#plus the writers have things planned ahead at least one year in advance

[butterfly-ribbon]

if anyone cares a while ago i made a playlist of all niigo content available (main story, focus events, mixed events, commissioned songs, and cover songs, etc.) and i update it pretty regularly whenever new stuff comes out. i made this for myself but if you're like me and can't be bothered to download a gacha mobile game this might be convenient for you too.

[purpleyoonn]

Hi ! I'm a new anon who find the courage to send you a (pretty long maybe ?) message..... idk why I'm so talkative when irl I'm a quiet person LMAO.

First, I hope you're doing fine and your day went well !

Second, just wanted to say that I'm in love with your writings ! You're one of my favorite writer on Tumblr and AO3 !! I'm totally addicted to soulmates + poly!bangtan x reader more than I was before thanks to you  😭 /pos

My favs ones are The Line between Love and War, Dance of Time, Baby you complete us, Doughnuts and Shell Casings and of course the My universe One shots (Yoonie as a dragon... so soft omg he has all my heart and soul omg I'm OBSESSED... Jinnie as a vampire ? YES PLEASE. And Joonie as Hades ? On my knees. )

I don't finish reading all of your stories tbh, but it's in my plans, hehe. I started Ethereal today ! I already love it, I can't wait to binge read it !!

AND if I send you this, it's because I have some questions... because I'm a writer too, and I want to try and write a poly bangtan x reader soulmate AU too 🥺 

Do you plan your writings ? Like taking notes in a notebook about your ideas, characters, story, any world building when you write something fantastic ? Do you plan your chapters and everything in advance, or do you just write what pass in your pretty head ? Do you have any tips for a baby writer like me ?  🥺 

Again thank you so much for sharing with us all these stories, really, I read your stories in the bus, at uni waiting for my classes or during my breaks because I don't have any friends, and I'm a very anxious person who suffer from adhd and bpd, plus I'm autistic so reading your writings helped me to cut myself to the noisy world a little, and it helps me so much so thank you...! (you'll probably find all of this weird, I'm sorry  😖)

Ah! Sorry I talk too much... it's always like that when it's about my specific interests like bangtan, writing, and fantasy world....

Also, sorry in advance for any grammar mistakes, English is not my first language (I'm Belgian, so I speak french hehe), I hope you'll understand what I'm saying   😣 

Have a nice day/afternoon/night, wish you all the good things in your life, you deserve it !! ♥ -  🐋 

omg hello new anony! Im gonna call you whalien❤️

My day has gone really well so far! My little sister had a field trip and used her spending/gift shop money to buy me an octopus plushie (she knows I love octopuses and that they are my favorite animal) so im super duper today!

thank you so much! im glad you love my works! (I have no clue what /pos means though)

omg so you favorite almost all of my works so far then! watch out for ethereal though, there is a loooott in there and pls pls take the warnings seriously for each chapter!

but yeah, I love dragon yoonie and pretty much any and all dragon bts aus. like there is something about possessive bangtan that treats mc like their greatest treasure!

So as for writing, I do actually plan everything in my notebook! I write out like hopes for the story as well as like, a summary and plot line weird box structure thingie. I also write out anything for my characters like backgrounds and likes/dislikes. I try to plan everything in advance but I don't plan the small details. I plan ahead for the big like, plot changing things but other than that, I write what comes to my head! Its fun when you don't necessarily know where things go but have an idea of the plot! as least to me😊

My biggest tip for any writers out there is actually pretty simple.

write.

like everything.

any little or big idea that comes to your head. write it down. you are never going to get any practice or improve your skills if you don't write. for me, the little fox was the first like actual fic ive ever written (besides a twilight fic on quotev that I will happily take to my grave) and I want to go back and rewrite it so bad but I won't because I like knowing how ive improved my writing over the years.

im the same way with fics ive falling in love with. ive like perfected my straight face in public, ive got the best poker face. ill even read directly in front of my grandpa and he'd never know I was reading the dirtiest smut ever. Im happy though that I can help you escape your world and all the noise for even the slightest second. as a fellow autistic individual, I know how overwhelming and overstimulating the world can be so im glad you can find comfort in my works!

Please never think that sharing your thoughts on something you love is weird or strange. I could go on for hours about the history of fan fiction or octopuses for hours. ask me about my favorite book and you might as well plop down on the couch with a nice pillow and a snack because we will be there for hours while I bring out my white board with theories and characters connections.

also pls don't ever worry about any English grammar/comprehension mistakes when talking to me! I am goof about asking questions and my comprehension levels are usually through the roof so pls don't ever worry! I wish I could speak French! I only remember some words! my family is from one of the states that was a French colony so its pretty common to still hear some French being spoken. but unfortunately my family didn't like it, (mainly my grandma sooooo) .

I hope you have an amazing morning/day/night!!!!

[ljandersen]

And other question: “Tell us a little bit about yourself”. It's always interesting to know more about your favorite author) Thanks a lot🖤

First of all, thank you!  Being one of someone’s favorite authors is a huge compliment and very humbling.  I appreciate your interest in both me and my stories!

To start (*avoids eye contact* *lowers voice*), I’m American.  I know we all look like lunatics right now, but I swear, I’m normal.  I live in the Pacific Northwest.  I’ve spent most of my life paying tuition and sitting in lecture halls.  After nine years of school, I finally graduated with my terminal degree.  Now I’m an oncology pharmacist who works for a healthcare system with inpatient services and several ambulatory clinics.  I work with brilliant people.  I love my coworkers.  I’ve finally been able to travel the world and see the amazing sites I only dreamed about growing up and in school.  I have a cat, dog, and husband.

When it comes to writing, I’ve written stories for as long as I can remember.  When I learned how to spell “Hi,” I wrote a story with crayon animals saying “hi” to each other on each page.  I kept a wad of notebook-page stories in my nightstand from first grade through high school.  I never planned to be a professional writer, since that wasn’t a “responsible” career route.  Instead I went into science and medicine.  Throughout my years at the university, my writing became less and less, and by the time I entered graduate school, I had put it away completely.  

It probably would have stayed that way if I hadn’t become disillusioned with my career.  I was always the A+ student.  It was part of my identity.  When I graduated, I assumed my career would be this grand thing.  I’d be valued for what I brought to the organization.  I’d go above and beyond, and it would matter in some small way.  As it turned out, medicine is very corporate.  

I became a cog in the wheel.  I got tired of management telling my team, “Go ahead and quit.  It’s easier for us to replace you, than it is for you to find a new job.”  The whole “Get off the bus if you don’t like it” mantra was something I heard at least every other week, not necessarily said directly to me as an individual, but to my coworkers as a group.  I saw how other exceptional employees were treated.  I saw how my efforts never went anywhere.  I had no individual worth to management or administration.  If I was so replaceable then even the higher calling of patient care didn’t really matter.  If whether it was me or some random person off the street sitting in that seat, it didn’t make a difference to administration, then my individual contribution to patient care was obviously generic and relatively insignificant.

I was inhibited improving programs or providing education, advancing anything, problem solving for efficiency, and all my extra work either got me in trouble in some weird round-about way or simply was wasted effort.  For instance, I was really excited about developing a dose-rounding policy for the outpatient clinic.  I had read recent guidelines issued by NCCN/HOPA.  I talked to my boss.  She patted me on the head and said sure.  I drafted a policy, complied sources, worked hard on documents and presentation material for the physicians.  Then it emailed it to my boss.  Month after month, I’d ask her, “Have you brought that to the doctors?”  Month after month, she’d forget.  Finally, I stopped asking.  A year and half later, one of the doctors brought up dosing rounding in a meeting.  My boss didn’t even remember I’d worked on it.  She told the MD it was such a good idea and assigned one of my coworkers to work on it and create a policy to present.  Going above and beyond only lead to frustration and hurt.

To me, what mattered was getting the job done well and having a harmonious, good working relationship with co-workers.  That’s not what mattered to my boss.  I got tired of being told I was a good clinician, but I didn’t smile enough.  I got in trouble if I didn’t come to her office to “hi” to her in the morning.  She was put out I hadn’t told her my grandma died but told a coworker.  How I did my job clinically didn’t matter.  

I discovered administration just wanted someone to clock in, clock out, do the factory conveyer-type work of daily duties and do nothing else.  I not only couldn’t share an opinion, I had to not have one at all.  I could leave, but staying near my family was important. I stayed, but I realized: my career had to be a job.  It couldn’t be a part of my identity.  I would never feel accomplished or have a sense of individual worth or achievement from my paycheck job.

That’s when I turned back to writing.  I tried a few original novels that went nowhere.  After playing ME, I lacked closure and wrote an ending for myself.  It turned into 300 k words, and my sister encouraged me to try posting it on a website.  From there, I found FFN and eventually AO3.  I’ve written ME fanfiction ever since.  I enjoy it.  It gives me something to do that brings me more joy than my actual job.  I’ve been studying self-publishing and maybe one day I’ll take the leap.  I don’t intend to leave my day job, since I spent 9 years and $100,000 getting my degree, but at least, I have an area of my life where I feel like I matter as an individual.  I achieve something I can be proud of.  

It’s been a few years since I posted my first ME fanfiction, and I have met several amazing people.  I’ve made good friends.  We get excited over each other’s story and share interests.  I’m so thankful for them.  Plus, I’ve read some amazing fanfic and enjoyed being part of a community.  Everything someone writes is worthwhile and appreciated by someone.  We improve and encourage each other.  No one’s better than anyone else.  We’re skilled in different areas and have our own spin when it comes to writing.  Some people are primarily readers and make a fanfic writer’s day by enjoying their story.  It’s all worthwhile.  It’s fun to be in a group where you’re worth comes from being yourself, not a voice-box-less automaton who smiles and says “hi” and “good bye” every morning and every evening.  

As for the future, I’ve been able to join professional writers’ facebook groups and read books about self-publishing and marketing.  I’ll keep with my day job, but now I feel less frustrated and listless.  I’m just there for the paycheck and for the enjoyment of my immediate coworkers, who again, I’ll say, are brilliant human beings.  I’m lucky to work with them.  With writing, though, I can achieve something and advance myself.  I focus on the people in my life for real satisfaction and have a hobby where I can progress myself and feel proud of what I achieve.

That’s my story.  Not very exciting, but that’s my path to writing fanfic in a nutshell.  I think it’s important that everyone has an area in their life where they find joy in accomplishing something for themself.

Thank you for the ask!  I’m sure that was more than you were expecting to get an answer.  All my short stories turn into long fics, even this one.  Lol!  Again, I appreciate your interest very much!

[comixconnection]

Choose Your Three Free Comics!

At long, long last...Free Comic Book Day is here! Unlike the usual “first Saturday in May” celebration that has defined the even in normal years, due to issues with the ongoing pandemic the folks in charge have decided to move this year’s celebration back to August 14th. Want a sneak-peak at the books...?

The following titles will be available at Comix Connection on Aug 14th (while supplies last!). Everybody gets to pick three! Unlike previous years, we will NOT be accepting FOOD DONATIONS in exchange for additional comics. Instead we will be collecting monetary donations to give to the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank. For every DOLLAR donates, you may select an additional free comic book!

We know the line for the FCBD comics can get long (if you want to come in and shop first, you can skip the line and head straight inside!) so in an effort to both entertain you while you’re in that long line and to help it go a little faster by giving you a preview of the various titles so you can decide ahead of time what looks good, the Comix Connection Counter Monkeys have read and reviewed all of the available FCBD books! Take a peek!

CHOOSE YOUR FREE COMICS:

One hundred years before the Skywalker Saga began, the Jedi Knights were the guardians of peace and justice in the galaxy! In this prelude to the ongoing Star Wars: High Republic Adventures comic series, follow padawans Ram Jomaram, Lula Talisola, and Zeen Mrala as they try to save Lonisa City from the dreaded Nihil. Also read the beginning of Star Wars: High Republic Adventures #1! [All Ages]

“Two brand-new adventures from the world of Avatar: The Last Airbender! In Clearing the Air, Tenzin attempts to teach his rambunctious children a lesson Aang taught him about how to resolve conflicts. In Match Makers, Iroh runs into some trouble with a few friends...that just might lead him to something fun he’s been trying to hide from!” [All Ages]

Who Sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott? gives a sample of the upcoming graphic novel by the same name, a tale telling the true story of the “Mother of the Civil Rights Movement,” Rosa Parks! This excerpt features the immediate aftermath of Rosa’s arrest, and her decision to start a legal battle that would change the course of American freedom! [All Ages]

“There's nothing better than a beautiful sunny day reading comics, so join us for a look at this summer's fantastic all-ages reads, courtesy of Oni Press! From the gentle, magical worlds of The Tea Dragon Tapestry (by K. O'Neill) and The Sprite and the Gardner (by Rii Abrego and Joe Whitt), the adventurous magical mystery of Mooncakes (by Suzanne Walker and Wendy Xu), and the action-packed Jonna and the Unpossible Monsters (Chris and Laura Samnee), there's something for everyone. Sneak a peek at these four fantastic fantasy graphic novels!” [All Ages]

Sonic is 30 years old! Celebrate the anniversary of the world’s fastest hedgehog with this peek into the ongoing Sonic comic series. Things get meta when Amy Rose starts drawing a comic about Sonic, Tails, and their friends...but what will Sonic think when he finds out he’s been turned into a comic book? Prepare for the big 30th Anniversary Sonic Celebration here! [All Ages]

It's the crisis of infinite Archies! Celebrate 80 years of the Riverdale Gang with this tale featuring a dimension-hopping Archie Andrews in his quest to save the multiverse. Then, witness Archie go toe-to-toe with... himself?! May the best Archie win! Plus, get a preview of the newest Archie One-Shot in shops! This title includes several versions of Archie (from classic to TV to horror) and showcases his evolution as a character over eight decades, all while being a tie-in to the company's 80th Anniversary plans. [All Ages]

“Despite the pandemic and the swirl of world events, back issue comics are booming! It's not all record prices (though there are many) or bargain basement deals, but rather it's many different categories! The team that brings you The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide shines the spotlight on this exciting part of the universe of comic books. Includes tips on how to collect, care for your comics, and preserve them, among other things.” [All Ages]

“Get a sneak peek at book four in the bestselling InvestiGators series! With agent Brash trapped in a mysterious coma, the technicians at S.U.I.T. have designed the ultimate replacement: RoboBrash! This high-tech replica has been programmed with all of the original Brash's crime-fighting skills and know-how--but it seems he's got a few bugs in his system! Will Mango and his new partner be enough to stop the giant ants that are on a rampage in the city? Orchestrated by the spaced-out villain, Maestronaut, and Houdino, the dinosaur escape artist, it seems criminals are certainly upping the ANT-e!” [All Ages]

“My name is Grace, not ‘Kyle's little sister’!” Having a good-looking, friendly, outgoing older brother sucks--especially when you're the total opposite: someone who likes staying home and playing video games. Your parents like him better (even if they deny it!) and everyone calls you "Kyle's little sister" while looking disappointed that you're not more like him. Grace was really hoping she'd get to go to a different middle school, but no such luck. At least she has her friends...until he finds a way to ruin that, too! What will Grace have to do to get out of his shadow?! [All Ages]

Jewish mythology has it that when God created the universe, He left one corner of it unfinished. Opinion is divided on why, but everyone agrees that the Unfinished Corner is a dangerous place full of monsters. Twelve-year-old Miriam is too busy preparing for her Bat Mitzvah to care about the Unfished Corner. She spends her days wrestling with whether she even wants to be Jewish--until a peculiar angel appears, whisking her, her two best friends, and her worst frenemy off to this monstrous land with one mission: finish the Unfinished Corner. [All Ages]

“The City of Gloomhaven isn't "safe" at the best of times, but lately, more folks than usual seem to be disappearing. In a city paralyzed by an unknown menace, only one adventuring crew will do: The Jaws of the Lion! Based on the hit games, Gloomhaven and Jaws of the Lion from Cephalofair Games, comes a fantasy adventure with humor and heart.” [All Ages]

The Last Kids on Earth and their friends each tell their own best story of the Monster Apocalypse, including Jack's high-stakes baseball game, Globlet's attempt to take over the world, Quint's bad-day-away invention, Dirk's bragain with a witch, and June and Skaelka's creepy carnival--plus a surprise story from some bad guys on the run... [All Ages]

Being the new kid is tough, even for a superhero/ward and heir to a billionaire, Damian Wayne (aka Robin)! Join Damian as he struggles to learn patience and understanding from the students at Gotham Metro Academy, including star student and all-around Great Guy, Howard! Plus, an adventure of Amethyst, princess of the mystical realm of Gemworld by bestselling authors Shannon Hale and Dean Hale! [All Ages]

To celebrate the new animated TV series premiering on Nickelodeon Fall 2021, Papercutz is releasing a new series of graphic novels entitled The Smurfs Tales. Preview it here with a number of silly short Smurfs Tales, with a back-up appearance by one of Peyo’s other beloved creations: Johan and Peewit, the young page and the court jester. [All Ages]

In Edge of Balance, a new High Republic story set in the wake of the Hyperspace Disaster, meet new Jedi and their enemies 100 years before the events of the Skywalker Saga! Young Jedi Knight Lily Tora-Asi is assigned to help displaced civilians relocate to Banchii in the Outer Rim. She and her padawans will face more threats there than just anxious settlers, from the insidious Drengir to the Nihil! And in Guardian of the Whills, encounter Baze and Chirrut before they join the Rebellion against the Empire in Rogue One! Presiding over the Kyber Temple on Jedha, the Guardians of the Whills had hoped to maintain the balance despite the growing presence of the Empire in their Holy City. Yet when a rebel named Saw Gerrera appears, Baze and Chirrut must decide if they're willing to compromise for peace, or if Saw's plan is too dangerous to risk. Read the first chapter of these two new Star Wars Manga Graphic Novels here! [Teen]

It wouldn’t be the Teen Titans without heightened teenage emotions and romance! Fan favorites Beast Boy and Raven are travelling away from the dwellings they know to find homes they can feel comfortable in. Along the way, their paths cross, sparks fly, and even a destiny or two might be found. [Teen]

“Street Fighter heads back to school, as the world's young fighters flex both their academic and martial arts prowess! Fan favorites Sakura, Ibuki, Karin, Makoto, and Elena come face-to-face with a new challenger - the leather-clad, motorcycle-riding Akira! It's a square-off of (rival) schools in this action-packed one-shot!” [Teen]

[NOT FINAL ART] “This Fall, jump on board here as VALIANT UPRISING overthrows the status quo with new titles, new creators, and new takes on Valiant's most iconic characters! The VALIANT UPRISING FCBD SPECIAL features: A brand new X-O MANOWAR story from Harvey Award-winning writer Dennis Hopeless and breakout star Emilio Laiso. It's the perfect jumping-on point as Valiant's flagship hero prepares to "Upgrade the World"! Then, get a special advance preview of THE HARBINGER #1, an all-new series from co-writers Jackson Lanzing and Colin Kelly join superstar artist Robbi Rodriguez that promises to take Valiant's psiot rebel in a vivid new direction! Plus, find out how the world's greatest spy responds to being unmasked, hunted, and trapped in a first look at NINJAK #1, the pulse-pounding thrill ride from Ringo Award-winning writer Jeff Parker and legendary artist Javier Pulido. Finally, get a sneak peek from writer Cullen Bunn and artist Jon Davis-Hunt of what's to come when SHADOWMAN returns!” [Teen]

Three epic new Marvel moments begin here! Read the beginning of the upcoming��Spider-Man Beyond story that will be starting in Amazing Spider-Man #75! Big changes are coming to everyone’s friendly neighborhood Spider-Man...but are they for good, or ill? Also discover the new Venom series, which will take spider symbiosis to whole new levels in the wake of King In Black. And last, sneak a peek at the Luke Cage: City On Fire mini-series, which will pit Luke against not just the Kingpin, but Daredevil too! [Teen]

Gotham is under attack, and it’s by the people claiming to keep it safe! Billionaire Simon Saint has slowly been taking over the institutions of Gotham with his insidious private security Magistrate program. Meanwhile, Batman finds his mind infected by Scarecrow’s fear gas, forcing him to question every decision he makes. It is all leading to the DC-spanning event FEAR STATE that will rock Gotham to its core. Plus, read a preview of Oscar-winning screenwriter John Ridely’s I Am Batman series in which the sons of Lucius Fox struggle with the legacy of both their father and Bruce Wayne as they take up the cowl to defend Gotham. [Teen]

Who is Avenger Prime? And what has spurred the chronal collapse that has them sending their army of Deathloks out to save all of space and time? Discover the start of the end here! Then, journey into the unknown with the Incredible Hulk! Bruce Banner never wanted to smash, he wanted to discover. Now, it’s finally time for the Hulk to expand his horizons with Operation: Smashtronaut! [Teen]

In this story from Critical Role, explore a small but important corner from the adventures of the Mighty Nein. Then, in The Witcher, it's an original tale featuring the iconic witcher himself, Geralt! Created in close collaboration with CD Projekt Red! [Teen]

A fascinating graphic adaptation of historian Timothy Snyder’s book On Tyranny, a collections of essays and reflections on lessons from history and how they can help America steer away from the course of authoritarianism. Recommended for anyone looking to learn more about how tyrants all through history have manipulated people and systems to take away the freedoms of others. [Teen]

“Side A: "BLACK: Interlude" What else was going on the night Kareem Jenkins was shot by police and discovered only Black people have superpowers? Find out in this FCBD one-shot! Side B: "CALEXIT: Hollywood Babylon" Once California refused to be ruled by the US government, its resistance fighters became overnight celebrities. Zora used her infamy for recruiting, but Emmie-X has other ideas.” [Mature]

In 2019, James Tynion IV (Batman) and Werther Dell'Edera (Briggs Land) introduced the world to Erica Slaughter, the iconic monster hunter who came to Archer's Peak, Wisconsin to save the town's children from the monsters only she can see. But Erica is not the only member of the House of Slaughter... With nearly half a million copies sold, Something is Killing the Children has become a true comic phenomenon and this Free Comic Book Day you are invited to enter the House of Slaughter...if you dare. [Teen]

Crewed by teenage geniuses frozen in cryosleep, the JEMISON is on a mission to terraform other worlds and provide hope for the human race. But when the ship is mysteriously stopped over a planet that isn't on any of their maps, the crew finds themselves suddenly awoken ten years early. One half remains behind to try and assess the damage and the other is dispatched to the planet below to figure out the answer to a perilous question: What stopped the ship, and is it friend or foe? [Teen]

As the earth dies, salvation is offered to five thousand children who will be spirited away from our planet’s apocalypse -- but what of the other children, still hoping to find one of the bracelets that give them their ticket off planet? In this wistful one-shot from the sci-fi hit We Live, go into the Broken Lands with a group of friends...but there are four of them, and only one bracelet to be found. How will they decide who gets to leave? Then, preview the Rainbow Bridge graphic novel where Andy has to help his beloved dog Rocket save eternity! [Teen]

“The comic adventures of Max, Chloe, and Rachel from the award-winning video game Life Is Strange continue in this exclusive lead-in to an epic new story arc! This FCBD special features the first comic book appearance of an all-new character who will feature heavily in the Life is Strange universe in 2021! This FCBD issue contains exclusive original material!” [Teen]

“To reclaim the Dungeon that fell to the scheming William Delacour, the plan is simple: Marvin the dragon, Isis, and Herbert the duck must find some magic “fugus purit” and use it to dislodge the current occupants of the fortress. But is this really the Guardian's plan? Our heroes will have to fight against everyone to save the Dungeon. Meanwhile, will Marvin succeed in his engagement blast-of-firebreath 'Tong Deum'? Preview the new series here!” [Teen]

See the next chapter of the super-powered scifi epic The Resistance, and then meeet the “Moths”: a subset of the super-powered Reborn. The pandemic that granted the Reborn their gifts during The Great Death gave power to people like  Emily Kai and the rest of the Moths, too...but the moment they use their gifts, their clock starts ticking and they have six months to live. Also, get a sneak-peek at the just-released Not All Robots futuristic techno-depressive-thriller! [Teen]

The second semester of School for Extraterrestrial Girls is in session! Peer into the lives of Tara Smith (fire lizard!), Misako Sato (extra-dimensional fairy!), Summer Cortez (pink tentacle void beast!), and Ekaterina and Zvenislava (anthropomorphic Russian kittens!). They’re all normal teenage girls...except that they’re all aliens stuck on Earth, and since Tara partially destroyed their old school they’ve been sent to bunk at the School for Extraterrestrial Boys while it’s repaired...that’ll go fine, right? Read the first issue here! [Teen]

This official spinoff manga of Rent-A-Girlfriend, the rom-com turned hit anime, features fan-favorite Sumi, the shy girl longing to come out of her shell. Written and illustrated by original creator Reiji Miyajima! Catch up on the manga before the Rent-A-Girlfriend anime returns for a second season, coming soon! [Teen]

Zom 100 is a violent and funny take on the zombie apocalypse! Its main character, Akira, is so depressed in his soul-crushing job that he uses the undead hordes as motivation to finally complete his bucket list! Also included is a sample of the hit fantasy manga Demon Slayer. [Teen]

“Known as the the Weakest Hunter of All Mankind, E-rank hunter Jinwoo Sung's contribution to raids amounts to trying not to get killed. Unfortunately, between his mother's hospital bills, his sister's tuition, and his own lack of job prospects, he has no choice but to continue to put his life on the line. So when an opportunity arises for a bigger payout, he takes it...only to come face-to-face with a being whose power outranks anything he's ever seen! With the party leader missing an arm and the only healer a quivering mess, can Jinwoo somehow find them a way out?” [Teen]

In the small Pennsylvania town of White Ash, there isn’t much going on aside from mining...and keeping the fact that there are elves and dwarves living in the town secret, of course! In this pre-launch of Season Two of the ongoing series, a romantic rendezvous for the grieving dwarf Alex and mischievous elf Lillian doesn’t go as planned...with potentially disastrous consequences! Also read a preview of The Game, a new series where your every action affects impacts the score of your life! Plus a sneak-peak at some vampiric troubles in colonial America in Stake! [Teen]

World of Zorro gives readers a peak at the upcoming titles for the legendary masked swashbuckler, both new stories (that range from the familiar to supernatural horror) as well as newly-translated classic tales! [Teen]

For FREE COMIC BOOK DAY, enjoy this special expanded edition of the hit IMAGE series, STRAY DOGS! Stray Dogs is a comic thriller that features art inspired by classic Don Bluth-style animation, telling the story of a group of dogs brought together by a mysterious loner. Rather than behave like four-legged humans, the brilliance of Stray Dogs is that it gets inside the heads of its canine characters, showing the human world from their perspective. Unique, entertaining, and creepy. [Teen]

The undead Vampirella has been around since 1969, and as the celebrations of her 50th anniversary draw to a close, Dynamite presents a reprint of the first issue of their series that kicked-off her modern adventures! [Teen+]

Take an inside look at everyone’s favorite bipedal shark god, King Shark (aka Nanaue)! Suicide Squad’s many-toothed muscle is currently inside Belle Reve prison, but he won’t remain there for long. PLUS: a sneak peak at the just-released Suicide Squad miniseries Get Joker! [Mature]

“After 20 years of antics coming out of Sunnyvale trailer park, the underground TV phenomenon Trailer Park Boys is finally coming to comics! Full of short stories and activity pages, several of comics' finest join to create a series of comic book specials in 2021 and beyond honoring Ricky, Bubbles and Julian and everything fans have come to love about the series.”  [Mature]

Fungirl is a humor comic that is as unpredictable and hilarious as it is observant and smart. Cartoonist Elizabeth Pich’s creation does as much smashing the patriarchy as she does dreaming of delicious donuts and being spit on by llamas. [Mature]

“Tensions between the clans are high, so when Cecily Bain, an enforcer for the Twin Cities' vampiric elite, takes a mysterious new vampire under her wing she finds herself in over her head and dragged into a massive undead conspiracy! Meanwhile, on the outskirts of the city, a rebellious found-family of clan-less vampire cast-outs investigates a vicious killing.” [Mature]

“Preview the forthcoming full color, original Space Pirate Captain Harlock series from ABLAZE, personally overseen by the legendary Leiji Matsumoto!  In this brand-new Captain Harlock adventure, planet Earth is threatened by an upcoming invasion by the Sylvidres and despite being banished as a pirate, Captain Harlock won't give up trying to save the world. Will Captain Harlock and his crew manage to solve this mystery and save the Earth from yet another menace?  Also includes teasers for 3 highly anticipated upcoming manga/manhwa releases from ABLAZE, including The Breaker Vol 1 omnibus (critically acclaimed martial arts manhwa), Versus Fighting Story Vol 1 (Capcom e-sports shonen manga) and Crueler Than Dead Vol 1 (zombie horror seinen manga).” [Mature] 

“An evil so profound it threatens all mankind... the mightiest heroes on the planet uniting to defend us all... a secret crisis of such utter finality that a countdown to civil or infinite war seems unavoidable... but have you ever wondered what really happens during Crossovers? The Seven, Payback, Teenage Kix, Fantastico and every other supe on Earth team up for an annual event like no other... and where the supes go, can a certain "five complications and a dog" be far behind? Vought-American prepare to make their move, in a story that will change the world of the Boys forever: Herogasm #1. The first-ever Boys spin-off mini-series features the pairing of Ennis with Hitman artist John McCrea and covers by Boys artist and co-creator Darick Robertson!” [Mature]

“The most eagerly-anticipated series of 2021 gets the FCBD treatment with this ALL-NEW "bonus" issue of the series! Featuring 33 pages of comics produced exclusively for FCBD, from the creator of Hip Hop Family Tree and X-Men: Grand Design, designed as a perfect entry point for new readers and a must-have for those already on board. Aided by the anonymous dark web and nearly untraceable crypto-currency, there has emerged a subculture of criminals who live-stream and patronize webcam murders for entertainment. Who are the murderers? Who are the victims? Who is the audience? How do we stop it? An outlaw, splatterpunk masterpiece, as seen on Piskor's YouTube channel sensation, Cartoonist Kayfabe!” [Mature]

“An award-winning comic and soon to be Netflix anime series!  When dusk arrives in the city of Manila, that's when you become the most likely prey of the underworld. Kidnappers and thieves will be the least of your worries. Beware the criminals that can't be bound with handcuffs nor harmed with bullets.  Beware the ones that crave your blood, those who hold your heart ransom, and the ones that come to steal your soul. When crime takes a turn for the weird, the police call Alexandra Trese. Featuring a preview from TRESE Vol 2: Unreported Murders, a section on the forthcoming Netflix TRESE anime series launching this summer (including an interview with Director Jay Oliva), bonus pages with w/ background about the monsters of Philippine myth as told by TRESE creators Budjette Tan and Kajo Baldisimo, and a teaser on TRESE Vol 3: Mass Murders, coming this Sept from ABLAZE!” [Mature]

“2000 AD Presents All-Star Judge Dredd is a thrill-powered showcase of the past and shocking present of the iconic lawman of the future! Witness the birth of the world of Judge Dredd in an incendiary preview of upcoming prequel graphic novel Dreadnoughts by Michael Carroll with art by Watchmen's John Higgins. Fan-favourite Judge Hershey travels to the ends of the earth to dispense her own brand of justice in long-anticipated blockbuster spin-off, Hershey: Disease by Rob Williams (Suicide Squad) and Simon Fraser (Doctor Who). Along-side these teases for Fall 2021 epics enjoy a bone-rattling all new stand-alone Dredd caper from elite writer Al Ewing (Immortal Hulk, Marvel's Empyre) and Caspar Wijngaard (Star Wars, Home Sick Pilots)!” [Teen]

“Four titanic tales of pure fun and entertainment for everyone to enjoy! First up. It's no dog and pony show here! Bringing back the iconic puppets from the San Francisco Bay Area "Charlie and Humphrey"!! The modern-day Gumby and Pokey! A true love for al ages featuring a tale by Justin Sane and John Hageman! Next up is "Red Dawn" Written and created by Brandon McKinney, with inks by Bill Anderson and vibrant colors from Ross Hughes!! The government has created the first "controlled" superhero doing the bidding of a shadow operation until things go bad leaving our hero to blame and now on the run. The following story is only exclusive to this FCBD edition. Written by Greg Boucher and illustrated by Victor Moya they bring you "Rock and Roll Biographies: FIGHt" See how a troubled Rob Halford leaves the world biggest heavy metal band to form his own supergroup and take metal back!! Our last preview is written by Mel Smith, illustrated by Frank Cirocco/Alex Sheikman and hand colored by Gerhard! "Becoming Frankenstein" takes down the journey of a troubled Victor Frankenstein as he grieves the loss of his mother while harvesting the body parts of victims to create life again for his monster! Learn the tales of the victims and who they were before they became what becomes Frankenstein's ultimate creation! : This will be the only edition to feature this Rock and Roll Biographies story featuring FIGHT “ [Mature]

Enjoyed your Free Comic Book Day books? Want to read more? Let your friendly neighborhood Comix Connection Counter Monkey know which ones caught your eye, and we’ll be happy to direct you to the next part of the story!

[i-call-me-clarence]

So @ao3commentoftheday suggested people make rec lists during these trying times and I decided to go ahead and jump on the band wagon. Here is a list of 13 Johnlock fics, sorted from shortest to longest. There’s H/C, PWP, Case Fics, PRETEND RELATIONSHIPS, and some pretty dank AU’s. 

Okay then, onto the tropes!

(fics listed below)

Caught by Salambo06 (AO3) ( @salambo06fics)

Author’s Summary: A hotel room. They’re here for a case, hadn’t planned to spend the night and ended up sharing a room. No, sharing a bed. Suddenly John is very much aware of his own hand closed around his hard cock and the ragged breathing next to him. Closing his eyes for the briefest second, John dares to turn his head just enough to confirm what he already knows.

Sherlock, on his side, watching him.

Rating: Explicit

Word Count: 1,859

Tags/Warnings: bed sharing, wet dreams, POV John, Masturbation, Frottage, First Time, First Kiss

A PWP that’s scorching hot. ‘Nough said. (BUTOMG it is REALLY hot, beware reading in public yo)

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Paranoia by Ewebie (AO3) ( @ewebie​)

Author’s Summary: is a description of the rules of the drinking game Paranoia and also too long to put here! But suffice it to say that this fic involves drinking games at the Yard.

Rating: Mature

Word Count: 3,789

Tags/Warnings: Tumblr Prompt, Drinking Games, Silly... no smut but building fun and allusions to upcoming rrrwarr

I love fics where the team at the Yard and the boys all get drunk together. Throw in a drinking game and I’m already hooked. This fic was really funny and cheered me up when I was sick with the flu a while back (perfect time to read it again!)

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Coldness/Heat by agirlsname (AO3) ( @agrlsname)

Author’s Summary: The inn is booked up on New Year's Eve. The train home is cancelled because of the snow. The only option is to sleep in the non-heated guest room of a client, and John and Sherlock are freezing.

You know where this is going.

Rating: Explicit

Word Count: 3,790

Tags/Warnings: Fluff and Smut, Plot What Plot/Porn Without Plot, Bedsharing, Sharing Body Heat, Frottage New Year's Eve, Cuddling & Snuggling, Friends to Lovers

THERE IS ONLY ONE BED! AND THEY ARE SO COLD! WHATEVER ARE OUR BOYS TO DO?!?!?! Turn it up to 11 in this amazing PWP, that’s what.

---- Stranded by BeautifulFiction (AO3) ( @the-pen-pot ) 

Author’s Summary: ‘Do you think we’re less than that – best friends? Or more?’

John’s head pulled back, and the look he received suggested John was seriously wondering how someone so intelligent could be so stupid. ‘Well, definitely not less.’

 When stranded on a derelict barge at high tide, John and Sherlock reconsider their friendship.

Rating: Teen

Word Count: 5,798

Tags/Warnings: case fic, cuddling for warmth, first kiss

I really liked this fic. It really drew me in with it’s imagery, I could see the scenes as easily as I could see John and Sherlock getting together in this way.

----

Azure On Grey by shiplocks_of_love (AO3) ( @shiplocks-of-love )

Author’s Summary: When Sherlock’s transport betrays him and conventional healthcare fails to help, John comes up with an unorthodox solution…

Rating: Teen

Word Count: 8,986

Tags/Warnings: Hurt/Comfort, Medical issues, Kidney Stones, Embarrassing Situations, brief mention of past substance abuse, unorthodox medical treatments, Amusement Parks, Intimacy, hints of romance, Pining John, friends to almost lovers

This fic is a wonderful H/C that features a sick Sherlock who can be exceptionally fragile at times, and a caring Watson. Makes me wish I’d had a John around when I had kidney stones :’(

---- Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder by cypress_tree (AO3) ( @cypress-tree​)

Author’s Summary: John helps Sherlock with an experiment: for an entire month, they are not allowed to touch each other and must remain at least one metre apart at all times. Meanwhile, I conduct my own experiment: how much UST can I shove into a single fic?

Rating: Explicit

Word Count: 10,669

Tags/Warnings: Unresolved Sexual Tension, it's for an experiment John, Resolved Sexual Tension, smut

Sexy, silly, amazing.

---- Chaperones by MissDavis (AO3) ( @missdaviswrites​)

Author’s Summary: Right. Of course. Everyone assumed they were a couple and no one would question it. John put his elbows up on the table so he could rest his head in his hands. "You want to pretend to be a couple so we can chaperone a trip to Disney World with Rosie's class and you won't have to share a room with a stranger?"

"Exactly." Sherlock beamed at him. "Don't worry about the cost. The Birmingham case last month paid more than enough to cover expenses for all three of us."

Rating: Teen

Word Count: 34,115

Tags/Warnings: Fake/Pretend Relationship, Sharing a Room, Sharing a Bed. Disney World, Parentlock, Friends to Lovers, Fluff, First Kiss

I’ll just use what I wrote when I bookmarked this lovely fic: I’ve never been more compelled by Disney related things than when I was reading this fic. I’ll never go to Disney World, but I’ll sure as hell read this fic again omg was it good

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The Darkness Within, So Close by shiplocks_of_love (AO3) ( @shiplocks-of-love​ ) ((I hope @ing you twice doesn’t cause any issues! Sorry in advance. Tumblr confuses me))

Author’s Summary: Alec Hardy and Ellie Miller deal with a new string of murders in Broadchurch. Help comes from an unlikely place as Sherlock Holmes and John Watson travel to West Dorset. But when the new crimes open old wounds and unearth the ghost of Moriarty, it becomes clear the game is not over yet.

Rating: Teen

Word Count: 42,312

Tags/Warnings: casefic, Sherlock x Broadchurch crossover fic, Underage Death, Murder, MAJOR spoilers for Broadchurch S1 and S2 and for Sherlock S3, post S3 Sherlock, post S2 Broadchurch, you are MOST welcome to put johnlock glasses on but this is pre-slash okay?, Light Angst, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Implied/Referenced Domestic Violence

I haven’t actually finished this fic yet, but the characterizations for the characters of both universes are spot on. When Alec Hardy started shouting at the beginning, David Tennant appeared in my room and started reading the fic aloud to me. True story. Also this fic is part of a series, so, like, that’s amazing.

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The Norwood Love Builders by flawedamythyst (AO3) ( Tumblr: https://flawedamythyst.tumblr.com/) ((couldn’t @  you for some reason. Prob, again, because Tumblr makes my brain hurt))

Author’s Summary: Sherlock and John go undercover to solve the murder of Joanna Oldacre, but things are complicated by the many feelings John has been repressing in the wake of Sherlock's faked death and return.

Rating: Teen

Word Count: 47,798

Tags/Warnings: case fic, fake/pretend relationship, couples retreat, bed sharing, therapy (for a case...that’s a weird tag but I read this in fic so often so), pining John, UST, First Kiss, getting together

Amazing fic by an amazing writer. I have a weakness for ‘pretend relationship for a case’, especially when it’s filled with pining and ust. So in other words this fic is perfect. 

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Bridging the Ravine by SilentAuror (AO3) ( @silentauroriamthereal​)

Author’s Summary: Sherlock and John go undercover at Ravine Valley, a therapy centre for same-sex male couples in an investigation into a possible human trafficking ring. As they pose as a couple and fake their way through the therapy sessions for the sake of the case, it quickly becomes difficult to avoid discussing their very real issues. Set roughly nine months after series 4.

Rating: Explicit

Word Count: 58,887

Tags/Warnings: post-series 4, Romance, Awkwardness galore, fake couple trope, Therapy, sex trafficking ring, First Times, Massages, wet t-shirt contest, Group Therapy, loss of child (past), Bed-sharing

Pretend relationship for a case, and it’s a really good case too! Plus it’s at a couples therapy retreat, I mean, come on!! And the OC’s, don’t even get me started on them, because I won’t be able to stop singing their praises. This fic was sent by the gods through the blood sweat and tears of the extremely talented SilentAuror. You should honestly just go and binge all of their stuff. What else are you gonna do during quarantine? OH! And guess what??? THERE’S A SEQUEL! 

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Sensory Science by sussexbound(SamanthaLenore) (AO3) ( @sussexbound​)

Author’s Summary: John Watson has been invalided home from Afghanistan and is struggling with anxiety, depression, PTSD and insomnia, when an old friend from med school recommends something that might help: An ASMR YouTube Channel run by a friend.

One session in and John is hooked, not only by the way the ASMR seems to calm him after nightmares, and help him sleep, but also by the mysterious man who runs it.

Rating: Explicit

Word Count: 80,017

Tags/Warnings: Friends to Lovers, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, PTSD John, ASMR, first meeting AU, problem drinking, Nightmares, Suicidal Thoughts, Internalized Homophobia, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Anxiety, Depression, Homophobic Language, Masturbation, Orgasm Delay/Denial, Prostate Massage, Prostate Orgasm, Phone Sex, Mutual Masturbation, Frottage, Coming Untouched, Aborted Blowjobs, Rimming

Amazing fic that really draws you in. Even if ASMR isn’t necessarily your thing, this is still a fantastic read. I mean, it’s by sussexbound, so what else would you expect?

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Rewind by All_I_Need (AO3) ( @the-reading-lemon​)

Author’s Summary: About a month before John's wedding, he and Sherlock embark on one last case together: a murder at a remote hotel in the middle of nowhere. A lot can happen in a week. And a lot doesn't. But what if ...?

Rating: Explicit

Word Count: 87,594

Tags/Warnings: Pining, Angst, John is an oblivious idiot, all the feels, Rewind - Freeform, what if, Sharing a Bed, Dancing Lessons, literally everyone sees more than John does, Fake/Pretend Relationship

THIS FIC! This fic!! Let me tell you a thing about this fic: it’s amazing! I haven’t finished it completely, but the unique ‘rewind’ effect is something I hadn’t ever seen before. Interesting concept, pretend relationship for a case, hot, hot smut, AND THERE WAS ONLY ONE BED. What more could you want in a fic, honestly?

---- Out There by DiscordantWords (AO3) ( @discordantwords​)

Author’s Summary: FBI Special Agent John Watson, medical doctor and army veteran, is assigned to assist eccentric genius Sherlock Holmes with paranormal investigations on the X-Files project.

Rating: Teen

Word Count: 131,695

Tags/Warnings: Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Alternate Universe - Fusion, Alternate Universe - X-Files Fusion, Slow Burn, UST, No seriously a lot of UST, This is the X files they basically wrote the book on UST, casefic, Case Fic, Government Conspiracy, Aliens, UFOs, Mutants, Pining Sherlock, Pining John, First Kiss, Coma

The X-files/Sherlock crossover I always needed in my life. I think at least a few other Johnlockers out there (ha! Fic title) have watched X-files and thought ‘holy cow this is so John and Sherlock, I need the AU or else I’ll die’. Well look no further! No need to die! Read and watch as all your X-files/Sherlock wishes come true :D

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And that concludes this rec list! There will prob be a part 2 coming out as I’ve got hundreds of fics saved on this pairing. Also stay tuned for fic rec lists for some of my other fav ships! Spirk, Garashir, Hannigram, Bunny/Raffles, and more!!

[nine-mp3]

Your Neighbor Sungho | Ch. 1

Photo Credits:

- left hand corner, @116page

- center, @newat_rie

Rie (sungho) x (female) reader, fluff, slice of life, semi-angsty (?)

appearances of other OnlyOneOf and Dreamcatcher members will occur

hey so I rolled a wheel on who to write a fanfic first and got rie plus picked out a prompt to write from

warnings: alcohol, getting drunk; in this fic is PG-13, some light cursing occasionally, super tiny mention of smut in description beginning and that’s all;

btw i’m pretty sarcastic, there’s sarcasm thrown here and there, hope you enjoy :D

This is my first time sharing my writing on a public platform. As a writer, I always appreciate constructive criticism. Feel free to leave feedback in the comments if you have anything to say. Thank you in advance for reading as well

Also, please DO NOT repost my work anywhere without my permission or plagiarize.

Description: your neighbor, sungho, from the day you've moved in has kept you up countless nights with their significant other. dancing, muffled long conversations, and amongst other noises you wished you could wipe from memory. one day it suddenly stops. those days become months.

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Your neighbor, Sungho, from the day you've moved in has kept you up countless nights with their significant other. Dancing, muffled long conversations, and amongst other noises you wished you could wipe from memory. One day it suddenly stops. These days become months. Now, you couldn't help but to be concerned.

Sungho isn't a bad neighbor. You recall complaining to him at some point, amidst trying to focus on a report you had to write up for work, and he apologized for the noise. Many times. He seemed embarrassed, never realizing how thin the walls were in the apartment building, and promised to keep the noise levels down. These promises would last only about a week. Their significant other was quite the complete opposite of Sungho, a loud individual. From what you were aware, the two didn't live together. His significant other would come over daily to stay or visit.

As much as they were loud, they didn't seem to like you either. Looks of disdain thrown whenever you happen to cross them in the hallway, being in the same elevator cart, or when Sungho was trying to be a good neighbor by greeting you. They would pull him away immediately, putting his attention back on them. Sometimes you thought that they were being loud on purpose, knowing that you were next door, and very well aware of the complaints. The reason why? You had no idea. The best guess you could come up with was that they saw you as a threat to their relationship. Which was ridiculous. You hardly knew the male nor could the both of you call each other friends.

Sometimes Sungho left fruits or drinks at your door with little notes of apologies for their rowdiness. And for their significant other's behavior. For the most part, you bared through it or simply did all your work within the hours at your office now and prayed that tiredness would consume you once you hit your bed, blocking out any disturbances.

So, life goes on.

One weekend, you just happened to get home from going out with your friends. It was late, past midnight. You heard arguing through the walls between Sungho and their significant other.

"You're always like this, Sungho!"

Immediately, you felt very uncomfortable entering your apartment. It wasn't something you wanted to hear or should be hearing. Not that you could help it either since you lived next door. You backed yourself outside, considering going to the balcony on the floor for a bit. Stepping back outside of your door, their argument becomes muffled.

Why couldn't the landlord just keep the damn wall consistency the same?

Suddenly, Sungho's door flies open followed by their significant other storming out. You jump up out of surprise, the noise scaring you. They're heading down the hallway, to the elevators, without looking back. Sungho appears at his door not too long after, holding it open.

"Wait-" he calls out to them, his voice faltering.

The male notices you then, staring with wide eyes at him. At that moment, you were able to get a full picture of his current position. The hurt in his eyes.

"Oh...y/n. Are you here to complain about the noise again? I'm really sorry-"

"Uh, no! No, not at all. See, I just was returning home now. Don't worry about it," you said, awkwardly blinking a few times, reaching to grab for your keys from your bag once again.

"Um, I'm heading inside now! Okay, bye!"

You immediately opened your door again, rushing, running into your living room. The door shuts behind automatically and you let out a sigh of relief. You felt bad for suddenly running away, but you weren't about to ask or give relationship advice if Sungho wasn't asking for it. Besides, what if it was only a lover's quarrel?

They'll probably make up soon. Talk about a rough night…

Then the realization set in. The apartment would be definitely quiet for at least another day. A smile rises to your face.

What a horrible thing to be happy over...after seeing your neighbor fight with their significant other. Then again, they weren't all that nice to me.

You shrugged, waving the events aside, calling it a night, enjoying the peaceful silence...only with the slight remaining, lingering tension in the air. After you showered, brushed your teeth, and changed into pajamas, you immediately laid down on your bed. Pulling the covers over, you found yourself thinking. Staring up to the ceiling of your room in the dark.

That argument sounded bad though...ugh. None of your business, y/n. Go to sleep. They'll probably be fine tomorrow…

─────────────────

Define the term "fine".

The next day, as you predicted, was quiet. That you could hear a pin drop from down the hallway. You enjoyed it, a Sunday afternoon peace. It allowed you to catch up on work, eat, watch T.V, write poetry...overall without any disturbances. Sungho, your neighbor, was long forgotten from your mind.

The thing is, it goes on for the next week. You weren't worried about it at all because you were swamped with work. The next reports and presentations came with close deadlines. The silence was appreciated, allowing you to focus; you got lost in piles of work and many cups of coffee.

Worry about your neighbor only returned on the brief encounters when the both of you were heading to work in the mornings. Sungho still greeted you, but only with a brief nod and face expressionless. They would walk ahead first, not bothering to see even if you returned the greeting or not. Sometimes you heard him leaving earlier than you and now you couldn't help but to wonder what his occupation was.

The week turns into two and three. He stops greeting you at some point, or maybe he wasn't very aware of his surroundings; his whole aura was different. Sungho usually would at least do his hair before going out and dress somewhat decently. Now it was always a mess, his bangs left down to cover his eyes, matching with black attire. You saw him up close in his current condition when you were returning to the apartment building one afternoon. The male had collided into you, by accident. Turning around immediately on the impact, once you had regained your balance, you're faced with eyes that were written with sleepless nights, dark circles prominent. At least, this time, he mumbles an apology before moving on.

By the time it reaches the end of the month, your workload becomes lighter for the year, you find more time thinking about the current situation of your neighbor. You called up one of your best friends at your workplace one night. It wasn't the first time you discussed your neighbor with them.

"Yoojung, it's the end of the month. I haven't seen his significant other in awhile. As much as I enjoy the silence, I hate seeing Sungho this dead," you said, a hand gripping onto the balcony railing out of nervousness.

“Note check. You don’t even know the guy. Why exactly are you so worried?” Yoojung on the other end replies.

Your friend had a point. Why were you worried?

“Well…I don’t have an answer, actually. I don’t know why I’m worried. Can’t I just be a good neighbor?” you replied.

“It’s none of your business, y/n. Looking at reality. But if you’re so worried, go knock on his door and talk to him. Even if it’s just a hello. Didn’t he leave you fruits before? You can do that in return if you’re so curious,” Yoojung suggested, not sounding all that interested.

“Anyways, you’re coming to the group outing for dinner next week right? On Saturday? Please tell me you didn’t forget or you plan on cancelling. We hardly ever get a chance for everyone to come together again.”

“Alright, thanks so much for the advice...I guess...and keep your pants on, Yoojung. Of course I’m coming. Good night,” you scowled at him.

You hung up the phone then, not giving a chance for the other to say his goodbye. As much as he was your best friend, he could be a pain in the ass. Turning around, you exited out the balcony to return back to your apartment for the day.

So much for calling it a night.

Once you make it back, you’re greeted with Sungho at your door, hunched over, using an arm to keep his weight up against the wall. First thought that came to mind: he’s unwell and he came to ask you for help? You immediately approach the male, only to be hit by a smell of alcohol and you jolt back. The second thought you had, only confirmed: he’s drunk.

“Sungho?! Are you okay?” you asked nervously, tapping his shoulder lightly.

The male looks up to you, quite confused.

“y/n? Oh. Yeah...I’m fine. Just trying to get into my apartment...but the key.... doesn’t seem to fit…” Sungho said, words spoken slowly as he tries to stand upright.

“Did...the landlord change the locks?”

“No, no. The landlord didn’t. You’re at the wrong apartment, this one is mine. Uh, do you need help?” you said, raising an eyebrow at him.

“Ah...well, that makes...sense now,” Sungho said, a drunk written smile appearing on his face.

“No, it’s okay...I’m always disturbing you... I’m really sorry...Have...a good night, y/n.”

It’s the first time you’ve seen him smile in such a long time. Of course, it only happens to be when he’s not sober. Also, you’re very aware that drunk people do need help but always deny it. You watch as he turns around, folding your arms and counting down in your head.

3... 2...1

The male collapses on the ground, completely knocked out from the alcohol in his system. You blew up at your hair, huffing then, staring down at his figure on the ground.

This night just got a whole lot longer.

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[lazybirdxd]

Kaylor: The hidden true timeline

Sometimes reality exceeds our expectations, and oftentimes we are not aware that such reality exists. Until we take a deeper look.

I recently finished reading a (controversial) fanfic by a certain writer (If you’re an old Kaylor you know which fanfic, if you’re new, it’s called “Kaylor: The timeline”) and what stood out for me the most about that fanfic is that it is incredibly accurate in the way it tells the story, a story that is well thought of, it has a chronological coherence and character construction that is very difficult to surpass. The amazing thing about it is not the story in itself, but rather the level of insight it gives about the characters, behavior analysis, recognition of complex emotions and its roots in the characters, as well as a constant foreshadowing of the aesthetics of the coming era (reputation era). I think that because of this complexity and the level of details included, both Karlie and Taylor wrote it. How did I arrive to that conclusion (that many of you older Kaylors also suspect to be true)? -I'll be focusing only on the authorship of the fanfic, if you want me to analyze the story, leave a comment!-

Taylor discussing Karlie’s inability to communicate any uncomfortable situation to Taylor in the 12th chapter of part two.

Well, let’s see. The fanfic has an element of entertainment to it (no, that’s not my strongest argument, but hold on), it’s as if the writer knew which parts of the story to highlight in order for the readers to be engaged with the story from the beginning. But it doesn’t JUST take a good story for a book to be read (or in this case, a Wattpad book), you need to have the right characters in your story for people to feel identified with and represented by them. In essence, the story needs to make sense, needs to remain just a story (that means having the right amount of fantasy and the right amount of truth so that it still feels real), it needs to have complex yet relatable characters that appeal to the essential parts of human nature, and a relatively simple vocabulary (unless your expected audience is very educated) along with descriptive (visual) language, because the public has to imagine the situations the characters are going through, as well as their very environment. Also, your use of your chosen lexicon has to convey all the meaning of your story in its simplicity. I don’t know about you, but these requirements feel like the abilities of a very advanced writer, and not one that just posts random stories that they created in their head after reading a tabloid in the line of the supermarket.

The writer of the fanfic saying he/she had never written anything personal before the fanfic (I cut the screenshot on this one, but I will put the full picture later on)

Anyway, as seen above, our “fanfic” writer claims to have never had any experience at personal writing before this fanfic, which is very suspicious, given the amount of reads that this fanfic has (1.7 Million at the moment of writing this post) as well as the good reviews and people commenting on Wattpad how that is their 4th or 5th time reading the entire fanfic all over again, meaning that for the reads to be this high, the writing has to be at least really good.

I cut the screenshot here, but if you go to the first chapter of the fanfic you’ll see more people commenting similar things.

Now, with regards to the foreshadowing I talked about earlier, the fanfic was written in early 2016, and the reputation era began in late 2017, plus we know Taylor plans her tours and eras one year ahead, therefore she needed to plan the reputation era and tour one year ahead (see section Event promoters), despite her saying in a GMA interview from Lover era that she only plans 6 months in advance (which is just impossible due to recording dates, negotiations, hiring booking agents for the countries she will perform in, meetings to discuss marketing strategies, aesthetics of every era, etc…), therefore by 2016 she had at least some idea of how the 6th era was going to look like. This fanfic weirdly coincides with the aesthetics of reputation long before reputation was released. Hmmm…

This fanfic AU was last updated on February 2016.

“Interesting… Tell me more about this writer”.

Alright. Also, It’s a she and she has a Tumblr account that I took time to carefully read.

Our writer turns out to be a she.

But before I go into really heavy stalking further detail, read this disclaimer: I am no behavioral analysis expert, I do not possess any type of psychology major or minor, I’m not even doing an undergraduate course of psychology, this is me applying all the books I’ve read about human psychology as it is my hobby. I’m a Computer Science student. Having said that, let’s dive right in!

Now, this is what I observed when looking through KaylorFanfiction’s profile:

1. The writer doesn’t share, reblog, post pictures frequently or makes her personal opinion known in topics outside the fanfic(s) or writing in general. (I observed this after spending a significant amount of time scrolling down her blog and just noticing her behavioral patterns).

2. Assertive (short answers to asks on Tumblr).

3. Usually writes in caps to highlight important things (just like Taylor), words or phrases might be uppercase.

If you’re wondering about the numbers, they are questions.

Okay, let’s see Taylor now:

4. The writer is 6 feet tall (like our favorite supermodel).

The link to the questions.

5. The writer is enthusiastic about feedback (like Taylor).

6. Has one female dog named Phoebe Buffay (A pet named after a well-known tv show character.)

Interesting to note that in the second ask, the writer tells that she has only had one puppy, which reminds me of a certain someone who also has only one puppy:

7. Is in college. Or was.

I say was because, although we have pictures of Karlie on her first day of school at NYU, it isn’t completely believable due to a lack of attendance later on if you google “Karlie Kloss attending NYU”, therefore my conclusion is that her proximity to a college environment comes actually from her brother, who truly attended Notre Dame University. An interesting observation that may back my induction is that if you go to KaylorFanfiction’s profile you’ll find that when she talks about college she never specifies which one she’s attending, for that same reason, if it was true that Karlie attended, then she would have no other choice than to be proud of her wife girlfriend through her secret alternative account for her achievements (I mean, it’s NYU, who wouldn’t be proud?). Taylor The writer might have wanted to tell the narrative of a broke college student (the exact opposite of what Taylor is) to go unnoticed on social media, but the quality of the story and the richness of it made it unbelievable that the story came from an inexperienced writer (more on that later on).

In other words, this account was Taylor’s escape bubble where she could talk freely and give her opinions without dealing with the consequences. I was afraid I could be breaking that bubble with this post, but considering that she said she no longer uses the account, I figure that It was safe for me to post this.

8. Has been making connections with literary agents and small publishing presses (as detailed above).

Guess who also makes connections with certain agents and publishing agencies… (See the manager and booking agents)

9. Has a passion for music and wanted to learn how to play guitar on her own as a teenager but stopped.

The full screenshot above, as promised.

Also, doesn’t she being obsessed with music and learning from a young age reminds you of someone else?

Link to the interview.

Link to a compilation of homemade videos of Taylor singing as well as an interview where she says she learned to play the guitar at a young age (minute 1:29).

10. Reads books about music (detailed above) and learns about music in general, from a very young age.

11. Writes original content outside fanfic.

Interesting, given that she never had written something personal before (personal as in of her own making, not as in the fanfic is her life), that makes me question what did she write about before this fanfic? Journalism? But she is obsessed with music, she told us that herself. Could that original content possibly be… songs?

So far we know she is obsessed with music, she discovered she liked to write novels (I’d rather say books) through writing this fanfic, even though she doesn’t read fanfic at all, wonder where she got the inspiration and experience to make it the most read fanfic of that topic on Wattpad if she also never did anything personal, which makes me now believe that by personal she meant her life, because there is no way you can never have done anything of your own creation while having original work. Therefore, the original work she refers to, are songs (as detailed above when saying she wanted to do something with songs). She could have meant anything by saying she wanted to do something with songs, but so far, these are many many coincidences pointing to Taylor the authorship of a particular individual, and as BBC’s Sherlock said: “The universe is rarely so lazy”.

12. The author never reads fanfic stories.

The picture speaks for itself

13. The writer doesn’t like speculation. Compare to Taylor’s 25th birthday tweet.

Interesting…the author is not into speculating, yet she wrote an entire fanfic on a relationship she claims is not real to her. Basically, she ignored the definition of “speculation”.

Thus, if we wanted to make sense of the reasons for her particular fanfic creation writing taking into account that she doesn’t like speculating and that this is just a creative outlet, we would have to assume that what she writes in her story is based on an objective truth, her speech again (not liking speculation) is contradicted by the mere fact that Wattpad is for aspiring writers looking to share their work with the world (usually a fictitious work). So, if our writer doesn’t like speculation, yet creates a “fictional” story on a site dedicated to that purpose, she’s either lying about not liking speculation or she’s hiding the truth in a platform dominated by fiction in the hopes no one will see (through) it. Okay, maybe she’s lying about not liking speculation (after all, people lie all the time), but given the continuous similarities of our writer’s personality with Taylor’s, and the fact that in the universe everything is interconnected, this can’t be a coincidence. But why would Taylor go to such lengths to tell mostly the truth? Well, given Taylor’s character and the way she rose to fame (through what she called “Opening up her diaries for the world to see”) there is an inherent need in her for self-expression, but she can’t express herself freely all the time (remember the behind-the-scenes interview where she’s filming Lover video and she says her life is like a fishbowl) because her career is image-based, and one picture will outspeak any word or explanation she might have. Thus, she might have to go to these or more lengths to truly express herself and her beliefs in order to keep her mental health and creativity flowing.

14. The writer loves to add drama to her writing.

Do I have to remind you of Taylor’s lyrics to Endgame?

“I swear I don’t love the drama, it loves me “

15. The writer has an inclination toward social justice (similar to that of Taylor).

And comparing to Taylor…

Also, the fanfic is very very detail-oriented, and the writer said in a note on one of her chapters:

Finally, to top the icing…

Our writer got knee surgery. The very word surgery sounds to me as a lot of stitches being made. Where have I heard about stitches before? Maybe Out Of The Woods can be a good beginning…

“Twenty stitches in a hospital room”

My dissertation is now over. I hope you enjoyed it without thinking I’m going insane, because that’s what I’m thinking right now. Have a good night/day.

[dnkaus]

Fateful Visions | Ch. 1: Where it Began

Namjoon x Reader (OC)

Summary:  Idol Namjoon meets a grad student, Maya, but he experiences strange visions each time their eyes meet and they touch one another. Fate plays a magnetic role, & keeps bringing them together. Are these visions a sign that they should stay away or stay together?

Genre: Angst, Fluff (eventually)

Warnings: Indirect mentions of emotional abuse

Previous Part: Trailer Next Part: Chapter 2

April 2016

Maya woke up late. It was half past 9 and she was suppose to teach class in an hour and a half. But Maya couldn’t get out of bed for some reason. Her eyes were open and her mind was awake, but her body was resisting all her attempts to even sit up in her bed. It’s hard to wake up when your inner state is in complete chaos. Maya knew she wasn’t physically tired, but emotionally and mentally she was far beyond exhausted. Maya laid there, thinking about the events from the night before.

Maya’s boyfriend, Caleb, had ditched her again at the restaurant they were supposed to meet at after his work. She waited for 2 hours and then came back home. Caleb eventually came to Maya’s house around 10pm. Apparently he had ran into a friend and they went for drinks and he “totally forgot” he had promised to meet Maya at the restaurant. Maya was angry. This was not the first time Caleb had “totally forgot” about her, and she also knew this was not the last. As expected, they fought till late at night. Cruel words were thrown around and tears were shed (only by Maya). In the end, Caleb promised he wouldn’t do it again. Maya accepted the promise half-heartedly.

Truth be told Maya was far too numb from her relationship. At this point, she was mostly in the relationship because it was what was expected from a girl her age. If it was up to her mom, she would have already been married by now. After all, Maya was 22 and being an immigrant with very conservative and traditional parents, her mom had insisted that she and Caleb start considering marriage. However, Maya knew somewhere inside she was not meant to be with him. She knew this relationship was like a time bomb that was just waiting to explode. But,Maya was afraid that if she broke up with him, she would somehow be in more pain than she already was. Fear of loneliness is bigger than fear of being in a bad relationship.

Meanwhile, Maya somehow was managing her first year in a Ph.D. program for English at University of Central Arkansas (UCA), and working a part time job at Teavana, a shop that sells tea, in a small town in Arkansas, United States. Maya’s life wasn’t that terrible, besides her toxic relationship and her heavy course load. Plus, she was teaching an undergraduate class, which was always a hassle.

Maya finally managed to get off of the bed after a few minutes of intense deliberation of skipping her classes today. She thought about how nice it would be if she didn’t have a class, or didn’t have a paper to write, or wasn’t grading assignments for at least one day. However, this was the life she had chosen for herself. The writer in her wanted to take the long road, and so she did. Getting a Ph.D. in English was not a requirement, but Maya rarely ever did anything easy. Perhaps, having a higher than an average IQ came with its own difficulties.

It’s true, that Maya had taken an IQ test in elementary school, and was apparently in the top 10 percentile. At the time, her parents had wanted their daughter to become a doctor or an engineer and use her advanced brain for something that will get her the big paychecks. But of course, Maya was known to disappoint others. Nothing that her parents planned for her ever worked out in their favor. This is why when she told them she was getting a degree in English, they didn’t even bother convincing her otherwise.

Maya did have something to look forward to today, and it was the fact that she only had one class to teach and then she was free the rest of the day. Of course, the rest of the time would be spent in the library or on her computer working on her thesis, but still, she at least didn’t have to deal with people. This small reason gave Maya the motivation to go to her class, stand in front of her students, and pretend like she knew what she was talking about. 

Maya’s class ended smoothly. Besides the usual naive questions that students asked, she was able to get through the material she needed to cover. To Maya, that was what was important, since the students were to have an exam in a few weeks. Maya packed her things and headed out the lecture hall. The building where she had her class was gigantic, and her class was on the fourth floor. She had all her papers in her hand as she was walking. She had forgotten to bring her folder where she usually puts all of her papers, and so she was just trying to carry all of the papers in her hand. However, carrying 100 papers from your Introductory English I class without a clip or a folder is harder than it seems. Especially since she was also carrying her other bag which consisted of books she was reading for her own graduate class.

She continued walking and reached a turn in the hallway. She took a turn and suddenly one of the papers from the stack flew out of her hand and landed farther away from where she was. Her gaze followed the paper and she ran after to grab the paper without dropping the others. She finally reached the paper and so she bent down to grab it. Though, before she could bend down she saw a figure bending down in front of her to grab the paper. The person was a man, and he slowly got back up with the paper in his hand. Maya initially didn’t look up to see who it was, as she was too embarrassed. He extended his hand with the paper to return it back to Maya.

“Here you go” the man said with a thick accent.

Maya slowly accepted “Oh, thank you!” She finally managed to look at the man who had so kindly helped her out. As she managed to look up however, she was surprised to find how beautiful the man looked.

Maya’s mind immediately questioned whether this man was a student here or not. From the look, Maya could tell he was Korean. Maya would know since her entire graduate career was built on studying Korean culture and literature, as her thesis was all about Korean culture and its impact on Korean fiction.

What was most intriguing about the man that was standing in front of Maya at the moment was his hair. Her attention immediately drifted to his hair, as it was bright red, and the way it was styled it made it clear to her that this man was definitely not a Arkansas native. Maya realized she probably had been staring for far too long, and so she decided to cut the silence.

“I am sorry, I just forgot my folder at home today, so I am having to carry all these separately. Thanks for your help! Maya smiled.

The man’s expressions were ambiguous, but when he saw Maya smiling he returned the smile. Maya began to wonder if he understood. He just said, “Ah, no problem!”

Just then another man that was standing behind him called his name “Yah, Taehyung. I think it’s this way!” The person was speaking in Korean. Maya was able to understand their conversation because Maya knew Korean. In fact, despite not being Korean,  she had to learn Korean  and had to take multiple exams to prove that she can speak Korean for he her thesis. After all, she can’t talk about Korean fiction in her thesis without actually reading Korean books.

But Maya didn’t take interest in just Korea. She was also fascinated by many other cultures. For example, she studied abroad for a whole year in Brazil, when she was an undergraduate, and she also took a trip to Marakesh the summer after she graduated from high school. Maya loved cultures in general, and she was constantly trying to implement different cultures in her writing. In fact, that is exactly why she chose this college, as the program she was well-known for their diverse faculty and interesting work. As much as she disliked some aspects of graduate school, she also knew she was at the right place. Unlike the men in front of her. They all seemed lost.

Maya had picked up on a few different things so far. First, the man that had just helped her was someone named Taehyung. Second, the person talking to him also had very strange hair and there was a whole group of them behind Taehyung. Finally, they all seemed to be looking for a particular place, or at least that’s she picked up from the conversation that was taking place amongst the group.

When Taehyung’s name was called he gently bowed towards Maya and went back to the group of strangely haired guys behind him. Maya stood there a second longer as she couldn’t look away from the group of guys in front of her, but eventually she realized she had a huge stack of papers in her hands and she could not afford to lose them, so she began to walk away.

However, as she began to walk away, someone behind her yelled “Excuse me! Excuse me, ma’am! Maya immediately turned around, because she recognized the voice. She knew it was the same voice. It was the guy, Taehyung.

“Yes?” Maya asked as she saw the entire group staring at her when she turned around. She gulped as she began to realize that each guy looked more handsome than the other with their fancy hair and makeup. Taehyung looked over at the guy with the greenish hair. The guy responded in Korean “Go ahead, you ask her”

Taehyung hesitated, but came up towards Maya with a piece of paper. “Hi...umm...do you know this place?” Taehyung said and extended his hand with the paper. Maya slowly took the paper in her hand.

The paper stated the address to a college. However, the college that was written on the paper was not University of Central Arkansas, it was just University of Arkansas. Along with the address, was also the title of the event that these guys are presumably planning to attend.

“Breaking Down Eastern Cultural Barriers With Kpop”

Maya was shocked to see the title of the event, since she had heard about the event before from her advisor. In fact, her advisor, Dr. Kelly was the one hosting this event, as Dr. Kelly’s entire literary career was based on writing about East Asian music, and was a well-known figure in the field of cultural studies. Maya knew about her event, but she didn’t plan on attending it since the event was being held at University of Arkansas.

It was at that point that Maya had started putting together all the puzzle pieces. She realized that the strangely haired men were most likely some Kpop idols that Dr. Kelly had invited for the event. Maya knew about Kpop and listened to some of the music , however, she was never a hard core Kpop listener. Her music taste varied from day to day, so despite her thesis being on Korean culture, she wasn’t a fan of any particular groups. Maya knew that Kpop and the Hallyu wave was a great tool to transcend music into cultures, and sometimes Maya wished that Korean literature was also as famous as their music.

Maya suddenly felt more obligated to help them out, not only because they were probably celebrities, but also because her advisor was probably having a panic attack since the guys weren’t there yet and the event was supposed to start in 45 minutes.

Taehyung noticed that Maya was quiet, so he asked his question again “Umm, so do you know this place?

Maya nodded. “Yeah, I know this place...but this place is not here.” Maya looked towards the group who was all staring at each other and then back at her. Suddenly the one with the greenish hair began to walk up towards Taehyung and her. He was a smidge taller than Taehyung and had the most proportionate body Maya had ever seen. As he began walking towards Maya, for some odd reason, she felt a bit nervous. He had an authoritative aura to him.

Maya quickly looked away from him as she noticed he was staring at her. He stood up in front of her with a questioning look on his face. “Hi, I am sorry, were you just saying this place is not here? So...so where is it?” The man spoke more fluently than Taehyung, and barely had an accent.

Maya felt bad. She didn’t know how to tell the man that they were at the completely wrong university. She wondered where their staff was. If these guys were really celebrities, don’t they go around with their staff?

“Umm, well this university is University of Central Arkansas, but the university you are supposed to go to is called University of Arkansas. This college is in Little Rock, and you are currently in a town called Conway.” Maya tried to speak slowly, but she also didn’t want to make it seem like she was trying to dumb it down for them, so she kept a consistent pace.

The man with the greenish hair became distressed. He took a deep breath. The guys in back came up to stand next to him all wondering what was going on. “Namjoon, what is it?” one of them asked in Korean. The man with the greenish hair, whose name was most likely Namjoon, at least that’s what Maya presumed, repeated what Maya said in Korean.

All of the guys became distressed now. Maya felt guilty. She thought about how she could help, but she needed to know for sure if her previous assumptions were true.

“I am sorry, but I am assuming you guys are here for the Kpop event? Correct? The one being hosted by Dr. Kelly?”

Namjoon nodded with enthusiasm. “Yes, that’s exactly why we are here. Can you help us? We are from Korea and we need to attend this. Do you know about this event?”

Maya smiled slightly at how hard Namjoon was trying to speak in English. “Yeah, I know this event. Dr. Kelly is my professor. I am a graduate student here. My name is Maya. I can actually speak in Korean, so we can communicate in Korean if that’s easier.” Maya extended her hand for a handshake towards Namjoon.

The man was still in shock from Maya’s words, but when he saw Maya’s extended hand, he decided to introduce himself.

“Hi, I am Namjoon. You can also call me Rap Mon,” Namjoon says in Korean.

(Author’s note: This is 2016 so Namjoon’s name back then was still Rap Monster)

Namjoon extended his hand to meet with Maya’s hand. Moreover, the moment that changed Namjoon and Maya’s lives forever started here, in a small hallway of a building at University of Central Arkansas.

As Namjoon’s hand touched Maya’s, his gaze met with hers as well. However, as he looked into Maya’s eyes and touched her hand, something extraordinary happened.

Namjoon unanticipatedly found himself in a vortex of images appearing and disappearing all at once, some lasting longer than others, some more faded than others. There were some that had no color to them and some that were extremely vivid. There were some sounds that he could hear, others were just mere murmurs, nothing audible. These images captured his entire attention span as his entire cognitive system flooded it’s resources to the novel stimuli. There was one thing common between all these images. All of them contained him and the woman he was shaking hands with in that moment.

One moment Namjoon was standing on the stage and looked out into the crowd and found the woman looking back at him….he was now suddenly sitting in his studio and turned around and found the woman sleeping on the couch which he kept in his studio... then he suddenly saw himself hugging the woman tightly feeling the same feelings he would feel as if he had just hugged a close loved one...the woman said something, but he couldn’t hear her...He then saw the woman looking at the mirror and crying as she saw herself….”I hate myself” she whispered...next he saw the woman being dragged by several hooded figures through a dark and abandoned looking hallway, as she was crying and screaming for help...he then saw himself on the stage again, this time he was going up to the microphone with his brothers and taking a deep breath with tears pouring from his eyes… “I have something to say” he said in the microphone…

Namjoon suddenly blinked and the images disappeared. Namjoon abruptly took his hand away from the woman’s hand and looked away. He was back in the small hallway in that small university where he was not supposed to be at. He felt breathless, like he had just walked a thousand miles and also felt a bit dizzy from overstimulation of his neurons in his brain. He looked around to see if others around him saw the same images he had just seen, but saw no sign of strange behavior, except from her. He noticed the woman was definitely behaving strangely as she slowly took her hand back once Namjoon removed his hand from hers. She ran her fingers through her hair and blinked a few more times. Namjoon began to wonder whether she had also experienced what he just had experienced.

However, his thought was interrupted as his bandmate and brother Seokjin extended his hand towards Maya and began introducing himself.

“Hi, I am Jin,” the bandmate said in Korean. This time Maya was a bit hesitant to shake Seokjin’s hand. She looked towards Namjoon again, before she returned Seokjin’s handshake.

“I am Maya. Maya Shroff”

The other members also took turns shaking hands with Maya and introducing themselves. Namjoon kept looking over again to see if they also had experienced the weird images. However, again none of them seemed to display any strange expressions. So far Namjoon only knew Maya’s name and that she somehow knew Korean, but some part of him had already started to feel like he needed to stay away from her.

After shaking hands with the maknae, Jungkook, Maya turned towards Namjoon again to speak to him. She didn’t know much about Namjoon, but from the little information she had gathered, she realized he was the main guy in the group. “I was just thinking, if you guys want I can take you to the college. The college is about 35 minutes away from here. If we leave now, we can still make it in time for the event.” she said.

Namjoon began speaking as soon as Maya finished the sentence, “NO!”

Everyone else around him was taken aback by his assertive decline of Maya’s offer.

He continued “...I mean, no it’s not necessary. We can handle it. Thank you!”

“Namjoon-ah, I know this is kind of weird since we don’t know this girl, but considering the fact that we running late, we should just take the offer. I still don’t know where manager Sejin and the other staff members are...we don’t want to miss the event because of our stupidity.” Hoseok, the dance prodigy of the group, whispered in Namjoon’s ear.

“We can’t just accept people’s help, when we don’t know them, Hobi.” Namjoon retorted.

“Well do you have any other options?” Hobi replied. Namjoon was silent. He looked back at Maya, who was awkwardly waiting for their response to her offer. She knew they were hesitant since they probably worried she was some die hard fan and would take advantage of them or something, but she really had no interest in that. Maya viewed Kpop idols as just humans that got trapped in system of the Hallyu industry, when all they really wanted was to make music, sing, and dance. She felt that behind all their hair and makeup were a lot of sacrifices. She didn’t really know anything about the group that was standing in front of her. She didn’t know the trajectory of their fame nor the type of music they made.

As Maya waited, Namjoon decided to give his staff members another call. The other group members waited. He really didn’t want to take Maya’s help. Something inside him told him not to get too close to her.

After a few attempts, Namjoon gave up. Not even their stylists were picking up their phones. What was going on?

You see, a couple hours ago, the group and their staff had made a bet about who would get to the event first. They had went into separate vans from the airport and decided that Seokjin, the eldest one in the group of 7, would drive and the rest of the guys would help him navigate to the event. This was a terrible idea, of course, but none of them thought that the guys would actually go to the wrong university. What made things even more unfortunate was that the cellular network at the event’s venue was terrible, which meant the staff members couldn’t pick up their calls. The staff had assumed they were still on their way.

Namjoon’s anxiety was getting worse. He even sent emails to their manager to get them to respond, but the manager didn’t see the email.

Maya became tired of waiting and her hands were beginning to hurt from holding on to the papers. She decided she would try and explain to the guys that she was not some creepy fan and that they could trust her.

“Hey guys, I know this is a weird situation and you are probably having trouble trusting me. I have no idea where your staff is. But seriously, I don’t mind driving you there. I promise, you can trust me. I am just a graduate student in English and the reason I want to help is because my professor is in charge of the event.”

The guys all looked at Namjoon. Because as Maya had correctly suspected, Namjoon really was the leader of the group and he also was the only one in the group who could speak English fluently. The rest of the members trusted Namjoon more than they trusted themselves. They knew that whatever decision he made, would be the best for the group.

Maya saw that they were all waiting for Namjoon’s response, but it seemed like Namjoon was still not convinced by Maya’s explanation.

“Okay, well how about this...how about I call my professor and let her know you guys are lost. You guys can decide with her what you want to do. Sound good?” Maya tried once again to help them.

Namjoon took a few more seconds to consider her response. He really didn’t know if this was a safe idea, because he knew that even one small mistake could really risk his group’s reputation, and he also was well aware of how spread out their fan base was. It also didn’t help that he had that weird dreamlike experience earlier, which made him afraid to go close to this woman.

Nonetheless, when he looked around and saw that the members were just waiting on him to say ‘yes’, he finally gave in to the idea. He thought, what’s the worst that can happen from a phone call to her professor?

“Sure, that sounds okay” Namjoon said hesitantly.

Maya wanted to take out her phone from her bag to call her professor, but because there were so many things in her hand, she was struggling to find it. Jimin, the other dance master in the group noticed Maya’s struggle, and immediately took the papers out of her hand, so she can get her phone out of her bag.

“Oh, thank you” Maya said, as she noticed Jimin was trying to help. She was still really taken aback by how kind these men were. For a split second she thought about her boyfriend, and how he didn’t even help her carry all her bags when they would go shopping together. It almost felt like she had forgotten that not all men have to be jerks, since the ones that she had met were all one worse than the other.

Maya finally managed to pull out her phone from her bag and called her professor. As the phone rang, she could feel all 7 guys staring at her. Maya put the phone on speaker, so that they can hear her. She could tell that Namjoon was still hesitant about the whole situation and wanted to make sure he trusted her.

Finally, Dr. Kelly picked up. “Hello-- Dr. Kelly?” Maya said.

There was initially no response, just bunch of sounds.

“Hello, Dr. Kelly? It’s Maya…”

Finally, the lady spoke.

“Hey, Maya...sorry the signal is really bad here...let me go outside” Dr. Kelly said. She was surprised to receive a call from her student all of the sudden, but felt like it had to be important if Maya had called.

“Hi, Dr. Kelly?...Can you hear me?... I am calling about an important situation. I am not sure if you know this but...umm...the group that’s suppose to be at the event today accidentally came to our university.”

Maya was speaking in English, but the guys all gulped, as they realized she was talking about them on the phone. They knew once their staff found out they would get in trouble.

“What?” Dr. Kelly responded.

Maya thought she still couldn’t hear, so she repeated what she said before. “The Kpop group that’s suppose to attend the event accidentally came to UCA instead of the venue.”

Namjoon interrupted, “tell her it’s BTS. We are BTS.”

Maya said, “Yeah, the BTS group is here. They got lost and came here instead. I ran into them.”

“Yeah I heard the first time, but how did this happened. What are we going to do?” Dr. Kelly seemed frazzled. “Is there a way, you can drive them here.” Dr. Kelly added.

Maya pursed her lips, as she stared at Namjoon. Namjoon sighed. He took the phone from Maya’s hand and began speaking.

“Hi Dr. Kelly. This is the leader of BTS, Rap Monster. Ms. Shroff here offered us a ride already, but we were wondering if we can speak to our staff. It’s better that they pick us up here.”

Dr. Kelly responded,“listen, I will let your staff know. But I think you need to leave with Maya right now, because by the time your staff leaves and brings you here the event will have already started.”

“Can I at least talk to my manager?” Namjoon insisted.

“Sure, let me go get him.” Dr. Kelly gave in to his request.

Dr. Kelly went and found manager Sejin who was talking someone on the phone already. She told him about the situation and he immediately took the phone from her hand and began speaking to him.

“Hello, Namjoon-ah?”Sejin began speaking in Korean.

“Manager-nim, we are at the wrong university. I am not sure what to do.” Namjoon complained.

“Yes, this lady, Dr. Kelly, told me. You should just come here with her student.” Sejin suggested.

“Are you sure?” Namjoon tried one more time. “Yeah, it’s almost started and it’s faster if she just drives you here instead of us trying to come there and pick you up. We’ll handle everything. It’s okay.”

Namjoon sighed again. “Alright, if you say so. Thanks.”

Namjoon ended the phone call and gave it back to Maya.

“Alright, I guess we are coming with you.” Namjoon said to Maya in Korean. He figured at this point, she was probably fluent.

“Great, I have a minivan, so we should be able to fit. Just follow me.” Maya said.

The members followed Maya’s lead to the campus garage where her car was parked. Once they got to the car, they all tried to figure out the seating. Namjoon tried to sit in the back sit, but he was forced to seat in the passenger sit in the front, next to Maya.

“You are the leader. You should sit in the front.” Yoongi, the other rapper of the group, whispered in Namjoon’s ear while smirking.

Namjoon rolled his eyes and sat down in the front. Maya got into the driver’s seat and turned around to count how many people there were.

“What happened?” Taehyung said as he noticed Maya was counting.

“Oh, I was just checking to see every color of the rainbow is present in this van.” Maya jokes. However, no one laughed except Jimin and Taehyung.

Namjoon gave Maya a death glare as she turned back. What was his problem? Maya thought.

“Alright then.” Maya started the car and drove in silence. There were whispers and side conversation in the back of the car. However, Maya remained silent. She was thankful that she didn’t have classes the rest of the day. Who would have thought she would be in her van with Kpop idols today.

It finally sank in for Maya, that she was really driving  celebrities around. She should be more excited, right? After all, there are probably girls and guys out there practically dying to see these men. She wondered how popular this BTS group was. She made a note to herself, to check out there music later on.

After 10 minutes into the drive, she decided to break the ice again by talking to the man sitting next to her.

“So, how long have you been in the Kpop industry?” Maya asked innocently.

Namjoon didn’t say anything at first as he was too busy tracing the road to the venue on his iPhone maps app, making sure the girl that was driving them was on the right way to college, and wasn’t kidnapping them or something. But he realized the question was aimed at him, so he responded.

“Umm, we debuted in 2013. So about 3 years.” Namjoon responded and went back to his maps.

“That’s cool.” Maya answered. She really didn’t know what to say to that. However, someone in the back seemed to be more curious about her.

“How come you speak Korean so fluently?” Taehyung asked from the back.

Maya smiled. “Oh, I am a Ph.D. student and I am studying Korean fiction for my thesis, so I had to learn the language.”

“Wow, you are so smart! I am so glad we ran into you. Right, hyung?” Taehyung said referring to Namjoon.

Namjoon didn’t respond. Again, someone else in the back answered. “Yeah, who would have thought we would have found someone who speaks our language in a place like this,” Hoseok added.

“Yeah Arkansas definitely has a very small Korean population,” Maya laughed.

“So, how did you get interested in Korean literature?” someone else from the back asked. It was the grayish haired man, Yoongi.

“Well, I have always been interested in cultures. I just happened to read a lot of books as a kid, and became more interested in Korean literature when I read more books for my East Asian Literature class during undergraduate. So then I thought well, it would be awesome to do some research on how Korean culture shapes a lot of the fictional stories that come from Korea, and how we can bring those stories to the western world. I feel like there is just this barrier between the East and West, and I think books and even music are the best way to break that barrier, you know?” Maya stopped speaking as she realized she had went on a full blown rant. But she couldn’t help it, this was one of those topics she was really passionate about.

“Ah, sorry, guys! I got a little carried away. It’s my thesis topic so I get a bit too excited,” Maya laughed and looked through the rearview mirror to see everyone’s reaction. She saw Taehyung’s mouth hung open, and then she saw Yoongi nodding just slightly before going back to look unamused.

“You are really cool, Maya-ssi” Jimin brightly smiled and responded.

“Aww, thank you! You guys seem cool too.”

Maya turned to look at Namjoon, who was staring at her, but as soon as she made eye contact with him he turned away pretending not to care.

During the rest of the car ride, the guys and Maya continued asking questions from each other back and forth. Maya learned a lot about BTS and the type of music they make. She was surprised to hear that this was not their first time in America. She wondered how big their fan base must be. Maya knew there were a lot of American fans of Kpop, but had never looked into how big that number must be. Maya had not quite realized that the group sitting in her car was at the verge of breaking some big music records with the amount of fans they had. 2016 was the year when BTS was about to breakout big in the music scene. There trajectory was going straight up. Of course, by the time Maya would realize this, she would already be in too deep in too their world.

They soon arrived at University of Arkansas, and Maya parked the car at the auditorium where the event was being held. The guys all got out of the car and followed Maya’s lead, as she led them backstage of the auditorium. She turned around to see if they were following and noticed they all had their face masks on and some even put on their baseball caps. Maya was intrigued by their behavior as they started walking quickly almost pushing her aside and getting in front of her.

It was as if the 7 sweet guys she had met had just transformed into a mafia gang. She couldn’t understand what their purpose was of them walking like they were about to go rob a bank.

One of them whispered to her as they passed “We have to rush before they find us.” She couldn’t pick up on who said it.

She now was following the guys as they led her backstage of the auditorium. Thankfully, they still had 5 minutes to spare before the event started. Once inside, the staff of the group and stage managers all took over. Maya was overwhelmed at how many people were back there. She didn’t realize how big this event was. Maya just stood aside and watched all the chaos. She could hear screaming and shouting outside on the stage and she peeked through the curtains to see how many people were there. Her eyes went wide as she saw the amount of people in the place. There were literally people standing outside the auditorium pushing each other to get a better view of the stage.

Maya realized that there was no way these people were there just to see her professor’s panel. They had to be there for BTS. Now it also made sense to Maya why the guys rushed to get inside the auditorium. They didn’t want to be found by their fans.

It finally hit Maya that the group of guys that she had just drove were not just some ordinary guys. This was Maya’s first glimpse into BTS’s world and she was already overwhelmed.

Soon the event started and she watched professor’s panel from the backstage screen. After Dr. Kelly’s panel, Dr. Kelly invited CEO of BigHit on to the stage. Maya was shocked when she saw the man walk up on to the stage. Where had she seen him before? Maya learned at that time that BTS was under a company called BigHit and that their CEO was someone named Bang Shi Hyuk. That man seemed familiar.

Mr. Bang Shi Hyuk entered on the stage, and him and Dr. Kelly talked about how BTS and other Kpop groups are a tool that can break the barriers. Maya was really engrossed as he talked about how BTS was formed and the ways in which Kpop industry has changed over time.

In the short span, Maya was learning a lot about the world BTS was from, and she realized that the CEO was quite knowledgeable as well from the way he was speaking in English. But in her mind, she was still trying to remember where she had seen the man before.

After Mr. Bang was finished, Dr. Kelly stayed on stage to introduce BTS. As she announced their name, the group of guys that were just in the car with Maya a few minutes ago, now all walked on to the stage wearing suits. Maya was awestruck at how they transformed from being just ordinary men to idols.

As they went up on to the stage the lights dimmed and they began to perform. Maya watched the performance closely. She had seen Kpop music videos, so she wasn’t surprised that the guys were dancing, but it was still strange to see that the same guys she had just met in the hallway were now performing in front of a loud screaming audience.

There were fanchants and the audience was singing along with the boys. Maya couldn’t help but slightly smile at the way they all moved. Her eyes went towards Namjoon a few times, as he looked a lot less stressed now compared to before. His complete concentration was on his performance. The deep voice during his rap portions filled the auditorium sending goosebumps down Maya’s spine.

When their performances ended, Maya found herself clapping like the audience out in the auditorium. She felt a rush of excitement and contentment as they walked passed her when they walked back from the stage.

Jungkook quickly smiled and waved as he passed her and she returned the wave. Suddenly she heard her name being called, and so she looked to her side to find the source of the voice. It was actually Dr. Kelly that was calling her over as she stood next to Mr. Bang. Maya was confused about what Dr. Kelly could possibly want from her. Maya walked over to her. For some reason she felt nervous walking up to talk to Mr. Bang, but she couldn’t understand why.

“This is my student, Maya.” Dr. Kelly introduced Maya to Mr. Bang.

“Hi, nice to meet you” Maya bowed as she realized this was much more appropriate considering he was Korean.

“Nice to meet you, Maya. I heard you brought the boys here. I just wanted to thank you. You really saved the day today!” Mr. Bang said.

“Oh, it’s okay. I am glad I ran into them,” Maya shyly responded. She thought, what could she possibly say to the CEO of a Korean music entertainment company

“Well, Dr. Kelly thank you for inviting us. This was a great event,” Mr. Bang began talking to Dr. Kelly again.

“Ah, no the pleasure is completely ours. It’s not everyday that we get to see such influential people out here in Arkansas. Right, Maya?”

“Right,” Maya replied.

The conversation between Dr. Kelly and Mr. Bang continued talking, and Maya decided she should just keep quiet. Maya often had the tendency to overstep her boundaries and she didn’t want to risk something like that in front of such famous people.

However, as Maya was standing there, she felt someone walk up behind her so she turned around. It turned out to be Taehyung.

“Hey!” Maya replied as she was surprised to see him walk up behind her.

She saw the rest of the group was also with him.

“What’s up?” She asked curiously.

“We just wanted to say thanks to you, Maya-ssi” Jimin responded. “It was very sweet of you to help us.”

“Ah, no worries guys. I feel like I just got to see a free BTS concert, so I am definitely not going to complain” Maya laughed.

Some of the guys awkwardly laughed at her lame joke. Others looked unamused. Namjoon came more towards the front and looked towards her. Maya felt her breath hitch again.

“Seriously, we are very grateful for your help. Good luck with your studies.” Namjoon said with a very serious and authoritative tone.

“Thank you” was all Maya would mutter as she felt a bit intimidated by his ‘leader’ voice.

After that day, Maya looked into BTS. She felt like she at least needed to know who these men were that she had met. Little did she know that once you fall into the BTS wormhole, there was no way out.

Within the span of few days, she had engulfed the entirety of BTS discography. She found herself thinking more and more about them as time passed. However, what she thought about the most, wasn’t just the group.

It was one particular instance she had experienced that day. Maya kept replaying the weird dreamlike sequence of images she had experienced the moment she had shaken hands with Namjoon. She hadn’t really thought too much of those images that day, but as time went on, her mind drifted back to that moment. She couldn’t remember all the images though. She remembered bits and pieces, and she kept trying to repeat them in her head to remember them.

Meanwhile, Namjoon and the rest of BTS had continued on with the tour that they were on across North America. After their short stop in Arkansas they had went west towards LA where they had their next concert.

The guys had forgotten the weird experience they had in Arkansas as their lives went on. However, for Namjoon it was impossible to remove those images in his head. He kept wondering why he experienced it. Was it a daydream? Was he just imagining? Why were those images so vivid yet so faded?

Namjoon sat on the plane back to Seoul after BTS had finished the tour in North America, and thought back to the images. He found himself thinking about Maya. However, he stopped himself as he realized instead of Maya, there was someone else he should be thinking about. Among all the chaos of the tour, he had almost forgotten about his girlfriend, Choi Ji Hyu.

[stargazer1682]

Star Trek Picard - Season 1

Where to start?

Re-watching the DS9 episode, “Past Tense” recently, a line from Bashir really stood out, which personified everything wrong with Star Trek Picard - “But it makes you wonder, doesn't it? Are humans really any different than Cardassians or Romulans? If push comes to shove, if something disastrous happens to the Federation, if we are frightened enough, or desperate enough, how would we react? Would we stay true to our ideals or would we just stay up here, right back where we started?" According to STP, the answer is apparently, no, we don’t stay true to our ideals; and we do go right back to where we started, or pretty damn near close.

There are just so many logical inconsistencies. I mean, Christ - just, everything about Raffi, from her ambiguous chemical dependency, her resentment about her living conditions versus Picard’s, when such things are no longer supposed to exist in Star Trek; or at least not in the Federation and most definitely not on Earth.

The unwillingness of the Federation to help Romulus when their sun was going to go nova. I mean, this is the Federation, for crying out loud; yes, the Romulans had been cold war style adversaries of theirs for centuries, but humanity and the Federation are supposed to have been above such pettiness when it came to actual, desperate need for help. Plus, they had managed to find themselves allies against the Dominion; which would surely count for something.

Of course, one of the chief excuses for the Federation not to help Romulus, was the so-called synth attack on Mars - which turned out to be orchestrated by the Romulans; because when your homeworld is in danger of being destroyed, risking a massive death count of your own people, why wouldn’t you take the opportunity to screw with the people who are in the best position to save your sorry asses?

And why did the Romulans do it? Because of some stupid ass cult/shadow organization within their shadow organization that are afraid of artificial lifeforms, because of some psychic acid trip bullshit they all share. So they need to ensure the Federation bans synthetic life and concocts the most asinine plot to engineer this; and to add insult to injury, it works! The Federation falls for it!

I mean, honestly, the synths were decidedly not sentient; yet there’s not the slightest doubt that they appear to act on their own, which again, they’re not supposed to be able to do, but they do and not only that, they inexplicably and out of the blue frag an entire planet, killing themselves in the process and all for no apparent reason; and the Federation assigns blame to all forms of artificial life and bans them from the Federation? Bullshit. Seriously, how many Vulcans must have died from brain aneurysms trying to wrap their heads around that kind of logic?

Never mind some of the inconsistencies that crop up later; like Rios’ holograms (are those permitted with the Synth ban?), or the bullshit that Riker and Troi’s son couldn’t be cured, because the only cure had to be cultivated in a positronic brain; you know, the thing that successfully existed in only three androids, and they couldn’t possibly go anywhere else or develop the same cure some other way. Nope, this is the darkest fucking timeline, which means all of the characters we love now live shitty, depressing lives.

Speaking of which, 7 of 9 appears; having left behind all of her friends and the promising life suggested by the end of Voyager, because the writers felt the need to torture-murder Icheb, so that 7 could run off and join the fucking Power Rangers, or whatever they’re called.

Then there’s the main plot of the first season, meandering as it is. So Bruce Maddox managed to replicate Data’s programming by using a single positron from Data, which somehow contains everything that made Data, Data? What?? How is that supposed to make any sense? Seeing as he apparently got that positron from B4, why not just say he reversed engineered the programming Data tried uploading to him? And they always come in pairs. WHY?? So the plot can happen, and so one of them can die; and Jean Luc Quixote can put a crew together and go chasing windmills, or rather, borg cubes. But it can’t be the crew he used to have, because why enlist your friends who have the proper resources to help you; when you can contact the burnout who hates you for somehow ruining her career by sticking to your convictions and retiring; and then spend five or six episodes out of a ten episode season just putting the rest of your crew together….

So then we find out the Romulans have in their possession a decommissioned borg cube, because again, the Federation are complete fucking morons now and in addition to their xenophobic policies and stupid laws regarding AI, they’re fine with Romulans having a borg cube… because, reasons…. Why the Romulans, who are supposedly so afraid of artificial intelligence, even want the cube or what they’re getting out it completely escapes me. We also find out the Borg now have space folding technology that makes their ships redundant and should pose the greatest threat the galaxy has ever known, but whatevs…

And now we’re on the planet of the androids, with a large number of Data’s offspring, essentially; and another flippin’ Soong who looks exactly like Arik; making at least two generations of his descendants, and probably more, who apparently got nothing from their mothers - but that’s okay, because my personal theory is that Arik, brilliant geneticist that he was, just cloned himself to perpetuate his work, rather than have kids the conventional way…. But more importantly, it turns out that some aspect of Data is still alive, on a floppy disk or something, chilling in his own personal limbo. Did Maddox’s work bring Data back to life, or would Data have been stuck in this virtual realm within B4 indefinitely? And why, out of all the other new androids that were built, let alone the planned “golem” Maddox was creating to put his own mind inside, did they never give Data a new body? Sure, Brent Spiner is older and looks relatively different from when he originally played Data, but they’ve now established that this new batch of androids can age and are somehow “organic artificial life” - which, in its own right, is the dumbest fraking thing they could have come up with. So why not put Data in an older body, and have him greet his old Captain, instead of introducing yet another carbon copy Soong? It would have been everything Data every wanted, making him as close to being human as possible, but instead, he just wants to be turned off and die… again…

But I get ahead of myself, because they have to have the big climax, where the Romulans that have been chasing Picard and Data’s daughter halfway across the galaxy to find the android homeworld, finally find them! But wait, are the Romulans a decimated, nomadic people; or are they still a strong empire, with a huge fleet of ships? Doesn’t matter. The Romulans must destroy the androids, because of that acid nightmare they all had, about how artificial life will destroy everything. Agnes knows, she’s seen it and it scared the shit out of her too; so much so that she killed her dad, Bruce. Wait. What? She wasn’t his daughter? They were boning? Well, bully for him, I guess, but still, it drove sweet… bland… cardboard cutout Agnes to be a cold blooded murderer; which means she’ll eventually go to jail soon, so it has to be pretty serious. It’s not like they’re just going to ignore that she killed a dude, and move on like it never happened, right?

Data’s children want to know about this vision, and one of them has…. (sigh)… “practiced the Vulcan mind meld”…… (Sigh) Just… seriously, fuck these writers…… So the android leader sees the visions and sees the dimension inhabited by… I don’t know, Doc Ock? And they understand, it wasn’t a vision warning organics about synths, it was a warning to synths about organics. So to prove to organics they aren’t the threat they fear them to be, they are going to become the threat the organics fear them to be; and Picard and his “crew” are under arrest. But of course, they get free, because Agnes sucks and has loyalties to no one and lies with ease, despite her otherwise innocent demeanor. And blah, blah, blah, the synths and organics decide a stalemate is preferable to the machine tentacles that are coming out of the rift in space. Riker has somehow taken command of a ship and gets to the android planet just a few hours behind Picard, and then promptly leaves after going through all that trouble, rather than staying long enough to make sure the Romulans don’t come back; or at the very least, check out this new civilization populated with the “descendants” of a close, late friend….

And now Coulson is alive again as an advanced LMD… I mean, Picard… is an android… but you know, with none of the advantages of being an android….. Because if you’re going to be an android, you might as well be an android who looks, feels, sounds and has all of the same physical limitations of a 90 year old human male… Is Synth-Picard going to have to get up five times in the middle of the night to pee? And the synth ban is conveniently lifted, offscreen, with barely any effort, like it was really no big deal….

But none of it really matters, because let’s face it, the whole thing was a hallucination caused by Picard’s Irumodic Syndrome.

[theonyxpath]

At the end of last week, we finished up the Kickstarter campaign for the new Trinity Continuum core book, and the Trinity Continuum: Aeon book. We pretty much unlocked a Stretch Goal a day, and built out two PDFs for backers; an Aeon Aexpansion containing added info on more cool parts of the TC:Aeon setting, and In Media Res, a collection of adventure ideas for the TC core modern-day time period.

There are a few reasons why the results of this Kickstarter are satisfying to our crew here at Onyx Path:

1- The two books with the two extra PDFs give us a great start on the two time periods featured in the books. Now we can have a few meetings and discuss both the continuation of those two settings, and we can start looking at what other time periods we can cover soon. Which brings us to:

2- Based on the response to this latest KS, we are confident that we can put together a team ASAP to create the Trinity Continuum: Aberrant book, and plan on another Kickstarter for it when its text is done. Why then? Well:

3- All available evidence shows that allowing backers to read the finished text for a book being Kickstarted in weekly or two per week sections like we did for this and the last couple of KSs, does indeed give folks a chance to read, absorb, and discuss that section pretty well until the next section drops. Folks have something new to check out every couple of days. Finally:

4- With this Kickstarter, we have revealed to our community the last of the first slate of projects that came out of our initial plans for the worlds Onyx Path would publish. We, of course, have a whole bunch of new projects coming up that we’re thrilled to be starting on, or finalizing the plans for, but getting the three game-lines I bought from CCP (Scion, Scarred Lands, and the Trinity Universe) recreated and available in one form or the other for our community is a fine indicator of how we’ve thrived these last 6 years. (Heavy sigh of relief as it was never, and remains never, a slam-dunk that folks would dig what we’re doing).

And while we’ve been bringing the Storypath System and our own game-lines to life, we haven’t forgotten our Exalted 3rd, Chronicles of Darkness, and World of Darkness projects. In fact, I just sent a raft of project pitches over to White Wolf for approval. Some of them are projects that fans of those lines have heard of already (or at least the rumors of) and a couple are brand new.

More on those when we hear back from WW and can move on to outlining and getting writers a writin’.

      Dragon Blooded illustration by Yihyoung Li

      One thing we did not have in mind when we started was the ability to put together formats that creators in our community could use to make their own projects. I’m referring of course to Community Content programs, and our first is the one for Pugmire called Canis Minor that I announced a month and a half, give or take, ago.

We already have seven PDF projects up there, all either pay what you want or below $2.00 and it’s clear that the writers were just all having a blast exploring the world of Pugmire. A character creation guide, heroes and villains, a bunch of adventures, the list goes on.

And you can add to it if you have a yen to join our happy band of creators – the guidelines and formats are easy to follow, and you’ll retain half the earnings. Plus, Eddy Webb is a really nice guy and loves reading how folks have taken his ideas and run with them!

We’re finishing up the initial stages of our Scarred Lands Community Content site, and then we’ll be moving on to Scion, and we’re not done yet.

      Night Horrors: Enemy Action illustration by Luis Sanz

    Finally, I just want to briefly touch base on the Chronicles of Darkness‘s Night Horrors series of books – particularly since the one for Demon: The Descent, Night Horrors: Enemy Action, goes on sale this Wednesday. Long-time members of our community will recall that the Night Horrors “brand” was a sort of cross-line series of projects for the “new World of Darkness”, and were designed for one line but usable by all of the others.

With the advent of the Chronicles of Darkness, it made sense to me to bring back this popular series of antagonist books for the 2nd edition rules. Plus, the way the books present discrete write-ups for the various “baddies” is a great way for us to try out the new writers we’ve been looking to bring aboard for the last couple of years. If there’s a problem with a write-up, it’s just one creature, and not a huge word count to replace.

So go ahead and check out the blurbs in The Blurbs below and on DriveThru and see if there might not be some antagonists that could fit into your home chronicle, or be used to throw your players a surprise, even if that particular Night Horrors book isn’t from a line you’d normally play.

And with that, I’m outta here, and dropping this here motto right there:

 Many Worlds, One Path!

    BLURBS!

KICKSTARTER:

  Our next Kickstarter is slated to be EX3‘s Dragon-Blooded near the end of March.

      As we try and find ways to enable our community to more easily play our games, the Onyx Dice Rolling App is now live! Our dev team has been doing updates since we launched based on the excellent use-case comments by our community, and this thing is both rolling and rocking!

The devs have added a whole bunch of new game lines’ dice and rolling bg’s and got caught by a bug Apple needed to fix, so be sure to update your app and soon that should be fixed.

There’s been tweaks to all elements of the UI, you can now preview every die type in the store, and you can use multiple die types per roll! Here are the links for the Apple and Android versions:

http://theappstore.site/app/1296692067/onyx-dice

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.onyxpathpublishing.onyxdice&hl=en

Three different screenshots, above.

(The Solar Anima special Dice above)

  Promethean: The Created and Demon: The Descent dice on a Demon: The Descent tabletop

  Hunter: The Reckoning and Mage: The Awakening dice on a Mage: The Awakening tabletop

      ON AMAZON AND BARNES & NOBLE:

We’re delighted to announce the opening of our ebook stores on Amazon and Barnes & Noble! You can now read our fiction from the comfort and convenience of your Kindle (from Amazon) and Nook (from Barnes & Noble). Our initial selection includes these fiction anthologies:

Vampire: The Masquerade: The Endless Ages Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: Rites of Renown: When Will You Rage II (Kindle, Nook)

Mage: The Ascension: Truth Beyond Paradox (Kindle, Nook)

Chronicles of Darkness: The God-Machine Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Mummy: The Curse: Curse of the Blue Nile (Kindle, Nook)

Beast: The Primordial: The Primordial Feast Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

  And here are six more fiction books:

Vampire: The Masquerade: Of Predators and Prey: The Hunters Hunted II Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: The Poison Tree (Kindle, Nook)

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: Songs of the Sun and Moon: Tales of the Changing Breeds (Kindle, Nook)

Vampire: The Requiem: The Strix Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Werewolf: The Forsaken: The Idigam Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Mage: The Awakening: The Fallen World Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

  Andand six more more:

Vampire: The Masquerade: The Beast Within Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: W20 Cookbook (Kindle, Nook)

Exalted: Tales from the Age of Sorrows (Kindle, Nook)

Chronicles of Darkness: Tales of the Dark Eras (Kindle, Nook)

Promethean: The Created: The Firestorm Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Demon: The Descent: Demon: Interface (Kindle, Nook)

  And even more books are now on Amazon and the Nook store!:

Scarred Lands: Death in the Walled Warren (Kindle, Nook)

V20 Dark Ages: Cainite Conspiracies (Kindle, Nook)

Chronicles of Darkness: Strangeness in the Proportion (Kindle, Nook)

Vampire: The Requiem: Silent Knife (Kindle, Nook)

Mummy: The Curse: Dawn of Heresies (Kindle, Nook)

    OUR SALES PARTNERS:

We’re working with Studio2 to get Pugmire out into stores, as well as to individuals through their online store. You can pick up the traditionally printed main book, the Screen, and the official Pugmire dice through our friends there!

https://studio2publishing.com/search?q=pugmire

    Looking for our Deluxe or Prestige Edition books? Here’s the link to the press release we put out about how Onyx Path is now selling through Indie Press Revolution: http://theonyxpath.com/press-release-onyx-path-limited-editions-now-available-through-indie-press-revolution/

You can now order wave 2 of our Deluxe and Prestige print overrun books, including Deluxe Mage 20th Anniversary, and Deluxe V20 Dark Ages! And Screens…so many Screens!

And you can now order Pugmire: the book, the screen, and the dice! http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/manufacturers.php?manufacturerid=296

    DRIVETHRURPG.COM:

Ask the darkness, and it shall answer: the Beast: The Primordial Player’s Guide Advance PDF will answer your questions when it goes live on DTRPG.com this Wednesday!

The Beast Player’s Guide expands on the material presented in Beast: The Primordial, with additional information on the Families and Hungers, what it feels like to be a Beast and experience the Devouring, and how to commune with the Dark Mother. You’ll also find two new Families and two new Hungers!

The book also includes a plethora of new Atavisms, Nightmares, Merits, and Birthrights, as well as systems for creating smaller, subservient versions of the Horror, new forms of Inheritance, and details on the mysterious Obcasus Rites.

      There are some things that even a Demon fears – Night Horrors: Enemy Action for Demon: The Descent arrives as an Advance PDF this Wednesday on DTRPG.com!

“Fighting the Machine is like fighting the ocean. You literally cannot hurt it. Doesn’t matter how much poison we dump into the ocean. We’ll only kill the things in it. We’ll never kill it. Same with the God-Machine. Kill angels, traitors, stigmatics, cultists, cryptids, whatever, you’ll never hurt the Machine Itself. No, that doesn’t mean we stop trying. You stop trying, you drown. Screw that.”

—Mr. Bliss, Guardian Inquisitor

Night Horrors: Enemy Action includes:

• Dozens of Storyteller characters, including Unchained, angels, exiles, cryptids, and stigmatics, for use as antagonists, allies, or just inspiration

• Multiple plot hooks and story seeds for your Demon: The Descent chronicles

• A brief look at cults in Demon, including the Ten Thousand Names of God, a secret society fueled by the God-Machine

        With a howl of RAGE, the W20 Changing Ways PDF and physical book PoD charges at you this Wednesday on DTRPG.com! http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/229183/W20-Changing-Ways

Changing Ways is an in-depth look at what it means to be a werewolf, both on a personal level and as part of a pack. It digs deep into what it feels like to have bones re-knit after breaking, the range of senses available across all forms, and the sudden heady rush of the Gifts and Rites bestowed by spirits. It also provides a look at what life is like for lupus and metis werewolves, characters who have had experiences alien to any person. It shows the many ways that werewolves organize in packs, and how those packs are designed as groups of warriors, rather than aligned to the behavior of wolves.

Changing Ways contains:

• A detailed look at what it means to grow up as a lupus or metis werewolf, and how that colors a character’s perspective.

• More information on what it feels like to be a werewolf, a creature that changes in both body and mind.

• Frameworks and organizations for packs, along with new tactics and systems for forging the pack as part of play.

        Appearing on DriveThruRPG this Wednesday are the PDF and PoD physical book versions of Arms of the Chosen for Exalted 3rd Edition! http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/226224/Arms-of-the-Chosen

Take up the panoply of legendary heroes and lost ages, and awaken the world-shaking might of their Evocations. Before the dawn of time, the Exalted wielded god-metal blades to cast down the makers of the universe. In an ancient epoch of forgotten glories, Creation’s greatest artificers forged unimaginable wonders and miracle-machines.

Now, in the Age of Sorrows, kingdoms go to war over potent artifacts, scavenger princes risk everything to uncover relics of the past, and the Exalted forge great arms and armor on the anvil of legend. These treasures are yours to master.

Discover the mystical power of the five magical materials and the secrets of creating your own Evocations. Wield weapons of fabled might and don the armor of mythic heroes, making their puissance your own. Claim Creation’s wonders: the miraculous tools of the Chosen, living automatons, flying machines, hearthstones, and more. And unleash the mighty warstriders, titanic god-engines of conquest and devastation, to once more shake Creation with their footfalls.

        Coming this Wednesday as an Advance PDF on DTRPG, we reveal The Secret of Vinsen’s Tomb, a Jumpstart adventure for Pugmire. (And yes, there will be a physical book PoD version coming soon). www.drivethrurpg.com/product/232337/The-Secrets-of-Vinsens-Tomb–A-Pugmire-Jumpstart

A cat living in Pugmire disappears, but neither the police dogs nor the cats of the Cat Quarter know why. When zombies attack the heroes, however, all signs point to an invasion by the Monarchies of Mau. But how does this intrigue tie into the lost tomb of the first king of Pugmire?

The Secret of Vinsen’s Tomb is a Pugmire story for three to six characters. This jumpstart contains all the rules and characters you need to play — just grab some dice and go! You can also use this adventure with the full version of Pugmire.

The Secret of Vinsen’s Tomb contains:

• An evocative and mysterious setting that’s both family friendly and deep enough to create compelling stories.

• A summary of Pugmire’s traditional fantasy rules system. It’s designed for streamlined play, with an emphasis on cooperation and action over competition and violence.

• A complete adventure for a Guide to run for three to six players. Also useful for Guides running a full Pugmire game of first or second level characters!

• Six ready-to-play characters, so you can jump into the action.

Can your good dogs discover the secret of Vinsen’s Tomb?

  Also releasing this Wednesday on DTRPG is the physical book PoD version of the Pugmire Core Rulebook itself!

          We unveil Vampire: The Requiem 2e‘s Half-Damned as PDF and PoD versions on DTRPG.com this Wednesday!

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/227500/Half-Damned

I love her, she’s family, but I don’t love what she is.

– Antonio Ramírez, dhampir

This book includes: 

• An exploration of what it means to be one of the Half-Damned, dhampir, revenants or ghouls.

• Mechanics for creating Half-Damned characters.

• Information for creating and running chronicles using the various Half-Damned character types, both with vampires and alone.

• Information on Half-Damned antagonists for vampire chronicles.

        A Land Where Legends Walk

Drawing enthusiastically on Greek mythology, the revised and re-imagined Scarred Lands nonetheless retains its place as a modern fantasy RPG setting. This is a world shaped by gods and monsters, and only the greatest of heroes can expect to be counted among them. The most populous continent of Scarn, Ghelspad, plays host to vast unexplored regions, hides unsolved riddles from ancient cultures, and taunts adventures with the promise of undiscovered riches hidden among the ruins of older civilizations.

Yet the myths of the Scarred Lands are relatively recent events. The effects of the Titanswar still ripple through the world, and the heroines and villains of many of these stories are part of living memory, if not still living.

The Award-Winning Fantasy Setting Returns

Scarred Lands has been a favorite fantasy setting since the release of the Creature Collection for the d20 System in 2000. In subsequent years, over 40 titles were published for Scarred Lands, making it one of the most fully supported fantasy RPG settings ever and the premiere product line of Sword & Sorcery Studios.

Available in both 5th Edition and Pathfinder compatible versions! PDF and PoD formats available NOW!

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/193014/Scarred-Lands-Players-Guide-Pathfinder

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/197803/Scarred-Lands-Players-Guide-OGL-5e

      CONVENTIONS!

    And now, the new project status updates!

DEVELOPMENT STATUS FROM FAST EDDY WEBB (projects in bold have changed status since last week):

First Draft (The first phase of a project that is about the work being done by writers, not dev prep)

M20 Gods and Monsters (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

M20 Book of the Fallen (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

C20 Novel (Jackie Cassada) (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)

Deviant: The Renegades (Deviant: The Renegades)

CofD Contagion Chronicle (Chronicles of Darkness)

M20 The Technocracy Reloaded (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

M20 Victorian Mage (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

Dystopia Rising: Evolution (Dystopia Rising: Evolution)

Spilled Blood (Vampire: The Requiem 2nd Edition)

CofD Dark Eras 2 (Chronicles of Darkness)

  Redlines

Guide to the Night (Vampire: The Requiem 2nd Edition)

  Second Draft

WoD Ghost Hunters (World of Darkness)

Tales of Good Dogs – Pugmire Fiction Anthology (Pugmire)

  Development

Signs of Sorcery (Mage: the Awakening Second Edition)

GtS Geist 2e core (Geist: the Sin-Eaters Second Edition)

Night Horrors: The Tormented (Promethean: The Created 2nd Edition)

Hunter: the Vigil 2e core (Hunter: the Vigil 2nd Edition)

Fetch Quest (Pugmire)

They Came From Beneath the Sea! Rulebook (TCFBtS!)

  WW Manuscript Approval:

  Editing:

Ex Novel 2 (Aaron Rosenberg) (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Exalted 3rd Novel by Matt Forbeck (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Trinity Continuum: Aeon Rulebook (The Trinity Continuum)

Monarchies of Mau (Monarchies of Mau)

  Post-Editing Development:

Changeling: the Lost 2nd Edition, featuring the Huntsmen Chronicle (Changeling: the Lost 2nd Edition)

Dragon-Blooded (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Pan’s Guide for New Pioneers (Pugmire)

The Realm (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Kithbook Boggans (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)

Scion: Hero (Scion 2nd Edition)

Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook (The Trinity Continuum)

  Indexing:

    ART DIRECTION FROM MIRTHFUL MIKE:

In Art Direction

Ex3 Monthly Stuff

Scion Hero

Changeling: the Lost 2 – Art is contracted.

Trinity Continuum

Ex3 Dragon Blooded

Boggans – Contracted.

Monarchies of Mau – Sorting through buy and figuring out roster.

Fetch Quest – KS art contracted. Taking some time this week to tweak the card design.

  Marketing Stuff

  In Layout

Scarred Lands Community Content –Figuring out the covers and the Slarecian Vault Logo.

Scion Origin

Wraith 20 Screen – Front approved… now waiting for errata phase to assemble all the charts.

Cavaliers of Mars – Laying out while new art coming in.

  Proofing

Book of Freeholds – Maggie has 2nd proof.

Pugmire – Pan’s Explorer’s Guide (or whatever)

  At Press

Beckett Screen – Shipped to shipper.

Scarred Land PGs & Wise and the Wicked PF & 5e – To fulfillment shipper. PDF and PoD physical book versions on sale at DTRPG.

Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition) – Books and Screens created and preparing to ship from printer to fulfillment shipper.

Prince’s Gambit – At press.

V20 Beckett’s Jyhad Diary– Deluxe edition files sent to printer.

C20 Ready Made Characters – PoD proofs on the way.

Pugmire Artisan Cards – PoD proofs on the way.

Pugmire Shepherd Cards – PoD proofs on the way.

Scion Dice Packaging – At press.

Wraith 20 – Backer PDF out, and errata is coming in.

Ring of Spiragos – PoD proofs on their way.

Pugmire Vinsen’s Tomb – PoD proofs on the way.

Beast PG – Advance PDF on sale at DTRPG.com this Wednesday.

DtD Enemy Action – Advance PDF on sale at DTRPG.com this Wednesday.

  TODAY’S REASON TO CELEBRATE: In the US, March has indeed come in like a lion and we’ll see if it goes out like a lamb. But: “Now look, pal! I know a country where March comes in like an emu and goes out like a tapir. And they don’t even know what it means! All right? Now listen, there are nine different countries, where March comes in like a frog, and goes out like a golden retriever. But that- that’s not the weird part! No, no, the weird part is, is the frog. The frog- The weird part is-[has seizure and falls off chair]”

[creative-type]

Wait...Isla was like Rhys (O.o)

The short answer is they didn’t have the same personality so much as fulfill the same role. Longer explanation is below the cut, but I tend to get to get long-winded about these things, so I’m sorry if this is boring.

As I’ve stated in a previous ask, my purpose for writing Monsters is to explore one possible reason why Thistle keep working with Orrig even though they’re monster hunters and she thinks she’s a monster. 

With that in mind, meet Joan Nightingale, Isla’s prototype and an old OC of mine I developed for a One Piece story that never actually got written

(Forgive the bad quality, but from it says starting at the top left “Rescued a black cat everyone else thought was unlucky. Named him Salem. They are both equally ruthless”, “AFO on the right leg”, “fancy cane”, and “crippled in an incident fifteen years ago, no one knows what happened but it left her bitter towards all ‘wild’ races. Joan Nightingale, thirty-five years old. Likes cats. Dislikes everything else”. This is what I pass off for character notes.)

Now since Daughter of the Lilies and One Piece have similar themes of family of choice and finding your place in the world, I was able to transplant Joan without much difficulty and in some ways she could have represented one of Thistle’s greatest fears in human form. She was, and could still potentially be, a good antagonist for a DotL story.

Then I actually started writing, and things started changing real quick. I don’t actually plan much before starting a project–I plant a bunch of seeds and see what springs up, then weed around the surrounding mess to figure out what actually works.

For example, Lyra was never supposed to have as much focus as she’s currently getting, but I had to get Thistle and the gang to the Hills somehow, and that meant writing the carriage ride and the subsequent conversations between the two (the details of which stumped me for a month and ground all progress to a halt) which then led to Lyra having a greater role overall. At one point in time Jacob Swinehart had a brother who would have played a semi-prominent role but I decided he’d be better off dead, Frank was a background character without a name, and Dr. Malady started off as an eccentric bartender. 

So as the story changed, so did Isla’s role. I decided that instead of a singular avatar for Thistle’s deep-seeded fears I wanted a mercenary group to act as a foil for the main cast. Rhys was developed as an anti-Orrig: selfish, narcissistic, gloryhounding jerkface and worst manager ever.

(fun fact: I googled pompous men’s haircut when drawing this)  

With Rhys taking the more antagonistic role, there was no reason for Joan Nightingale to exist, but she still had potential to represent the other side of the coin–an outcast who found people who cared for her, only to have them cruelly ripped away by something beyond her control. She changed so much that she no longer felt like the same character, which is why I changed her name (she’s gone through several before I settled on Isla Clark, one being June Scriven as seen below)

(Again starting from the upper left “Never actually graduated magic school”, “Master Wu made this look so easy”, “going prematurely grey. Doesn’t care…much”, “doesn’t sleep well. Depression plus survival guilt. PTSD?”, “kind of poor, has simple taste in clothes”, “rescued a black cat and named him Salem, both suffer from resting bitch face”, “cane is probably the nicest thing she owns” “Bite just above the ankle plus scars from claws of an unknown beast”, and “brace/AFO”.

And when writing it out like this it might sound like these were specific changes I planned out in advance for the betterment of the story, when most of it just sort of happened as I wrote, so much so that I had forgotten that the Joan iteration of the character existed at all until I was flipping back through my sketchbook and reminded myself that, oh yeah, that was a thing.

If there’s a point to all this, it’s that stories often change quite a bit from when they’re first conceptualized. Or at least mine do. It doesn’t really matter how much planning that goes on ahead of time, once I sit down and start typing it starts taking on a life of its own. I think that’s pretty neat, actually. I find when I’m struggling with writer’s block the best thing to do is sit and just start writing, and the answer to my problem usually works itself out. It might take a couple of rewrites to get it just right, but as a wise man once said, there’s no limit to how rough a first draft can be.

[oligopolyworld]

Effective Ways To Make Money Online

MONEY MAKING INTERNET BUSINESS MODEL

All the sound and hype around the internet these days, not a lot of men and women recognize that each one of the thoughts and methods you may find is petty much useless unless you first know your organization version. To put it differently, the most remarkable internet advertisement technique isn't going to work for those who really don't comprehend just how exactly to employ it to your company.

1 ) Internet Affiliate Marketing Online

This is maybe the very used among there, as you can find simply no barriers to entry. Nearly anybody can register to an affiliate program at no cost and begin marketing the service or product online with hopes that someone can buy, giving them instant commissions. Internet marketers do not take any risk, as they usually do not cover the invention of this item, they usually do not manage client care and so they don't need to have any upfront investments.

If you believe that all those will be the best few items people would like in order to avert, it really is not surprising that everyone and their neighbor promote an affiliate program or some other.

2 ) E-Book and Details Publishing

Working in the opposite end of the spectrum, so ebook writers will need to become disciplined in their method of Web advertising. Clearly, in addition, they ought to get a lot more than affiliates do. While affiliates can become away hoping to"get anything for nothing" the exact same just isn't the case for your own ebook form of firm.

In case you are considering publishing and advertising your own e-book on the internet, and also you imagine that it's definitely going to become simple, reconsider. You will have to know many a lot more than you're expected to. You will have to devote a little quantity of cash having the organization ready to go. But whenever you really do it correctly, the payoff inside this on-line business model is far more lucrative.

Whatever initial startup fees spent can be addressed by selling only two or three duplicates of high-margin e-books, also you may even recruit an army of affiliates that tend to be eager to accomplish all of the selling to you personally.

Clearly, it is maybe not quite as simple as it appears, however, the purpose is, even when carried out correctly, the"ebook Publishing" model is a really profitable organization.

3) Web Network Advertising

Inside my own estimation, however, nearly 90 percent of individuals make it wrong when it regards web network advertising. People within this business usually believe that they're speaking about network marketing and advertising, in reality, they've been speaking about online affiliate advertising.

They strive to earn the Web do all of the tasks done. They concentrate on promoting more and much more monthly. They will have strategies that are so complicated only they are able to comprehend. That will not appear to be network marketing if you ask me personally!

Web network marketing is easy if you know this, and will willingly spend the endeavor. The part of this web here is to secure one of the titles and contact information of individuals that you may speak to, even after that you, not really a personal computer, must make a partnership with those men and women and let them begin their particular organization.

With this easy objective, it isn't required that you get a high-quality strategy and pretend your car responder is building relationships for you personally. It isn't likely to do the job out. The trick would be to get simple systems that are duplicable, something that you may train to each of those that you might have assembled a connection with.

E-book writers, regardless of what they state, have zero duty to educate you on that their"Secret Strategies to turn into a Millionaire" of any variations on this. The main reason is easy; just why inform you that the reality when you are going to wind up as their competition? Nobody wants more competitors, correct?

Web-based network promotion is very much the contrary of the It's mandatory that you tell people all you know or your company won't ever eliminate. Because of this alone, I never fail to advise that in the event that you are a newcomer to the on-line Earth, you definitely first have to join an Internet-based network promoting the business at the least learn. Be confident, nobody is likely to soon be attempting to sell one to halfbaked truths when their success ultimately is dependent upon yours.

Regardless of which version you opt to be certain that you comprehend the fundamentals, and quit playing and purchasing things that aren't appropriate for your organization. Data overload can stop you from even get started.

SOME TIPS FOR AN EFFECTIVE ONLINE BUSINESS

Producing and directing a successful on-line company is virtually included of a few hundred, but in place of 6 years, however, that may function as a guidebook for your management of one's own efforts. Unlike everything you might listen to rampantly online, there isn't any cookiecutter, super-fast strategy about the internet. Maybe not just will be every on-line business distinct, but what works for a single human being or within 1 month might well not operate with yet another man or woman or at the next calendar month.

The worldwide web is continuously shifting, and also the on-line market place is essentially different in 2013 when it had been this past calendar year. New technological advances occur every day and impression the internet business atmosphere. What will work for a single person when he would be the very first to ever market a particular merchandise a selected manner may possibly well not operate only six weeks after when he gets marketed his notion into 40,000 different entrepreneurs, plus all of them commence to market. Traffic creation approaches are considerably different than they've been merely one calendar year before, and scarcely resemble flourishing strategies 3 decades in the past.

All these 6 Measures are simply just the barebones skeleton of everything must come about for the on-line enterprise to become prosperous. They truly are Vital, and even though execution plans are somewhat very different now than a few pages back, the standard ways remain the same.

1. Produce or locate an item. You have to discover something which matches the current wants. A5 year-old merchandise whose paychecks rights you may find for a buck or buy free of probably won't satisfy the requirements of the current shoppers. You ought to be prepared to be responsible for your legal rights to promote an existing, beneficial solution, or eventually become an online marketer, even at which you encourage a favorite solution, and also in the market have been paid a proportion of their income out of the purchase.

2. Describe the way the possible prospects can watch your goods and visit a product sales demonstration. In the event you acquire your product or buy the legal rights to market somebody else, you're going to require a web site. A couple of hints right here: Instead of accepting completely free web hosting, then acquire your domain and cover to own your own domain and internet site hosted with an expert hosting company having a reliable historical past. In case a completely free hosting corporation goes bankrupt, then they often choose your business using them.

3. The moment you get your internet site ready to go, if you're not employing an affiliate application which provides a page, you must produce a revenue script along with web backup. Besides your web-hosting option, that could be the main thing you could certainly do. You might well be tempted in the beginning to compose a sales pitch all on your, however in case you have a great deal of working experience on the offline market composing successful sales letters, then you want to, and definitely ought to, put money into several lessons on web copywriting. Be prepared to devote a bit of fund upfront about finding out this particular skill. A lot of marketers take to and wing it inside this region and following some months of earning money on the line, last but not least break up and get the comprehension to compose a fantastic sales hype. Can this one other way round --choose exactly the wisdom, and begin earning revenue from your start. Customers don't buy simply as you own an internet site--they also buy in the internet page which really does the optimal/optimally work of them it's got the optimal/optimally product due to their own need.

4. You have to produce internet visitors' source is effective. After you begin, you could possibly well be on the shoestring, also this is okay. If that you have now been ready to devote a little income on earnings letter-writing and also an adequate hosting company, you may possibly have the ability to take part from the targeted visitor's arena for a while, even when you might have tons of time. In the event you don't need income to promote, nor moment to find lowcost advertisements, then you most likely must not be trying an internet organization. Should you choose to decide to proceed with the cheap path --understand just two factors up ahead --that the yields are extremely low and you'll spend enormous sums of period traffic creation. The moment you start to create earnings, you ought to make investments in your revenue from paid varieties of traffic generation. In the event you don't, you are going to come to an end of the excitement for producing the completely free targeted visitors, also without reinvesting the revenue out of the very first earnings right into marketing, then you're certain to neglect. Fantastic origins of cheap, however time-consuming traffic include: creating and submitting articles and publishing them to informative directory sites, very low priced classified adverts, and banner advertisements. You will observe banner adverts for tens of thousands or even people to get a very low priced or a huge number of banner adverts for the following fair selling price --the two methods may possibly have functioned years past, nevertheless they're a confident squander now.

5. The moment you start to find traffic for your internet business website, you need to maintain in-depth information on exactly where the visitors originate out, and also exactly what proportion of traffic from every origin are getting your merchandise. For those who have traffic that set you back 50 a cent to visit your internet site, however generally they just acquire $25 percent of people, the cash flow might feelgood, nevertheless, you aren't lucrative, and also, therefore, are dropping cash. By monitoring your charges on each and every form of guest and by simply tracking your own earnings to identical origins of traffic, you will establish which campaigns demand alterations or will need to get expunged and that will need to get raised in strength.

6. By abiding by such a particular pattern of measures, also from trying to keep diligent documents (there are certainly lots of fantastic site monitoring computer software available on the marketplace which is able to allow you to accomplish this ), you also can build up a worthwhile internet enterprise. All over again, it's not going to happen immediately, and also you also are not going to find wealthy quickly. But in the event, you develop a good on-line business having a stable base, and would be happy to devote a while learning the way exactly to do this you can succeed running an operation internet.

SOME WAY TO START YOUR INTERNET BUSINESS SALE

1. Locate a strategic small business associate. Start looking for people who possess precisely the exact same aim. Now you can trade leads, share Promoting info, sell package deals, etc..

2. Build a complimentary ebook directory on a specific subject on your site. Individuals might see

your online site in order to learn the completely free ebooks and may realize your merchandise advertising.

3. Organize your name and organization. You may readily do so by writing posts and

publishing these into e-zines or sites for republishing.

4. This may boost your repeat visitors and earnings as your customers will visit frequently to have the customer bonuses.

5. Begin an auction on your own internet site. The kind of auction may possibly be regarding the subject of one's website.

6. Allow folks to download applications or e-books from the internet site free of the price tag. Only

request your visitors in return if they'll refer their buddies into an internet site.

7. Don't forget to have some time outside of days per week. New thoughts are commonly the gap between failure and success.

8. Create a number of streams of income by means of your internet site. It is possible to market your products, combine affiliate programs, sell advertising space, etc..

9. Model other successful companies or even people. I am not saying outright copy them but

apply a number of exactly the exact customs which have made them triumph.

10. Provide your visitor's compliments in your advertising copy. This will earn their trust and set them in a great mood, so in exchange, they'll soon be less difficult to offer also.

11. Simply take risks to boost your company. Sometimes organizations do not desire to market

unless of course it really is completely free, sometimes you've got to devote dollars to receive success.

12. Include emotional words in your advertising. Use ones like love, safety, alleviation,

liberty, happiness, satisfaction, pleasure, etc..

13. Ask people on the internet to reassess your online site. You may make use of the opinions you buy into boost your site or you can turn the reviewer into a consumer.

14. Outsource component of one's own workload. You may save on most employee expenses. You might outside supply your secretarial work, bookkeeping, promotion, etc..

15. Combine a solution and service together in a deal. It might improve your own sales. In case

you are attempting to sell a book, offer an hour of consulting it.

[tape-hiss]

Late Tape Hiss - Yoshi

Hello! This is a late, special edition of Tape Hiss. I originally wrote up a whole post about Aetherian immigration law, but with recent events in-comic finally coming to light, I thought I would do a meta post instead. Spoilers ahead for chapter 6 of White Noise--if you haven't reached page 40, maybe catch up first before reading this! I get asked every so often (as do a number of other trans/queer creators I know of) how to write transgender characters if you aren't trans yourself. There are plenty of answers to this question that have already been covered, and I'm not going to cover more than the bare basics of that here. Look elsewhere for that. Here I'm going to talk about writing transgender/gender non-conforming characters in complex worldbuilding environments, specifically Yoshi. This is less a 'here's how to do this' and more a 'here's how to be thoughtful and deliberate about your writing in general, and how I applied that to a pretty complex topic.' Pull from it what you will! I'm of the opinion that being thoughtful and deliberate in your character-writing and worldbuilding only makes you a stronger writer and your stories more convincing, but what do I know? I'm just some schmuck really.

So after all that: Yoshi is a trans woman.

Some background: Yoshi's been a character of mine literally since I was maybe 11 or 12. She was the second one I made up, after Liya. She hasn't changed a hell of a lot design-wise since I started with her, as far as I can recall, but being trans wasn't part of her character until relatively recently. I went through a weird period around the start of White Noise wherein I felt like I had finally fleshed out a lot of my characters in a really full, rounded way that made it seem like I was writing more about people and less about characters in a play, except Yoshi. There were a lot of gaps in her history, a lot of quirks of her story leftover from my RP days (don't laugh, that's a super legit way to get into writing imho) that didn't really work with the way White Noise was coming together. I spent a while sort of going around in circles filling in bits of her character here and there--largely about her mother, and their time together on Earth, and how that's persisted in Yoshi's psyche to this day, and what it was like growing up with Shinobu, and what their relationship is like. I kept feeling like something was missing with her, though, something that would explain the shyness and discomfort that she was already working with. Something that spoke more to where her character is going, rather than where it came from. I was noodling around with her shapeshifting problems already, but: why was it such a problem for her? How will she tackle this problem in her own character arc unless I know why exactly changing shape is upsetting? What would be upsetting for her about it when there are so many other shapeshifters out there with no problems?

I can't remember what prompted it now, but I literally asked myself one night, what if Yoshi's trans? And it all immediately clicked.

What if the scary thing about shapeshifting for Yoshi was not the actual thing itself--not becoming a big skeleton spectre that fills a room--but the bodily aspect of it? It'll become clearer later in the comic, but Yoshi's night-shapeshifting started with the onset of puberty, when her body started to change in more mundane ways, ways that actively repelled her more than the night-changing did. And I imagine with most shapeshifters in this universe, there's a bodily sensation to changing shape. For people like Teige, maybe, shape-changing just feels like spilling from one form to the next, liquid-like, in such ways that he doesn't maybe have to think about the way his bones are changing, his organs moving. For others it's a more visceral experience: you have to have a certain amount of mindfulness about your own body and the way it's changing in order to make it change. I planned to explore this some with Hawk's shapeshifting, but where he's frightened by what he's turning into without his consent or control, Yoshi's more discomforted by the act of turning back.

And here's where I could, I think, let my own experiences inform Yoshi's. I found it easy, most of the time, to simply dissociate from my own body before I transitioned. It's how I coped with it not being Right for me. Anything that forced me to pay attention to parts of my anatomy or my assigned ''''girlhood'''' which I did not want got a hugely dysphoric reaction out of me. I imagine that Yoshi would have a similar experience, one that maybe would have been made a little easier by living in a society that was mostly not assigning her any particular role or gender to begin with. Maybe she could have kept up the dissociation as I did until the cost of doing so outweighed the benefit, but her experience coming out of her Big Spectral Skeleton Form forced to her to be Too Aware of her own body, and too often.

(Note: this shouldn't read as 'transfeminine experiences are the same as transmasculine ones, but opposite', because no. I don't even know how common this kind of dissociation is. This is just a small bit of my own experiences that I found fit neatly into explaining Yoshi's. I do this with all my characters, and if you knew what each character got from me it would probably be very embarrassing for me.)

So with that little revelation out of the way, I had to figure out a couple things: how does being transgender function in Aetheri, where all these different cultures are meeting and the dominant culture has no concept of gender? How do I communicate this in a comic without doing Advanced Queer Gender Discourse on the reader?

Yoshi lived in the United States until she was six, with a mother who was a shapeshifter. Now she lives in Aetheri, with an adopted mother who spends most of her time looking like a literal fox. What on earth is Yoshi's idea of gender? How much could her experience in the US shape the way she thinks about it? What has Shinobu told her about it? (What does Shinobu know, for that matter?) What is her conception of femininity and masculinity? How would she process feelings of bodily dysphoria in a cultural context where most people don't have any experience with gender or at least don't connect it to a person's genitals? What's her concept of being a woman, and where does it come from?

These are the kinds of questions I start with when building a lot of characters, like chipping away at a mold to pour something into. I do a lot of armchair psychology and try to be hella empathetic when writing anyone, and I tried to be extra so with Yoshi, because she exists in a weird vortex of both real and fictional cultures, during some tumultuous times.

So I started with a couple of conceits:

Yoshi's birth mother didn't enforce any kind of gender roles on her as a child. She didn't go out of her way to raise Yoshi in a gender-neutral manner, but Yoshi also didn't get to socialize with other kids, instead spending most of her time around her big scary wolf mom, growing her hair long and wearing too-big clothes and generally being a ragamuffin.

Probably the first time anyone did do this to Yoshi was after she left her mom's care. There was a brief time wherein Yoshi was in the care of some humans, who cut her hair and gave her things like trucks and GI Joes to play with. This was probably the first inkling Yoshi ever had that she wasn't what people were expecting, somehow.

I imagine Shinobu's view of gender used to be rather conservative, but by the time Yoshi comes to live with her, she's lived in Aetheri for twenty-ish years and her views on that have changed quite a bit.

Yoshi (and Shinobu) experience profound senses of Otherness as immigrants in Aetheri. Even where it's not clearly defined, they both have their own ideas of where they are not welcome in Aetherian culture by most natives. The species gap, of course, does not help.

(Moms.)

Based on that, plus the way I know Aetheri's native genderless culture would intersect with Yoshi's mishmash of midwestern-US-and-Japanese roots, plus the mix of other cultures that Yoshi would be in contact with in both Escalus and at the Palace--many of which have wildly varying ideas of gender themselves--I figured on the following:

Yoshi probably wouldn't associate any particular behavior or presentation with any particular gender. She's surrounded by too many different kinds of  people, most of whom are Aetherians that decide on their own pronouns as they feel like.

(Though, notably, literally everyone in Yoshi's life who identifies as a woman specifically are outspoken, tough people.)

I think there was, not a pressure exactly, but a sense that Shinobu gave that she and Yoshi both should be staying in their lane, so to speak, with a lot of cultural markers of theirs. Things they saw as uniquely a hallmark of spirits and rooted deep in Aetherian culture, they both feel rather outside of--things like holidays, the traditions of relationships, the lack of gender distinction, and so on. (There is not much of a pressure on immigrant populations in Aetheri to assimilate so much as a pressure on them to not be allowed to assimilate at all.)

Shinobu probably gave Yoshi a very clinical, simple sex education right around age 10 or so, and this included talking about the ostensible differences between 'male' and 'female' anatomy. As I've mentioned, sex education in Aetheri is a wild mess if you aren't a spirit, so this is probably the first time this was ever told to Yoshi, although I'm sure--living first with her mother and then with Shinobu--she had at the very least a growing sense that there was some physical difference between her and them.

Yoshi, being generally a shy person, probably didn't protest this too much at the time, but I think she probably dwelled a lot on how repelling the idea of growing up physically 'male' the way Shinobu described it was to her. It would have made her feel very panicked, to know what was coming.

Shinobu loves Yoshi dearly, but she's never been very good at picking up on emotional cues, and when presented with someone's emotional distress she rarely knows what to do. Even if she had noticed Yoshi's upset, I think she probably would have told herself that it was part of growing up--everyone gets a bit weirded out by the idea of puberty, right? It's a lot to take in. And maybe she didn't explain it well, or compassionately enough. And Yoshi's a shy, awkward kid, and talking about sex and anatomy is probably incredibly embarrassing to her. It could be, Shinobu would figure, any number of things.

Maybe the idea of 'this doesn't happen to spirits, not in the same way' was raised in this talk Yoshi and Shinobu had. Maybe Shinobu's answer was something like 'spirits are different. You're not a spirit.' which while not inaccurate (spirits do age and mature differently than Yoshi was) misses rather a lot of important nuance.

Yllur is a pretty well-known-about thing in Aetheri, and there's no real stigma about it. I don't know at what point Yoshi learned about it, but I think when she did was probably even more upset. Here was a thing that would have given her some relief, but it as far as she knew didn't apply to her because it was for spirits.

So I think Yoshi probably just went on sort of miserably into her teenage years, thinking she would eventually get used to herself and live with it (I don't know about you but this sounds familiar to me), but then her shapeshifting issues started happening and forced her to think about it more. You can't dissociate from your own body while simultaneously having a handle on it well enough to change its shape through your own will. Distilling back down into her normal humanoid form requires her to know what her body is actually shaped like, and be mindful of her physical form and the space it occupies. For her, this act is distressing in and of itself--a reminder that 'oh yeah, I'm this.'

No one told her otherwise, and she didn't tell a soul. She sort of just retreated into herself some. She moved out of Shinobu's place into the apartment in the Palace stables relatively early, and effectively isolated herself from anyone who might notice that she wasn't doing well. (Why she did this is another matter.) The human population in Escalus is small, and the monster population is varied, and neither are usually very welcoming to mixed-species types. She didn't have much of a community, even though Escalus is full of gender-variant people. She didn't even really have any friends, until Liya came along.

One of the trickiest parts for me to figure out is how to let Yoshi come into the realization on her own. The original draft of chapter 6 didn't include Vlad at all--Yoshi and Liya were going to discover the du Cuppra through different means. I figured Liya was the most likely person in Yoshi's life to know that 'transgender' was a thing, since we'd already established that Hawk knew what it was, I just had to figure out how it comes up. I can't imagine Yoshi being bold enough to actually talk about her bodily dysphoria, at least not now...she doesn't know Liya THAT well. And I couldn't imagine that the way that conversation would go would be incredibly fun to read, either. It would be Yoshi stammering a lot, and Liya getting impatient and trying to string together what she means, and it'd just be awkward and drawn out. I also didn't want Liya to be the one to suggest that Yoshi is trans. I wanted Yoshi to do that. She just needed to know about the thing is all. Bringing Vlad into the chapter fixed a lot of other narrative issues I was having, but it also gave Yoshi the chance to have this realization on her own, while Liya and Vlad were yakking about it.

And this is about where we're up to. Yoshi's whole character arc is just beginning; she's just about to get off the ground. Her trans-ness is not the only journey she's going on over the course of White Noise (everyone's going on lotsa journeys here, folks) but it's a big one.

I hope this was interesting to some of you! I cut out a lot of other stuff--turns out I have a lot to say about trans characters in comics? Who knew. Anyways, I guess if you have further questions, ask me! I have been sort of absent lately due to mental health issues and am in the process of changing medications (yey) so you may not get an answer for a bit, but I'll get to them.

Thanks for reading!

[smgo2099]

Mass Effect Review

Overview

Mass Effect a game that I have not played in years, it kicked off the decision making in video games with an entire trilogy being affected by the decisions you made in this game. Mass Effect was developed BioWare and was their first original space IP after doing Star Wars. the game takes place in an alternate universe after discovering advanced alien technology to travel through space and find other alien life forms. The game is centered around your main character name Commander Shepard and they can either be female or male depending on your pick. The game also starts you off on a ship on an unknown mission to a planet called Eden prime. The mission ends up turning bad to worst with robotic AI beings called the Geth attack and end up destroying an Alien device by an ancient race called the Protheans, that was crucial to the mission but luckily Commander Shepard turn on the device before it explodes and sees a vision of destruction and mayhem and that pretty much sets up the game.

Gameplay

This game is basically revolving around story changing mechanics in basic RPG elements as well as a third person shooter combat system. pretty much every decision you make in this game counts. I will leave the story elements to the story category, so let's talk about RPG mechanics and combat.

Starting off the third person shooting is not that great, being BioWare first third-person shooter game it's still not that bad but it's not on par as the later series. Now granted they could have done worse but majorly it's just how the gun mechanics work and the cover system doesn't work that well either. But at least they give you infinite ammo so at least you're not trying to hunt down ammo boxes, but the downside is there is an overheat mechanic. now on the RPG side of things, you have six different classes Starting off with.

The Soldier which basically has all the Arsenal's that some the other classes do not have access to, giving them to a range of more combat situations from different weapons they have as well as heavy armor sets over other classes.

The Adapt is basically the force user class and uses your biotics from shooting force fields to black holes towards your enemies, their weapons specialist is only pistols but when you can throw people against the wall there's really no need for better weapons than that.

The Engineer is basically the hacker class which AK the tech class they specialize in hacking into robot enemies with your face a lot in this game their main weapon is pistol as well and has a lot of abilities that help you pack other things as well besides enemy AI.

The Vanguard is basically a cross between the soldier and the adept class but relies heavily on defense as well as main guns is pistol and shotgun.

The Sentinel is a cross between the adept and the engineer class giving you a good mix of each classes abilities from hacking to throwing people against the wall, their major disadvantage is only light armor and just like both classes, your skill-set for weapons is a pistol.

The Infiltrator is a cross between the engineer in the soldier just like the engineer in the adapt class they both use pistols but have a skill set in sniper rifles, but given how the way of a sniper rifle and how easy they overheat you are best sticking with a pistol early on.

Now putting that out to side each class can get a special skill when creating a new character after completing certain tasks on a previous save how it does that is read your trophy list and if you killed certain criteria of enemies with certain type of gun you can add that weapon skill to that class on a new playthrough. That brings me to my other point about this game, it’s achievements and trophies that actually matter besides having something pretty badge on your gamer profile. This game reads your trophies and achievement list and if you just met certain criteria you would be rewarded on your next playthrough or New Game plus that includes the new difficulty plus, do more to damage to enemies types. It's something that's not very seen a lot in games. I really wish developers would take the trophies and achievement list serious by doing this, actually rewarding the players with these in-game abilities and perks for actually playing the game.

Story

REALLY BIG SEMI SPOILERS BECAUSE IM GOING TO SPOIL THE CRAP OUT OF THIS GAME! 

Now if you've not played Mass Effect 1, I totally recommend going read my final verdict and score down below just go ahead and Skip to that, otherwise, I am going to spoil the game story. 

So pretty much after Commander Shepard try to save the Prothean beacon an artifact that pretty much sends virtual messages straight into your mind. He ends up seeing a vision of Apocalypse of a robotic race called the Reapers destroying the universe. After that Commander Shepard gets back on the ship to go to the citadel, home to all alien races and meet with the high council of alien races that are selective races on a committee. After explaining the events of what happened and eventually finding evidence showing one of their elite agents which are called specters was behind the destruction of the Prometheus device. They Grant Commander Shepard Spectre status and agrees to him going on a mission to find the rogue Spectre. after that, it's pretty much going to three locations in recruiting new members for your newly given ship called the Normandy. After going to the three locations the game gives you and investigate them and do side quest you find out where his base of operations is and find out what his plans are. which is bringing an entire robotic race back called the reapers. Him and a ship which is a reaper itself was using other robotics called the Geth as their ponds. So they can eventually open up a portal using the mass relay in the Citadel space station that the current council resides. Pretty much after losing a friend and nuking the facility. Commander Shepard goes to a planet that is full of prothean technology and full knowledge on the history of the reapers, finding out that the prothean dyed out from the hands of the reapers and planned a semi-attack launched with some of the messages they sent out through some of their prothean technology. After finally getting to the citadel from taking a mass relay on the planet and fighting your way through the citadel. Shepard finds the rogue Spectre and kills him and then you must decide the fate of the council while the Earth the forces help the defend and defeat the Geth and the reaper ship. After making your decision either outcome leads with the reaper ship not activating the portal and getting destroyed. So the universe is safe up till the next 2 games.

Verdict

Mass Effect is a very damn good story with difference decisions branching off for you choosing who to kill and who not to. Making other decisions that are going to affect the sequels. The only downside with this game is the combat system is a little outdated and the driving mechanics is not the best. but if you want really a good damn story with some decisions that can definitely affect the sequels I totally recommend picking this up and playing. As well this game has a lot of replayability including New Game plus and if you unlock trophies and achievements for newer characters you make, you can get added skill bonuses and starting off bonuses as well as for your character in New Game plus. So final verdict I give Mass Effect.

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