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inventors-fair · 2 years ago

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New Mechanic Commentary: Tweaks and Thoughts

This is gonna be a fun week. Also, I’m going to try to actually truncate things a little bit. There’s no particular reason for it, but I just feel that I get a little lost writing commentary sometimes, and I’d like to hone in on these cards and really talk about presentation, execution, and intention. (EDIT: I did not truncate things. Turns out, that’s harder than just saying what I’m thinking.)

What works? What doesn’t work? What’s the game plan? What’s the purpose? I think some of the strongest mechanics this week, for me, were the ones that were focused and that I could imagine a focus with. Generalities are fine, but we have to keep in mind the fact that different decks can care about different mechanics and never the twain shall meet, even in limited.

And that’s a hard concept! Folks, I don’t know if I’ve said it, but making good cards is hard as hell. You’re all doing superb work. Keep it up.

Two big things:

If you truly want to improve your card-making skills, read through the commentary every week. Seriously, if you’ve ever been frustrated by that, consider what other improvements can be made. Consider the scope of what the judges are asking, and see what you agree/disagree with, new angles to consider. Broadening horizons is the key to learning.

And two, presentation still matters, not only in cleanliness, but also in the card you choose to present. What cards are you submitting, and why? What does this mechanic do, and what would get people excited? Not just in a competitive way, but also in an understanding way. How could you present a card in a manner that shows that this mechanic can do new and exciting things? That...didn’t always land this week.

Judge Picks are cards I want to gush about for some reason that didn’t make the cut. Y’all know how it is.

Let’s get to it:

@azathoth-the-bored — Mecha Magna Serpent (JUDGE PICK)

This is weird as hell. I love it. I think all of us in the modchat had some affinity for it, despite the overwhelming “Wait, hold on a sec—” of it.

I like how you’re using the weird rules parts of mutate to make this flavor happen. The ability to “weld” artifacts onto other artifacts is fantastic. What I’d like to see is this mechanic more streamlined. I would remove the vehicle parts altogether and work on a set where artifacts can just be welded, and not worry about the rest of it.

Perhaps, let’s think of weld as “Weld {cost} ({cost}: Put this artifact under another target artifact you control. That artifact has all abilities of this card except for its weld ability. Weld as a sorcery.)” Now that middle line, I’ll admit, needs rewording to specifically align with the rules, but the good news is that “merged permanents” already have comprehensive rules baggage with them, so you don’t have to worry about that at all! It’s a start, and frankly, as much as I’m iffy on mutate, you’ve got a great, great idea here that’s worth trying some execution.

@beandrea99 — Toiling Graverobber

This is one of those cases where presentation matters. Unfortunately, there’s only so much I can glean from this card. I assume that Desecrate is about targeting cards in your graveyard, which is... Well, I mean, I’d rather have that as part of the cost to begin with, but is that all? I think it’s fine but I don’t feel what makes it necessarily unique as a keyword action. Look at Vault Robber from Kaldheim.

The name and ability need more specificity. The fact that there’s excessive room for flavor text with none there is disappointing as well. Without those aspects, I’m afraid there’s not much criticism I can give for the card OR the mechanic here.

@casualcranium — Chessmaster’s Ploy

I’m going to assume that Stratagem is about cards that benefit more from when an opponent attacked. So, there’s an inherent gameplay quirk, and by quirk I mean problem, and that problem is human nature. In a set where it’s known that there’s a greater-than-average as-fan of cards that benefit your opponent if you attack them, it discourages attacking, which is a thing that players want to do. I don’t believe that that’s the best course of action here for directly interactive cards. It can go on instants, flash creatures, and some abilities, which is fine, but feels significantly limiting in some ways? It’s a very reactive mechanic.

This card’s a little bit of an odd duck, too. So wait, is stratagem more of an if-otherwise mechanic? Or is it just “if an opponent attacked, benefit” mechanic? I actually don’t know right now. But I do appreciate the perfect vs. imperfect game bit of trivia in the flavor text, even if it is a bit heavy-handed. I think that a tiny bit of explanation as to the specifics of Stratagem, maybe with a common or uncommon example, could further help my understanding of how you’d like this mechanic to play out. Curious how you’re using red to talk about strategy, considering that, well, it’s Red.

@curiooftheheart — Ramunap Scrounger (JUDGE PICK)

I didn’t get the chance to draft much Amonkhet, but I did explore the environment a bit. With the cycling deserts, Evolving Wilds, a fair amount of discard, and some mill to boot, I can say with certainty that this might be a fun little mechanic. The thing about, say, Delirium was that in limited people think of instants, sorceries, and creatures as mainly hitting the graveyard, and then what’s the last type to go? Strictly land cards is certainly more focused, and I can understand the notion of nomadic lifestyles as a way to show the ��been explored” aspect. I think it’s certainly narrow, and there was middling enthusiasm in chat for it.

But personally, I think it would play quite well in the right limited environment and that there would be quite a bit of payoff for it. And, what I like is that it would change the way that players think about selective graveyard exile. What do you take out, the creatures that your opponent is going to get back with embalming, or the land cards that are enabling their Nomadic creatures right now? It’s an interesting take that’s got a bit of grandfathering behind it, which personally? I think is awesome.

@deg99 — Jukai Shrinekeeper

Combining cards-in-cards, shrines, and arcane is asking a lot. Let’s rewind. I think that I was going to be extremely harsh on this card because, frankly, this metaphorical basket that used to hold eggs looks more like a David Cron-egg-berg prop, but there’s the concept that’s still interesting. The idea of adding abilities to spells is not new from splice, sure. The fact that you’re adding them as part of this card is complex but not impossible.

The issue that’s tacked onto Arcane spells is that they’re pretty parasitic, and MTG’s been shying away from that. Implying an as-fan of an already unpopular-nigh-failed mechanic is admirable, but I’m skeptical of the eventual execution. This card’s banking on a lot of stars aligning. Sometimes, you can have these little archetypes, sure, that’s understandable, and a limited environment can support that. I don’t believe that a mechanic solely based around “fixed” splice-onto-arcane is where we want to be; it feels like there’s little meaningful change to a concept that needs a complete overhaul.

@dimestoretajic — Burrowing Badger

I really like this card, and I like this mechanic, and I still don’t think it’s fantastically interesting. Here’s the thing, though: I do like the potential concept of dig payoffs. Like, “Whenever you dig, put a +1/+1 counter on target creature you control” or something. BTW, it should be “a” instead of “one” but that’s small potatoes. Is this mechanic supposed to be... Well, no, here’s the thing: what does this mechanic do outside of green? Green’s the primary and only color with this sort of effect in-pie. Is it only supposed to show up on green cards?

When thinking about how to expand it, I imagined that, well, you can dig for a certain land type or card type, you can dig for an artifact or a Plains or whatever. Is that really something that needs to be keyworded, though? If you had shown me a card where that was the case, I believe I would have been able to defend it more. Thinking about what it means in a broader sense, maybe it could use either a more unique angle or maybe not to be keyworded unless there’s some big payoff. Small note: in the flavor text, you want a colon, not ellipses. The dot-dot-dot is a pause in time, and the colon is a declamation.

@fractured-infinity — Dwarven Sword Scholar

The idea of, like, ghost auras is cool. I like that. Let’s talk about execution and what to do with it. Exiling from your graveyard onto target creature is probably the best course of action. There might be a little baggage, and, uh, there’s a couple small wording errors I’d change. I would write it as: “Legacy {cost} ({cost], Exile this card from your graveyard: Target creature gains all of this card’s abilities for as long as this card remains exiled.” Why does it have to be only as a sorcery, too? You can use it as a combat trick.

Name and flavor feel a little more concept-oriented, and that’s fine. It changes up combat and abilities, you can beef stuff up, and you can even have some creatures that care about legacy cards exiled with them, y’know? There are a few possibilities. Can’t say I’m staggered but it’s a standard, reasonable idea that I can totally understand.

@ghoulcalculator64 — Menial Taskmage

I’m going to assume that for the scrying part, it cares about each individual card that you looked at because otherwise it would say “one or more cards while scrying.” So that makes sense! In general, I’m very curious how you imagine this format. Eldraine’s double-draw archetype was quite powerful with cantrips at the right time and was very fast as a result. With this card, I’m a little... I don’t know, it’s just asking a fair amount? I’m curious what a card would look like with some “destine count” stuff. Drawing immediately as your first destine is another thing to keep track of, and that’s, hoo boy, very interesting to consider. Not positive I’m a fan, but it’s a consideration.

I’m still very on the fence, but in a good way! I think the reason is that I still can’t see the way that this would glue a set, or how it would play as part of a red archetype. It certainly seems more blue, but black’s got the discard, green has scrying, white has...cards in it, all that stuff. I’d like to hear more about the broader ideas for this from you. I also saw some hubbub about the FT; I praise the intention, and suggest paring to maximize impact.

@gollumni — Sapsucker Butterfly

Concept, cool. Art, great. Gameplay, grindy as hell, oh my goodness. So if I have the Cocoon archetype, I’m playing my cards, then on my turn, exiling to make cocoons. They chump for me, then the creature returns, and next turn, I play a land, make another cocoon from the creature that returned, which chumped, and so on and so forth, and my creatures effectively never die. I make cocoons, I boardwipe, they play things, chump, rinse, repeat. This is effectively the most miserable form of undeath possible.

I doubt that was your intention; if it was, consider the above, and if not, well, how else could we work it? Cocooning as an alternate cost could work, perhaps, or sacrifice after a certain set of turns, etc. But the death-return-etc. is too much of a pain in the butt as it stands.

@helloijustreadyourpost — Gruul Ragestoker (JUDGE PICK)

Once again, I like this mechanic a lot, and I’m kind of in the minority here. I can see a few weirdnesses involved, primarily the fact that it’s another kind of counter to the litany of counters MTG’s added over the past yonks, and it was mentioned that these could be +2/+0 counters—but, you know, I disagree with the second point, partially because of the novelty of it all. What happens when a wall is furious? Nothing, because it (usually) can’t attack. Fury is active. I’m a fan of that.

So, could we infuriate things? Perhaps they force an attack but give a buff, like goad but simpler and a little more beefy. You can make your creatures infuriated multiple times, perhaps, or just once, but the intention here is getting bigger, hm. You want it to stack, no? That’s another small issue that I can see you using counters to resolve, I get that. I think this is indeed a mechanic that would be fun to play around with, and it’s very Gruul. It also should be worded “Attacking creatures get +2/+0 for each fury counter on them.” See Crescendo of War, IIRC.

@hiygamer — Loyal Bodyguard

This card probably technically works. This card groks horribly. I understand that the rules and zones are what make this mechanic viable, but it’s so utterly unintuitive. I’m writing this, again, from the perspective of someone who has to teach rules to kids and (on occasion) new LGS players alike. If this was some kind of world like the playtest cards from Mystery Booster then I would be a little intrigued for sure. For a premier set, I can’t ever imagine this seeing print.

If I’m reading your intentions correctly, then I’d advise you to consider the perspective of the common player and design from a point where, having established a number of rules, //Magic//’s streamlined perspective allows for corner cases to be the exception rather than the rule. By making a loophole a rule, you undermine the integrity of how to present the game’s body of knowledge. Does that make sense? I...understand if this is esoteric, but I hope the gist comes across.

@hypexion — Starfall Incursion

Naturally, this feels like a callback to Epic, and I feel that it’s a little too similar to pull away, even if this is a fairly “fixed” version. I get having the small amount of mechanically unique rare cards (like how we’re seeing compleated Planeswalkers) so that checks out. You might indeed be using “awesome” in the classical sense, and ya know what? I dig it, I think that’s a fair thing to do.

I have a couple suggestions, because there’s a point to be made about a card like this. Firstly, free giant creatures are big enough to really go crazy so consider upping the cost a little. And secondly, I’d also make it exile as a modern-day gameplay marker of sorts? Or maybe, hell, you can even put it in the command zone, like a companion. I’d add it so that you only get the ability if you cast it from your hand, too; I know cheating out spells isn’t that common, but it’s worth considering for such a powerful effect. Still, I might be a little abundantly cautious here; worth it for getting a free 4/4 each turn, especially if you have any kind of midrange limited deck, after a big blowout in removal-heavy colors. Good stuff. I think Timmy would like to play this card.

@i-am-the-one-who-wololoes — Hurried Researcher

The limitations of this mechanic aren’t worth the keywording. That’s the bottom line. I can’t ever see a scenario in which this is something that would hold a set together. But, again, let’s go back to intention. I imagine, and correct me if I’m wrong, that you envisioned a mechanic that would solve a problem for tap abilities and make them more powerful. Maybe? The issue is that that’s not an issue. Summoning sickness on tap abilities is a function of the game. Pseudo-haste on a select few cards is understandable, but why as a keyword?

In my own time, I thought of a burst action keyword that had creatures with activated or triggered abilities, but those abilities were more powerful if they activated/triggered the turn they entered the battlefield. That’s one possibility, because it could go on a number of different permanents with a benefit that changes the flow of gameplay. This keyword currently reads in essence, “This creature has haste except it can’t attack the turn it comes out.” It’s not enough to hold anything together.

@little-red-rabbit — Sunbloom Eternal

You know what, I don’t have an clear rules understanding of how basic lands can exist on the flipside! Technically I don’t know if there’s anything against it, but it feels like there might be in some limited deckbuilding compendium. That’s a gray area; I would caution you against the “basic” type there for that reason, but transforming into a land is interesting as a keyword.

With that, I believe the reminder text can simply read: “When this creature dies, return it to the battlefield transformed under its owner’s control.” Because it’s transforming, it’s implied already that it can’t be played as a land. As a mechanic, I can imagine the different ways in which this changes mana-fixing, a hybrid card that can transform into a Forest in a red deck splashing green, for example. Quite interesting how you’re using the color of damage and the land of bloom. What other blooms could there be for different lands?

Last notes: don’t forget to put commas after the clauses (in this cast, after “blocked”), capitalize types like Mountain, and put a period after the flavor text (and, well, you can take out the comma in the FT too). In my opinion, you don’t need this particular card to only have damage dealt by basic Mountains. Just land types are fine, because unless you’re playing Taigas, you’re already being kind of punished. Nonbasics with a single type could work in this theoretical environment. You’ve made me think a lot!

@nicolbolas96 — Runaway Tank

Yannow, I’m a little amused (in a curious way, not a condescending way) by how people used stun counters this week, as if they’re theoretically deciduous. Nothing wrong with that, but it’s just interesting to note! And that’s my only major mark against this card, because it’s puling from a resource that I don’t think it necessarily needs—in part because it’s very strong on its own. You can just add a “doesn’t untap” clause to the reminder text instead of a counter, but I also see the ingenuity of having a counter put on as a cost.

The circumventing of crew is neat, actually. I wonder if this mechanic is just too narrow, though. How much space is there in “bonus crewing?” For a single set, I can see a fun environment about vehicles that attacked that weren’t crewed. Ha! Oh, man, that’s actually really funny. This whole card is wholesome and thoughtful in its design! I like the way people are thinking about artifacts this week. It’s possible that I’m just being somewhat eh on the narrowness of things even though, if this was for a single set or block, it would be fun to play. A return to Kaladesh in the midst of chaos with new vehicles rising up? Yeah, that would be kind of cool! I’ve lost the plot a little. Hey, remember when I said I wanted to write shorter commentary? Argh. Too many good ideas, folks, you’re killin’ me.

@nine-effing-hells — Soul of Winds

Blink is the enemy of a lot of things. To get around that, I would word this ability as “{cost}: Return this card from your graveyard to the battlefield. Exile it as it enters the battlefield.” But even that’s clunky, hrm. That’s really the problem: triggers on the stack allowing for these ghostly things to stick around is a pain. Oh! What if it was just a Spirit token? Like some kind of unearthly embalming. “{cost}: Exile this card from your graveyard, then create a token that’s a copy of it. Exile that token when it enters the battlefield.”

I guess that’s the issue with something like Unearth, because Unearth stops those shenanigans and will remain in exile. This is pseudo-unearth-evoke in a lot of ways and I don’t really know what to do with it to get it the exact way you want and stop the dumb Cloudshiftiness that accompanies cards like this. It’s a problem with the game, not with you or your card. And it’s a good card, too. It’s something to keep in mind when designing abilities like this, how nothing’s quite in a vacuum. You could keep it as-is, but the card would have to be less powerful due to precedent.

@pocketvikings — Martial Mentor

I was never a fan of ability counters for clutter. This hasn’t changed my mind on type counters, either. It’s technically a new idea. Given the examples and expectations for this contest, there’s not much I can add beyond what the card already says.

Okay, what’s another scenario? Let’s think about a new way this could have been presented. Imagine this same general concept, except it has an attack trigger, where creatures you control gain first strike until end of turn, and attacking Warriors you control gain an additional +1/+1 on top of that. There, that changes where you put your counters and ups combat. Just with this, there’s almost no discernable difference between playing this with a Warrior already on board or giving a +1/+1 counter to a non-Warrior creature. Do consider for future submissions the potential to truly stand out using MTG’s multiple various avenues.

@real-aspen-hours — Coppershell Conduit (JUDGE PICK)

The gist around judge murmurings was that the mechanic was super cool and this card in particular was super could-be-cooler. Now, as an uncommon, it’s solid. With its abilities, it might not have been the most stellar example. (Small note: capitalization and punctuation matter! The wrong “its” in the reminder text is one thing, but I’m grawfing and growling about the other stuff, though that doesn’t affect the main critiques. Good to see you on MSE though!) The reason I say that is because, unless you really need to protect your mana-fixing, I’d rather have this as a blocker or something, honestly. But! The ability to play off-color matters, that’s understandable.

I’d’ve liked to see this with a tap ability centralized in an interactive side of things. Like, imagine a black creature with menace that can either give another creature menace for a black activation OR for a colorless activation with a colorless Monument cost! Oh, wait, hold on, what about an activated ability that does different things if the source is or isn’t a creature? See, I want to play with this for sure. I think it’s stellar utilization that gets players to think about what the advantages of activated abilities are, changing the way they use their cards. So hold onto this one for the eventual apparently-artifact-centric IF Cube!

@reaperfromtheabyss — Arvin, Will of the Masses

You guys have gotta stop giving me husband material. Additionally, this is another example of the eggs-basket-overflow-error. ... Actually, that idiom works for submissions but less so in a general context. Maybe this is more a “bells and whistles” situation. Brave of you to submit a planeswalker for a new mechanic contest, though. I think it was shield counters that pushed my over the line. I don’t mind shield counters, and the way that MTG is going, quite frankly this card isn’t unprintable (much to my chagrin). We’re not here to talk about the card and the way that the last ability should read “Destroy all nontoken creatures” ARGH but instead, Populist.

It’s great! What else is there to say? Caring about tokens is cool, it’s cute, it’s related to populate and might even be too close of a name but I can see the way that creatures and abilities that care about tokens can impact and exist in limited in a fun way. Protecting and making tokens matters to Selesnya anyway and as for the rest of it, swell. Ravnica mechanics kind of gravitate towards that, don’t they? Really simple, really fun, really understandable. So yeah, future submissions, maybe cut down on the big ideas when a simpler one can support your already excellent idea. And I know this ain’t the first time I’ve groused about wording precedent, so consider this a well-natured knuckle tapping.

@shakeszx — The Mire-Scale Terror

Let’s start with the biggest criticism: this card doesn’t work in layers. Abilities come in a different layer than P/T checks. The way you can mitigate that is by using the number of +1/+1 counters instead. “As long as X, ~ has Y.” But no, unfortunately, abilities are weird. Then, the good: I think grow is an interesting concept. The name is pretty uninteresting and evokes hand-waggling, but I think that the way you have to may more to get more, is cool. The first growth starting at 0 cost is a bit...hm. Maybe it should enter with a counter.

Imagine, though! Cards that enter with a counter and then you can spend mana early to really beef them or wait later until you have more board presence. I like that. I don’t know if you considered the 0-cost first growth, but aside from that, it’s fairly solid. Gotta regulate the bestial presence.

@snugz — Fulguration Helix

It’s fascinating that two people independently came up with counter-remove-cost-paying effects this week. The difference between them is twofold. One, the ability that removes just +1/+1 counters was far more streamlined. Two, this card just doesn’t grip as much. I certainly didn’t know fulguration off the top of my head, but I could kind of understand what it does. What about that has to do with imbuing, though? It’s a tough spot to be in, I’ll admit.

But I understand the process behind it, that’s for certain, and it’s still a commendably imaginative mechanic. So I think the questions to ask for the future are: what environment am I imagining this in? What limitations do I start with, and how do I foresee that playing out here before bringing the concept into the larger world of //Magic’s// history? All counters is one thing, as is all permanents. Maybe narrow that down a bit, because the interactions that come about are just as interesting, and you’d be surprised how much depth there is in simplicity.

@squeezyboi — Cursed Revolver (JUDGE PICK)

This one got some weird love. Like a weird amount. And I’m for it. I think that it’s also not the most necessary keyword despite being a very cool card. Here’s the thing: Something like Reckoner Bankbuster wouldn’t use this keyword despite being basically the same thing, right? But I guess there’s the argument to be made about land-based abilities without landfall. For something this simple, though, maybe there’s something to be said for the blaster aspect. Search for a blaster. My blaster’s out of ammo! I need to get more ammo in my blaster, here’s a creature that refills ammo!

...dammit, that IS fun, isn’t it. I am sending a mild cloud of psychic frustration your direction for making my unironically want firearms in my fantasy wizard game. (Then again, I play Karn-bot, so w/e.) As a mechanic it’s not going to break brains like mutate. I think blasters could be a fun addition in an Outer Wilds-y set that I’d grouse about when it came out. This card’s exciting, yeah, so there’s that too. Weird, though, with how combat works, right? Like, it’s the creatures that are attacking, not necessarily their weapons. Does that limit how Magic works in the grand scheme? Are guns more like pinpointing auras?? I have to sit down.

@starch255 — Cloven Chevalier (JUDGE PICK)

Flo. My captain. My shining frog star. I hope you know that I’ve played MTG against chess players, and the amount that they would enjoy a card like this pains me. It’s incredible, and at the same time hhhhhhoooo my God. “How are you assigning your blocks?” “I DON’T KNOW.” And I love it, provided I never have to play against anyone even remotely smarter than me, which is a staggering amount of people.

In all seriousness, though, this is a fascinating mechanic! My main critique is only that it makes combat significantly more complicated, complicated enough that I question how complex the rest of the set even could be all things considered. It’s a fascinating foray into chess that I think chess players would enjoy, and the blending of known board information with combat tricks and decisive cover means that people will have to think ten steps ahead on board in a way that drastically increases brain-hurty-feel-goody juice. Like how I feel writing that last sentence! I can’t endorse this with exaggerated enthusiasm because of those complications, but let it never be said that you withhold your craftiness.

@wolkemesser — Tavern Strummer

Yeah, here we go with the main issue: unless you’re hasting one of your own small creatures for some reason, this is a card that discourages your opponents from playing things, because the environment isn’t about “I want to play cards” but rather “I have to build around a Bard mechanic that prevents me from curving out and discourages optimal deck-building.” I don’t think that’s the most conducive way to form a set. I know it’s not.

Consider when you’re making mechanics the idea of what you’re playing with and against, and how mechanics imply larger themes. Like I mentioned in the Monday post with one of Maro’s answers, players want to be rewarded for doing things they want to do. Mechanics like this that go against that principle, with a punishing baseline, paint a larger picture of discouragement, despite the small potential knowns of threatening effects in limited. I know Act of Treason is there, but I don’t expect to be playing Act of Treason: The Set.

@yd12k — Rock the Boat

We were working on this mechanic a little bit in the judge’s hubbubble, because there were some likes with it, all of which I shot down by grousing. This mechanic resembles madness in a way, and at the same time, it doesn’t account for what makes madness actually good. Madness benefits from having the ability to draw and discard, by having an environment that supports your hand as a resource for changing tides of card advantage. You can anticipate it because it’s known to you. Your library is a great unknown, so how do you anticipate milling a card with whirl? Unless you’re Scryfall McScrypants, there’s no chance in hell.

So what can we do instead? Let’s consider a mechanic where, when this card gets milled, you exile it and may cast it FROM exile for its whirl cost until the end of your next turn. Maybe not the best name, but it’s more viable, no? Encourages a little self-mill and prevents mill from being totally a death sentence for your resources. Consider the ways in which resource setup/payoff affects these things. Also, like I mentioned above, what’s up with stun counters? Y’all wildin. Now I’m nervous that they got announced as deciduous and I just missed it.

Anyway, that was longer than I had hoped, but you guys gave me a lot. Can’t be mad about that, can I? Tune in tomorrow, like a radio, like a conversation. It’s good to learn with you all.

@abzleumi

#new mechanic contest #commentary #mtg #magic the gathering #custom magic card #inventor's fair

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belliesandburps · 3 years ago

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Our Favorites Handling Bellyaches

I imagine that a lot of our favorites tend to deal with indigestion in very different ways, which can lead to amusing and appealing scenarios. And since folks tend to enjoy these posts most, figured I’d whip up a new one for y’all. :P

And for the sake of not going insane, I’ll keep it to one character per series:

Leona Kingscholar (Twisted Wonderland): Leona has a really strong stomach and canonically stuffs himself constantly. A full belly tends to just make him really sleepy. But every once in a while, given his love of exotic, expensive foods, Leona eats something that doesn’t agree with his stomach. This usually kills his ravenous appetite and leaves his usually concave, slightly toned stomach looking a little puffed out and gurgling deeply. When this happens, Leona will hiss to himself with a mildly strained and annoyed look on his face, really firmly rubbing his belly with one hand; firm enough that he’s riding his shirt up and exposing his tanned middle while his fingers really dig into it to settle it down, hissing about his indigestion being a huge pain in his ass, as always. He’ll give a few guttural burps, trying to ease as much pressure in his belly as he can, but they tend to get more rumbly and wet-sounding if he’s feeling mildly nauseous, which don’t bring him any relief. And if he’s letting a few out in a row, Leona may end up burping so hard that his throat hitches, and he immediately clamps his mouth shut, as if he’s about to throw up. It eventually passes, but that’s the telltale sign that he’s gotta ease up. Fortunately, if the Prefect catches him pretending his gut isn’t bothering him, they’ll start rubbing his burbling belly which never fails to calm it down. He’ll groan about how Herbivores are good for something besides eating, and give a familiar ‘rumble’ in his chest that, if the Prefect ever uttered a word to anyone else about...would be the death of them. Fortunately, if they relax Leona enough, he’ll be too busy catching a much needed catnap to maim them. On the veeeeery rare instance where Leona DOES eat too much, his belly will be spiling out to the point where it’s completely hiking up his shirt and forcing him to spread his thighs apart because that’s how much food it will take to actually give Leona a bellyache. In that instance, Leona will be groaning miserably and punctuating his fullness by burping so forcefully that the ground itself feels like it quivers. When he’s that full and feeling his belly churning so hard it hurts, Leona will groggily call out to whoever he can, be it the Prefect or Ruggie, whoever gets to him fastest. Then he’ll demand they rub his belly or he’ll swallow them whole the first chance he gets. Ruggie tends to get cheeky and when he does, Leona shuts that shit down by grabbing him by the throat and burping enormously in Ruggie’s face, leaving Ruggie coughing while Leona growls that he can still make room for dessert.

Katsuki Bakugou (My Hero Academia): Bakugou canonically loves extra spicy food, downs a lot of soda and tends to eat very ravenously. He’s smart enough to know his limits, but he’s a stubborn lil timebomb sometimes, and will always eat past his limits to spite anyone who ever said he couldn’t. And that usually leaves him groaning miserably while his bulging, churning belly groans intensely from being so abused. When he’s overstuffed and suffering indigestion, Bakugou will slump back in his seat miserably, tug his tanktop up and firmly run his hands up and down his bloated middle, hoping to ease the cramps in his stomach lining. While rubbing, Bakugou will press down on his belly and work up some really deep, throaty belches. These are really thick, hefty sounding burps that give him a sliver of relief, until he eventually slaps his belly as hard as he can and burps so loudly that you’d swear there was an earthquake. And THOSE monsters always leave his toes curling and his head lulled back with a loud, relieved moan and a satisfied pat to his taut, rounded belly. If he ate something that didn’t agree with him, then like Leona, Bakugou’s abs thin out and get very mildly bloated and feel like they’re vibrating with how hard his belly churns. Bakugou gets even pissier than usual, snapping at people to fuck off, but groaning miserably the whole while. He’ll knead into his gut firmly, always tugging his shirt up and exposing his bare belly while he tries to circulate the gas up with his firm touch. Bakugou always tries to burp out the nausea, desperate to work up the biggest belch he can to bring some desperately needed relief. He’ll slap his exposed belly repeatedly until the gas comes out forcefully, or gulp down air to belch on command, which he can do loud enough to give some relief. But on rare occasions, he’s burped too hard and ended up vomiting profusely instead. He always gets really angry if that happens and threatens to explode the living shit out of anyone who looks down on him for throwing up.

William James Moriarty (Moriarty the Patriot): William has a pretty strong stomach, because everything about him is measured and disciplined. And he has nerves of absolute steel, which means anxiety never becomes a factor. However, William is no stranger to vices. He’s quite partial to sweets and though he isn’t a heavy drinker the way Sebastian is, anytime he and Sherlock go out to the pub, Liam can’t help but get competitive with his soulmate. Or he eats something exotic that simply doesn’t agree with him. If he drinks too much, William actually ends up getting the hiccups. One of the only times Sherlock has ever seen his beloved Liam blush was when a loud, high-pitched *HIC!!!* erupted from the young mathematicians mouth, leaving him covering his lips with slightly widened eyes. After that, William tries to keep his hiccuping stifled with his mouth closed. This causes his stomach to jerk around a lot, which doesn’t sit well for the poor red-eyed devil, especially if he’s got a belly full of beer, sloshing around inside the organ heavily. That can lead to some hiccups turning into deep “hiccurrrrps” instead, which rumble in his mouth audibly. Anytime he muffles a belch in his mouth brought on by all the spasms, William will excuse himself under his breath, and try to hold said breath so the hiccup-fits pass, subtly massaging his stomach or throat if he’s hiccuping too much. If he just ate something that didn’t agree with him, William’s mask-like face won’t give much away. He’ll still appear blank, even smiling at you as needed. But if you look carefully, you’ll see beads of sweat forming from how badly his stomach is aching. The gurgles it gives aren’t loud, but they’re forceful. He’ll carry on like nothing’s wrong, and when no one is looking, subtly use his fingertips to knead circles into his belly to try and settle it down. Or he’ll turn to some of Louis’ much-needed tea to try and settle his gut. If Louis hears Brother William comment on his stomach giving him grief, he’ll take it upon himself to rub William’s belly to make it feel better (not in "that” way because...hell-fuck-no). If SHERLOCK hears William comment on a bit of indigestion, he’ll have more fun with it, unbuttoning Liam’s shirt and exposing his lean stomach as they sit down together in private with Sherlock rubbing Liam’s belly sensually and occasionally resting his ear against William’s warm stomach, listening to it gurgle and making some analytical comments on the sounds and what it says about Liam. Sherlock is surprisingly delicate when rubbing Liam’s belly, but he’s got a cheeky side, so he’ll occasionally knead a little harder and get William muffling a much deeper belch so he can tease him. William will get back at him by smiling and very gently asserting that Sherlock must have some kind of fetish, getting him sputtering, and William back in control as always. :P

Natsu Dragneel (Fairy Tail): Of all the characters on this list, Natsu’s the one we’ve canonically seen suffering from bellyaches the most. He gets them from motion sickness, and can get them from eating way too much. If he’s feeling nauseous because he’s on a train or a caravan, his abs puff out slightly, but of the bunch, Natsu is the most overt and crippled by his aching belly. Whereas Leona is annoyed, William is subtle and Bakugou is really gassy, Natsu is groaning miserably, green in the gills, and puffing out his cheeks like he’s on the verge of vomiting at any moment. He’ll whine and whimper pitifully, begging Lucy for belly rubs, and she’ll always give it to him, unable to say no...aaaaaaaand not wanting to see him puke his guts out. XD He’ll rest his spiky head on Lucy’s shoulder, huffing breathlessly while she very carefully navigates his abs with her fingertips, kneading and caressing that rock-hard belly while he groans, both in pain AND in pleasure. But from time to time, he gets a really bad stomachache from just eating WAY too much. In doing so, he’s sporting a huge, jiggling gut which sloshes heavily with every step he takes, since the fire in his belly works down his meals way faster than an average person. He’ll announce how overstuffed he is with a giant belch, and a miserable groan. Like the first instance, Natsu will be whining at Lucy to rub his belly, but it’s punctuated by his glutted belly churning noisily and Natsu occasionally interrupting himself with an incredibly deep and throaty burp. Lucy has taken to rubbing Natsu’s belly outside of her apartment when it’s REALLY noisy, because that gurgling tends to mean there’s a lot of gas festering inside, and what she’s taken to doing is pressing against Natsu’s belly until he unleashes a HUGE, fiery belch...and she’ll keep pressing into Natsu’s belly, making him burp and again as the plume of fire grows weaker each time, until eventually, he’s just burping up smoke. That tends to give Natsu some MUCH needed relief, which leaves him more docile as he slumps back and eventually dozes off. But Luce is NOT letting that fiery ditz burn her roof down again...

Killer Croc (Batman): Croc‘s canonically a huge glutton and canonically very prone to nausea. He doesn’t do well with heights at all, and on multiple occasions, has eaten things which don’t agree with his scaly gut one iota. If it’s a height thing, then unfortunately, Croc’s inevitably gonna puke. There hasn’t been a single instance where Croc complains about not feeling so hot in the comics where he DIDN’T throw up. In the comics, he tends to burp wetly a few times first, but that eventually leads to him throwing up violently, and a few times in a row...which Harley certainly has a field day with. If he ate something that isn’t sitting right, Croc will let out a really throaty burp and cover his mouth after, worried that he’s on the verge of puking because he can taste whatever he just ate on his burp, or complains that something came up with that one. In these instances, if someone rubs Croc’s belly, they can settle it down and keep him from spewing. Whenever Croc’s got something not sitting right, it’s usually not the only thing he’s eaten, meaning his gut is probably pretty bloated. I love to imagine Croc with a paunchy, doughy belly (thanks to a certain @horriblehooter) but his scaly stomach will still look visibly distended, and be pushing his pants down a little. So when someone rubs Croc’s belly, their fingers will sink into his bellyfat a little while they run their hands up and down that scaly gut and knead into it. This will get Croc groaning pleasurably, giving a rumble in his chest not unlike Leona’s, just way more beastly in nature. The rubbing will occasionally work up a beefy belch, and if that person really presses into Croc’s belly, he’ll let loose a HUGE burp that gets the ground itself almost rattling. But those will give Croc some MUCH needed relief...aaaaaand more than likely cause him to belch up the remnants of his last meal, usually their bones...

Gilbert Nightray (Pandora Hearts): Gil’s definitely the sort to suffer from indigestion the most. He gets the most worked up out of anyone within Pandora, aaaand he’s kind of the whiniest (one of many reasons why I love this unwitting cinnamon bun). Usually, it’s because he’s eaten too much, drank too much, or because he’s just too worked up to the point where he’s given himself a stomachache. We saw in that fluff episode, Gilbert gets the hiccups pretty frequently when he’s drunk, and if he drank too much, poor Gil’s gonna be a hiccuping mess which is eventually gonna lead to him crawling on the ground, cradling his stomach and hiccuping / whimpering pitifully, before he starts crying and whining that he’s a huge lightweight...which he is. If he ate too much, Gil’s stomach doesn’t get nearly as big as anyone else on this list. He’s the sort who, at his worst, gets a really tight and taut bloat that presses his belly out and feels really heavy for him. That leaves him wincing in pain and sweating bullets as Gil tries to massaging his aching belly, and insisting he doesn’t need any help. But Oz being Oz, he’ll immediately plant his hands on Gil’s belly and start rubbing, which will leave Gil blushing furiously, and looking away to try and mask how good it feels. But because Oz is also something of a troll, he’ll wait until Gil is in the middle of saying something then press on his belly so Gil ends up accidentally burping mid-conversation, or even accidentally burping part of his sentence out, which always leaves him mortified while Alice scoffs and says she could top those in her sleep. If he’s got an anxiety-induced stomachache, Gil occasionally tries smoking to calm his nerves, but with his gut giving him grief, that tends to make it worse, and leaves him coughing up a bunch of smoke comically. On occasion, Oz still rubs Gil’s stomach to try and settle it and offering words that will ease Gil’s anxieties. This will always soften Gil up and leave him trying his best not to get sappy with his young master and best friend-o. :P

Cloud Strife (FFVII Remake): Cloud’s canonically got a weak stomach, especially when it comes to motion sickness. Him riding Chocobos will leave him cradling his stomach and lurching miserably. And in the process of getting nauseous, Cloud will get really wet burps that gurgle up his throat so hard he covers his mouth and lurches like he’s trying so desperately hard not to throw up on the spot. He’s like Natsu, in that he’s very weak to indigestion, groaning and burping too much to even really talk at all, mumbling that his stomach hurts really badly. Someone rubbing his back or rubbing his belly will settle him down, but only if the ride is over. If he’s already nauseous and still has more of a trip to go, he either needs a really long break, or he’s gonna eventually throw up. Ironically, he can pack it away like a champ, but is still prone to eating too much from time to time as well. In those instances, someone settling up close and leaning against him to rub his belly will make all the difference in the world. Because Cloud is your stereotypical loner, but he’s also quite starved for physical affection and contact. Rubbing his belly will circulate gas up, but Cloud will turn his head and muffle any burps he feels rumbling up his throat, unless he REALLY needs to get it out, in which case...brace yourself. ;)

Link (LoZ: Breath of the Wild): Link‘s now a canonical glutton and I love that. He’s also canonically prone to getting some serious indigestion brought on by experimental cooking gone horribly wrong. Link will eat freakin’ ANYTHING now, and I love it. I freakin’ LOVE it. But that also means he eats things that are just awful. And when he does, Link is a miserable mess, slumped over, groaning and burping while cradling his aching belly, which is pooching out beneath his tunic because the glutton of time knew what he was eating was awful...and still ate ALL of it. Some potions will help settle Link’s stomach in instances like that. Or he’ll ride it out and let a warm campfire bake near his belly to settle it. Zelda, often times, will delicately slip her hand underneath Link’s tunic and shirt and start rubbing his belly from beneath the tunic to calm it more directly. And whenever he gets a belly rub, Link has the most adorably docile smile on his face as he hums and leans in to Zelda’s touch.

If there are any other characters you’d like to see covered, hit up the ask box, folks! :)

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crystalessenceswrites · 4 years ago

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Shadows- Chapter Three

Shadows

A modern monster AU Pairings: Din Djarin x fem!reader Rating: T (at the moment- subject to change) Warnings: Dark themes, canon-typical violence, descriptions of a dead body, desecration and disposal of a dead body. Summary: Crypto- concealed; secret. You have always lived your life in the shadows; after all, you’re one of the creatures who go bump in the night. He has sworn his life to a creed that aims to protect the world from monsters like you.

[Masterlist] [Chapter Two] [Chapter Three] [Chapter Four] Cross-posted on AO3

Satisfaction was not the right word, but it was the closest you could put your finger on as you watched the Mandalorian walk away. You had escaped his clutches twice now. While that was two more times that you would ever want to have a run-in with one of his kind there was still a sense of pride in being able to outmaneuver him. He dedicated his life to killing your kind but here you were, alive, while he was leaving without his target. A victory for you and Kira, no matter how small a success. Though that victory came with a bit of a mess. You and Kira needed to get the hell out of dodge. The gunshots and shouting would have already drawn attention from folks in the pub or out on the street. Which is exactly why you did not carry firearms for most jobs. Too messy.

“Hold this tight.” You’d had a spare scarf in your bag which was coming in handy. It would help staunch Kira’s bleeding long enough to get her into the clinic, so long as you had it tight enough.

Kira waves you off, “stop hovering. Take care of the body.”

As much as you didn’t need your partner bleeding out, she had a point. You had a body to dispose of.

There’s a routine to it. Stripping the outer layers, shoes, valuables and identifiers. The office had people who properly disposed of identification and could make nearly anyone disappear from any record or database. One less hassle you had to deal with.

You spread out the man’s coat and roll the cooling body onto it before ripping off the bottom of his shirt. Next comes the hand. Every slayer seems to have a preferred limb of extremity for proof of death. Some liked ears, fingers and toes, a tongue or an eyeball. You never could find the will to get that up close and personal with a corpse. A whole hand or foot was your preferred token. Easy enough to sever at the joint and it left plenty to identify the bounty with, keeping confusion to a minimum when you handed it over. In comparison it was just a bit harder to carry around and hide.

The man is only a few minutes dead, so the chop-job at the wrist makes a mess all over the bounty’s jacket. How you wished you had your clean up kit with you. Or more time. This was too rushed to be a proper job. The only upside to your location was its convenience-one dumpster at the ready. You toss the body, jacket and shoes before wrapping the hand up in the torn shirt. The last place you want to put the limb is in your purse but you’re out of options. Gross. Normally you had a proper bag prepared for this.

At least the bounty money would pay for a new bag.

Destruction was the last step. Fire was not your preferred method, it left too much behind, but you kept a lighter on your person at all times. Just in case. Though just a little zippo wasn’t going to cut it for a dumpster fire. Alcohol made a pretty decent accelerant and you were standing just outside a bar.

“You done yet?”

“Shove off,” you roll your eyes at the blonde. “You’re not exactly being much help.”

“Uh, bullet wound?”

“Excuses, excuses…”

Rummaging around the loading dock doesn’t help much, there’s no booze left out, which was probably smart on the pubs account. Most of what they had stored in the back looked like kitchen supplies and extra gas canisters for the bar. Those would provide more fire power than you were looking for and draw more attention than was good for such a rushed job. They would have to be your last resort.

“Hey Kira, what’s the flash point of cooking oil?”

“Average to low, I think.”

“Perfect.” You feel a little bad stealing the barrel but you’re in too much of a rush to dwell on it. “Drape my coat over your shoulders and take my purse, head back in and wait for me by the entrance. I’ll be there in a sec’.”

Kira winces a bit as she situates herself. Your coat just covers the blood stain blossoming across her shirt. Hopefully, no one in the pub looks too closely. Or checks the bag. “Got it.”

It’s not as easy as you’d like to hoist the plastic barrel into the dumpster, but you manage, albeit with very little grace. Popping the seal quickly covers the corpse and the rest of the dumpster’s contents in oil. All it takes is you dropping you lit zippo in for it to all go up in flames. Works almost a little too well.

“Why am I not surprised it was you two to run into the Mandalorian.” Rosalyn clicks her tongue as she goes about fixing Kira’s arm up with ever steady hands.

“(Y/N)’s a Mandalorian magnet, apparently.”

“Please don’t say that,” you groan. That was the last thing you needed. Mando had cornered you twice now and you did not want to see if the third time was charm for him. You wanted nothing more to do with the mysterious dark-haired man.

“But also an escape artist!” Kira grins despite Rosalyn’s ministrations.

The healer frowns, “she shouldn’t have to be. None of you should have to be. You’ve all got enough to worry about.”

Rosalyn, ever the worrier. Her big heart was the reason she became a nurse instead of a slayer in the first place. You’re not sure where you and the others would be without her. Scratch that, you knew Kira would be dead in a ditch without Rosalyn. She’d patched her up more times than either of you could count.

“We choose this life, Ros. We know the risks- Mandalorians and hunters are part of that risk.”

“None of us chose to be born into this life, to live in hiding from humans who want to kill us because we’re different,” Rosalyn’s voice cracks at the end, her eyes downcast.

She’s not wrong. None of you asked to be half-bloods, to be stuck in the in-between. There were few paths in life for your kind, all full of their own risks. But that was how your cards had fallen. You tried not to dwell on it, but it was not always easy. Some of the things you saw brought your circumstances to the forefront, the cruel indiscriminate nature of hunters being one of them. That had always been the biggest thorn in Kira’s side. Why she was so abrasive and hostile towards them.

“ ’M sorry, Ros. I didn’t mean it like that.”

The nurse forces a smile, “I know…I guess we’re all a little on edge lately.”

“That’s an understatement.” Kira gestures to her now properly bandaged arm, “think I will be now too.”

Rosalyn rolls her eyes, “just pay more attention. Or I’m not fixing you up next time you get shot.”

The compound was nearly up and running at full capacity. Families were settling in, supply stores were filling up, the armory stocked and so on. Din allowed himself a moment of pride watching the foundlings training in the yard- the next generation of Mandalorian hunters. It felt like lifetimes ago that he was one of them, day after day of drilling and sparring next to his brothers and sisters. Now Paz leads the training, passing on the wisdom and skills that had been passed to them by the warriors that came before. Passing on the knowledge of the monsters that stalk the world around them.

Monsters like her.

(Y/N)

That was what the blonde had called her.

Slayers, they had called themselves. None of what they had been taught mentioned slayers. There was nothing about monsters killing other monsters. Yet they’d called it their job. Were they some sort of twisted police force?

She certainly did not appear the type. But that’s how they all were. Appearing like something they’re not. Walking around in human skin, the monster swimming just below the surface. Din just had yet to figure what monster was lurking behind her sharp eyes.

“Din Djarin.”

If there was one person in the compound who knew more then he did, more than Paz did, it was the Armorer. Their coverts alor.

“Another successful hunt.”

The words taste like acid on his tongue, “no… I was interrupted.”

“Interrupted?”

“The woman who aided in the escape of the club owner showed up again.”

Armorer pauses, her face pensive, an expression Din does not see her wear often. “Is she tracking you?”

“No.” There was no way (Y/N) had managed to follow him. She’d fled after their first encounter anyways. “She said she was not our enemy.”

“Oh? You’re sure she’s one of them?”

Din nods, “I’ve seen her magic. And she called herself a slayer.”

Armorer’s eyebrows shoot up, “slayer?”

“Is that familiar to you?”

“Only in very old stories,” she muses. “They mimic us in some ways. They rid their kind of nuisances, ones who threaten to expose them, if the old stories are to be believed. I have never seen or heard of their kind otherwise.”

Nuisances. That seems to be what (Y/N) had been doing last night. Attempting to remove a sick criminal whose actions threatened to expose humans to the truth. So why had he never run into one of them until now? He was not new to hunting monsters. Din had a number of years under his belt now -that’s why he was the best in the covert- and he’d never seen or heard of them until he collided with her. Where exactly had they come from and why?

There always seems to be more mysteries with her involved.

“We will need to be vigilant for her and any others on future hunts.”

Din agrees. There could be no more surprises and no more escaped targets. He would not allow it.

“It is rather concerning on both accounts.”

You almost felt as if you and Kira were sitting in the principal’s office, about to be scolded for some dumb prank you’d pulled. Not that you’d ever pulled any pranks in school, or gotten in trouble for that matter. The circumstances of your identity meant you did everything in your power to stay under the radar. Quiet, polite, kept your head down. Your principal probably would not have recognized you back then. Yet you still couldn’t shake the odd sense of déjà vu you felt sitting Boss’s office.

“We’ll pass on the information about the bartender to the knights but if he’s gone this long without detection, it won’t be long before he comes back to us on the bounty list.”

“He’ll have a harder time hiding without his partner around to help.” It’s not much but at least even Kira was trying to be optimistic.

“We can hope,” Boss nods. “As for this Mandalorian… it appears your original concerns have been realized, (Y/N). We may need to be more proactive in monitoring the hunter, lest we have another Fett situation on our hands.”

Boba Fett had been a thorn in your office’s side for years before he’d died. Some of his targets had been known criminals with outstanding bounties, much like this new Mando, but others had been innocents, cryptos just going about their lives alongside humans. The community had been up in arms but there was not anything the office was allowed to do. Fett was human. It was the unfortunate circumstances you all had to navigate in your line of work. Your job was to catch criminal bounties, slayers had no power to protect other cryptos. Despite knowing that, locals had become rather upset with the inaction. There was a number of gathering places slayers had been banned from at the time in retribution. Time had smoothed over relations but the new Mando threatened to dredge everything back up again.

“Any luck on tracking down his informant?” If you could take his contact out of the mix maybe the Mando would skip town. There were plenty of other communities for him to terrorize. Other slayer’s bounties for him to steal.

Boss’s frown deepens, “nothing yet. The knights have been notified and we’ve got a few local leaders keeping their ears open. Someone will hear something soon.”

It had been over a month, if no one had heard anything by now you did not have much hope of anything new coming to light. You didn’t have it in you to contradict the old man though. No one wanted to admit they had hit a dead end.

“Is that all we can do? Pass it over to the knights and wait until someone else gets hurt?” Kira’s frustrations mirror your own. You both had trained for years before being allowed your three-year apprentice ship. To put everything you had into protecting your kind and taking down criminals and then to not have the power to deal with a Mandalorian was maddening. Just waiting on someone else made you want to tear your hair out.

#fic: Shadows #the mandalorian x reader #the mandalorian x f!reader #din djarin x reader #din djarin x f!reader #din djarin #reader #the mandalorian #the mandalorian au #the mandalorian fanfiction #x reader #fanfiction #modern au #enemies to lover #monsters and monster hunters #chapter three #crystalessences writes

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finn-wolfhard · 5 years ago

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I need me some quality content and this is the best place for it. Could I get some being Steve's sister and dating Robin? (If that already exists somewhere then please direct me to it bc this idea is like crack to me) Thanks!!

Yo! I've just gotten back into Tumblr since quarantine has given me an abundance of time. I can guess that you ended up getting this elsewhere, anon, but for the folk who also want to read about wlw Robin B and Big Bro Steve - this ones for you!

Enjoy x

I Do

“Turn that shit down! GOD! I feel I’m listening to them in concert.” Steve was screaming from downstairs for me to turn my music down and before I could move an inch to do so, he barged through the door. “Look, I don’t want another complaint from Mrs. Fritz next door. Can you please turn it down. I promised mom and dad that the roof would still be on this place by the time they got home. I’m heading to work. The money for delivery is on the table. Just try not to get yourself into bother, OK?”

“Yeah, sure, sorry Steve. What time will you be home?” our parents are both out of town on business and so Steve has been appointed man of the house. Last time we were left alone, Mrs. Fritz called the police on us, placing a noise complaint. It was just me playing my radio a little bit too loud in my room. My bedroom window is right next to her living room.

“I’ll be home around 8. Do you want to wait till I’m home to order pizza?”

“Sure thing, dude” I answered, giving him a thumbs up and a grin.

“You’re a goof. I’ll see you at 8.”

Steve and I’s relationship is reasonably good for the average brother and sister. He’s a year older than me and has the same interests. Such as; Hair, Pizza, our looks, and girls. I’ve known I’ve been into girls since I was a little kid but dad would kill me if I ever brought a girl home. Mom would be a little more understanding, yet still against the idea - and I don’t even know how Steve would react if he found out. I think he’s the only person I’d be fully comfortable telling, but I don't want to risk it going the complete opposite way.

I hear the door slam and decide to get out of my pajamas and actually DO something today. The schools broke up for summer last week and all I’ve been doing is reading, listening to music, and waiting for my best friend Jennifer to get home from vacation and tell me all about it. She’s due home in three days. I finally muster up enough self-motivation to move from my cozy, pink bed to the bathroom. The cold tiles under my feet wake me up and I stare at myself in the mirror for a bit. I had managed to grow a little spot just below my hairline (which I quickly treated with zit cream) but that was about as far as the flaws went. I usually take good care of myself; drinking enough, taking my vitamins, brushing my teeth after every meal. I do care about my looks and I shouldn’t be ashamed of that. It helps gets me a lot of attention in school, and I’ve never been an outcast. I guess having Steve as a big brother does contribute to the high school fame, but I don’t let it get to me much. I'm just glad I’ve gotten through high-school without being bullied at least once. I looked at my scraggly hair. I had just had a perm done two weeks ago and it seemed to be holding up pretty well. I scrunched my hair to make it look nice and messed it up a bit to give it volume.

In the kitchen, there was the money on the table, like Steve said, and a note next to it.

Save me a slice! Steve :)

He must’ve written the note then realized that a slice won't suffice after a long shift at his dorky Scoops Ahoy! job, and asked me to wait up for him. It's a shame people don’t get to see this side of Steve and I. I know how we come across to other people. I’ve heard the odd remark here and there about how he’s a player and I’m a priss. It mostly comes from the social outcasts in the school, the ones who aren’t in our friend circles, and don’t get to see what we’re really like. Even then, our school personalities are a bit of a performance to uphold our popularity. Only Steve knows my real self and vice verses, and we both understand why it has to be like that. Its an unspoken rule type thing.

I open the fridge and get some milk for cereal. I pour a bowl of Fruity Pebbles. Fred smiles at me from the box as I grab the phone off the wall and dial Amanda’s number.

“Hey Mands, you want to go to the mall today”

“y/n! Hi! That sounds great. I need a new outfit for my date with Justin on Friday.”

“Cool, so, 12? That sound ok?”

We agreed on 12:30 (since she had to take her dog on a walk) and she suggested we meet outside the Gap. Soon enough, 12:30 rolls around and I see Amanda smiling wildly at me, where she said she'd be, outside the Gap. She sweeps me into a warm hug and we gush about how much we’ve missed each other since school broke up.

“Ok, so I need to go to Claires to get some earrings.” I agree to help her find a pair that would, quote “make Justin harder than math.” I don’t really understand how a pair of earrings could do this to a guy, or even if guys pay attention to earrings at all, but I was open to being proved wrong. We start making our way to the stairs when Amanda realizes she’s suddenly craving ice cream. I put it down to the fact that there were Scoops Ahoy! Adverts on every trash can (I’m unsure if that is a sign or not). We make a detour to Steve’s work and I make a plan to pull a few strings to get a free cone or two. We enter the ice cream parlor and… Steve isn’t there. Instead, a girl with short blonde hair is serving the queue of customers.

I squint at her, trying to remember her name. Rosie? No, that's not it. It begins with an R for definite. Its to do with an animal… a R-R-Robin! Her name is Robin. And she’s…pretty? Like, really pretty. And not very girly? I can’t tell since she’s wearing a silly uniform… but god, is she pretty.

As I’m staring at her, a slew of slurs come racing into my mind. Slurs I panicked were being shouted at me down the halls but never were. They were always aimed…at her. At Robin. Words beginning with D and F that make my blood boil. Chip, A boy in my own friend group, muttering “Stay away from my sister, homo!” In class. I put a hand up to my mouth to hide a gasp. This girl was outed, by someone she thought was her friend from band, in Hawkins - which isn’t known for being the most accommodating and accepting town.

Amanda and I reach the front of the queue and I find myself unable to look directly at the girl serving me.

“Hi! Welcome to Scoops Ahoy! What can I get you today?” She seemed overly enthusiastic for some reason.

“Hi, is Steve here?” I say, breaking the awkwardness I had built up in my own mind. She looked away, disheartened? I couldn’t tell.

“Steve, your sisters here” then she whispered something that sounded like “you can leave your little nerd friend to figure it out for a bit” but I wasn’t really sure.

Steve appeared from around the corner.

“what do you want, squirt?”

“2 sundaes please” I replied, smiling.

“that will be five dollars pleas-“

“STEVE! Can’t you gift your baby sister with a sundae for once?” I cut him off, appalled that he’s making me pay, but still keeping it lighthearted.

“…fine. But only this ONE TIME” he shot back. I winked at him, thanked him, and waited for him to finish our sundaes. He brought them over and sat with us.

“Who’s that girl?” I instantly questioned, trying not to sound too interested but failing miserably.

“Oh, that's Robin Buckley. She’s in your year at school, don’t you know her?” I do know her. But I don’t want to admit that yet, I want to play it cool.

“I think I’ve seen her around yeah, I’ve just never had a good look at her before. I think she’s in my social studies class?” I look to Amanda to ask this question but Amanda is already nodding by this point. Steve looks unconvinced.

“well, I invited her for pizza tonight,” he said, not wanting to ask ‘is that ok?’ In front of Amanda to keep up his macho ‘I’m Steve Harrington’ persona. I glance over at Robin. By this time, she’s known as lovely Robin in my head. Not that I could help it, along with the butterflies in my stomach or the extreme excitement that she was going to be having dinner. With me. In my house. Tonight!… What am I doing? Get a grip of yourself! You’re not out - as if that is ever going to happen anyways - and Robin was coming for Steve. Of course she was. I mentally roll my eyes. Just my luck.

The rest of the day goes by pretty quickly. Amanda gets her outfit and ‘math’ earrings - which I still don’t understand - and I get a few cute t-shirts and skirts thanks to my allowance mom gave me before she went away. By the time I get home, it is 4 pm which means I have precisely 4 hours to get myself ready for tonight. I go to my room, read for a bit, then put my makeup on in my vanity mirror. I don’t want to mess this up, but then again, why am I caring so much?. I eventually get myself sorted and wait for 8 pm to roll around. At 7:45 I phone Hal’s Pizza Shop and order 2 pepperoni pizzas and 1 plain Margherita. I came to the decision that If Robin is vegetarian then she can have the just cheese, but if not, I’ll take it.

I hear Steve’s key in the lock and he shouts to me from downstairs.

“Hey that's me back, y/n, did you order the pizza?”

“Sure did!” I came to the top of the stairs and looked down at the front door. Robin was staring up at me and I couldn’t help staring at her back. Steve obviously missed this whole exchange of tension.

“Good! Because I’m starving. I’m gonna put a video on, anyone down for watching Indiana Jones?” He mimics a whipping sound and runs off to the living room, leaving Robin and me to awkwardly start a conversation.

“So, you work with Steve. I’ll apologize on your employer's behalf.” I laugh, eventually. Robin looked relieved that I had said something, and even more so that it was a joke.

“It's not as bad as you would think, he brings in loads of customers with that ‘magnificent hair’” she replies, making fun of Steve’s obsession with his, admittedly, perfect mane.

“I’ve seen you about school before, sorry I’ve never talked to you before,” I said. I really meant it, she seems cool. And kinda hot? But that wasn’t important to me…

“Yeah, I guess our groups don’t tend to mix as much. I'm surprised you even know my name” she looks at her feet. She knows I know about the slurs and bullying, I can tell. Just then, there's a ring at the door and Steve reappears, running to get the door that we are standing 2 inches away from.

After sitting, eating, chatting, and laughing our way through Indiana Jones, I realise Steve has fallen asleep beside me. So does Robin. We both snicker at him and then collectively tuck him in with the blankets on the back of the sofa. We sit in silence for a minute.

“Robin. I want to say I'm sorry for all the stuff you get called at school. It's not cool and especially from my group-“

“it's fine” she cuts me off. She seems distant though.

“I don’t think you understand what it does to me hearing people shout words like that at someone. It's inhuman,” Robin looks at me over her cup of hot chocolate Steve made us halfway through the movie. She looks on the verge of tears. “I mean, I don’t know how I would cope with that if people knew I was one too.” I look away from her confused stare in embarrassment. Robin is the first person I tell this massive secret to and I've only been in her company for the past 3 hours? But it felt right. It felt too right, almost.

Robin picks herself up from her space in the armchair and comes to sit on the arm of the sofa. She doesn’t hesitate to put her arm around my shoulders and squeeze me in for a side hug. I hadn’t realized that I had started to cry and I wipe my eyes and nose with the back of my hand.

“I’m so sorry they said those things to you” I whispered while silently sobbing.

“Don’t worry about it, y/n, I have pretty thick skin when it comes to bullying. I've been in band for the past 3 years,” I look at her and let out a small laugh. The smile fades from her lips and a serious look takes over her face. “You don’t need to feel ashamed. Or embarrassed. I’m honored you told me, I know how much trust that takes. Thank you.”

We sit embracing for a couple of minutes and I try to defuse the tension. “You know, I think you’re pretty hot.” She laughs, and I can feel the heat radiating off of her. She’s blushing.

“You’re not too bad yourself, Harrington,” she gives me a small smile. “I think you’re the prettiest girl in our year.” Now it was my turn to blush. I’m not sure if she’s saying this out of courtesy, sympathy, or if she really means it.

“You don't have to say that” I roll my eyes and let out an embarrassed giggle.

“I do.” She whispers back, the darkness multiplying the tension by 10. After a while of nervous silence, not sure what to say next, Robin asks you a question.

“I hope I’m not out of line for saying this, and you can one hundred percent say no,” I looked at her, questioningly, “but why don’t we go out sometime? We can go to the park or we can go to the cinema. Your choice… if you want-if you want to.” She was visibly nervous. In the pitch black, with only the dim glow from the paused movie TV static lighting up the room, I agreed to go on a date with her (”I’d like that”). We both can tell the other is excited but can also tell the other is exhausted. Robin moves back over to the armchair, which was just big enough for a teenage girl to curl up in, and I curl up to my sound asleep brother. It takes a while to finally get to sleep, but I can’t help my mind doing laps, thinking about my future date with Robin Buckley.

#steve harrington 4 ever x #i love steve #big brother steve #dating Robin Buckley #robin buckley imagine #robin buckley fic #robin buckley #st3 #robin #robin buckley one shot

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hillbillyoracle · 4 years ago

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Rebooting My Practice

This is going to be pretty rambly, but I always get a lot out of these posts when other people make them so I wanted to make one too.

I hit a point earlier this year, as I started to really see what all astrology could be, when I knew I was going to need to overhaul pretty much my entire practice. For the last decade, I've focused on divination; on doing activities that sharpen my intuition, following up and checking predictions, tracking cards and results to better understand the connection, etc. I did this primarily in the service of my main deity, the Morrigan.

I still work with her, but I'm in a lurch as to how to continue my work with her. I have yet to quite figure out how to balance her general distaste for shrines (with me at least) and deepening my relationship with her in the absence of local folks to read for as I've relied on for years (thanks COVID). I've been praying the Catholic Rosary lately as a way to deepen my relationship with the Virgin Mary and the Saint I'm petitioning lately and I feel her kind of peering in when I do that so I might have to design one for her. I have a feeling whatever I come up with will likely be in a free zine rather than a blog post at some point.

But where that left me was in this weird abyss, where the only really solid things in my practice were like 3 deities (The Morrigan, Hermes, Yinepu/Anubis) I worked with regularly and tarot cards. I think for plenty of people that's fine but I wanted something deeper and more effective. It was around the time that I was rethinking everything that I stumbled on to this post about a magical routine that absolutely enthralled me. It took me another month and ultimately moving house altogether to even begin to piece something together that would set me on the road to something like this. I knew I was not ready but I finally had a picture in my mind something to work towards. Like rehabilitating after an injury, sometimes you've got to do half as much as you think you can before you really take off.

So I wanted to take some time and talk about the way my practice is changing and what the new pillars are slowly emerging to be.

Planetary Petitions

While I don't have the Orphic Hymns for each of the 7 classical planets memorized yet as per the post, I started by doing planetary prayers more days than I do not do them. Thanks to my truly godawful downstairs neighbor at the new place, who's floor shaking door slams throughout the whole night have netted me an average of 3 hours a night, I'm usually up for the first planetary hour of a given day. Hey maybe it's a sign, a big universal push to show the fuck up.

I'm also incredibly lucky I loaded up on some planetary incenses right before COVID when a local store had a huge sale. It's proved well worth it as above all I try to get the planetary incense right, though I did have to default to a Frankincense one when we were first moving in. I slowly feel like I'm beginning to understand the planetary spirits better but only slightly. I completely see why memorizing the prayer is recommended and I do feel that's standing in the way of me being closer with them.

I have not noticed a huge difference when I petition them truthfully. I get the vibe that it takes time to build up that relationship. Though I'm open to input here - for those who do planetary petitions, what made them click for you?

Saint Veneration + Christian Magic

One thing I put off for many years, though I knew it was coming, was working with more Saints. I knew it'd likely involve having to dip back into Christianity to make it work and I was completely right.

As my partner began revisiting her Catholic roots earlier this year, it got me curious about things like the Rosary, the Chaplet, and Novenas. I was raised charismatic fundamentalist Christian as a child and such things were explicitly forbidden. I remember getting a long talking to when I'd taken to reading about Sainte Jeanne d'Arc. So they aren't loaded for me the way they are for others, but they’re situated in this fundamentally familiar context that makes them feel like meeting a cool branch of the family you didn't realize existed.

I'm finishing a Novena to a Saint I've been praying to in the next few weeks. I am admittedly not as close with her as I'd like to be. I'm trying to figure out how to move forward with her as I'd really like to have her in my life. I will probably reach back out to Sainte Jeanne d'Arc as she's always felt familiar and been good to me. I also keep her prayer card and medallion in my wallet and have for many years so maybe there's more to build from there. It is my goal to have about 3 saints/Christian figures I can call on when I need help. I'm thinking of approaching Mary Undoer of Knots next but I'm worried it'll follow the same path as this current saint.

My partner and I bought Rosaries back in May and I absolutely love it. I've been saying at least a 5 decade rosary for most days but I'm regularly getting in a 15 decade rosary. I really love it and am totally convinced of the beauty and effectiveness of the system. I've come to understand Christianity in a totally different light through praying it regularly.

So that is on going and evolving and I'd love to hear from people who've cultivated close relationships with a Saint or Angel.

Ancestors

One thing that working with Christianity again has made easier is praying to ancestors. I've often felt a bit at odds with my own ancestors as they were not the most supportive of trans and queer people (and I am both of those) but in coming back to Christianity has given me and my ancestors a common language almost. As long as my disagreement with them over my attraction and gender identity is rooted in the Bible, it's been easier to work with them.

It's very early days with ancestor work. I'm slowly working my way through Ancestral Healing by Daniel Foor. But I'm feeling very heartened by it. I saw a post on twitter somewhere, if I can find it again I'll link it, where someone said that the way they started working with their ancestors was just thanking them everyday. And thanking my ancestors is complicated for me, my family like most have their own issues that also go passed on, but thanking them for what I am glad they gave me has been really beneficial.

My partner requested some divination from me when some of her medical issues were starting to get worse and part of the reading involved a strong push for her to investigate her father's side of the family. She got really into genealogy in the process and she's been teaching me a lot. Through that I actually learned my great grandfather's name for the first time - yes that's how out of touch I am with my own family history. But I was thankful to find out.

Through her own research, my partner found out that that branch of her family likely isn't German but actually German speaking Hungarians which was a revelation. She's in the process of confirming but it got us talking about foods and identity and language and how to honor our ancestors more regularly. We're going to try making a nice dinner on Full Moons with dishes that are tied to branches of our family as a way to trying to cultivate a closer relationship with them. I'll definitely update on that as it evolves.

Conclusion + Some Thoughts on Disability

I'm definitely still in the early days of all of this. It's not become quite the foundation I hope it will be yet. I still need to figure out how to continue and deepen my deity relationships. I still need to attempt some different types of spellwork I've been meaning to. And while I didn't talk about it much here, astrology has been playing a huge role in my practice but mostly in a passive way. More of that divination process I talked about in the beginning where I make predictions based on the charts I'm seeing and then double check my work.

I’ve been doing all this while in the thick of a bad flare. Moving plus lack of sleep as meant my disability has been weighing so much harder on me lately. Normally when I’m feeling well enough, I kind of roll my eyes at a lot of the “spoonie witchcraft” posts I see, but for some reason with this flare they just started making me angry and I’m still trying to parse why. I think I just feel like so many are rooted in this performative idea of “feeling” witchy rather than actually helping me with my disability. They aren’t usually focused on practices that either actually treat the pain I’m in or bring my spirit real comfort.

I’m really hoping to put together a post or possibly a zine that does provide what I always wanted those posts to be. Honestly these pillars here have proven accessible even as I’ve been in some of the worst pain I’ve been in in years. So for any fellow disabled folks who just aren’t getting much out of those posts, I really recommend starting with these. Recite the Orphic Hymn for the day in the corresponding hour. Pray the Rosary or an adapted set of prayers for Pagan prayer beads. Don’t have much money for those? Look up how to make knotted rosaries and adapt the method. Pray to your ancestors and give them some water and a bit to eat. These are doable for a lot of folks even when they’re in bad shape, especially if you take your time with it. Might not make you “feel witchy” but they do some fucking work, that’s for sure. But idk, those are just my thoughts on it.

So it hasn't all fallen into place yet but I wanted to share what developing a practice looks like in medias res. It's messy, somethings work better than others, but all and all I'm just glad to finally be making meaningful progress again.

#personal practice #witchblr #Ancestor Veneration #planetary magic #rosary

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wolfhertz · 4 years ago

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30 Questions Quiz!!!

I think this is the first time I’ve ever done something like this, but I was tagged by @katninjagirl97 and it looks like fun. Why not?

Name: Jillian...or Jill...or really anything of that variation. Hell, I’ll even answer to “hey you”. Though online I mostly go by “Wolf” or “Wolfheart”.

Gender: Female

Star Sign: Virgo

Height: Like...5′2, 5′3. I did not inherit the gift of height like my siblings did.

Time: 2:50 am

Birthday: September 18th

Favorite Bands: Gosh that’s a hard question to answer....Does Broadway count? Most of my music is from musicals, movies, video games, etc. not gonna lie. If not, The Crane Wives are a recent find of mine that I absolutely love. Same with Hidden Citizens (very good for that intense, cinematic music).

Favorite Solo Artists: Tommee Profitt (also that sort of intense, cinematic, movie trailer-esque music, though a bit more orchestral) also, Karliene (she sings a lot of folk music and things like that. Definitely recommend looking her stuff up on Youtube 10/10).

Song Stuck In My Head: “Running with the Wolves” by AURORA (specifically the version from Wolfwalkers, which I haven’t watched yet but REALLY want to) It’s been in my head since I found it a few weeks ago, I swear.

Last Movie: Hmmm...I mean...I’m watching Troy (2004) as I write this for my Greek History class. Not finished yet tho. It’s kinda meh, but it’s mandatory.

Last Show: Gosh I haven’t sat down and watched an actual TV show in so long....This is gonna sound nerdy as hell, but my family and I watch Jeopardy during dinner most nights. Does that count???

When Did I Create This Blog: Late 2019, if I’m not mistaken. December or November, I think.

What Do I Post: My own art (which I haven’t done in MONTHS...Art block mixed with school is a deadly combo), other peoples’ lovely art and writing, and pretty much anything I find interesting, important, or funny. I also kinda use it to archive stuff I like in general, like drawing refs and tips.

Last Thing I Googled: “How long did it take to send a letter from Europe to North America in the 1700s?”....I’m a history nerd, this shouldn’t be surprising. The thought just randomly struck me and I was curious. The answer is roughly 2-3 months, if you’re wondering.

Other Blogs: Nah, just this one.

Do I Get Asks: The odd time, but mostly only when I do prompts or art challenges.

Why I Chose This URL: Oh god....It’s the same as my DeviantART, and I created it when I was 11 or 12 during my Warriors phase. Don’t judge me. We all had one and some people still like it and there’s no shame in that. Though I have been thinking of changing it to something slightly different lately. Hmm....

Following: 124. They’re mostly other artists, fashion (both modern & historical), themed art blogs (tutorials, sci-fi, etc.), and just some funny ones (like...I follow one blog that specifically only posts funny medieval manuscript drawings of animals soooo....).

Followers: 283. I don’t know many of you guys, but I appreciate y’all very much!!!! ❤

Average Hours Of Sleep: Can be anywhere between 5 and 9. My sleep schedule is kinda a mess...

Lucky Number: 3 or 4

Instruments: I used to be able to play the flute, but I haven’t in years.

What I’m Wearing: A tank-top and jean shorts...Because you know, that’s a totally reasonable thing to wear in the middle of winter in Canada.

Dream Job: Hmm...Probably anything revolving around history or art. I’d love to teach history tbh, as a teacher or prof. idk yet. I used to want to be a Concept Artist, which is still definitely something I’d be open to!

Dream Trip: I’d love to do a tour of western Europe tbh. Like, England, Ireland, Scotland, etc. See all those old castles and everything. 😍

Favorite Food: Pretty much any seafood. Especially fish or shrimp. Love that stuff. Or any breakfast food really. I love that stuff.

Nationality: Canadian 🍁

Favorite Song: THAT’S EVEN HARDER TO ANSWER THAN THE FIRST MUSIC QUESTION....It changes depending on the day...If I had to say right now??? “Jenny of Oldstones” by Florence + the Machine (I haven’t watched Game of Thrones yet, but I really want to). It gives off good and sad vibes at the same time, idk how.

Last Book I Read: Hmm....I haven’t finished a book in a while, but I’ve been working my way through Assassin’s Creed: Forsaken by Oliver Bowden the past few months. Very good so far! But also very sad. Why do I always get attached to asshole characters with sad backstories that make me wanna cry???

Top Three Fictional Universes I’d Like To Live In: Oooooh....Marvel is definitely one (get me some cool superpowers or magic, ya know?). Hmm....maybe something like Harry Potter (screw J.K Rowling tho, I just want magic powers). Aaaannd...maybe Skyrim? That could be cool!!! Ride around on dragons and shit, become badass warrior or mage, be a werewolf or vampire, so many options!!!

As for someone to tag....oof...Imma be honest I don’t know many people on this site. 😅 Maybe @bayheart if she’s feeling up to it since we’ve been chatting lately! No pressure though. 😄 And also anyone who would like to do it!

#ramblings #tagged challenges #but yeah this was fun!!!#feel free to do it if you guys like!!!

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deadmomjokes · 4 years ago

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ooh I'm so curious about your boon now. how myc of it are you willing to disclose? what's the setting? how does magic work?

I’m so flattered anybody’s interested in it at all! ^.^

I confess, I’m super, irrationally paranoid about idea theft, so I don’t share a ton of details outside of my writing group and alpha/beta readers, but I’m trying to get past that, so I’ll share a little bit and see if I can talk my anxiety down to sharing more later. Basically I say this to apologize for the fact that I’m being a bit vague here. It’s not because I’m offended you asked or anything, I’ve just got some issues of my own.

So the basic premise in a really shortened, simplified, and condensed version is as follows:

About 15 years before the story begins, there was a war with an evil sorceress. She basically converted all the other magicians to her side and they were just absolutely annihilating everyone. Three countries formed an alliance and ended up taking her out. Huzzah, day saved! The story picks up right before a big festival in honor of the 15th anniversary of the alliance’s formation. The alliance, while originally a military compact, has kind of spread into a trade compact as well.

The main character is the right hand to the King who initiated the alliance in the first place. His name is Ayris. He has no last name (other than his title, “Kingsman”) because he more or less washed up on shore and the King found him. He was kidnapped as a child from his home country by some of the sorceress’s goons and had his memory wiped and they intended to bring him to the Sorceress as a kind of sacrifice. Because he’s super magic. Only after they left is when the alliance was formed and so they had no idea that the war had ended and their boss was dead. They get home and go “oh crap,” and the King rescues this little boy and goes “oh crap” because this kid is magic, and people are kind of super duper against magic right now on account of the fact that magic folks just tried to wipe them all out. But he’s a big softie and doesn’t want anything to happen to this kid so he takes him in to keep him safe. Over the years, he realizes Ayris has a talent for fighting and is super smart and super observant, so he promotes him from ward to his bodyguard, and then to a kind of all-around advisor.

And that’s where Ayris starts his journey: Content with being his King/adoptive father’s right hand man, and hiding his magical abilities because if anyone knew he’d more or less get burned at the stake.

The complications?

First, one of the nations in the alliance is super xenophobic, and they don’t like that Ayris is a “foreigner.” Even though the poor kid has no memories other than the country in which he now lives. But he ~looks different~ too- he has dark skin, white hair, and blue eyes, in a country full of tan-ish average white folks- so there’s no hiding the fact that he’s not originally from here. So he’s got to deal with all that while still acting as the King’s right hand, which means he cannot avoid the xenophobes’ leader because he’s gonna be right there with the guy the whole time.

And, of course, we have the Big Problem: The Sorceress managed to survive, as most evil magicians will, of course, and she’s back because she has a score to settle. Specifically with Ayris’s King, who dealt the ‘killing’ blow. Which, another major subplot: Ayris does not know that. He has a Batman code about killing. He refuses to take a life, and as far as he knows, the King shares that determination, because he’s very vocal about talking things out instead of resorting to violence. All that is a very formative concept for Ayris. So when he finds out that his King saw no other way to deal with things and resorted to straight up killing, he has... a LOT to process. Because....

The issue is that the Sorceress needs batteries, essentially. She’s almost out of power just from sustaining her spirit for a decade and a half. So she subsumes all the kids who had been born magic and didn’t know it since her downfall, only surprise! When she reaches out to snatch them, she finds a grown man! Ayris is all like, “Excuse? Who are you and what do you want with all these small children?” and she’s like, “Excuse? I ate all the magicians last time.” and he’s like “I beg your pardon?” Because it turns out that after she turned the magicians to her side, she decided that was too much a liability and so she snatched all their powers, killing them. Why did she decide they were a liability? Another subplot! A few of them resisted her and tried to break free of her control, but it went horribly wrong and only one of them survived, but was totally severed from her magic powers. We actually meet that character- she’s a major foil (and hardcore frenemy) for Ayris.

BUT ANYWAY

The Sorceress and Ayris are now more or less linked because of the way magic works in this world, and she’s bent on turning him or controlling him because he’s pretty dang powerful. (Which is why her goon squad kidnapped him in the first place.) She has all kinds of tricks and is basically pushing buttons from the inside to break him down, so he’s dealing with an evil lady in his head who’s attached to his powers. So of course the easiest way to isolate and mess with him would be to mess with his magic and make it hard to control. So he’s trying to keep the King safe from her hit squad, make nice with the xenophobes, and hide his powers despite this chick messing with him and trying to out him. They also have to find a way to get rid of her before she builds her army up again and goes for Round 2, and find a way to get her out of his head before she manages to take him over like she did to all the other magic folks last time.

As for how magic works, it’s described in text as a second world laying over the top of this one. Most people exist in only one world, the one you where your body is, and that’s where their soul lives, too. But some people are born with part of their soul in the other world, called the Tapestry. These people have the ability to manipulate things in the physical world because of this connection to the Tapestry. They also have an inherent connection to everyone else who is a part of the Tapestry, hence how the Sorceress can consume peoples’ power and influence them so easily. Of course, doing anything to influence or harm others in the Tapestry was always taboo, she’s just the first that managed it on a large scale and escaped the punishment.

Powers could be more or less unlimited in type and scope, but because you still exist in the physical world as well, you’re bound by your body. What happens to you in the physical happens to you in the Tapestry, and vice versa. So if you kill someone’s Tapestry self, their body dies. If you hurt someone’s physical body, their Tapestry self is also hurt. (The sorceress managed to discover a way to separate her physical and Tapestry selves, and that’s how she escaped death.) But the point is, doing magic takes energy from your body, so the more and bigger you do, the harder it is, and you could, in theory, kill yourself if you tried something big enough.

Most magicians have a specific kind of magic that comes most naturally for them, so they would often specialize. Anyone can do any kind of magic, but individuals would often train in what “called to them” most. So one guy might specialize in telekinesis, another might specialize in all things water, one might specialize in healing humans, etc. The only kind of magic that was forbidden was altering or influencing peoples’ minds or will, and that’s what made the sorceress evil- she felt drawn to/called by Feelings, other peoples’ emotions. She was a natural empath, and wanted to turn that into manipulating how people felt and thought in order to settle conflict, but that was forbidden. She didn’t want to be controlled, so she ran away from the others, started exploring and experimenting on her own, and started messing with things that she shouldn’t have and ended up kind of warping her own sense of justice and morality by toying with things she couldn’t control or understand. So now she’s bent on domination and subjugation of people who won’t willingly listen to her, all in the name of trying to bring peace and balance and justice (which was the code of the magical order she belonged to).

I know that’s long to be a summary, but this is a very, VERY long and complex story. To the point that this is going to be two books minimum. I’m about 15 chapters into the first one and working on the first round of structural edits so I can get on to writing the back half of it (more like the back 3/4, like I said, this is going to be a LONG story).

Oh, you also asked about setting! I confess to yet another late-Middle Ages European base, but culturally I tried to diversify more. The country of Xenophobes is a polytheistic theocracy with notions of manifest destiny that they’re just barely holding back on because they’re friends with the neighbors now. The country the story takes place in is culturally not super religious, and highly tolerant for the most part, which is why it’s so sad that everyone turned against the idea of magic. The third country straddles the line between the hyperconservative and frankly quite annoying theocracy and the (moderately agnostic) more liberal, understanding nation to their south. They also have a pantheon, but they allow religious freedom (also, fun tidbit, their King is gay and has a husband and an adopted son); however, they don’t allow women in combat (whereas the country Ayris is a part of does), and the people are generally more skeptical of foreigners than Ayris’s country is (except their king; he LOVES Ayris and is more or less the fun uncle).

So yeah! Book One is Ayris discovering a lot about himself, magic, and the past, and dealing with the fallout from that, and trying to find a way to protect himself and his King. And Book Two is the bigger, multinational conflict and inevitable war, and Ayris dealing with the sorceress attacking him personally and trying to find a way to stop her while the world starts falling apart around him. I don’t want to say too much more because some Stuff Goes Down in the first book that’s influential to the second one, but also kind of a surprise at this point.

Thanks for listening and letting me gush. I’ve been working on this story-- the concept, worldbuilding, and then the actual writing of it-- for a cumulative 8 years now. It’s my baby almost as much as my actual baby, and I’m very protective of it and also terrified of letting anyone see it. The mortifying ordeal of being known and all that. (Luckily my writing group is super helpful, patient, and kind!)

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chibi-pix · 5 years ago

Photo

Click the image, it should have a transparency effect.

Anyway! @rueitae, I believe you said you wanted to read them stargazing? Well, my dearies! In the “keep reading” below, there is a small, 1,850 word ficlet of pure happiness, fluff, and stargazing! I hope you enjoy!

VLD AU - Stargazing

“Okay.” Lance nodded as he checked over his supplies. Snacks, both of the junk food variety and substantial for his health. His waterproof sleeping bag. An extra pillow with a waterproof pillowcase. A small music playing device with waterproof speakers.

“You planning on a date?” Allura asked, standing on the deck of Lance’s boat.

Lance got tongue-tied and spewed out a series of sounds that couldn’t even be considered close to works. If one had to compare his lack of words to a physical manifestation, it would be just slamming your hands down on a typing keyboard and seeing what letters are typed. “What?! A date? What makes you think that?” he asked. I mean… maybe it is a date? But logically a date is just an outing between two or more people, right? Right! He thought, his mind getting defensive and praying Allura didn’t catch on to him meeting a mermaid. Plus, I’m just staying out with Pidge to watch the stars…

“Don’t get your flippers tangled, Lance.” Allura waved it off. “I’m just teasing you. But really… strange you’re going out alone and camping out… what’s up? There’s not even a lunar eclipse or a meteor shower tonight; if you want to see the stars so badly...”

“I like how the stars look from the ocean, no obnoxious amount of lights interfering and keeping me from seeing the view.” Lance sighed. “Besides, Hunk’s busy and Keith would rather work with his blog.” And this is a Pidge and me time. Not that we’re… you know… dating or anything… He did everything he could to fight the blush he was sure was trying to threaten to show up.

“Jeez, you really do like to spend more time with fish than humans.” Allura sighed, smiling a bit; she missed Lance going rigid at that claim. “You know, I was shocked at first but then amazed when I found out you had human friends. As friendly as you are, it was strange that you struggled to make friends.”

Lance nodded. Indeed. Technically speaking, when it came to humans, he didn’t have many friends despite him being the sort who was very welcoming and got along with anyone and everyone. He was even nice to school bullies! But somehow he struggled to make friends. His family was proud when he and Hunk became friends and then later Keith. And he’d honestly like to think Shiro was a friend, too. And Pidge. Pidge was definitely a friend!

“Well, the fish don’t mind when you speak a thousand words a minute and drop a lot of moods on them.” Lance stated with a shrug. Pidge didn’t mind, either; she liked listening to Lance.

“More than that, though, I’m surprised Dad agreed to this.” Allura sighed. “After the storm incident...”

“I was fine. And if a storm brews again, I’ll be certain to let you know I’m safe.” Lance assured, going over and hugging his cousin. “Anyway, it’s just a camp-out on the ocean; Uncle’s done that plenty of times himself, even you’ve done it.”

“Yeah… true… but… you’re still so young.”

“I’m almost eighteen, cuz. I’ll be fine.” Lance chuckled.

“I still worry.” Allura sighed. She then ruffled Lance’s hair. “Well, have fun. If you need anything, you got the radio.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Lance mock-saluted before he finished getting ready. “Well, time to head out.”

“Be safe and have fun, Lance.” Allura called, stepping off the boat and back onto the dock. She waved Lance off as he set out, his sail catching the perfect breeze. Lance smiled and waved back.

Lance sailed his boat to Pidge’s territory. When he reached the best spot, he set up his electronic anchor and waited, turning to watched the sun as it set. He always loved how the sun looked, regardless if it was rising or setting over the ocean. The way it reflected off of the ever-moving waters, changing the colours of the ocean with its own light. The glow that seemed to illuminate everything yet changed with each ripple of water. It was truly a beautiful sight and he never grew tired of it.

Just like the stars. The stars were always beautiful and sometimes Lance felt the only place he could truly enjoy out in the ocean. Around AARC, due to the lights, he didn’t see them as well. Light pollution, he had been told before. But in the ocean where the only light he had was either natural or the small lights on his boat, which he planned to turn off, there was no interference and he could truly enjoy their beauty.

Lance looked over when he heard a splashing noise. He smiled when he saw Pidge there, surprisingly not accompanied by her brother. Meeting Matt, he could tell just how protective the older and much larger merman was over his little sister. It was sweet but definitely frightening with how big he was.

“Hey, Pidge!” Lance greeted, going to the other side where Pidge was.

“Did you get permission to stay out?” Pidge asked.

“Indeed.” Lance nodded. “So, as planned, tonight we go stargazing!” He laughed when Pidge splashed up more water than she expected in her excitement. “The sun’s nearly set, the stars beginning to show themselves.” He looked when Pidge offered her hand for him to step onto. “Let me do a few final things before we stargaze.” Lance said, to which Pidge nodded.

Lance first set up the music, letting a gentle melody play. Sure, he loved the sound of the ocean, but music was always nice. Then he turned off the lights on his boat, leaving the indicator light on; this helped show any passing ships, not that there were many in the area if any at all, that he was there and to not hit his boat. Nodding, sure that all was well, he returned to Pidge, stepping up onto the offered hand.

Pidge moved a bit from the boat, keeping it within Lance’s ability to see and hear the music and, if needed, the radio. Pidge found the right spot before shifting her position and laying on her back, being able to float in the water as though she were a human. She moved her hand, letting Lance sit on her chest.

“If we lay here, we can just see all the stars!” Pidge exclaimed.

“Yeah.” Lance nodded as he settled down, laying on Pidge’s chest. He had been against her chest before, especially when Pidge was keeping him safe from Matt, but he never actually stopped to listen to her heart as it beat. It was a slow and deep sound. He counted the beats, finding it to beat much slower than a human’s heart. It was about ten to twelve beats in each minute, just a bit faster than an average for the blue whales. Slow. Gentle. It was actually relaxing now that he took the moment to listen.

Lance laid there, watching the sky change colours until the deep blue, nearly black, surrounded them. The stars were bright and clustered, impossible to count as they glowed up in the sky, doing their best to reflect in the waters around them. Lance had various nights in the ocean, seeing this, but this had to have been his first time actually laying there, not being in a boat, and feeling like he was truly floating in space.

“You know,” he said, “I’ve seen the stars many times in my life, from many places… but no matter what, I never find myself not marveling at how they look from here.” He smiled. “And I never grow board of seeing it far from society.”

“Can you not see them in your towns?” Pidge inquired.

“Well, it differs; due to the lights in cities, it’s harder to see the stars.” Lance explained. “Smaller towns with less light, it’s easier. But out here? Hardly any lights around? It truly is a sight to see.” He put his hands behind his head, happy to lay there. Had he laid there without Pidge in the darkness of the night, he actually would have admitted to being intimidated, nervous for his safety. But knowing Pidge was there, keeping him up out of the water save for the occasional splash of the waves, he felt like no harm could come to him.

“Oh!” Pidge sounded excited. “Lance! A star fell! Did you see that?”

Lance chuckled. “Indeed. We call them shooting or falling stars.” He sat up and looked to Pidge. “They aren’t actually stars that fall, though.” He got to his feet and walked along Pidge, the mermaid not minding; or maybe she just hardly noticed due to their difference in size. He got up to her face, sitting close to the edge where her hair was.

“You see,” he said, “there’s so much more to space than the planets and stars. Nebulas. Asteroids. Comets. Dust. And that falling star was a form of debris, most likely a meteroid, as it fell, going through Earth’s atmosphere.” He watched the sky, seeing another one speed across. “The light is it burning up, making it look like a star falling out of the sky.” He looked to Pidge, seeing her eyes, wide and dark in the night. More than that, he saw the stars reflect in them, as though they were pools of galaxies themselves.

“Some people make wishes on them.” Lance explained. “Whether or not those wishes come true...” He shrugged. “But it doesn’t hurt to wish.” He watched the reflection in Pidge’s eyes as another shooting star darted across the sky. Pidge closed her eyes. Was she making a wish? When they opened again, he smiled. “Wish for something?”

“I dunno about you humans, but we sea-folk don’t tell our wishes, it brings bad luck.” Pidge hummed.

“Yeah, many humans feel the same way.” Lance chuckled as he got up, not wanting to leave Pidge’s eyes but deciding to return to her chest and gentle heartbeat. He laid back down again. And I don’t want to jinx my own wish of being able to have many more days and nights like this with Pidge. He thought.

He smiled happily. Stars. Music. The gentle drumming sound of Pidge’s heart. Before the human knew it, he had dozed off. Of course he would, he was safe and happy there.

Pidge had remained there for a while longer, maybe hours. Despite how tiny Lance was, she could tell when he fell asleep. After those hours, she shifted, carefully getting Lance into her webbed hand. She moved back to the boat and slid him off and onto the boat.

“I wish days like this can continue for as long as they can.” Pidge whispered softly. “For as long as you live.” She gently kissed the tip of one finger and moved it, gently touching it to Lance’s cheek. “Sweet dreams, Lance, I’ll be here when you wake.” She nodded and went under the water some, staying relatively hidden in the darkness but close enough for Lance to find in the morning or should he wake in the night.

I hope you enjoyed it! Because of the image and for its transparency to be seen for both app and desktop, I had this post as a photo post rather than text post (with inserted images). Until the next story and/or art!

#Pidge #Pidge Gunderson #Lance #Katie Holt #watering someone's plance #VLD #Voltron legendary defender #mermaid pidge #mermaid katie holt #mermaid au #giant mermaid #giant mermaid au #giant/tiny #alternate universe #mermaid!pidge #mer!pidge #mer pidge

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allisondraste · 6 years ago

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Let’s Talk About Cole

Hi! It’s me again with another segment of “Allison Can’t Stop Analyzing Dragon Age Characters.” This time, I am going to be talking about fan favorite Cole. I think it’s relatively universal for people to like Cole and to enjoy his character. People like to draw him, write about him, and just talk about our Fade Friend all the time. It’s great!

However, the nuance of Cole is a little harder to understand, and as with most characters, he often gets reduced down to basic qualities and then those basic qualities are changed ever so slightly that the character starts to not even feel the same anymore. I love Cole, and I have done some research about him in order to write a handful of scenes involving him, so I am just here to share some of the things that helped me out while I was learning about what makes him tick!

Step 1. If you have not read Asunder, I cannot more highly recommend it. It has so much information about Cole’s back story. Also, if you haven’t read Asunder and you don’t want spoilers for Asunder, you should probably go read it and then come back to my post later.

Step 2. The Cole section of this post right here is literally magic. The whole post is magic, but since this is a Cole meta, I’m specifically referring to the Cole piece.

Step 3. Things about Cole that are essential to understanding him:

Cole is Neurodivergent ( and no, it’s not up for debate)

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the term, “Neurodivergent” is simply a word that describes a person whose mind works and processes information in a way that is considered different from an average joe neurotypical person. Often times neurodivergent is used to describe autism, ADHD, and other conditions that affect neurological development.

Because Cole is a spirit, he processes the world around him differently from non-spirit characters in the Dragon Age Universe. He perceives different things and understands things differently from how other characters might. Cole also has some misunderstandings and misperceptions about human social norms and boundaries, that he becomes more acquainted with over time. It is important to note that this development happens *regardless* of the path chosen for him with regard to Varric V. Solas (I am not a fan of this particular part of his character arc, but I am going to go into that later). The fact that Cole is neurodivergent means that someone who is neurotypical is likely going to have a hard time understanding him and may perceive him as “childish,” “naive,” or “helpless.” They might also have difficulty understanding his speech patterns and especially recreating them if they seek to write him!

Neurodiversity is so important, and Cole is excellent representation, so it’s equally important that we strive to do our research and make sure that we are not removing that representation or presenting neurodiversity in a way that its harmful to others. Different is different, not bad, and certainly not less.

Cole is Not a Child

I mentioned above that there is a tendency to interpret Cole’s neurodiversity as childishness or naivete, and even when it is unintentional, it is an ableistic view point that can be harmful to entire communities of people. There is a pattern (not just in DA fandom, but also in DA fandom) whereby neurodiverse folks are often viewed as children. They’re infantilized and treated as if they are helpless and/or cannot make good decisions on their own. Cole suffers from this as does Merrill (sometimes Sera, too).

For Cole, this situation is not helped by the fact that the game portrays him as helpless and in need of a “father” figure to help him choose his path. Hence we see Solas and Varric arguing on whether Cole should increase is affinity for spirtdom or for humanity. I understand that everyone has their own opinion for what the “better” path for Cole is, and I’m not here to argue that; however, I do think that his arc would have had so much more meaning and been so much less invalidating for neurodivergent people if Cole had the autonomy to make his own decisions. In Asunder, we see Cole being very independent and making his own choices, figuring out who and what he is. At the very end, his very last line in the entire book is, “I’m not helpless anymore.” I don’t think that sounds like a character who cannot make his own decisions.

Fun fact: Cole is designed to be approximately 20 years old, which is the exact same age that Alistair was in Dragon Age: Origins. (While Alistair is also the victim of infantilization… it still puts things into perspective a little bit). In order to avoid the “kid”/child dilemma, it is best to conceptualize some of the things in Cole commonly interpreted as childlike or immature as “newness.” In Inquisition, Cole has only been in the mortal realm for a few years, and he has only been cognizant of the fact that he is not a human, but a spirit of Compassion for even less time. Rather than treating him as a “baby” it is best to treat him as someone who is just learning a new culture, a new world.

Cole is a Spirit of Compassion, Not a Spirit of Matchmaking and/or Meddling in your Personal Affairs.

A trend I see often is Cole as matchmaker, or Cole as interested in every detail of everyone’s sex life or Cole being a filterless vent for whatever the people near him are thinking. It’s easy to assume that about him, as he does comment on a few relationships (Cullenmance, Solavellan, and Bullmance) in particular; however, there is an interesting tidbit of how Cole’s thought reading works located in his banter with Dorian.

Dorian: That little trick, Cole, when you dip into someone's mind and take a drink?

Dorian: Do you choose what you're looking for, or is it random?

Cole: It has to be hurt, or a way to help the hurt. That's what calls me.

Cole: Rilienus, skin tan like fine whiskey, cheekbones shaded, lips curl when he smiles.

Cole: He would have said yes.

Dorian: I'll... thank you not to do that again, please.

Essentially, Cole can only tap into thoughts that are 1.) Painful or 2.) Can help lessen the pain in some way, shape, or form. So, when he accesses thoughts about an LI or something else very personal, he does so to HELP. It is not random. It is not filterless. It is a very pragmatic way to be compassionate. When I was thinking of ways to explain this, the first thing that came to mind was the work that I do as a mental health professional. We are actual practitioners of compassion. It is our job to listen to our clients and help them to solve the problems that are causing them to suffer. We ask a lot of deep questions and probe about a lot of personal things, but it is very targeted. We do not ask intimate questions just out of curiosity or just for the heck of it. It is geared toward the issue at hand. That is exactly what Cole does.

Unless prodding your OC about the details of their sex life is going to make them feel better, he will not bother.

Cole is Not an Innocent, Precious, Little Cinnamon Roll

First of all, that goes along with the infantilization of his character, so it’s just a really ill-considered choice of language to describe him. Second of all, it is simply not true.

I understand that for people who have not read Asunder or played the Champions of the Just questline (and especially people who have done neither) there is very little information about him to judge his character on, and what we do see is a person whose only mission, his sole purpose, is to help the hurt. That does seem very wholesome.

In Asunder, we see a much different side of him. Believing himself to be Cole, a young mage who died of starvation after being forgotten by Templars, Compassion roams about the White Spire in a confused and lonely daze, unaware that he is actually a very powerful spirit. He is called the Ghost of the White Spire, a legend that is terrifying to those that inhabit the tower. Why? Because he murders mages.

If you are thinking “oh, he probably killed them because he felt them suffering and he thought it was the only way to end their misery,” you are thinking exactly as I did, and you would be wrong. While he did target individuals who were despairing, it was not altruistic. He killed them because it felt good when they died, because that was the only time anyone could see him. The way the book describes it, it was almost an “addiction” or a physiological need for him to kill. He was distressed by his actions, but was not able to stop without Rhys’ help.

Over the course of the book, Cole learns more about his past and figures out what he is. He also, through the help of his relationship with Rhys and Evangeline, comes to understand that he does not have to murder people to be seen and remembered. When he is sent to the Fade using the Litany of Adralla, it all finally clicks and he returns to haunt Lord Seeker Lucius, for all the pain and suffering he caused his friends and loved ones. It is such a brilliant character arc and I so wish that we got to see more of it in the game.

Cole is a Person the Entire Time (Human vs. Spirit/Varric vs. Solas be damned)

Regardless of your opinion of Solas, one thing he gets right is in arguing that Cole is already a whole and complete person when he joins the Inquisition. He actually argues for the personhood of all spirits in general, and I think that any reasonable person can look at the spirits (and demons) with whom we have interacted so far and, putting aside feelings about Solas, draw the same conclusions.

Let’s take a look at all of the Spirits/Demons we have had actual interactions with thus far:

Valor

Justice

Compassion

Command

Wisdom

Choice

Desire

Pride

Sloth

Rage

Fear

Envy

While some of these interactions were minimal, each of these entities show qualities that one would associate with personhood. Qualities such as motivation, goals, higher order thought processes, emotions, etc. When we meet Justice in DA:A, he is a thinking, feeling being who longs to right wrongs and comes to care for mortals a great deal. He comes to this conclusion on his own after interacting with his companions in the events of the game. Choice, or Imshael, who we see in The Masked Empire, and in DAI, has such an identity of his own that he does not like to be referred to as a demon. I could go on. These are not mindless, thoughtless creatures, and so viewing them as people just makes sense. This is part of the reason I do not like the Solas vs. Varric questline (aside from the fact that Cole should be able to choose or not choose as he wishes). Cole is already a person, and Varric’s line of thought is not “making him more human,” it is only serving to make him “less compassionate,” and that’s all. He becomes more selfish which is why he is able to have more of his own personal goals (it’s not because he did not have them before; rather, it is because they were drowned out by everyone else’s).

This is not to say that I think Cole should have to forgive his abuser. He shouldn’t. Not unless he wants to, and that choice should be his to make, not Varric’s, not Solas’, and not the Inquisitor’s. I have an opinion as to which path is better, but I’m not going to discuss that here because it will detract from the actual point which is that the language of “human” versus “not human” is just bad and here’s why.

It implies that forgiveness is not a human quality.

It implies that in order to be considered a person, one has to “think” and “do” as everyone else does.

Because of Cole’s romantic/sexual interest in Maryden when Varric’s path is chosen, it implies that lack of romantic/sexual attraction is not “human,” which is aphobic.

Because of his Maryden interest in the “human” path, and because he has “become more human” in his thought processes, it implies that neurodivergent people cannot or are not interested in relationships, which is ableist.

TL;DR: I’m not a fan of that questline. Your mileage may vary.

Finally, and Probably the Reason You Sat Through the Rest of It: Cole’s Speech Pattern!

Cole’s speech is really difficult to capture in a way that is both enough and not too much. It is not as simple as just seeing how much alliteration can fit into a chapter. Sure, Cole uses a lot of alliteration, and it is incredibly fun to play with while writing him; however, his communication is not as simple as that. If you check out the link I shared in Step 2, it will take you to a Character Files reference where there is some information about Cole’s speech pattern that is much more in depth than I am going to go so definitely check it out. When I am writing Cole, I categorize his speech into three different types:

Synesthesia

- the alliteration, the purpley flowery descriptions, the metaphors, the in the moment, no regard for grammar, run on sentence speech he is known for. This comprises most of his dialogue.

Direct thought reading

- when he is actually quoting characters’ thoughts or stating their feelings out right. He might speak as them or he might speak as himself observing them.

Cole’s own thoughts

- Yes, he has them, and he has a lot of them. Many of these show up as his interpretations of and suggestions for others regarding their hurt. However, he also shows a lot of agency of thought. He wants to know if Dorian thinks he’s handsome, he talks about wanting there to be more rabbits in stories because Bunny was Cole’s sister’s name and it reminds him of her. Cole expresses a lot of his own thoughts and feelings if you just take time to listen.

Writing Cole effectively involves a good balance of all three types and I recommend just playing around with it!

To Sum It All Up

Cole is amazing, but he’s also often misunderstood and mischaracterized, and Allison has a lot of feelings about it that you could spare yourself from reading if you do Steps 1 and 2 and skip the middleman. The end!

#dragon age #dragon age inquisition #cole meta #understanding cole #writing reference #my ramblings

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thesportssoundoff · 5 years ago

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“A very weird card for a very weird month” UFC Fight Night: Weidman vs Reyes Preview

Joey

October 14th, 2019

It's Octobr and the UFC's scheduling usually goes like this in my estimation:

Jan- New year, we're all excited, folks get injured, overpacked shows in December hurt the new year but we deal with it.

Feb- Injuries/cold means makeshift cards, people get mad.

March- Shows are a bit fatter, big title fights are coming around, people are excited.

April- The "set up" for the summer months, usually really good fight cards on paper with little to no name value.

May- Normally the "bad" PPV month, free events are good.

June- The last month before things get wild and wooly. PPV's tend to be damn good, free cards tend to be pretty balanced.

July- Everything has to be BIG so you get BIG PPV and then an event or two after the PPV that drag down the blocks average.

August- The end of the summer, injuries get heavy because of the seasonal change, focus is on prepping for November and December.

September- OH MY GOD EVERYBODY IS HURT! EVERYTHING IS REALLY WEIRD! THERE'S SO MUCH GOING ON!

October- The down month where they're scrapping and salvaging just to get to MSG. Shows are pretty much whatever they can put together without working too hard. Usually where they do some kind of weird Canadian card. The cards tend to bounce between "This is surprisingly good" and "I don't have the time or the energy for this".

November- IT'S MSG! IT'S LOADED! What about the rest of the month? Ah, okay then. Carry on.

December- The end of the year where they try to end with a bang. Normally a lot of drama, prep for 2020. We get fights announced for next year that usually top what we're being offered this year. Big PPV to end things on the right note.

This card is pretty much 100% October. You have a kind of weird but kinda good main event at the top of the bill, a really good yet weird co-main event under it, a really weird but kinda good HW fight and then a bunch of Northeast projects and prospects. If you remove the top three fights, finding the next good fight that is objectively good might depend on how you feel about Gillian Robertson vs Maycee Barber. Me personally I think you can do far, far worse than Barber vs Robertson and actually quite like the fight as a good test for Maycee Barber. After that? You have some highly touted prospects coming off losses (Manny Bermudez, Randy Costa, Boston Salmon), some guys off the Contenders Series trying to find their niche (Brendan Allen, Sean Woodson, Jonathan Pearce) and a bunch of filler. It's kinda not bad filler though? Everything about this card is just weird, folks. Bare with.

Fights: 13

Debuts: Tanner Boser, Brendan Allen, Sean Woodson, Sean Brady, Diana Belbiţă, Ben Sosoli, Jonathan Pearce

Fight Changes/Injury Cancellations: (Zabit Magomedsharipov vs Calvin Kattar CANCELLED/Eric Spicely OUT, Kevin Holland IN vs Brendan Allen)

Headliners (fighters who have either main evented or co-main evented shows in the UFC): 5 (Greg Hardy, Jeremy Stephens, Yair Rodriguez, Chris Weidman, Joe Lauzon)

Fighters On Losing Streaks in the UFC: 1 (Joe Lauzon)

Fighters On Winning Streaks in the UFC: 6 (Dominick Reyes, Chris Weidman, Greg Hardy, Gillian Robertson, Maycee Barber, Kevin Holland)

Main Card Record Since Jan 1st 2017 (in the UFC): 24-15

Chris Weidman- 1-2 Dominick Reyes- 5-0 Jeremy Stephens- 3-3 (1 NC) Yair Rodriguez- 2-1 (1 NC) Greg Hardy- 2-1 Ben Sosoli- 0-0 Joe Lauzon- 1-3 Jonathan Pearce- 0-0 Gillian Robertson- 4-1 Maycee Barber- 2-0 Deron Winn- 1-0 Darren Stewart- 3-4

Fights By Weight Class (yearly number here):

Featherweight- 3 (52) Women’s Flyweight- 2 (31) Middleweight- 2 (40) Heavyweight- 2 (31) Welterweight- 1 (62) Light Heavyweight- 1 (39) Bantamweight- 1 (53)

Lightweight- (66) Women’s Strawweight- (26) Flyweight- (15) Women’s Featherweight- (8) Women’s Bantamweight- (18)

2019 Number Tracker

Debuting Fighters (33-55-1)- Tanner Boser, Brendan Allen, Sean Woodson, Sean Brady, Diana Belbiţă, Ben Sosoli, Jonathan Pearce

Short Notice Fighters (28-35)- Kevin Holland

Second Fight (52-34)- Randy Costa, Boston Salmon, Deron Winn

Cage Corrosion (Fighters who have not fought within a year of the date of the fight) (20-37-1)- Charles Rosa, Joe Lauzon, Daniel Spitz

Undefeated Fighters (35-37-2)- Dominick Reyes, Sean Woodson, Maycee Barber

Fighters with at least four fights in the UFC with 0 wins over competition still in the organization (11-8)-

Weight Class Jumpers (Fighters competing outside of the weight class of their last fight even if they’re returning BACK to their “normal weight class”) (29-20)- Chris Weidman, Manny Bermudez

Twelve Precarious Ponderings

1- Why is a New York vs New York fight taking place in Boston? I know that might not matter from a lot of folks but as the guy who grew up with boxers headlining in their home markets, this irks me.

2- I feel like this main event almost depends entirely on how you view Volkan Oezdemir as a fighter. The last time we saw Dom Reyes, he was given a really hard tough fight against Volkan Oezdemir in London. I don't think "robbery" is fair but I do think if you scored it for Volkan then you have a justifiable grumble about him losing that decision. What has gone under the radar is that Reyes did a tremendous job to adjust to what wasn't working and mix in more work to the body to keep it close and then the general rule of "win the third round, win the fight" wins out. I think there's no shame in a young prospect getting tested on his way up the ranks and managing to get by. You'd rather see warts now than in the middle of the first round of a title fight. Also Volkan Oezdemir is proving to be a pretty good quality 205er who even in his losses has moments of success. As such, I'm left to wonder if folks are a bit too harsh on a dude who iced Jared Cannonier, had no issues with OSP and remains the most exciting LONG TERM prospect at 205 lbs.

3- Is it too late for Chris Weidman? Despite the calls of folks to move up in weight, Weidman held off until seemingly all options were exhausted at 185 lbs. The fact of the matter and the unbearable truth is that Chris Weidman's style was based all on his durability and versatility simply fell apart when he needed it the most. He couldn't withstand the wars he was putting himself in at 185 lbs and his wrestling isn't as advertised anymore. At the same time, he still subbed Kelvin Gastelum, has a Hall of Fame worthy resume and enters a division where mid tier MWs are having breakout runs to title shots. Weidman can still crack, has a variety of offensive tools in his backpocket and in SPURTS he's still a good wrestler. Weidman's biggest problem for me as a wrestler has always been his lack of control once fights hit the turf but maybe cutting less weight will help. Then again Luke Rockhold didn't get much help in that regard either.

4- Here's how I'm beginning to feel about guys from 185 lbs going up to 205 lbs. If you're an athlete (Thiago Santos, even Anthony Smith to some degree) then it can work because the athletic barometer at 205 is better than HW but lowert han any other weight class. Guys who are fast at 185 lbs will remain fast at 205 lbs because that travels. They're also likely to hit a lot harder given the increase in weight. That said, if you're slow or clunky, no amount of weight cutting is going to fix that. Luke Rockhold simply looks and perhaps may just be a slow and clunky guy. Against Jan Blachowicz, he LOOKED like a heavier version of his usual self. What makes me worried about Chris Weidman and his chances at 205 lbs is that he's slow, clunky and kind of sort of broken. I don't think his body and his (lack of) speed will travel much at 205 lbs.

5- So who is hurt more by having to cut weight again for this fight, Yair or Jeremy Stephens? I kind of think it'll be Yair but I also saw him show up on two weeks notice to fist fight the Korean Zombie.

6- I really hope there's a chance, honestly and truthfully, that Joe Lauzon calls it quits win or lose. Lauzon feels like one of those guys who would be better suited in his personal life giving up the ghost and embracing the next phase.

7- This feels like the first real card to roll out the Contenders Series for season 3 so I'll break down who is whom and how they got here:

HW Ben Sosoli faces Greg Hardy- Sosoli is an Aussie kickboxer who made the MMA transition, fought on TUF and emerged on the DWCS in season 3. He had a "no contest" but was on his way to winning the fight before an eye poke (by him) ended the fight. Sosoli is being brought in to have a slugfest with Hardy.

LW Jon Pearce has a pretty crazy story. He was in a coma after getting jumped by somebody at his gym after hours. He recovered and fights like every southeastern dude who has ever fought in the UFC; basically scrapping when he wants to and wrestling out of trouble when he has to. I would say "He's the kind of guy who can give Joe Lauzon trouble" but I think at this point anybody with a working pulse gives him trouble.

FW Sean Woodson is REAL interesting. He took on a super prospect in his DWCS fight and struggled with the consistent wrestling----then he hit one of the cooler flying knees ever and scored a walk off second round KO. Dana even admitted that his finish was TOO good to not get signed despite the concerns he had about his wrestling.

MW Brendan Allen is your yearly "LFA has a middleweight champ and we gotta sign him" guy. He's accomplished-ish at 12-3 with some losses to good competition (Anthony Hernandez and Eryk Anders are both having solid runs). He's a violent kinda dude but I think he's a step below Ian Heinisch and Anthony Hernandez IE: he's kinda sketchy.

8- Boston Salmon was a really hyped L(R)FA prospect, the kind of guy who the UFC normally signs before he's ready and rushes out there. Salmon won on the DWCS in Season One and disappeared, re-emerging this year before losing in ugly fashion in his first fight with the organization. We've detailed here how badly debuting fighters struggle but also how much better they do in their second go around. Of course the same could be said for his opponent Boston Salmon. I guess win or lose, I think Salmon's going to look worlds better than he did in his debut. It couldn't in theory have looked much worse?

9- I wish I knew about Molly McCann's opponent so I could somewhat excited about her fight upcoming. Diana Belbita lost to Ariana Lipski who Molly McCann beat so....I dunno dudes.

10- I wonder how many fighters people would know off of this main card. 4 or 5 tops? Manny Bermudez, Molly McCann, Kevin Holland and then?

11- So let's talk about Kevin Holland briefly, shall we? Holland's UFC run has been weird to say the least. Holland debuted on short notice against THIAGO SANTOS (!), took all of Santos' best offense and somehow lived to tell the tale about it. In large part, Holland's ability to just talk copious amounts of shit no matter the circumstance endeared him to UFC fans and supporters. In the end, Holland got his best opportunity and since then the UFC has taken it slow and steady with him. Holland has wins over John Phillips, Gerald Meerschaert and most recently a close decision win over Alessio Di Chirico. Holland's rep as an action fighter is overstated (as is most of his game) but to go 3-1 in the UFC under any circumstances is pretty solid. He's the sort of guy who doesn't like to work too hard theoretically but lacks the middle ground to carry himself beyond that point. Yet he's so gifted, long and determined that he tends to be able to get by doing the bare minimum. Brendan Allen is probably going to give him plenty of opportunities to be offensive if he wants to be but that's entirely up to Holland and his mentality.

12- The last time we saw him, Deron Winn was having a FOTN style war with Eric Spicely on short notice. Winn has a lot of "poor man's DC" about him which is a really unfair comparison but I can't think of a guy that short in a weight class who prioritizes the same arsenal of strikes that he does other than DC. He gets a kind of risky step up in competition with Darren "The Dentist" Stewart. Stewart has a bit of a funky UFC record, he started his run 0-3 and then hit a stride of sorts since then, going 3-1 with the sole loss being a super close split decision to MW prospect Edmen Shahbazyan. Stewart hits really hard and has found some tremendously timely resolve with his takedown defense, creating a sort of fight that should be closer on paper than some folk might realize.

#MMA #UFC #ESPN 2 #Weidman #Reyes #Fights #Yair #Jeremy Stephens #DWCS #Boston

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wilddragonflying · 6 years ago

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Fallout OC Interview

Stolen from @red-flare-art :p

Rules:

1) Choose an OC

I’m gonna do Kaili, because I love her, and I’m also going to do Anna’s responses as well, because she’s the newest one!

2) Answer questions as that OC

3) Tag 5 people to do the same

Er... I don’t know 5 people in the Fallout universe soooooo..... If you see this and you want to do it, consider yourself tagged!

1) What is your name?

K: My name is Kaili Swesson; pleasure to meet you!

A: Name’s Anna Levine.

2) How old are you?

K: Well, I was born on February 29, 2032, and it’s now almost October of 2289... So around two hundred and fifty-seven! Of course, I was cryogenically frozen from October 23, 2077 to October of 2287, so technically I’ve only lived for forty-seven years.

A: Old enough to know better than to ask people their age, Jesus.

3) What do you look like?

K: Oh, I’d say I’m a little taller than average, lean. Black hair, usually keep it in a bun... I do have some pretty distinctive scars. Mirelurk Queen acid is pretty damn painful. And I had an... exciting military career, Pre-War.

A: I look like one of those things that regularly tries to eat people, just with a bit more sanity in my eyes. I’m a fucking ghoul, the hell do you expect me to look like?

4) Where are you from? Where do you live now?

K: I was born in Boston, actually! I split my time now between Goodneighbor, Nuka-Town, and Sanctuary Hills, though, as far as ‘home’ goes. Generally I’m out wandering the Commonwealth, doing my General duties.

A: Some no-name town in California. Ended up in the Mojave area long before it was a nuclear wasteland. I’m a Courier now, so I don’t really call any place ‘home.’

5) What was your childhood like?

K: Oh, quiet enough. I had a few friends - Meg, actually, is a ghoul now! It was so shocking to find out she survived, especially living in the Glowing Sea as she did.

A: I spent more time with technology than people. Stayed true through my adult life, too. Not much has changed.

6) What groups are you friendly with? Are you allied with any factions?

K: I’m the General of the Minutemen, so I’d say that I’m pretty allied with them! The Railroad and I get along well, and the Brotherhood of Steel and I... Eh. Maxson and I have, ah. Discussed things. We came to an understanding.

A: Only alliance I have is with the guy who used to be my boss, is now a decrepit living corpse tucked away in an old casino. NCR and I are on friendly enough terms, I suppose, but we don’t do anything but business. I don’t trust anyone from any of the Strip families as far as I can trust them, though.

7) Tell me about your best friend.

K: Oh, that’s tough. My best friend growing up was Meg, absolutely. Always had a weird thing for technology, smart head on her shoulders! Nate and I... we were basically platonic soulmates, honestly. Only people we could trust after we mustered out was each other, so we ended up tying the knot. Now... Well, I’m friends with Gage, Hancock, and Preston, obviously. And Piper, Strong, Nick, Cait, and Curie. Deacon and I are as friendly as two people can be when one’s a pathological liar. I honestly couldn’t say who I would consider my best friend!

A: My best friend? Shes hanging on my back right now. She’s the ah.... silent-but-deadly type, if you catch my meaning. Her and the other friend strapped to my thigh, they both are. As far as living friends go, Veronica’s like a daughter to me, and Arcade and I get along well enough. Boone is my kind of guy, though. Like him a lot. We understand each other.

8) Do you have a family? Tell me about them!

K: Well, there’s Nate - he died, protecting Shaun. Shaun himself grew up to be a dick, so I don’t much like talking about him. Right now, all the folks I listed above, they’re the ones I consider family, honestly. I love them.

A: I... Don’t have a family now. Had one, back before the bombs dropped. Only recently got closure on what happened to her.

9) What about a partner or partners?

K: Oh, well. That’s a bit of an involved story? Preston, Hancock, and I, we’re all together. But while I was taking care of Nuka-World and the Raiders that inhabited it, I ended up falling for Gage, my right-hand man, and he fell for me. Things were complicated for a bit, but we eventually sorted them out. He doesn’t feel the same for Hancock or Preston as I do, though.

A: Cassidy and I got drunk together once, woke up naked in the Lucky 38 penthouse’s master suite together. We’re still friends, but I wouldn’t call us ‘partners.’ I guess closest I’ve got to that is Boone. Nothing’s happened there, don’t know if it ever will, but. Like I said before, we understand each other in a way no one else can.

10) Who are your enemies, and why?

K: Oh, definitely the Institute, considering that I blew it up. Raiders and Super Mutants, too, obviously. Anything and any one that poses a threat to any settlement or settlers in the Commonwealth, really.

A: Anyone who wakes me up before sunrise. Also Dean Domino, carried a grudge against that prick for two hundred years, finally got to take his ass out.

11) Have you ever heard of The Brotherhood of Steel? What do you think about them?

K: Yes, I have. I think that they could do an awful lot of good for the Commonwealth if they weren’t a huge bunch of racist, species-st, elitist dickbags. They learn to play nice with others and pull that giant stick out of their ass about technology, maybe we’ll get along better someday.

A: Heard of ‘em. Traveled with a couple of ‘em. I think they’re okay, depending on who’s in charge. Barely managed to talk Rob out of destroying their bunker, waiting for a chance to collect on that favor.

12) What about The Enclave?

K: I think they’re delusional, honestly. It’s been two hundred years. There’s no going back now, if there ever was. All we can do now is move forward, build anew.

A: Fuckin’ nuts, the lot of them. The fuck they think they’re gonna be able to do with the way tech is right now? The way the people have gotten used to the wasteland working?

13) How do you feel about Super Mutants?

K: I have... mixed feelings about Super Mutants. Mostly, they’re annoying, but easy enough to deal with when you’re as good with a rifle and shadows as me. But the suiciders? I’ve got... issues with them.

A: The lot up at Jacobstown is nice enough, and long as they don’t go making trouble, I don’t much care about them. Start making trouble, though, and I’ll be more than happy to drag Boone out and help take care of the problem.

14) What’s the craziest fight you’ve ever been in?

K: Well, I don’t exactly get into fights anymore, honestly. Not since my last Hostage Retrieval mission, back in the Pre-War days. Taking back the Castle with an albino matriarch Deathclaw was pretty crazy, though. Oh! One time, I sniped a raider on top of a skyscraper in the Financial District while I was on another skyscraper, and his body went cartwheeling through the air! That was pretty funny.

A: Hm. Well, board meetings back in the day used to be fucking insane, verbal fights to get funding, almost literal fistfights to keep another department from getting the funding mine needed. Nowadays... Big Empty had some weird shit in it.

15) Have you ever fought a Deathclaw?

K: As Sturges likes to say, I still had frost in my hair when I fought my first one! I tend to avoid them now, though, and they’re happy enough to avoid me. Except for Pipsqueak and Larry, but they’re special cases. Did you know that Deathclaws imprint? Like big scaly ducklings!

A: Ugh, yes. Can’t live in the Wastelands for two hundred years without fighting at least a dozen. Luckily the shitheads can’t climb, or it’d be a lot harder to fight them.

16) Do you like fighting?

K: I like sniping, taking out enemies without being seen myself. I don’t like hand-to-hand combat, though. I’d rather use Deliverer or a knife in close quarters, like in a building.

A: You don’t get to live this long without fighting, so it don’t really matter whether or not I like it. I’ll tell you what I do like, though: Outsmarting my opponents.

17) What’s your weapon of choice?

K: Tinker Tom built me a special rifle; I modded it a little to make the scope better, let it take more powerful ammo, but I love that rifle. Deliverer is great, too, and so is the blade Pickman gave me for not killing him. The guy was killing raiders, and I check up on him every so often, make sure he hasn’t moved on to settlers.

A: Silenced rifle or a blade. Best damn weapons for stealth you can have, and let me tell you: The Courier who moves quickest and quietest is the one who gets the package delivered.

18) How do you survive? Your wits, your charm, your skills, brute force, some combination? (a.k.a. what’s your S.P.E.C.I.A.L?)

K: I’m quick, quiet, and I can shoot the wings off a fly. I’m also good at talking, though usually I’m just talking sense. Unfortunately, that seems to have been lacking in the past couple of centuries.

A: Oh, I’m a talker - if you manage to see me, that is. I climbed my way up to Rob’s right hand woman, his head of R&D, you don’t get there without your mouth being able to back up your ideas.

19) Have you ever been in a vault? What do you think about them?

K: I fucking hate Vaults, I hate Vault-Tec, and if I ever meet someone who managed to survive who authorized any of those damned experiments, I’m shooting first and asking questions never. Vault-Tec preyed on innocent people, people who were looking for safety. I hope they all burned in nuclear fire.

A: RobCo got some pretty good contracts out of them, but... Well, I can’t condemn their experiments without also condemning myself. Be pretty hypocritical of me, considering I designed a lot of the tech that went into those Vaults. Nice to see it held up after 200years, though. Better than anyone else’s except WesTek and their Power Armor.

20) How do you beat all the radiation around here? Has it affected you?

K: Rad-X, RadAway, keeping an ear on my Pip-Boy’s geiger counter, and occasionally a suit of Power Armor or a hazmat suit if I can’t avoid the radiation.

A: Darling, no offense, but what the fuck kind of question is that? You got eyes, ain’t you? I’m a goddamned ghoul, that’s how it fucking affected me, and that’s how I beat the radiation, now. I still try to avoid it because I’d like not to lose any more of my sanity than necessary, but by and large, it’s not a problem I have to worry about anymore.

21) What’s your favorite wasteland critter?

K: Pipsqueak, definitely. And Larry, Pipsqueak’s son. They’re the only Deathclaws that haven’t tried to kill me, but only because they imprinted on me and treat everyone at Sanctuary like family, now. Dogmeat’s cute, too; first friend I made out in the Commonwealth.

A: Rex is an absolute gem and anyone who touches him will answer to me. I also like Nightstalkers; I can admire something that can move as quietly as they can, even if they are a pain in the ass.

22) What’s your least favorite wasteland critter?

K: It’s honestly a tie between Radscorpions and Yao Guai.

A: Cazadors, the fuck kind of question is that? No one in the Mojave likes those overgrown wasps.

23) How do you feel about robots?

K: Well, one of my best friends is a synth, Codsworth is a Mister Handy, Curie used to be a Miss Nanny but now she’s got a synth body... I like them. Long as they aren’t trying to kill me.

A: I like them, and they’ve got no choice but to like me. Bow down before the mind that created you, and all that.

24) How many caps do you have on you right now?

K: Um. A lot? I don’t know, I tend to do more bartering with goods than with caps.

A: Enough to get by.

25) Nuka Cola or Sunset Sarsaparilla?

K: Nuka Cola, definitely.

A: Sunset Sarsaparilla; you get tired of Nuka Cola after two hundred years with little else to drink.

26) Do you do chems?

K: Medical only.

A: Nah, not really. The occasional stimpak if something catches me off-guard, but other than that, I stay away from them except for bartering with them.

27) Do you ever think about the Pre-War world?

K: A lot. I grew up in this area, you know? It’s hard to walk around what’s here now and not compare it to the world I used to live in.

A: Sometimes, usually when I’m cursing out a broken terminal, wishing I had the tools I had back when I was head of R&D. Otherwise, I tend not to think about it too much. Why dwell on the past?

28) What’s your deepest regret? What would you do differently?

K: Hm, that’s tough. I don’t - You learned quick in the military that you can’t have regrets, because they’ll eat you alive. I suppose the only thing I would do differently is maybe try harder to find a way to reconcile the Institute with the Commonwealth, see if I could find a way to use their technology for good.

A: That I didn’t go looking for the Sierra Madre sooner. Maybe if I’d gone there right after the War... But that’s two hundred years ago. No use dwelling in the past, like I said.

29) What’s your biggest achievement? Or what do you hope to achieve?

K: Even though it’s my deepest regret, taking down the Institute. As much as I wish I could have found a way to reconcile the Institute and the Commonwealth, they were a threat. A big one. With them gone, the Commonwealth is a lot safer.

A: Kicking the NCR’s sorry ass out of the Mojave, honestly. The look on that general’s face when I faced him down with half a dozen upgraded Securitrons after having kicked the Legion right off the Dam? Priceless.

30) What do you want for the future? For yourself? Your friends? The world?

K: I want to make Nuka-Town into an even larger trading hub, start establishing lines of trade and communication with the rest of the continent. I want to push us further towards rebuilding, because we’ve survived for two hundred years - now, it’s time to live. Maybe one day I’ll hand over the reins, but for now, that’s what I want to do.

A: I... honestly haven’t thought a lot about it? For years, I was focused on surviving, then finding out what happened to Vera... And then I got swept up in Rob’s plans for New Vegas. I never looked any further than this, you know? So. I honestly don’t know what’s next. Maybe it’s heading into the Divide, finally seeing if I can’t meet up with this other Courier, the one I’ve been tracking and who’s been tracking me for months, maybe even years now.

#kaili swesson #anna levine #ask meme #fallout oc interview #fallout #oc #wild speaks

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elyyyyyyyy · 6 years ago

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Before 25

blog post | 10.1 flash fiction

Original Story By: Genevieve Isobel Avila and Elizabeth Anne Rodriguez

How lucky am I to be alive. How lucky am I to be alive right now. How lucky am I to be alive right now to tell my story.

In my teenage years, I had purple hair, bloodshot eyes, pale skin and needle marks on both of my lower arms. I had no appetite, no sleep and no care in the world. On most days and nights, I was anywhere in town that was having a party. On average, I could finish a bottle of gin, take at least three smokes of pot and a couple of pills to complete my day. I almost overdosed twice but that never really bothered me, “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, right”?

For my 18th birthday, the present I got from my parents was as an all-expense paid trip to a private Island in Freymere, Nova Scotia and a three- year stay at St. Mark Ji Tianxing’s Rehabilitation Center for Troubled Youth. I was perplexed upon hearing the news that I was to be shipped off to another rehab because first of all, I did not know that St. Mark Ji Tianxing was real. As it turned out, he was a Chinese martyr and an opium addict. Secondly, this rehab center was located in a private island which makes my chances of escaping quite improbable. And finally, the most upsetting part was that I was to stay there for three whole years.

St. Mark’s was indeed a peculiar institution for the treatment approach was unorthodox. The main program was that each person was assigned to a “social group” consisting of five to seven people. The group had to do most of the treatment activities together and earn merit and demerit points which can lessen or add time to our stay in the center. Also, every night before lights out, it is part of the routine that the group shall stay for about an hour at the social hall to have a conversation and share whatnots. I couldn’t care less about their treatment methods because I know that the minute I get out of here, I’ll be back to being an addict.

On my first night, I was to meet my group and get acquainted with one another. I was grouped with two other boys and girls. I sat beside the girl who was almost thin to the bone with long brown locks. She offered her hand and opened up the conversation, “Hi! “We’re so pleased to meet you Amanda, my name’s Beverly.” I barely touched her hand for I was scared I’d break her bones. Pointing to the pale skinned boy with broad shoulders sitting on my left, Beverly said “That’s Tony.” He had sharply intimidating eyebrows with tired eyes. When I shook his hand, it was really cold. Beverly continued, “The one beside him is River.” This boy had blonde hair and sharp blue eyes. He didn’t bother for a handshake, he only nodded his head to me. “And finally, this is Celeste.” She had jet black hair with chocolate highlights that complemented her hazel eyes, I can tell that she was a little younger than the rest of us. “And that’s all of us.” Beverly said brightly, “So, let’s get to know each other more, can you tell us something about yourself?” I was really hoping to avoid that question so I kept my answer brief. “There’s really not much to know about me except that I’m here because my parents hate me. So, that’s it folks, goodnight!” I stood up and walked my way out of the social hall. As I was near the exit of the hall, I was stopped by one of the nurses. “Excuse me miss. You can’t leave yet. Sharing time isn’t over. Please go back to your group.” I was really pissed by that point so I lost all sense of the word calm and went on to a violent outburst. “Listen lady, my parents didn’t pay this institution to prevent me from sleeping! This is rehab not prison! Why can’t I sleep when I want to sleep?” I grabbed the flower vase on a nearby table and smashed it. Then I proceeded to curse the nurse some more until finally two more nurses took hold of me. “Congratulations, you have earned yourself and your group 100 demerit points and you shall serve four hours of manure duty tomorrow at the farm. Now go back to your group and discuss your task tomorrow.” I angrily walked back and sat down with the rest. By their vexed expressions, I figured they all heard our punishment. For the rest of the period, I was given the silent treatment. So the five of us just sat there in a circle looking like a bunch of messed up nightmares.

The next day, while we were on manure duty, the group did their best to avoid me. The girls also kept murmuring and saying nasty things about me as if I couldn’t hear them. Finally, after three hours of shovelling animal crap and listening to those girls cursing me, I lost control. “Look, I am done with this. It’s bad enough that it stinks in here and that all of you are pretending I don’t exist but you two talking nasty about me takes my rage over the top. So please, if you’ve got something to say to me, say it now to my face.” Celeste and Beverly were hesitant to speak until River interrupted. “Amanda, I’m not mad that we’re here shovelling the manure, I’m just a bit annoyed because you got us 100 demerit points. Now I don’t know if you’re aware but 20 demerit points increases our stay by one week.” Beverly butted in, “I’m down to my last six months and you added five weeks to my time.” Celeste added, “Demerit points are also reported on our records which lessens our chances at an early release.” I was going to have an argument with them, but then I realized what Celeste had said. “Hang on, did you just say an early release? Are you telling me that there is a way to get out of here faster?” Tony replied, “Accumulate 3,000 points, you get a shot at the evaluation. Pass that and you can get an early release from here.” Celeste quickly remarked, “That is if you can get 3,000 merits.” Suddenly it hit me, I have a chance at getting my freedom early. I asked, “What do I have to do to earn those merits?” Tony replied, “Well, first of all, you need to stop earning demerits which means that you have to do everything the nurses and doctors say and follow every rule. Merits are earned if you perform well in individual and group activities. Your behaviour is also important, the nurses take note of everything that you do. But even if you get 3,000 points, you still need to pass the evaluation.” I asked, “How hard could that be?” There was a short silence. Finally River spoke “It’s a series of tests mostly psychological and neurological. There’s also a lie detector test so good luck faking that. Also, the evaluation is only allowed for those who have stayed in the facility for at least six months.” In my head, I’ve made the brilliant escape plan. “Help me get those points. Let’s help each other get that early freedom. If we get out I promise to give you two years of drug supply for free and an invitation to all of my parties. So, what do you say?” There was silence. Then Beverly spoke up, “Make that three years supply and I’m in. Either way I’m leaving in a year.” River then said, “I’ll do it, as long as those parties have pretty girls in it.” Celeste was still hesitating but then she nodded. We all looked at Tony who was last to answer, “I can’t do that. I won’t go back to drugs. Unlike you guys, I admitted myself here because I’m here to get better, to be cured. I want no part in this plan of yours.” Tony then walked away and went back to shovel more animal feces. To the remaining three who accepted my proposition, I offered my hand for them to shake and the first one to take it was Celeste. With that, we began our six month mission to get out of this hellhole for good.

As months went on, I began to learn more about the lives of my four fellows. Tony was a poor kid who was forced to sell drugs when his father died and his mother got sick. He tried so hard to resist from doing drugs but he eventually got addicted at 17. Two years later, after he saved some money, he checked himself in St. Mark’s with the hopes of redeeming his life and helping his family. Celeste was the youngest among us. She’s just 15 but she’s already a mother. By the time she was an addict, she also got knocked up. I can’t blame her for she had absentee parents like me. After giving birth to her son, her parents sent her here hoping that when she gets out she’d be fit to become a mother. Beverly’s cause of addiction was no mystery. Just by looking at her you’d know why she’s an addict – she’s anorexic. She started using so that she wouldn’t have to eat. Even after two years of admission, she hasn’t gained much weight. Unlike the others, River was an enigma. He never shared much about himself. When I tried extract more information about him, he’d always change the subject. I just know he’s the oldest in our group at 21, that he’s the son of a well-known hotelier and that he was sent here after a near fatal car accident.

After six months of actively participating in treatment gimmicks, volunteering in community works and putting on our best behaviours in front of the nurses and doctors, we exceeded our goal by 2, 000 more merits and we were up for evaluation for early release. Everything was smooth-sailing until about a week before our scheduled evaluation, Tony reported our scheme to the head doctor. But with no substantial evidence they couldn’t say we were guilty of what he’s accused us. However, they didn’t let us off the hook that easy. Our evaluation was delayed and the tests were made to be even harder. Our entire plan was jeopardized all because Tony had to be the righteous man.

We all failed the evaluation except for River who, to our surprise, passed with flying colors. Within two weeks, he left the center and was a free man once more.

Beverly who was supposed to leave too was given a two year extension based on her performance during the evaluation. She did not take that news very well and even attempted to take her own life by drowning herself in the bath. Luckily Celeste found her but she was barely alive. She was treated at the infirmary for about five weeks. In that time, it was only me, Celeste and Tony doing all the group tasks together and it was a total nightmare. Celeste kept blaming Tony for what happened to Beverly, and Tony always blamed me for suggesting the plan to escape. We were always pointing fingers and constantly got into heated arguments and catfights which lead us to earn demerits and placed our friendship on a thread.

About three months after River left rehab, we received a letter from him addressed to the four of us along with the news that he died in car accident. One night as he was driving home, his car hit a truck and the crash instantly killed him. All of us were shocked and heartbroken. River may have kept to himself but he was our friend and we had a special bond. The envelope was dated two days before his untimely death. Trembling, I opened it and read the letter to the rest:

Dear all of you,

I know that I’ve been the shadow of the group. I never really opened up to any of you because I never had the courage to share my story, until now. So here it is. Growing up, I’d always had this feeling that I’d never grow old; like my life would end before it even started. Unlike my sisters who had dreams of seeing themselves as mothers and grandmothers, I never had those. I also found it hard to imagine myself having white hair and having children or grandchildren. When I was 16, I knew that this feeling was turning into a reality. With the lifestyle I had – chugging bottles of booze every night, mixing meth, cocaine, LSD and weed – I wouldn’t be surprised if I dropped dead before 25. Three years ago, on one fateful night, after partying like crazy, I crashed my car on a tree. I thought that was the end but as it turned out, it was a new beginning. If I didn’t crash on that tree, I would’ve never been to St. Mark’s and I would’ve never met all of you. I wasn’t surprised when I passed the evaluation and the rest of you didn’t, because I knew that I was really cured. How did I do it? Easy, I accepted the reality that I was an addict in a rehab center and that the only way out was to get better. I took all those treatments seriously and wholeheartedly allowed myself to be transformed into a better version of who I am – a version of myself who do not need drugs. So all that softer demeanour and brighter personality at the end were all true, I was cured. I didn’t expect that but it happened. And the same can happen to you. The treatment works only if you allow yourself to be treated. If you take them seriously, it can change you, it can save you.

Sincerely,

River

P.S. I didn’t say formal goodbyes to you when I left because I didn’t know how to do it. But I’m glad we didn’t say goodbye because that means we’ll see each other again.

There was no dry eye after I finished reading.

We couldn’t attend his funeral so we decided to have our own. In the Southern part of the island near the beach, we buried his letter as that was the only memento we had of him. But we didn’t forget what was in that letter for we memorized it by heart. River’s words made us realize how lucky we were to be alive and after we mourned his loss, we did what he wanted us to do.

Before anything else, we rebuilt our friendship that was torn apart by envy and greed. We recognized that the only way we can get through with our problems was that if we face them together. We made a pact that we must get better no matter how long it would take for us to do that.

The second time around, we took the treatments seriously. Each one of us were motivated by someone or something in our journey to become the best versions of ourselves. Beverly started to gain weight inspired by the models who had curvaceous bodies. Celeste considered her child as her inspiration for getting better. Tony finally accepted that it wasn’t poverty that got him into drugs but it was his own fault; he finally believed that he was getting better for himself and not just for his family. As for me, I was encouraged to be cured by my parents – by the idea that if I successfully finish rehab, I would become a better daughter to them.

Days turned into months, and months turned into years. One by one we left St. Mark’s with the hopes of continuing the progress we’ve made and braving the world without depending on drugs. We left behind our old lives to give ourselves new and better ones.

Today, I turn 25. I’ll be celebrating it with the people I love the most, the people who truly care for me, and the people who changed my life.

Looking back at the things I did in the past, I’d say my life was a mess. It truly was a rollercoaster ride but I would never regret the things that I did because those hits and misses made me who I am now. Those mistakes made me find who I’m meant to be and become the best version myself.

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lonita · 7 years ago

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Some Ways In Which My Shitty Eyesight Impacts My Life

The usual practice is to have a computer monitor set back from the edge of the desk some - either with blank space in front or a keyboard. This does not work for me with my vision. I need to keep the average monitor right at the edge of the desk. My face has to be within eight or so inches of the screen, or I can't read it properly. At that distance I am using an 18 point font in my text editor. Because I need the monitor at the edge of the desk to see it, it means ( can't use a desk without a keyboard tray, because there generally isn't enough room to put the tray on the desk between me and the monitor - although sometimes this is possible with a bit of balancing. If I do use a desk with a keyboard tray, it has to be one where the try stays in, and has enough room for my hands to go under the desk's top so I can use the keyboard with the tray in. I can't leave the monitor on the desk's top, and pull the keyboard tray out as most folks would use it, because then I'm too far away from the screen. There are not, let me tell you, enough desks on this planet with a keyboard tray lowered enough so I can fit my hands under there. You're going to ask me why I don't just enlarge things on the screen. I'll tell you why: because that messes up the use of the screen. It makes it harder to navigate around when there's a lot of stuff open. It also means I can't have my eye on a whole window at once - I'd have to move it around to see all the things I need on it. That is an enormous pain in the ass. You're going to ask me why I don't use a bigger screen and sit further back in a normal-ish fashion: because my vision issue isn't just about size, it's also about distance. I had a 50 inch flat planel TV as a monitor at one employer's, and I still had to sit within a foot of it. I'm trying to remember my numbers... this is WITH correction, so WITH my glasses on: left eye: 0/200 with 5 degrees right eye: 80/200 with 40 degrees That's what was on the medical form sent to the government. I can read with my left eye, but only if I put my face right against the screen with the font size I'm using now; and even then it's not the most clear. for all intents and purposes, I have just the one working eye - only the one eye I 'use', or read out of. The distance issue is specifically why I don't use a laptop, and never will. I'd have to be hunched over all the time to try and read the screen. My vision is also why, when out in public, I will not look up when someone honks a horn at me or yells my name from a distance. I can't see people's faces from a distance, nor what they're doing, so if you're waving at me from a car on the road, I won't know it's you. So, I just don't look up. It's better than having people assume I'm being rude by looking at them - or so they think - and not waving back, when I can't tell they're waving. If you're more than five feet away from me in a public space and want my attention, yell my name and give me a direction - or, don't yell my name. I have had people accuse me of being rude because they've walked by me and waved and they think I've ignored them. So, really, the best thing to do is just get in my face, within two feet of me should be good. The distance issue is also - in part - why I avoid any film or TV show that relies heavily on subtitles. At a distance, I can't read them at all; up close, I can either watch the pictures or read the text. I can't do both at the same time. Oddly, it wasn't until well into my adulthood that I realised I had no depth perception. I've learned to compensate for that so well that I never realised how bad it was. When I was a baby, and we were still living in Glace Bay, we had a tile floor in the kitchen - green and red squares. I wouldn't walk across it, but would slide my foot from square to square, because I couldn't tell they were at the same level. This was after the surgery but before glasses. Whatever issues were caused by the lack of depth perception all those years, I mis-assumed they were related to not being able to see at a distance. I still catch a ball like a small child - either with my hands up warding it off, or arms stretched out to hug-catch it with my face turned away. It does mean, though, that I can't watch 3D movies, or sometimes navigate a staircase without sliding my foot along the floor until I find the edge. It makes creating art, choosing food at a buffet, and playing with swords interesting, that's for sure.

#vision impairment #journal

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techforyouths · 5 years ago

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Is Linux Finally[Top Seven reasons] beating Windows? (Windows Vs Linux OS Battle)

Chances are you’ve all used a personal computer that runs the Windows operating system. But how many of you have actually used Linux?

If you look at the market share of operating systems for pieces over the last few years, you’ll see that Windows totally dominates the market. It’s been that way pretty much since Windows came on the scene in 1985.

The word Microsoft became a household name and synonymous with both home computers and operating systems. In January, twenty nineteen windows had just over an 88 per cent market share. Apple’s Mac operating system is next with just over 9 per cent of the share.

And after that comes Linux with just a tiny share. What might surprise you, though, is perhaps this shouldn’t really be the case.

What Windows is?

We’re not going to bother explaining to you what the Windows OS is. That would be almost condescending.

You’ve all used it and many of you probably loved the XP version, hated Vista and Windows Me, and probably weren’t too fond of Windows 8 when Microsoft released Windows 10. It said this was the last in the line of totally new versions.

It would be updated forevermore. The point is we’ve likely all gotten used to windows. Using windows is as familiar to most people as opening a window in your home.

What is Linux?

For those of you who don’t know what Linux is, you can actually just go to the Linux official website in the company. Answers that question for you. We’ve done the reading, so we’ll paraphrase what the company said.

First of all, Linux tells us you probably do use Linux, but just don’t know about it.

This is just one sentence from its grand opening paragraph. It’s in your phones, in your cars, in your refrigerators, your Roku devices.

It runs most of the Internet, the supercomputers making scientific breakthroughs and the world’s stock exchanges.

It’s also just a regular operating system for your p._c. The operating system, which most people just initialized to OS is like the brain of the machine. Without it, the machine is pretty much useless. We don’t need to tell you that these systems can be very complex and we imagine most of you wouldn’t be confident enough to say you know exactly everything you could do with your windows OS.

That’s one reason people stick with what they know because moving to a different OS is like finding yourself in a totally new environment.

Windows Vs Linux OS Battle: Detailed Comparison?

You have to learn the laws of a new virtual jungle, which can be exciting but also a bit frustrating at times. But get this. Let us explore some advantages of Linux over windows

Linux is free whereas Windows is Paid

You can install Linux on your computer for nothing. Yes, it is absolutely free. Installing a Linux server is also free. This is what you need when you have a network of people that need serving. It isn’t free.

If you need Windows server OS though, Linux makes a big deal about this, and rightly so.

Who doesn’t like free Linux also says its server is easy to run and that anyone can do it?

Linux is open source?

OK, so the next big point when discussing Linux is the fact that it’s distributed under an open-source license. What does this mean? Well, basically you can do whatever you want with your OS, which is great for many folks since they enjoy the fact that they can study exactly how it works and make a change. Imagine you were not into a Windows feature and then thought, OK, I can do this better.

I’ll just rewrite the code and add something. Linux lets you do this. Linux also notes these two things that users have the freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbour.

People also have the freedom to distribute copies of your modified versions to others. This is why Linux users like to say they’re part of a community.

A common phrase is it’s an OS that’s run by the people for the people. The same way you can tinker under the hood of a car.

Linux lets you see what’s inside. Some folks like to get under the hood. That’s just their nature. Linux really works for these people. So this is starting to sound too good to be true and easy to use free OS.

That doesn’t break much. And one that you can alter and fiddle with and improve anything else.

Linux has a lot of versions to choose from

Yes, in fact, there is. Linux has a lot of versions to choose from, but the company calls them distributions. So you have quite a few choices of how you want your OS to work and what your desktop will look like.

When we say a few, we actually mean hundreds, if not thousands. Some are more popular than others, and if you choose, you can opt for a version that’s pretty close to windows and look and feel.

If you like the Apple Mac OS, there’s a Linux distribution that tries to mirror that.

Linux is much secure and less vulnerable as compared to Windows

Another major point is that Linux is less vulnerable to attacks than Windows, which had a virus before. What about some particularly hard to remove malware who’s been hit so hard they felt like taking a hammer to their blue screen of death.

Now you might be thinking, wait a minute here. If Linux is basically an open-source system, surely it must be vulnerable to attacks?

Well, we’re told by the security experts that Linux is actually harder to gain access to so fewer files can be corrupted. It’s a long story, but the way Linux is designed makes it less likely to suffer from viruses.

It can happen, but it happens a lot less than on the average computer using windows. Of course, there’s also the fact that Windows is way more popular. So, of course, that’s the system people want to hack.

Linux Os required less Power than Windows?

We’re also told that running a. OS requires less power, so in other words, you could run the system on an older computer so it’s reliable, easy to run, allows you to choose from many distributions, allows developers to fiddle around and it’s free.

So come on, there must be a downside because hardly anyone in the world uses it compared to Windows. Something just doesn’t add up here. Coll

Collections of Softwares: Linux vs Windows

Well, Windows being so huge means it has much more software. You can run on it. There are thousands of programs you can run on Linux for free and you can even get Windows software on Linux with a bit of effort.

You can even have your beloved Microsoft Word running on your Linux machine. But in all, Windows offers a much wider variety of software.

What about the hardware supporting software? Well, it said in the past you might have had trouble getting Linux on a machine, but that’s a thing of the past. Most machines you can buy today should be able to run Linux without issue.

What experts have a views on Linux over Windows?

We will explain this reason below.

Enough of the expert commentary, though. Let’s see what real people who have switched from Windows to Linux have to say.

The most popular comment on one Reddit thread was At the end of the day, the Linux community wants to make software and Microsoft wants to make money when those goals are opposed to Linux becomes the better choice.

In fact, a lot of the people who now use Linux say that they’re very happy they made the change and mostly for the reasons we have talked about today.

Another person wrote updates, not bugging you. It’s faster. No spyware runs well on older machines. Tons of variety and penguins. He likes penguins.

Another person wrote. It’s free, as in freedom. No stupid licenses that tell you you can’t use your computer the way you want to.

You’re free to use it for any purpose. Change it, redistribute it, and to distribute the changes you make. It’s software that’s useful for society. We didn’t see many negative comments for Linux, but one person said when it comes to gaming, Windows is better as the games are designed to run on windows.

He also said that as Windows 10 is the entire deal, Microsoft is focused on making it the perfect environment. It’s coherent, he said.

Whereas the Linux world is massive and for some people that could be confusing. Actually, when it comes to Linux and gaming, you can find many forums with people arguing about this.

This is what one very popular gaming web site said. Yes, Linux is a decent operating system for gaming, especially since the number of Linux compatible games is increasing due to Valve’s Steam OS being based on Linux.

However, we would still advise anyone who doesn’t need any of the advanced features that Linux has to offer to stick with Windows due to its ease of use and fewer compatibility issues with games.

Conclusion on Linux Vs Windows?

This is not to say, however, that Windows is bad. Not at all. And Windows 10 has been, for the most part, very well received. As we said at the beginning, Windows has been part of people’s lives for many years. People know what they’re working with.

And even though Linux offers similar alternatives, a lot of people don’t want to make the effort to change. There’s also the case for a long time, people have gone over to Linux because they thought it was only for people who knew a lot about computers.

That using it might take some amount of computer savvy. There is no doubt that people will have to do some learning. And as we already said, you’re entering a different jungle.

But no, you don’t have to be a computer science major to use a Linux computer. That said, some people just don’t want to have to learn something new.

And on top of that, if a computer comes with a pre-installed version of Windows and works well enough, why on earth would they go through the effort to change no matter which you choose, Windows, Linux or even a different OS altogether?

FAQ’s on Linux vs Windows?

Why don’t more people use linux

It’s that familiarity and of course, the fact that it comes pre-installed on many pieces you buy that prevents some people from crossing over the scary waters of OS change toward the little known island of Linux.

Why Linux market share not even 2 percent?

So with all this positivity being spoken about Linux, why is its market share not even 2 per cent? You can read tech web sites where real computer nerds talk about this and you’ll see people saying that Linux really should be ascending faster than it is. But actually one developer said what we’ve just said in that Linux is just far too fragmented. He also just said the obvious and that it just hasn’t gained momentum yet. And well, Microsoft has a PR machine that’s virtually unstoppable.

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