#super curious if anyone notices any other changes in my writing style since the accident

[the-lightning-strikes-again]

I'm so sorry to hear you were in an accident im glad you are alive and feeling okay again <3<3

I'd love to send you a lotura prompt, hopefully it lifts your spirits to be back on that sweet ship.

How about Lotor and Allura talking about weapons? (i.e. Like how Allura prefers a staff and Lotors sword designs (like the one he was first shown with) )

Hey, good to hear from you and thanks for your super kind note!! I'm doing a little better each day and am excited to get back to regular routines! While I was on hold over the phone about paperwork today, I managed to exercise my brain with the prompt you gave me! <3

Staff vs. Sword

Emperor Lotor leans against a wall, crossing his arms and quirking a slim, white eyebrow at the princess before him. “Surely, you jest with me,” he murmurs. “A staff again?”

Princess Allura beams, and she grabs her favorite staff from the blunted practice weapons with a solid grip, fingers tight. With a quick flick of her wrist, she spins it and sets the end solidly on the ground. “My bayard for Blue Lion also turns into a whip,” she says nonchalantly, “but that seems entirely unfair to use against you, as it produces an electric shock.”

“Ah, yes.” His eyes crinkle, his slit pupils dilating with softness. He adds dryly, “Because we do not already create enough sparks on the courts.”

She brushes back her long, thick braid and waggles her eyebrows. “You said it, not me.” And then she pokes his chest plate with the end of her staff. “Do tell me you’re not afraid of a second round after I defeated you.”

“And nearly caused an intergalactic incident,” he says, voice halted. “The training grounds are intended for practicing the art of combat—not the art of catching one’s opponent off-guard with a kiss.”  

With a giggle, Allura pulls the staff back, her Altean markings glowing a bright pink. “Yes, well, we Alteans have a saying that all’s fair in love and war. Now, pick your weapon, dear emperor, so that I may defeat you once more. And do choose something other than a sword this time—at least mix it up for me?”

Lotor eyes her before grabbing a blunted sword from the wall, inspecting its balance. His long fingers grip the hilt tightly. “A sword is the best extension of a warrior’s will,” he declares, raising his chin with a petulant chin. “It is simple. It is efficient. It is my favorite weapon.”

Allura sighs dramatically at him. “It does not have quite the—” she waves her hand—“the impact of a staff, though.”

He raises the silver sword to her. “The staff is an impact weapon,” he says dryly. “You simply seek to showcase your Altean strength to the Galra who prowl these courts, and that is why you prefer it as of late."

“Tish tosh,” she says, planting her feet properly on the training mat and eyeing him with an increased wariness. She knows Lotor likes to strike unexpectedly. “I also happen to like the way training robots crumple to bits beneath a staff. It relieves the stress I feel after a large conference with intergalactic leaders.”

A tick of silence stretches between them.

And then in a blur, Lotor races toward her, slashing down.

She blocks with the staff and swings, and he ducks smoothly before stepping back, flipping the sword in his hand.

He paces the mat, the overhead lights capturing the glow of his eyes like a predator in the dark wilderness. “Poor Princess Allura,” he teases. “All the power in the universe, and yet you fear the peace we have wrought together, instead longing for means of violence. Are you certain you are not of Galran blood somewhere in that long ancestry of yours?”

Alura’s voice strains as she circles him as well, resetting her staff. “I can’t think of a single species that doesn’t enjoy a rough tumble now and again, in a safe, non-war environment. Why, the humans even have something called, um—” Her concentration breaks as she pauses, snapping her fingers. “Um, wrestling. And something called rugby. And then they have a very large, worldwide competition for their various violent sports, called the Olympics.”

Lotor pauses.

His slit pupils widen in curiosity of other cultures. “Olympics? Is that similar to a Kral Zera?”

“Somewhat,” she nods, “but instead of choosing a world leader by, um, killing everyone, these tournaments are for medals that they wear around their necks and then bite in front of cameras. And no one dies generally.”

He lunges again, and in a blur, wrenches the staff away from her hands and presses her up against a wall.

Allura squeaks, eyes wide.

His nose is inches from her own, his breath a hot puff against her face. “How very curious.”  

Her breath stalls as her cheeks heat hard enough to radiate to him. “Um, y-yes.”

Lotor’s wide mouth splits as he whispers against her mouth, “Fortunately for you, princess, I’ve no intent to fight you truly, or you would already be dead with your silly staff. And if it were these Olympics, you would have no medal to bite.”

Face flushed, her eyes narrow to slits, and before Lotor can avoid it, she hooks her ankle against his and unbalances him. Surprised claws protract from his hands, gripping into her practice armor and his eyes widen.

And the two royals fall in a pile of limbs upon the mat, with Allura sprawled on top of a stunned Lotor, his sword clattering to the mat beside them.  

“Oh, no,” she says with a triumphant giggle, hands planted over his chest plate. Her curly flyaways are an angelic halo around her face. “You lowered your weapon but did not fully secure me, so I still win.”

Lotor grumps beneath her, his lavender cheeks flushing as he grips her forearms.

And despite Galra leadership watching the courts and murmuring with gossip in the far distance, Lotor softens. His rough, calloused thumbs stroke a pink marking along her bare forearm. “Best two out of three, then? I promise to secure you fully next time and cause another scandal for it.”

Allura leans forward, eyes sparkling. “Very well, Emperor Lotor. You’re on.”

[irgg]

Quickie:  Super Smash Bros. Melee

What can be said of a game that is over 15 years old?  Well… quite a lot actually.  Being the sequel to one of the most popular games on the N64, Melee had a lot to live up to; and boy, did it.  When the game came out, it was popularized as being a party game that you could play with friends and family as a casual experience.  However, most people know that Melee has become something much more than that.  Without any patches or changes to the game since release, it is a miracle that a community so passionate has moved Melee from uncharted basement tournaments to the main stages of major, international tournaments.  How did this happen?  What part of Melee makes it so magically timeless and deep?  I hope to uncover that through this review.

I’ll start with the basics and move to the more intricate details later in this review.  First of all, the aesthetic styles that Melee brings to the player are simplistic in nature.  This is intentional and, might I say, genius.  The game is mainly comprised of cartoon styled characters that would look good at any time.  If something in the game tried to be too realistic, as time went on, the game would eventually look outdated; and while it is true that it is almost 2 decades old, it still looks very good.  I would compare it to titles that were released around the same time (like the original Halo), but that would be an unfair comparison in my opinion due to the scale of other games released at the time.

The next part of the game to mention would be the sounds and music.  There isn’t so much to talk about here really in terms of music.  While many of the tunes are enchanting, and at times downright contagious (I’m looking at you DreamLand 64).  The real magic of this game is the sounds that are produced.  The various smacks from landing hits, the pitter patter of the characters dashing around, the slashes of swords, the metallic clang of moves clashing with one another, and all that I haven’t mentioned are all so obviously chosen with care that it is difficult to describe with words what that means (but I will try).  You see, in a game that was meant to be a casual experience, the sound design suggests something entirely different.  I think a very good reference material to mention here is Core-A-Gaming’s review of Shaq-Fu (which can be found here).  The sheer amount of sounds and the different states that cause different sounds to play is outstanding.

Now, let’s veer off course for something personal.  Now, I tried to play Melee at a competitive level (and to some effect, I still do).  Throughout this process I noticed something that I found a bit delightful:  the barred entry for unskilled players.  Now, before you go crucifying me in your mind (or real life), hear me out.  Every fighting game has some sort of skill floor that you must get to before you can adequately play the game at a higher level than just “button mashing”.  Melee takes precision and skill and dedicating oneself to usually just one single character for at the very least a year.  There are so many situations and scenarios that you as a player are responsible for handling besides just neutral.  In terms of cars, Melee is manual transmission, and it will punish you for missing inputs harder than most fighting games (you can accidentally kill yourself, and even at top levels of play this happens).  What makes this beautiful to me?  Well, it keeps the players who have not practiced or players who simply don’t care to practice from succeeding.  Melee takes so much time to get good at, and there are so many things you can learn on your own even without an opponent to fight against.  As, hopefully, a future game developer, my ideals on this topic are totally the opposite of what they should be.  However, I’ll stand by what I’ve said because it acts as a nice filter and forces those who are truly passionate about the game to adopt a good mentality that nothing is actually “unbeatable” or “broken” and even if it is, you’ll have to adapt or just quit.  This might come off as a “cancerous” mentality or I’m being too closed minded because I obviously have ties to this game.

Well… it is a possibility but I’d like to defend myself here, or at least try.  So, let’s take a game further in the series:  Smash 4 Wii U.  Now, I did try this game for a couple of months.  I knew upon release that there would be tournaments for this game, so I practiced it a little and tried my best to find a main character.  Unfortunately, due to the decreased height of the skill floor that got rid of the tech skill I had come to understand I was completely unable to actually find fun in this game.  You see, the skills required to play Melee at a higher level simply add to the player’s options and increase the speed at which the player can act and move.  Since these elements were missing from Smash 4, I could not enjoy it.  I tried my very best to do so, but in the end it was impossible.  It was like trying to enjoy a food that you knew upon first taste that you didn’t (like when people tell you coffee is an acquired taste or something ridiculous like that).  It just was not going to happen.  A similar phenomenon occurred upon Brawl’s release, and while Brawl has the sales numbers to say it was the most popular game in the series, that simply isn’t true because Brawl is not played competitively to the extent that any other game in the series is (including the Nintendo 64 version!).

So, what makes Melee so magical then?  Well, I think as I’ve been writing I’ve been slowly figuring that out.  The magic of Melee is that it was an accident really.  When the game was released, Masahiro Sakurai did not foresee it becoming an eSport by any means (and in fact, did not  want any of his games to be played as eSports).  The mechanics of the game lend themselves to being infinitely deep.  A quick example is that certain combos work at certain percentages on certain characters but not others.  Every combo of the game can only be done in a very specific set of circumstances, and this set of circumstances is similar to a set of points on a circle; they’re infinite (or at least they seem that way).  You combine the intricacy of the mechanics of the game with a cast of eight to ten viable characters and you’ve now multiplied the number of circumstances by 100.  For many people who simply watch the game, this sounds ridiculous, but I can tell you that as a player for nearly 4 years now, every bit of this final paragraph is true.  To many casual onlookers, every Fox vs Falco match is the same regardless of player or stage or tournament, but in reality there are no two sets that look alike in the entire history of the game that have ever been recorded.  The game requires top levels of mental fortitude and concentration as well as insane levels of human performance, mechanical timings, and inhuman reaction times.  

I will admit that I am very biased, but I will also assert that anyone who gives Melee more than 20 minutes of thought has to agree that the game is at least deep.  Many will argue that it is unfair, and at times it can seem to be.  But, to me it is actually the most impressive accidental masterpiece in the history of gaming.  I will have to give Melee a solid 8.5/10.  With all of the praises I sung of the game, that score might seem low; but the game is not without faults.  If you’re curious to what those faults are, feel free to ask me about it (I’m not including it here since I’m a bit rushed for time since these reviews are done in less than an hour only).