got. "I'm one step closer", I used to think. And that kept me going. Each new work I posted was an attest of my learning process, and boy I was happy with it! I still think I have a long way ahead before I reach the great ones, but I'm still praticing, I'm still studying, I'm still trying my best. I'm not exactly sure why I'm sharing this. But I wonder if someone that might read this feels like I felt back then, that I wasn't good enough, and that I had to outdo myself every single day to, hopefully, be where I wanted so hard to be. All I have to say is that it's not easy. And that I still don't think I'm there yet. But I'll be there some day. And here I lay my most sincere thank you to all of you who helped me somehow, I won't list names because I don't think it would be fair. But you know who you are. Keep awesome, pals. And keep reaching for your goals. We'll get there some day.

[phil-d]

Reading: Strangers in their own land by Arlie Hochschild

It was a while on my reading list before I borrowed it from the library then, it took me only a short time to absorb Ms. Hochschild’s account and analysis of the American Right. Hochschild wanted to understand not only how supporters of the right wing of the Republican Party think, but how they feel and identify. Therefore she chose Louisiana, as a relatively new ‘Red’ state, having voted for the Republicans. She participated in the lifes of supporters of the Tea Party for five years, becoming friends with them. A major insight for her, wer her own emotional rules shaped by her upbringing and social environment: for her it was normal to relate to minorities and access public goods and welfare for everyone. If refugees seek asylum or poorer groups in society get state support, she finds this an apt solution, where as the Tea Party supporters completely disagree, despite their voters would profite enourmously from state support and better public infrastructure. They feel urged from the elite to feel empathic with minorities. It is remarkable that Louisiana and other states of the south that predominantly vote Republican have to cope with a lower quality of life, regarding wealth, healthcare, education, security, and the environment. All those aspects are on the agenda of the Democratic Party, to be improved by stronger regulation or state intervention. Nevertheless Hochschild encountered a strong aversion against any regulation and an unbroken ideal of the free market and worship for the industry. She understood that the main reason for the paradox cannot be explained only through looking at facts and arguments, but at the feelings and stories of the people she met. She started to work on what she called the deep story of the American right, sort of the story that captures the underlying emotions and positions of the world as they are seen by the Tea Party supporters. This is how it goes, paraphrased:

“It is mostly the story of middle aged white men. You stand in line at the ascend to a mountain. Behind the mountain lies the American dream. You have work hard all your life and so have your friends. The cue almost stands still, nothing goes forward. You see far behind you a few people of color. You pity them, but you have long waited for your place in the cue and do not want to give it up. Then something happens: there are people shortcutting the cue and positioning themselves far ahead of you. They are people working in public service, people of color, women and others. How can they simply ignore the rule. But look: there is the President (at that time: Barrack Obama). He manages the gate to the American Dream and he even waves them to come further up. How did he even manage to become President? How did someone from his poor upbringing get the money to go to college? He must have cheated somehow on all those people with their hard work. Now he also favors people with different sexuality and beliefs. And there you here the insults coming at you: Racist! Redneck! Just because you stand close to your upbringing and identify with your role as heterosexual white man, they throw insults at you. All those people that have been favored and were not able to get up the mountain with their own strength. You don’t want to feel like a victim, but they should at least pay you respect. Then there is a movement, that speaks exactly your language and expresses their anger like you: the Tea Party.“

This instrument of the deep story was like passing through a secret door, revealing to me a completely new understanding. I still believe in need to state intervention and a diverse culture. But I understand that there is big conflict between classes going and the voters of the new right largely feeling neglected and disrespected for what they have done with their lifes. Empathy for the envorinment, for minorities etc. is urged upon them, but nobody empathizes with them. I felt ashamed a bit when discovering my own views about less-well-off people and my expectation that they should align their behavior according to environmental standards or more social interaction as I understood that this was quite the elitist thought.

It is worth mentioning that Hochschild’s Deep Story also largerly resonates with what I know about the European developments. The answer there might not be more rules (only), but more empathy and respect.

[hadlowaudio]

Reality Bytes: VR, AR And The Audio Realm!

The idea for this blog came from watching a Julia Hardy Radio 1 Iplayer video covering Uncharted 4 and how console games are now becoming more cinematic and stylised like a film, and in turn to me closer to reality in a lot of ways.

I saw the potential to discuss how games are becoming more than this, how they are en route to becoming a counterpoint between film and reality. Progression in Mobile technology has allowed games such as Republique and Her Story to deliver a more engaging real world experience. 

Further more, I believe this and 3D sound, coupled with indie games also being made available on console as well as mobile should hopefully see an increase in demand for audio in projects meaning more jobs across the board.

I decided for this blog to seek the wisdom and experience of the industry, in the form of games producers, sound designers and Audio Directors to hear what they had to say about the progression of VR and AR with Audio and Video Games.

Will Morton, Audio Director, Solid Audioworks.

Her Story as an example is a very simple game, nothing technologically pushing boundaries, but the fact that the narrative is so engaging has led to the game being such a success.

15 years ago when I began working as an in house sound designer the team sizes for large-scale AAA game floated around the 40-60 mark, give or take.  With each iteration of a game in a series, or with each new generation of consoles (and the jump in audio and visual fidelity that goes with it) team sizes have grown hugely (check the credits list for GTA III from early in the PS2 gen versus the credits list for GTA V at the end of the PS3 gen for evidence of this).  Mobile phones finally becoming a legitimate platform for games has also hugely affected this - easy access to enourmous marketplaces, games that can be developed by small teams in bedrooms - it is easier for people to get their foot on the ladder now and more opportunities are out there than ever before.

How I remember this happening is a jump from 8bit to 16bit systems meaning a jump from a few channels of synthesised sounds to more channels with sample playback and basic DSP in some cases (reverb on the SNES for instance), then a jump to PS1 era console and PC games where CD audio was commonplace.  It was very inflexible in terms of design, but offered music as real as budget would allow, hence getting a cinematic sound a long time before visuals could match the music. SFX wise from the PS1 era I think was the time when what constituted ‘game sounds’ started to change from everything being front-end and very ‘gamey’ to things being positioned and world-ized, ultimately behaving more realistically.

I can’t take credit unfortunately for either of these examples, but the vehicle reverse 'beep beep beep’ heard in the original Grand Theft Auto really opened my ears to the possibility of going super-detailed with game sound, as did the subtle falling debris that followed explosions in the original Medal of Honor.  Until this point an explosion in a game was simply a boom, Medal of Honor immersed you more by letting you hear the aftermath of the explosion. Then PS2 era offering many channels of sample playback and a lot more memory, plus enough processing power that you could be clever with channel mixing and 'faking’ many more than the 48 channels a PS2 offered as standard.

DSP at this point wasn’t harnessed by many studios, and even fewer did a great deal with DSP beyond basic filtering or reverb, but in GTA San Andreas and Manhunt we did a lot with DSP - in San Andreas to help root people in the environment and blur the line between game and world, and in Manhunt to help the player understand the position of enemies based on the environment he was in. PS3 era didn’t really bring anything particularly new to the table - there were more channels, better compression, better surround support, more memory, more processing power, better DSP support - everything we had the previous gen but more/bigger/better. At the time though many more studios were making use of it, which is great when you see the industry moving forward. VR audio is the next big change, and everyone is having to start from a clean slate.

Pretty much all vacancies I have seen on AAA game audio teams have required (or at least specify as a benefit) implementation experience.  Maybe not so much in the indie dev market, but for AAA middleware experience is a big advantage.  For in house sound designers now, it’s amazing how little sound design you end up doing ;) 

Vlady Veselinov, Audio Engineer, Rebound.

I think audio is evolving. Knowing how to edit, record and mix is no longer enough. The modern game audio professional should know how to code. There are more than enough tutorials and courses to justify the demand for mixers.

The most interesting thing in games for me is procedural generation. The problem with it is, that it’s hard to generate something believable. The next most interesting thing for me is VR, although I don’t know what could be done in that sphere beyond head tracking (HRTF), occlusion and reverberation calculations.

Paul Leishman, CEO, Pixel Sword.

Audio in game’s is held back by three real world factors - space, price and mobile. Not everyone has the room for 5.1 surround sound or the money to offered high quality audio equipment and in mobile most game music or effects is turned off.

This doesn’t mean there isn’t progression in this area. It just means its slowed down by inbuilt TV speakers, lack lustre sound bars and people listening to Spotify while playing mobile games. Audio just doesn’t have the advance that graphics has had with processing power and quality. However, this could change with headphones and the rumours 3D audio is coming back.

Industry News!

I looked around online to see what the media had to say about the emergence of VR and AR and on how the major technology companies are investing in research for these areas. Here’s what I found out - food for thought for Audio Designers!

BT Sport VR

Samsung VR & AR Projects

The Verge 3D Audio

Virtual Reality Reporter

Get Mac VR

You Tech Augmented Reality Demo

DTS VR QA

Omni For VR

Futuristic Gaming Technology

Apple’s Augmented Reality

Samsung Gear VR: Oculus Arcade

Netflix VR

Final Thoughts.

For Mobile and audio it's looking like Binaural (Check my Nightjar & Papa Sangre posts) and/or 3D head tracking are the likely avenues for expansion. Especially with the emergence of 3D headphones and projects such as the Waves NX Head Tracker and its mobile app. The cost for hardware is still at a premium for this kind of new tech, but due to fast paced nature of technology, things should become more economical in the near future, plus more and more companies are capitalising on doing online season sales incentives.

Demand for audio programming & sound design in VR & AR on all platforms is going to be dependent on three factors for me. Cost, hardware mobility (more so for mobile platforms) and creative use outside traditional game genres such as FPS and RPG.

The mobile market could have the two big hitters doing their own thing with Samsung looking at both technologies, whilst Apple, despite having now introduced VR supported graphics chips into their IMac Pro systems could be putting more time into AR due to their strength in the mobile marketplace. AR is more flexible on first look when using multiple applications on the move, and whilst I see VR as more for entertainment purposes; lets not forget, technology and innovation come hand in hand. We just don’t know what is going to tickle the consumer taste buds. Its up to us all to decide as lovers of technology and software.

Listening to the views of my fellow professionals, it does seem we all agree being able to use at least one engine to programme audio is a desirable skillset for Audio Engineers in modern times. Some of us audio folks I completely understand may not be too keen on coding, but as with everything in technology, it develops and becomes easier to use with enhanced user experience interfaces over time.

FMOD, One of the variety of Audio Engines available for Video Games.

Therefore the focus on managing code could all change as time progresses, allowing audio professionals to think less about the programming language and and more on creating sound for immersive projects in VR and AR.

We’re just touching the iceberg with this post, so its by no means conclusive. I believe it is the beginning of something very exciting for Audio professionals and anyone wanting hone their skills in the discipline. Whether your freelance, in house, or an indie developer, I’d say the journey ahead for Audio with these virtual worlds has huge potential as we develop our understanding with graphics, the technology and consumer demands.

If you have any views on where you feel Audio and VR/AR is heading, please discuss. My next post will to be on one of the projects I have been working recently, more to follow!

[blumiin]

11 Questions

Tagged by an actual visual queen Alicia 💗🌼 ( @jungkookio) I’m going to answer her questions…..sorry that it took me while😅.

A. Always post the rules. Answer the questions then write 11 new ones.

B. Tag 11 ppl and link them to the post. Tell the person who tagged you that you’ve answered their question

1. Which was your favourite era and why?

Don’t want to be that girl but I actually liked every era bc each of them had their distinct feeling. But I’m gonna say it’s either INU era or Spring Day. For INU it’s bc I think it’s the most precious era for ARMYs and BTS as they finally got recognized  through this era but also it was the beginning for all those theories and legs guys LEGS and that body roll . I really liked the Spring Day era bc of the enourmous warm feeling I got from the song and the switch to Not Today was just BAAM… or Fire era...i really can't decide (I don’t know what I’m saying…it’s late)

2. Which member do you think you are most similar to?

Out of all members it’s either Jimin or Jungkook. I’m quite introverted and need time to get ‘warm’ with people, but once I feel comfortable I can be the weirdest person. Furthermore I really care about my friends, to the point where I look more after their well-being than my own. I see those points the most in those two.

3. If you had to listen to one BTS song for the rest of your life, which would it be?

This is such a hard question! I’m pondering between House of Cards and Whalien 52 and 2!3!

4. Do you stan any other groups? If so who and who’s your bias?

Yes, there were few other groups but I don’t stan them as much as BTS (anymore), but I still really like them.

SHINee - Taemin CNBlue - Minhyuk GOT7 - my bias here changes way too often. nowadays I like Youngjae BLACKPINK - Lisa but all of them are sunshines tbh Red Velvet - Seulgi or Irene K.A.R.D - can’t decide

5. If you were stranded on a desert island, which member would you want with you?

It’s either Jimin as he is my bias and who wouldn’t want to be on a desert island with their bias!? or Jin as he proved himself on Law of the Jungle that he manges to live on desert island quite well. I would love to see in what else creative ways you can use the ARMY Bomb as well and I believe his dad jokes would lift the mood all the time. 

6. Favourite song currently?

From BTS? Nowadays I listen to Young Forever quite often.

7. If you could add a member from another group into BTS, who would it be and why?

I don’t want to add any other member, because I think they are perfect as they are right now. 

8. All time favourite BTS MV?

Maybe Save Me? I like that it’s so simple, just them and that beautiful setting. But I’m also a huge fan of the Spring Day MV. 

9. Has your current bias always been your bias?

Yes, Jimin was indeed my first bias in BTS. I then changed to Hobi, then to Jungkook and now it’s Jimin again….and Taehyung haha. And it probably will stay like this.

(If you mean my first bias ever then it would be CNBlue’s Minhyuk)

10. Favourite pre-debut song?

Can’t decide so Dreamin’ by Rapmon and Graduation Song by Hobi,Jimin and Jungkook

11. Which K-pop group do you think are underrated?

There are so many groups but I see it the most in B.A.P . After they argument with their entertainment and their hiatus, they drastically lost so many fans and consequently their popularity. It was sad to see that there wasn’t much merch offered in this year’s convention, where I went to. I think they definitely derserve better.

My questions are:

Which would be the first K-Pop song you would let a Non-K-Pop Fan listen to?

What would you give your bias as a present and what would you say to him when you hand it over?

A trait you like the most in your bias?

What’s the last picture of your bias you saved on your phone?

What is your favorite BTS Choreography? 

Which members fashion style is the most similiar to yours?

Have you ever had a K-Pop Dream? Tell us about your last one.

What’s your favorite Bangtan Bomb?

Who of BTS would you want to have as a brother? Why?

List your three current favorite songs.

If you could have one trait of a member which one would you like to have?

I tag: @taekookiesandcream, @namjoonsbby, @jiminieee95, @vme9, @lattetae, @kookmiinie, @poutypjm

[des-shinta]

What would you rate each movie wars from good to bad(or from most to least favorite) and why?

Not yet seen Heisei Generations so that’s not on the list.  Heard good things, but I’m waiting on a translation that doesn’t localize the dialogue when you are not supposed to perform a localization on Freaking subtitles.This is also pretty brief as..well, it’s a tumblr reply, so doesn’t get all my feelings on the films or every single thing I find good or wrong with them, just a general impression and a few things that make me like/dislike what’s in it.  

Buuuut I’ll be releasing reviews on movie war 2010 and Core later this year as part of my all-encompassing coverage of W that I’m actually working on editing this month.  my words on them are pretty consistent with what’s going to be said on that, just expanded there as opposed to here.1: Movie war megamax.The thing here is…I like everybody in this, and it ADVANCES everybody in this in some way, either from W calling back to when he met OOO, or the Fourze gang making reference to what Fourze originally was going to be about, or, for the ONLY time in Heisei Kamen Rider do the Original showa Riders come back, and not end up crapped on by a shitty event.  Plus, they all get to show themselves as competent fighters in this modern age too, against a modern fan-favorite antagonist organization that is shown that Even the Showa riders, who decimated every incarnation of Shocker (Outside of chatastrophically bad idiot plots) are having difficulty with Foundation X’s cells.  EIji, Ankh and Hina get good moments in the OOO’s portion that cap their relationship and put Eiji on his journey to mend Ankh that he now knows he will succeed in if he perseveres, Gentaro’s interaction with nadeshiko is sheer adorableness, and I Nadeshiko became the second Female kamen Rider to Actuall survive.  Yeah, she was captures to the movies’ villain could use her power and had to lose her physical form for a while, but at least we knew she wasn’t actually dead, which was only later confirmed by utlimatum…as bad a movie that Ultimatum actually is.2: Sengoku movie warThis one is good again for reasons similar to Megamax, proper closure for the returning hero group of Wizard (And an actual moral to it about letting go, fuck Kamen Rider Taisen), while the Gaim half has an interesting adventure playing into Gaim’s long game; so when you look back on this movie you realize there was a lot of narrative foreshadowing present in it.  Plus, Bujin gaim as a central antagonist for the teamup was a good one due to his dark mirror aspects of what Kouta could become on accident, especially since he facilitated interaction between Kouta and Haruto in the downtime of the movie, which even Megamax didn’t really allow to happen, as the one scene with Shotaro, Phillip, Eiji and Gentaro as more business talk than really getting to know one-another.  And Haruto Getting his new infinity ring fixed another narrative screwup from the end of Wizard itself.Hell, speaking of Wizard’s side…SHUNPEI ACTUALLY FREAKING DID SOMETHING!3: Movie war Full throttleI find it the weakest of the ‘good’ Movie wars due to some narrative hiccups and Drive’s portion and it’s ‘ultimate’ mystery being kind of weak, but Drive’s side is heavy on backstory for Krim and his pre-drive actions, while seeding a few later things seen in the series; plus Lupin is kind of a fun antagonist.  Gaim’s side?  The first signs of Mitzuzane actually having worked towards the redemption the exact end of Gaim set him on, Dragon energy arms Ryouma is glorious and good closure for a conflict Gaim again didn’t resolve between him and TakaTora(Batta), and we get to see that even with the powers of a god, Kouta is not all-powerful as the borg/Reaper-like machinoid threat is enourmous.  While there aren’t as good interactions in the downtime of the film as the Sengoku movie war, at least they gave Shonisuke and Kouta two moments to interact, one in the midst of the final battle that was naturally precipitated from both early stories (”I’m a Space god…I think.”), and the finalizing gratitude once it’s all done were good endcaps, alongside the implication at the end of the film of Kouta and Mai, Despite their Divine state and duty to watch over the helheim so it doesn’t run rampant again doesn’t mean they can’t visit their friends and loved-ones.The only real bullshit moment of it then, is the movie powerup cross-state forms coming the hell out of nowhere.  Just…why?  You already had the Lupin Gunner and Dragon energy arms as new collectibles to sell, Type fruits and Drive arms were kind of dumb.4: movie war 2010First movie has problems, but W’s half and it’s importance in culminating the first arc of W’s story and how that plays into the greater series hold it up immensely, whereas Decade’s side…feel’s like a rush job since we know they cannibalized what was originally going to be decade episode final into something completely different.  I think it’s okay, as it does give proper closure to Decade’s story that the TV show should have done, but there’s a lot wrong with Decade’s side.I’ll give it this, The final movie war portion where Decade teams with W?  That is the first Time Tsukasa has encountered a Rider that doesn’t want to or Tries to kill him.  it really informs why character-wise that Tsukasa would prefer to work with the Neo-heisei Rider’s after this; they weren’t necessarily jackasses to him, character-assassination being behind the cause or no.Ultiamtely Movie war 2010, when both sides are accounted for isn’t actually bad, but with Decade holding it back it’s not particularly good either.  Watch for W’s side.5: movie war Core.ALL of the bad movie wars have the same problem; a lack of involvement from the writers of the show involved in the event.  While Riku Sanjou AGAIN salvages this movie with W’s half and it’s exploration of Soukichi Narumi, OOO’s portion and the actual teamup are utter write-offs as they’re by Toshiki Inoue…and they make absolutely no damn sense.  While there is a way to Fir the Nobunaga story into OOO’s timeline by setting it’s events to occur in the background of majority of the series–starting in the single digit episodes and then concluding in the late 30′s continuity-wise–it’s an extreme headache to even try and figure that, since it has to sync with W’s timeline, and That can only be allowed to happen approximately a year after the final battle, since Phillip was effectively dead for around 9 months.  Setting it over a extended length of time to conclude near OOO’s end then also answers how the hell the Dinosaur Greeed and his Yummy are active, but you really shouldn’t need to do that kind of ‘it’ll make sense later’ kind of thing in a story that out-of-nowhere introduces those things.  Which was kind of the same damn problem with Ryuki Episode final, to show that Inoue when writing something for a Kobayashi series has learned nothing.  Or maybe it was done to spite her since the two don’t like each-other and she’s derisive of His father’s body of work. (Inoue’s Dad wrote a majority of Showa Kamen Rider)Not helped that Eiji Spends the majoirty of the film out-of-character, acting like a dumbass, and shoved to the side in what was supposed to be his own story, so Toshiki Inoue can write a ‘what-if’ story about Nobunaga Oda being resurrected in the modern era…and it’s in no way interesting.  And the final teamup is just…dumb, as things seem to happen in it for no reason.6: Movie war UltimatumHi, we’re introducing a modernized depiction of former heroes, and have set them up as the ulimate villains of this entire event.  To anyone who was a fan of these characters, Fuck you!  This was written by the guy behind Carranger that means it’s going to sell!…No seriously, the guy who wrote Carranger wrote this movie, no-one on the main shows was involved, and it SUUUUUCKS as a result as the guy is a TERRIBLE writer.  The ‘villains’ are all characters he wrote for too their original shows, which makes that all the more egregious.  The Poitrine plot of Wizards half was utterly stupid and a waste of time, and while the Fourze part isn’t entirely dumb, it showcased a series of actions that no-one at toei is going to respect or Acknowledge (Outside of this one scene in Taisen Z Where NEW!Inazuman inexplicably shows up) since they destroy the Fourze Driver in that sect of the film, but Since Fourze KEEPS APPEARING in Heisei stuff since it’s past the point in time of that destruction, no-one’s going to acknowledge that.  They intentionally put into place a contradiction that no-one is ever going to answer.  And the end-of-film teamup is just magnitudes of bullshit.7: Movie war Genesis:RETCONNED OUT OF EXISTENCE!  IT NEVER HAPPENED.  It suffers the same problem as Ultimatum, the guy behind it DIDN’T WORK ON OR WATCH either series involved.  Once again it’s a time travel plot, but things here all just fall into the heroes laps even though it outright contradicts material in the series.  All of the Drive gear was locked up By Krim?  Oh, suddenly Gou has not only his bike and Mach Driver, but a spare and deadheat so Shinosuke can transform.  Oh, they got sent back to the past?  They find Krim in a Bush.  Krim?  What are YOU doing here?  The rationale for the Roidmude resurrection?  never explained as they are FREAKING ROBOTS.  At least when Drive Saga 2 did that, they explained it as recovering Scattered roidmude data from their remains.  The renaissance Ganma?  their existence and plan contradicts what’s later explained about the Ganma?  Toucon Boost, and the way Takeru’s Dad Died?  Contradiction.  Drive Type zero?  Contradiction, and a big one due to how Protodrive functions.  The Shinosuke/Kiriko Wedding?  Contradiction and then later RETCONNED in the Mach Saga novels, as you don’t go from dating to wedding in the span of less than two freaking months.  Oh, we see sight of Nekrom at the end of the film?  Alan didn’t finish building that gear until around episode 16.  Just…FUCK THIS MOVIE!  AS Bad as Ghost Got due to it being screwed over, it struggled to get this bad in any individual episode that this one just had happen naturally.