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themonotonysyndrome · 3 years ago

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REDACTED verse - Lunch Date

Prompt: Any fandom / any pairing / “i love you.” “i love you, more.” “no, you don’t.” “yes, i do.”

Word Count: 977

Author/Team: LadyMonotone

Fandom/Original: Redacted ASMR (David Shaw/Angel)

Rating: G

Triggers: NA

Summary: David has a surprise for his Angel but Angel needs to hear those 3 magic words before they get out of bed.

ConCrit: Y

My first ever fill for the Fall Into Fall Festival! I’m hoping to write as many oneshots as I can before the end of November! Well, more than my friend anyway. We have a little bet going on; loser has to buy the winner lunch!

So wish me luck!

For all their boundless energy, playfulness and a Roomba spinning out of control for thoughts, Angel is quite a workaholic.

It's one of their many mysterious hidden sides when David caught them spending a whole Sunday finishing up miscellaneous work reports, documents and presentation slides for next week.

David would've praised their work ethic if it weren't for the ridiculous amount of colourful hair clips pinning their bangs up and wearing nothing but their favourite underwear and his favourite hoodie as they stared back at him. Like a deer caught in the headlines.

That turned out to be a weird Saturday for the both of them.

Anyway, long story short, despite their wackiness, Angel take their career very seriously. Which is why their announcement to have a day off next week is a welcome surprise.

"You've been working hard lately," David commented during dinner. It's Angel's night to cook, and they decided on a simple Japanese cold soba topped with salted okras, grated white radish, cut-up dried seaweed and a side of mushroom miso soup. It's delicious and - most importantly - healthy, so David rewarded his Mate with a kiss on the forehead before they tucked in. "You deserve a break. So what day did you set for your leave?"

Angel mixed their bowl as if it had personally offended them before replying. "Friday and Monday, so I don't have to deal with the blues." They answered before loudly slurping their noodles. David fondly scoffed and polished his bowl of miso soup. Their night ended peacefully.

It's Friday today. Angel's off day from work. His Mate promises not to cause too much of a mess or trouble at home while David's out. In return, David promises to call them as much as he can between managing new clients and sorting out the paperwork. Angel easily gives him two thumbs up and sees his off.

David's day had been going on without a hitch. Asher and Milo manage the teams needed for their new clients, Christian helped him sort out the banking documents, and for the rest of the morning, David got in touch with a representative of the Department to update them on his Pack well-doings.

When the sun reached its peak in the afternoon, David decided to pop home for a bit. It'll be nice to bring Angel out for lunch with him.

"Angel?" David called out, closing the door behind him with his foot. The house is quiet. There's no sound of rushing water from the kitchen's sink. No sound coming from the TV in the living room. So Angel must be in their bedroom.

True to David's suspicion, Angel is having their midday nap. As soon as he catches a good look of his Mate sprawl out on their bed, his heart soften in ways that only Angel could bring. Even with drool running down from their open mouth.

Ever so gently, David brushes his knuckle against Angel's warm cheek. Sunlight filters through the sheer curtains, basking his Mate in warmth. David is suddenly reminded of Milo's cat, Aggro, basking in the sun when he and Asher came over to his apartment last week.

"I'm home, Angel." David wakes them up softly. Loathe as he is to wake them up, he has a surprise for them.

Angel groan and attempt to curl into a ball. " Davey...?"

They look so soft and adorable that David can't help but gives in and kiss their forehead. Angel sleepily hum, pleased.

"Rise and shine, Angel. We're going on a lunch date."

Angel yawns and rubs their eyes. "Ok, Davey. Let me just wash up and get change. What time do you have to be back in the office?"

"Not for another three hours," David replied after quickly checking his phone for the time. "Plenty of time for us to go to that restaurant you love so much. So come on, get up." He then lightly slaps Angel's ass to get them moving, but as expected, they just giggle.

"Not until you say the magic word!"

David groans at his Mate's antic, but Angel refuses to budge. "C'mon, Davey... please? Pretty please?" They plead with puppy eyes; Angel's ultimate move and David's ultimate weakness.

"Alright, alright. You win, you snot." David pretended to huff in annoyance, but they both knew otherwise. "I love you. So very much, Angel. You don't know how brighter my... my world is the moment you decide to make yourself at home in my heart." His voice drips with nothing but sincerity and all the feelings he has for his one and only Mate. David might have trouble letting his walls down from time to time, but when it comes to his Angel? They deserve nothing but complete honesty from him.

Angel's eyes are wide at David's words. Clearly, they didn't expect such a raw confession out of the blue, and David secretly relished being able to surprise them. So David smirks when Angel presses their red face onto the pillow in a poor attempt of hiding. "Well, I love you more! So there!"

"No, you don't."

"Yes, I do."

David just rolls his eyes, knowing that their banter could go on and on if he doesn't put a stop to it. "Alright, alright. You had your little validation, now can we please get a move on already? I'm getting hungry, and I know you do too whenever you wake up. I swear, if I didn't know any better, I'd assumed my Mate has a black hole for a stomach."

Angel laughs, and it's the most beautiful sound that David has ever heard. It never fails to make his heart skip a beat. They then roll off the bed, quickly capture a sneaky kiss from David and hurry into the bathroom before David can tackle them.

Oh, he's so going to make them pay back tonight.

#redacted asmr #fanfic #they/them pronouns #david shaw #angel (listener)

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argentdandelion · 5 years ago

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Memories of the Surface Chapter 1: One Punch Between Friends

Gerson looks back on his long life, his memories of the Surface, and all the friendships and trauma made under a world lit by the sun.

It was a lovely late summer day: warm, sunny, and cloudless. A quiet, peaceful day...were it not for the laughter and bustling and scuffling of the children playing in the little garden of the town.

Within the town, between the homes of humans and monsters, lay a small woodland. Children gathered to talk and eat at its long, wooden benches. They also played games together: hopscotch, jump rope, catch, and marbles, and things they had simply made up.

“Lettuce and radish sandwich again?” Gerson muttered. He shook his head. I’m going to tell her to stop packing those.

Suddenly, the background of jump rope rhymes stopped. “Hey! No cheating!” Gerson glanced at the shout: a Whimsun hovered in place between the oscillating ropes. “You gotta jump! You can’t just fly!”

Gerson laughed. Poor little Whimsun, already looking at the verge of tears from something so small.

A fresh memory came unbidden...

“Be kind. Never give them a reason to hate you, and you'll be safe.”

"What if they hit me, but don't hate me? Wouldn't that hurt too?"

"We are the safest of all monsters. Always remember that, dear."

“Hey, Gerson! Watch this!”

The bunny monster prepared a spiky bubble of magic, aimed at a carefully-placed chunk of moldering firewood...and blasted it to smithereens.

"Wow! That's such cool magic!" Abelai gushed. Cool, yes. But not very practical to use so much magic... Gerson thought.

"I think, when you’re a grown-up, you could blast the enemies to smithereens!" the human girl said, leaning in with her enthusiasm.

“I...uh...enemies are just friends you haven't made yet!" the bunny monster said sheepishly. Abelai’s donkey-like wheeze drowned out Gerson’s own chuckle.

“You're so friendly. I guess you wouldn't be fit for the army, even if you are strong.”

"Really? You've never seen a nice solider before?” the bunny asked.

Abelai’s mouth rumpled. “It's not a matter of 'niceness'. It's a matter of bravery and duty.”

“And having enemies to fight! Haha!” Gerson said, butting in.

“Y-yeah. Not r-really a point, ‘cause everything’s peaceful.” the bunny replied, nervously tapping his hands together.

Abelai paused, a hand to her chin in a comical imitation of an old scholar. In that break in the conversation, Gerson could faintly hear the discussion at the other table. It sounded like two boys muttering, with one exclaiming “beat all the bad guys!”

"Are...monsters even allowed in the army?” Abelai asked. “I've never seen monsters in the parades or around the barracks."

Gerson and the bunny were quiet. After the pause, Abelai continued. "It doesn't make any sense. I mean, they let mages in, so why not monsters?"

She doesn't know...she really doesn't know why monsters aren't in the army.

The two boys at the other table were talking louder. Gerson couldn’t make it out, but it was something about “dad” and “bad guys”. Ugh, I’m trying to have a conversation .

“Do you know, Gerson?”

Gerson turned suddenly to Abelai, as if nothing was wrong. Some boy had just said “Watch this!”.

"It's probably 'cause monsters would put the mages out of a job! Hahaha!” Gerson said, laughing.

He heard a hiss by his side. A boy, a human boy, was standing beside him. In an instant, Gerson scanned him over: he had messy black hair, a stern frown and wide eyes that crinkled around the edges. His hands hung limply by his sides, clenched into fists. He’s just...pretending to be angry?

The boy’s mouth opened and closed, fish-like. Gerson tilted his head. "What are you doing? Looking for someone to punch?"

Thwack.

In an instant, half his vision went dark as he was knocked back onto his shell. Suddenly, he heard scuffling footsteps. Someone was running away.

Gerson dug his claws into the table and straightened up. He put a hand to his right eye, an eye that felt hot and swollen. Blinking away tears, he looked back at his assailant through his untouched eye.

The black-haired boy...he was still there, his uncoiling hand frozen in the air. His face sported a wide-eyed look, his slightly open mouth showing fang-like teeth. The boy’s brow twitched as Gerson stared him down.

He looked...startled?

Surprised I didn't run away? Or are you surprised I didn't die in one hit?

The boy frowned again, harder, and once more clenched his fist.

Gerson’s hands slid slowly down, as he casually laid them on the bench seating. His tears streamed down his face...and he laughed.

"Wa ha ha! What's one punch between friends?"

The pain radiated through his face again, pulsing, thudding.

The pain radiated through his chest, and the boy hissed as his fist hit the hard plastron.

A hit. A hit. Another hit...

"We are the safest of all monsters...never give them a reason to hate you."

His mother had looked all strange then, with big eyes and a crooked smile.

Why? Why?

Gerson heard a yelp. The seconds passed, and no punches landed again.

Gerson covered his right eye with a hand and wiped away his tears. There were two human women in front of him, one gripping his attacker’s shoulders with a look of disdain. One of them looks familiar...is it Abelai’s mother?

His attacker looked at his fists to find them covered in a red crust. The park was silent, the children still stunned.

"Why did you do this?" One of the women said in a voice both soft and sharp. The boy still stared at his fists. A faint smoke drifted away from them in the summer breeze, as they rapidly turned purple from bruises. Suddenly his eyes went watery...and he laughed.

Gerson stood aback – the laughter was mirthless. Empty. But it’s not funny.

Gerson watched one of the women briskly take the fang-toothed boy away. They passed by another table, where a brown-haired human boy looked at the goaded attacker with a flattened, unreadable expression.

"Will you be alright?" The other woman was bending over to investigate his injuries. Gerson’s face felt wet and hot...he touched his cheek, and his hand came back bloody.

But he could only chuckle. Why? Why didn’t I die from all those hits? Why did he laugh? Why...why does it feel like a joke?

The woman looked startled for a second. She chewed over her lip, still looking at him in concern. Wrong answer. She stroked Gerson’s hair, hesitating, uncertain even after her touch, and checked over the blood smeared over the turtle monster’s shirt.

“If it wasn’t for your shell...” the woman started. Then she smiled. It was fake and didn’t reach her eyes. “Well, it's a good thing you're a turtle! Now, I'm not sure how to deal with this kind of injury, so just show me where your mother is and I'll..."

She’s not panicking...it’s like it’s just a scraped knee...Gerson thought as the woman carefully moved towards the monster district.

She doesn't know. She really doesn't know...how easy it is to kill monsters.

-----

Today was...interesting. Some kid had shown up in his shop, and had asked him obvious questions anyone would know while using a silly voice and wearing a funny hat. What was it? Some disguise? Wa ha ha. Can’t fool me, kid.

There were a lot of cloudy-looking glasses in the dump: seemingly endless piles in wet, moldering cardboard. Was it a fad these days? Gerson wondered.

With his resupply trip done early, he decided to go back home. I’ll take the scenic route. Why not? He travelled through a dark path lit with blue crystals. It was less well-trod, but one he knew well nonetheless. It was hard not to memorize it, darkness notwithstanding, with a life so long as his. His bones complained from the journey...but quietly. So quietly, after more than a thousand years...

"There is another way..." Asgore’s deep, soothing voice emanated from a side passage.

Gerson startled. In a moment, he reoriented towards the sound.

"You will not have to..."

Asgore’s voice echoed strangely within the cave walls, repeated by scraggly clusters of echo flowers. Gerson sped up. Someone was talking back...a quieter voice, one he couldn’t identify, much less make out.

“Do not be afraid, human.” Human.

Closer...

Gerson skidded to a stop and looked to his left. Two figures. Asgore, hunched over someone. That someone...a human, their back to the entrance. They held their notebook like a weapon as their SOUL glowed purple.

Suddenly, Asgore’s trident flailed out, glowing red. He twisted it in his hands, pointing at...

Thunk.

A body fell to the soft mud.

In the threshold of the room, Gerson stared back at a face full of shock. Asgore’s trident faded away.

"Gerson!"

Glowing water and a crack in the ceiling gently illuminated them all in the marshy alcove. The stream behind them quietly burbled. Masses of Echo Flowers surrounded the two, their whispers a faint buzz. The kid’s voice still carried on those flowers....

Guilt dragged the old monster’s face down. The pause stretched on too long.

"This won't work, Fluffybuns." Gerson said sternly. The king’s face fell even more. "You ain't in a good state to think it over, what with your...tendencies." Asgore turned his face away. Never had the crown seemed heavier.

Gerson moved closer to his old friend. "If you can't do it for yourself, do it for your kingdom...” Asgore’s mouth moved, preparing for an answer. “...And you know that kid sure can't rule in your place. The kingdom needs you."

The small body had stopped twitching, and the breathing was going unsteady.

"You better bring out the container."

"I...it is not in my inventory."

Gerson rolled his eyes. "I got one at my house, for emergencies. I'll watch over..." Another pause, another absence both refused to acknowledge. "And don't dilly-dally, Fluffybuns."

Gerson picked up his old war hammer from its place in the target’s head. It had left quite the dent: the hit site was oozing. He couldn’t help but inspect what was left behind from his deeds , lit so conspicuously by that long-awaited fourth SOUL.

Stripes . Stripes, he knew...but didn’t want to know. And in the right light, he couldn't. In the right light, he could imagine all those purple bands were just black, black to blend in with the rest of the outfit. He could imagine that liquid dripping from the...from the kid’s head was purple. Just something strange he had never seen before, something gently beyond his comprehension. He couldn’t see, didn’t need to see the true extent of the injuries.

But the kid...the kid was still breathing. Faintly, ever faintly, but even after that...even after that strike...

“So. What were you doing here?” Gerson muttered. Why did I even ask? Does it matter?

The notebook, clutched so desperately in the kid’s arms, slid down to the mud. Gerson picked it up, almost by reflex. He squinted at it in the SOUL’s purple glow. He considered bringing out a glowing attack, to boost the light, but...

Can’t risk it. An attack straight to the SOUL like this would waste decades of waiting. Yes. Yes, that was his logic.

He squinted over the notebook. Its pages were filled with childish drawings of monsters, crude but recognizable. An Aaron. A Temmie.

And him.

Something ran through his mind...a faint sound, a whisper, an echo. He tried to focus. If he made room for anything else, he’d...

In the neat little script, he saw facts: “Temmie: What are Tem Flakes? Is Human Allergy Useful?” “Aaron: Loves to flex...Must learn how to flex better.” That echo came back...

“Are you sure?” “I don’t want to kill anyone.”

"Gerson: Turtle?". "Didn't try to attack. Doesn't hate humans. Useful ally? Backup plan? Looks like Spike. Good omen?"

A child’s voice seeped into his thoughts. Gerson stroked his chin thoughtfully, and turned the kid around. He could see his frown in the reflection of the kid’s huge glasses, superimposed onto the kid’s own eyes. The kid had short, messy black hair, pale skin...they looked like someone he knew, once upon a time, when even he, ol' Gerson, was young.

"Wa ha ha..." He couldn't stop it. The body had stopped moving.

Gerson stared at the page, that crisp handwriting of the human they’d never bothered, never never wanted, to know. If I had just fought back that day...would things have gone differently? Would the war have started even sooner? Would I have met ol’ Fluffybuns and Harrold?

Would I...have lived?

Doesn’t matter anymore, does it?

But for the colors, the kid looked nothing like that angry boy from long ago. Why did I even think to compare them?

He looked in the notebook again.

Spike...sounds like a pet’s name...

The kid had a pet turtle.

“Wa ha ha...” The laugh escaped from his lips before he could stop himself. And with the dam breached...it flooded.

“Wa ha ha! Wa ha ha !” His head lifted, his jaws dropped. And as he knelt on the mud, his thin, bitter laugh overflowed throughout the alcove. It rose and rose, drowning out the babbling stream, drowning out anything else. The Echo Flowers discarded that nameless voice to multiply his own, and the endlessly-copied laughter surrounded him... them, the corpse and the old turtle.

In the end....it was two objects. Among many other objects. Nothing meaningful. And this object...this object...

Gerson. That’s my name. ‘The Hammer of Justice’. He felt like the laughter had carved out his throat like a river through soft mud, leaving it clogged and sore. A sense of shame dripped over the emptiness of his psyche like rain...but no tears fell.

Asgore ducked under the threshold, a soul container in hand.

“Ah, Asgore,” Gerson spoke. “You can handle this. I need to get myself a nice cup of Sea Tea."

Then he strode past the king, past the room, past the burden, without a second glance.

#Undertale #Fanfiction #Gerson #The Purple SOUL #Asgore #Angst #Before Human-Monster War #Time Skips #Murder #Child Murder #Trauma #Veterans #Laughter #Violence #Cross-Posted From Archive of Our Own

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nymphadorathetemplar · 7 years ago

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Some of my live reactions I wrote down while watching VLD S4

"remember purely intelligence gathering, do not engage" is that Keith? proly who else would you have to say that to (plus look how small he is compared to other two, also p sure I spotted his lil knife handle) I noticed other Marmorites have fanny packs does this mean it's a genetic instinct thing for Keith or he learned it from his mom or from dad who picked it up from mom or just a logical thing to do for those who think smart about being prepared aww Keith, need to be more sneaky dude, learn from Lance. But wonderful knife throw oh my gosh Keith, such good boy, poor boy struggling with Marmora protocol ooh boy tell him aww Shiro AWW Pidge, Lance! Please be more understanding pls don't make that face Keith can they not know about his BoM missions? oh they should, so why RAZZLE DAZZLE TIME! pfft drama queen "It's rigged to blow!" yep gotta be for sure now, this boy knows his bombs Regris... also nice parallelism from parade to mission gone wrong go Keith pls Coran "I said I don't want a lecture" oh no does he want to go grieve for Regris (and maybe blame himself? he did mention at least planting tracker fore leaving) yep Keith's da bomb boy oh poor dear you need to realise their importance of moral so you can better explain to them and they can finally understand you you tell her boy poor Shiro... imagine having to listen to your family suffer and you can't do a thing awww yissss! it had to be Shiro's mental state of mind that prevented himself "we have–... I have to take it" oh Keith Keith...no also this "catch phrase" says so much bout his thinking and personality "I can't tell you how much that means to me " screeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee– *group hug* quiznakin dead I love you all! I love vld so much aww Pidge "Reunion" yas yas yas YOU STFU! you are the best nerd Pidge "hey Pidge?" Fuuuuuck (yeah fuck it at this point I'm straight up saying fuck) *sigh* feels oh dear Matt is also hot and cute, I'm Love (also is his voice different? maybe just because he's not in terror or excitement thrill) srsly dude, easy money for info not your goods and you want to fight someone strong enough to get that security footage "auspicious occasion" need to integrate that into my vocab use for small things to makes them feel more important not just the eyes but yep no te-osh look at that girl go, saving countless lives and gaining alliances oh ho ho hacker Holts "most powerful processor" ahh wise Matt, truely a man after my heart no no no no no no no no no no no please be visiting a grave please be visiting a grave please no heart break (top 5 tragic anime death, I am so sorry I am trying not to break down over a character I've fallen so hard for) oh oh oh!!! thank you thank you thank you smart siblings so clever thank the ancients but srsly my heart, too much in a few minutes yay! Thank you thank you thank you!! "well I'm one of the paladins" smirk ahh Jinx holts "let's show em what the holts are made of" I love y'all so much bloody brilliant nerds okay okay okay cute pics but also Sheith/Broganes in background!?! Nice Holt backstory, now I’m itchin for Shiro and Keith’s so nice to know for sure how she got his glasses aaahhh ha hah! fuckin nerd such a heavy feels ep, wonderful can Haggar please realize and go back to her Honerva happy times "memory reminants deep to claw out" hmm you would know like Spirit Away radish god lift scene Hunks laugh! so pure very appropriate reaction Matt but also fuckin nerd (bet he loves anime, I would know) yes yes Lance the Allurance vibes!also a ruval has appeared? Alluraatt? Mallura? "wayward son" blasts Kansas nerdy siblings such pure excitement fuckin puns... Please Pidge may I marry your brother srsly great husbando material right there Alteans love for milkshakes and misunderstanding of them and Kaltenecker, too adorable oh That's an adorable expression Lotor hmm sad aw yeah Smirk™ no Narti please don't betray Lotor "what are we, animals" siblings, I love proud Hunk is such a good look haha he keeps trying even after he misses, like I would prefer to practice in private so so glad they got the video game working, knew the geniuses could do it hopefully it's Kova not Narti spying amazing smarties ah sibling like Lance & Pidge what where did they get second chair no pay attention this only happens when Lotor is involved aww Narti no oh ho ho Outlaw Lotor "The Voltron Show" amazing I hope it's kinda like the AtLA play RAZZLE DAZZLE! i miss keith (sorry I love him too much) "legend not documentary" LOL hahaha funny I just mentioned him "just act really moody" First Pidge now Coran, dude if two smartest people in the castle say so, it is law Keith is emo confirmed (also proof he is not an emotionless meanie) "holds bayard dashingly, oh" awwww Lancey living for the show so cute Coran. Coran please no no no don't take the suspicious drugs! no I thought of you as one of the wisest Stop! Leave Coran alone! your feelings are very validated but you do not need to continue for so long do you? you don't know his side I do not fancy this ep of putting Coran down aww Alfor fanboy Eww! No! look! the Purple alien who Lance winked at & ate Hunk's delicious food, dating a space cowboy (also can someone draw Keith or Lance or both in space cowboy gear) geez Coran that voice Thank you Rhys Lance is all about that life whaaaa okay that is an awesome performance Shiro is so acrobatic!? Look at Lance lovin it Go Go Power Rangers! cute Hunk Bii-Boh-Bi. oh my too cute Too good, Voltron on Ice stick signature signing "Loverboy Lance? It's perfect cause it's true" oh geez that is so lance but I also heard some Jeremy suave in that These nick names... amazing Shiro the Hero!! We've been saying that! Cuz it's true! aww I don't care for humerous hunk so much, being for comic relief sterotype but still cute cause it's Hunk "now put on this tight shirt and get out there" fuck. Coran knows his schist oh my lioness...pole dancing Lance Yes Please. Admire that muscle strength aww Coran please rest "except for you Shiro never you, you're our most popular character" Wow. writers tossin in that shade priorities Lance pfft that's obviously "get ready we're on in five" come on Lance oh I hope Keith saw part of their shows and is thinking fondly of his friends Varkon?!!? you think Plaxum was dreamily watching Lance? (ofc I ship it) *bii-boh-bi shurg* mood "help me bii-boh-bi, you're my only hope" wonderful bii-boh-bi, the true mvp I love this Voltron Show theme music aww I love you Coran but don't talk to Bii-boh-bi like that! ah fuck I just quietly squealed Keith to myself as an automatic reaction to seeing his face, I love him too much "Pidge and I can handle that" cute! (Punk!) "pow pow pow! easy peasy" I love you Shay! (Alluray!) aww Axca's trust for Lotor (ship? ship, I'm so sorry I love shipping) Rolo! Nyma! Beezer! daww Pidge holy crow Fandom totally predicted Matt being the smarts of Pidge with the humour & flirtiness of Lance oh what special window for the cute dog? they important or just reppin? ah I love Allura's leadership/inspirational speeches "no pressure" I feel ya Hunk Yass! Hunk smash! oh oh Female Galra Commander!! ahh cute doggie leading the charge!! "a third of the rebel forces have been decimated"...no war is truely sad "copy that we're in route" I'm still sad but Keithy! look it them so bad ass Aww yiss!! Keith is ready to pilot, gaze upon that beautiful smile of eagarness, such a precious boy *galra holding breath,sweating while hoppin away* pfffft same "see if the blades can use thier cannon to take down the sheild" woah. that voice. very nice voice also I love captain dog so much!? great thinking Allura! man they work so well as a team now, I love them so much. I've missed the full out transformation sequence aww no Zethrid, Ezor, especially Axca Keith to the rescue! smirky smirk™ woah! wicked Lotor "good" oh no oh no oh no no no, oh schist what's that mean!?!? "A new defender" who it be!?? nice sheild reflect the way I feel about Lotor is the way I feel about Yagami Light argh Zarkon actually made a wise decision ugh woah!! Lotor's determination is a match to Keith's! "awake Naxzela!" Oh shit wad up!? What she doin?? oh no please don't be a huge bomb/quintessence drainner Listen to Lance's instincts please Listen to Hunk oh good only looks like gravity field please please oh no look at Team Voltron go! come on bring on the magicalAllura No! Allura! Team! "are you okay?" Allurance!! hexamite!! Fuuuuck I hate when my bad predictions are right! Bloody bomb oh gosh oh gosh "10 solar systems" oh schist "Victory or Death is the Galra way. They never stop attacking " yes yes! exactly Keith put your galra culture thinking to good use! wow look at Keith being a great leader as soon as others don't pressure him You go Keith go be a great Leader when you need to, please recognize the greatness Shiro sees in you Look at Lance thinking awww his wonderful encouragement, this is why you are wonderful!! also great Allurance material right there! Magical girl Allura!! "Thank you Lance" "that was all You" I love them so much "What the ruggle is that?" new vocab "evasive manuvers" oh it's doggo captain coool I thought it might have been Axca "we're not going to make it" No! Please God no! Please! if this is a Keith Sacrifice, God Please No! This atmosphere I can't!!! Please No!! Don't you fucking dare make that face Keith!!!!! No!!!! aaaaaahhhhh please! No!! No!! No!! Stop making that face!! "Maybe not with our weapons" SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE– "Wait Keith what are you doing? Keith no!"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! S A M E!!!! Holy Crow!!!! Holy Crow!!! Holy Crow!!! Holy Fuckin Crow!!!! I can not Iliterally can not all these emotions so strong and in such a short time I am dead thank you Lotor I love you so much female commanders

"I think it is time we had a discussion" oh yes please. So good. They finally get to meet each other's beautiful faces Also I hope Matt tells the team how Keith was about to SmAsH his FigHTer into the fLiPpiNg PArTicLe BArRiEr!! Can we see the team’s reaction? Please dreamworks A much more preferable "cliffhanger" compared to previous seasons Thank you for this break seeing as I've already been slain

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thegeminisage · 8 years ago

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more zeldablogging! hello, future me, i hope you’re enjoying these

today: lake hyrule!

the tower is next to not-eldin bridge so maybe i should approach from there and not faron tower

but i can see farosh's bridge from here and it's juuust the right time

maybe i'll just got wait a few moments and see if he appears

AAAH THERE HE IS!!!!

and another scale :3

i wish i could get horn shards tho :/

lol i get super sad whenever i go back to the plateau even just to glide off the tower ): old man ))):

i used to think it was so tall! and now it looks so normal bc i've seen so much taller.

did NOT miss the rain while i was at death mountain

lol i can't believe these two puny lizalfos once prevented me from crossing this bridge bc it was too difficult of a fight

and FINALLY i'm across for real

and map obtained

i feel like lake hylia is about the same size here as in tp, but in tp it feels much bigger than it does here bc this world is already so huge and dwarfs even the massive divine beasts

god i can't BELIEVE i am always so low on arrows. frankly: an outrage

lol instead of going to the lake im getting the shrines i have seen from other provinces first

whoa these colums are cool

this zone is called faron woods? not even in faron province, hahaha

ooh there's a lady here talking about the horse revival fountain! i did see something about a lord horse lake or something on the map, so i guess that's it

ugh why is it ALWAYS raining

i'll admit i'm in the stage where like, i'm okay with not walking BY every tree, just maybe seeing them all, maybe even seeing them from a distant ledge or my glider

which isn't to say the world has lost its charm or im tired of exploring, exploring and crafting is basically all you do in skyrim and it pretty much never gets old, but i'm more anxious now to uncover the plot than i was before, which speaks to the game's storytelling skills, yet still feel the compulsive need to explore Everything before moving on lol

i don't typically do a lot of post-game play so i know after i kill the final boss that'll be that

ah here's the shrine maybe the rain will have stopped by the time i get out

NOOO a combat trial......!

but it says minor test of strength so that should be okay :|

ahaha got it in half a dozen hits

unfortunately i have so many great weapons i can't hold the ones i get from this thing or the one in the chest :| i need my shit to break!! i guess i need.....to fight more. ugrh.

god i have like 12 orbs now i should go trade them in lol

i keep forgetting!!

@self pls remember

jesus. it's still raining.

me: i need to fight more!

me: sees two lizalfos, groans

if i had arrows i would just take them out from afar

that's my instinct in skyrim, you know? i'm a sniper at heart, combat isn't my thing

but i have no arrows and too many weapons so i guess i gotta change it up

lol and learn to block my shields NEVER break bc i don't use them bc i don't really know how

that and i'm always fucking carrying two-handed weapons :| i want more one-handers

MAN i one-shotted both of them when it took three hits before with the same weapon...! this atk+ helmet does not fuck around im never taking it off again

the ruins in these woods are making me feel Some Kind Of Way

i hope the lost woods are in this game

i mean, they gotta be, if the master sword is sleeping somewhere in a forest

i hope it's cool when you get the sword. that's all i care about

i'm lying i hope ganon the man is in this game too but

im trying to keep my expectations reasonable

I HEAR KASS! where are you buddy i can't see you

ooh this shrine puzzle is about a forest dragon....FAROSH, MY BUDDY

lol yesterday my brother texted me like where the fuck are you getting all these hearty radishes? me: faron my dude

faron and apparently lake hylia too are absolutely thick with them

oh my god there's a lizalfos camp here and they saw me coming from MILES away how even

naturally they've ALL got shock arrows in this very marshy watery area

good thing i can one-shot them.

oooh there's a glowing goddess statue here

ah this is where i offer a farosh scale, like i offered one for naydra and need to offer one of dinaal

weeeeellll i do have 3-4 of them now so i guess so!

i'd hate to miss a shrine and have to come back

holy SHIT there's a thunderspear in here! fair trade my dude! glad i broke one of my swords at the lizalfos camp lol

ah and now this goddess statue will let me trade orbs!! YES

i got 1 heart and 2 things of stamina which means i have 2 full wheels. i can do ANYTHING

i just swam climbed ran and glided with the same burst without putting on special gear it was GREAT

YES i found the horse lake and there's a great fairy here!!!! fuck yeah!!!!!!!

HOLY FUCK THATS IS ONE CREEPY LOOKING FAIRY

awww it plays epona's song

ah and i found a stable nearby!! good

there's an obstacle course here that i can do w/ my horse for gear, which i Want, but i SUCK at it, so

omg i made friends with a dog ;w; it follows me around

i tried to feed it meat but no dice

the start screen said something cool about befriending them...i wish i remembered what exactly!

ooh there's a quest here to catch the Giant horse...im gonna try it

im riding jemma now as well :3 these places have easy access for horses and i'm not as compulsive in my investigation of Every Single Thing so thats nice

nooooo there's a lynel in the way ;_;

even IF i snuck past it to GET the horse to REGISTER it i never could

i have to fight it. i have no choice

gotta get jemma out of harm's way first

im so nervous )))):

but i put on my soldier's gear and atk helm and drank a defense elixir and gave myself extra hearts so!!!!! hopefully!!!! it'll be ok!!!!!!!

i did it!!! it actually wasn't even too bad with the elixir and the armor

this is gonna be a long boring walk...highkey tempted to go get jemma but im afraid she would get hurt. and like. i know, i can revive her. but god.

THERE IS

ANOTHER LYNEL LOL

JESUS CHRIST

god i bet this WHOLE LANE is full of them

good thing i didn't bring jemma

beat him!! Not Even That Bad

omg I FOUND THE GIANT HORSE

and it looks just like ganondorf's, which my brother spoiled for me hahaha

IM GONNA CATCH HIM

ohhh my god im so nervous. him Big

i know it takes at least two full wheels to soothe him, which i have, but i brought potions too, like i just happened to cook some up last time

GOD I DID IT but okay jfc this is only the beginning i still gotta get him aaaaall the way back to the stable ;_;

and you have to do it at the slowest speed or he'll buck you i think

oh my god oh my god

we did manage a light trot a few times but i don't wanan risk it too much

i soothe it every time it does what i ask haha and it's given me the hearts many times!! so that's a good sign

so far so good abt halfway there

OH MY GOD A FUCKING THUNDER KEESE KNOCKED ME OFF

and shocked him!! poor baby

fucking HELL he ran away

i caught up to him and thank god he let me get right back on

maybe i'll get off and feed him some apples tbh

thank god i cleared out so many of these enemies beforehand tbh

tho i noticed lol the coyotes ran away from it maybe more things do!!

oh my god so i’ve been seeing bigass skeletons on the ground but they don’t move and i thought it was decoration or w/e, rightbut i rode past one on the way to catch the horse, and rode past it AGAIN on the way back, and IT’S A FUCKING HINOX SKELETON UP WALKING AROUND fuck no i’m glad we’re up on a cluff and it can’t see useven the live ones just sleep all the time my dude what the fuck?

HAHAHA I MADE IT

we took the last third of the way at a light trot so we're making progress!

uh holy shit apparently im already at max bond?? god Damn

oooh my gosh what do i NAME him

ganondorf's horse doesn't have a canonical name...

king of something?? idk if i even have room

thief by itself seems a little underwhelming...

ooh maybe phantom? for phantom ganon

midnight is too common, something with flames or fire could be cool for the mane but

i think phantom is what we'll go with

oh my god i'm trying the obstacle course with phantom and i LOVE this horse he turns SO well

AND once he gets to top speed, which admittedly isn't fast, he can stay there forever bc unlimited stamina!!

i still can't do the obstacle course lol the horse just straight up goes around the things most of the time and i looked up like, tips online, and apparently it's really fucking buggy, so, no. i got better things to do

LMAO so im going up to lake hylia finally and i have already run over so many birds this guy can trample anything hes a Big strong Boy i love him

oh hey there's a zora out here at this island!

ohhhh my gosh dude farosh is here at the lake too !! man he is. so cool

he? she? i saw someone online refer to them as shes

theyre named after goddeses but dragons were always boys in this series

i like girls better tho so

she doesn't stay very long here

like, she leaves very quickly as opposed to down in faron where i've seen her circle many times

oh god im at the ruined village again where i saw my first blood moon... #cursed

at least it's daytime now

OMG A FIRE WIZZROBE IM GONNA GET ME A FIRE ROD YES

omg a super fire rod. a meteor rod. #nice

lol wizzrobes are easy to fight you just use the proper elemental arrow and don't let them see you. if they DO see you you die tho

now that im not pissing myself in sheer terror these ruins make me Sad jesus christ im so sad for all of hyrule

BRUH there's a stone talus here!!!!

ugh i wanted to mark the miniboss spot but im OUT OF STAMPS

guess i can't mark cooking pots after all but with the interactive map + my sheikah sensor if i ever TRULY need to find one that should be ok i guess :/

/unmarks them all, SADLY!

killed the talus without even using any special food, haha - don’t have to be afraid of them anymore! becoming less afraid of red lynels, can’t wait for the day when i’m not afraid of guardians

there's a korok seed puzzle here where you have to roll a boulder UP a hill are yu fucking kidding me

ooh maybe i could have used stasis from up there...lmao fuck

maybe i can use it from down here

i hate using stasis tho like it fucks up your weapons and i know i said i need to break some but that's just WASTEFUL

wow and it didn't do anything from down here anyway. ok i'll just come back to this :/

hey and that's all of lake hylia explored :')

tomorrow: gerudo desert!!!! me: HYPE!!!!!!!

well actually my brother's visiting so tomorrow: amiibo, but. yeah.

#short short short i barely got to play at all today we spent the entire day cleaning #and fighting withdrawals lol So Fun #personal #loz blogging #botw spoilers #except not really it's all horse stuff

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rebeccahpedersen · 7 years ago

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What Makes A Seller Want To Re-List HIGHER?

TorontoRealtyBlog

How do they get to that point?

What must transpire for a seller to do something that crazy?

Folks, this story is hot off the presses. I can still smell the shwarma on my fingertips as they type away on this keyboard (I’ll explain the shwarma later…)

Let me regale you with my latest experience, literally hours old, and explain how a seller goes from one list price, to a higher one, overnight…

My poor clients, honestly

Right when they think they’ve finally caught a break, it all comes crashing down on them.

Don’t worry – I prepared them for the eventual outcome, which you already know, having read the title line.

Yes, we made an offer on a house on Tuesday night, only to see it be rejected, and the seller is going to instead re-list at a higher price this week, or next.

But it’s not the conclusion to the story that’s of interest this time around.

It’s how we got there.

I’ve written quite a lot in the past about how many sellers out there will list their homes for sale at a given price, receive a fewer-than-expected number of offers (or no offers at all…) and decide to raise the price.

We saw this quite a bit in the spring.

When the market changed, and those $799,900 listings, which had been generating 10-12 offers in February and March, and selling for $1,100,000, started to get significantly less interest, we started to see those list prices increased from $799,900, to $1,089,000 the day after a failed “offer night.”

It became an epidemic.

So much so, in fact, that I hypothesized that it skewed the TREB data, and “New Listings” were substantially higher as a result of so many properties being counted twice.

In the spring, we knew that a lot of sellers, not to mention agents and buyers, were having trouble figuring out the changing market. As a result, it took a lot longer than expected for sellers and their listing agents to change strategies, and list at or near fair market value, with offers any time, rather than hysterically under-list at a price often 70% of fair market value, hold back offers, and set an offer date.

In the fall market, we’re seeing houses listed a lot closer to fair market value (those with “offer nights”), but also seeing houses listed with “offers any time.”

We’re also seeing far fewer homes being re-listed at a higher price, as we did in the spring.

But if you’re wondering in those cases where the seller does re-list higher, how do they get there? Well, I have a story for you…

I have made two offers with Andrew & Marion this fall.

We lost the first bid by a little, and the second bid by a lot!

I’m not going to tell you in what area they’re looking, since I want to keep the listing in this story positively unidentifiable, but let’s just say that it’s a high-demand area (what area isn’t?), and listings have really slowed down over the last two weeks.

Last week, a new listing hit the market, and I figured it would sell for well over our budget, which was very close to the list price.

The house was detached, in an area where the semi-detached vs. detached ratio is about 50/50, but it had a rare private driveway, and it was steps from the subway.

We had bid on houses that were much further from the subway, houses with no parking, and houses that were semi-detached. But they were all really polished, and we were willing to compromise on location/parking/semi in exchange for a beautiful, turnkey house.

The house on which we bid on Tuesday night was not in good shape. Structurally, it was sound. But aesthetically, in today’s market of pristine, staged, magazine-worthy houses and condos, it just didn’t compete.

We didn’t really know if we were going to submit a bid, since we had expected competition, but it became clear by 5pm that offers weren’t pouring in. There were zero offers registered at that point, and the listing agent, probably trying to encourage any offer, told me that he honestly didn’t expect anybody to come in.

Andrea & Marion went to the bank and got a certified cheque for $70,000, and we met for the handoff, and signed the offer.

We were submitting an offer of the listing price – $1,298,000, with the $70,000 deposit cheque ‘herewith,’ and no conditions.

Offers were being presented at the listing brokerage at 7:00pm, but by 6:00pm, the listing agent called to say he didn’t know when offers would be, or where.

Something was off, but I had yet to really realize it.

I was in the area early, so I had to kill time waiting for him to call me.

Have you ever gone into Subway Sandwiches, and seen one “Sandwich Artist” slowly working on a 6-incher as though it were a 12-foot novelty sub, while four other people waited in line?

I have no patience for that.

I just can’t do it. I physically can’t watch the world go by at 20 KM/H when my mind is constantly running at 120.

I found a shwarma place down the street, and my God did these guys have a spread!

As much as I wanted to gain seven pounds last night, I managed to exhibit some self-control, and just go for the standard chicken shwarma.

Then I went out to my car, like every lonely real estate agent does, and ate a shwarma in the front seat, while trying desperately to avoid dripping garlic sauce on my winter coat, and receiving curious looks from passer-byers.

I pulled up in front of the house at 8:00pm, since rather than meet at the office at 7:00pm, we would meet at the house an hour later.

I went inside, and met the two agents – Peter and Cathy, and the seller, who sat with arms-folded, in a cheap, ugly, kitchen chair.

It bears mentioning at this point – there were two sellers of this property, and yet only one was present.

And thus, sadly, this offer presentation was over before it even began.

I exchanged pleasantries with the listing agents, and then extended my hand to the seller and said, “Hello, I’m David Fleming from Bosley Real Estate, great to meet you,” to which all I received in return was “hi.”

Maybe it was a language barrier, or maybe it was a sign of things to come.

But I carried on, laying out three copies of the Agreement of Purchase & Sale, with the “lead” copy featuring our $70,000 bank draft and one of my business cards paper-clipped to the offer.

I told the three of them a little bit about my clients, as is usually the custom, even though the vibe at the table didn’t warrant it.

Something was “off” in the room, and I figured there had been a discussion before I’d arrived. You know when you walk into a room, and the people in the room are quiet, and you ask, “Were you guys just talking about me?” You just have that feeling. And the feeling I had, was like that.

I always let the listing agents do the presentation; there’s nothing worse than a buyer agent who decides he or she is going to take control of the table.

When I had finished my spiel about my clients, not a word of which was listened to by the seller, I handed the three copies of the offer over, and said, “Peter, Cathy, please proceed.”

The seller took one look at the first page of the offer, and we lost her. It was done, even though it was already finished before it had begun.

There was no sigh, no grunt, and it’s not like she ripped the offer up. But part of my job is to read body language and non-verbal cues, and it’s something I’m very good at.

You know when somebody is less than happy, but they don’t want to show it, so rather than open their mouth and let out a sigh, they catch themselves and sort of roll their tongue through their cheek? Add in a blank stare, a shift of the bodyweight from one side of the chair to the other, and I think the point is made.

The listing agent, for some odd reason, read the offer out of order. He skipped through to the Schedule A, perhaps to highlight there were no conditions, but took his time reading every word, of every clause, even though it was all pointless.

The seller had stopped listening.

The four of us sat there, each of us knowing this was merely an exercise, each of us acting like we didn’t want the others to know.

When I present an offer, I place my hands together on the table, and I don’t move. I literally turn into a statue.

The seller sat with her arms crossed, not looking at her copy of the offer and not following along, shifting her gaze from one end of the table to the other.

The other listing agent was looking at my eyes, then the sellers eyes, then the offer, then back, and forth, all over again.

And the listing agent with the offer in his hands continued to read through the offer, maybe hoping for divine intervention.

I had all I needed by this point, and stopped reading body language.

I began to think about that shwarma….

“….Fridge, Stove, Microwave, Dishwasher,” the listing agent read.

“What is that green stuff they put in the pita?” I wondered. “What’s that called? I know there’s a name for it.”

“No fixtures excluded, no rental items included in Section 6 of the offer…”

“I’m pretty sure the pinkish stuff is radish, but what’s in the chopped veggies other than cucumber?”

“Title search date is the requisition date for lawyers; you don’t need to concern yourself with that…”

“No, wait, it’s not a radish – it’s turnip! What the hell was I thinking? Who puts radish in a shwarma?”

“The Schedule B is our own brokerage’s clauses, about interest on deposit, it’s Prime minus 2.75%……”

“Pickles! They were missing pickles! Isn’t a shwarma supposed to have pickles?”

“The rest of the agreement is boiler-plate, just standard clauses that appear in every offer…”

“I would go back there for sure. I don’t know how many calories were in that thing, but it was worth it. I shouldn’t have chased it with the gum, however. My mouth feels horrible.”

This is basically how we spent five minutes together, and the other agents felt the same way.

The agent reading the offer was jumping around from section to section, I’m not sure why.

The agent sitting next to him didn’t know whether to hold a smile, or look reserved, but the back-and-forth made her look crazy.

When the agent said, “The closing date is January 31st, is this what you wanted?” and the seller replied, “I don’t know. I haven’t thought about it. I’d really have to think about it,” I was a little perturbed. It was clear she didn’t care about any of this, she was unprepared, and the listing agent had to bear some of the blame for that.

For the rental items section, I wrote “None” and the agent asked the seller, “Is the hot water tank a rental, or is it owned?” The seller said, “I have no idea.” The agent told me, “You should have put ‘Hot Water Tank – If Rental,’ because we don’t know if it’s owned or not,” like somehow, that was my fault.

When the charade was finished, I graciously shook all their hands, smiled, thanked them for their time, and walked toward the front door.

One of the agents followed me, and walked me out.

Knowing full-well that this house was going to be re-listed $150,000 higher the next day, I simply asked the listing agent, “What are we doing here?”

He asked me what I meant.

“This. This entire process,” I said. “That seller isn’t going to sell, you know that.”

He nodded.

“I’m here with an unconditional, full-price offer in hand, my clients went to get a deposit cheque. I know it’s not the price she’s expecting, but all I ask for is a little respect.”

He nodded again.

“She didn’t listen to the terms of the offer, she didn’t look me in the eye once, the husband didn’t even bother showing up.”

He agreed.

“The husband stayed late at the office,” the agent explained. “When he found out there was only one offer, he basically decided they weren’t going to sell the house tonight.”

“And yet, here I am,” I mused.

The agent was a nice guy, and I think the sellers really threw him for a loop.

“What can you do when your client wants more money?” he rhetorically asked.

“They don’t deserve it,” I told him. “The house doesn’t show well, they put zero effort into the listing. The paint colours are brutal, their furniture is the cheapest, ugliest crap I’ve ever seen, they didn’t stage it, didn’t fix anything in the house, they didn’t lift a finger, or spend a penny, and there are shit stains in the downstairs toilet. What did they expect?”

What did they expect? Seriously?

Had they put $10,000 into this listing, maybe they’d have gotten the $1.45 Million they clearly wanted.

But they didn’t.

They felt entitled, they misread the market, they misunderstood the market, and the market responded in kind.

So next week, we’ll probably see this little $1,298,000 house come back out at $1,449,000, and there, it will sit.

Just like many before it. And just like many sellers before them, they’ll lament the market, and in keeping in line with Monday’s theme – not take any responsibility.

For Andrew and Marion, it was certainly worth a shot.

And for me, I enjoyed the experience (despite the cynicsm above), got an idea for a blog post, and had one hell of a chicken shwarma…

The post What Makes A Seller Want To Re-List HIGHER? appeared first on Toronto Real Estate Property Sales & Investments | Toronto Realty Blog by David Fleming.

Originated from http://ift.tt/2zFxHRc

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ddrkirbyisq · 7 years ago

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Despite this being our busy week at work (deadline!), life is going surprisingly well. This also despite a pretty myemie day on Monday my attempt to fix the washer didn't work and, even worse, I cooked a pretty poor meal for dinner. It doesn't happen too often, but sometimes dinner really just doesn't go right...this time I had some miso black cod which I cooked in the toaster oven, but it really didn't sit well with me. The fish was relatively fresh, so not sure if it was just something that didn't jive with my stomach that time, or because I hadn't marinated it very long, or what. I ate it with some pickled radishes (those at least, were fine), rice, and some premade rolled egg/tamagoyaki thing which was...meh. But yeah mostly something about the fish. I feel like I cooked it well enough so I don't really know. But I'll pass on black cod for a bit before trying it again. I haven't had that much success with unagi at home actually -- they have been "ok" but not really super great (using the pre-packaged vaccum-sealed ones, of course). I have been wanting to try umaki though (unagi rolled in tamagoyaki), so I'll give it a go the next time I stop by Nijiya for food. Anyways despite all that, as I said, life is going pretty well. I've returned back to working on my side indie game Rhythm Quest in full force, which has been great fun and extremely motivating -- I've basically been doing that for my train rides to and from the city, which is especially great because I don't really have any games to play on the train at the moment. Haven't decided what I'm going to play next, but it could be Mother 3 (!), or maybe something I'll buy on Steam like Flinthook. Or maybe I'll go through Undertale's "Hard mode" segment, since I never ended up doing that? In any case, Rhythm Quest has gotten a bunch of work done. Last time I worked on it I added both flying and double-hit enemies, and now I've added a lot of extra visual feedback for elements reacting to the beat as well as working on better particle effects, and cool visual effects for when you successfully hit a note/obstacle. Most recently I rearchitected the whole audio syncing system and I'm now using Unity's AudioSettings.dspTime absolute timeline and scheduling all of my music segments precisely. My previous solution relied on taking the current music playback time and having all of the elements of the game be based on that...except, if you do that naively, it's really jerky because the music playback time isn't updated smoothly at all. So you end up having to track your own time, and do your best to sync your timeline to the music playback time. That actually worked reasonably well, to be honest, but it wasn't perfect. I was adding a feature similar to bit.trip runner on death such that when you die, a background loop plays such that there's still a persistent beat going through your respawn -- and when you finally reach your respawn point, it's downbeat-aligned, so it all snaps into place. Very nice, very bit.trip runner, no breaking of flow or anything. I had that all working with the old system actually, and it wasn't too bad, but I wanted to see if I could go the extra mile and use the audio scheduling functions to get sample-perfect playback. It definitely took some work, but it's all working well now! I've split my track into multiple segments, which are queued up and scheduled according to an absolute time. I still detect drift between the "game time" and the audio dsp time, to ensure that the two sync up within some error margin. When you die, the background track is already looping, so I just have to set its volume to 1 and stop the playback of the current music segment. Then I do a bunch of magical calculations in order to figure out how long to let the background track play (for the respawn) -- and I schedule the new music segment to kick in exactly on time at the beat at which you respawn. I also schedule the background track to stop playing at that same time. So the music transitions are totally aligned, totally synced, and it's wonderful. At some point I'll do a test with some sine waves or something just to make sure that it's actually sample-perfect. Now there are some limitations though. I did lose one of my features, which was playing and pausing the song willy-nilly and even changing playback speed for slowmo and rewind during debug play. None of that works if I want to use the absolute audio timeline, so I dumped those features for now. Sad because going through the song in slowmo and being able to rewind it was super cool, but ultimately those aren't really that necessary, and if I end up needing them I can do some sort of workaround. The only remaining issue is that because audio latency and buffering is still a thing, *game*-related sounds that are supposed to be beat-aligned won't actually be played on beat. This is simply a problem by nature and there's not that much you can do about it -- if your player presses attack perfectly on beat, you'll end up queuing your sound to play on that frame, but it won't be until some milliseconds later that you end up hearing the song because of audio buffering and latency. In some cases you can try to be predictive and queue up the sound beforehand -- I will probably end up doing something like that for my checkpoint sounds, for instance -- but for sounds that depend on player input you can't really predict if/when the player is going to press the button. So there's still some work to do there in terms of having coin sounds / checkpoint sounds be scheduled using the same audioDsp mechanism. I also could be a =little= smarter about catching drift between game time and audio dsp time -- use some sort of adaptive heuristic or at least some smoothing in an attempt to find the best relation between game time and audio dsp time, but that doesn't appear to be a huge issue at the moment. I also would like to try and clean up the code now that I've finished the refactor for the most part -- see if I can split off the new audio scheduling/timing logic away from the rest of the main gamestate logic. So that's all cool! One thing that is NOT cool is how disproportionately gender affects our social dance community and experience, though (as it does with the rest of our lives too). I know this might be coming out of left field, but yeah. I'm over it today, but I remember yesterday while walking back home from the station I had some thoughts about it and I ended up just feeling upset. Ugh...it's just really sad. I don't think we are doing nearly enough about it either. I should try and be more proactive about setting a better example, if I find it in myself.

#Blogger