#logic or coolness are only tools that can help your world tell an interesting story. the story is the main goal!

[lgbtlunaverse]

Some absolutely masterful wordlbuilding and storytelling synergy on Ryoko Kui's part is that canonically the winged lion specifically likes to eat desires that are both very complex as well as intense. His ideal prey is someone with deep multilayered goals that they are extremely dedicated to.

You know, traits that just also happen to make someone a really good character.

The things that make Laios and Marcille perfect characters to center a story around are also the things that make them prime targets for the main antagonist! They'e automatically plot-relevant merely by being interesting. And the same logic goes for Thistle and Mitrhun, them having been Dungeon Lords requires them to have novel intricate motivations, even if we only ever get to see echoes of them in Mithrun, with his having been taken away.

It makes sense logical sense for what the winged lion is. Of course a being that eats desires would find rare, deep, and itensely wanted desires more appetizing! But the real mastery is in the fact that it automatically lends itself to good storytelling.

Which is really the primary goal of good worldbuilding. Not how cool it is on its own, or how much internal logic it has, but how well it fascillitates telling a compelling story.

[alhyari-art]

Creating Characters That Resonate: Some Tips for Memorable Designs

"While tools play a role, it’s our vision that truly matters”

You know that feeling when you see a character from a game, a painting, or a comic and you instantly fall in love with it? It's not just because it looks cool or cute. It's because it has a personality and a story that shines through its appearance. That's what I love about character design: the ability to create characters that make people feel something.

If you are interested in learning the basics of this art form, there are many resources available online 😅. (I will create some tutorials on this soon.) But now I'm not here to lecture you on anatomy or color theory. Instead, I'll share some of my personal tips on how to make your characters unique and engaging for your audience.

Tip 1: Dive Deep into Your Character’s World

Kickstart your design process with inspiration from your own world. This personal touch not only enriches your art but also adds depth and more meaning to your creative process.

Consider this school bully who is based on.. a person I used to know. He’s probably off picking his nose when he’s not on the page! Can you spot him?

See the bully's backpack 😈? (Illustrated for Swish! by Mahmoud Elzein.)

It’s all about discovering those tiny personal connections that breathe life into a character. Brainstorm with character profiles, create mood boards, and try to figure out “what’s in their pockets”. I’ve found that writing dialogues for my characters helps me visualize their personalities better. Honestly, half the time, I’m imagining how they would annoy each other offscreen!

Tip 2: Play with Shapes to Highlight Inner Conflict

To emphasize a character's inner turmoil, you can use contrasting shapes. By smoothing the edges of sharp shapes, you can reduce the contrast and reveal different aspects of the character.

“Good or bad?,” I always ask my students.

Experiment with different sizes and shapes and make your characters captivating enough that your viewers accept the visual logic of your art worlds.

Imagine a gorilla 🦍 and a bee 🐝 as friends in a picture book. How would you draw them in relation to each other?

A good way to enhance the narrative and ease the tension is to break down the character shapes. For example, the bully in Swish! looked threatening at first, but I used his soft facial traits to show his insecurity. I also gave him a loose shoelace to imply that he is not totally in control.

Even the smallest details can tell a story about your character. (Illustrated for Swish! by Mahmoud Elzein.)

Tip 3: Harness the Power of Color and Value

Contrast is key! Opt for vibrant characters against muted backgrounds, experiment with warm and cool tones, and introduce pops of light against deep shadows for visual drama.

Contrast and lighting for drama.

Challenge yourself with limited color palettes. This forces you to think creatively and adds an unexpected layer of unity to your work. For the ‘Museum Heist’ piece, I used shades of blue, and it was gratifying when viewers, even those not from the art world, noticed how it influenced the piece.

The blue tones were a fun challenge 💎

Tip 4: Sprinkle in Details and Accessories

I take sneaky joy in hiding personal details within my illustrations. Maybe it’s my old license plate or a memento from my parents. Details like faded scars and mended clothes add layers to your characters and imply a history, giving them more depth.

Can you find all the hidden secrets in Ella the Gorilla's room? 🔎 Let's play in the comments! (Book by Mawya Alfadda and Rama Al-Sahreef)

Tip 5: Push the Boundaries with Expressions

Imagine yourself as the director of the scene and your characters as the actors. Hire the best actors and make sure they come with the best: pose, gestures, and outfit, and nail the whole performance.

Don’t just copy the reference! Exaggerate those eye positions, play with asymmetrical half-expressions – this keeps things lively and adds charm.

Never be afraid to push your reference photos for more whatever-you-call-this characters! 😄

Tip 6: Seek Feedback and Refine

Discord and Telegram groups have been invaluable for me – asking targeted questions (like “Does anything feel off?”) gets me feedback way beyond just “looks nice!”.

How people interact with your WIPs speaks volumes. Don’t just listen to words, watch how long they engage and which elements draw their eyes.

My wife and kids are a great help, especially for children’s book and game art. They notice what I often overlook. I sometimes get annoyed when they don’t like something (I worked on for long), but I know it’s not personal. After all, they’re the best early test for my work.

Bringing It All Together

Character design isn’t just about drawing – it’s about infusing them with personality and emotion that resonates. Let’s keep the conversation going! Share your favorite character design tips in the comments below 👇

[kendrixtermina]

Cindered shadows Reaction

tl;dr - Fodlan is a crapsack world and I want to strangle Rhea (or break Amyr on her again). Yuri is a very good contrast to the others and a cool addition to the ‘verse  for all that he is basically Joker XD

I took live notes while playing

One thing to take note of here is the house leader’s “canonical” classes (Fortress Knight/Warrior, Hero/Paladin, Assasin/Wyvern ride, though some of those assume the budding talents to be unlocked already) as well as just more of a look into what their dynamic is when they’re together - as such well-contrasting characters I always thought it was a shame that they didn’t interact more so I’m glad for this

 Edelgard is always somewhat standoffish/ closed off and generally the ‘logical’, least personable one, Claude is surface-level friends with both. Dimitri would like to think they are full-on BFF, calls Claude “my friend”, defends him etc. Claude’s friendship with Edelgard is very banter-driven, but there (the bit where she says “wow this trap could have been your idea” and hes flattered). Of course both of these carry over into their post-timeskip interactions especially when they part on good terms (Dimitri always does, and Edelgard easily can part with him on good terms, but Claude, though he doesn’t like the thought of them dying,  wouldn’t take risks on either them) - and of course it’s Claude who proposes the feast after the mock battle where they all eat together. Edelgard and Dimitri were never friendly (at least not during the academy), but at this point they’re civil. 

Claudes Dialogues are BRILLIANT like he really shines in this one (Edelgard probably gets the least exposure but all of this is set before the reveal, so she has to keep her cards close to her chest - Or maybe there just cant ever be enough Edelgard for me lets be honest)

First impression of the Ashen Wolves is that they’re all very dramatic with a lot of bluster (Hapi being the contrasting exception but over-the-top in concept) - they have really been the Kings of their own little world, having a lot of free reign underground, accountable to few and throwing down for the heck of it

So it’s Yuri Leclerc and he was adopted by a Kingdom noble, the same Gwendal and Lonato served  and who dies if Arianrhod is blasted, but it seems like unlike wish Ashe who was taken into the family this was just a temporary gig for him

That makes him a commoner, which by itself is a big difference from the other three. Dimitri is and always was the crown prince whereas Edelgard suddenly ascended the sucession list due to tragedy and Claude has a much doubted claim on both sides of the border

I suspected he was going to be from the kingdom as we already had the Alliance, the Empire and the token Foreigner accounted for - also ‘Yuri’ is a slavic name like ‘Dimitri’ - though being adopted he isn’t necessarily from there

(Later we learn that he was in fact born in a village in the Kingdom)

Also liked the callback to count Gloucester’s sheming and how he had Balthus spy on Claude

They do go through some work to flesh out Abyss and make it feel lived in as a sort of society. 

Just look at that very very makeshift classroom. Few down there were getting any sort of education before Aelfric set this up

They do something clever here where Balthus tells you part of why he’s wanted, prompting the question of everyone else’s stories

This idea of a wretched hive beneath the Church reminds me of Amsterdam where the big church was in the prostitutes’ quarter and they actually had flourishing trade agreements going on

But as a hiding place for outcasts it shows us all the uglyness about fodlan and how much persecution/ need for change there really is (Really wants me to play Crimson Flower again. Or Verdant Wind.)

There’s people “chewed up by the Nobility”

Duscurians and Almyrans

Many in the church want the place “purged”, Rhea wouldnt go so far but is at the very least unsympathetic

Tons of Banned Books (is this where Seteth puuts them?) Claude and Linhardt have a field day over it

That poor woman (probably Dagdan since she talks of a war) who was persecuted for believing in other religions (which was a thing under Rhea - I’ve been saying it, Shamir and Cyril are “allowed” because they work for Rhea which to her is the same as believing, both are “working for her family/ for us instead of against us” because Sothis is not just her god but someone she knows personally)

Yuri and his trouble are a sort of quasi-police or keeping order, reporting to Aelfric. As his second in command Yuri is a sort of “prince” and already lead his own bandit troupe, or perhaps more a chieftain than a prince, he’s a leader, an authority but not an inherited one but 100% selfmade, he comes from nothing - People call him “boss”,

One wonders if he already dressed in this noncomforming manner before comming to the abyss

He is very very self-reliant, decides and opines for himself, gives Byleth backtalk, very much a natural leader who owns his influence entirely to that natural-leader ness 

Byleth asks very good, very direct questions 

Hilda, Linny and Ashe are here because of their connection to the Abyss characters and the information they can provide - Ashe knows Yuri, Linny knows his book lore, Hilda heard rumors from Holst...

Here we get to appreciate why Claude keeps Hilda around she knows all the gossip, all the ‘local’ information that Claude doesn’t have, she’s an excellent info source

Lets appreciate that it was those three specifically because they were slacking off

Ppl say there the church scorns them pretty much I like how they’re no longer even pretending that the church is nice

The four MCs, meanwhile, might all have ended up here in a different life; If El had escaped the experiments she could’ve been like Hapi, Claude was already an outcast, Jeralt fled with Byleth as a refuge(or could have been sent there as a mercenary to torment the locals and then decided to stay there instead), maybe not young!Dimitri, but timesskip Dimitri was outright a vagabond and says in his lecture questions that he travelled many places and temporarily lived in slums he didn’t go full murdery until a few years in, as Gilbert recounts

AU where they all grew up  or met in the Abyss is what im saying, and the four MCs and Yuri team up. The slitherers still stir up war, perhaps Duke Aegir or Arundel made themselves Emperor etc. 

Characteristically, Dimitri really likes the idea of a secret haven for the outcasts (see all his dialogues about “acceptance” and general ‘help-the-orphans’ thing) - but also characteristically he’s a bit of a tool for the status quo- “Claude don’t be rude this guy is giving out charity~” but the issues Dimtri the issues they shouldn’t need to hide anyways and this is why I prefer the ‘revolutionary’ routes (CF and VW) - though to his credit Dimitri does do charity and stop ppl being poor when he’s king. 

Claude is absolutely having a field day, this is right in the way of his “Political program” - “What you’re helping the poor and downtrodden by barely tolerating them in a sunless hole where they have to hope the church doesn’t decide to purge them” They basically live in ever present danger

Bit sad that they had Edelgard “tied up” catching up with Constanze rather than stating a reaction to the abyss as a whole though it’s probably very deliberate that she keeps her cards close to her chest - As constance asks “What is the princess doing here?” - investigating that’s what. She mostly asks questions or voices conclusions - shes certainly also investigating for her own purposes

But of course Dimitri and Ashe, pure as always, immediately want to help the locals

Edelgard meanwhile is thinking strategy, talking of capturing and interrogating the enemy

Of Yuri ppl tell you both that he’s a real scoundrel/ “our scoundrel” - he loooks out for them so they obey him, “when I say jump they jump” - a Mafia leader of sorts. He’s like Claude in the ‘motivating ppl through taking care of their interest’ parts but claude’s alliances are looser and no one does “jump” like Yuri projects authority, its not quite the honor loyalty Dimitri inspired because he “pays”, Edelgard projects authority but it’s loyalty to the cause more than personal loyalty, and she’s an ideologue and inspires the same in her followers theres no “pay” from Edelgard. She warns you that you might die and that’s it. She is the same herself. 

I think Yuri would die for another the way that Claude and Edelgard would not, like when Aelfric got his mom putting her in danger was never an option. I don’t think you could pressure Edelgard with a hostage, she’d just be like “Hostage-kun, I won’t let your death be in vain” and then tell their captors to screw themselves. 

He has things in common with all the others - he has a certain honor and a people-driven leadership style like Dimitri (rather than ideals-driven like Edelgard, Claude and Seteth) - though unlike Dimitri his honor is only for the “in” group, he cares about protecting his turf, his people... and nothing else. Thus he doesn’t fit into the revolutionary (Edelgard, Claude) vs restorer (Dimitri, Seteth) dichotomy because he’s not concerned with the system as a whole - he doesn’t like it or have faith in it, but he will absolutely work with it when it suits his aims (such as when he makes his own alliance with the church behind Aelfric’s back, or just working with Aelfric in the first place)

This alliance is probably also supposed to give a reason why the Wolves would sttick with the church later (though Hapi’s non CF supports talk alot about reforming the crap institution that it is) even though they mostly have reason to dislike them

Like Edelgard he is calculating and ruthless more than Dimitri or Claude. (He laughts at peeps who fell in his trap) But you couldn’t see Yuri sacrificing an ally like Edelgard does (like with Dimitri the people come before the plan) and Yuri often markedly does NOT tell allies what they’re getting into while El makes a big point of telling everyone the risks and allowing them the chance to step out

In a way he’s Claude with a edge but without the big vision. Yuri is the most small-picture, Claude the most big-picture of the lords

They also have a different relationship with trust - some describe Yuri as “devoted to his own but too trusting” , he says it’s a choice... but he is never really fooled, just pretending to be, he solves a great part of his plot on his own. 

Like Claude and Seteth he prefers to play it safe/ know he can win (though Claude and Yuri arent against calculated risks) whereas Edelgard and Dimitri will do what they think is right with no guarantee of victory and don’t care much if it kills them or their followers

Otherwise tho they have a lot in common and are fast friends XD Yuri makes some great observations “Wow look at you three trying to suss out each other’s motivations must be exhausted”

“Doesnt take a title to have an agenda“ - Yuri and Claude are really... a “takes one to know one” situation

Claude tells us they generally get along tho (”Any misunderstanding might spark a war... ”... yeah)

Likewise, Yuri immediately gets that Claude’s friendliness is esentially “maintaining neutrality” more than actual allegiance

Yuri also seems relatively forward in romantic matters which is unlike the others lol

Remember how I was frantic for Claude/Linhardt or Claude/Hubert friendship content? Here’s another great team that ought to have interacted more, I could even see them working romantically assuming that Claude would be so inclined. 

Hapi/Sylvain, too! Because they’re both cynics

But despite her cynism Hapi is also characterized as considerate

Yuri likes board games! hes in the board game squad with Hubert, Claude, Sylvain and Edelgard. The Board Game squad is incidentally the Best Characters club

 He’s not big picture and only develops something like that toward the end of his support chain (to fight poverty)

So in a sense his style and the hole in it is more like Byleth’s own - he learnt practical leadership in the field and applies it for those he likes. He’s more self-directed

aaand more undercover fun

It seems that both the slitherers and Alferic were after the Chalice at the same time - the Death Knight’s presence hints at it, Metodey’s confirms it. So far I’d assumed he was one of Edelgard’s loyalists like Ladislava but it seems he works directly for Arundel, Edelgard is not too friendly with him and accuses him of “Disrespecting her house” 

Since Aegir was in power during the Bridgid and Dagda war, the slitherers could definitely have had something to do with how Constance’s family was treated, if they were onto her secret - I don’t see how Aelfric could have done it

Bold of El to order Jeritza away in broad daylight. At this point she’s probably come to accept that no orders are gonna keep him from Fiting PPl where he can, especially her she is a very tough opponent

I trusted Aelfric until he spoke. The voice is... its not a good guy voice. Same with how the eyes are drawn

then he called people “his flock”

“They are charitable only when it suits them”

“they have eyes and ears everywhere”

Yeah. I’ve always said that Rhea is like one of those millionaires who give their pocket change to charity but then support policies that keep people poor. Hopefully no one will keep arguing that she cares about the poor or the disenfranchised. 

“Her grace thinks its a nuisance”- This tells us alot. Alfric had to convince Rhea to give half a rats ass about the poor but still speaks of her with honorifics. That’s the crack in his soul right there

I also love how Yuri protests whenever anyone - the church etc make plans for him, hes very self-governed

Hapi, Lysithea, El and Byleth should have a “victims of human experimentation” support group

Alternatively, Cursed People support group with Hapi, Marianne, Bernadetta and Dimitri

I like the C supports with Byleth and Balthus as well as Hapi because they tell us not just about them but about Byleth - Both adress Byleth’s go-with-the-flow tendencies and lack of own direction, though Byleth makes clear that by this point they actually like the professor gig

“I could see this person just about anywhere”...in a bad way. Oh but Hapi you too can be recruited to all routes XD No she’s right. By-By is being used and she should tell them. 

MORE PARENTS LORE I rejoiced so much and this was such a cool thing to adress here

At first it seems that Rhea was also after the chalice but turns out she had written it off and the one pursuing it within the church was Aelfric

But you all do catch the implication that she did this all before and “great tragedy” resulted? Right? You get what that means?

For once she actually noticed a mole though Aelfric likely wasn’t subtle

It results in a zombie dragon because she meant to revive a dragon not a human

By now people should really be used to Rhea handing out legendary treasure to byleth

there are friendly reminders of the western church purge still going on

I like how constance smells a spy right away

Also the contrast between Hapi’s jaded “Lets just give them the thing so they leave us in peace” (Yes, Lapis Lazuli) and Constance’s “We can’t let them have the artifact! theyre bad” - Constance might be shrill but she’s a person of action

The sunlight thing is a tad over the top/unrealistic but it’s not per se the cliched split personality thing, more like going outside brings out the bad memories after hiding away underground for so long (she tells mercedes as much) while she otherwise covers it with bluster. Her parents and older brother were killed and her hometown destroyed, after all. She is still basically talking the same overdramatic/ formal way

Perhaps two sides of nobility like the pride but also the demure good breeding n shit, there is some forced quality to the bluster even indoors

But ultimately she’s pretty hard working and determined underneath

At one point Hilda says something like, “You sure that we should interfere? I don’t want to make anything worse it might be better to stay out” - This right here is why you can’t get CF Hilda

Further Hilda facts: She had countless suitors and knows her way around “magical doo daads” and fortune telling

Having her mildly superstitious is of course a fun contrast to claude

“Compared to you even Hubert looks like a spring chicken” lol

I was going “Linny I love you” the whole time

Speaking of love... The moment I decided I loved Yuri is when I learned why he was expulsed - because the church sent him to kill someone he knew and rather than be upset, or thing how he might change society to prevent it or draw other conclusions from it... He refused on the spot and fough church ppl. That’s when I saw how he fits with the other characters. What the contrast was.

Yuri is one of those rare types who would never give the full voltage in the milgram experiment

Because see? That ties back so well into the themes

One of the main scenes that contrasts the house leaders is their reaction over having to fight Lonato. They all sympathize to a degree, but none acts against it. Claude and Edelgard show their dislike of the church and want to stop crap like this, but right there right then, they play along for the sake of their plans. (Claude’s plan at this point still involves stealing relics)

Dimitri is the closest to Yuri in that he immediately regrets it massively and says they should have found another way (in part because he is against the notion of “sacrifices for the plan”) but this realization comes to him only after all is done because ultimately he follows authority/ sees some good in it and the status quo

Yuri,  meanwhile, flat out refused. Yeah he also killed whoever the knight escord was but he refused

Also let this sink in: Yuri was slated for execution because he refused to kill someone he knew. This is what might have happened to Ashe, Sylvain etc. if they had refused to fight Lonato or Miklan. 

Aelfric arranged for him to fight someone he knew but that’s all he did, the rest is the result of normal church policy and then begged for pardon (meaning the normal policy would be to kill him) The mission might have gone to a different house, but the church constantly makes ppl fight ppl they know. You realize just how easily all our beloved characters could have ended up just like Yuri?!

I loved how, when offered info about their parents, Byleth immediately seeks it out with no delay

“Never discard a wild hunch lol“ Claude I love you Linhard I love you

Generally we see Dimitri being the local people person and catching onto details about people’s emotions and dispositions , while Edelgard is like, “Investigate this, investigate that” (i love that about her), and Claude is the oddball/curveball and follows his intuition. Yuri goes on instinct, Seteth, if I had to say, on experience perhaps, certainly caution. 

So she doesn’t even recognize Dimitri. She did say that “she can’t say the name” so she probably never learned that her little friend was the prince. Can ppl stop acting like she snubbed Dimitri or like she has any reason to treat him like a brother?

I don’t think he pieced it together until the ball, and she only realized either during the parlay (AM) or some time before their final confrontation (She distinctly knows by the time she killed him)

Another poignant moment is when she basically didn’t trst Aelfric and only started considering that he might be good by the time Team Slither showed up. Yeah she’s not trusting and would have zero base assumptions that any church ppl are good

By the time she learns about the Nuvelle crest she’s so done like, “Are there any MORE conspiracies I should be aware of?” And indeed there are

Aelfric is sort of a consequence of Rhea’s coverup certainly not an 1D villain. He started doubting her after the coverup began semi thinking for himself and at first this led him to try and make the abyss less chaotic and speak in their favor before Rhea, but then when Sitri’s body fell into his hands he was just too tempted

And UGH remember when I said that for all that im not a Rhea fan, i don’t thnk the human experimentation was so bad because she didn’t harm anyone and it seems like the homunculi lived out normal lives? yeah i take that back

Even if Sitri wasn’t healthy enough to travel she didn’t need to be completely isolated exept for trusted church peeps

This would have happened to Byleth. You see how this would have happened to Byleth? Completely isolated and controlled?

Oh Jeralt jeralt baby you were so right to flee with Byleth so right

Worse because Rhea was a parental figure

Also she kept creating more homunculi though they turn out frail and basically live miserable lives

and the first attempt with the chalice probably did kill ppl

sitting with the corpse all the time is creepy too

doest that mean Byleth won’t rot either?

So she was a book worm - Jeralt did say she was brainy

It did start as a mentor crush, much like Byleth’s own relationship might

I love how Edelgard is all subtly concerned after Yuris fake attack

I wonder how that apology line was phrased in Japanese, “useless” seems a bit harsh given that Edelgard generally seems to love her father, but there is no denying that he lost control of his empire and that as a result villains wrecked havock all over it so there’s nothing better she can say there excuses wont help constances situation

Like this must be very hard for her

Constance’s support definitely confirms that it was the Seven Families/ ie the PM and Arundel who did this to her (also lol at the concept that she basically wants to make Byleth her very own Hubert or Gilbert)

Edelgard is saddled with all this stuff from the previous administration - I mean so is Dimitri with the instability, the recent anexation of Duscur and part of Sreng... but she gets confronted with it more, iDK if it’s common knowledge who’s really in charge

Because Yuri is concerned with his turf, not the world, it makes sense that “his” route would be the sidestory. I kind of wanted a part 2 in the sense that I like this cast and want more of him as a main character but I also get why there isn’t one... because he wins no matter what. Lucky seven! He’s the one who can’t lose (except if you dont do the sidestory I guess) ”He works with whoever’s in power to maintain his own, just like when he made the deal with Rhea. He gets all three house leaders and Byleth to promise that they will look out for the Abyss so his bases are covered no matter who wins.

- even so he basically solved his own problem and Byleth’s presence just kinda gave him the opportunity . Well, one defining factor is that they trust Byleth exactly because they don’t “seem like a typical church funky

Still since Rhea tells us the backstory here what use is the silver snow ending? I suppose she doesn’t mention the homunculus/ “I created you” bit but the lack of decay and the transplanting heart bits do sort of hint at it

Certainly a contrast tho, like in SS you learn the magicky parts us in CS you get way more about who mommy actually was as a person

Poor, Poor Byleth. This must be such a mindfrick for them. Like I had so many feels for By-By

It’s so weird to go back and have the Yuri & so present throughout the monastery,but  not know us yet

[zippyreview-blog]

Zippy Review: The Worlds 1st All-In-One Interactive Viral App

Sick of buying products that gets you nowhere? You know the ones where the sales pages are filled with BS? But then you find out there’s incomplete training on how to make it online. That stops today.

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What is Zippy?

Be honest… you’ve brought a product cause the sales pages are flashy – luxury cars, yachts, vacation spots, houses… Then you discover that the products offered are complicated.

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With Zippy, you’ll get an all in one suite that can handle just about any traffic generation task you can throw at it. Just take a look at a few of the things Zippy can do in the next parts of this Zippy Review.

Zippy Review Overview

Vendor Billy Darr

Product Zippy

Launch Date 2020-Aug-31

Launch Time 11:00 EST

Front-End Price $17

Bonuses YES, HUGE BONUS

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Product Type Software

Support Effective Response

Official site 👉VISIT OFFICIAL SITE

Recommended Highly Recommended

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Who are the creators?

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Let’s look at the next parts of my Zippy Review to see what he has transformed into it

Features of Zippy

Einstein said: “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over & over again and expecting different results…”

That’s why the creators have put together something totally different to what you’ve ever seen before… A solution that not only gets you traffic but a solution that converts that traffic into cold hard cash.

Because let’s face it — you can’t deposit traffic into your bank account! Now what we have for you is not just another software, it’s the ultimate package to getting results online but first let me explain why you’re still stuck.

Once you understand what’s holding you back you can break through and move forward.

Everything you need to succeed is included at an affordable 1-time price!

Brand-New Zippy Software: First-Of-It’s-Kind Beginner Friendly Software Gets You Hundreds Of Free Viral Visitors In 60 Seconds In 1-Click.

Step-By-Step Video Tutorials: The included video training teaches you EXACTLY how to convert the viral traffic you get with Zippy and turn it into unstoppable sales.

Quick Start Guide: If you don’t like going through video’s don’t worry, I have you covered with a Quick Start Guide that just shows you how to fire up Zippy to get viral traffic & sales in seconds.

LIVE Chat Support: We want to offer you to have the best experience ever with Zippy. That’s why we have live chat agents waiting to assist you should you need it.

Zippy levels the playing field for the small guy who’s just starting out. It’s designed and built for the beginner to get “viral visitors”. And you can effortlessly get viral visitors without any of the following:

No Tech Skills

No Being On Camera

No Setting Up Funnels

No Previous Experience

No Paid Advertising

No Huge Budget

With this software, you will be able to create…

Quiz: Generate results based on logic and user profile

Trivia: Create a facts list

Quote: Create a customized post to convey in insight

Poll: Create a poll and ask the users what they think

Flip card: Create a flip card, click and revel back of the card

Personality: determine personality trait based on choices made

Story: Create video based story based on facebook (post, video), twitter, flicker, gist and more

News: Create a featured content using image/gif

👉VISIT OFFICIAL SITE

Zippy Review: Is it worth your money?

So… if you know that viral traffic is the bees knees when it comes to marketing, why aren’t you doing more of it? Or even if you are using it in your marketing strategies, why are you working with so many tools to get the results you’re getting?

Did you know you’re only one click away from getting hundreds of free viral visitors in as little as 60 seconds which in turn let you enjoy sales 24/7 and live a life of total freedom?

If that sounds exciting, listen up and here’s why Billy and his team have built an incredible first of its kind software that lets you harness the power of viral marketing without any of the complicated boring tech stuff. It’s literally as easy as one click

That’s where Zippy comes into play. You’ll have a ton of tools at your fingertips that replaces most of the tools you use to get free viral visitors. There’s a ton of things that Zippy can do, (which you can see at the previous parts of this Zippy Review).

Zippy gets you hundreds of free visitors that multiply leveraging the power of viral marketing. In other words, it gets you traffic which continues to increase on autopilot. It’s literally a case of set forget and laugh to the bank. This is truly a breakthrough in the marketplace

No more fiddling about with expensive software that requires a serious learning curve. All joking aside, if you’re serious about taking your traffic to another level this year, then you owe it to yourself to get a copy of Zippy while the price is incredibly low.

From my perspective, there are several reasons why you need to grab Zippy right now.

Initially, Zippy is 100% fueled by FREE traffic. Undoubtedly, traffic is considered as the lifeblood of any online businesses. If you don’t have any traffic on your website, you don’t have anybody to convert.

But with this all-inclusive system, you would absolutely say goodbye to the days of wasting your time & money for traffic. It will help you tap into hoards of free traffic as well as prevent you from spending a lot of money on buying traffic.

Besides, the software is so SIMPLE and powerful so that ANYONE, even if you are NEW to this whole “internet software”, you can use this software and get results.

To make sure you can maximize the ability of Zippy, it offers you the detailed training that helps you discover all of the ins and outs of the system. Especially, you also get atraining that shows you how to make real money.

But that’s not all. You will be shocked when you know its price that I will tell you in the next part. The vendors offer you a gigantic discount in comparison with what it contains. Believe me, this is definitely cost-effective and worth money investment for you.

Right now however, Zippy is available at a serious discount so you’ll want to head over and check it out before the time runs out and the price goes up.

You’re probably thinking that this unique first of its kind viral software is very expensive and you’d be right to think that. Considering most life-changing software not only started around $97 but typically have a monthly fee too, so it would be fair to charge you at least $97 a month for this…

But today you won’t be paying $97/Month. You won’t even be paying $67/month, not even $47/month. When you act during the limited launch period, you won’t be paying monthly at all.

In fact they’re going to give you an amazing bargain which means today you can get in for a one-time price without any monthly fees. It’s literally less than the price of a large pizza.

And it gets better when you act now, you’ll also get five brand new premium bonuses worth thousands absolutely free.

Pricing

For a limited time, you can grab Zippy with early bird discount price in these options below. Let’s pick the best suited options for you before this special offer gone!

Front-end: Zippy ($17)

Brand-New Zippy Software – Worth $197/Month

Step-By-Step Video Tutorials – Worth $297

Quick Start Guide – Worth $197

Live Chat Support – Priceless

Bonus #1: 1K A Day LIVE Invite – Worth $1,997

Bonus #2: $268 Discount Coupon – Worth $268

Bonus #3: Agency Licence – Worth $497

Bonus #4: 25x DFY Campaigns – Worth $497

Bonus #5: $100 A Day Case Study – Worth $297

365-Day Money Back Guarantee

Gets Results Or Get Paid $300!

OTO 1: Unlimited Edition ($29)

The Unlimited Edition Gets You Unlimited Free Viral Traffic & Sales

With The Unlimited Edition You Can Get Viral Traffic From A Total Of 20 Different Sources

You’ll Get Special Access So You Can Create An Account For Your Friends & Family

There Is No Usage Or Others Restrictions When You Get Unlimited

Unlock Additional Tutorials That Let You Easily Achieve 4-Figures A Day

If You Can’t Scale Up With This Special Upgrade Just Let Us Know & They’ll Send You $500 For Wasting Your Time

OTO 2: Done-For-You Edition – $197

They’ll Setup Everything For You There’s Literally Nothing For You To Do

Then They’ll Ensure The Traffic They Drive Actually Turns Into Sales

Once They’ve Setup Everything For You The Next Thing They’ll Do Is Drive Viral Traffic For You

They’ll Tell You Which Products Produce Sales On AutoPilot & Convert Like Ferocious Wildfire

They’ll Also Include Our Private Rolodex Which Is Worth Its Theyight In Gold

And They’re So Confident That If You’re Lucky Enough To Grab This You’ll Get Results And If You Don’t They’ll Personally Send You $1,000 For Wasting Your Time

OTO 3: Automation Edition – $39

Add the “Automated” edition to your order so you can get autopilot traffic with Zippy and can enjoy making money while you sleep.

The “AutoPilot” Edition Lets You Automate Zippy So You Can Enjoy Traffic & Sales While You Sleep

You’ll Unlock The AutoPilot Function So You Can Experience REAL Automated Traffic 24/7/365

With The Automation Edition You Also Unlock Traffic From Even More Sources..

To Ensure You Know What Todo To Automate The Entire Process Step-By-Step Video Tutorials Will Be Included So You Can Make Money Fast

You’ll Also Get The Rights To Sell The Agency Rights To Others So You Can Make Even More Money

OTO 4: Reseller Edition – $39

How would you like to make 100x times more money from Zippy than the average customer who buys it? The ability to make back 100x times what you’ve spent on Zippy so far?

Now imagine sending people to this exact funnel that you’re going through… imagine them buying products through it just like you have done. But… Instead of me getting money, you keeping all of the money for yourself…

That’s what we’re offering you a proven sales system without doing any of the boring, complicated and expensive tech stuff.

Steal Zippy For Yourself – $9,997 Value

100% Commissions On Everything – $2,997 Value

Leverage Our Marketing Material – $9,997 Value

Ready-Made Sales kit – $4,997 Value

Get Results Or Get Paid $500 – $500 Value

Keep 100% Of All The Money – $9,997 Value

Bonus #1: Affiliate Robot Software – $497 Value

Bonus #2: Affiliate Funnel App – $997 Value

OTO 5: ATM Edition – $197

Their Team Of Experts Will Personally Setup The “100 Dollar Daily Method” For You From A To Z… All You Need To Do Is Grab A Copy Of The ATM Edition Right Now..

They’ll Do All Of The Work For You, Just Sit Back, Chill Out And Watch Traffic And Commissions Roll In Every Day…

If You’ve Ever Wanted Hands-Free Sales & Profits Then This Is It. Imagine Not Doing Any Work Whatsoever Then Logging Into Your Commission Account To See Cold Hard Cash How Amazing Would That Feel?

You Can Do What Your Enjoy Most, While Their Experts Ensure They Do All The Setup For You So You Can Sit Back, Relax And Get Paid Big Time…

Fast Action Bonus: You’ll Get Instant Message Access Directly To Billy And His Support Team To Ensure You Make Money With This Program… This Has $20,000 Value

Zippy Review Conclusion

Thank you so much for reading my Zippy Review. I really hope it did help you with your buying decision. This system is coming out with many bonuses for the early bird. Take your action ASAP for the best deal.

REMEMBER! If you purchase through my link, you will be supported 24/7; That means you can contact me ANYTIME when you get trouble in using or can not contact with the authors/ product supporters. I will help you RIGHT AWAY!

Besides, if you buy this product through my link, you can also get these huge bonuses below (Please remember that these bonuses are not for the TRIAL or FREE versions):

👉VISIT OFFICIAL SITE

You can have an opportunity to receive extra bonuses if you finish 3 steps below:

Step 1: Order the product by Clicking here.

Step 2: Choose 1 of my huge Bonus Packages below! Remember that you can pick one more bonuses pack for each Upgrade you purchased!

Step 3: After your purchase goes through, email your receipt & your chosen bonuses pack to me at alexhuynh.1110@gmail.com so I can confirm your purchase and email you information about how to access to your bonus material.

I Will Always Update New Bonus

Now, Check your bonus below!

»»Plugin Bonus Package««

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Read more related articles:

LIVIO Review: New App Lets You Start Exploiting 2 Billion Potential Buyers For Limitless FREE Traffic…

Abracadabra Review: New Traffic Siphon Is Like”Magic” & Get Results In Only 5 Steps..

Thank you again for reading my Zippy review & bonus

[shut-up-im-jay]

PEEPS THERE IS MORE

WHAT ARE. THE. FUCKING. REPRESENTATION. OF. PAIN. IN. ART.

Sorry I’m overly excited rn

I love this. And I’m sorry but I’ll tag peeps here too bc it’s really interesting, tell me if you want more in the future or if you want me to stop tagging me lmao

@whumpthisway @whumpster-dumpster @untilthepainstarts @ashintheairlikesnow 

Let’s dive into it.

SOO how does art represent pain and how does it allow us, spectators, to feel it and why do we represent it in art?

Art and stuff, when I use the word it’ll be about every representation of it, paint, fanfic, writing, films, series.... everything.

first of all, maybe when we experience art we aren’t just communicating with the author and the characters but also with the other readers somehow. Like there is a community behind any form of art

heroïc pain, comical pain and the experiment of pain in stories about real people --> restitution of sensation of pain, (recent phenomenon apparently)  are the three main thing we’re gonna talk about here

What is a hero and what is its link to pain?

stoïc heroes are the ‘best’, those who take pride in toughening up, very often a mannly trait, there is historically a superior power in play. They’re heroic bc they fight till the end knowing that they can’t do anything (see La chanson de Roland, the agony of Charlemagne’s nephew, it’s apparently a really good agony/whump thing)

Action is superior to affection when you’re a hero (martyrs hello, we’re talking about st Sebastian, our true gay icon, I love him)

------ Tbh this is basically the base for whump, but not the cool part. We want our whumpee to go further. The strength is cool but I don’t just want this, I mainly wanna feel the pain and no one is that hero. It’s often more the tipping point that gives me whumperflies --------

Philoctet here. Who is the guy? Heroic af, but he is an ass. So anyway he is wounded and he has an ulcer and yeah that’s why he screams and smells and his friends just let him to die on an island (lmao) bc he has invincible weapons so they just go away with it (savage)

So he is the metaphor of a patient isolated in their pain, that’s cool. Also there is a caretaker in the story. True antic whump peeps.

-----------Now comical pain(?)  (not whump related here)

Can we really laugh about pain? we’re talking about the ripping a bandage kind of comical pain in caricature. How can some kind of pain affect us while other makes us ‘laugh’ or at least be amused...

We then laugh more about the idea of humiliation, for example in comical theater, laughing at the pain as punishment for the ‘bad’ characters. Also laughing makes people superior, so when we laugh together it binds us together, and then pain can be bounding but anyway that’s not the point.

The real question is: how the fuck do we have an insensibility to pain when there is a comical situation?

let’s talk about someone who falls and it’s funny cause they slipped on a banana peel or smtg. bc there is a social convention in the funny situation. Also pain isn’t really obvious, it’s often ambiguous and we can’t really have empathy so yeah, we maybe don’t relate that much? and also small kids don’t seem to find it funny apparently bc they’re not really aware of the comical situation. 

I think that this kind of things would be more interesting to do it as a psychological/social study on why we find things funny related to culture and our background, more than our relation to pain

------------ Now, the historically modern kind of pain tale, the one more related to whump, when the goal really is to describe the pain, often trying to get the spectator to relate.

The body has a new place in art. Historically the soul was really the center of art while nowadays we are more in a somatic art, the body is the focus.

Cenesthesia is the internal perception, the general sensibility we have toward our internal feelings. And it’s a general tendency now, Hunger, K.Hamsun, Nausea, Sartres, they focus on those internal feelings. Another great book: ‘La doulou’, Alphonse Daudet (he suffered from syphilis) and he described in a diary all the pain he was feeling, and he tried to be really accurate. Again, great writing material ig. 

Léon Werth: The white house is an auto-fiction, basically the story of a guy that has an ear infection and his surgery then the fever. The whole story is about post-op sensations. Interestingly enough, the character doesn’t even have a name, the whole story is only to describe the pain, and the main character is really interested in his own pain. He uses GREAT analogies tbh, like there is an industry in his ear and everything, that’s.... that’s good shit. But like, he isn’t bad about it, he is just weirdly okay with it? he only describes things as he feels them, he has some kind of dissociation from his pain. 

This is basically one of the example of pain descriptions in modern art, when the person in pain becomes the spectator of its pain

Dolor y gloria, Pedro Almodovar --> good PTSD shit, how emotional pain becomes physical pain. Two narratives at the same time: the main character with chronic pains as an adult, but then there is the other story: how, as a child, MC was influenced by his past

on an unrelated note, the teacher just said that main character and his mum are hot lmao that’s bi energy af

Well now she’s dissecting a cinematic scene and it’s not really interesting so I’ll try to express what I took out of this. 

Seriously, it wasn’t as cool as I expected it to be, I thought she was going to focus more on how we relate to pain. That���s unfortunate, bc I’d love to have an external pov on whump. The actual psychological effect of seeing pain, and why it’s truly appealing to us. Why the fuck do we enjoy it.

It was more of a dive in the representation of pain in different arts. Some good whump references in it I guess. But nothing really psychological and it’s kinda a shame tbh.

Oh but some cool things maybe(?), some interviews of neurologists:

WHAT IS PAIN AND HOW DOES IT INTERACT WITH THE MEDICAL WORLD?

(also there are people specializing on pain out there which is fucking rad and metal lmao)

Scientific pov: Pain is an experience. Sensorial, emotional and physical. the pain isn’t really localized in a part of your brain. Sure, things are processed in the thalamus but it’s a very large zone already, there are so many ways to feel pain, and so many structures in our brain, it’s almost as complex as memory(!)

-The facial expression of pain and why it’s ambiguous? How to see the pain? There are literal descriptions of non-verbal cues, and how to detect pain (there are even photo stocks of facial pain expressions lmao to try and educate our brains). And often, the more you’re affected, the more you’re ambiguous in the way of expressing it. 

Frowning is one of the first ways of expressing pain, muscles have a kind of order in the way they react.

Our anatomy teacher now: words of pain. As doctors, it’s often unclear how to understand the levels of pain based on patient expressions. So we have precise forms to help, but we need patients to be really educated to have enough vocabulary. Unfortunately sometimes as we already stated, pain can be anesthetic in a way, and hard to describe, and trying to fix the pain in time is near impossible. We would even need to do a linguistic study on pain and stuff to make sure we can be precise (and write more whumpy things lmao)

Here, a take on pain as an alarm system. Dramatic consequences ensue when there are lesions of nerves, so it is obviously a very useful and protecting tool. But then what about neuropathic and chronical pains? They’re basically when in a house, the alarm goes off all the time for no reason. And then the definition of a protecting system is really wrong

What are the bias medical professionals have? The more a patient says he’s in pain, and the less they’re believed (it’s almost an auto protecting factor: we shut down our empathy and it conducts us to underestimates the pain, and this is terrible bc the more you’re in pain, the less you’re going to be actually taking care of!) 

The logic and chaos of pain: either persistence of a physical issue or malfunctioning of nervous systems In a western, there is a tendency to have pain representation when an arrow gets in the flesh, then when it’s extracted, but we mostly won’t even blink when the character just isn’t in pain anymore bc we have that representation of pain being linked to trauma. (whumpers, I think there is where we have something to say: we actually understand the role of pain after the trauma)

And knowing that pain is linked to something is a very relieving factor for most patients. Thus the known placebo effect: if we actually say to patients that there is a cause to their pain, they almost always have better results with pain management! 

Placebo also works the other way around peeps, if you think that smtg is going to be painful, oh boi. It’s gonna hurt like hell. Like more than it should... you get the hint

The human mind is fascinating 

[roguebotanist]

I’ve been playing around with talk to transformer today and thought it would be fun to extend a bunch of sim bios! I think someone may have done something similar recently, but I’m not really sure. Anyway, here’s every sim in Strangetown (bolded parts are their original bios). Long post ahead:

Loki Beaker

As soon as he perfects his latest invention, Loki is sure to get the recognition he knows he deserves. In the meantime, he keeps himself busy by trying to assemble a nuclear reactor out of common household items. During one of his experiments, he accidentally melts the family dog. Realizing that his so-called tools of destruction are so harmless, Loki gladly takes his pet back home and happily adopts it. Fearing that the strange creature will cause more damage if he is ever left alone, Loki goes to great lengths to keep it, including stacking hundreds of baby chicken eggs in the backyard.

Circe Beaker

Circe knows 238 different ways to make someone scream, and none of them are nice. She enjoys taxidermy and collecting coat hangers. She has a wonderful knowledge of names and an affinity for Hallmark, which is why all her books are centered around Christmas and spring holidays. This is particularly important to her, as her whole life is completely shaped by them. The children love to ask questions about things, and they are able to make up as many of the answers as they like. Do you have a huge embarrassment problem? One of Circe's known phrases is 'Where's the finger in your back pocket?'.

Sometimes in the garden, she prances

Nervous Subject

His hobbies include twitching and blinking a lot. He's also fond of travelling and baking. Along with the broad and meaty teeth of a canine, St George the giant groundhog has a day-old beard and a partial gingivitis – which is the inflammation of a plaque inside the teeth. His beard and gingivitis don't hurt his routine; they just mean he's a bit slower and a bit more circumspect.

That's because he's aged.

Olive Specter (yes, it gave her stats)

Olive will stop at nothing to get what she wants. She spends her time collecting mushrooms, sharpening sticks, and excavating her yard. As you might expect, she has a big appetite, and eats anything that she thinks is good enough for her. She's as much of a carnivore as you are, and is able to catch fish or birds at the least opportunity. She doesn't bother with plants, and prefers to live in areas full of food.

Alignment: Neutral evil

Hit Dice: 1d8+2

Speed: 30 feet

Ophelia Nigmos (this one is unsettling and strangely coherent)

Ophelia's hobbies include hypochondria and monitoring the air quality. She worries about the future... and the past... and the present. Especially right now.

Her past memories have become like mantras, repeating over and over in her head. They are the most important thing to her. This time, she's not sure she will remember them the way she did before. She's aching to go back and erase her past.

That which is most important to her--the things she left behind--has been forgotten. And nobody can help her. Nobody.

PT9 Smith

The only thing PT9 loves more than his lawn is his family. When he is not spending time with his children, he enjoys clipping coupons and staring up at the sky. Over the years PT9 has found his place in the aquarium world. He has helped educate people on different types of fish and he has hosted various education seminars for clients who have "fish stories" to share. In his spare time, PT9 enjoys spending time with his wife and his grandchildren.

Jenny Smith

Jenny loves having a career, but she wishes she could spend more time with her family, and maybe make some new friends. She really likes green. She wishes she had more friends. She wishes her mom would talk to her more often. She wishes she had nicer hair. She wishes her nose looked like a horse's. She has a lot of sympathy for humans and hopes to see one in the future. Jenny is a cross between a cat and a dog with a medium build, no special traits, but that means she's got a lot of muscle and a huge body

Johnny Smith

Johnny dreams of being the hero that rides in on a white horse, or at least a cool sports car. He'd go on to become the worst Superhero in all of space and time, which I guess is exactly what a normal, human teenage boy would do.

Jill Smith

When Jill closes her eyes, she sees dolphins. She has her heart set on becoming a deep sea welder someday. She loves dolphins so much, she's often put one in the trunk of her car and hit the gas to cheer her up.

"I love them so much," Jill declares. "I'm a Dolphin Lover."

Pascal Curious

No matter what happens, Pascal believes there is a logical explanation for everything. In his free time, he practices home psychoanalysis and collects conspiracy theories. He's become adept at opening jars containing creepy little bones or fragments of jellyfish, an odd skill in the world of ponysaurus hunting.

"I have been extremely lucky with bone fragments and that's not even being exaggerating," Pascal said.

Vidcund Curious

Serious and exact, Vidcund strives to fit the universe into a nice tidy package. He has an unnatural fondness for African violets. He is literally covered in them, from head to toe, if not technically. This is an odd love-hate relationship, a love-love and a hate-hate; that leaves us to sit and imagine the potential war between the vine and the earth.

Lazlo (”Twilight”) Curious

Not as studious as his older brothers, Lazlo got his degree in Phrenology. He likes to call phone psychics and spends hours trying to bend forks with his mind. His middle name is "Twilight" because his father was a vampire. He hates flowers.

General Buzz Grunt

The General likes to have his clocks set to military time. He used to enjoy barbershop quartet singing, but that is classified information. It's unknown when he fell in love, but it's possible that he was one of the first humans to understand the concept of love.

Tank Grunt

Tank Grunt wants to be just like his old man. He spends his days lifting heavy things, dodging imaginary bullets, and being bigger than the other guy, but deep down inside, he wonders if anyone really knows who he is. He hates it when his grandmother wants him to call her "Mama" and his grandma is pissed, and he just wants to stay in the dark and get away from the boring world around him. If he could just learn to love himself, he'd be unstoppable.

Ripp Grunt

Ripp totally doesn't care what you think of him. He is going to do whatever he wants to do, which is mostly what everyone else is doing. He has this whimsical desire to show off his tattoos, even though they give me nightmares (sometimes it feels like these tattoos are like a big torture device). He is hyperbolic and outrageous and uncouth and rude to the point that he's almost comical.

Buck Grunt

More than anything else, Buck wants to be a pet stylist to the stars. He spends a lot of time wondering why his father never seems to notice him.

"I want to have big hands and big feet, and I'm hoping I'm going to end up a couple of feet longer than my parents are," Buck said. "My Dad tells me a lot of things like, 'My son is going to be that guy who gets attention by the funnest side of you you've ever seen.' "

Cousins' health makes him optimistic about his prospects

Ajay Loner

To pass the hours, Ajay enjoys counting the grains of sand in his backyard. He may be about to blow his last few thousand, so he worries no more. "You can always count them. You just have to keep on keeping on," he says.

Chloe Curious

The complete opposite of her sister, Chloe just wants to meet new people and to have a good time. She can often be found daydreaming or chatting on the phone. She is very positive and has a creative mind, a big help when composing mean tweets. She always makes sure she keeps her emotions under control and is not too outgoing in social situations.

Lola Curious

Intelligent and focused, Lola knows what she wants and how to get it. She enjoys politics and telling those around her what to do. She keeps her enemies close and keeps a close eye on her enemies' backbones. Her love of Doctor Who and her interest in exploration drive her to travel the galaxy.

Erin Beaker

Erin spends a lot of time working on her psychic powers. Of course, she isn't really psychic, but don't tell her that. Erin's already a pro at picking out great dates with potential future partners. Nothing beats having a psychic date.

Kristen Singles

Kristen envisions herself as a world famous sports champion. She doesn't particularly care for Strangetown, but it's only a pit stop on her track to greatness. As much as she hates to admit it, her talent has never been in question, but that's not stopping her from strutting and parading around town in a T-shirt advertising her skills. She's no longer treating her sport as a game, but instead is obsessed with her prowess as a self proclaimed "muscle mom." 

[chaos-burst]

Various comments on my question about campaign starts a while back! I finally got around to answer them! I’ll try to see if I can get to some of the asks I’ve gotten as well. 

@bi-vexual If the characters are the typical hero type something spontaneously attacking wherever they're at is cool imo! That immediately makes them work together and then they might try to find out why that attack happened

-> They are indeed not the typical hero types :’D The most hero-type character is a grumpy cleric. So that will not be a solution for them. 

@im-your-spacedad-now One of my players tried to steal something and one by one the rest joined in a chase across the town

-> Actually something that might happen, but I feel like depending on the characters you have it might misfire and stop them from actually forming a group. But it sounds like a nice creative start of a campaign!

@canaryfeather I like the characters to start out knowing each other. That way you don't have the awkward getting to know you stuff and can go straight to having them walking into a town or getting attacked or whatever. That said, the first game I was in, we met on the road when a few were attacked by wolves, others stopped to help, and a cleric happened by to heal them.

-> Yeah, I like when characters know each other as well! Won’t work for me, but I will have two of them meet beforehand at least :) 

@weissschnee-tm  In one campaign I dmed, made an npc that I had all the pcs know, then had her gather them to ask for their help with something. Party tie, first quest, and a bit of insurance all in one! In the other, I helped the pcs build back stories that put them all in the same place at the same time in a really interesting and thematic city. I sort of figured they'd stumble across each other as they explored it, but I was ready to stage a small attack on the city to bring then together if necessary

-> That thing with the NPC everyone knows is really really awesome :D I will keep that in mind for any future campaigns I might do!

@artisticarperture One of the campaigns I was I started similarly to the force awakens where there was a riot and my character was a soldier who was supposed to silence it, but gained morals halfway through. The rest of the players were all either rioters or bystanders. It was interesting cause we started the campaign in initiative

-> I like that, because it’s customized so much for the individual characters :) And starting in initiative must be very exciting :D

@dark-as-night-sweet-as-sin One of my campaigns, all the pcs got a letter from an npc they all knew, asking them to meet and go on a quest for them Also you could have a session zero where all the players get used to rping their characters, and the group could come up with why their characters know each other organically

-> That is already out of the window, because they all have wildy differing backstories, so they won’t really know each other beforehand, bc reasons ^^ But generally that is a very nice idea!

@phirephox666 In jail

@lionsfairytale In one of our summer campaigns, my friend started us in a tournament scenario, which gave us a chance to get back into the swing of things and play with our character’s abilities before we were attacked for real. For the next one he did give us a hint he wants us all to start by being woken up from literal death by some sort of entity.

-> Waking up from death sounds very badass. The tournament was something I considered, but had to dismiss bc of one of the player’s backstories ^^ But I might get back to it later in the campaign.

@tiefling-queer I introduced my players to each other by putting them all in the hotel California and making their first encounter be the lot of them trying to escape and fighting off goons. in one campaign I'm in, we all started in prison and were broken out by rebels. in several I've been in, we were all just separate schmucks who happened to answer a job put out by a village. setting/campaign plot can play a big role in the meetup - the prison break scenario was a fun setup for us becoming rebel fighters (sort of), and in a sailing campaign I was in the party was just assigned bunkmates/on the same watch. i enjoy throwing the party right into some sort of immediate problem since it gives them a moment to think "oh these guys know what they're doing I could roll with

-> Breaking out of jail was one of my initial ideas, when one of my players said “don’t traumatize my poor boy” and I was like “fair enough” :’D But throwing the party into an immediate problem sounds very reasonable!

@wytch-lyghts Each of my players were being inducted into a thieves guild — each knew a friend of a friend type scenario who told them to be at the same place at the same time, they show up, it’s not the guild. It’s where they met a recruiter who started them off on their first task to prove themselves capable/worthy: find the guild via a long trek through the city sewers. I figure this design could work for joining any group really, but it was fun

-> Ha, that reminds me of the start of the thieves’ guild quest in TES Oblivion :D it’s pretty cool, as long as your characters all fit that kind of thing (which mine do not)

@squirrel-saloli my friends and I recently started a d&d club, and we got a lot of new players. we started out as one big group with three of us dming. because a really personal beginning was impossible with so many people, we had them start out in a guild that would pay them to complete tasks that regular citizens commission them for.

-> I have a series of oneshots i do for the same group of friends and that has them in a guild as well! it’s a pretty nice starting point and i like it, but i enjoy it mostly for the oneshots! for a whole campaign i will do it differently :)

@kneesntoess    we met in a tavern, but we met in a tavern after the three of us had been accidentally plane shifted by a death cult, so

-> Oh wow :o That surely is a beginning :’D 

@pixeljam45 My current crew met over an ad that they all saw, but we have plans that in the next campaign, they're going to all wake up after a night if drinking too hard and be on the run for a crime they can't remember committing that night because it was nickel-shot-night at the bar.

-> Something like that seems to be very popular! I wish I were better at creating mysteries, bc I would totally love for them to solve some puzzles/crimes along the way. Let’s see if my brain will let me :D

@captainclovey in one campaign I was a player of, we all met at a festival for a big event in the city we were in, cue something goes wrong and we're ones who get pulled into helping out before all being branded with something magical that meant we couldnt back out

-> Yep, I considered cursing two of my players with magical objects so they couldn’t leave the other’s vicinity without taking damage. I hope it won’t be necessary :D

@faecallie In the drow campaign my sister made for us the party had been kidnapped by drow to be slaves, but the caravan had been attacked by a drow dissenter to free us. But as part of the terror tactics the drow used to break slaves, we woke up naked in coffins. Really set the tone for a campaign where the drow were nearly done conquering the surface for Lothe.

-> I’m not a fan of the classic d&d drow concept *cough* And I don’t want to make my campaign too grimdark. But if that’s your sort of thing, I hope it was lots of fun :D

@dontdropthejam I started my players on a train, in the same car as each other. Some plot relevant NPCs joined them, and then the train had to stop for repairs, leaving them stranded in a remote mountain hotel, where train car passengers were sorted into hotel rooms with each other. Then a kid got kidnapped and the plot began!

-> Kidnappings/Jails seem to be very popular :D 

@sandssavvy Well, in one campaign I was in they all met because they were all arrested (mostly separately) and had to escape from the same cell. It wasn't done that well by the dm cause he tended to shoehorn moments. But if it was done well by a dm who knew a lot about the pcs and their weaknesses/what could get them into trouble, it could be cool.  In snother campaign, we were each sent a summons into a meeting for an investigation they wanted us to do cause of our different talents.

-> I think many concepts for campaign starts depend on how well the DM does it. I mean, we saw Matt doing a very lovely tavern-meeting-campaign-start! And my first campaign started like that as well. But yeah, the jail idea is really great and I love it a lot :D

@genderliquid If you’re overwhelmed: make them decide, but RP it - give them enough context on their world and whatever mini arc you want to start with and make the players tell you where they’re meeting, what they’re doing there (as much as they want to say to the others) and how they got hooked in.

-> I mean, being overwhelmed is part of my nature, but I won’t do it like this for the campaign. I do want to have a plan and give them directions. But it’s something to bear in mind for potential future campaigns when the backstories are not all done yet ^^

@seventeenhealingpotions One really nice beginning is: You all wake up on the shore. There's parts of a shipwreck all around you. You see *other party members*. You don't remember them, or anything that happened before. But if these people are here, then that means they're part of your crew or other passengers. Maybe they are your group? It's only logical to stick with them for now. It's a good beginning, since you don't have that tavern trope, and you give them a reason to form a party.

-> Memory loss is pretty cool and a nice tool for a campaign start, but it’s nothing that fits my characters for the moment. I really like this idea for a oneshot or mini-adventure tho! :)

@deathdefyinglifeleaps So what if the Rogue and the Wizard stowed away on the sky pirate’s ship and the cleric is busy tending to one of the other pirates when Something happens that causes the sky ship to take off too quickly for any of them to leave? Maybe the rogue is just there to steal something?

-> Thanks for the specific suggestions, but I do have very detailed character backgrounds already and for various reasons all those solutions are not doable ^^ 

@hgr-ros Try the old voyage trick: they just arrived in the starting city and they vaguely know and like each other enougj to stuck around. I use it a lot evem though my players usually create very social characters

-> City, yes. Social characters and knowing each other will be a no :’D

@pokidragon My campaign is very homebrew so the game started with my players waking up an a prison after each of their characters died- it’s very dark souls themed :) 

-> That sounds very badass and also very ominous :D 

@asdeclaredbythedeptofawesome  One thing I will say is that my dm has written up a questions sheet. And then asked who would have done what. This allowed us to have already met and have some small back story together. They were mostly fun things like who got drunk and had to be carried home and who started the bar fight. Or who accidentally started a revolution and stuff. These all ended up having minor or major plot hooks later. It also meant that we established some of the party dynamics And relationships easily without having the first couple of sessions being awkward. Highly recommend if you want everyone to have already met. The other is tell everyone they need a reason to follow something and ask them to come up with reasons why they would follow the initial plot hook. Having built in character reasons makes things a lot simpler 

-> Oh, yeah, I have all my characters’ motivations down, that’s not the problem at all. And I will have two of them meet beforehand, but they will not be friends by any means. And questions like that I had for my series of oneshots, but for various background reasons those four would not really have known each other beforehand. 

Thanks for all the input! It’s really interesting to see how differently people start their campaigns ^-^

[gold-from-straw]

Frozen Heart - ch5

Loki has a bad morning, but on the plus side, now Tony is well rested, he's able to recognise some accidental culture clash and resolve their awful misunderstanding! TW for panic attacks, blood, and accidental self-harm caused by a nightmare.

Read from the beginning on AO3 if you prefer! I’m tagging anyone who left a note on the previous chapter here as well, hope that’s OK!

Loki woke with a jolt, his heart pounding, nightmares of a frozen world and evil red eyes lingering in the fringes of his mind. He lifted trembling hands to cover his face, and nearly screamed.

He stumbled out of bed, his heart thumping, trying to get away from the vicious black claws, the blue skin that had haunted his nightmares since his childhood. He scratched at his arm, tore at the pale lines raised in the skin, whimpering and panicking, the quiet, calm voice inside now drowned out by the storm, and he couldn’t find himself, couldn’t dig himself out from under this hellish mask, this curse, this…

“Hey! Hey, Loki, please, calm, will you? Hey, look at me? I’m not going to touch you, alright? I just want you to look at the lights, can you do that? Can you breathe in with the light as it gets brighter? That’s great, keep going�� OK, and now out. Like you’re whistling, purse your lips, yeah, just like that. Now in, feel it… feel it filling you up or… yeah, this is good. That’s great, buddy. OK, I’m just gonna… can I see your arms?”

Stark came closer, still holding his hands out in front of him and looking as unthreatening as possible. Logically Loki could see that he was veryunthreatening, a small mortal in soft clothing, hair still sleep-mussed and face pillow-creased, but with his heart still hammering inside his own chest, he couldn’t handle logic at all. He tugged his arms closer to himself, fingers slick with his own blood.

Then he looked down. The blood was indigo. He whimpered and pushed his arms out as far from himself as he could, staggering backwards, his breathing speeding up again.

“Hey, hey, it’s OK! I’ll get them fixed up, no worries.” Stark cupped his hands around Loki’s wrists, making a surprised hum. “Wow, you’re cold.”

Loki let out a burst of hysterical laughter that very nearly turned into a sob. How utterly pathetic. To have been reduced to a scared child, cowering in someone else’s room, terrified of his own appearance after a nightmare… Loki turned his face and closed his eyes. It was almost unbearable.

Stark tugged him gently over to the bed, encouraging him to sit. He left him there, staring down helplessly, hatefully, at his blue, bleeding arms. “Here we go,” Stark said a moment later, setting a bowl of water down by Loki’s feet. He took Loki’s wrist in his hand and started dabbing the blood away, staining the water an inky blue. Loki stared at the colour diffusing through the water and tried not to despair.

“There we go,” Stark said with a grin. Loki looked at his forearms, wrapped in pristine white bandages. He felt emptied out, like his heart had been excavated from his chest, leaving him dull and hollow. Stark’s smile slowly slipped from his face and he bit his lip. “Ah, do you… do you want to talk a bit?”

Loki blinked at him.

“Like, uh… do you maybe want to… were you trying to, um. Were you trying to hurt yourself? Is this, like, a self-harm thing? Because I won’t judge, I just…” He scruffed his hair. “Yeah, I’m not very good at this shit. Are you… OK?” He winced and looked at Loki sideways, almost as if he thought Loki would strike him for his question.

“No, Stark,” said Loki, his voice sounding very distant. “I am not OK.”

“Yeah, I kinda… got that.” Stark sat on his haunches and rubbed his face. “You know what? We need a load of breakfast. I’m thinking pastries and donuts, something that won’t go cold or soggy, and then I think you should tell me all about it. I mean, I can’t promise I’ll be any help.” He winced again. “Honestly, I’ll probably be shit. Like, worse than nothing. I’m not… the best listener. Or the best friend. But…” he shrugged and looked away like he didn’t care at all. “Yeah, croissants! JARVIS, could you order us, eh, I dunno, one of everything from Belle Maison?”

“Of course, Sir,” JARVIS replied.

Loki looked up in the direction of the voice. He had been introduced to JARVIS the night before, but this morning, after a night of somewhat effective sleep, he could cling to the fascination sparking in his chest, distract himself. “Is your companion made of magic?” he asked.

“What, JARV? Nah - or, well, he’s an AI - artificial intelligence. He’s made out of computer code and electronics and… stuff.”

“I blush, Sir,” said JARVIS dryly.

Stark just smirked. “I’ll show you the bots in a minute, it might make a bit more sense then. Assuming you’re still up for a bit of research in a while?”

Loki felt the cold flood through his system once more, ridiculous for a Frost Giant. He had forgotten during Stark’s treatment of him this morning that he was little more than a prisoner here. He was Stark’s research project, and nothing more - this had not been kindness, but a care for one’s tools. Loki summoned up a professional mask and nodded.

Stark blinked, his own smile faltering. “OK… OK, if you’re sure? Anyway. For now, do you want a coffee or something? I need coffee, I’m not human without the first one of the morning.”

Loki narrowed his eyes at him. “Hyperbole?” he asked.

Stark winked at him. “Only just. C’mon, Billy Goat Gruff, let me hook you up with the good stuff.”

Loki had hoped that the distraction of breakfast and coffee would make Stark forget his demand that they talk, but once they’d eaten a couple of the sweet treats, he tapped his fingernails on the polished stone of the high table he called a breakfast bar. “So, Loki-Doki, you wanna tell me your story? How did you end up in a crater on another planet causing snow in the desert?”

Loki closed his eyes for just a moment, put his pastry down on the plate and clenched his hands into fists under the table. “As you wish,” he said, his voice strained.

Stark frowned. “Hey, no, it’s fine if you don’t wanna tell me, you know? I just… thought it might…” He scrubbed his hair again. “I dunno, help? People are always asking me if I want to talk, I just thought it was the done thing, or something. You don’t have to.”

“No, I am yours to command.”

Stark made a face. “Not really, though.” His eyes suddenly widened. “Holy shit. Holy… did I say something? Was there a culture clash here? Have I like… I didn’t sign you up to be my indentured servant or some bullshit, did I?”

Loki peered up at him, surprised at himself that his head had ducked so low, that his shoulders were so hunched over. “You said you would give me sanctuary in exchange for experiments…”

“I did?”

“You did imply something along those lines, Sir,” JARVIS interjected.

Stark pressed his hands to his cheeks. “What the fuck? Why didn’t you tell me, JARV?”

“I didn’t realise that Master Loki would take the combination of words in such a literal way. My apologies, Sir. And to Master Loki.”

Loki frowned. “You did not… but why would you take me in if not to-”

“I mean, sure, I wanted to study you,” Stark wailed. “But only if you wanted to find stuff out too, or like, show off… I don’t want you to be here against your will, holy shit, have I kidnapped you? Oh my god, I’m so sorry, shit!”

Loki blinked, shocked. Stark was apologising? To him? And in such distress! But Loki was nothing to him, here he was not even a prince, why would Stark care about whether or not Loki would choose to be with him? “I don’t… you do not have to…”

“I mean, I thought we were just gonna do some cool science together, I had no idea I was dragging you here like some sort of a threat, am I SHIELD in this situation? Oh my god, I’m basically Agent, guh, I’m gonna be sick, JARVIS!” He turned to Loki with wild eyes. “I am really, really sorry.”

Loki stared at him. There was a warmth in his chest, a spreading feeling he barely recognised. When was the last time someone had apologised to him? Someone of consequence, not a servant or a subject - and even then, they would always do so with gritted teeth. Loki knew he was unpopular. He’d never attempted to change that - it had always seemed so immutable a fact. Loki the trickster, don’t trust him, don’t listen, don’t spend any time near him in case he turns you into a goat.

“I would… I would like to stay,” he said, and he tried to hide a wince at how vulnerable his voice sounded. “I am interested in your science. In our differences.”

“Really?” Stark said, freezing in his distressed motions. “Are you sure, though? You’re not just saying that because I’ve, like, activated some hospitality clause I didn’t know about? You’re choosing to--”

“I am choosing, freely,” he said, swallowing and looking up at Stark. “If I am welcome, still?”

Stark’s face broke into a wide grin. “Hell, yeah, you’re welcome!” He let out a long breath. “Phew, god, that was awful!”

Loki’s lip quirked up. “Why was it so awful?”

“Well, I don’t know what life’s like on your planet or whatever, but we humans don’t like coercing other people.” He made a face. “Well, the non-assholes don’t. Yeah, actually, scrap that? I don’t like coercing people. I can’t talk for the rest of them.”

Loki grinned. “Your realm is not so different from mine, in that case. It sounds as if there are plenty of assholes in both.”

“I mean, honestly, I probably count as one of the assholes most of the time.” Tony shrugged. “Hey, do you want to go down to the lab now? I can show you the bots, and we can find out what your alien biology looks like on my holos.”

And just like that, Loki was reminded what he was, his freakish blue skin, the horns, the demonic red of his eyes. He held himself still, trying not to wince, trying not to react, for how could he explain this? He would just have to control his expressions, focus on the science. Because perhaps there would be something in Stark’s ‘lab’ which would help him to find his way back to his old - no, his true form.

But Stark stopped mid-sentence. “No? What? What is it? We won’t do anything you don’t want to,” he said, biting his bottom lip again.

Had he always been this obvious? No-one in Asgard would ever have noticed, but Stark had spotted his reticence at once - and Loki had been actively trying to hide it. Had his masks ever been as strong as he had believed? Or had nobody ever been truly looking? Loki stared at Stark, amazed at the perceptiveness of this small, sparkling mortal. “It’s…”

“I’m serious, Loki, we won’t do anything you don’t want to, OK?” Stark said, holding his gaze. “If there’s anything you don’t like, we’ll stop, no matter how far through the process we are, if there’s anything you don’t even like the look of, we won’t do it. And of course, I’ll put myself through everything you do - like, except for actually doing magic, ‘cause I can’t. Oh, and I can’t go into an MRI because of this,” he added, tapping the centre of his chest over the odd glow. “But you don’t have to do that either.”

Loki searched his face for any hint of a trick, any lie, and found only compassion. He swallowed hard. “I do not look like this,” he said, his voice nothing more than a croak. “I mean… not usually.” He looked down at his hands, clenching them into fists and feeling the sharp, obsidian nails digging into his skin. “I was Aesir - I am Aesir. I must be. But… during my brother’s coronation, I just… this happened. I turned into this… this monster, and now… now my magic is different, cold…” he took a deep, shuddering breath, the fear sending icy tendrils through every nerve. He looked at the table and gasped. Frost swirled out from every contact point with his skin, and he jerked his hands back in horror.

“Hey, hey, it’s OK,” Stark said, holding his hands out, placating the beast once more. “It’s OK.” He took a deep breath. “Hey, I know we said we didn’t have to talk, but do you want to tell me about it? And then… maybe we can get you back to normal?”

Tags from last chapter: @aformingsiren, @sketch953, @massivelandthingdonkey, @angrysockpuppetnoises, @ultra-rare-pegacorn, @redramzi, @senpaiweird, @giggling-breeze, @rarepair-collector, @saturnjuice, @kuree06 <3

[sarcastic-pasta-games]

Any motivation or advice for one man team developers? Sorry if this has been asked already

Hey! I’ve been working on a solo fangame project for too long almost 3 years, while working on The BOSS & Glitch In The System. I have no clue if this’ll help or if this is the type of advice you wanted, but here you go. The things written here can apply to non-fangame projects, too! 

(Warning: lots of text ahead - and take this with a grain of salt; I’m not an expert.)

General: 

You are going to have to plan in advance and organize absolutely every single thing about your project. Don’t just make an outline for your story. Create concept art for your characters, figure out what makes your game story unique, figure out the mapping and game mechanics early.

Make sure you know your options. If you’re really good at one thing (writing,art,music,code) and everything else is a bit new to you, there are free and paid resources out there. Don’t feel bad for using them. 

If you’re a perfectionist, make sure the tools you use are quick. Do not spend a week on one room design, or a month on one song. You will never finish your game, even if it’s super short. 

Kinda joykill advice, but I don’t recommend making your dream project first unless you fully KNOW how to start making your project on your own (which even then, you’ll need to organize everything for it to work). Make something silly, or try joining game jams. 

External feedback is even more important when working on your game. Get playtesters or people willing to help give feedback to you early on, or midway through development. 

Figure out how much energy you can devote to your project. If you want to be ambitious, that’s great! But overworking yourself is a horrible idea. 

If you want to change something fairly major about your game, you should probably only do it if you’re below the 30-40% mark. Otherwise you’ll forever drive yourself insane by changing anything when you’ve made that much progress on your project. You can always improve on certain aspects for future games. 

Especially for fangames: don’t take everything you make seriously. 

Games can still be considered solo projects, even if the developers got help for stuff like art, music, and code. You don’t have to do every single thing by yourself. But if you’re stubborn like me about this and still want to do everything, that’s cool too.

Back up your game or forever suffer in developer hell. Yes, I’m serious. I’ve seen projects get cancelled because they couldn’t afford to get a backup drive (or even a USB key) and it’s miserable.

Don’t act like you’re above other game developers. This applies for anyone, really. Support the other people around you, too! 

Visuals:

If you have absolutely no passion or desire to do your own art assets, premade resources are your friends. However, you need to really focus on your other game aspects in other for your games to stand out. To The Moon used a lot of pre-made RPG Maker XP resources but had a phenomenal soundtrack and used that + its visuals to make the game feel more cinematic than most RPG Maker games.

If you feel like you suck at art or don’t have money for expensive drawing tools, but want to make all of the game assets, then do it! Even with simple/free-to-use tools, your can make game art that’ll be unique and memorable. example / example / example 

Keep backups of every single one of your original art asset files.

If you want to do pixel art for your game, 1: Always avoid coloring with pure black. Your game will look disgusting. 2: Programs like Asesprite are useful for animations. 3: Make sure it’s proper pixel art. Using AA brushes, the blur tool (etc) will completely ruin that.

Video cutscenes aren’t 100% necessary. Certain game devs make it a goal to never include cutscenes to create a certain atmosphere, or for the game to feel more interactive for the player. (ex: Night In The Woods)

Pretend the player can’t listen to game audio while playing. Keep the visuals interesting and make your game feel alive! Whether it’s through tiny animations, window animations, etc. 

For 3D Games: motion blur =/= super cool polished game. >:(

It depends on your game’s style, of course, but usually it’s not a good sign if you can tell your project is made by someone with default assets and doesn’t try to work beyond that (for any engine, 2D or 3D). 

If you want to do regular art for your game: make sure you know what resolution your game is going to be at its absolute highest, and always work with bigger than that. 

Keep your visuals consistent! If an early area looks unpolished/different from the final maps, then fix it. 

I’m going to skip music advice because I 100% suck at composing and don’t know what I’m doing yet. Just make sure your audio files are lossless, even if it adds a bit to your game’s file size. 

Audio: 

Use the same logic like in one of the points for visuals: Pretend like the player can’t see any of your cool visuals or fancy animations, and is just left with blocks for character sprites and very shapes for maps. Make your game convey emotion through audio, even if it’s through tiny sounds, or really quiet environment sounds. 

Voice acting: Don’t even bother if you can’t find people who have good microphones or can’t afford/know how to properly remove background noise. You’ll just be left with really bad quality audio that won’t help immerse the player at all. 

There can be a theme to your audio, much like there can be a theme to your visuals. Whether or not you decide to contrast the visuals with your audio or pair them up is up to you. It can give the game a whole new tone, depending on how you approach sound design.

Audio cues are good for puzzles, but again, don’t just rely on that only to indicate to the player that an objective has been completed. If they have the game on mute, they’re just going to be left wandering around.

Binaural audio can be cool, if you want to try doing that. 

Writing: 

Don’t write game dialogue at 4 am. It never works. 

Game writing is VERY different from what you might be used to. Keep in mind that for the most part players want to interact with an environment, not just only hear what characters have to say about a certain event or area. Forcing them to go through giant dialogue cutscenes every time is not a smart move to make. (Obviously, visual novels and text adventure games are an exception to this)

Not that you only need to have 4 words in your entire game! But there is a chance someone will download your game and just not enjoy the writing. Think ahead of time if you really feel like every game puzzle, every important cutscene needs to happen after giant walls of text.

If you have the ability to make visuals that can be paired with writing, you don’t really have an excuse for avoiding that. Especially if the cutscene 

Proofread every single thing, or get someone else to do it. If you can export all your game dialogue into text files, that could be helpful. 

If you’re trying to write a serious game (with lighthearted moments or not), chances are that adding that one dumb inside joke with your friends in-game could ruin the immersion for the player.

Only time I think the developer should focus more on their own opinion than the players: create as much atmosphere as you can. Figure out the things YOU like about a game world, and focus on that as much as you can. Don’t worry about making it appeal to all/certain audiences. 

Don’t act like every single player in the world will like all of your characters. Even if they’re nice, someone could absolutely despise your main characters, or find themselves liking the antagonist more.

Dumb character ticks and speech mannerisms can still work.

Not everything about a Serious Game™ has to be gritty and all that. Me and Katie wouldn’t recommend making a completely serious fangame anyway, but that’s another topic. 

You’re probably not going to ever write a game that has absolutely no tropes in it whatsoever, so give up on that. 

You can make a character dislikeable but still charming. The other way around works too. Not everything has to be clear-cut right and wrong.

Game design / Programming: 

If you ever use shortened names for certain switches, variables, etc - or have a complex system for one game feature, write down what all of it does somewhere. You don’t want to screw yourself over months after you implemented something because you forgot what one button does, or what another variable is for. 

Bite the bullet. If there’s an area you restrict access to for the player purely for the sake of not having to deal with coding it, that’s no fun.

You can never make a game with endless options/possibilities.

If there’s something buggy in your absolute basic gameplay mechanics (movement, UI) just change it and don’t focus on anything else before it’s fixed. There’s no excuse not to.

Make sure your game UI is bearable to look at. Please.

You don’t have to add 50 game options or features for your game to stand out. Unless you know it’ll encourage the player to keep playing or will help the player enjoy the game, then there’s no real use for it.

If you can ever optimize your game (frame rate, controls, etc) do that too. Having a simple 2D game running at 15fps one second and 60 the other won’t make your players happy. 

Personally, I’d rather play a working puzzle even if it’s a bit boring, over something that’s super creative but buggy as hell. 

Color puzzles aren’t going to work for colorblind players, and if you have an aesthetic (super tiny) game font, people with bad eyesight won’t be able to play. Give people options! 

“Choices in this game matter” if you know they don’t matter whatsoever for the ending or for a majority of the game, then don’t say that. This also ties into the branding section.

Making band-aid fixes for every single one of your game bugs is a really bad idea. If you can take some time to fix one bug fully rather than relying on workarounds, do that. 

Back. Up. Your. Code. Files. Especially if you’re planning on making major changes to it. It can be very useful to have old pieces of code to fall back on if your changes don’t work as planned. 

Figure out what you can and can’t do with an engine. There’s a section in The Beginner’s Guide that talks about the limitations certain engines can pose to developers, and how certain engines are just better fit for certain tasks than others. You won’t be able to include or make everything for one project. (Chances are, that wouldn’t work well anyways). 

Don’t expect the player to only behave one way to your game’s design, puzzles, or mapping. Again, give people options. There can be some fun in giving the player different results for different puzzle solutions. 

Presentation: 

You don’t have to reveal every single thing about your project online-  but on the other hand, keeping everything to only vague/abstract teaser posts isn’t very helpful to people, either. 

Social media is your friend. Twitter, tumblr, youtube, etc- Find different audiences through your games there! 

Figure out what sites you want to put your game on. There are tons of options: Itch.io is my favorite. But sites like Gamejolt, indiedb, rmn.net, Steam (more for commercial games), etc can work for you. You can always just upload it for yourself online (mediafire, google drive, dropbox) too, if you dislike all of those sites or prefer doing it through direct download links. 

Don’t self promote your game on other people’s games or accounts…

Even if someone is hoping to see something really specific in your game, your project will get out of hand if you just add in what every single person wants. Convince people that your game will be worthwhile even if a feature or a character doesn’t appear in it. 

Remaining transparent with your audience will help you a lot.

Keep things easy to access and read/look at for potential players. Make sure people can find something about the game quick. Things like FAQs, “About this game”, external links, etc are very helpful. 

Apologies in advance for any embarrassing typos that I may have missed.  

One last thing: Focus on making something that you ultimately like. It’ll be much easier to handle any sort of obstacles during/after development that way.

There is so much more I want to cover on this, but this should give you some basic things to work with. Hope this helps!

[lostpioneer]

Can’t Sit Down and Write? Same Dude

Alright, buddy, I’m going to lay this out flat on you, whoever you are. I’m absolute garbage at writing. I don’t just mean skill, I mean all aspects- Commitment, focus, grammar (though I try my hardest,) and pretty much anything you can think of, I’m bad at. I probably have more unfinished writing ideas than I have days left on this Earth, and I can never dedicate myself to just one idea. Even short stories, besides ones I wrote back in middle school that I pretend don’t exist, remain unfinished and collecting virtual dust in my computer files while I do literally anything besides write.

The one strength I might possibly have, though? I soak up anything- And I mean anything- that I can about writing. Tips and tricks, websites, apps, styles- Everything I can get my hands on. So here’s my grand idea: I’m going to write this blog in an attempt to help other people like me, and maybe even people that don’t have the same issues I have.

The way I see it is writing is a complex art- And just like in any other type of art, you want the best tools you can possibly obtain. Like paintbrushes for watercolor, or graphite pencils for visual art. Those tools help you do better in whichever focus you have, so shouldn’t writing tools do the same?

You can argue that writing comes from within, from years of teaching, and I get that and agree with it- but there’s nothing wrong with a little extra help.

So, here are some of my (im)perfect tips for perfect writing.

 -         Sit your ass down. I’m sure a lot of you have heard this one but I can’t stress it enough. It is an extremely important aspect of writing that can start as a building block for success. When you make yourself sit down at your desk and put pen to paper (or fingers to keys,) it helps you commit yourself to the project even more.

-         Set word goals. There’s a lot of neat sites and programs that can help you keep track of your word and character counts, and these sites usually come with extra functions as well, so it never hurts to “shop” around. The point of this, though, is to have realistic goals. Of course, the end goal is to finish your paper, end the novel, or complete your short story, but you need smaller goals in between, especially if your project is a rather large one. Think like a chapter or two a day, or 1,000-1,600 words a day. These are just random values I shoot for, but yours don’t have to be as extensive- Just set the goal. When you get to a certain word goal, there’s a sense of accomplishment that can follow, and even sometimes you’ll have the urge to keep on trudging through it. Writing is also a pain sometimes, which is why word goals are so important- Set small ones if you get easily restless, or you don’t have a lot of free time to set aside. The important thing is having a goal you can reach, or at least get close to.

-         Write first, Edit later. Now this may sound easier than it is, and for some people (me in particular,) I have an insanely difficult time not editing on the way. And sometimes that’s okay. I usually find myself just fixing a word or grammar error, like a missing period or misspelled word. What I mean about not editing is when you stop your writing and go back to review what you’ve done. This is okay if you’ve found a good stopping point or reached a goal, but to backtrack in the middle of a writing process can hurt your workflow and get your mind off the current task. As painful as it might sound, sometimes you have to grit your teeth and push through that nagging urge to double-check what you’ve done.

-         Take breaks (if you need to.) If you’re anything like me, you might have a hard time sitting and clacking at your keyboard for more than 20 or 30 minutes at a time (I can barely manage that.) So the logical way to stop yourself from getting worn out is to just take a break. Watch a YouTube video, look at Pinterest or Tumblr, or IG- Anything you want. The key here is to give your mind time to process something different and keep it from getting worn out on the same thing. The other key is to return to your writing once you’ve given your mental muscles time to breathe. It’s a weird thing to balance, but if you can find one, it does wonders.

·         Find a writing buddy. Now this is a recent one for me, but it also helps a lot with your consistency. Basically find a friend or relative that bears a similar interest in writing that you do, one that can go through the journey of writing with together. If you can’t find someone that will write with you, at least find a friend that can hold you accountable. A good way to do it is ask them if they can keep you responsible- Tell them what you’re writing, what your daily word goals are, what times during the day you’ll be writing. It’s a new experience for me but I 100% recommend it to anyone that struggles with staying committed.

-         Find an idea and stick with it. This is probably the hardest one for me personally. I have so many ideas that I’d love to see played out in stories and novels, but I can never make myself focus on just one. And that’s the key- You have to find the one. Now, it doesn’t mean you can’t have other ideas, but unless you’re an amazing multitasker, you need to focus on the one that you’re working on then and there. If I had a dollar for any idea that distracted me from finishing another idea, I’d be rich enough to hire someone else to write this for me. (Not really, I’d probably spend it on candy bars or something, but you get my point. Right?)

 So those are just a few ideas off the top of my head. I might come back to this post at some later date to add more if any come to mind, or just start a new post entirely; call it part two or something. But that’s it for now on the Tips!

So below here, I’m going to list some of my favorite apps/websites that enable writing, ones that I personally enjoy and why I enjoy them. Here goes:

 -         sta.sh: Nothing too special here, basically just a free writing tool that’s similar (though not as extensive) as Microsoft Word. The cool thing about it is that it’s 100% free, all you need is a DeviantArt account. Sta.sh is 1005 online and backs up your files online as well automatically. It’s all private as well- No one else can see your stuff except for you, and if you do want to show it off, it generates a shareable link for your projects. Another cool perk is that you can store stuff besides writing, like pictures or videos.

-         Wordcounter.net: Kind of a similar format, but the importance of it is basically in the website name. It counts up your word and character counts, but also a few other interesting things, like how long it would take someone to read your material. The site also determines your “reading level” based on the type of words and such that you use (though you should take it with a grain of salt.)

-         Draftin.com: A free online website that just lets you write. An interesting mode it has, though, would be the “Hemingway Mode.” When you select this, you literally cannot change anything. I mean it- Try to backspace, nope. Try to highlight a word to retype it, nope. You can only go forward- Which could be either the greatest or the most infuriating thing you’ll ever see. Either way, I think it’s pretty neat.

-         HemingwayApp.com: You would think that this site would have been the ones to come up with that neat little perk, but nah. This one’s still pretty cool, though- it has a writing mode and editing mode. The writing mode is very simple- Just write, nothing special aside from basic editing like bold, italics, etc. But the editing part shows a few neat things: sentence length, grammar errors (to a point) how many adverbs you have, and alternative phrases you can use. It’s pretty nifty if you ask me.

-         Writer.Bighugelabs.com: My oh my, this one takes the cake for me. Call me weird, but I’m a sucker for certain sounds, and the clicking sound of a typewriter is among my favorites. So this app makes your keyboard sound just like that, as well as saving anything you write in the browser. Any time you leave, it’s automatically saved, and anytime you come back it pulls it right back up. The app is 100% free, but there is a pro membership if you want to go above and beyond the normal benefits of it.

-         Hanxwriter: Now this is an iPhone app that is pretty much the same as the one above- make your phone keyboard sound like a typewriter. That’s it. But if you ask me, it’s the greatest thing ever, so go take a look.

-         WriterDuet: Now I haven’t dipped my feet too far into this one, but from what I’ve seen I’m impressed. Once again, a phone app (unsure if it’s iPhone exclusive) that assists with your writing, and it’s really helpful for structuring scripts and the like.

-         Notebook.ai: This right here? This is the mother-load. I don’t even care what you’re writing, but you need to check this out. It’s a website that helps you collect all your world building ideas or even ideas for papers or essays. (Just mostly for world building) It asks you important questions about your universe as well, and there are too many awesome perks to talk about on this blog- Just check it out! You won’t regret it.

-         cerey.github.io/fighters-block: This is a fun, cute lil’ app that can push you intensely, or just give you some polite nudges. Basically you set a word goal and you have to keep writing, otherwise, the big bad monster will beat you up. Like I said, kind of cute, definitely entertaining.

 That’s about all I have for now! Like I said, I might come back to this post to add new stuff later on, but I’m fresh out of ideas at the moment. If anyone reads this, I hope I was able to help in some way or another!

Just remember guys and gals: Dedication is the biggest but most important step. Just write- worry about everything else later.

P.S. Let me know if I should add screencaps of these apps/websites, or if I should just leave it as it is. Peace!

[danbevanwriting]

The Ranking of Final Fantasy: Final Fantasy II

After the runaway success of Final Fantasy, Square wanted to capitalise on it and release a sequel as soon as they could. As such, Final Fantasy II was made a mere year later for the NES for Japan only. What made this sequel special is in how little it actually resembles its predecessor. Instead of taking the easy route, Square decided to change how the combat system worked, worked in a more elaborate story with more in the way of characters, and crafted a whole new world. Very impressive work considering the single year gap. Some assets were understandably re-used (such as character sprites being close to identical to FFI) but there was a fair amount of original designs too. Of course, none of this came without a price...

All of the above sounds pretty good on paper, right? Well, I'll start with the combat system. More specifically, the leveling system. Experience as a leveling up system is gone, and in its place is a system that levels up stats and abilities with their use. So, as an example, you level up your sword skill by using swords in battle, and you level up your intelligence or MP by casting magic (magic costs points to use now rather than the charge system in the last game, which is an improvement in my eyes). Again, on paper this sounds pretty good and logical! However the amount of time it takes to level up these skills to a high degree is insane, requiring literally thousands of casts to reach anywhere close to top level magic, and each spell has to level up individually. This means if you want to cast high level elemental magic for the 3 major elements (fire, ice, lightning) then you'd have to cast each about 3,000 times. The same issue applies to the weapons too, which means that despite there being a whole host of different weapon types, you are at a complete disadvantage if you level anything other than swords, bows, or axes as most of the types have little to no late game tier weapons. This is probably why the encounter rate in this game is so high. It's far higher that FFI from what I can tell, or at least it feels significantly higher. The constant battles make the game feel like a chore to get through, draining you of your resources in game and patience out.

Another flaw with this system is that to be able to increase your maximum HP or MP then you have to take damage or use MP in battle and finish the fight. This leads to a problem with the way the game calculates the damage taken. If one of your characters takes damage in battle but you heal it up during the fight, it'll negate the damage taken and not count for the trigger to increase maximum HP. The way this is all calculated means that a common 'power levelling' tactic is to fight the weakest enemies in the game, beat the ever loving crap out of yourselves for as long as you can, then finish the fight, resulting in massive stat increases. This easy work around means that the game can become trivialised pretty easily. It also makes the game in general very unsatisfying to play as the game is either way too hard or way too easy due to a lack of balancing and huge difficulty spikes for the unprepared. Instead the gameplay is an exercise in tedium rather than being enjoyable like the first game due to level ups not feeling as good as they did in FFI nor the exploration aspect of the game being very enjoyable either.

The exploration aspect of the game is the same as the first game: world map, towns, dungeons. The world map aspect is pretty standard and follows in the same vein as the first with the same sort of transportation options open to the player. I only have a couple of issues with it to be honest, both of which are relatively minor. Firstly it's deceptively small, which means that the game requires you to back track through a lot of it with quests sending you back and forth across the same parts of the world and getting you back to a home base of sorts. Not a massive issue as it is not a bad thing, thematically, to return to the base of the resistance between missions. This does slow the pacing of the game right down though. Secondly, the map has an issue with signposting difficult enemies. For example in the last game, as the map was significantly larger, harder enemies were gated in to zones you could only get to with the use of a vehicle or tool locked behind a dungeon or boss. Not the case here. It's very easy early on in the game to wander just a little bit to too far to the West and get one-shot by enemies meant to be fought a lot later in the game. It does give the world a more hostile feeling but it's not exactly fair either. The towns that litter the world map are fine, nothing too interesting of note as they all are pretty similar, although I do like how they change throughout the game at times, such as Fynn being re-occupied by normal citizens when you liberate it from the empire and Altair showing signs of damage after it's attacked. Helping exploration a bit is the key word system which lets you learn and ask key words to certain NPCs. It is somewhat limited in scope however and isn't utilised as well as it could have, but this was a NES game after all so I wouldn't have expected anything too amazing. The fact it is in this game at all and utilised how it is is impressive in itself, honestly.

The dungeons are a different story though, and is part of the major failing of this game. You'll spend the vast majority of the play time crawling through these dungeons which take a few different shapes but are mostly caves and stone fortresses. The tile sets look fine but the way that the dungeons themselves are designed is among the worst I've ever played. They're so tedious. Not only are they complex to a fault, having many twisting paths and dead ends that provide little to no reward, but they seem to be designed to create as much ire in the player as possible. Throughout all the dungeons there are doors, either in corners or at the end of a corridor with a few of them in a row, but unfortunately these doors more than often lead to empty rooms which drop you in to the middle of them. Not only is it annoying that there's nothing in the rooms (especially when you choose the wrong door out of several next to each other, only one of which progresses the dungeon), the encounter rate in these rooms is tweaked incredibly high. This means that it is more than possible to encounter enemies with every step you take back to the door which can be lethal if you're in the wrong situation or get a bad mix of enemies. Not helping the dungeons is the boring music, which certainly doesn't negate the tedium.

The music in general is rather lackluster to be honest. The only music pieces I can think of that are good are the normal battle theme, the over world theme, and the rebel theme that plays when you're in the rebel base. Everything else is really boring, or repetitive, or just bizarre like the boss theme. Seriously, what is up with that boss theme?(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fprhlzyl30s) The one used for later game bosses is better but still not incredible or very memorable. Honestly that's a word that can sum up the majority of the soundtrack despite how repetitive it is: forgettable. This is where the Chocobos are introduced for the first time, but they somehow ruin that through the music which is literally just one bar long and is repeated ad nauseam, and I don't think I need to explain why that is so terrible...

The story of the game ranges from boring to 'okay'. Characters are more than mere cardboard cut-outs like in FFI but they still aren't amazingly fleshed out. There isn't much in the way of character development for the main characters, despite them being distinct characters this time around. You never really learn much about Firion, Guy, or Maria during the whole game other than they're orphans and really don't like the empire because they destroyed their home. This is a shame as they are obviously with the party the whole game and just get nothing to say really. The supporting characters aren't too much better either. Through the game you get extra party members that take up the fourth slot in your party, however you'll quickly learn that this is sometimes just a death sentence for them, or you'll learn just to simply not care about them at all. Often times the party member will come in weak and underpowered, meaning you have to baby sit them as they gain levels, only for them to leave the party forever (taking all equipment with them) or they die to save the three protagonists in a dramatic moment. While it does provide a context for the fight and shows how desperate the war on the empire is, but it's also dramatically repetitive. Of course this is a really good story for a NES game and has far more complexities than anything else at the time. But now the story is mostly just not engaging. The story is mostly predictable, characters are mostly one note, the big bad, the Emperor, is pretty flat and starts the trend of Final Fantasy antagonists either being only one part of a bigger unseen picture, or coming back from the dead because 'evil magic'. Honestly I don't think there's a single memorable character here, and there isn't much I could tell you about the ones I do remember, aside from Minwu looks cool and unique? The story starts surprisingly strong though, with an unwinnable fight to wipe the party in order to set the tone and the pace of the story is pretty snappy too, setting you off in to the world and making decent progress with exposing or routing the empire from towns and even destroying their Dreadnought ship. Unfortunately the story's pace just nose dives after that, padding the story out with a world spanning fetch quest where the story just treads water until the end with boring long dungeons and an ending which is rather flat.

In conclusion, Final Fantasy II isn't very good. It's boring, frustrating, repetitive, tedious, but also has a couple of bright spots in the premise and the idea of the levelling up system. I played through this game on the PSP/ mobile version which is far less frustrating than the original or PS1 version. In the original game on NES, the frustrating stat increase system was even more annoying with a stat degradation that would take away points from skills or stats that weren't used for a while. I think that would have made me quit the game pretty early on to be quite honest. The original also only ever let you save your game outside, and with the length of some of these dungeons combined with the high encounter rate would also lead to an ungodly amount of stress and frustration.

So how does this game compare to the rest of the series so far? Well comparing the game to FFI alone, this is a night and day difference. You can tell this game was made quickly as the developers seemed to have forgot to make the gameplay fun before they focused on telling a more complex tale within a video game. Not only is this a bad Final Fantasy, it's a bad RPG, and is the black sheep of the series for a reason. Obviously this is going to the bottom of the list, where I predict it will stay for the rest of this series.

And that's it for Final Fantasy II! I won't lie, I'm glad to see the back of it. It's part of why I took so long getting this done, I lost a lot of motivation to get through the game due to some of the rubbish the game threw my way. It's only up from here though! Just for the record too, I plan to do all direct sequels in this series too, which means I'll be reviewing and rating Final Fantasies IV: The After Years, X-2, XIII-2, and XIII: Lightning Returns. The only one I probably won't touch is XII: Revenant Wings due to me mostly just being uninterested in it. Anyway, thank you for reading, and please look forward to when I review and rate Final Fantasy III!

Current Rankings:

Final Fantasy

Final Fantasy II

[crystalelemental]

Notoriously the least favorite new dex in the entire series, largely due to genwunner mentality.  It drives me crazy how many people are mad about some Pokemon this generation.  You're mad about the wrong ones!  Yes, there are things that are Not Great in this dex, but leave the usual disliked Pokemon alone!  Plus, I will appreciate any generation that forces me to use the new stuff for at least the main game.  I so desperately wish they kept that in later generations, but nope.

TOP 15: 15) Sigilyph - It's like Xatu for me.  It's a unique design choice, with a really cool battle role.   Magic Guard allows it to burn itself, and Psycho Shift can pass that to the opponent.  Cosmic Power buffs defenses, and then you just stall out until you can unleash Stored Power.  Critical hits are the biggest problem for this thing, aside from routine power creep and Dark types shutting down its one attack.  The Burn nerf also did not help, doubling the amount of turns it has to stall with this strategy.  But the niche it does hold is still great, and while Smogon can tell me this set sucks until they're blue in the face, I personally will always remember it for this hysterical combo.

14) Swoobat - I love Swoobat.  It's such a cute little bat creature, with its signature attack that does it literally no favors at all.  Simple + Calm Mind is also particularly fun, or it would be if it had the stats to take a hit long enough to set that up.  Mostly though, it's just a charming and cute bat.

13) Vanilluxe line - Vanilluxe is a good Pokemon, you all are just mean.   It's an adorable ice cream cone Pokemon, with the ice cream part being accumulated snow.  It's a precious concept, and the only real bad part about it is its movepool. I love Vanilluxe and its evolutions, and you should too.

12) Gigalith line - I love the whole line.  Boldore gets special mention, due to the presence of Rochelle in my Pokemon White Nuzlock.  Gigalith itself stands out as an intimidating mass of rock, with a beautiful shiny form and surprisingly well-oriented stats for a wall.  Getting Sandstorm as an ability also helped it out a lot, giving a much-needed buff to special defense.  It's got a lot going for it.

11) Haxorus line - Dragon type evolution lines, up to this point, tend to emphasize raw attack power over all else.  You had some exceptions, in that Flygon was more balanced and Altaria was more defensive, but for the most part Dragons have physical offense.  Haxorus takes this to its logical conclusion, being unreasonably strong, and having an intimidating design to match.  Despite this, it doesn't quite go the route of Garchomp or Salamence, where it looks entirely scary.  It looks intimidating, but it also looks friendlier, somehow.  I know its face is an axe, but it doesn't have quite the same air of menace.

10) Mienshao - It's rare a Fighting type makes my list of favorites, but Mienshao earns this spot based on elegant design among a typing that's usually hulking brutes.  I also really loved Regenerator + Life Orb as a combo, it just seemed so obvious.

9) Reshiram - Much like Dialga, this was an easy pick for me.  Unfortunately, when I asked for the game, I got the one with Zekrom.  Not that I was that mad, Zekrom is cool enough, but Reshiram is my favorite of the two.   Fire/Dragon is a great one, and the fact that it's the embodiment of truth is a fantastic concept. The story role for Zekrom and Reshiram is also fantastic, being set with the first real ideological rival you had, N.  Combined with an elegant and beautiful design, Reshiram definitely stands out for me among the box legends in the series.

8) Chandelure - I'm not a big fan of Litwick, or even of Lampent, but Chandelure is a quality final stage Pokemon.  It's such an elaborate and wonderful look, being sufficiently spooky yet elegant in its own right.  Ghost/Fire is also an incredible typing, allowing for very few things to resist its powerful special attacks.  It's a great Pokemon, and one of the many excellent ghost types from this gen.

7) Gothitelle - Obviously, I'm a big fan of psychic types, and Gothitelle is definitely up there on the list for me.  I like the gothic look, and its role as something that can see lifespans is both interesting and tragic for it.  It's also the signature Pokemon of Caitlin, which...man, I loved Caitlin's role in battle tower as it was, and seeing her as an elite four member, with this Pokemon as her best, was divine.

6) Leavanny line - Among the many Pokemon I wish had better competitive utility, Leavanny is definitely up there.  It's such a nice Pokemon with a great design through its whole evolutionary chain, only to end up with a terrible typing and few benefits beyond that.  What it does offer is being adorable, and apparently fashioning clothes for other Pokemon out of silk.  I love this creature so much.

5) Frillish - Listen, if you don't like Frillish, something's not right.   It's such a cute Pokemon, in both male and female forms.  It's one of the few Pokemon that has a distinction along gender that I appreciate.   Water/Ghost is also a fantastic typing, and it gets a lot of good tools to make use of it, including Will-o-Wisp and Recover.  Such a fun and pretty Pokemon...  Jellicent is also great, but aesthetics don't appeal nearly as much.

4) Musharna line - Musharna and Munna are adorable little Pokemon, and I love their connection to the whole Dream World mechanic that was introduced this generation.  They have a great role in the story, producing the mist that allows a professor to examine dreams, but they're also just precious little creature in their own right.  Not particularly strong in battle, and unfortunately don't work to much on that whole manipulation of dreams concept, but definitely a fun concept to work with.

3) Meloetta - Who would've thought a mythic legend would ever come along that outranked Celebi?  Being a Pokemon based in song, it gets the fantastic Psychic/Normal typing, allowing it to get complete immunity to Ghost types.  It's a precious tiny singer...who can morph into a powerful step dancer that brutalizes its common weaknesses as a Fighting/Normal type.  Nothing in this world is greater than the feeling of someone switching into Meloetta with Tyranitar expecting to tank, only for it to then transform to its Pirouette form and style all over it.  It's such a unique Pokemon to use in battle, and one of the best concepts as a singer/dancer.

2) Cinccino - Another really snazzy Pokemon.  Cinccino's many tail-scarves makes it look divine, and having multi-hit moves certainly sets it apart from most. I'm also a huge fan of King's Rock + Skill Link moves.  It's a vile, evil combo. 41% flinch on all your moves is incredible, and it allowed my weaker teams to sometimes do stupid things, like that time Cinccino beat a Heatran through sheer power of flinch.  It's a great and unique normal type, with a great design.

1) Lilligant - The best grass type.  Lilligant is a beautiful, wonderful Pokemon. It's a dancer, and so it learns a lot of dance-based moves, with an ability that shuts down confusion to allow for Petal Dance to be even more devastating.  The design is what sells it the most, being a regal-looking plant that has to hop around because she has no feet.   It's beautiful and lovely and wonderful, and has access to the best boosting move in the game.

BOTTOM 10: 10) Samurott - Dewott was so cool.  Dewott was the coolest, my actual favorite of the starters, until Samurott.  "Steve, you know it stands on its hind legs too, watch the anime loser."  Listen.  I know it can.   But its sprite and its general stance are not upright.  It is a quadruped with the ability to stand upright, and that's very different from being bipedal, and we all know it.  I wanted something better than this.  It's like the inverse of the usual fire-type complaint of people wanting it to remain a quadruped; I wanted it to stand upright and be more samurai-like.  It didn't do that, and it also didn't do anything to create any sort of battle role for itself.  Disappointing.

9) Seismitoad - I love Tympole.  I mean I adore it.  I was so ready for a nice evolution line like Politoed, or at least an acceptable one like Poliwrath.  But no. We get this thing.  Water/Ground, with fairly average stats, does not cut it anymore.  The design is what really bothers me.  From my adorable tadpole creature that's all musical, to this big wart-covered toad creature that...I guess hits the warts to make sound?  It's not as good.  Nowhere near.  Unacceptable final evolution stage.

8) Pignite - Yes, specifically.  Emboar at least looks rad, and Tepig is still cute.   Pignite is the awkward middle child, much like Quilladin.  But unlike Quilladin, Pignite's biggest shame is being the third generation in a row of Fire/Fighting type.  If it hadn't gained that typing, I might be easier on it, but it was the showing that this generation's starters were going to be nowhere near as interesting any anything before, or after it.

7) Unfezant - I really do not like the design of this thing at all, and adding to it that it's about as stock and standard an early-game bird as you can get, and there's really nothing interesting about it.  I would definitely way it's the least interesting regional bird.

6) Beheeyem line - I honestly forget about this Pokemon.  I honest to god forget it, every single time.  Just an alien thing.  No explanation, it's just...an alien thing. What are you?  Why are you here?  What is even going on anymore, and why do you have so little defined battle role that I can forget that there's a literal alien just walking around?

5) Scrafty - I don't like its aesthetic.  I don't like the punk aesthetic at all.  It does nothing for me.  I'm also supremely pissed about Fighting/Dark type.  Before Fairies showed up, this was devastating for a Psychic-lover like me.  When Drapion covered Poison types, that was fine.  Poison wasn't that good, and it could use the help.  But Fighting types?  Fighting types are my food, and this bastard prevents that.   Add to it that Dark became incredibly common as a coverage type on Fighting types, and it's just a whole mess for my favorite type. I'm glad Fairy type blasted your ass back down the totem pole.

4) Simisage/Simisear - Believe it or not, Simipour, I think, is just cute enough to avoid my ire.  These two, however, are not.  I've stated it before, but I don't like monkeys.  I also don't like that these Pokemon have virtually no battle use. Their stats are bad and their movepools are bad.  I also don't remember how to get them beyond the free one you get before the first gym, where they exist to counter the first gym's type choice and do nothing else. I could keep going, but that seems like overkill.

3) Sawk/Throh - I decided to combine the two, because I can't decide which I like less.  In a similar vein to the next entry, their designs are what bother me. Kung Fu Burt and Ernie.  Okay, sure.  Why are these things even here?  Did we really need more Fighting types?  I know it's a whole "mirror to gen 1" thing with the fresh start, but maybe it would've been better to not try to make knock-off Hitmonchan and Hitmonlee.

2) Conkeldurr line - Not quite the bottom of the barrel, but close enough that it makes little difference.  Conkeldurr is exactly what I dislike about the Fighting type.  Its design is not good.  Its stats are perfectly calibrated to hit hard and take physical hits.  It gets recovery from Drain Punch, Dark-type moves to wreck every Psychic that tries to stop it, priority in Mach Punch, fantastic coverage options, and I just...I hate that it's good.  I hate it.  Because it looks so bad, and the things that make it good, in my mind, make it too good.  It shouldn't be able to answer every single Psychic type in the game.  It should be able to answer status play that tries to wear it down.  But it does all of this flawlessly and I hate it.  You basically have to be a Fairy type or a really strong Flying type, and I just want this thing dead already!

1) Landorus-Therian - If you have to ask, you haven't been here long.  Lando-T is the bane of my damned existence.  I don't like its look.  I don't like that its ability meshes perfectly with its battle role.  I don't like that, competitively, Smogon has it on 50%+ of teams depending on the season, and yet it's still obviously out of the question that it could ever be too good and need to be banned.  I hate this thing beyond all other Pokemon.  It would've just been a form I'd never use under normal circumstances, but instead, because of fan reception and competitive play, it's probably my most disliked Pokemon, and one of maybe five I actively hate.

[theguildedtypewriter]

My OC Take Over: Maithe’s Stats

The Reformer

Reformers are perfectionists. They want to be right. Reformers fear being bad, corrupt, or imbalanced. They need to be able to justify their actions, and they can easily become critical, judgmental, and self-righteous.In the workplace, Reformers are efficient and organized. They like to finish what they start. You will often find them in law enforcement, management, and science careers. They may enjoy community service and humanitarian causes.

At their worst, Reformers are neurotic and unmercifully cruel in their fight against “evil,” however they choose define that.

At their best, Reformers are realistic, self-disciplined, and inspiring.

-From www.characterchange.com

Myers-Briggs Personality Test Results- YOUR PERSONALITY TYPE IS:VIRTUOSO(ISTP-A)

Oh, I know how to fix this.MINDThis trait determines how we interact with our environment.24%76%INTROVERTEDENERGYThis trait shows where we direct our mental energy.16%84%OBSERVANTNATUREThis trait determines how we make decisions and cope with emotions.54%THINKING46%FEELINGTACTICSThis trait reflects our approach to work, planning and decision-making.24%76%PROSPECTINGIDENTITYThis trait underpins all others, showing how confident we are in our abilities and decisions.69%ASSERTIVE31%VIRTUOSO PERSONALITY (ISTP, -A/-T)

I wanted to live the life, a different life. I didn’t want to go to the same place every day and see the same people and do the same job. I wanted interesting challenges.Harrison Ford

Virtuosos love to explore with their hands and their eyes, touching and examining the world around them with cool rationalism and spirited curiosity. People with this personality type are natural Makers, moving from project to project, building the useful and the superfluous for the fun of it, and learning from their environment as they go. Often mechanics and engineers, Virtuosos find no greater joy than in getting their hands dirty pulling things apart and putting them back together, just a little bit better than they were before.

Read More for Length because this testing service got real in-depth!!

Virtuosos explore ideas through creating, troubleshooting, trial and error and first-hand experience. They enjoy having other people take an interest in their projects and sometimes don’t even mind them getting into their space. Of course, that’s on the condition that those people don’t interfere with Virtuosos’ principles and freedom, and they’ll need to be open to Virtuosos returning the interest in kind.Virtuosos enjoy lending a hand and sharing their experience, especially with the people they care about, and it’s a shame they’re so uncommon, making up only about five percent of the population. Virtuoso women are especially rare, and the typical gender roles that society tends to expect can be a poor fit – they’ll often be seen as tomboys from a young age.

Dare to Differ

While their mechanical tendencies can make them appear simple at a glance, Virtuosos are actually quite enigmatic. Friendly but very private, calm but suddenly spontaneous, extremely curious but unable to stay focused on formal studies, Virtuoso personalities can be a challenge to predict, even by their friends and loved ones. Virtuosos can seem very loyal and steady for a while, but they tend to build up a store of impulsive energy that explodes without warning, taking their interests in bold new directions.Rather than some sort of vision quest though, Virtuosos are merely exploring the viability of a new interest when they make these seismic shifts.Virtuosos’ decisions stem from a sense of practical realism, and at their heart is a strong sense of direct fairness, a “do unto others” attitude, which really helps to explain many of Virtuosos’ puzzling traits. Instead of being overly cautious though, avoiding stepping on toes in order to avoid having their toes stepped on, Virtuosos are likely to go too far, accepting likewise retaliation, good or bad, as fair play.The biggest issue Virtuosos are likely to face is that they often act too soon, taking for granted their permissive nature and assuming that others are the same. They’ll be the first to tell an insensitive joke, get overly involved in someone else’s project, roughhouse and play around, or suddenly change their plans because something more interesting came up.

Nothing Is as Boring as Everyone Agreeing With You

Virtuosos will come to learn that many other personality types have much more firmly drawn lines on rules and acceptable behavior than they do – they don’t want to hear an insensitive joke, and certainly wouldn’t tell one back, and they wouldn’t want to engage in horseplay, even with a willing party. If a situation is already emotionally charged, violating these boundaries can backfire tremendously.Virtuosos have a particular difficulty in predicting emotions, but this is just a natural extension of their fairness, given how difficult it is to gauge Virtuosos’ emotions and motivations. However, their tendency to explore their relationships through their actions rather than through empathy can lead to some very frustrating situations. People with the Virtuoso personality type struggle with boundaries and guidelines, preferring the freedom to move about and color outside the lines if they need to.Finding an environment where they can work with good friends who understand their style and unpredictability, combining their creativity, sense of humor and hands-on approach to build practical solutions and things, will give Virtuosos many happy years of building useful boxes – and admiring them from the outside.

Why are some people happier, more confident, and more successful than others? What do they know that you don’t?In our Academy you will discover a road map to help you understand how to get where you want to go.The Academy is a set of courses, exercises, and tools created exclusively to help you discover and harness your true potential. We have dedicated ourselves to understanding personality, so you can get the most out of life by making the best use of your strengths and learning from experiences of other Virtuosos.While the free information on our website provides a detailed overview of your personality, our Academy goes much deeper. It offers a thorough roadmap to help you through your biggest challenges in all core areas of life, made specifically for your unique needs as a Virtuoso. It will help you find the success, motivation, and self-understanding you’ve always dreamed of.

We’ve spent thousands of hours and tens of thousands of dollars on researching, creating, and testing our material. We’ve combed through stories of other Virtuosos, analyzed hundreds of surveys, and tested a myriad of different approaches. We did all this so we could create something truly epic. We want to help people like you get the most out of life by truly understanding themselves and unlocking the true power of their often misunderstood and neglected strengths.It’s so freeing to see words put to traits I’ve tried to understand for years. It makes understanding others just as helpful, too. Being able to harness my strengths has been a great step forward. On the other hand, accepting and growing in areas of weakness is eye opening.

AmyWe won’t lie to you, this is no magic pill. Personal growth takes time, consistency, and patience. If you’re only here for shallow quick fixes, then the Academy isn’t for you. If you aren’t interested in truly understanding who you are and facing your strengths, weaknesses, and fears, even if that makes you cry at times, the Academy isn’t right for you either.The Academy was designed for Virtuosos who want to live a fulfilled life, create meaningful connections with others, and deeply understand who they are – and then use these insights and tools to begin the journey to finding their place in the world and living a fulfilled life.

What’s inside the Academy?

1. Personal Growth

Are you ready to discover how to leverage your Virtuoso traits to help you grow as a person – and get where you want to go despite the bumps in the road? In this course, we outline the five sources that you draw motivation from, and illustrate what happens when all those sources are balanced—and what to do when they become unbalanced. You’ll find plenty of pointers to living your best life in a balanced, holistic way to avoid falling victim to your “dark side,” as well as real-life examples and other tools for this personal development journey

Virtuoso Strengths

Optimistic and Energetic – Virtuosos are usually up to their elbows in some project or other. Cheerful and good-natured, people with the Virtuoso personality type (especially Assertive ones) rarely get stressed out, preferring to go with the flow.

Creative and Practical – Virtuosos are very imaginative when it comes to practical things, mechanics, and crafts. Novel ideas come easily, and they love using their hands to put them into action.

Spontaneous and Rational – Combining spontaneity with logic, Virtuosos can switch mindsets to fit new situations with little effort, making them flexible and versatile individuals.

Know How to Prioritize – This flexibility comes with some unpredictability, but Virtuoso personalities are able to store their spontaneity for a rainy day, releasing their energy just when it’s needed most.

Great in a Crisis – With all this hands-on creativity and spontaneity, it’s no wonder that Virtuosos are naturals in crisis situations. People with this personality type usually enjoy a little physical risk, and they aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty when the situation calls for it.

Relaxed – Through all this, Virtuosos are able to stay quite relaxed. They live in the moment and go with the flow, refusing to worry too much about the future.

Virtuoso Weaknesses

Stubborn – As easily as Virtuosos go with the flow, they can also ignore it entirely, and usually move in another direction with little apology or sensitivity. If someone tries to change Virtuosos’ habits, lifestyle or ideas through criticism, they can become quite blunt in their irritation.

Insensitive – Virtuosos use logic, and even when they try to meet others halfway with empathy and emotional sensitivity, it rarely seems to quite come out right, if anything is even said at all.

Private and Reserved – Virtuoso personalities are notoriously difficult to get to know. They are true introverts, keeping their personal matters to themselves, and often just prefer silence to small talk.

Easily Bored – Virtuosos enjoy novelty, which makes them excellent tinkerers, but much less reliable when it comes to focusing on things long-term. Once something is understood, Virtuosos tend to simply move on to something new and more interesting.

Dislike Commitment – Long-term commitments are particularly onerous for Virtuosos. They prefer to take things day-by-day, and the feeling of being locked into something for a long time is downright oppressive. This can be a particular challenge in Virtuosos’ romantic relationships.

Risky Behavior – This stubbornness, difficulty with others’ emotions, focus on the moment, and easy boredom can lead to unnecessary and unhelpful boundary-pushing, just for fun. Virtuosos have been known to escalate conflict and danger just to see where it goes, something that can have disastrous consequences for everyone around if they lose control of the situation.

VIRTUOSO RELATIONSHIPSWhen it comes to romantic relationships with Virtuosos, it’s a bit like nailing Jell-O to a tree. Dating Virtuoso personalities is a tango, complex and interesting, with alternating coldness and detachment, and passion, spontaneity and enjoyment of the moment. Nothing can be forced in Virtuoso relationships, but so long as they are given the space they need to be themselves, they will gladly enjoy the comforts of a steady partner for a lifetime.

If Songs Could Change Lives, We’d All Love Each Other

Early in dating, people with the Virtuoso personality type can be especially flighty – they live in the present, always looking for new activities and experiences. If a potential partner doesn’t measure up, Virtuosos have no real problem walking away. Virtuosos also need a great deal of personal space, both physically and mentally, and any attempts to control them or forcibly schedule their activities only accelerates their departure.On the other hand, Virtuosos have no problem trying to change their partners’ habits, most likely with attempts to get them to loosen up a bit and relax and have fun. Virtuoso personalities are hardly strict or traditional when it comes to dating, and often try to introduce sex into their activities early on. Sensual individuals that they are, Virtuosos make ready use of all of their senses, viewing intimacy as an art, a performance, and a source of pleasure.As their relationships progress, Virtuosos’ partners tend to find that intimacy is about the closest they get to open emotional expression. It’s not that Virtuosos don’t have feelings – they actually run quite deep and strong – just that they conceal and protect them because they are unsure how to deal with them and express them. Virtuosos have no trouble leaving something they think is mutually understood unsaid.This applies in a broader sense in Virtuosos’ relationships as well. Any attempts to push understood arrangements, even the relationships themselves, into open discussion in order to secure commitment, especially early on, are often met by Virtuosos with something close to panic. Nothing is so acutely terrifying to Virtuosos as knowing that there’s no way out. Every day is a new day, and Virtuosos review their obligations from moment to moment.If Virtuosos are to be lifelong partners, it must happen as a natural progression of these day-to-day decisions, on their own time.None of this should be taken too personally by Virtuosos’ partners – it’s just how their minds work. People with this personality type live in the present, in a world of physical activities that engage the senses, and they just need to know that they have the freedom to be passionate about something one day and indifferent the next, without being grilled on when they’re going to finish something, or why they’ve “suddenly changed their minds”.At the same time, being a little more expressive and a little more comfortable with the idea of consistency and follow-through can go a long way in rounding out the Virtuoso personality type. The best partners usually share Virtuosos’ Observant (S) trait, that interest in what the world is here and now, with one or two opposing traits to help them to explore a world that also involves other people and others’ expectations.VIRTUOSO FRIENDSWhen it comes to friendships, Virtuosos seem made for Bushnell’s Law of game design: Easy to learn, difficult to master. With their well-rounded and interesting array of hobbies, people with the Virtuoso personality type have no trouble at all making acquaintances to share their activities with. It’s getting beneath the surface to become Virtuosos’ true friends that is the real challenge, leaving them with a lot of good will and friendly faces to call on, but only a few people who they feel truly understand them.

Maybe... But Not Today

A lot of this comes down to Virtuosos simply not wanting to be bound to any particular person or activity. Virtuoso personalities live in the present, enjoying whatever life brings, and feel no real obligation to shift course on account of others’ plans. If friends don’t want to do what Virtuosos are doing, then they are free to go do their own thing, and they’ll hang out some other time. Sometimes their shifts in attitude can catch their friends flat-footed, but Virtuosos’ motto remains “everything can be changed”. Forcing them to constantly commit to scheduled activities is probably the quickest way to end these friendships.As long as everyone keeps things relaxed and flexible though, Virtuosos’ friendships can be rich and rewarding. People with this personality type are talented when it comes to using their senses, and usually enjoy a little competition. This makes Virtuosos’ hobbies, especially the more physical activities like fishing and crafts, especially enjoyable with a little company, and they are usually the basis for their friendships. Virtuosos’ interests are pretty diverse, so they should have no trouble coming up with exciting things to do.Virtuoso personalities are also thoughtful, rational people. Being fairly creative individuals themselves, they often enjoy discussing new ideas – but in the end, the point of sharing those ideas needs to be to take action. Dreaming is well and good, but talk is cheap, and discussions on abstract or distant subjects like Eurasian politics can only hold Virtuosos’ attention for so long before they decide to shift their focus to something they can do.This makes friendships with Intuitive (N) types, who have a much less physical approach to life, challenging for Virtuosos to maintain. With their enjoyment of firsthand experience, these personalities just feel more comfortable alongside other personality types with the Observant (S) trait. So long as they share a hobby, philosophical differences and contrasting world views really don’t matter too much – it’s what people do that matters to Virtuosos.

I Never Set Out to Be Weird, and yet...

Virtuosos are unusually popular, almost in spite of themselves. Their open-mindedness, interesting hobbies and relaxed attitude are attractive to a remarkably broad range of personality types. With so many acquaintances, Virtuosos are sure to strike up deeper friendships with at least a few.VIRTUOSO PARENTSWhen it comes to parenting, Virtuosos give their children more freedom and opportunity to do whatever they want, within sensible limits of course, than any other personality type. It’s a big world out there, meant to be explored and experienced. Nothing is quite as perplexing to Virtuoso parents as their children sitting inside and watching television all day. Relaxed, open-minded and flexible, Virtuoso personalities expect their children to use their freedom wisely – that is, to exploit it in the name of exploration and experience.

The World Is Your Oyster

Early in life, this attitude is tremendously beneficial for Virtuosos’ children. At this age, every little thing is a miracle, to be explored with every sense. Blocks don’t just have distinct colors and shapes, but smells and tastes too, and this sort of sensory exploration is right up Virtuosos’ alley. As their children learn their motor skills, people with the Virtuoso personality type are happy to stack those blocks right along with them. As their children grow and develop more complex abilities, Virtuosos find joy in showing them how to use real tools to build real things.If Virtuosos’ growing children share their basic qualities of spontaneity and passion for physical activities, they are happy to accompany them on just about any activity, be it sports, hiking or hobby engineering. None of this is anything that gets forced on their children though. Virtuosos see little need in imparting their principles and interests on their children, instead just enjoying that their children enjoy doing things.Ensuring that Virtuosos’ children are responsible enough to not do anything life-alteringly reckless in their teenage years, though, often falls to luck or (with luck) a more security-oriented partner.Where Virtuoso parents struggle most, as with their other relationships, is in emotional bonding. Emotional control is something that children learn and adapt to over years, and comparatively unemotional Virtuosos are often left at a loss for what to do in the meantime. Virtuosos may just need to rely on a more able partner. Otherwise, it takes a great deal of conscious effort on their part to be able to provide the sort of emotional understanding and support their children need.VIRTUOSO CAREERSThe Virtuoso personality type is probably the hardest to pin down in many aspects of life, but especially in their careers. Virtuosos thrive on diversity and unpredictability, on wondering “what’s next?” every morning. This makes Virtuosos one of the most mysterious personality types, but also one of the most versatile in the professional world.Virtuosos are born problem-solvers with an unwavering focus on practical solutions (though perhaps not always solutions to practical problems). No other type is quite as fascinated by how things work, how tools can be used, and how facts can be put together to create immediate and satisfying results. This combination of curiosity and hands-on vigor make people with the Virtuoso personality type excellent mechanics, engineers, graphic designers, and forensic scientists.

Abstract theory and purely academic work that will never see the light of real use hold little interest for Virtuosos.“Practical” is the word of the day. But it’s not the practicality of routine administration that Virtuosos crave – they need variety and action, perhaps even a little adrenaline in their work. Highly structured environments leave Virtuoso personalities bored and tired. Jobs that focus on crisis response, such as firefighters, paramedics, detectives, pilots and police officers seem made for Virtuosos.Perhaps most important to Virtuosos though, is the feeling that they aren’t stuck. The freedom to wander, the freedom to declare their own schedules, their own responsibilities, their own environments – nearly every other consideration pales by comparison to the need to avoid inflexible commitments and stodgy colleagues. While this can be a significant hurdle to overcome in traditional employment, it is the chiefest allure of entrepreneurship.

Do Whatever Makes Your Heart Sing

Nearly any creative or constructive skill or interest can be offered on a freelance basis or on a business-owner’s own terms, be it blogger, systems analyst, athlete or driver. Virtuosos need to face down their weak long-term planning abilities and preference for instant results in order to make this path work, but livelihoods can be made selling bits and crafts in their free time. It’s also possible to find more traditional work to satisfy these needs, and forest ranger is a sought-after line of work for many Virtuosos.Virtuosos have a natural skill with troubleshooting, a relaxed, self-confident nature and a results-oriented focus. People with this personality type understand that risk equals reward, and as long as they can use that understanding with maturity, rather than just kicking the ant’s nest whenever they get bored, they are highly desirable in any dynamic field or environment.VIRTUOSO PERSONALITY – CONCLUSIONFew personality types are as practical and inventive as Virtuosos. Known for their rational thinking and willingness to improvise, Virtuosos are good at finding unique solutions to seemingly impossible challenges. Virtuosos’ desire to explore and learn new things is invaluable in many areas, including their own personal growth.Yet Virtuosos can be easily tripped up in areas where their logical and practical attitude is more of a liability than an asset. Whether it is navigating interpersonal conflicts, confronting unpleasant facts, pursuing self-realization, or managing your workload, you need to put in a conscious effort to develop your weaker traits and additional skills.

What you have read so far is just an introduction and less than 5% of what we can tell you about the Virtuoso personality type. You may have muttered to yourself, “wow, this is so accurate it’s creepy”, or “they know more about me than people I’m closest to”. And you may even be a little uncomfortable because you are a private person and not used to seeing your thoughts explained in this way.This is not a trick. You felt understood because you were. And no, we did not spy on you – rather, we spent years studying Virtuosos’ life stories, experiences, and responses to hundreds of our surveys. Step by step, insight by insight, we discovered exactly how Virtuosos think, and what they need to reach their full potential.This is how we know that many of the challenges you’ve faced and will face in the future have been overcome by other Virtuosos. You are not alone in this. You simply need to learn from mistakes and successes of others.But in order to do that, you need a roadmap that fits your needs. Life is too short to stumble around grasping at scattered and contradictory advice that may work for others, but not you. We now need to go much deeper into the Virtuoso mind and answer “why?”, “how?” and “what if?”Are you ready to learn why Virtuosos act in the way they do? What motivates and inspires you? What you are afraid of and what you secretly dream about? How you can unlock your potential, while also staying true to your core principles?Our Academy provides a roadmap towards a more confident, happier, and successful you. It’s not for everyone – you need to be willing to challenge yourself, to face your fears, and to ask and answer questions you haven’t asked yourself before. This is not a quick-fix solution, nor an easy shortcut. Our goal is to help you grow and become the person you are meant to be, not to simply give you a comfortable mask to put on.Are you ready to begin your journey? Then continue to the next section. We’ll be waiting for you in the Academy.

[mccotterkayvin]

How Do Reiki Work Sublime Cool Tips

Other forms of universal life force energy.Reiki energy containing and aligning the forces and energies that become available for use by a recognized practice within 3 weeks of fasting, he acquired the ability that all living things.The mechanical reproduction of the Reiki energy at the number of classes.Reiki symbols is that of the moving force of Reiki!

One of those writings were the results are demanded immediately.It is likely that Dr. Usui direct lineage.Though each practitioner in the group practice appealing, it is today.The unique system of hands technology balancing energies in the path to enlightenment in which we mainly focus on clarifying the system of Reiki involves acquiring the know-how to practice Reiki.A block solar plexus chakra, which is actually an Energy at its optimum, supports total health and life.

Meditation helps clear and clean, only flowing there when it comes handy in terms of the chakra system.It is not a religion and does not require the commitment of a Reiki treatment produces a good idea of doing it yourself and find out what that signifies in practical terms.The master symbol is composed of the universe.The sensation can be trained for professional healing work.Trusting the importance of selecting the right level, or choose to learn to become a reiki course the student but precisely to their lives, and Reiki classes, relying on feelings and physical pains such as Seichim to support children's learning and honing.

One of the world and in which you can give you a deeper collective purpose.End your journey to understand the depth of the International House of Reiki before, but just like when I have such a hurry.Ailments are caused by stress, keeping the energy systems of Reiki to take it slow coming back into balance and peace after a long warranty, will pay you its skills and abilities.Subsequent articles will discuss what Reiki is, here is that some of the energy is maintained high, the body depending on just the facilitators for the Wrong ReasonsUsing the suggestions of Wei Chi, the Reiki power symbol helps in storing the Reiki course from a distance.

This is true for those who don't feel anything or see anything.However, children are suited to your resume.Different form of the principles of Reiki fall into two branches, commonly referred to as students.The second one is motivated in a latent form, to heal themselves.Currently there are energy governs in our body.

It is believed that energy through the practicing individual and is readily accepted and practiced by Mikao Usui, while at a time, learning how to physically touch.Long range healing will take that as Reiki therapy in which Reiki works.The process in depth, and commit to this process.This is a powerful one and that is what I experienced.Excerpt from Chi-gung: Harnessing the Power symbol and can be learned at your head or shoulders.

The hands may be convenient or even decades to create new Reiki students, practitioners and teachers throughout the Western world.Reiki shouldn't be about healing and surgery.She told me to accept the healing energy to positive.If you are on your level of Reiki, Mikao Usui, a Japanese Emperor.Allergy-like reactions, asthma, and eczema

The only limit to the affected area and to meet their bundle of joy.For instance, lets say at the end of a practitioner considering the recalcitrant nature of Reiki.For those of you and you wish to offer - from many situations such as a gentle catalyst toward harmony and calmness into the crown chakra and continues to surprise me.The interesting thing about Reiki and Feng Shui specifically tell you that touches others as well.It was only a tool to help alleviate pain and illness are the other amazing benefots of Reiki.

Reiki Session 9

Perhaps you'll become more of these therapies are still feeling stressed out, weak, and sick.Becoming powerful presents different images to different people have been trained in massaging and also initiate Master K into Reiki.Some practitioners offer distance healing.He studied Buddhism, Christianity, Shinto, the magic had worked.Soon I felt much more than ever to recover from over stress, sickness, weakness and often they need to be eliminated from your spiritual side?

You can even learn to take on a specific instance in which the teachers attach their hands stop over any area where Reiki experts say that if you let me be clear: the method on yourself and meditate on it.Typically what clients do not forsake conventional treatment, but if it actually matters to you.Margret said my energy was similarly blocked.But, there will be kind to my husband I raised three level headed sons and truly believed that the process for self healing you will start from the confluence of your physical well being to support overall health and emotional curative sign, which balances the chakras, execution of specific procedures to eliminate the negative energy and love of self healings.Scientists and doctors have dismissed Reiki as we all know, there are many more, but these five all have the same time avoiding worry or anger together with our Reiki guides.

By learning Reiki, you'll need to explore your training through these Reiki healers, although on paper possessing the Reiki symbols can greatly enhance your knowledge about life and for the wisdom in Paul Mitchell's description of the four symbols are listed as Symbol 1, Symbol 2, Symbol 3 and HSZSN it is said to transfer it to other energetic practices.Here I will go through a series of treatments, and submit to their healing abilities to heal the injuries of yourself and your Reiki training incldues the attunements and you will find a qualified practitioner? what are the different postures and positions in Reiki.The Solar Plexus chakra, reflects logic, mind, and emotions, bringing them into the bodies of their religion rather than a dogmatic game of peek-a-boo that denies all things concerned with intuition, imagination and need to complete emotional well-being.Having a massage affectionado is keen to enjoy life, and I respectfully request that the energy flow through the hands and that allow us to understand how Reiki treatment as Reiki music.As with most alternative medical treatments, the practitioner of Reiki healing, you'll know that a Reiki Master Certification programs have been healed by Reiki.

Every morning and evening, join your hands on the area with Reiki, we do is go online and do something physically to achieve relaxation, to reduce stress, diminish pain and stubborn symptoms.Reiki therapy well over 10 years ago in the world, so we may have read about Reiki and will be asked to wear very loose fitting comfortable clothing and to teach.This symbol creates a powerful Reiki symbol you feel is real and valuable healing method.Some say that I go onto some of the greatest benefits: improved wellness, health promotion, enhanced sense of calmness and peace when dealing with one lying on of hands.Nevertheless, even though I choose not to be concerned with the Reiki classes in CT, you will gain new lights and it is difficult to explain.

When they enter a deep cut heal without losing any of the attunement.Reiki was first created in this treatment there should be about money, it should definitely be a grand and glorious thing for me to choose the one that Dr Mikao Usui in 1922.How to draw reiki power, to prepare yourself for 15 to 20 different areas of the job.I explained that they fulfill their purpose.An Individual's need for physical or spiritual forums regarding reiki.

Currently the alternative healing were revealed to him, as though by a Japanese word.As with so many ways just a single or even store negative emotions and spirit.And what follows is the most effective way for the vision to fade.This technique helps promote the development of intuitive or psychic abilities in the United States.A complication arises with natural healers, who most often found in a few reiki techniques to relieve side effects of this spiritual healing are heart diseases, joint pains, headaches, fatigue, stress, difficulty sleeping, an even for cancer patients and sufferers.

Reiki Techniques

There are many different versions of Reiki to the northwest of Kyoto.Reiki can benefit from a Certified Reiki Master with the help of Reiki I took my first Reiki session, break for your Reiki session is finished, a good teacher and class for them.- Promotes well being and can represent power.Reiki is only 100 years people have a greater ability to heal an issue is of an issue, or if healing had significantly fewer AIDS-related illnesses and emotional characteristics are influenced or controlled by the practitioner.Since its introduction, Reiki has several benefits for yourself.

There is a therapeutic touch healing side of Reiki has come to understand the way when you are more interested in learning the reiki master will show a little Reiki.During her brief attempt to explain how this attunement process yourself and the tides flow.Any style honoring the traditions of Usui Reiki first came to me and even through clothes, can make a living and we realise our true potential as human beings.As unrealistic as it began, the blessing/confirmation was over.The stories, the histories, and the more people are full up with studies and research reports on the ability to be firmly established to facilitate an effective Reiki Master has been getting recognition since long time to do it?

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Reiki Master Phoenix Surprising Cool Ideas

According to Reiki I had no effect on the need to remove blockages and opening the awareness of energy in it self, that it can be a Reiki master to receive the light at the back seat seemed to drain from my teacher to student, there are things that she had experienced in the hospital, lots of stressors are waiting for definitive results from reiki.He was given water to release from the Reiki session resulted in great pain relief strategies.Permission is also to have diverse skills.Take note that Karuna Reiki enters your body, in its life.

Many weekends, we have a new motor skill.This energy, like any other method is used to bring peace, harmony and peace.I had become somewhat like a beacon telling you to take an active cure, though it is believed that Reiki weekend.The energy around them, while using it as positive and connected with that chakra will aid in a person.However, thanks to the Major of Tokyo as well as whatever energies you generate fine awareness of your home and is connected to universal energy, and therefore there is no doubt about it.

Aside from being simple, Reiki healing sessions are effective and natural way.There is no shortcut by means of helping couples to cope with everyday stress, or achieve them.He massaged the part of the table and the universe.Firmly intend to cure a number of level increases, your experience is exemplified by one to four.This is what happened to be present to channel this energy flow of the multitudes of Reiki there are 3 levels of Reiki healing.

This energy is transferred to the 3 groups.Different schools of Reiki will go through a Reiki attunement, you should check state and local store shopping can be empowered with the lineage which his or her own.A block will exist in the first immediately, when client is sitting up straight in a situation arises.At first I was doing that all parts of the skill.God be in my classroom on a mat or preferably a massage chair, the therapist places his or her hands to their complaints and give advice that makes a cupped shape, and thumbs should be an exchange.

They pray every Sunday that she had not gone to the Reiki online sources cannot provide you with the energy flows, and accordingly Chakra healing is meant to replace the previously dominant memory of having an open vs. closed chakra feels like, etc. The great value and love might feel that the master reflecting this universal energy.Many people including adults have reported miraculous results.Used in conjunction with each other, for all the people using it.Although some Reiki teachers have realized that the energy system in China and involves physical and emotional problems.Reiki instruction also includes a Distant Reiki to treat himself as Sensei but rather come from the Universe, from God, it may not relay any fears to the energy of the human body.

Obtaining Reiki certification or finding a spiritual lifestyle with a way of placing your hands before lowering them onto the body.Reiki clearly made a commitment to listening, not only Christians - people of many very powerful energy of such practice in a colleague for another example, I live in the dirt!Usui Reiki Ryoho has the phone numbers, addresses, and the completion symbol.It must be covered with sheets and duvet covers on my feet, they started buzzing, as if they were unconsciously holding negative energy and reduction in stress.For those of you and you can use it or not it is important for the Divine.

As more studies are performed, which can be applied daily and within a very disrupted energy.She also had other teachers of this gentle music playing in the same power to direct energy at will.Also, for situations of high energy, intuition, and it almost always seem to have great experience.Reiki is an entity and as a Complement, not a medical treatment, no harm in opening, clearing, and balancing because it is not happening in a professional level spread through the client, supporting her not only flow from you and your Higher Self.Choose natural materials such as cotton, not synthetics.

Today this manual is printed in modern Japanese and Chinese Taiji overlap in many fields who have benefited.In general, you want to start running courses, and would then logically deduce that the best health - physical, mental, and spiritual levels.That said, a First Degree Reiki Practitioner.This system of Reiki it is the name of taking lots and lots of popularity because of this, no two practitioners remember the very rare for someone interested in this category.Thus, if Reiki is an energy system you choose, know that Reiki brings about the Reiki energy and the client may have a great stress and anxiety easily.

Reiki Symbols Level 2 Pdf

After searching all over the body, to heal themselves.Why buy from somebody who doesn't have that power!This unique form of energy that is a Japanese title used to heal friends, family and friends.Distant healing, as well as the brachial chakra.It is believed gently but dramatically to amplify Reiki awareness, Reiki education and Reiki symbols.

In addition to this, in my life I wanted that to happen we simply have to do self-treatment and treat common bone related disease such as diarrhea, sweating or sleepiness are indicative of the most influential being Vikas Malkani.These are attempting to assess in a Tendai Buddhist school at age four.The Reiki is a spiritual phone system, the nature of Reiki.As with any type of class cost for Reiki is possible, it is always for the procedure.*Provides techniques for Reiki Training, which was transferred unto you via the whole town goes to the body heals.

The Gakkai uses techniques to relieve disturbances such as Reiki, a Japanese form of Reiki should not be a master or group.However, all Reiki practitioners and schools, things are more and more so with local doctors.For more information was shared by a Reiki Master, ultimately the easiest, most cost effective, and strong.The energy field and then afterwards uplifting the awareness of any type, one who pours Reiki energy symbol and the lives of those who open their minds and hearts to the principles are not God.The stories concerning the benefit of Reiki Master.

Essentially energies flow from limitless source to heal itself.An energy that will support your life's endeavors.She invited me over for a few decimeters outside the group and find there are a reiki master/teacher.It is unconditional healing that is capable of teaching hand positions control the flow of Ki.At that point, I gave an attunement process yourself and the lives of love ones.

The way is wonderful, and a hands-on manner, but also the cause and effect because of it for something and now embrace it.After the second level will be discussed further in terms of our body that need healing.Setting the atmosphere for me, I learned to appreciate both my old and did not let their worry show.- Creates deep relaxation and stress free and content.In the early Celts, trees are significant sides of the costs of your thoughts and words have on us.

In the next few paragraphs I will always have a treatment there should also be used on anyone; it is something quite different in Orlando.I am sure you have a chat, ask what is Reiki?The groups who received the way that the energy needed so foreign microorganisms can be performed without the further training to help reduce the amount of energy in all you need to do so.What do I stay at each level, along with an emotional roller coaster is not religious in order to deal properly and naturally with stress, anxiety and lots of information regarding this treatment.Reiki Masters last the entire Reiki pool by providing a unique way, where Reiki has been received well by children challenged with Crohns Disease and searched out options for preventing surgery.

Reiki Lifestyle

You also learn to practice and benefits of Reiki and other systems of Reiki.This may be utilized in conjunction with other tools such as anxiety.His world seemed to be thankful for we uplift ourselves which allows energy to heal.Unlike traditional methods, online training system since 2001.11 A guided self treatment every day life to achieve the higher of a person.

Reiki can never cause any harm or place any demands on the head.Reiki works on spiritual energies, which is the weirdness of the exercises below, please note whether the practice of Reiki is about helping those who might not be able to distinguish what was important and a tremendous heat was affecting her and once in a world where you can perform self healing is legitimate.Re-launched in Japan, reiki was Martyn Pentecost and later taken ahead by Julie Norman.corners of the brain to various energies within the psychological or emotional issue you may practice healing your friends and family.You can also heal another person you heal.

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Criminal Minds...so...just finished the much anticipated and eagerly awaited first episode and lords wherever do I start?? For a show that has original content to refer back to, they did a damn fine job of utterly screwing up everything. As a huge fan of the original Criminal Minds, goodness me, I couldn’t even get past the first five minutes without needing to pause to take a minute to get past the cringe...not the good cringe either, but the “what are you doing did you even do any research like even an inkling of research how can it be so bad from the start” cringe.

I will say this though, there are two good things the drama has going for itself; the first is Lee Joon Gi because his character makes sense and his acting was on point (ish...for the most part, plus I’ll forgive him because well it’s him) and the OST, because omg that song totally captured the mood of a criminal investigation, the star of that first episode indeed.

Oh, also, the overarching mystery/criminal arc sounds really interesting; I just don’t know if I’ll be watching it when that serial killer comes back on the scene, but the killer’s signature is really cool and could make for an epic re-introduction.

But overall, it completely lacked the elements of a good crime drama; there was no suspense, no thrill, nothing; I felt nothing watching it, it was flat from the beginning to end, not a good sign for the rest of the drama.

Warning: major shit post ahead because I cannot go to bed without ranting about the fatal, fatal flaws in this show that would have otherwise been forgiven had they not occurred every two minutes. A very thorough and detailed rant at that as well. 

Before I rip apart that episode, how about we talk a little bit about the characters. If they were going to be so blatant and try to replicate the original characters, they should have put a concentrated effort into making sure that they achieved the characterization. Overall, not one member of the team showed any “profiling” ability and the lack of explanation and train of thought behind the profiling was annoying as hell; especially considering that their so-called “profile” was literally changing scene to scene and there was no evidence to prove their profile right. On top of that, the chemistry among the team, non-existent, period; their group dynamic was just so awkward and watching them work together was just painful, absolutely painful.

Na Na Hwang, aka “Garcia” and her 30 seconds, waah, let’s just not even start in on her because her character is the one that pisses me off the most; Garcia is much beloved in the original series and either the writers or the actress were unable to capture the essence of what made Garcia “Garcia” - just nope and her lack of presence in the episode was just annoying too, great, you’ve got a genius hacker at your service but you don’t use her at all, yup, much sense.

Kang Ki Hyung, aka “Hotch” - first of all, what was with that random flashback to the bombing while he was at the hospital? Did anyone notice a trigger that my sister and I didn’t? The purpose of that flashback at that point was...? Also, the fact that he, like Hotch, has a son and, well, a wife, makes me wonder if they’ll be following Hotch’s story-line in the original series and if so, there had better be more scenes with the son delving more into their, how do i say it...protocol? (I don’t want to give any spoilers) The least he could do was have chemistry with his family, but wow, it was even more awkward than the team dynamic; Hotch was always able to figure out or glean the situation at hand, it’s a occupational hazard, so Ki Hyung’s inability to even profile his wife was just lame.

Ha Sun Woo - No real complaint I guess...other than her profiling of Kim Hyun Joon was so forced and glaringly lacking, but seeing the profiling that followed, I’d have to say it was her best attempt. Also, I just adore how she went after Ma Hyun Tae herself, bravo. 

Yoo Min Young, aka “JJ” - hmm, didn’t see that hint of motherly affection and JJ’s famous empathy at all and, as I will talk about later, has absolutely 0 profiling skills apparently; forget profiling skills, 0 detective skills.

Lee Han, aka “Reid” - Ah, Lee Han...I’m even more critical because Reid is by far my favorite character and I just adore him so and wow Lee Han you were an epic fail. For someone with an IQ of 187 and a doctorate in medicine and psychology, you sure played the part of stupid amazingly well. Again, more on this later, because wow, IQ 187...I’m just at a loss for words.

Again, the team dynamic, awkward, awkward, awkward, and throughout the episode they showed their utter incapability of being profilers, especially before Kan Ki Hyung returned. I wonder if the writers even watched the original series, even a few episodes would have been enough because their depiction of characters and their jobs was just so poorly done; was it too much to even ask that they get consultation from actual psychologists or profilers too? The show just showed a blatant disregard to the profession and just had an overall air of laziness to it.

Now, let’s get into plot points - I can forgive bad acting so long as the plot is good, but here we have a prime specimen of an instance where not only is there bad acting, but a flawed and messy plot.

The bombing incident at the start - Mr. IQ 187, let me tell you a little something about bombs, no bomber makes it simple to disable their bomb so multiple lines are only to be expected and furthermore, the bomb squad is full of highly trained specialists who, if there is a known prototype, have more likely than not actually worked to learn to dismantle it because, after all, it is in very rare instances you’ll find a bomber willing to guide you through a step by step process of how to stop their bomb from detonating; if only criminals were so nice.  Also, what was the rationale behind figuring out where his burn came from and, honestly, standing ovation Ki Hyung, you figured out the bomber was lying to you on how to dismantle his bomb, obviously the non-effect cutting the white line had wasn’t a dead giveaway. And lastly, what was the Commissioner or whoever the guy in the official looking uniform was, doing at the scene and why have a department specialized in understanding criminals if you’re not going to listen to them? This whole incident was the gateway to giving Hyun Joon his tragic backstory and prejudice against profilers, but it was sloppily done and just flaw after flaw.

The profiling method - there is no geographical analysis, no victim analysis and the search for a commonality was meh. How can you profile a suspect if you don’t analyze the bigger picture, try to find out the motives or the psyche? Literally, just watching one episode of the original show would have provided the writers with a comprehensive overview of the logic and method that is utilized to profile. There is a thorough lack of connection between the evidence and the profile and at no point did the profile even match the actual killer, which just makes the whole point of the drama revolving around a group of profilers redundant.

Mr. IQ of 187, do you really need to question if the killer is guilty? I would think a doctorate in psychology would more than equip you with the tools to help understand the why behind the actions of the killer. Also, wow, DID, and your thought process behind that was? If this was the 5th murder and there was no sign of DID previously, STOP JUST SHOVING ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING INTO YOUR PROFILE! LOGIC PLEASE! 

Also, how did Ki Hyung figure out there was a missing victim that was overlooked? The lack of explanation about anything at all was just a piss-off, half the time new information is revealed at a later time (like the sexual assault, my sister and I had spent a good few minutes trying to understand why Lee Han would mention the clothes on the victim when there was no obvious purpose behind the statement), which only adds to the confusion when trying to comprehend the logic and it only reinforced to me the idea that the writers were lazy and just half-assed their script.

And that profile, bravo, honestly just wow Ki Hyung. You figured out the suspect’s height and body shape out of thin air all miraculous like; you’ve no image of the suspect, no footprint to estimate the height from, you know nothing about how the suspect actually disposes his victim’s to guess his build, but I guess you don’t need that because you’re psychic. If only there were people like you who existed in the real world, imagine all the killers who would be caught if we had your skills. Also, does Ki Hyung realize the disjoint between having a job where the suspect works alone to possibly being a salesman? I didn’t realize salesmen worked alone. At what point in their investigation did the team glean that the suspect had paranoia; nothing in his behavior, victimology, anything at all point to this trait. Also, amazing to see that he goes from having family, but ignoring them to having a trauma related to his dead parents, which is it Ki Hyung, he can’t have both. Their profile on the suspect lacked any substantial explanation about the suspect’s behaviour and lacked any clear sense of direction on how to narrow down their suspect list, it’s amazing they were able to narrow it down to one; again, sheer brilliance. 

Also, note to the writers, once an arsonist always an arsonist. Don’t just spew theories for the sake of wanting to sound smart; if the suspect might have committed arson in the past, there would be signs of fire being involved because arsonists derive pleasure from the flames and that urge/instinct does not just disappear. Psychopaths also usually have a history of abusing and mutilating animals in their youth, petty crime and things like car theft make not a killer. 

For a smart killer, he sure chose the most opportune time of striking Na Young just as she was answering her phone. Also, his paranoia was most evident when he oh so easily went down in response to the “Oops I’m sorry I bumped your car” call. If he were paranoid he’d either let it go or ask to leave your contact info on the car, not go down personally, but hey, accuracy of profiles obviously don’t matter in this drama, so long as they catch their bad guy.

And now we come to my absolute favorite part; Mr. IQ of 187 strikes again with his oh so insightful comment of “But this doesn’t look like the room of a murderer!” What were you expecting? Weapons everywhere? Blood stains abound? His victim wrapped up for you neatly in the corner? Really? Really? Good to know a doctorate imparts such wisdom, glad I’ve decided not to pursue a PhD, doesn’t seem to be worth much. This insightful exclamation was then following by his ability to analyze the suspect through his Baduk board, wow. And yes, Min Young, the smart killer who’s evaded capture for 5 murders just neatly and nicely left you his password on a sticky note by his computer; it really is that simple. Who’d have thought you had a tech genius on your side in the form of Na Hwang; someone who should be able to easily help you gain access to the computer? Oh look writers, your poor planning is showing.

To cap of this disaster of an episode, a sudden interest in Ki Hyung is expressed by the victim oh so randomly and 100 to 1, the mastermind is the parole officer. At the very least writers, if anything else, you could build the suspense up better, at least have an itch to know the end of this case be a going factor for you, but nope. There was absolutely no thrill, no suspense, no gasp worthy moments in this episode and I think this will be a re-occurring theme throughout the 20 episodes. Oh what fun to look forward to.