#idk why I can’t add to this without messing up the format

[gender-fluidz]

After a quick read through Tumblrs, I figured this should be alright

[ommsims]

story process challenge

i was tagged  by @xldkx​​ to do this challenge, created by @herpixels​​​ , like a month? a month and a half? ago and it’s been sitting half finished in my drafts for nearly as long. *sigh* (regardless, i love stuff like this so even if it takes me forever to get to it, i appreciate the tags! 💕). 

i decided to answer all the qs because it took me damn long enough to get to this, so i might as well put some extra elbow grease into it (plus it was fun!). btw it’s all going under a cut b/c it is long. i apologize in advance.

1. My Writing Process - used to be a hot damn mess. literally word docs strewn throughout my pc. However, I recently switched to using Onenote (it’s what i use to organize my d&d campaign notes) and hoo-boy is it so much nicer. this is how it’s set up and it’s honestly night and day. i can have a page with outlines, a page to organize & order screenshots, and a separate page for drafting text, and i can easily toggle though them without having to switch windows? a big thumbs up from me.

When it comes to actual writing- I used to write my drafts in novel format, which i enjoyed but it made “converting” them into tumblr posts time consuming and frustrating. I ended up scrapping most of the text in the process, retaining pretty much only the dialogue. 

Anyway, nowadays I write in more of a screenplay format: dialogue only + key scene information with the occasional note to self. 

I do keep a master “arcs” page with key events and each individual character’s arc from beginning to end and secondary “outline” pages with slightly more detailed outline for each leg of the project. No screencaps b/c spoilers galore! 

My typical work flow process for a scene goes: (1) brainstorm scene ideas, (2) take screenshots, (3) organize screenshots into a rough storyboard, (4) add 1st draft of text, (5) edit photos, (6) edit text, (7) upload to "drafts” here on tumblr, (8) let sit for a bit (9) take a final look at things/proofread and edit as needed. It may sound counterintuitive, but i find it much easier to write dialogue for a set of images rather than attempt to take images based on prewritten text. I feel more comfortable editing and tweaking tone and content in the text this way. Otherwise, I get frustrated when I “can’t” shoot a scene exactly as it appeared in my head.

2. How I build my scenes - A lot of what i do is rooted in gameplay, therefore my sets are usually (a) play-tested and (b) not super pretty. I’ve certainly improved at decorating & building over the years but more often than not I download lots off tumblr and the gallery because I don’t have the patience, aptitude, or time to build all of my own sets. That being said, I frequently gut builds only to build a number of completely unrelated mini sets inside to reduce the number of times i have to replace lots. I also keep a list of “important locations” and where certain characters live / will move to, to help keep this all straight as there aren’t nearly enough lots per neighborhood or even per world in this damn game...

my least favorite part of scene building is actually decorating. lol. Don’t get me wrong, I love clutter. I honestly do. but fuck me if i expect myself to spend hours meticulously decorating a set, spend another 3 hours toggling back and forth b/w BB & live modes adjusting things to get rid of the damn routing errors. (yeah, yeah, i know i could ignore them, they’re not important, especially in those scenarios where i’m using a set for screenshots and nothing else, but idk. it really grinds my gears.) and then have to replace the lot like a week later because there aren’t enough lots in the game. *sigh*

3. CC/Pose Making - i do not consider myself to be a cc creator nor a pose maker but i do dabble occasionally. And to be completely honest i’d much rather spend my time doing other stuff, so it’s not high on my list of priorities atm. plus there are so many talented cc creators in this community; i can usually get by with what’s already out there.

4. Getting in the zone - Honestly, I do a lot of brainstorming for plot & dialogue in the shower. I don’t have any particular playlists to get me “in the writing mood” but I do enjoy listening to music as I work. Either instrumental stuff or simply artists/songs I like. If something just so happens to “fit” a scene I’m working on, one i’ve got planned, or even just gives me vibes for a certain character or group, I add a quick note to the top of said scene’s draft. Most of the time I stick it in the recesses of my brain and add a quick link when I finally get to the point of posting the draft to tumblr. For whatever reason, when I have one of those “oh this song is perfect for X” moments it’s essentially ingrained in my mind for the rest of eternity. 

5. The screenshot folder - this will most likely give some of you out there major anxiety. but i swear it’s an organized chaos. :)

yep. 32.9gb of screenshots & related things... 

So with the raws from a single random scene selected, you can see i take roughly 10 screenshots per image posted. not terrible i guess but i’m working on it. Typically I take screenshots and once I’m done editing a scene I’ll move them from the general folder to a more specific project folder.

6. Captions - I’ll answer this in three parts:

for my townie story. not really. I prefer using the text box. I tend to write (& re-write) the dialogue for each one of these scenes several times over as I add more “scenes” into my drafts. It would be incredibly inefficient, time consuming, and would waste a lot more space on my pc to have to save .psds of each image just so i could edit dialogue when I decide: “oh hey maybe so and so needs to bring up X in this scene” and then change my mind an hour later.

for niko, noor, & co. I’m a text on image type gal here. don’t really know why, but it gives the project a different energy. ironically it makes it feel more laid-back to me. which i guess makes sense, it’s a much more light-hearted “story” than my townie project. which is, imo, very soapy haha.

for legacy stuff. all text goes below the images in the text box. reasoning: it’s gameplay, I don’t brainstorm, outline, or pre-write for this. I play the game, take screenshots, plug ‘em into my drafts and write some commentary / dialogue to go along with it.

7. Editing - i am a creature of habit and have not majorly changed my editing process in probably a year and a half (when I began using reshade and had to adjust my color correcting psd). it’s a super basic system:

drag & drop my “color correction” psd.

run actions in ps. (i made my own “all-in-one” actions to really streamline the process; i have different “actions sets” for my premades’ story and for other things that get posted to tumblr. even if no one else notices it, i like the little details that keep my projects separate and “identifiable”. 

voila. all set to upload.

sometimes i crop images, add “text effects��, or do more in depth editing (i.e. editing a phone screen or adding rain etc.) but overall i try and keep it simple for myself. 

8. Throwback - i posted an image of one of the first (but never posted) scenes I’d written for my townie project up above. but as for how would i redo a scene i’d already posted. well i’m currently re-doing my townie story so i guess i’ll just say you’ll see how it’s redone when i get to part 1! 😉

anyway, no tags because i’m so embarrassingly late to this party but if you hadn’t gotten around to this tag, wanted to do it but didn’t get a tag, or started it and left it to sit and now you’re thinking “oh god that was months ago should i even post this anymore?!?” consider yourself tagged by me and go ahead and post it for all to see!

[thosedamnsmoshkids]

some cdp facts

last hiatus i made the crime does p(l)ay(list), (and the one i made this arc too!) and people seemed to like that! i also referenced making this in my ‘five fun facts’ post, so, here you are!!

below the cut there are few arc one/two spoilers, so if you haven’t read cdp yet, go give it a read and then come back here!

more than half of the plot was written after chapter seven, which is why some of the characters seem a bit different in their personalities there than after. 

i nearly completely forget that Wes got beat up in ch 5 and I almost wrote him without his rib and facial injuries

CDP was originally only supposed to be ~15 chapters, as i thought that i’d have run out of steam by now. boy was i wrong.

Leo was never meant to be a heavily focused character, and he was only going to be in the ‘raven room’ chapter. the role Leo plays was originally supposed to be done by a different character altogether. the character he’s based off of is from the original plotline, where instead of Damien feuding with Leo, it’s Joven feuding with the xiaolong’s leader’s daughter, who was characterized as being very loyal to both her father and the gang. her characterization (brash, commanding, and loyal), turned into Linghun. she was supposed to threaten Joven and act as a distraction before disappearing after arc one, probably having been killed off in the gauntlet

kate was supposed to be a one off character, but i ended up loving writing for her, (and i needed a character who was involved in Mari’s crime scene clean-up), so i added her to joven’s backstory, and gave her some more personality

ryan todd was supposed to have bigger sway in arc one, and have it end with his accidental death, but i wrote a few lines for his podcast and he ended up sticking around.

sunny was also supposed to have a much bigger role, but he didn’t fit super well, and i ended up keeping him to the sidelines

the only characters that were locked in to existing were the main five, the strippers, sohinki and lasercorn, and matt raub. everyone else was written in later.

mari was the first one to get a backstory, boze was the last.

though this has been briefly (albeit not explicitly) mentioned throughout the fic, the canonic ages of each character are as follows: Mari - 26; Joven - 27; Damien - 22; Boze - 24; Wes - 26; Courtney - 25; Shayne - 23; Noah - 21; Keith - 24; Olivia - 22; Sohinki - 25; Lasercorn - 30; Kate - 26; Sarah - 29; Matt Raub - 38; Leo - 24; Sunny - 37; Tim - 32

Most of the characters also didn’t have solid ages until arc two

i actually have mockups for the official Jackrabbit logo in my google doc for the plot (might post it for fun idk). i’ve done a few sketches, but the official logo has been recorded in there. i might make something out of it if i manage to finish all of CDP

the second thing i planned out for CDP after chapter one was the epilogue chapter that will follow arc three. and i basically knew how the fic would end the moment i started it.

CDP arcs all take place over varying amounts of time, arc one roughly takes place over several weeks and arc two takes place over four months. (i’m still trying to plan out how long -time skip wise- arc thee is going to take)

CDP begins roughly in the beginning of November (due to the fact that that’s when i started writing it), but time acts differently in the story as there are never any concrete ‘dates’. Wes mentions it being january in ch 35, and damien mentions that it’s february in ch 43, but those are the only times i really gave actual months

there was very nearly going to be a christmas episode, but i felt like it messed with the pacing too much

i wrote most of the pre-CDP plot/backstory at the end of plotting out the fic

The name ‘Xiaolong’ is actually a word in Chinese. I meant the word to be ‘dragons’, but after consulting two of my Chinese-speaking friends they have both informed me that it actually means ‘little dragon’. once again google has disappointed me, but given me a nice name.

The original name for the Xiaolong was the ‘Swhi Zi Long’ which (very roughly) translates to ‘blood of the dragon’

I still can’t spell the Russian words for ‘bear brotherhood’ correctly, which is why I frequently refer to them as just ‘the brotherhood’

Kate’s number, referenced in chapter 12, is 555-0930. The final four numbers is the date Kate and Joven got married

the Jackrabbit’s address - 1301 Verloren street is a mix of two different things. 13, the day i was born, 01, the year i was born, and ‘Verloren’, which is the verb for ‘to forget’ in german

damien references something in one of his early chapters that can be seen as somewhat of foreshadowing to what happens in chapter 55

a single chapter of CDP, (which are roughly between 1,500-4,000) can take anywhere from 2-7 hours to write, depending on my focus and depth of editing

the shortest chapter of cdp is around 1,000 words and the longest chapter is 5,400 words long

there’s a base 64 easter egg in chapter 43. (the code that leo gives to damien to unlock the storage space translates to a french phrase, (la douleur exquise), which basically means ‘the heart wrenching pain of wanting someone you can't have’. and if that ain’t a mood with leo’s feelings towards damien.)

the final five chapters of arc two were supposed to be formatted very differently. the arc was supposed to end with a damien chapter, but i felt like it messed with pacing too much to add more people’s points of view. instead we got some extra stuff and some cute coze interactions and more boze backstory, so it payed off well!

unlike arc one, the plots of each of the chapters of arc two were written WAY before i published them. some of them changed based on how the characters changed, but most of them have been the same, 

the bare plot for arc one is roughly 3.5 pages long, the bare plot for arc two is 5 pages long, and the bare plot for arc three is 7 pages long

there will be 35 chapters this arc, as well as one, most likely very long epilogue chapter.

cdp will return this friday! for making it all the way through the list, have a few paragraphs from the next chapter - 56 - the aftermath

Mari’s heart was pumping out of her chest.

The ambulance sirens wailed around her as she followed closely behind in her car. The technicians hadn’t looked hopeful as they’d loaded the bodies into the back of the van.

There had been so much blood.

She’d been standing in the back, barely paying attention, trying to focus on the set numbers. Then the explosion had bloomed across the room. She had felt the sonic hum deep in her chest, and the ringing in her ears still burned, even now.

Mari slammed her fist into the steering wheel, letting out an ear splitting shriek as she let her emotions bubble over. Her friends might be dead. She had never thought that it would actually come it this.

She thought that they were safe now that the Titans were gone.

Sohinki’s words now echoed hauntingly in the back of her head.

The ambulance in front of her ripped into the hospital parking lot. Personel in white coats and white gloves ran with crash carts from the front door as soon as the ambulance stopped.

Mari found a parking spot quickly, putting the car into park before running towards the van, barely thinking to lock her car behind her. She could see them pull a gurney out of the back, moving it quickly towards the front entrance as doctors and ER techs shouted numbers at one another. Joven stepped out of the back, out of breath and sweaty, covered in blood.

[calliecat93]

RvB Season 16 Commentary Masterpost

This post details the commentary from the RvB16 DvD. I tried to add as much and be as detailed as possible and I apologize if I misconstrued anything. This was 12 pages long BTW... I hope you all enjoy!

Commentators

All Episodes: Joe Nicolosi (writer/director)

Episodes 1-5: Kyle Taylor (machinima director), Josh Ornelas (senior machinimator)

Episodes 6-10: Jason Weight (co-writer), Greg Slagel (show producer), Billy Burson (Visual Supervisor/Lighter)

Episodes 11-15: Phillip Sparn (Audio Mixer/Sound Designer), Ian Sheppard (Lead Animator), David Levy (Audio/Music Composer)

Episode 1

The intro scene with the knights involved zero machinima (Kyle very much appreciated that), IDK if this was a joke, but Joe said that he wrote the intro three years ago and sent it to Miles, who was confused by it. He thought this would be a good place to finally use it.

The Grif knight is now Sir Gryffandor and the Simmons one Simmtarian XD

Joe use to be in a time traveled-theme band and many of the unused ideas it's where he got several of his ideas for this season.

Joe felt that it took far too long to get into the action in S15, so he tried to have it go faster this time around. Hence why he sped through the setup in this and Season 2.

Kyle and Joe talk about how there was a joke in S11 where Caboose responded to his echo in a cave. Joe wanted the echo to have been time travel Caboose, but when they decided on the slideshow format he couldn't. Miles confirmed at RTX that it is now canon so yay!

Joe had gone back through the show and made notes about where the characters could mess with their past. He also has a fan theory that Two Coffee Mug Guy from the Freelancer Saga is the cause of everything bad that happened since if he didn't show up, North wouldn't have gotten caught, the mission would have gone fine, etc. I am on board with this theory!

In one shot, they forgot to put Huggins and Muggins in as the headlights and it was too late to fix when the time came to air it. Oops. Kyle jokes that they have to blink off every one in a while due to their anatomy XD

The scene where Donut has... broke I guess was apparently a pain in the ass to do. For example when there's like eight of him in a row, they had to time the shot exactly right to machinimate it properly. It involved a LOT of coordination. They all agree that the bit where Donut glitches/contorts is the stuff of nightmares.

Speaking of that bit, you'd think that would be easy since it's essentially glitched out animation. But doing it apparently broke all the rendering machines and they had long talks with the tech department to get it rendered properly. It got to the point where it actually went up to Gray Haddock, the Head of Animation. Daaamn.

Joe's original vision for Episode 1 was to have a long conversation about food that triggered a series of horrific events as it was going on. Kind of like a one act play. Only the Caboose bit with Donut made it through however.

Grif's love of Sammie Raphaello's is based on Joe's feelings about a similarly named place in New York, including eating it for 100 days straight. It had been worth it.

Starseat, the Cosmic Gods base. Is one of the only maps that they hadn't used form Halo 5. They used the majority in S15 so they needed to use some of the alien locations for this one. Since S16 has the Cosmic Powers, it worked out for them.

Episode 2

The forest area was a custom map made by Josh. They used several custom maps this season.

Josh calls layering trees the 'Bob Ross effect' XD

There's this lightning effect in this map that had to me timed perfectly to not mess up the shot. Lets just say that they had to redo several shots because they got the timing wrong or it was too distracting.

When there is a joke that has an awkward pause or silence in it, Joe likes to add a bird effect to it. In the bit with Caboose's 'Your Mama' joke, he used an owl effect

It is canon that Caboose has shy tinkle and can't do his business with others around XD

Because the Halo 5 models have this bad tendency with their coloring (ie, Simmons sometimes looks too much like Sarge), they hired a colorist for the first time in the series history. So every Simmons scene (IDK if they mean just this one or every single one) had to be hand colored to keep him as maroon as possible.

Kyle asked about what was going in on Chorus. Joe says that this is NOT canon, but in his mind Locus got arrested when he brought Wash back to Chorus. They want to try Locus as a war criminal where he COUDL escape, but since he swore off killing people he cna't without doing so. Apparently his ship has an AI ready to split the planet with him Locus gone so Kimball, whose in the middle of an election, has the choice to either let Locus go and save the planet, or not and not get re-elected. This is strictly headcanon, but Joe considered using it as a subplot but since it had nothing to do with the time travel, he opted against it.

Donut is now God Jesus Donut. Something that Joe was very excited to do.

Kyle had no idea how they were going to have Donut walk across water. Apparently Halo 5 has these invisible blocks that they were able to use to pull off the effect.

The music used in this scene is a genre called 'monk-step', which is like Gregorian chanting mixed with ETM (from what I can gather, it's some kind of electro music). Apparently this is a real genre.

The city and destroyed Sammie Raphaello's was made by Austin Clark and Kyle Moran.

Conner, one fo the editors, edited the scene pretty tightly as with most RvB scenes. Joe then made him go back and add a punch of long. pauses

The cop was indeed voiced by Jeremy Dooley. Joe's direction to him was that he thought he was the main character of the story and to just go off with it. He did so for several minutes and Joe had to cut it down, but you can see the full thing in the blooper reel.

Joe didn't want to lock onto a specific place aside form 'somewhere in America' for the city location. But since Grif said he went to Harvard in a PSA, he guesses that it's somewhere in Massachusetts.

Joe has this pet peeve about a truck in the shot as the exact same model was also there when we the place again in Episode 4. Kyle makes a backstory for it about being driven by a dump truck driver who cheated on his wife and was caught, left the truck there, and went on to become president. The truck is now a monument. I am all for this!

They storyboarded Donut putting the guns on the ground... and Joe decided at the last second to just have them flash and appear to not waste time just having him lay down guns for 20 seconds.

Kyle calls Grif a coward for not taking the bullet for Sammie's. That's not nice Kyle!

“Donut uses his shield powers that... never come up again” Thanks Joe...

To get Sarge and Simmons properly on the ground when they land in Egypt, Kyle simply had Josh kill them in-game. They landed perfectly XD

Episode 3

The snow scene with Grif and Doc apparently shows the horizon for the first time in the series due to using very boxed in multiplayer maps. It is also a custom map with the horizon point, which was green-screened, blending into the snow.

Sister and Tucker were green-screened into Halo 3. Apparently it wasn't too bad here, but it was MUCH harder for Halo 2. They VERY much appreciated having a green-screen within Halo 5.

The desert scene with Sarge and Simmons apparently had a shadow in it, so they had to color correct it to make it look more desert-like. Simmons color apparently overlapped with Sarge's a lot.

The storylines were supposed to be about the characters all trying to fix their past mistakes, but only make it worst. This was meant to tie into the season's theme on how fucking up is a part of life. Them not learning it, of course, causes what happens in the end. Joe does mention that it doesn't seem like it worked for everyone watching, however but Kyle mentions how rewatching it can get people to pick up on it more.

The map they used for The Battle of Broken Ridge went through several iterations. They went with one they called White Dwarf which was very detailed tot he point where they fuzzied it up to make it look less so. The rock formations are underwater rocks and have coral textures to them to make them look more alien.

Present!Sarge is wielding a sniper rifle in this scene, not his shot gun. They imply that he shot the previous CO so that his past self would be given the position. GDI Sarge.

Apparently Halo characters do NOT like rough terrain, so recording the soldiers running across it was difficult to make it look natural.

For the PoV shot with Caboose, apparently you can't move the camera much in Halo 5 but you CAN have the character walk closer into it. So Austin and Kyle Moran did so to get the shot and was one of the first they did on their own.

Lopez couldn't be color corrected apparently. They had to go with a shade nearly identical to Grif's because otherwise he looked onto much like Master Chief. As such he looks different in every scene. Thanks Halo 5.

Episode 4

Joe wanted to use all the main locations (Blood Gulch, Valhalla) at least once. He was able to use Halos 2 and 3, but didn't get around to using Halo 4, so we didn't get Chorus aside form the one we saw last season.

The Tucker and Sister storyline was the most changed. Originally, it was going to be about Tucker trying to stop himself from getting laid with all the women that got him a lawsuit last season. He succeeded... but his present self got seduced anyways. This however created a bit of a paradox (I assume since it was clear that Tucker remembered it last season) so he decided he wanted to do something more personal between Tucker and Sister.

Joe wanted this, Episode 5, and Episode 6 to feel more episodic. Hence why he get a major focus on Tucker and Sister here, Sarge and Simmons in 5, and Grif and Doc in 6.

Joe apparently cockblocked himself once. Oops.

Kyle wants to use a time machine to go back and mess with himself when past!him was working in a check out line. Joe would use it to go see old movies and bands when they opened up.

The Broken Ridge map made all the visors green.

Hammerspace exists in the RvB verse due to all the weapon shifts.

The machinima team used the PC version of Halo 2 (the same one used for the Blood Gulch remaster) due to technical reasons. The problem is all the servers, services, etc that were available when doing the remaster no longer exist in 2018. While they have copies of the game, to do what they need they had to use fan hacks, a laptop, and Joe's home computer to make the scenes properly.

Lindsay Jones (VA for Kimball) plays one of the three kids using her Space Kid voice form Camp Camp. Kyle thought one of the actors was the VA for Qrow in RWBY (Vic Mignogna) but it wasn't.

They had a lot of fun macinimating Grif's freakout and Joe outright called Geoff's performance Oscar worthy. They considered submitting it XD

The guy left the truck (form Episode 2) on this very day XD

Tucker asking Sister if she turned off her radio was a reference to O'Malley since at this time, he was still around and going through different people's heads. It was important to make sure that he paid attention to continuity in the time he was going to mess with. Since he felt that this was a memorable event in Blood Gulch, he wanted to go back to it and make sure that he wasn't accidentally messing up anything.

This is the third time they've gone back to this in RvB's history as Josh previously directed a S14 episode written by Barbara Dunkleman (VA for Jensen) about O'Malley in different headspaces. Wow, they must love this scene XD

Joe made Nico (one of the composers and part of Trocadero) make porno music for the cave pond scene. He said “On it Joe!”

Joe liked making Tucker dense when it comes to sex, especially in this scene.

There were talks about if Tucker and Sister should still be in Halo 5 armor when time travleing or if it should change. They ultimately decided to stick to the Halo 5 armor, which Joe felt was the right choice since he was no real reason to have them in the game's default. RvB14 had a similar philosophy where whatever time period the story is taking place, ti had to match that version of Halo.

Episode 5

The map used at the very beginning was a user-made map that's meant to be reminiscent of a Halo 3 map.

Using John Wayne was apparently a pain in the ass. They couldn't refer to him as John Wayne and several other names like The Duke due to legal reasons. It was at the point where they had to have Gus and Matt frequently come in to do re-recordings due to all the changes. They finally settled on Private John... and they hope that they don't get sued for saying it in the commentary.

To remake Desert Gulch, they had to use all the characters at the same time and do several different shots for several reasons.

George Washington was voiced by Todd Womack, a Creative Producer for Broadcast at RT. He also voiced the Simmons knight in Episode 1.

Chris Kokkinos, a Lead Audio Engineer for RT Animation, played Alexander the Great. They did ten minutes of Google searches to put together a voice that sounded accurate enough to what Ancient Masadonian (I think) would sound like.

There's a radio effect in the movie filming scenes where, if you listen close enough, you can hear someone trying to find the bestboy. When I rewatch this with commentary off, I am ging to listen HARD to find those lines.

Kohan Wooter, the producer Jax torments, was voiced by RT's 3D Animation producer Koan Wooten. Joe jokes that he's a 'pathetic ball of anxiety' so he based the character on him. Don't worry, he actually loves Koen XD Koen produced Seasons 13, 14, and 15, but 16 has a new producer, Greg who we'll hear in Episodes 6-10 commentary.

Apparently in Halo 5 (Kyle isn't sure if this was an update or he just never saw it there's an option to max character speeds. So when Jax, Simmons, and Sarge are walking through the set, they were able to set all three to the same speed without it looking like they're sprinting, something that is normally difficult to do in machinima.

In S15, Joe wanted Jax to get successful at some point... and then fall back down off his horse due to his ego. So he did it here!

They wish that they showed Jax's version of S15, though we do get a sample in Episode 12.

Austin and Kyle Moran worked on the scene where Sarge and Private John are doing lines.

For this scene, Matt was late for a CEO meeting so he had to do all of his lines in one take in quick succession. He nailed every single one of them.

I think most know this, but just in case, Atlus is voiced by SungWon Cho aka ProZD. Joe was a big fan of him and was really excited to cast him.

All the Gods we see who aren't Atlus, Kali, Genkins, and Burnstorm are Minor Gods and this is the only time we get to see them all. Kyle says one is the God of Anxiety XD

Kyle made Atlus' throne and used spaceship parts to make it. It was also a chore to decide on all the Gods guns.

Episode 6

Jason wrote Episodes 6, 7, 10, 11, 13, and 14 (Joe confirmed the latter four on Twitter).

Joe says that Grif and Doc are somewhere in Calabria, Ancient Italy. It is known as 'The Boot of Italy'.

Greg previously on a 2D show at another company (I couldn't make out what he said it was) before arriving at RT and being put on RvB. Since machinima is treated more like live action when filming, it was a very different experience along with storyboarding the animation. He had to learn a lot about what can and can't be done in machinima.

Billy previously worked on a live action RvB short (I assume the RvB14 finale but they didn't specify) and before this worked on RWBY and RWBY Chibi. He works on both lighting and composition.

Billy really liked working on the lens flare shots XD Which are also apparently hard to render despite how easy it looked at first.

Jason wrote most of Sister's dialogue, which had to be cut down a bit. Apparently one line he wrote was Sister saying “I want Lancelot to slay my p***y like a Dragon”. This once got cut because Microsoft told them to, which is a VERY rare occurrence.

Genkins was the one going crazy with the airhorn during Atlus' intro. They used up all their airhorn budget for that one XD

Joe credited Jason for Atlus' portrayal. Jason feels that Atlus is very human and fragile on the inside and the kind of characters that he likes to write.

They all laughed at Tucker and Sister being blown up, which they tried to reuse form other stuff, but Joe refused. They joke that they just got it off the internet.

Joe feels that he could have done this episode better as he didn't feel anything for Doc at the end like he had intended.

They have an animator specifically for O'Malley's finger motions. He'll be in the 11-15 commentary and is reffered to as 'The Fingerer'

Episode 7

Since this is an episode that mixes live action, they started working on this even before Episode 1. They were excited at first... until they finally started doing it.

Gus Sorola (VA for Simmons) played the Cyclops as well as his wife.

Joe knows that some people weren't happy with this episode, but he still liked it cause Tucker and Sister got to fight a giant cyclops. They do admit it is one of the stupidest thing they've ever done though XD

They went over budget doing the scene and had to go all the way up to Matt to get more. At RTX, Matt said that he allowed it when they said that Gus was going to be uncomfortable for several hours. Best CEO XD Joe brought in Koen to convince help him.

Huggins had several different animators, but most of the credit goes to an animator named Owen for giving a glowing sphere so much energy with the animation.

Gus' scenes were shot in one day, but because they had to change the lighting so much to correspond with Halo, it took a LOOOOOT of hours.

When the cyclops bit into the Tucker armor, Joe had it in the script that Gus just pulled the head off. Gus asked if he could eat it, which Joe allowed. Joe had to paint it the day before the shoot after Greg went and got it. They used a toy since animating Tucker in Gus' hand would have been too much work to get right.

Joe did a lot of the work on the scenes while listening to an audiobook, so now he just hears it whenever watching the episode. Fortunately, he has a lot of work with green-screen XD

David Levy composed the music for the scene and Joe had him listen to stuff from Jason and the Arganots and such things to give him an idea of what to do.

Tucker jumping to hit the Cyclops'... privates...w as a reference to Independence Day apparently.

Joe wished that, when we see the location again in the finale, he just showed the Cyclops' corpse rotting away... so I guess that confirms that he's dead. He thought of it after the fact however so he couldn't.

Joe deliberately told the Art Department about the female cyclops at the last second so that they would buy a shitty costume for Gus to put on. Greg was confused. The shot later for Episode 15 was a surprise shot Joe did since he was writing the finale around this time, so he wanted it just in case he wanted to use it... which he did XD

Episode 8

The map with the Chorus towers were a Live Map. IDK what that means, but apparently they can't use. So the machinimators had to go around it and take various shots of the towers to put them in the opening scene. It got several accounts banned as a result XD

After the last episode used so many different things (animation, machinima, live action), the fact that they were able to get an animation sequence into this one had Joe feeling good about the production flow for the season since the previous one would normally go over deadlines. Fortunately, the production went through seemlessly.

The animation team is mostly from RWBY Chibi.

Originally Carolina and Dr. Grey's talk was in Grey's office. Miles said that it wasn't weird enough to fit Grey though, so Joe change the setting to a morgue. The dialogue stayed the same though! The feet of the body were apparently hard to render XD

Joe wished that Carolina was holding some guy's intestines to further show how creepy it is.

With the cyclops, Joe apparently wanted him to have a giant, hanging dong cause he things it would be Tucker's worst nightmare. Greg immediately shot that down since no amount if pixilation would be able to hide it.

Joe wanted to give Grif a magic fairy companion, ehnce why we got Huggins and the two would learn form each other.

Huggins is based off of her actress, Ashley Spillers, in terms of personality.

Apparently doing shots showing tall buildings like in Chorus is much easier than getting a dead guy's feet in properly. Huh...

Joe got obsessed with doing different shots to make shots of a character just talking interesting and he felt he went a little too crazy.

Joe felt bad that he couldn't use more of Dylan, but he learned last season that RvB has a TON of characters and he needs to break them up when it's necessary. This is part of why the Reds and Blues were split up this season.

Billy did a lot of work on the wrestling scene in the finale due to how much lighting was needed. It also involved a lot of comp due to the amount of shots.

Wash's cat, Loki, is based off a cat Joe had in RL. Many of the same things happened to it and lived for over 20 years. Wow...

Episode 9

Joe makes it clear that he loves Koen and he only made fun of him because he loves him. Greg felt much of Kohan's portrayal hit too close to home XD

Since they used most of the maps in S15, Joe knew that they were going to have to reuse some of them and the filmset plotline was done in order to do so. Considering Wash's state, he felt that it worked well for character.

The Female Frozen Freelancer was voiced by Minni Clark, their Animation Coordinator.

Joe considered what Wash and Carolina would do with a time machine. For a while, he considered having Carolina use it to go to the future, but he felt that could botch future storylines so he decided to not use the future at all.

They liked the campfire map and giving Huggins sparkles. The sparkles got added late into production. Luckily they emphasized that no one was harmed in the making of this production XD

Huggins will only swear when quoting Die Hard. The lens flare in the movie was also Joe's favorite lens flare in film XD

Joe was originally going to have Grif come across Lopez's head after he sank in the titanic. But since Grif was in Ancient Italy, that would not work so it was cut.

Joe also intended for Grif to use a boat to get over the English Channel, but since it would have been a hard set-piece to make and they already had an underwater map, they went with that instead.

The effect to make past!Simmons portal appear/green-screen was apparently fun XD Joe also liked having Sarge stab Achilles in the foot.

This season has the most green-screen used in any season.

Apparently there are a LOT of time travel stories out there with very complicated rules. Joe went with the ones that he felt were the most common.

Joe got very mad because The Covlerfield Paradox came out sometimes before the season starts. He also gets mad in the finale cause Infinity War did what he did essentially XD

Joe found using time travel to test free will interesting as he doesn't recall anyone doing it before.

Matt improved his lines regarding the back and forth on deciding to open the door. He does that a lot XD

They didn't want to add a shot of Simmons pressing the keypad, so they just showed the door opening.

Episode 10

To make Caboose's vacation easier, they decided to go with the slideshow and just use stills. Most were easy to comp, but some like the monkeys were more difficult. It was orignally going to be animated.

With the shot of the RT Founders, they originally had a Halo helmet in the photo. Joe changed it to a bowling ball.

Joe was counting down the days of production and told no one. Greg was very confused when he saw '100 Days' on Joe's calendar.

Jason wrote Camelto and voiced Lancelot/Sir Gryffandor. Joe used all of his first takes XD

Jason writes long scripts, so Joe had to cut them down and he felt bad about it. Jason said that he got rid of the garbage bits XD

There is some kind of cannon by Tucker's shoulder when he meets with Grif. Joe headcanosn that Tucker just demanded that they make a cannon.

Even Joe points out that Grif's trying to push the plot forward now. They joke that it's just so it an end faster.

The reason why Tucker started the war with France they decided was because they ate snails, hence his line “Those fancy f***s eat snails!”

Joe clarifies on what turning into a shisno means. I wrote about this already, but I'll do so again here. It is not a form of corruption or mind control, but people like Tucker giving more and more into temptation and as such, the worst part of them comes out. He felt that them trying to make the past better is a big convenience in time travel and decided that them screwing it up and therefore still trying was an effect of Chrovos. It's not direct mind control however, it just makes your darker impulses stronger.

Joe confirms that Genkins was the PA who lead Wash to the scene recreating where he got shot solely to make him worst and keep the plan going in the right direction.

Joe, having grown up on films like Evil Dead, really likes bloody shots and thinks that his seasons have had the most blood effects XD

They checked over Donut and O'Malley's scene a LOT due to a lot of screw ups and using a large white void.

Billy's favorite thing to have lighted was Chrovos. They were very happy with the gears design.

Joe really liked Chrovos' VA

Episode 11

Phillip played one of the guards that got crushed by the horse in the finale. It is his proudest moment.

Doing work for Huggins was painful since she required several swooshing effects and her animation turned out to be much more work due to Ian deciding to make her more energetic to not make it boring.

Muggins is less energetic due to being older

Joe had to get special permission from Miles and Kerry to use the RWBY moon and now calls it canon... which he honestly isn't all that wrong if you've watched RWBY V6...

Audio liked adding the effects to Atlus' voice, something that ProZD apparently does in his videos.

When he decided to use God sin RvB, Joe had wanted to have a wish granting scene and the one we got is one of his favorites. He also mentions how most Gods go to places, mess with younger races, so he felt like this fit.

The music for this was challenging for David as Joe instructed him to base it on Danny Elfman-esque scores. The guitar rift when Grif makes the sword wish was treated like a sound effect.

Apparently they used a laughing seagull effect to laugh at Tucker. I need to listen for these things more.

They used a sunset map for Tucker and Sister's talk, and while lighting is often difficult in RvB, Joe felt that this worked very well. Using Halo 5 in general was hard, but after last year they had a good grasp on what they could and couldn't do. They'll be us9ig a new Halo next year, which since Halo 6 isn't out I assume is referring to Halo 2 Anniversary

Okay... so this bit is probably gonna be the biggest part. So the whole scene with Tucker and Sister's talk? Originally in the outline, Joe simply had Sister go 'And I don't care!' when she and Tucker realize that their s*xventures were coming to an end. Then he sent it off to Jason, who expanded on it in the script to have Sister's verbal beatdown to Tucker. Joe let it stick, and we got what we got.

Episode 12

This is the first episode of RvB shot in 4K

You know the opening shot where Actor!Wash dips Actress!Carolina? The scene was mo-caped by Joe as Wash an an animator named Harley (she works primarily on RWBY) as Carolina. When they acted it out, Joe tried to catch Harley when she fell back... except that he had recently dislocated his arm. So he ended up just dropping her and he fell over and hit his head. The mocap for it looked really funny though XD

The reason why Joe used 4K for this episode was in order to do wide shots so that After Effects could put in the shaky cam. He did it in one weekend. He's not a fan of 4K however due to feeling it adds too much production time, so he used it for only this episode.

They joke about making an RvB Soap Opera where Church has a twina nd Sarge goes into a coma. I WANT THIS!

Joe had not seen The Office when he went with the interviews idea.

This, and the later episodes, were written during the production.

This episode was the RvB equivalent of a Beach Episode like you see in anime. But because of armor and stuff, he couldn't go all the way. Also apparently if Halo characters hit the water unless it's an underwater map, they die. Huh...

Joe continues to make it clear that he loves working with Koen. Good job on making sure you don't piss your boss off dude!

The Chinese Finger Trap gag with Caboose was improved by Joel. The trap was composed in and they used the Huggins rigs to help with the stretching.

Joe felt he went a little too strong with the color correction in this episode and that the colors came off too strong, especially with Donut.

Joe liked the audio cue used for when Wash has one of his memory blocks.

There was a lot of improve done with the actors for Jax's movie. Phillip also didn't get the Rodney Dangerfield reference. Joe put that specific one in because the Private John actor did one for funsies in his session.

According to Joe, after he gets hit by Atlus' hammer, he forgets all of his movie ideas and is now in the next stage of his life in trying to figure them out. They ask if this is autobiographical for Joe XD

The gold club is an actual weapon in Halo 5 (some kind of multiplayer mode), huh...

In the original take where everyone is saying titles, Joel had Caboose curse. Joe found it funny... but since Caboose doesn't swear to that level (I think in another interview Joe said he used the F word), he decided two days prior to cut it and edit several takes together to get what we got. They added it back in for the Blooper Reel, and I can confirm that it is hilarious.

Episode 13

David used wall to wall music for this episode.

The first drafts for the final three episodes were over 70 pages long. The average is around 12-18 pages, so... yeah... he had to cut it down to 54 within about three days.

Joe didn't get to work a lot with Genkins' VA (Ricco Fajardo since he forgot the name in the commentary) since Genkins had very few lines. He really enjoyed working with him and the other professional voice actors since he can really push them and they love going along with it.

Jason did the script for this episode.

This episode, along with 13, had very little animation due to the finale going crazy with it. So they cut down on it in these two to make up for that time.

Joe's not a fan of exposition scenes, but since Starseat was a unique set design, he felt like it was a good place to do it.

The Cosmic Powers are always green-screened so that they can look much larger.

David wanted to listen to his master work XD

Joe hadn't told mahcinima what swords to give everyone and is happy with the options that they went with.

Burnstorm's VA is a theater actor in Dallas

Joe regretted that he wasn't able to have the Gods in action much and wishes that he was able to fit in one God fight at least. But he had gone over the animation budget, so even if he wanted to he couldn't.

The Neanderthals hair in Caboose's slideshow apparently didn't work at all, so they photoshoped it in.

Joe really enjoyed doing Carolina and Wash's scene, especially with how well Jen and Shannon performed it. He felt so much regret for what he did to these characters XD

Joe did research on brain injuries to make sure that he portrayed Wash's condition as accurately as possible.

Machinima built the room that the Reds and Blues were teleported to. It was originally a hallway apparently.

Episode 14

The intention of the episode was to be a runway into the finale and to be a bit of a cool down after the last one.

Jason once more did the script for this one.

Halo 5 armor in multiplayer apparently can't be black, so in shadows it just glows. Huh, weird.

No one aside from Joe saw the shot of the Fates. Ian never saw them as he handed them to someone else while doing 15, and they did them all without him having to check them.

Joe wrote the demo for The Fates song to give to the singers who auditioned.

Joe thought a lot about Carolina time traveling prior to this, but felt that she was too responsible and smart to use it the same way the Reds and Blues did.

Phillip was kind of glad that Huggins got 'killed' (I'm still denying it) since it meant no more swoosh sounds

The buildup to the... death scene... dropped the ambiance to build up the creepiness factor.

Joe did the black hole effect and went on until it made him too sad and he kicked his computer. You have only yourself to blame.

They like how the Cosmic Powers just become more and more normal acting as time goes on XD

Joe had been very nervous about The Fates and considers it the weirdest sequence in the season. He suggested the orchestral tuning build-up.

Joe explains how The Fates work. The Cosmic Powers are AI/computers, and that includes The Fates. They are like a series of quantum supercomputers who scan the atoms around them to determine the outcome of the future. Their prophecies are mere projections.

Episode 15 (Season Finale)

They call this 'The Beast Episode'

David added 15 minutes of music with no stop. It continues to accelerate as it continues on.

The episode was done more like a music video. All the animation was done first, and then David composed it to the animation instead of before it. He used bits of previous cues and themes as well. It took him two weeks to do.

The room that Carolina and the others hid in had been very bright, so they had to darken it.

This was very tightly edited in order to stay matched up to the music.

The strategy for the Donut vs O'Malley was to treat the finale as two episodes. The fight was done by one team and all the other stuff was done by another.

They like the 'Use what you learned' advice.

Audio used a program called Vocaline to dot he effects for Chrovos' voice and the gear ticking effects.

The edit for the episode was very different from the script as Joe did a lot of re-arranging of scenes to improve the flow. He got advice form Connor, one of the editors, to pace them better.

The pizza is a photoshopped Home Slice Pizzal

If you watch the scene where Caboose hits the Red with his golf club in slow mo, the body flies off but his soul stays put in an extra frame. If you watch it frame by frame, you can see the soul dissolve. Will make a note to do so later.

David wrote three separate tracks for each storyline in the episode (Donut vs O'Malley, Grif vs Genkins, and the others saving Wash) which all blend together as they go on.

The cue playing when Genkins goes on his boredom rant is Joe and David's favorite cue.

Genkin's rant was also much longer and was pretty much Genkins breaking up with the universe. Joe felt that it was losing momentum as it went on however, so he cut it down.

Phillip had a ringing bell sound effect play when Donut hit the plane on the commentary track. All of them lost it XD

The longest scene to animate was Donut jumping after The Hammer.

Each bit of the fight went to different animators. Ian worked on the Blood Gulch part and reference show he's known for being good at finger animation. Hence why we got O'Malley's evil finger wiggling XD They were bummed that they didn't have more time, but with so much going on, they had no choice. Everything was mo-caped and hand framed due to the uniqueness of all the scenes, all of which used no machinima, which normally has to be in a specific view. Joe was happy since he could move the camera around more.

The city for the final part of the fight was stolen taken from Gen:Lock. It's meant to be New York.

Joe has no regrets regarding the fight scene and was very happy with how it all came together.

There's a ticking effect during the episode that accelerates, but during the final part where Grif is running and stuff, the ticking significantly slowed down.

Grif's running was machinimated and they used an after effects plugin to slow him down properly.

Again, Joe was very mad that Infinity War came out during this time XD This happened a lot this season apparently, such as Legion.

The final scene is done in Halo 2 Anniversary. Joe chose this because it looks familiar, yet is different. He did this specifically to not make people think that they were rebooting it... which happened anyways XD

Again, they confirm that they are NOT doing a reboot. Joe tried to put in as many clues as he could (like Church not being voiced by Burnie) to demonstrate that. There is a reason for why things are like this and why the final three shots are in reverse order from the events in Blood Gulch.

Joe watched all of Deep Space 9 while editing the season. All 6 seasons! Two he watched during the cyclops episode!

Apparently the Security part of the credits (which lists pets) hjust gets added onto without chances, so many of them are probably dead... ending on a morbid note then!

This took like... five hours to type up. But I always like listening to behind-the-scenes stuff and I had a lot of fun doing this! To all of those who actually made it through the entire post, thanks for reading! Looking forward to S17!

[langblr-o-kebek]

Rant

Omg so we have this new manager at my work. He’s been here since July but one of the other managers (the one I worked mostly with) quit a little over one month ago and so the new guy took over his projects and I have been working almost exclusively with him ever since.

Idk what his job was before this but I can’t imagine it involved a lot of teamwork and project management/delegation because this guy just constantly does stuff without telling me what or why which is a big issue because then either I miss a whole lot or we end up working on the same thing and obviously that messes things up because not only is it inefficient but then we also have to take time to reconcile the differences between the documents.

He also treats me like an intern, constantly asking me to do little tasks while he hogs the other tasks (still a mystery because he never shares what he’s working on or what his game plan is). And willl just message me here and there and leave out important details when necessary and add superfuous details when it’s not. That last thing really gets to me, every time he adds super obvious instructions, I feel insulted, as if I wouldn’t know. Here’s an actual example of something that happened today:

Ex not enough detail Manager: Please calculate a growth rate for me from 2015-2019

Me: Okay. The growth rate of what?

*radio silence* 

I literally got no answer from him even after asking him a second time so I spent way too much time calculating multiple growth rates hoping that one of them was the one he was looking for.

Ex insulting amount of detail Manager: Will you double check and make sure the GDP numbers we used are the most recent? I think they might have released the second quarter for this year

Me: Ok, one sec

Manager: The GDP for Canada

Manager: For this year, so 1st and 2nd quarter

THE REPORT IS ABOUT THE CANADIAN ECONOMY WHAT OTHER MFKING GDP WOULD I USE

Also, I have told him multiple times that I’m a hardcore planner. I am constantly thinking about my to-do list, updating it, prioritizing things, etc. I have a hard time working if I don’t have a sense for what is most important, how long it will take and when is it needed. Plenty of this information I can fill in myself but not all of it and so I ask him all the time if he has a game plan, or if he has an idea for a deadline for this or that, and nothing. I told him that I understand if he doesn’t work that way, but as often as possible if he could try and give me even the roughest estimates when asked, I will be able to work so much better. And he hasn’t done that at all.

Finally, he can absolutely not take criticism. And not only am I very good at giving criticism in a constructive, non judgemental and positive way, a lot of what I have to say is regarding how we do things at the company so it’s more of training/onboarding than anything else. One time we received feedback from the boss, I hadn’t seen the final version of the document my manager handed in, and stylistically it was rough. The feedback didn’t mention the formatting, however, I immediately reached out to my manager and told him that I would take the first pass at the feedback since I would also need to work on the formatting. Then I told him that generally, anything we hand in to the boss has to be “client ready” i.e. formatting has to be perfect, that way, the boss only has to look over the content and if there’s little to change, he can do that right away and send it off. My manager should have said “oh that’s right, thanks for reminding me,” or “Oh I didn’t realize, thanks for letting me know!” Instead, he vehemently defended himself (despite me never commenting negatively on his work or his choices) told me that it shouldn’t matter because it was not a final report and that who cares because the content was all there, looks don’t matter. I calmly told him that it takes a few months to get used to our formatting and that for the time being I would look over all his documents before handing them in to double check the formatting, something that others did for me when I started. I told him that eventually, he’d get used to it and would start to get the formatting done while creating content but until then, I’m here to help. He didn’t respond....

On multiple occasions with me, or other people, when given advice he immediately goes on the defensive, refuses to see things from our point of view and reiterates that he is smart and has experience. It’s exhausting. Today, I lost my cool a little bit and I told him honestly that his tendancy to be closed to advice, to share as little as possible with me and to constantly insist on his own work as being the last word and that I should always just do exactly as he tells me and never stray; that that gives me the impression that he doesn’t value my advice or my intuition. Whether that’s the case or not, that it how it comes off. I told him that I trust his input, but that even though he holds a higher position than I do, he should never discount my input. We are a team, we are supposed to collaborate, I will give him the last word but that does not mean that mine are of no value. 

I’ll probably end up talking to him again, and also our boss....evaluations are coming up. 

Anyway so that’s been my life for the past month and a half. This manager honestly makes me want to quit but I’m going to stick with it because there’s a possibility that things will change once we’re done with this stupid project that he and I are on together.

Fingers crossed

rant over

[violetemerald]

(the formatting is kinda messed up but I’m on mobile and it’s the best i can do. Sometimes separate bullet points aren’t showing up where they should, etc. Sorry.)

I was tagged by @peppersandcats to choose 3 fandoms and answer the questions.

Shameless US, Prison Break, and The 100

(These are the three shows I most recently found myself watching a bunch of episodes in a row for in order to finally, way late after being spoiled thoroughly via fanvideos, catch up on the newest seasons. And I am 100% caught up on them all now, yay.)

i. the first character i loved Well gosh aren’t I boring and predictable here? I love the main characters lol…

Fiona Gallagher

Michael Scofield

Clarke Griffin (to be fair also fell instantly for Raven the second she became a character.)

Shameless arguably is an ensemble without one main lead but. Fiona is kinda more of a main character overall than a lot of the siblings, especially from what I remember of the pilot. Even The 100 is eventually not that much “Clarke’s show”, but people embrace that she’s the lead protagonist if you’re picking only one, yes? She certainly started the pilot and ended the most recent season finale all on her own.

ii. the character i never expected to love so much

hmm… there are so many directions I could go with this. I can’t remember the beginning of my experience with Shameless well enough to be sure of what I was thinking exactly, but I must’ve not expected to love Mickey initially, and more recently I didn’t expect to love Trevor (Ian’s newest boyfriend) so VERY much. No one on Tumblr or YouTube in the fandom cares at all but like. He’s amazing?? So let’s say those 2 for now.

T-Bag? Lol s5 has corrupted me.

probably Monty. His emotional depth and importance as a character snuck up on me.

iii. the character i relate to the most

oh idk it depends on the season and the aspect of them that we’re talking about. It’s one of the 4 oldest siblings for sure, or all of them, lol… I just wrote up too much stuff then deleted it all kinda by accident. Whatever. I guess I relate to bits and pieces of Debbie, Ian, Lip, and Fiona and that is why I like the show so much . Because at least at times, I do relate to most of them. But really I don’t relate to any in that full of a way and I’m not sure I can even pick 1 I’m closest to.

None?? Idk relating to characters on Prison Break seems hard if I really think about it. Maybe Veronica. Or LJ. Thinking back to season 1. They’re both pretty relatable characters on some levels. They are meant to be, on the outside of it all, normal people. But they have good hearts.

relating to characters in a sci-fi futuristic dystopia/apocalypse/war… not actually very easy for me. Lol. Maybe Monty or Clarke?? Personality wise, even sexuality wise as people were headcanoning Monty as asexual before the newest season and Clarke is bisexual (I’m a biromantic-ish ace)… Yeah idk.

iv. the character i’d slap

Frank is the cockroach they keep trying to kill or at least keep out of their house for a reason… so obviously him. But I have no expectations or hopes with Frank. I think mainly Lip is most often who I feel frustrated with, who is too stubborn and who self sabotages and who hurts Fiona too much with what he says to her.

all the characters on Prison Break are either a) cinnamon rolls who don’t deserve slapping or b) people that beyond deserve it but they’d kill me and my entire family if I did. Lol. I therefore don’t think I “would” slap most of the scary criminal types on this show, and picking just one is hard.

Jaha? Yes repeatedly Thelonias Jaha really upsets me. Every single season.

v. three favorite characters (in order of preference)

Lip, Fiona, Ian, not sure about that order really. Debbie is close too.

Michael, Lincoln… Sucre? He really is the sweetest guy, they named him very deliberately lol. Also though Sid. I fell for him in s5 in Sucre’s absence?

Raven, Bellamy, Clarke, probably yes that order. I’m mainly thinking of the most recent season though for Bellamy.

vi. a character i liked at first but not anymore

Probably Mandy. I really don’t forgive her for her attempted murder and severely permanently hurting Karen… among other things?

Well… in season 5 Jacob Ness for sure, I so wanted to believe Sara’s new husband was this wonderful amazing guy… Even just for storytelling reasons it would be so much more interesting if she never stopped loving Michael, of course, but she also was fully in love with someone new…

hmm I’m not sure. This is harder than I thought for The 100. Probably Finn i liked quite a bit more at his start than his end lol. Idk. I’m pretty hard to fully turn against characters perhaps, and it’s just complicated on this show, so complicated. Abby I care about a lot less than I once did actually.

vii. a character i did not like at first but now do

I don’t remember my initial impressions that well either even thoughi rewatch parts of season 1 for vidding fairly regularly lol. I think Carl has grown on me a lot. Karen too, perhaps. I think most characters were pretty lovable early into their arcs though, or not meant to evet be liked.

Lincoln Burrows I didn’t dislike or anything but he certainly grew on me a lot, slowly becoming more and more lovable?

I need to rewatch to remember what characters were like in the beginning but I think Kane, Bellamy, maybe Murphy (idk how much I like him now but more than i did), etc.

vii. 3 OTPs

this is complicated to limit to three because there are so many options. I love the fact that Debbie seems content to marry Neil and have a nonsexual relationship with him even though they’re both straight. So they’re a new ship I support, Neil/Debbie. Actually many of the main ships this season were strong and I’m rooting for them into s8 when it comes out though. Lip/Sierra is my realistic shipping them now situation, although not perfect, and Ian/Trevor!! Yes these two mean the world to me. I don’t know about “OTP” though. Those are 3 so I’ll stop… But I have a love/ hate relationship towards pretty much every canon sexual relationship on the series… and I say sexual because half the time it’s not necessarily romantic…

3 ships. On this show??? The whole beauty of it is really all the platonic love lol. I like Michael/Sara yes, Lincoln/Sheba… and I vaguely remember at the end of season 4 rooting a little for Lincoln/Sofia too. And well, bonus #4 ship… thinking about season 5, Sid/his first lover should’ve been allowed to survive happily ever after.

canon? Maybe just Clarke/Lexa. (Vaguely i once shipped Clarke/Wells but they killed him off in like ep 3 so.) AU though… I’ve been shipping Kane/Jaha slash since the pilot lol, maybe to spite actor Isaiah Washington who plays Jaha but got fired from Grey’s Anatomy for being homophobic but really because the two men totally seem in love to me. And I shipped Clarke/Raven as soon as Raven landed on the ground, as soon as Clarke saw the guy she’d just slept with kissing Raven and decided to still smile at Raven and be genuinely glad she survived…

Most canon The 100 ships I enjoy a little.

Sorry if this was way too long. I had fun answering though! I know you’re already tagged, @quarticmoose, but I too would like to see your answers…

I’m not sure who to tag. @nickneedstherapy, @bookgirlfan, @purrplelace, @zserb really anyone who wants to be tagged please just let me know and I’ll add you or just. Do it anyway!

[bubblline]

so i've recently gotten into haikyuu and your art is so amazing and i 100% ship kuroken because of it. like wow, you really capture their subtle feelings really well. i was wondering if you had any fic recs though? you've dragged me into this hell, please take responsibility.

just so you know THIS IS AMAZING AND I AM NOT SORRY ANON 

thank you so much for your kind words Q-Q, I often feel like my art is not enough? like not expressive enough, or just not nice to look at so that means a lot me

okay I’ve read TONS of excellent kuroken in my days and here are some of my favorites. Also be aware that most of these are longer because I love slowburn and you can’t just have that in 3k words but there are some shorter oneshots around too.

The links are under the cut because I have no chill and there are SO MANY

AND PLEASE READ ALL THE TAGS BEFORE DELVING IN

Let’s start with a Classic: How Kuroo found Kenma by @suggestivescribe.It’s a really funny and cute college-get-together-fic in which Kuroo suddenly realizes he’s been in love with Kenma FOREVER and chaos ensues. Oikawa is also Kuroo’s other best friend in this and idk about you but I love me some Oikuroo friendship. This fic is sort of a prequel to another of Scribe’s iwaoi fics, which is also amazing and Kuroo and Kenma do appear from time to time: Conquering the Great King (but be warned that fic has A LOT of smut)

The first multi-chapter story I read with them isSeasons of Love by @nimbus-cloudThis is set after the current events of canon, Kenma is a third year and Kuroo is off to college, they have to figure out how to deal with a long-distance relationship. It’s very well written and a very sweet discovery of what it means to grow up.(There’s a second part too!!)

And from here on out the fics I’m listing aren’t in any particular order

Chamomile and Carnivorous Plants by @ellessey-writes (M) 10k‘There was no great defining moment, no point in time Kenma can look to and say, That’s what did it. That’s when I fell for Kuroo. He just did somehow.And it’s the worst. For so many reasons.’–Kenma needs to admit a few things to himself, and to Kuroo.and the second part Come a little bit closer (E) 13k

this is seriously DELIGHTFUL I love Kenma coming to terms with his feelings and his futile attempts to not be in love

Dream  Catcher by @shions-heart​ (T) 16,9kTetsurou is an Akumu no Seishin, a Nightmare Spirit. His kind absorb the nightmares of humans, allowing them peaceful sleep. Although Tetsurou has existed for centuries, he’s never truly felt alive.Not until he comes across the first human to ever see him.

really really cool world-building, I also imagined this Kuroo a lot like Howl in his raven form. And I think it’s obvious that I love Sy with all the other fics in this rec…….. 

Thieves in the Night by skittidyne (M) 15,7k“Oh.” The man blinks a couple times, surprised, and looks around at the mess again. “…You live like this?” The amount of raw sympathy in his voice is, frankly, insulting. “Why are you in my bedroom in the middle of the night?”“Oh, I was going to rob you,” the man replies easily. He winces at the mess around him once more. “I, uh, kind of thought you were already hit, and I didn’t want to make things worse for you, y’know?”“Get out.”(( or: kenma gets visited by a stupidly considerate thief, who won’t stop visiting him )).

I’ve laughed so much while reading this it’s 1000% RIDICULOUS but at the same time very sweet and funny. Seeing Kuroo as a catburglar has to be one of the funniest images ever.

Being Human: Origins by @shions-heart (M) 41,7kKuroo Tetsurou is a witch’s apprentice living above The Black Cat, a magic supply store where he also works. When his master leaves him for an assignment in China, and his best friends Oikawa Tooru and Iwaizumi Hajime abandon him for a working vacation on the beach, Kuroo commits the taboo and summons a demon to help him in the shop and help drive back the loneliness that lingers in the shadows.

Only the demon he summons isn’t the type of demon he expects, and he finds himself stuck with it with no idea of how to return it to where it belongs.

I love this universe with its urban magic and Kuroo is just the sweetest in this? He just wants some peace to study?? but boy does he get more than he signed up for

An Ode by manzana (G) 1,7kkenma unironically loves kuroo’s laugh – gross and loud and embarrassing and all.

pure sweetness, I love reading Kenma’s POV and see how he just genuinely loves Kuroo

Step by Step by @dgalerab (M) 14,7kEveryone might think that Kenma is the one that is always following Kuroo, but it’s Kuroo that’s been trying to slip his life into Kenma’s since he can remember. He might get a little scared by the idea of going off to college without Kenma. Kenma handles it.

I love the hc that Kuroo just decided to be Kenma’s friend and then stuck with him, they balance each other so well and I think that comes out in this story

The Start of Something New by @shions-heart​ (T) 5kBefore Kuroo leaves for university, he realizes this may be his last chance to confess his feelings to his best friend, Kenma.Despite his resolve, actually getting the words out proves to be … difficult.

This was my birthday gift this year and I love it to bits, it’s very very cute and Kuroo my love is just so dense it’s glorious.

Common side effects by @notallballs (M) 38k (not complete)Kuroo Tetsurou is pushing thirty, recently single, and just moved back in with his mother. Struggling to reconnect with old friends, losing touch with his goals, Kuroo feels like his life is slipping backward, and he doesn’t know how to fix it.

A chance encounter with an old friend might just be the sign he’s been waiting for, if he’s smart enough to make the most of it.

This story is slightly different from what I usually read because it starts off rather dark, Kuroo got dumped, hasn’t seen Kenma in ages and is generally in a bad place mentally but it’s so great to see him slowly pulling through all of that and rekindling his friendship with Kenma. Another bonus is Kuroo’s mom in this story, she’s AMAZING. I can’t wait to see what happens next.

How to Save a Life by @shions-heart (M) 18,4kKuroo Tetsurou’s parents are killed by vampires when he is eight years old. Twelve years later, consumed by rage and hatred for the vampire kind, the hunter still searches for the coven that killed them, vowing justice (or revenge).Kozume Kenma thinks he’d rather die than live as a vampire, but when the newly turned nineteen-year-old’s path crosses Kuroo’s, the hunter spares his life in exchange for his assistance in avenging the hunter’s parents’ death.Tension is a string pulled taut between them, and sooner or later something will snap.

Another thing written for me BUT I LOVE IT SO MUCH OKAY IT HAS VAMPIRES AND ENEMIES TO FRIENDS TO LOVERS. Kuroo is also a lot harsher and meaner than what we usually see of him but that only makes it so much more satifying to read when he finally wakes up.

Teach me the way home by @icespyders (T) 22kDon’t go far off, not even for a day, because —because — I don’t know how to say it: a day is longand I will be waiting for you, as in an empty stationwhen the trains are parked off somewhere else, asleep.Kuroo and Kenma grow up in transit.

This fic is ethereal, it definitely succeedes in conveying this sort of restlessness that trains have for me, it’s very episodic and I love that about it because it still manages to tell a coherent story and to be a sort of character study. I really really love it.

Best Friends by @mysecretfanmoments​ (E) 6,3kEvery evening they walk home together, Kuro smelling of salt and suntan lotion, Kenma’s hands sore from scooping ice cream all day, and it feels nice. Peaceful.He’s glad Kuro came, after all.((During the two weeks he spends manning his uncle’s ice cream booth on the coast, Kenma decides that maybe he likes his best friend back, after all))

Reading this fic feels a lot like hanging out outside in summer, just enjoying the warmth and comfort of the familiar. I can’t tell you how often I read this fic, dozen of times probably. It just captures their relationship really well I think, I also love the setting around the beach a lot

national hot dad alliance is now calling… by @dicaeopolis and @owlinaminor (T) 58,2kSawamura Daichi: What the fuck.

(Or, the captains’ squad interactions that definitely happen outside of canon, presented in Skype chat form.)This isn’t focused on krkn but it’s hilarious and it definitely made me cry too, it’s mainly in chat format but there are a couple of ‘novel style’ scenes as well, I would say this is also a bit of a character study, the authors managed to tell each of the captain’s stories with so much humor and wit but also seriousness when it was needed

Those are not all the kuroken fics I’ve read of course and I couldn’t list every single one i like but I have an ao3 where i save my bookmarks and add new ones when I stumble over anything good

[yezielmoore]

Book design project

Shot out to all tumblr writers!!! Hi! I have a project I would (really) like your help with, so if you're curious and can spare me a moment, please keep reading.

Couple days ago my teacher of "Producción Editorial" (editorial production in English) set us a task: we have to design a publication, either a magazine or a book of some sort. It has to be original in format if not content. Now, there are a lot of ways I could go about this assignment on my own and get a good mark regardless, but the truth is I don't want that. Truth is, the world is a terrifying and deadly place to be nowadays for a lot of people. It makes me wanna grab my kendo equipment and bash some heads until it starts making sense again. I can't do that unfortunately, because my weapon of choice is not the sword but, cliché as it seems, the pen. I tell stories. Or in this case, I help people tell their stories. That's what I want to accomplish with this project.

Another thing before I go any further: I know how creators are with their creations (being one myself). They are our beautiful/ugly/weird babies and we're fiercely protective of them. So I want to reassure you guys that this is a legit assignment (I can probably get my prof to write something to that effect). I'm not going to steal your intellectual property. Each story will be preceded by the name/pseudonym/internet handle you give me. My job here is to compile everything, edit the stories for grammar mistakes and design the book aesthetically (unless I write a story myself, then I'll be included in the list of authors, like all of you).

And at the end of this road I hope to have a pdf or eBook or both versions of this book, that as collaborators you'll receive, and that can be shared around freely and for free.

That said, let's do a Q&A of some of the questions I'd ask if I wanted to join this:

So what, exactly, are you going to do?

As I said, I'm going to design a book as if it were to be printed. Which is the reason I have to use original stories and not, you know, fanfiction (much as I'd like that). I will also have to design the cover, any Notes or Warnings, Table of Contents, edit and organize the stories according to the rules and regulations of formatting we've been learning in class, etc.

Will it be printed? Will you make money out of it?

No and No.

I wouldn't know where even to start with that mess. But more important, this idea began with a class assignment (and still is about that, I want to pass that class) and grew from there. I'm doing this because it's a challenge and because I want to. I want to spread these stories. And I want them to be assessible to everyone. I want variety and diversity because I want so that everyone who opens this book can find at least a kernel of representation in them.

So yeah, this project is non profit.

What kind of stories will you include?

I have decided that the theme of this book will be Diversity. Understanding by diversity this: "the inclusion of individuals representing more than one national origin, color, religion, socioeconomic stratum, sexual orientation, etc"

Equally important: I want positive (nice or not is optional) and respectful (not optional) snippets or stories about this amazing, huge and diverse thing that is humanity. I won't accept blatant bashing or phobias here. There is a difference between creating a well-rounded interesting villain (grey/sympathetic/evil doesn't matter) and the more common moustache-twirling cackling caricature of a person we normally see as the enemy, that are usually there to demean a character and elevate another. That's lazy writing.

Genre i'll leave up to you. Could be realism, fantasy, sci-fy, humor, anything. Write about pirates, space explorers, elves and dragons, stay-at-home moms, superheroines, uni students, blue collar workers, thieves, assassins, superpowers, whatever, your choice.  

Is there a character limit? Other limits?

Yes! Each story should be in between 500-5000 words. Why so short? Because I want to include as much variety as possible and there is a lot to cover. An example list of the characters I'd like to include off the top of my head:

a gay character

a lesbian character

a bisexual character

a pansexual character

an asexual character

a straight character

a transgender character,

a genderfluid character

a nonbinary character.

a black character,

a Muslim character,

an Asian, Latino, African, etc, character.

also a blind character,

a deaf/hard-of-hearing character,

a paralyzed character,

a mute character,

an autistic character,

a character with depression

a character with anxiety

etc

I want to include one (max two) stories about each of the bolded categories in the example list, or any other topic I didn't think of. Of course, you can write more than one character, but the focus should be on one of them or on a topic, idk, a protest in behalf of transgender people as a whole would go under the transgender character list.

The category I want to write about is not there.

Send me an ask and I'll add it (if it’s relevant to the topic at hand: diversity). The examples are not absolutes, I probably missed a few, some maybe didn't even occur to me. I don't have everything planned out, I'm still sorting out a lot of details in my head, so if I missed something, tell me. This will work only if we collaborate.

Will you include mature themes?

As long as it's not explicit I don't see why not. By explicit I mean, for example, a really detailed sex scene, a torture scene with all the gritty details, a blow by blow account of an abuse scene. You can reference these things and make it tasteful (for a meaning of the word) without getting into it too much. Also, there is a word limit, not really enough space for that kind of thing.

How will you chose which story to include?

First come, first served. Yes, really. I'll make a list of whoever signs up and when.

IMPORTANT: there will be a time limit though. Because I'm not pressed for time just yet, I'll give each person up to a week (7 days) to send me a draft of the story. Once that time is past, and unless you give me a really good reason, I'll liberate that spot and the person in question won't participate anymore.  

How do I sign up?

Send me an ask telling me which category/focus you want and I'll add you to the list.

Can I sign up Anon?

Sorry, but no. If this works I'll probably have to share my email with those that participate in the project, which I accept; that, however, is not the same as sharing my info with the entirety of the Tumblr jungle.

Extra:

Why did you write "Producción Editorial" in Spanish?

Because physically I live in a Spanish speaking country (Hola!). Most of the time I live on the internet though. Also, the English language is a filthy thief that (after a decade of study, now 15yrs) managed to steal into my brain and rewrote it so now my internal monologue is always in English. Lucky for me my professor says he doesn't mind the language so that's another reason I decided to branch out with this.

I think I covered the basics at least. I'll anwer any questions and edit this as necessary. I hope some of you will want to help me on this. Even if you don't want to or can't maybe you can share this with someone who will. So Thanks!!

 And now, Tag time!

@blackkatmagic, @redhothollyberries, @hiruma-musouka, @araceil, @esamastation, @helly-watermelonsmellinfellon, @roachpatrol, @definitelynotaminion, @tratserenoyreve, @loverofpiggies, @inukagome15

I tagged all of you because you're some of the writers/creators I follow and know best out of everyone around here. I'm not asking you to participate (although I'd be delighted if you wanted to, not gonna lie x3), but I thought that maybe you could share this or spread the word a bit if it's not too much of a bother.

Thanks everyone who reached this far! :D

[fyx-ation]

So, uh... that FFXV was a thing, wasn’t it?

It sure was, Bill... it sure as shit was.

So, yeah, I finally played and, just a moment ago, beat Final Fantasy XV.

I’m about to sum up my feelings on the game, many of which are shared with the general gaming community, so I might have nothing new to add at this point... But I feel strongly enough to keep writing, anyhow.

If you’re bothered by that sort of thing, scroll on.

Sometimes, in grade schools across the world, teachers feel the need to give every single child an award. Usually there’s nothing to it. Some might spring for a ribbon, others might give out trophies, and even fewer might elect to have other students create rewards for the recipients. The latter was my personal case in middle school. A boy, whose name escapes me because the entire affair was almost forgettable except for the reward, gave me the Most Potential award. Every other student made small bundles of candy or bought some small token for their reward recipient. I got... A small piece of notebook paper cut into the shape of a ribbon.

Most Potential.

I’m not sure if a more insulting award exists in the entire world.

What does this have to do with anything? I think you’re smart enough to see where I’m going.

Final Fantasy is quite possibly the franchise that made me a gamer. I played the first one the NES when I was a child, and I’m certain it was one of the first RPGs I had ever played. By middle school, when I was playing FF3 (really VI), I was knee deep in love with the genre and carving my path with a shovel made out of Blockbuster rental cases.

What I’m getting at is that my opinion on the franchise carries weight because I’m getting to be an old fart. I’ve seen the good, the bad, the ugly. I started out as Relm, and now I am becoming Cid (pick one).

When the game loads, the screen tells you that XV is for fans and first timers. My gut reaction to this was a big, fat, pessimistic, “Yeah, we’ll see.” XIII left me feeling like someone clipped my purse strings and ran off cackling into the night. Must stay on subject.... must... not... rant...

Well, I saw. I came, I saw, I conquered.

I didn’t hate it.

I didn’t love it, either. And here’s where the award comes in.

You, Final Fantasy XV, are the proud recipient of the Most Potential award. I’m even going the extra mile and writing this in a digital format rather than on notebook paper, so you can cherish it forever... as long as you have electricity.

What a hot-ass mess. Here are my beefs in broad strokes:

The combat feels sloppy. I know SE is trying desperately to get into the action RPG thing with FF because they feel like turn-based games are archaic and no one wants to play them. Fine. Whatever. That’s what made you a thing... but whatever. The problem is that they didn’t do a very good job with this. Kingdom Hearts does it amazingly well. Any Tales game puts it to shame.

Can I tell you a secret? You can laugh at me; it’s okay. I didn’t know you could just hold O to fight until I already had 80 hours on the game. Yep. I played that much just mashing O and square and warping. I spent untold minutes grinding my teeth during the Leviathan fight because nothing was happening. I kept missing an invisible quick-time event, apparently. IDK. (I researched it and others had the same problem? No clue.)

As a whole, the combat just felt very clunky and almost as if the AI was too smart. Maybe I should have played all the tutorials at the beginning. Who knows!

And magic sucked. So much suck. Friendly fire? REALLY? REALLY? THAT’S THE ROAD YOU CHOSE?

Hmm. what else.

Oh, you know how in some console RPGs, you can change the tactics in the menu to control the behavior of other characters in your party? Or you can switch who you want to play? None of that here. The other bros forget they have a spell equipped most of the time. But when they remember, you can be sure it’s when you’re in the thick of things so you can take that friendly fire. MMM Mmm. Good stuff.

Speaking of bros... the male gaze stuff was gross. They changed Ignis’ outfit so hit butt wasn’t hanging out, sure. But Cindy... the mechanic... boobs. Does not compute. Girl, get you some damn overalls so you don’t get burned.

I guess this Fantasy includes spark free machines.

So, then there’s the story. I won’t spoil what little story there is for folks that haven’t played it. I might spoil your urge to play it if you haven’t been able to yet. Sorry.

The game has some pretty amazing world-building. That’s not the same as the story, so don’t get excited. You get a general sense of history and a little bit of mythos. But it needed so much more to aid the story. People are so damned thirsty for lore that they’re theorycrafting THE FUCKING STORY for XV. It’s not in the game. They’re pulling shit out of thin air. Check Youtube, and you’ll get lost in a sea of “Ardyn’s TRUE name,” “The meaning of the true ending,” or “Eos Explained!” Yeah, okay, reeeeeeach for it.

And let’s not forget Kingsglaive and Brotherhood. Kingsglaive is a CG movie that accompanies the game. I enjoyed it. I watched it before I played the game (months before oops), because I was gifted both as a package deal. Problem is, Kingsglaive has some precious story that the game so desperately needed, it should have been IN THE GAME. And Brotherhood, the anime, should have been in the game as well. Maybe as flashbacks while camping. Yet even with both of these optional purchases, it’s still missing a truckload of substance.

Sadly, I think they tried to make up for it by putting a pace car in the game. That’s not even a cute metaphor; they really physically put in crap to slow you down. There’s a stamina bar for running, there’s a stamina bar on chocobos, and the Regalia has a set speed it cannot exceed (unless you get parts like the turbocharger several hours into the game). You can fast travel to your car, and you can get in your car and sometimes fast travel to quests or destinations (which, after chapter 13 seemed to be much more frequent unless I’m imagining it). However, sometimes you are forced to sit through minutes and minutes of scenic driving. And even that gets interrupted by a certain bro with a camera fetish. It felt very forced, and I fast traveled everywhere when given the opportunity. I somehow still wound up with 100+ hours on the game. Curse you, gambling and fishing.

The DLC episodes for each bro could have provided the game with a little more substance, too, but SE decided to nickel and dime their patrons for those. It’s becoming a trend that I hate. It’s like selling a jigsaw puzzle and then charging extra for 2-3 pieces that would complete the picture. Fuck a bunch of that.

Another thing that I felt was intentionally annoying stretched out: maps. Lestallam, or however you spell it, was laid out like a street gang’s fantasy. Lots of dead ends, terrible mini-map... just... please.. where’s my car... why is the big market tucked into the ass end of of Satan’s colon instead of on the main circuit WHERE A MARKET BELONGS?

My final Final Fantasy XV beef: TIME TRAVELING! choo choo all aboard the-woops-we-can’t-fix-this-shit train. No, there isn’t actual time-traveling in the game. Not really. Beyond a certain chapter, there is no way to return to Altissia or Lucis. SE handled this the way a dog does when it has a dingleberry. They dragged their ass on the floor until... no, no, I kid. They put in a menu that let’s you zip back to those two places without any explanation. You can do quests and hunts and get exp and items. Then, you can zip back to the “present” with all of those rewards. Hahahaha makes perfect sense, right? Riiiiiight? lolno.

It’s not part of the canon. You’re not dreaming or having a flashback or pulling an Assassin’s creed. They just added it in because otherwise you could plow through several chapters with no way of going back. It would be impossible to go back to those places (for lolstory reasons). They put in a point of no return and then were like, “Just kidding?” 

Imagine if in VI you could play all the way to Kefka’s Tower and then, with zero explanation, a save point gives you the option to return to the World of Balance. Bit of a head-scratcher, eh?

They had to do it, though. Remember that substance thing? A lot of it comes from the sparse side quests, fishing, hunting, optional junk-getting. If you’re not interested in any of that, you could skip returning to the “past” altogether.

It had a lot of potential. Unlike a person getting that award, it doesn’t get a chance to better itself. They continue to drop patches on it but nothing that can fix the story. 

I’m not sorry I played it. I did put 100+ hours on it, after all. I liked the characters (even if Noctis appears to grow into a Caucasian man and his eyes change color... um... what?). I liked the world.  It needed a lot more fine-tuning and character development, though. As I said to a few people already: it felt like a love letter to Final Fantasy rather than an actual Final Fantasy game.

It sort of suffered that same thing XIII did with FF mythos being tacked on but not nearly as badly. Throw in some chocobos. Bitches love chocobos. And a moogle. Just the one; don’t get carried away.

Bravely Default was a damn good Final Fantasy game (if you can get over the repetition) and it wasn’t even a FINAL FANTASY GAME.

Yeah, I’ll shutup now.

[fooboo24]

hey, i’m finally getting to this! i’ve got... lots of sole survivors, to be quite honest. but getting decent screenshots of them all and organizing all their narratives/canons/stories is just too much so i’m just doing this for one of them (tho we’ll see), who needs some fleshing out and who i luv a lot

using @dulcetvalentine’s format! (with some miiinor modifications)

Sole Party, Day 1

Name: Ruby Yamamoto

Age/Date of birth: 29, December 15th, 2047 Hair color: Black Height: 5′8.5″ Weight: 130 lbs. (pre-war), 152 lbs. (over time in the commonwealth, built up a lot of muscle mass) Gender: cis female Sexuality: biromantic, bisexual Factions: Minutemen (General), Railroad (agent, code name: Bullseye) Nationality: Japanese (third generation), American

Good traits: empathetic, understanding, non-judgmental, friendly, intelligent, hardworking, discerning, sentimental

Flaws: heavily self-critical, holds a grudge/passive aggressive, uncompromising, abrupt, overly idealistic, overemotional (in a sense that she can be prone to anger or annoyance), opportunistic, impulsive

Relationships: Nathaniel Parker (husband [pre-war], deceased), Curie (girlfriend, eventual wife)

Closest friends: Nick, MacCready, Deeks, Piper, Danse (how their relationship fairs with the whole BoS thing is still ~eh~)

Friends: Preston, Cait, Hancock, Jun, Marcy, Mr. Sturges “The Sturgeon” Handyman, Edward Deegan

Background/general info: Born and bred in Maine as the firstborn child and daughter to two second generation Japanese-American parents, Julia and Victor Yamamoto. Had two younger brothers, Aaron and Jasper, and a younger sister, Lucy. Her paternal grandparents also lived with her family. Lived a pretty normal and comfortable life in a small town where her mother worked as an elementary school teacher and her father ran the family supermarket (the biggest in the town, but still not that big lmao). Jasper died by drowning in a lake while ice-skating when he was nine and Ruby was fourteen, and she never forgave herself for it, thinking she should have watched him better.

When little, Ruby wanted to be an ~artist~ who would spend all her time painting wintry landscapes and such, and while she was quite talented when it came to art, her parents weren’t all that convinced or impressed by her convictions for anything that of fun or hobby. Ruby, though heartbroken, then changed her plans, wanting to follow in her mother’s footsteps of education, but something higher in the field, like a professor at a university. Her parents were happier, but still discouraging. They wanted their children to accomplish and succeed, of course, but they were also conflicted, afraid of them going off into the very dangerous world at the time - ideally, they just wanted them to take over the family store and stay in the tiny little Maine town forever, staying out of the mess the world was turning into. Ruby was adamant about leaving, though, feeling very constricted in her tiny community.

She took an unexpected (and unauthorized) trip down to Massachusetts and New York the summer she turned eighteen, and it was the first time she’d ever really traveled that far. The trip was fun, but also a negative wake-up call to the state of the world for her. She went and did her thing with her friends, movies and restaurants and clubbing and such, but she was also heavily despaired by the rampant brutality and suffering among the city populations (Ruby the SJW was born lmao). It was like a switch turned on in her mind, and just like that she knew she wanted to - or had to at least try - to make a change, but she didn’t want to just tackle the small stuff that wouldn’t help overall, she wanted to go BIG, getting involved with the government and higher ups so she could make and influence major decisions and changes that could benefit the people. Thus, she went to college and university to study law, with the intent of entering the political sphere eventually. At the time of the bombs falling, she was employed by city hall as lawyer, a position she specifically sought out in order to make necessary interpersonal and political connections and relationships.

She met Nathaniel at an a Massachusetts airport on the way home to Maine to visit her family for Christmas. It was like the 24th, Ruby had just gotten to caught up with classes and work and such and was only just then able to make it home - Nathaniel was interning for business and had an uncompromising boss who sucked as much free labour out of the poor dude as he could, thus why he was making it home so late, too. They were both on the same flight, which was relatively small, and the two just clicked, talking the entire way. Nathaniel was this backwater country bumpkin (by which I mean he lived in a cabin with his mom in the middle of nowhere in a forest) and had grown up a few towns/couple dozen miles from where Ruby had lived. He was pretty dorky and down-to-earth in a way that endeared Ruby, and that was that (I... may elaborate more later): they dated all through the remaining years of uni and got married towards the end of Ruby completing her degree. Nathaniel had been going for a business degree originally (to impress his city-dwelling father) but eventually dropped that and changed his major to idk environmental science (because that hippy dippy forest boy wanted to help protect nature n stuff that was being destroyed by, like, everything), but he did not finish his degree because 1.) his ma got sick, so he took time off to take care of her despite her wishing he hadn’t, 2.) by the time he got back to the uni, shit was goin’ down up north so he signed himself up in the army. After coming home and settling down with his family again, he intended to go back and gain his degree, but the bombs ensured that never happened. Shaun didn’t come for another year or two+ after the marriage - Ruby wanted to make sure she had a stable, solid job before any talk of kids occurred, and even then Shaun was a surprise.

Hm... more rando info...

-Ruby doesn’t realllllly enjoy the big city too much, in comparison to her quiet, close-knit community life growing up, but it’s not so bad and she realizes the benefits (and costs) of it.

-She used to like skating A LOT, thing with Jasper happened - notta. Hasn’t attempted it since to the point where even Nathaniel can’t get her on the ice.

-She doesn’t actually need glasses to see all that much (only near-sighted to the tiniest of degrees), but they make her look cute, so why not?

-She found that sailor’s hat in a trunk in Sanctuary Hills on her first day, and hasn’t taken it off since. Never seen without it - people wonder if it’s permanently glued to her head.

-Not noticeable on any of the pictures above, but she has a long-ass gash scar down the left side of her face, courtesy a la deathclaw some months after living in the commonwealth. She also has a sizable birthmark on the left of her face, down her neck.

-Severely dislikes chems and their usage, but doesn’t fault those who are addicted to it.

-She’s goddamn obsessed with the Perfectly Preserved Pie. She knows she shouldn’t eat it. She knows she shouldn’t spend so long trying to get it from the machine. She knows she shouldn’t be using so many molotovs to break the machine open. Does that stop her? No.

-She and Curie eventually adopt a baby and name her Marie.

-SHE LOVES FLOWERS! To like, an embarrassing extent. Her clothes were covered in the flowery patterns before the war, like e v e r y t h i n g was floral to some degree. She also keeps a huge book of pressed flowers from around the Commonwealth and likes to wander off to add to it or draw flowers n stuff alone sometimes.

-Her Japanese heritage is quite important to her - she was always asking her grandparents about the country and family history and reading up about it. Wanted to visit Japan at some point in her life, but never got the chance to what with school and then the bombs.

Weapon of choice: molotovs, plasma grenades and mines, and a heavy duty laser rifle named “The Cambridge Special”

SPECIAL stats: Strength 6 Perception 5 Endurance 7 Charisma 9 Intelligence 5 Agility 2 Luck 3

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okkkaay i think that’s it for this post! l... on... g.... but fun!! i definitely got a better idea of her character from this - luv my clueless lil small town girl. gonna get on to those other posts about her now!!!!!!!!

[opepin]

june: week three

12: i got up at 7 am and then decided not to work in the office today. i just felt really sad again. i also wasn’t going to get dinner or lunch with vicki because she was too far T_T i’ll see her when i go back to chicago though. i laid in bed for 30 minutes or so and then brushed up and decided to walk over to the closest postal box to ship off my other rothy’s. oh, i didn’t explain to you all why my feet are hurting: i wore rothy’s flats for two days straight and they cramped my big toe and got my joints to flare up. the first day felt fine but after the second day, my feet hurt. it hurts to walk when i get up. x_x; so yeah, i returned both the 7.5 (too wide) and 7 (fit me but pointed toe box was too small). i had to wrestle with the customer service rep -__-” for me to return it. ugh. anyway, i took that walk and regretted it walking back because my allergies were starting to flare up and my legs got itchy. also, the box didn’t open all the way so my package wouldn’t fit x_x; 

the morning continued to be semi-bad? i cut my nail with the serrated knife (just he nail) so i went to clip my nail and the pin that held it together popped out and down the drain.... i sent in a maintenance request and then told kevin what happened and he was basically like “typical.” x_X; we ate breakfast and then after kevin left, the maintenance guy came and asked me if i really needed it and i said not really so he just left hahahaha. omg. much fails this morning. i ordered super nice nail clippers on amazon with my credit card reward points and then put on ‘beauty and the beast’ (live action version) and went to work. i also got to watch all the episodes of the ‘world of dance’, and i tried watching gordon ramsay’s ‘the f word’ but it’s a really weird show format-wise. x__x; i was pretty productive while watching stuff so i think i’m going to continue doing this while i work from home and recover. 

after work, i did 45 minutes of abs because i can’t do cardio. i didn’t want to listen to blogilates talk (LOL) so i put on the second season of ‘master of none’ and worked out to that. kevin came back early because he didn’t decide to climb today. i baked lemon pepper chicken again and kevin made some yu choy. i showered and then we ate leftovers and all of that for dinner while watching gordon ramsay videos. kevin cleaned up and then marinated pork butt in a char siu marinade while i ended my night walking 10k (i had to make up some steps after dinner) and watching videos. i went to sleep at 11:40 pm. i ko’d.

13: i got up at 8:30 am and then prepared for work. i ate breakfast with kevin and then went to work after he left. i also looked into glasses and contacts’ exams. hmmm i might just sign up for america’s best’s eyecare club for 5 years. hmmm. idk. well, i worked on my current project, ate lunch, and etc. i watched all the episodes of ‘love connection’ and then went on to watching the newest episodes of masterchef. i also got to catch up on some manga. on another note, i found out the name and artist of the song i’ve been dying to find on a youtube video. lol, kevin also tried looking for me... we found it though! yay. my feet are still healing and not yet fully recovered :( i worked for the rest of the day and after work, i just got real into looking at airline reward systems and got a headache so i took a 20 minute nap. kevin came back and then i worked out while watching master of none and kevin worked on finishing up cooking his char siu while making dinner for us. i did a bit of dance cardio but my feet still aren’t 100%. i took it real easy. we ate dinner and then ate some of the char siu and it was DELICIOUS. omg, kevin is a masterchef <3 i’m so lucky to have him LOL. we nommed on some meat and then cleaned up a bit and showered. i was totally beat after that. i went to sleep at around 11:30 pm. zzz.

14: lol i woke up at 8;30 am again. i ate breakfast with kevin and then went straight to work and realized i had a good amount left to do. i put on the newest episodes of world of dance and masterchef while i worked. then i ate lunch, worked, got on standup, and then finished up the project. then i rested with some videos and planned what to do for the next day. i think tomorrow i’m going to go to fedex and print out test copies of this project and hopefully, they turn out great. kevin surprised me by coming home hella early even though he said he was climbing? apparently, his team left the office at 3:30 pm and so he did too and went climbing. so i kind of rushed to finish my oblique workout and then showered and then we ate char siu banh mi for dinner mmmm. so yummy. i ate an apple pear for dessert and that tipped me over and i felt so bloated... kevin also is very clumsy and hurts me all the time. my foot is feeling better but kevin like kicked it and it stung a bit but still ok. my left foot is healing faster than my right. i don’t know what’s wrong with my right foot T_T please heal, i’m sorry! i fit in a small minimal intensity cardio workout at the end of the day and then went to sleep at like 11:30 pm.

15: i had a call at 10 am so i hopped on that after eating breakfast. kevin said bye to me in the middle of the call and went to work. the call went pretty well and then i spent another 30 minutes doing some visual work for the customer. then i decided to skip lunch and just head out to fedex and the prudential center so i could get back home and eat a later lunch. i spent an hour or so at warby parker trying on frames and i think i found the ones i’m going to buy next month (: woot. then i stopped by the eataly in the mall and got a plain croissant. it was lemon-flavored o_o; i ate and found this hidden fedex and spent like 2 hours there talking to cliff, the guy who works there. he was a really nice grandpa/dad figure haha. he kept telling me to buy a house in rhode island and invest in it. then he gave me great restaurant recommendations all while i figured out the best font size for the printed map. he also had great opinions about design and he is a super smart guy. i gave him my business card (first business card swap) and i’m definitely coming back to this fedex if i ever need to print anything again.

it was 4:45 pm by the time i got out of there. i commuted back (it wasn’t bad at all). then i ate a bowl of cereal because i was so hungry and then heated up the char siu and toasted the bread. kevin got back and we ate banh mi for dinner. then we chilled on the sofa and kevin got too tired and relaxed to cook omurice so i’m on my own tomorrow and he’ll buy lunch LOL. i managed to get in my arm workout at the end of the day before showering and hitting the sack. i went to sleep later than usual at around 12:30 am?

16: i woke up very unsettled... i’m still pretty unsettled. it’s something about my friendships right now that make me feel this way... anyway, i got up at 8:45 am and then started my day. it was a pretty productive day! there were a lot of loose ends to tie with the things we’ve been working on but everything was coming together. i watched some masterchef and youtube videos while working. i made some fried rice for lunch and only ate a bit. i think i needed to add more oil or even butter. :P after work, i did manage to do 30 minutes of kickboxing cardio without weights and my feet were pretty okay? kevin went climbing today but came back early still. kevin refried the rice with butter and made some veggies. i ate a lot of the fried rice because it was sooo good after being cooked with the butter. the rest of the night we showered, chilled and relaxed. it was going to be a chill af weekend and i hope my feet would make a full recovery. i ko’d at around 11 pm or 12 am.

17: lol i annoyed kevin in the morning. he was trying to sleep but it was like 9-10 am and he said we would go grocery shopping and go to coco leaf early in the morning. so i kept bouncing on the bed and stuff like that. he yelled at me LOL. T_T i was hurt for a bit but it was also my fault. we ate a bit of breakfast before heading to coco leaf and then drove into dorchester for the first time. we were in a very vietnamese neighborhood haha. we ordered a che thai, che lychee, hello vietnam savory crepe, tray cai sweet crepe, and their big bang flavored popcorn chicken. the popcorn chicken was meh and so were their crepes. they were alright. their che were delicious though. kevin’s was more refreshing and floral and mine was the traditional che thai with durian tho :O it was slightly overpowering but i got used to it. we couldn’t finish 2/3 of the savory crepe (most vietnamese tasting food we’ve ever had -- i think it was the hams in there) and got it to go. we drove back home, meal planned, and then tried getting a tour of a room in deco that has a den in it. we couldn’t because the current tenants haven’t moved out yet so we just decided to put our names down. we have 3 days to figure out if we want to stay in deco for the same price. i think we’re staying because we don’t have time to move.

we got groceries at kam man, good fortune, and then bj’s. then we came back home and chilled for the rest of the day. i managed to make myself play bravely default again (been procrastinating). kevin and i went out to grill some hamburgers and ate them for dinner. then i kept gaming until i felt like i needed to do a bit of moving. i did some butt exercises and then showered and gamed with kevin until 2 am? lol my sleeping schedule is totally messed up now. :(

18: we got up at around 10 am and then we ate breakfast and i did a bit of gaming before we headed out to bj’s again to use our coupons. we were in and out and then headed to the movies to get tickets to watch wonder woman. we got tickets to captain underpants instead because there weren’t any good seats left for the wonder woman showtimes x_x; plus, kevin heard that the captain underpants movie was pretty good. we drove back home and then chilled until we needed to go back to the movies. i gamed, did laundry, and got into low-impact exercising! kevin gamed and read fanfic lol. the movie was pretty funny but it did get a little slow in the middle. overall, i could see why it has an 85% on rotten tomatoes. we got back home, i cleaned the bathroom and kitchen, kevin started cooking, and before all of that though, i got real hungry during the movie so we heated up some tyson chicken strips. uhh, they’re alright... they’re kind of mushy on the inside. i prefer their nuggets. i gamed for the rest of then night, talked to hillary on the phone for a bit, and finally got to the last chapter of bravely default. i’m gonna finish this game!!! D:< i stayed up way later than i expected and ended up sleeping at like 1 am. x_x; i was definitely going to work from home again because my feet are still recovering :(