#story telling is difficult

[joshlifeheart]

I think this comes down to the divide between people who take their time and enjoy the game and people who just want to get through.

Especially with so many people excited to get shadow magic, a lot of us get frustrated with seemingly slow progress through the first half in particular because we are fighting the blue razors and fire leggers multiple times just because we went back to that village.

People that take the time to listen to the dialogue and understand the story are going to enjoy the world a lot more than people who are trying to rush to the next big thing like Darkmoor or Shadow Magic. At least for me, the issue is pacing over the areas given.

Khrysalis, Azteca and Empyrea all have different, but distinct pacing issues with moving through their worlds. Khrysalis and Empyrea are both particularly problematic because they were released over more than one update, meaning players were expected to take a while to progress through those worlds. Azteca just has a lot going on, and I won't get too far into it.

Anyways, I think people coming out of Azteca are hoping for a world that won't be too long (on their first playthrough) and Khrysalis comes in and says "Here's 2 years of content! Good luck!"

The other part of it is how we felt going into Khrysalis and Empyrea. Each time the wizard has just had a major failure. In Azteca, we can't stop Xibalba from crashing into the world and in Empyrea we just lost Mellori. In both cases, the player should be feeling down and that makes these long worlds even worse, at least to me.

I love Khrysalis's music design and the feel of different areas; truly one of the best places in the Spiral, I just also understand people who are frustrated by it.

the divide in the fanbase around Khrysalis is really funny to me. Half of the fanbase has it in their top 3 favorite worlds, the other half literally hates it and can’t stop talking about how much they hate it. (I love Khrysalis it’s my 3rd favorite world behind Karamelle and Novus)

There are very few people I’ve met who have played Khrysalis and were like “eh it’s okay”. It inspires strong feelings on both sides & I personally think that’s because the plot is really good but the gameplay is repetitive

[phoenixcatch7]

The One Fact Pact

I want to see a fic where the chain is rigorously keeping their secrets and stories hidden, but they've all learned to trust one another. Like, it's past time they should probably be sharing things because it's beginning to get annoying, they all agree, but it's sorta become a habit by now? They kept those secrets and now no one really wants to share first?

So, to keep things interesting and get some momentum going, they make a deal.

Whenever they come across something that reminds them of their travels, their quest - be it an item, a familiar name, a location - they've got to share ONE fact or story about it.

But only! When they're in other people's time, because otherwise it'll just be a staged tour and one person infodumping and that's exactly what they're trying to avoid (and it won't be a fun competition they can make bets about).

And then either they go through worlds slowly building trust and understanding of each other through a long drawn out and incidental series of tidbits....

Or they immediately get stuck in wild's hyrule for ages.

Everyone's arguing over who the latest ruin belongs to. Time and wind are getting into an argument about the kokiri. No one can agree on the zonai. Wars is taking immense pleasure in pointing out anything someone else might have missed. Legend is resolutely ignoring eventide. Twilight claims the entire faron woods until they step into the hot and humid jungle for the first time.

Wild thinks he's immune because it's his world so he legally can't answer questions, but everywhere they visit there's a piece of his own story in the rubble or on the wind.

Wild: *happily making tea and checking his slate with the other hand* okay, looks like tomorrow we can reach the breach of demise and to new serenne stable. Just past that- Sky: *choking on his drink* the what?? Wild: the breach? Sky, weakly: Why's it uh, called that? Wild: oh, it's an old story. Apparently eons ago it's where a demon godking came up from underground to the surface world... *suspiciously* Why? Sky: gimme the slate. *squinting at the shape on the map*... I can neither confirm nor deny. Wild:... What do you mean? Sky, remembering the One Fact Pact: I can neither confirm nor deny. What's important is that I killed him. The entire chain, variously: YOU KILLED A DEMON GOD?!!? Sky *recalling the hardest fight of his life*: what, like it's hard?

And then he just refuses to elaborate.

[sailormoonsub]

well, this adaptation is certainly faithful to the "badda-bing, badda-boom" pace of the manga. within 60 seconds, Mamoru proposes to Usagi, his soul gets stolen the Golden Girlboss in the middle of international departures, and Usagi gets kidnapped by all three members of an up-and-coming pop idol group. if you looked away from the screen for long enough to pour some potato chips into a bowl, you will NEVER recover

[syaolaurant]

Just some random sketches ...

Her morning stretch 🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️

Violette struggled during her first flight, plus she doesn't like wearing trousers at all...

The hug 👀 (not st official just for poses study haha, and I've just notice I have never drawn them kissing or hugging before 😅)

[psychomusic]

oc time again! + her town & culture (heavily inspired by pre-roman italic populations)

she is suri sauthon (she/her). her story is linked to my swtor imperial agent, tar'x, but most of her life except for the one year away where she meets him, is spent in a town in the mountains of mirial.

despite mirial being cold and desert, and many cities developing underground, her town flourishes thanks to a force nexus, venerated in the form of an ancient, sacred, alive crystal. the ecosystem of that mountain depended on what "the horned crystal" was capable of giving them, but mirialans couldn't live off of that alone, so they developed trade and some rudimental technology, even if oftentimes it was bought thanks to the highly profitable trade of a plant used to make medicines that slowed down aging and had overall healing properties.

note: everything that's generated by this nexus has these healing properties BUT they have to be processed, except for those who bathed in the waters of the cavity under the crystal - the "real" nexus, but not the worshipped one. the waters were sacred but they were not thought to be miraculous, unlike the crystal, who instead was thought of as the keystone of the ecosystem: without it, everything would fall apart (and that is partially true: the cavity was the "real" nexus but thanks to the crystal, also strong in the force, the properties were spread all over the mountains). those who bathed in the cavity's waters - so, all of the town, who had a sort of baptism there - could eat the plant, make whatever food with it, and not only that plant, but everything generated by the nexus, that, again, had similar properties. this allowed people to live up to normal life-spans without advanced medicines or, much, really. to those who didn't live there, though, after the processing, had incredible effects, slowing down aging - for those who took it regularly - and making people able to live up to half a century more than the average]

originally, there were four tribes of nomads that lived thanks to horned farm animals that decided to settle down into one bigger town and other smaller settlements, to live off of transhumance. this division of the tribes stayed into the political and social organization: every person belonged to one tribe specifically, and had slightly different rituals and culture. for examples, each tribe had their own priests and healers, with different techniques and traditions. the town, tho, was guided by a group of people in the high priesthood, a position you could reach only by having earned the trust of all tribes. those high priests had many roles: they guided the people into sacred processions common to all the tribes, they managed the trading with outsiders, they did the maintenance of the temple of the summit (the one that functioned as casket to the crystal) and created a special liquid to offer the crystal that helps it grow.

this particular temple was important because 1. it was very visible, from every angle of the town, and it became an important identity symbol; 2. it stored the venerated horned crystal; 3. it had the altar where sacrifices were made for the crystals. that altar had a hole connected to the cavity, that allowed the liquids to reach the underground; 4. it had various symbols: statues representing each tribe + the high priesthood, and typical mirialan tattoos carved into the wood of the trees that served as columns for the temple, symbolizing 8 values that who dared to enter HAD to have; 5. it was on the way to an important lake (called "mother lake" because the lake the town was built around to depended on the waters of that other lake) where they traveled to in important processions; 6. it was said that a the wizard who unified the tribes made it with its magic, making the plant grow to hold the temple's roof. this wizard was, actually, a force user, obv.

BACK TO HER THOUGH: she's daughter of one of the high priests, who was in charge of managing the trades with outsiders, and lives in a house on the mountains with her mother and him. her parents are from different tribes (that's one of the things that earned him trust from the 4 tribes): when a child is born from two different tribes, they don't pick one to allign to, but they're usually linked automatically to the one with more relatives in it (in her case, the father's tribe: she had many uncles and aunts on his side while her mom only had one sister).

later, though, she got quite tied to her mother's tribe due to a mysterious illness that only her mother's tribe healer was able to cure. she spent 4 years (from 10 to 14 years old) living with the healer and learned her secrets. to better study, she wrote them down. when she returned home, she studied to become a priestess with her father. at 22 (the average age: you can't become priest before your 20s), she was supposed to take a test and become a priestess, but the healer of her mother's tribe died and the tribe asked her to take her place. she couldn't technically do that, but both tribes estimated both her and her parents and she was allowed to become both. she then decided to try to become a high priestess, and became one at 25 (a quite young age). being part of the council, she tried to convince the various tribe healers to unite their knowledges and write them down, and eventually made it. healers still remained tribe based but they now had an "upper, inter-tribe level" similar to high priesthood.

years later, the sacred horned crystal is stolen from the temple by some Hutt mercenaries looking for a profit. given the trust she has earned from all the tribes and the fact that her father is the high priest that deals with outsiders (and she's been hearing stories and advice about it since she was little), she is the one tasked with getting it back. without the growing crystal, the keystone to their ecosystem, the village would have lasted only a few years. in hrr quest, she meets imperial intelligence agent tar'x laran and, as they "solve the mystery" and fight to have it back, they get closer. they'll get married and have a daughter, Vegoia (who's the only one who actually will get to the plot of my story. this was all background)

[statementlou]

Tbh i am not surprised that a person who openly talked about having drinking problems since 1d days, because of how crazy 1d worked has been agressive. What surprises me is people being surprised (they never seriously saw drunk person?). But i am also confused about this whole book. Apparently Maya said that that book is not fully bout Liam but compilation about her exes and some of the worst parts are not about him. But recently she said that the book is “ofc about him” so what is true then? Or did she meant it that ofc some parts are about him or that whole book is about him?

Sorry, just confused

I also am not surprised- we've learned so much more about the real stories of things and about the guys' actual lives over the last years, and the story that has unfolded around Liam has been totally consistent throughout if you've been following it, and so the information Maya is telling us is shocking and upsetting but not difficult to believe. I got an anon yesterday saying they were worried about getting similar revelations about the other boys, like "if Liam could be doing this we just don't know, any of them could", and while in a way that's always true I guess, anyone could be doing anything in private like... that doesn't really concern me. Because none of these Liam revelations are coming out of nowhere, there have been many MANY steps along the way leading us here if you've been watching, and he has talked openly about both his mental health struggles and his addiction issues. So to answer that anon... to find out something similar about Louis would in contrast contradict everything we know about him and no I'm not worried about it. Is he probably very irritating, absolutely, but an abuser or a loose cannon, well that news would shock me. But anyway as for the book I don't find it strange that she was nervous when it came out and treading lightly and later decided, fuck it. In the absolutely on point tiktok she dropped today (YES👏GIRL👏FUCKING TELL THEM👏) she even mentions attempts to keep her from publishing the book, presumably by Liam's team, that I am riveted by and cannot WAIT to hear more details about actually- like I said I don't find it at all strange that she was nervous and downplayed it a bit then. But if she says now that it's just about Liam, well, I would say it's been clear from the beginning that the book is their story. Maya herself brought up the parallel of songs being written about stuff and I think it's the same thing; it's true (she was in an abusive relationship that involved certain kinds of events) but maybe not 100% literal (I'm sure details were changed to make the story work, it's not like a word for word timeline of their interactions or whatever).

[utilitycaster]

I put this in the tags of a post but I think one aspect of cultural Christianity that is the hardest to shake is that people raised Christian (and particularly Protestant), especially people who have since left, will interpret depictions of religion that are actually drawing on practices/imagery common across multiple world religions as specifically a reference to Christianity.

[calitsnow]

Just thinking late at night …

[slozhnos]

i think that the way the great gatsby musical is portrayed is somewhat through the lens of how gatsby saw the story.

[ratatatastic]

I'll tell you a story. I get to work early in the morning, so when I come in—Yesterday morning we had this big back of six TVs, and one of them has a network on it... and the banner is: If the Florida Panthers lose, is this the Biggest Collapse in Sports History? That damn thing is sitting on the TV and you know, you're waiting for—to roll it, people, let's move it! Fifteen minutes!...So I'm waiting by the door for my video guy to come in and say—...We have these banks, it's a new rink, right? All over it—"Get that network off our TV!" 'Cuz I'm sitting there going, "I don't like it!" and I'm 57! Well, what happens if you're 25? And you're going, "I gotta live 50 more years of being a part of the 'Biggest Collaspe in Sports History'..." So from the loss to the drop of the puck, something has to change, something has to get better, and that would be where I think, I worked. Once the puck's dropped then I was done working. And I liked our first [period] so that was good. That was good, I was at peace with it. I wanted to win, and—but we weren't scrambling around in the first [period] trying to find our game.

paul and his way with his words aka he felt exactly the same way i felt with the leadup to game 7 and how media reacted to it like yeah i was very upset at some point i just started sighing like eeyore till someone put me out of my misery

edmonton oilers @ florida panthers game 7 postgame | 6.24.24 (x)

[dinxieyinxie]

short king interactions reheeheehee

[sunshine-and-her-ikevil-stuff]

*thinking about the villains' tragic fates*

You know, their routes never really talk too much about their fates and how it effects them mentally. Or how the MC feels about it, and dealing with the fear and angst of it with the slight exception of William's route

*eyes widen*

... I think I know what the sequels are gonna be about

[binah-beloved]

despairful day. remember to take comfort in anything that brings you joy. for me, that is Binah. for you, it might also be Binah. that is alright. she has hugs enough for all.

[bloogers-boogers]

Preview >> Next

[etrosgate]

this bit from arena winds me every time i think about it

[ittyybittybaker]

He looked over the words he had scrawled onto a scrap piece of paper, even though he knew them by heart: He will hear my call a mile away He can run faster than anyone else He’ll have hair like fire and eyes like ice He will be mean and kind at the same time He will be a liar but never lie to me He will always know what I mean even when i’m not saying anything He will never hurt me on purpose Andrew casts a not-love spell as a child, and he never expects to meet an impossible man who fits all his criteria almost 20 years later

Title from Dose No. 2 by The Maine

fic playlist

My submission for @aftg-paranormal fest is here! This is part one of my Practical Magic Au. I hope y'all enjoy!