#there's a gen version of this somewhere on my blog if you are interested

[springbreezes-and-peonies]

*Slides you a blank check for the remaining ask game options* no pressure though! /gen I’m happy to give you an excuse to talk more about Peony 👍

Ohhhh boy you did it now! Wait…you guys are getting paid for this? Lol anyway! Here we go! All the unanswered Peony asks for ya!

🪐—Peony is from Planet Popstar! She is a Floralian moth-kind specifically and as such is from the sky kingdom of Floralia. She has lived on a small sky island on the outskirts of the Floralian archipelago all her life, she drifted there, carried by a gentle breeze as a little baby caterpillar and the island and its flora are all she has ever known. It is a neglected and ignored island in terms of the Floralian kingdom and the monarchy has never taken much interest in it…so far 👀👀👀

⚔️—Peony fights with her magic when she has to, so vines to hold and whip and entangle, sharp leaves and petals to cut and blow around like the leaf tornado ability Kirby gets with the leaf copy ability, and other such attacks. She can use her magic when in need, to generate a large, thick, flower petal shield, but she has no weapon per se like Meta Knight, Dedede, and BanDee.

🪽—Peony absolutely can fly, she has magical moth wings that I’m trying to make more clear in my drawings are transparent and magical in quality and she usually only summons them when she needs them to fly, otherwise they are not visible. If touched, they would, despite their transparent nature, feel soft and velvety like a moth’s wings and scatter sparkling, powdery, scales around.

🥘—Peony’s diet is a lot of fruits and honeys and nectars. She really loves bread with honey, it’s a huge comfort for her, and when Taranza introduces her to teas, she absolutely adores them. They are so soothing and warm she can’t get enough for a time. And when he shows her REAL pastries she falls even more in love lol If absorbed by the cook ability she’d drop a Strawberry Shortcake! 🍰

☀️—Peony is in no rush in the morning since her time for really longest time ever is her own, and so she really only manages it based on what SHE wants to do and accomplish. She takes her time waking up and getting ready, combs through her curls, and gets ready to water and tend all her plants. For breakfast she’ll usually have whatever fruits are currently growing in her garden and just go.

🎶—Peony cannot play any instruments, surrounded by plants it’s not something they would be able to really teach her. I do like to think Taranza teaches her piano at some point because that’s just very sweet to me 🥺. She CAN naturally sing pretty well though! This isn’t part of the ask but my headcanon voice for her is Kira from The Dark Crystal so if you’ve ever seen that film, that’s how she sounds and sings. I feel like if she had a battle theme it would probably sound somewhat similar to the instrumental bits of Evanescence’s Imaginary, good song for her in general, same with October by them too. ALSO Thursday by Asobi Seksu, specifically the Olympic Studios version is a song I HEAVILY listen to when drawing or writing for her so if interested in personality of her character and whatnot through music check that song out specifically. I actually have a whole playlist for her on my blog somewhere, it’s a lot of music I use to think up stuff for her!

���—Despite the trauma of her first relationship and friendship being an entirely fake ruse by Dark Matter to gain her trust in order to possess her, Peony is STILL a very friendly person who wants to form friendships and a loving bond with others and she can’t help but put herself out there and try to make new friends when she encounters new people. She is very friendly, affectionate, and extroverted, and her not understanding social cues and graces, is pretty touchy-feely, huggy until told not to be then she listens immediately. The more ingratiated with others she becomes, the more this behavior changes and fades except around those who like and appreciate such things. So she is a social butterfly, or rather a social moth lol she loves the company of others, and being alone for so long, it’s something she craves above everything else.

⚙️—She has little to no knowledge of the ancients, though what she learns does interest her and makes her curious to an extent, it’s not really a fixation of hers. She has no connections to them either.

🍨—For Peony the mech would be one of the jet type designs for the flying sections, all pink and yellow with floral shaped engine fans and wings shaped and colored like her own. It would shoot seed pod looking missiles!

🪞—Peony does have a mirror counterpart, I’ve been meaning to draw her lately. Her color palette is more muted and dull yellow and grey instead of pink on her dress, her skin pale pink and her hair very dusty pink. Her bangs look sort of like the Pokemon Hattena’s in that they’re over grown and curl over her eyes, covering them up. Her wings are black and gold. She is lonely, apathetic, cold, and distant from her social neglect. She does not care for others like Peony does and in fact, does not care much for herself anymore either. Whatever mirror world equivalent to Peony’s Dark Matter possession was visited upon Shadow Peony effected her far more deeply and changed her far more fundamentally. I got asked a couple of times if like Peony is with Taranza, is Shadow Peony seeing Dark Taranza and I haven’t fully decided but if she were the relationship would be very unhealthy. Shadow Peony is apathetic but very codependent in a very unhealthy way. She would latch onto even false affection even knowing it was false and Dark Taranza being the embodiment of Taranza’s grief over Sectonia’s death given form would never be able to truly love her back, but certainly would see a willing puppet he could use to attempt bring Sectonia back to life, or drown Taranza in his grief. I don’t think Peony would at all get along with Shadow Peony and would be very disturbed by her, but would also feel a lot of pity and sorrow for her, recognizing her for what she is, a reflection of her loneliness and trauma.

♟️—Unfortunately for Peony, she does get possessed easily and has been possessed before (it is part of her backstory which is pinned on my page). I think she DOES train herself with Taranza’s help as he is able to possess others and understands how it works, to build up a resistance to possession as it is something she fears happening to her again greatly.

🦁—Peony is already sort of an animal person, if she were a normal animal in our world she’d be a rosy maple moth.

🕰️—I will actually have to draw this VERY soon as it’s been heavily on my mind lol but her Dream Gears version would have a big, puffy dress with arches pinned up by flowers, one of those fancy, Victorian wide-brimmed hats decorated with flowers that you tie under your chin to keep on, and more lacy looking gloves. I’ll really have to draw it to give the full picture tbh but it’s in my brain lol. She would be a botanist of course.

🛡️—Peony would pick beam mage for sure, which I also should draw lol

🦋—Peony fears death about as much as the average person and doesn’t often dwell on her own mortality unless it becomes pressing in the moment. This fusion with the Morpho butterfly I really can’t much describe and will likely have to draw. Her eyes would be white voids instead of pink though and the Morpho sword would look more like her antennae than its typical orange look.

🍒—Out of all the Dream Friends she easily gets along with Taranza the most. She is in love with him, and adores him so much. But other than him, she gets along with the main four especially well, and especially Kirby considering he saved her life. She loves how happy and kyoot and squishy he is and he always likes her hugs. Dream friends she doesn’t really get along with are Dark Meta Knight for obvious evil mirror reasons and Susie for a time because her personality is more cold and corporate than Peony can easily adjust to.

And hey WOW that’s all of them! It was so much fun! Lol I’ll have do this again if another one pops up! Or try to make one of my own 👀👀

Thank you for everyone who participated!! This was so much fun fr

🌸🌷🕸️🌷🌸

[redjaybathood]

false dichotomy

When Jason and Bruce find out about Gloria, Bruce doesn't let him leave. They wait outside the building, sitting on the steps. Jason, who ten minutes ago was struggling in Bruce's clutches, kicking and screaming how he would take down that bastard, now has all fight gone out of him.

Jason sees her body on the stretcher, in a black bag, being wheeled into the ambulance. He can't; he drops his head into Bruce's lap, and Bruce covers him with the cape, hiding his crying from the outside world.

"It's not over, Robin," Bruce says. "He won't be held accountable for rape or inciting suicide on the USA soil. But we have enough on his father's drug operations. I shared this information both with local authorities and with a vigilante back in South America. The United States is not the only country in the world that has crime fighters, you know. After we crippled his money-making operations, let's see how he will buy his way out of prison. Hey."

Bruce touches his shoulder, squeezes.

"He will get his, I promise."

Jason sits up straight, blinking furiously.

"So what," he says in that dumb from crying voice, and he does not care who listens, just as he didn't care when he raved in Batman's grip how he will kill Garzonas. Of course, it would never happen. But he wanted to. He wanted. "We just go home?"

"For now, yes."

They do, indeed, go home. Bruce engages autopilot and sits back, eyes squeezed shut. Jason turns away from him to look at the window, where the cityscape changes 70 miles per hour, but everything always remains the same. Nothing Jason does ever makes a dent.

It's exhausting, he's exhausted - tired that there aren't any reliable solutions. They do their best and it's still not enough.

They both are tired, maybe, because all the way home neither says anything. But in the Cave, after they showered and changed, as Jason is ready to head to his room (tomorrow is a school day, he has to get some sleep, even if he knows he is not getting any), Bruce stops him and leads him to his own room.

"You don't want to leave me alone?" Jason asks grimly, as Bruce gently shoves him towards the bed. "Afraid I will sneak out and do what I threatened to?"

Bruce gets the lights, gets under the cowers, and tugs Jason to himself. Jason's face almost mushed into his collarbone, and Bruce's chin rests atop his curls.

"No," Bruce says. "Afraid I will. You can't... You can't imagine the urge - I want, Jason. The thing you screamed, in desperation, out of powerlessness, at the sight of her... I want to do it. I know how. And without leaving evidence, too. Please stay with me tonight."

"Alright," Jason murmurs into him, lips touching the hot skin. He sneaks his hands around Bruce, and moves, so his weight is now slightly on top of Jason. Like his personal weighted blanket. He moves his foot, the ball of his foot presses to the small of Bruce's back. This way, neither of them is going anywhere.

"Alright."

He feels Bruce relaxing into him, bit by bit. Instead of his chin, it's his mouth that presses to the top of Jason's head. His hand moves into soothing circles on Jason's back, and Jason mirrors the gesture.

The sleep still doesn't come.

"Have you ever... Have you ever felt those urges before?"

"Every damn time," Bruce replies. "When I face something... Something truly heinous, or something personal, or something I can't fix. The man who killed my father, it's an accident that I wasn't the one to kill him. A rapist, who killed five women, my friend among them. She was an heiress, like me, but left the safety of her parents' home to become a social worker. The people she helped lived mostly at South Heights. That was his hunting ground. Her own heart, her empathy, her desire to fix this broken city led her straight into his hands. And I almost killed the wrong man over it. Not an innocent one - but not for this particular crime. And then, the Joker. After what he did to Gordons, I found him. I thought: this is it. This ends tonight. And he thought the same. Was gleeful already. I was proving him right: one bad day..."

"But you didn't," Jason raises his head to meet his eyes, and Bruce lowers his.

Their mouths meet. For a second, everything is frozen, but then Bruce is pulling away and Jason gets on top of him, presses him into the mattress, and catches his hands.

"You didn't," he insists, stream-rolling through the awkwardness. "You won't. What bad day, what bullshit. Every day of my life before meeting you was bad, and some of them after. That's life. It's hard and unfair and it sucks. You make it better, Bruce. Not only for me - for the city. For the world, working with the League, with heroes from other countries. Inspiring people."

There's a ghost of a rueful smile on Bruce's face. The rest of it is hidden in the shadow, the minuscule amount of moonlight really doesn't help to read your partner's expression.

"If you ever feel like you want to kill someone, you come to me, okay?" Jason finishes.

The smile is even more obvious now.

"Why would I, knowing you would stop me?"

"I won't," Jason says firmly. "I will help."

"And what about me being an inspiration?" Bruce asks, in a tone full of curiosity that borders with mockery.

He never used this tone in Jason's memory. Jason doesn't like it. He needs to figure out something to get Bruce out of this mindset. But before that, he finishes his point.

"Then you need to remember that you can inspire not only good but bad in people, too. In me. If you fall, we fall together."

"I promised though," Bruce says, and now he sounds sad. "When you were just starting to learn how to use grapple. I won't let you fall."

Jason shrugs. It's going to be Bruce's decision. Jason just hopes that his willingness to follow Bruce to hell and back will make him think twice about where's he going.

"Alright?" Jason lets go of Bruce's wrists, and Bruce immediately uses his free hands to flip them over.

Now it's Bruce on top and Jason is pressed below him.

"Alright," Bruce says, and kisses his forehead. "Now go to sleep."

With this weight atop of him, Jason falls asleep in minutes.

When he wakes up, he realizes that Bruce moved them, so he wouldn't crush Jason after they both reach their destination: 'dream land'. Now, Bruce is using him as a teddy bear, cuddling from behind.

He also feels Bruce's not completely asleep. A part of him... Is very awake. Damn. If he tries to escape his hold, Bruce is bound to wake up, and then neither of them will be ever able to look each other in the eye.

And while he's frozen, Bruce, in the opposite, starts moving. He must do something, he needs to - but then Bruce presses his lips to his ear and bites, lightly. Jason feels with horror his own body lighting up. Like a switch pressed. He never - it feels like... Bruce rolls his hips, and Jason feels his hardness moving between his thighs, and that's. That's even better.

He clutches Bruce's forearm involuntarily, clawing into it with enough force to draw blood when Bruce moves again, and now he's pressing Jason into the mattress, face down, and the friction intensifies. Bruce starts kissing him now, open-mouthed, wet kisses, on his neck, where it meets his back. Jason moans into the pillow.

And this is apparently enough to wake Bruce up. He freezes and raises from Jason's body - but doesn't let go of him completely, not yet. Jason turns and he sees the sleep-confused expression he expected. And now he really needs to do something. Forget being unable to look at him, Bruce is this close to realization and buying a ticket to Alaska. Or making Alfred drive him to the police station.

Jason catches him into a kiss before he can do any of that.

"'s okay," he says. "If you need it. I want to."

"No," Bruce says and he tries to disengage.

But then Jason kisses him again and moves his hips, and Bruce responds, and all his protests disappear.

Along with their pants.

Jason has his hands full with threading through Bruce's hair. Bruce has his hands on them. He breaks away from Jason's lips only to press one of his own to his throat.

Well, there's Jason's plan to go to school. No way he's leaving this room at all, with a hickey.

It's his last thought before Bruce starts moving faster, and then it's just this. Just Bruce and him. Falling together.

After, when they both can breathe more or less evenly, Bruce turns to him with an expression Jason was afraid of.

"I'm sorry," he says, morosely.

"Aw, come on," Jason says lightly. "You weren't that bad, for an old man. I need dinner first next time."

"Jason. This is serious."

Jason sighs. Turns away from him because what he plans to say next, it's not going to be easy, especially if he sees Bruce's expression.

"Just for the record. This is the most pleasant sexual encounter I ever had. A little unexpected, sure, but for both of us. But really good. I don't, like, want to kill myself or you after it's over. So I will even go as far as to say, it was exemplary. Don't go and make me feel like we did something to be ashamed of. Something horrible. It's not going to help anyone."

"Jason... I'm older, you're my dependent... you're too young..."

"And here I was, thinking I'm your partner. What, I'm not too young to get shot in my stomach, but too young to have sex? You about four years behind on that one."

"Jason..."

"I don't want to talk about it. But just FYI, I know what too young is, and this isn't it."

He turns to look at Bruce and yep, pity and guilt.

"If you treat me like I can't possibly know what I am doing and can't decide by myself because, what, you pay my bills? I'm impressionable youth and look up to you? How do you even rationalize me going out with you every night?"

Bruce gets this stubborn tilt to his jaw.

"Maybe you shouldn't."

"Maybe go fuck yourself. I promise that if I ever find you behaving predatory, I will clean your clock before you can hurt anyone, including me, okay? But this wasn't it. This was an accident. I was totally on board. In fact, I was so on board, I wouldn't mind another round."

He presses the hickey on his neck, falls down on the bed. His other hand moves from his chest lower, lower.

Thank god Bruce's eyes follow his movement, his pupils blown wide. Otherwise, it would become embarrassing really fucking quick.

"Well?" Jason commands, believing that Bruce will know what he means much better than he actually does.

Bruce does.

[inprogresspokemon]

FAQ

About Me

Hey there, you can call me IPP (In-Progress Pokemon) or Jae. Any pronoun (he/she/they) is fine. I started this blog in late October 2014 and it has become a passion project for me, that will possibly never end because TPC keeps adding new Pokemon.

My first Pokemon game was Red Version and my favorite Pokemon are Swampert and Noivern. Out of the Gen 9 Starters I am currently team Fuecoco.

I have a pet Blue Tongue Skink named Burrito (he is a good, chubby boy).

What does In-Progress Pokemon mean?/What are these?

In-Progress Pokemon is my name for the concept of exploring how Pokemon might look if they physically transitioned from one evolutionary stage to another. Basically: if Pokemon grew rather than evolved. The “transitional stages” that I illustrate aren’t meant to be taken as actual additional stages; rather, as a “snap-shot” in time while the Pokemon is growing or transitioning between each evolutionary stage. The flavor text/descriptions help to bridge the evolutionary gaps as well.

I also post other Pokemon-related art, like commissioned Fakemon or my Dual-Type Eeveelutions.

When do you update/post new art?

My upload schedule for new art is every Monday and Thursday, 2:00pm EST. They’re reblogged in the evening at 8:00pm EST, and again on Sunday.

I try to always have something new to post for those days, but occasionally have to skip updates when I didn’t have enough time to finish something. I reblog older art at 2pm and 4pm on other days - they’re tagged as “old art” and “IPPreblog” if you want to blacklist them.

New art only view is here.

If they’re not meant to be new stages, why are they named? Can I suggest a name?

Originally I didn’t name them, but after time people began to suggest names, and it’s turned into something I do regularly now. When I post a new Pokemon line, people suggest names for the transitional stages and after a while I’ll look through the suggested names and pick the one I think fit best (based on origin, existing name scheme, etc) - I don’t come up with the names myself.

You’re welcome to suggest a name by reblogging, commenting, or messaging me. When the time comes I’ll make a post with all the suggestions, and I’ll tag you if I go with your name or a name you’ve seconded or showed support for.

If you decide to suggest a name, please include a brief breakdown of your suggestion inspirations (ie: Charmander is a combination of char + salamander).

Have you done [X] Pokemon?

At this point... probably! If you’re on mobile, you can try the search function or look up any Pokemon using my mobile index.

If you’re on desktop, I recommend my sprited Pokemon Index.

Both are kept up-to-date.

How’s your progress going?

They keep introducing new Pokemon, but I’m getting pretty close. As of Early 2022, only a few Pokemon lines are left pre-PLA, and now I have some new Hisuian Pokemon added to the plate that I’m quickly getting to.

What’s up with the redos?

When I started in 2014 I had little to no digital art experience, and a lot of my older art shows this. I’m in the process of redoing older lines and either updating their existing design in my current style, or redoing the design and concept completely. I dislike having my older (imo bad) art out there, so redos is a priority for me, although I know it’s not as interesting for my followers so I try to space them out. I also tend to do redos when I don’t have the time or motivation for anything else. 

I post redo compilations periodically if you want to see a comparison.

Are you okay with fanart?

I absolutely love fanart, it makes my day and fills me with joy. Please tag me if you post it so I can see and reblog your art!!

Can I use your Fakemon...

...as my profile picture? Yes - please just credit me if anyone asks about it.

...in my fanfiction? Yes - please credit me somewhere in the notes (etc.) if your fanfiction is posted publicly. Bonus points if you link to the original post for the fakemon you’re using.

...to make an OC? Yes - please credit me for the base design/species when your OC is first posted, but you don’t need to keep including credit every time going forward. And if anyone asks, please credit me.

...in my Youtube video? As a general rule, I’m fine with that so long as I’m credited and linked to in the description, but I prefer if you ask me first if you plan on my work being a large part of your video. Using a single image here or there is fine as long as I’m credited.

...in my fangame? Sorry, but I’m not allowing my fakemon in fangames or rom hacks at this time.

All that said, I can’t grant permission for Fakemon that were commissioned and belong to the commissioner, although I’m always willing to try reaching out to the commissioner and ask permission on your behalf. It will always say on my posts if a Fakemon was commissioned and belongs to someone else.

What about Mega Pokemon?

Yes, I’m doing those too.

What about Gigantamax Pokemon?

As of now, I’m not planning on doing them. They’re large, time-consuming, and I don’t really like them. I may do them in the future once I’ve completed the main lines and Megas, but no promises.

Commissions?

Yes, I take commissions, though I close them when I have too many commissioned queued or if my IRL is very busy. The pinned post on the top of my blog shows my commission status.

I’m in the process of revamping my commission info page to have images and be more up-to-date, but my old page is here.

I mainly do Pokemon-related commissions, but I do take others, I just don’t post them here. If you’re looking for a non-Pokemon related commission, just ask!

I accept payment only once I’m able to start to your commission and do my business through PayPal invoices, which you can pay with a PayPal account if you have one, or a credit or debit card if you do not.

Depending on what you’re looking to commission, we can work as collaboratively as you like. Some people just want me to make a certain thing and like being surprised with the final result, some people have a firm vision and want to be able to give feedback during the designing process and make changes, some people fall somewhere in the middle. Whatever you prefer is fine.

Social Media:

Email IPPcommissions@gmail.com (commissions)

           inprogresspokemon@gmail.com (other)

Instagram @inprogresspokemon

Facebook In-Progress Pokemon

DeviantArt InProgressPokemon

Twitter @Inprogresspokes

I am only active on Tumblr these days, but I plan to return to DeviantArt and Instagram sometime soon.

Can I submit/ask/chat with you about something? 

Yes, here is my submissions page, and here is my asks page.

And you can always send me a chat message, though I get a lot of them and can’t always respond right away.

Did you get my message? Why haven’t you responded yet?

Sorry, sometimes it takes me a while to get to messages. I also try to space them out so I’m not filling the blog with them. It’s never personal. If I never responded to your message, or it’s been weeks, it’s possible I never got it, or more likely, it has gotten buried under other asks before I was able to respond. If you need to hear from me about something, you can send me a chat message or resend your ask.

I don’t want to clutter people’s dashboards, so I tend to not respond to a lot of anonymous asks if I feel they don’t require a response, but I read them and I especially appreciate the kind words that some of you send my way; they help to keep my spirits up! If you want to send me and ask and prefer a private response, feel free to put (private) at the end of your non-anon message and I will respond privately.

What program do you use?:

I use Paint Tool SAI for the sketch, line art, and coloring, and Photoshop CC for the text/editing/backgrounds.

My general settings info is here.

Tagging, ie: I don’t want to see [X] or I want to find [X]:

I tag everything. You can search for Pokemon by name, type, generation, region, as well as for starter Pokemon and Eeveelutions. You can also blacklist certain things you aren’t interested in seeing on your dashboard.

Other tags:

IPPasks - my ask tag

IPPnews/IPPupdates - news and updates for the blog

IPPnames/name suggestions - for reblogs where a Pokemon is named

IPPreblog/reblog/old art - for reblogs of old art, for any reason

IPPdiscussions - longer discussions or explorations of a topic

IPPdoodles - for random Pokemon sketches and doodles

IPPfanart - my fanart tag!

dual types - posts about the Dual-Type Eeveelutions

baby version - Pokemon lines that have a bonus baby form

[X] bothers me, can you tag it?

Yes - if seeing or reading something bothers you, please let me know and I will do my best to tag it for you going forward.

[rinchfest]

Announcing Rinch Fest 2021, a ship week for Harold Finch/John Reese from Person of Interest! This is a low-pressure event meant to encourage the creation of more fanworks for Finch/Reese. Fic, art, gifs, vids, podfic, you name it—all are welcome, as long as they’re Rinch-centric.

Posting for the first Rinch Fest will run from September 24 through September 30, 2021.

PROMPTS:

Day One Fix-it • Tropes • Setting/Genre-Change AU • Hugs

Day Two Angst • Wedding/Engagement • Retirement • Clothes

Day Three Food/Drinks/Cooking • Pets/Animals • Fluff • Established Relationship

Day Four Domesticity • Dark • The Machine • Getting Together

Day Five Reese Whump • Pining • Babies/Kids • Crossover

Day Six Finch Whump • NSFW/Kink • Canon-divergence AU • Casefic

Day Seven Free-for-All/Catch-Up Day

Keep reading for the FAQ!

Who's running this? @argylepiratewd

Why not call it Rinch Week? It started out as Rinch Fest on The Rinch Loft on Discord, and that's what stuck.

Plus, Rinch Fest and Reese & Finch share the same initials.

What’s allowed? Complete fanworks focusing on Harold Finch and John Reese in a romantic relationship with each other. Fic, art, vids, remixes, sequels, you name it! No length requirements, no style requirements, all ratings allowed—do what you want!

Anything not allowed? Works where Finch/Reese is not the primary romantic relationship (additional ships are fine), works that are incomplete at the time of posting, and remixes or other transformative works for other people's fanworks that are done without the original creator’s permission. Anything else is fair game, as long as it’s labeled.

Also, don’t be a jerk.

What about [insert controversial topic here]? Can I make something with x?/OMG someone made something with x! Anything else is fair game, as long as it’s labeled. This includes works featuring tropes and kinks that you may not like or approve of. As long as it’s warned for, it’s fine and allowed.

Please warn for the usual AO3 warnings (Major Character Death, Graphic Violence, Rape/Non-Con, and Underage) and any subjects others may find deeply unpleasant, and clearly label any NSFW works.

What about poly? Gen? Poly and gen are wonderful, but this is a (shippy) Finch/Reese event. Sorry.

What do I do with x prompt?/Can I do [insert concept here]? Anything goes! Seriously, however you want to interpret a prompt is fine. Retirement could be happy retirement for the guys, it could be John still grappling with the CIA’s version, or something else. Pets/Animals could be Bear or a new pet, John petting Harold's hair or belly or booty, someone turning into an animal, or something else. Kids could be human children (born or unborn) or goat children. Dark could be dark concepts or literal darkness or something else. Your choice!

Do I have to make something for every prompt? No! You can if you want, but it’s not required. Feel free to skip days, combine prompts, create multiple fills for each day, anything! This is as flexible as it gets.

If it fits multiple prompts, when do I post it? Whatever day works best for you!

What if I want to do something NSFW for another prompt? Do I have to wait until Day Six to post it? Nope!

What about a multi-chapter/piece thing where each chapter fulfills one day’s prompt? When do I post that? Post an update each relevant day until you’re done! (Just make sure you can finish it by the end of the event.)

What if it doesn't fit a prompt? That's what Day 7 is for! :D

What if I need to post my fill(s) on a different day? Life happens. The AO3 collection is set to Unrevealed, so I can reveal early submissions on the right day, but if that doesn't work for you, I'm sure we can work something out.

Can I work on a previously-posted WIP? As long as it’s finished when you make your post for the event, sure! If you're just updating a WIP without finishing it, no.

Can I start working now? Absolutely! That's why I'm announcing it now—so there's plenty of time for people to make things.

Can I talk about/share previews of what I’m working on? Sure!

Wait, there's a Rinch Discord server? Do I have to join to do this? Of course not. We’d love to have you at The Rinch Loft, and it’s a fun place to hang out, but Rinch Fest is for anyone into Rinch.

If I want the Discord link… Send in an Ask, message @argylepiratewd, or ask around. It’s open to anyone who likes Rinch or Person of Interest. I’m happy to give it out to anyone who wants it.

Where do I post? On Tumblr, post to your blog and use the #rinchfest21 or #rinchweek21 tags. You are They are being watched. 👁 And maybe add @rinchfest in your post to be sure. Tumblr is as hungry as Bear and Shaw.

Submissions are also open.

On AO3, there’s a Rinch Fest 2021 collection here.

Do I have to have a Tumblr? AO3? As long as you’re on some kind of platform and can get a link to the work to me somehow so I can share it with the world, you’re welcome to play.

On October 1st, I'll make a round-up post full of links to all the shiny things people made. If I know you made it, it'll go in!

What time zone? The daily prompt posts will be going up at 12 am Central Time, but as long as it's the relevant day for your fill somewhere in the world, go ahead and throw it in!

(And if you want to sneak in some Day 7 things a little after, as long as they get posted before the Master Post goes up... 😉)

How do I post? There's an early posting guide here! Those instructions should be mostly applicable if you posting on the day that goes with your chosen prompt as well—just adjust them as needed.

Sounds fun! How do I sign up? No signups! Just post your stuff somewhere on the right day(s), and you’re in!

[testingcheats0n]

Chapter 5

Okayyyyyy??

We got ourselves a myth chapter? It's just myths for worldbuilding and/or just a dream~? Earth, moon, sun. Pretty standart creation myth ig Oceans, seas, lakes rivers... please don't tell me that they'll list every single rock and bush that Gea- I uh I mean mother earth- has ever farted out. Author-nim-noona-san-sama I beg 😫 Tolkien during the Valaquenta would never.

Oho wait- incest in my creation myth? More likely than I thought.

"U-UwU what are you doing step-Uranus?"

"Hahaha! I'll show you why they call me that!"

Bruh. Bruuuh~ they snubbed my boy Prometheus?! -100 points author-nim my entire blog is named after that chad, you can't rip off the greeks and get rid of big chief the fire stealer.

"WhY dID yOU mAKe TheSE?!"Fuck you fuck you fuck you we were Prometheus' pride and joy fuck you he defied god for us he would never create us for a dick-measuring competition. Fuck you. He's better than all of you put together. Fuck the Gea rip-off and fuck Uranus.

"She gave them fire to make them warm :v" Fuck off.

"They were ungrateful." Double fuck off. This mother earth creature sounds like an abusive parent.

Ah haha...

/nm...

:)

Ah so even the "new" gods are some version of the greek myths :/ hm.

Magus should go eat dirt and die actually. "The rest of the civilized world- aka my kingdom- has changed the name of the country, so the country should accept it."

Magus can go wank himself over his superiority in private thanks 🙄 I'm sure there's an old tome somewhere in his office just waiting for it.

Magus: don't get offended, but your mother was a stupid uneducated peasant- that is also a filthy dirty immigrant- and I know better than her, so you should be ashamed of ever mentioning her filthy uneducated lies. But no offence :)

I want him to get mauled by a bear :D

"Haha your mother is dead, isn't that embarassing?" Cake eater, like danish in a donut shop. Do people like him? Does he have fans or anything? What a piece of crap. I officially hate him.

Anyway. Gen's full name is Eugenides, that's cool af.

By the way. The fact that olives for brains went for the offensive, by attacking Gen's mother, his lineage and using his grief against him and trying to humiliate him for having a dead mother (all ad hominems for a simple myth) proves that Gen and his mother are right. Magus is just a pussy with an ego the size of his dick. X X S!

"Eugenides was the god of thieves- we're all named after him." Now that's cool. So it's like a title of a sort, apart from the "King's Thief" one. That's interesting af. Gen told me a piece of worldbuilding in a single sentence that grabbed my attention faster than olives for brains' entire monologue could.

Imagine being so empty that your biggest accomplishment in a week is making fun of a kid's dead mother. Imagine. Mf was strutting the next day, wtf is actually wrong with him?

I hope he gets brained by a stray rock. Wouldn't that be a shame.

Magus' poor planing vs Gen's inexistent thieving skills

FIGHT!

Magus won...

Old fart wouldn't know manipulation if it hit him.

Ambiades once again proves me right. He's smart, and he's using magus for his knowledge. Speaking about successful manipulation 🙄

Okay so. It's not necessary for an heir to be good at arms. But. It's useful and the skill in battle demands respect and better control. So Sophos should at least try to learn both academics and fighting. He actually kinda reminds me of Samwell Tarly from asoiaf. He's kinda gentle and only wants to learn. His father has other plans.

Then we have this magus, Sophos, Ambiades trio. Ambiades is better at academics, but is obviously there not to learn (and if he does it's more political things) while Sophos is just there to learn period. It should be the other way around tbh... If I were Ambiades I would be striving for a position as a magus at court since his title isn't that impressive- possibly even working on substituting olives for brains if the king has a son, but if I were Sophos I would be squeezing magus' knowledge on politics and the king for all it's worth. It's like learning from experience AND spying for info.

Thieving IS hereditary. That's fascinating! I hope his mother was called Eugenia, it would be awesome.

Sophos: so your father didn't go for milk and didn't come back? Wow your mother is not a slut and you're not a bastard? :o

You gotta love this.

Gen has an older brother who is a soldier, and another who is a watchmaker- he's also called Stenides. Hmmm...

Well, Gen is probably a momma's boy.

Oh he also has sisters. They're... housewifes... sure. The fantastic sexism was sparse so author-nim had to compensate somehow ig.

I just hope to god they're also thieves or something like that.

Alright. This is impressive, I can imagine the terrain perfectly with only a description from the text. Very few books can do that especially with fantasy, and I feel like more writers should strive for writing like such. That said, I would kill for a map just to see that weird ass river that is everywhere.

Attolia >>> Sulnas (Sunas? Solnas? I'm sorry commenter who told me the correct spelling) got it

Okay. I'm sorry but I have to confess I got spoiled when I checked Ambiades' wiki. I kinda sorta know he's not who he says he is. It's obvious with the way he knows so much about Attolia and doesn't care about other places' flora/ecosystem. It's as if he knows it from experience and not from a desire to learn.

Awww Sophos looks up to Ambiades that's adorable.

Wtf mother earth is a dick lmao. She's still mad that humans aren't paying attention to her, so childish. Whatever, the myth was beautiful even if it made 0 sense at the end.

[undercityrezident]

My Thoughts on Sword and Shield

So I’m finally getting around to typing this up: my disorganized melange of thoughts regarding Pokemon Sword and Shield!

Naturally, there are spoilers beneath the cut below. Please let it be known that this is all just my opinions on the game, the story, the characters, etc, and I’m sure there are many people that feel differently. I don’t want to do this to push my views on others, so much as be able to get it down somewhere and mainly to gush about things I like about the game, as well as analyze things I noticed, which I also enjoy doing as someone who generally likes diving deep on writing tropes and plotwork.

Ok! Here we go!

So from the start, while the Pokemon Franchise has been no stranger to intriguing or engaging characters, I think this game is truly one of the best with how it fleshes out so many of the characters you meet along the way. It makes most of them quite memorable, and a treat to see over and over as you often do throughout the game. It, in fact, does help that you get to see them over and over, as it gives us a chance to get to see a bit more of what drives them and what quirks they have on the second time around. Most pokemon games have gym leaders being a one-off encounter before losing them to the mists of game progression. In these games, that’s anything but the case, as you often see them before, naturally during, and then after the battle, whether it be tying them to the plot of the game, or in the final championship tournament. Especially in the case of the latter scenario, it’s really satisfying to see them really bringing your A-game against you compared to the gym battles that you first plowed through.

With regards to my favourites, Nessa’s a natural high ranking candidate, and likely, was my top contender throughout most of my experience. I loved her seemingly steely-eyed grit and determination that left her almost stoic in battle with a side of utter determination to be the best. I love that competitive side of her, and I love it all the more when that facade breaks and her frustration in losing shines through. It really humanizes her and makes me relate to her all the more. It was only in the post-game that Piers ended up stealing that  top spot by sheer exposure to his quirky personality and his enduring worrisome concern for his little sister. Geez I wonder who else I really like on this blog who has a similar brother-sister dynamic... I sense a running theme here...

Honourable mention goes to Opal for the best off-kilter gym mission and gym battle. Hers had me laughing the hardest of any of them. My only complaint is that I wish we could’ve met the minor league gym leaders as well.

More than the gym leaders, however, where the character development lies, is in your rivals. Again, the franchise is no stranger to this. We saw Silver grow into a  halfway decent person in Pokemon Gold/Silver, and we get a trio of dynamic, changing rivals in this game.

First off is Hop, and of course, the first thing I think of is that this is a hyper-competitive version of Barry, minus the collisions. He seems to run ahead just as fast as the gen 4 blondie as well. Of course, we have the angle with his wanting to emulate, and eventually overcome his own brother, and current sitting champion: Leon (who is himself, quite the icon in the game). It’s interesting to see Hop’s ups and downs as you battle him over and over, and even outside of battles, his losses in confidence and his persistent attempts to find something that works for morph into a mounting frustration that affects his judgement. It’s truly, only once he slows down to really look back at himself and what he’s done, and what he’s enjoyed doing as a trainer, that he finds his calling: Helping other trainers and pokemon. My only... misgiving is his choice in profession to accomplish that. While I have no doubt that being a pokemon professor can help him accomplish that, I feel like there were so many other things that would’ve been more up his alley for him to do that. I feel like we could’ve benefited from an encounter in the game where Hop either witnessed, or was himself, rescued by some sort of professional pokemon rescue or ranger team of some sort. Hop, while perhaps not the brightest or best skilled of rivals, is no slouch when it comes to wielding the talents of his pokemon, and I felt this would been a beautiful merging of that and his new discovery in wanting to help people and pokemon. On top of that, I felt like his choice to run the professor route ended up stealing the spotlight from someone else who had a similar journey in this game, who I’ll come to later...

The next rival I want to talk about is Bede. All of you who’ve played through this know what this guy is about. He’s a prideful asshole who wants to prove he’s the best and worthy of the faith and endorsement he’s received from Chairman Rose. I’ll tell you right now, getting to stomp him in each and every battle before his eviction from the league was utterly satisfying. Of course, he gets a quick shift in character after he’s been disqualified, courtesy of the rigorous tutelege of Opal in her dire quest to find her Fairy-Gym-Leader replacement. I do like how at least part of his team transitioned from his former Psychic specialization to merge into his new fairy specialization. I was wondering if there was going to be a point of addressing his preference in pokemon versus hers, and if they were going to change the gym’s specialization, but that point went unattended, which felt a tad off to me. However, Bede’s turnaround was enough to have me not thinking about that too, too hard. I just wish we could’ve seen a bit more of his training that Opal’s second league card only gave us the briefest of glimpses into. While I don’t think his growth is up to the level of Silver’s, it’s great that we do get to see a similar arc play out, making him one of the more compelling rivals of the game above Hop, and even Marnie to a degree, and tying him in, even if very tangentially, into the main plot.

The last rival, which I gave brief mention to, is of course, Marnie. And she is my favourite of the three. I will admit that a good part of that is her aesthetic because I love the punk rock aesthetic, especially on ladies. On top of that, she is very cool, calm, collected, and strategic most of the time, which is a character type I tend to gravitate towards more than others. She doesn’t emote very much (save for one really cute scene after the tournament, which is actually adorable and must be seen if you have any love for this character at all), but it goes to the idea and image that Marnie may in fact be one of your toughest rivals, even though Hop is still the primary focus rival for you (and gameplay-wise, is the more difficult). That said, it may be my own team composition, especially during the tourament, when I was forced to have a diverse spread to accomodate all the other challengers, but I’ve always found her team to be the one that always gave me the most trouble. She may specialize in dark types, but she has a couple of wild cards to trip you up... damn you Toxicroak and your Gunk Shot. In the end, her character growth perhaps did not reach the pinnacle of either Bede’s nor Hop’s for some lack of focus (I believe you fought her the least of all the rivals, but she does have her own story of growth, and continuing growth after all the plot is said and done, with her taking over the gym in Spikemuth, and continuing to aim high to the championship seat, and you in particular. Suffice to say, I was always the most excited to interact with her above any of my other rivals, and especially battle her because of that killer amazing battle theme of hers.

I may have put in an application to join Team Yell... just saying...

Besides rivals and gym leaders, there were a myriad cast of other characters, though few stood out as much as they did. This was a game that truly centered on the league, so not many other characters had the opportunity for as much focus. That said, there were some that are worth some mention.

Professor Magnolia did not get as large a role as I imagined she would in this game. I suppose with the far more extensive role Kukui played in the last game, I figured the professor would have a large role in this game too. Of course I was wrong... but for good reason.

Because her assistant, Sonia, took the starring role when it came to the game’s academic character. 

Sonia, of all the characters in the game, gym leaders and rivals included, has byfar, in my opinion, the best character growth and development; and she may in fact be a candidate for that same title across the entire franchise. She starts as seemingly laid back, not particularly wanting to invest time into the legends and history surrounding the dynamax phenomenon. However, as she digs further and further into it, travelling parallel with your character throughout the game, helping you along by giving you tidbits of advice and regailing you with experiences from her own journey she took long before you to help you avoid some of the same pitfalls as her. As you two continue to progress, she learns more and more about the history of the land and how the ‘Darkest Day’ myth holds some real truth, and how the modern interpretation of it is quite a bit different from the fact of it all. It’s something that truly grabs her and makes her more and more excited to travel and unravel this web of mystery, and it makes you all the more invested in her. You come to see her as not just as someone who helps you out along your journey, but as someone who is discovering her own passion and path forward that she’d not envisioned to find on this new adventure she was initially pushed into taking with you by her grandmother. For me, it made me absolutely adore her. I already thought she was cute to start, but it added depth to make her one of my favourites, if not my favourite character in the game, hands-down. The only part of her background that I feel didn’t get explored as well as it could’ve was her connection to her childhood rivalry with Leon. However, I feel that stems from the portrayal and narrative of Leon himself, and the direction the game designers took with him.

On the topic of Leon, I actually have to say, that, sadly, he’s probably the least captivating champion I’ve seen in a long time. He’s painted as this sort of invincible, almost untouchable figure, adored by fans region-wide. While he does have the endearing qualities of being very enouraging and supportive to his fans and challengers, it’s only a minor note in an otherwise over-cultivated mystique and facade that makes him very unrelatable.  Don’t get me wrong, the battle against him was thrilling and tough and made the victory that much sweeter once I tasted it. However, I felt it could’ve had so much more impact if we really got to know him better and had that more personal connection in the battle, beyond the fact he’s the older brother of our rival and the ultimate goal of the league.

Of course, where there are gym leaders, rivals, and champions, there’s always the villains of the games to consider. I’ve felt like we’ve had a steady progression of antagonists that have grown either more menacing, or more tragic, or a combination of both, making for a more interesting, and ultimately, more thrilling story. 

It came as absolutely no surprise to me that the supposed ‘Team’ in this game was a red herring. In fact, it was even more of a red herring, or perhaps less of one, for the sheer obviousness of the fact that they were literally hooligans of a fanclub for Marnie, than even Team Skull was in Sun and Moon. One would think that would leave us wondering who the real villains of the game would be. Of course, most people would be able to easily deduce that the megacorporate-I-own-everything-and-have-done-everything-for-this-region businessman. It was very plain to me that he would be the obvious villain, so much so that I actually caught myself wondering if he was setup to look it, and if Oleanna was the real villain. And, I very nearly was fooled into thinking she was during the pursuit to Rose Tower. However, during that cutscene there (which was oddly broken into stills, compared to the rest of the game’s general full motion cutscenes, which I felt was a very odd choice), it became obvious Chairman Rose very much was the main antagonist of the game, even if he was a well-intentioned one. 

While Oleanna came off as comically terrifying in her battle, I felt like Chairman Rose came off as something of a version of Lysandre, though perhaps not as well executed as our lion-haired redhead was. If they’d taken him in the direction I thought he was going, I think he could rivaled, or even surpassed Lysandre in terms of how compelling he would’ve been. However, it felt like his concerns were something a bit underwhelming when they came to light. 

This of course, brings me to the plot of the game itself. I like how it all started off, and the progression that was laid before us, as we moved from small town and rural, to progressively more modernized settings, and the concerns that come with that. In a way, Galar really is the antithesis, or perhaps, a far flung future for what was saw in Alola in Sun and Moon. Right off the bat, we’re confronted with a huge, well-established, well-funded, and extremely commercialized league. Where Sun and Moon began as a story rooted in the idea of man and pokemon’s communion with the land and nature, Sword and Shield was undoubtedly themed to the other extreme: The power of industry and corporation where pokemon battling is concerned. I thought this would feed into the plot, showing a contrast to the idea of the growth from old traditions to a more modern vision of the Island Pilgrimage in Sun and Moon. My expectations were for this game to show the obvious problems with a league overhyped and overrun with commercial ventures, where perhaps the original spirit of battling might’ve been forgotten for the sake of the spectacle of the media that it’s become.

That’s not quite what we got, as you might have seen. Instead, we had small, trickled hints (or at least one hint, i.e. the instructive chart that Rose gave you), about a potential energy crisis for Galar. However, it’s nothing that’s impending now, so much as it is in the far flung future; over a thousand years in fact.

Honestly, I could’ve gotten behind this angle if they’d tied it to the overuse of power, the wastefulness and frivolity of the people, and their obsession with the league. Think of how the dilapidated state of Spikemuth could’ve been used to point out the dark side of the league obsession, and the consequences of going against the grain of what Rose sees as ideal. And it would’ve been certainly more dramatic and impactful, and created a lot more drama, if the impending catastrope Rose was speaking of was a lot closer at hand (making Leon’s dismissal of it be a bit more callous and give Rose a bit more of justification for his rash actions). Imagine the idea of this whole corporate machine that Rose built beginning to collapse in on itself due to it’s own weight, and that being what drives him to the edge of madness, enough to bring about a new ‘Darkest Day’. Because Galar has become his vision of it’s best self, and he wants to preserve that, not just for Galar, but for the legacy he worked so hard to build. It would’ve made him so much more compelling a character, and so much more character-driven a plot.

That said, the climax of the game, the wrath of Eternatus, the finding and the battling alongside the two Wolf Legends, was incredible, and I was on the edge of my seat for the whole thing. It’s definitely a highlight moment in the series and it could’ve been absolutely perfect, had it come on the wings of a plot that had been tweaked just a bit differently.

Of course, I wouldn’t have been able to see the plot at all without the aid of my trusted team. And while some of the fandom has been in uproar for various reasons over this game and it’s choice in what pokemon to include in this game, I found that while I did miss a few of my faves, plenty of others were still present. In fact, I found myself blown away but just how many pokemon I could catch and what variety of teams I could assemble almost right off the bat. As soon as I hit the first Wild Area, the game opened up in so many ways for me in terms of how or who I could battle with. 

Oddly enough, I actually ended up having most of my rather large set of main team members being new Galar native pokemon. I had an off-set of team(s) that consisted of a few others, but most of my go-to’s were new ones. And while some designs are a bit quirky, I’ve grown to love my companions. I love opening up a battle with my Obstagoon to test my opponent with an obstruct, and then smashing their face in with their lowered defense. I love rolling in the best dog friend with Bolthund and watch him wreck someone faster than the eye can catch with her ridiculous speed. I love my BEASTLY TANK of a Dubwool who literally staved off defeat against Leon while I revived and potioned up my team because the ability Fluffy + Cotton Guard + Leftovers makes him nearly invincible until someone decides to spit an ember at him. I love the new pokemon introduced in this generation, no matter what the haters say. Moreover, getting to see them, and so many other pokemon wandering the overworld, especially in the wild area, was almost surreal in a way. Yes, we got to see some of this in Pokemon Let’s Go Eevee and Pikachu, but here, it’s on a whole different scale.

Actually getting to interact with them on a more basic level in Pokemon Camp was something delightful too. I had looked forward to it, and while it was a bit more simplistic than I expected, it was no less fun and heartwarming than I thought it would be. 

I’ll be perfectly honest, I was a bit skeptical of Dynamaxing, and Gigantamaxing (especially with some of the over the top designs that came of the latter) before the game’s release. But I grew more and more to like it, not just because of the way they tied into into gameplay, but into the plot, and even the world-building at large in the game. This wasn’t a feature just tacked on to say ‘hey, this is the new gimmick for this generation’. No, thought went into how this affects the story, and the world, and the idea of the league itself. The fact that they build stadiums on these power spots for the purpose of ensuring dynamaxing is possible in every gym battle goes to show that there was though put into this both in gampleay and narrative angles. This made me grow a lot more amenable, and even to become a fan of the concept as time went on. I loved the idea of giving each of my team members a chance to shine at varying points during the gym challenge by getting to dynamax in a given battle. Getting to see my school form Wishiwashi become even more massive during my battle with Kabu was a real highlight for me. He’s a big one, that’s for sure.

Max raid battles are a novel concept. The only thing I wish was that the online portion of it were executed a bit better. I’m not sure if it’s just my internet or a game flaw, but I find that the notification stamps load in in huge bundles, but often way too late after one can react to join raids. I also don’t see why we can’t join raids with people we see in the world, rather than having only the y-menu to do that. It would feel involving in the world itself if we could find a person doing that ‘looking around’ animation at a den, clicking on them, and seeing if we could join them for a battle. The battles themselves are great fun if you either have human players with you, or get lucky with the computerized NPCs you have. I quickly got tired of losing to raids because I couldn’t find human players to join, and had NPCs with pokemon with abhorrent weaknesses to the dynamax/gigantamax pokemon in question. They either need to have a greater spread of NPCs with different pokemon, or have the NPCs be able to use a different set of pokemon based on the typing of whatever they’re up against alongside you. Overall, however, I’ve generally had positive experiences in max raids, and the music certainly sets an amazing David Versus Goliath kind of feel to it, which never fails to hype me up for battles of those kind.

On the topic of music (which is always a very important thing for me in video games), while I don’t feel like there was as many banging hits in this game as there have been in the last few games (I loved a good portion of both soundtracks for XY and SuMo), there are some truly stellar compositions in this game that really grabbed me.

I already mentioned what are essentially my top two for the game, namely Marnie’s battle theme (both her normal one and her tournament version, which I’m always stoked to hear because it really amps up the stakes of where you are when you’re battling her, i.e. Rose Stadium), and the Max Raid battle theme, which just drives home that you’re really fighting something truly massive along with your friends (or strangers, as it may be). Another top two top tier picks for me are actually ones related to my first, which are: The Team Yell Grunt Battle theme, and Piers’ Battle theme. All of these Spikemuth based character have greta themes, and the new grunt theme is probably one of my favourite ones since the Gold/Silver Team Rocket Grunt theme. And I do love how all of these ones start with that intro guitar riff. It really sets the mood for what kind of people you’re battling. The last theme I want to give mention to is the Gym Leader Battle theme. I know a lot of people tend to make fun of this one for sounding like a party rave more than a battle theme, but I think it fits the stadium setting fairly well, given the whole high public energy gathering there. And I especially like, not just in this theme, but in many of the games themes associated with battles in the myriad stadiums throughout the game, that the crowd’s cheering actually factors into the music. It makes the experience feel just that much more real, and adds to the idea that, yes, this is a real arena, with real people, watching a battle they’re really pumped for; this is a professional sport with people forming followings around gym leaders and challengers, and that one simple thing as adding crowd chants into the music really drives that home.

So overall, while the game certainly has some flaws here and there, I found it to be a very enjoyable game. Perhaps my perspective on it has been influenced by the fact that this is the first major main series pokemon game I played in parallel with my beloved, but even after taking a more reflective look at it after the fact, I still feel like, while it’s not the best pokemon game out there, it’s a solid entry into the series that breaks a lot of barriers. I think they’ll be able to refine a lot of these new features in the future and come out with something even better one day. And heck, I’ll even be down for some DLC of this game, should they announce it. In short, Pokemon Sword and Shield gets a thumbs up for me. It was worth every minute I put into it, even if I had some minor frustrations here and there. It was definitely something that brought some overall positivity and joy into my life, and that’s worth a lot to me.

[bedlamgames]

Q&A #93

Next update is very close to being done, so time to get back on the answering questions horse. Plan is to also do these as twitlongers for those that no longer want to deal with tumblr. 

Anonymous said: The good news is that for explicit content posted in the past, tumblr seems to be willing to let it stay (if my reading of their announcement is correct) -- you may be able to keep this blog as an archive, but wherever you choose to move I'd gladly follow. (I'm already pledged for a dollar on Patreon so that shouldn't be a problem.)

Actually, belay my last message, creating your own website might not be a bad idea. I know that SilverBardGames has their own website and that's like my other indie game developer (with explicit content) that I follow. Word of mouth might still work to spread the good word.

That’s the plan. I do definitely need to sort out a website though sometime. If this experience has shown me anything it’s that relying on a single resource is a baaaad idea. 

justanothorguy1 said: Where are you going to post you new download links for you games?

Will still post them here, the patreon, TFGames, and the Collective. Will also post them going forward on the twitter. 

rafaelivri said: 1. Somehow my slaver that I recruit started with cum lust+++. Is this even intentional (that they can have it from the very beginning)? 2. Any way to get rid of it? 

Worked out what was causing that and it should be fixed in the update. 

Anonymous said: I'm not sure if this a bug but recently I've been getting a lot of slaves and slavers whose descriptions say that they're barely taller than a goblin.

Maybe a weird run of RNG? Not heard that from anyone else yet so one to keep an eye on I think. 

Anonymous said: was wondering if theres a walkthough for no haven somewhere? i played a bunch of it and interested to figure out what i missed

There is a wiki which you can find a link to on the No Haven page here. Not something under my control though so no idea if there’s a walkthrough out there. 

Anonymous said: watch as your posts get flagged anyway tho *shrug*

Been over a month and no flagged posts so worked out how to handle that apparently :D

Anonymous said: I don't think your link in the latest blogpost is supposed to lead to some tony mo and his videogame loveletters on patreon.

Oops missed a character in the copy/paste. Thanks for the spot. 

Anonymous said: i had a idea for a no heaven maybe some content where your bed warmer slave takes control of you in bed if there dominate and your secretly submissive. and if the there a dominator or hypono they start taking more control of your over time secretly controlling you and camp form behind close door.

That’s been on the books for awhile where certain slaves will be very dangerous to have as a bedwarmer. For a start those mantras coming in the next update just might end up being used on you in future updates. 

joyfullyunadulteratedruins said: Is the Hypnopics thread gone? That's the only way I can download No Haven now, and the download link here is still on version 0.821

Looks to be still there to me?

Anonymous said: [no haven 0.832] imgur a/d4SJMAC is it intentional that a fel person doesn't want to get corrupted?

[no haven 0.832] imgur /a/J0ooMqC the love being desecrated drone until entirely embedded sounds to me like the check doesn't have to be done anymore, but I keep having to do it.

Yeah for some reason they may not always think that you have their best interests at heart :)

That other one is a temporary bodge of their thoughts to overwhelm their resistance. In future though there will be more permanent alterations possible like with slaves in the next update. 

Anonymous said: Could we, in the future, have a fourth-wall option to discard a slave or slaver? No reward given, just a simple deletion. It's happened to me a few times where assignments that involve specific slaves - such as the lamia in Dance the Night Away or the drow males in the Deep Mtns quest - bug out at the turn in and leave behind a slave you cannot get rid of. Also been numerous times where I've gotten an abysmal roll on a slaver and had to wait for a guaranteed disaster quest to get rid of them.

Previous anon here who was asking for the fourth-wall purge. Yes, I am aware that there's a quest to remove unwanted slavers. However, since you can't reliably force it to pop, its usefulness is inconsistent at best. Also, it gives a payout and only works on slavers - the purge I'm asking for would be more universal and give nothing. Just a convenient deletion to improve gameplay. The accompanying picture could be a screaming stickman being sucked into a black hole.

I’d prefer to fix bugs rather than do workarounds if possible. Been down that path before and it only complicate things badly. 

The reason why there’s no outright dismiss a slaver is that from the beginning on of the challenges I wanted was some of your own slavers so just booting them would lose a lot of fun possibilities. 

Saying that I do want to do more with morale/reputation so that slavers have a chance to get fed up enough that you can drive them away. I’m also planning a new assignment which will be a risk free depending on choices way to dump unwanted slaves without need for chancing the Whore Makers.  

Anonymous said: Hi! Thank you for for that great game! Some questions about the future: 1) Will we have any mechanics with C:Devices and C:Enchantment in the near future? 2) Any plans to expand the list of slave trainings with anal/vaginal tranings or something else?

Thank you!

Maybe not near, near future, but certainly sooner rather than later as both I want to have as encampment roles. Next update also has some of the groundwork for enchanting. 

Yes absolutely more training is coming including bimbo training in the next update. 

nh-maikochan said: Bug report: Had a slaver level up and had the option for the aspect "Friends in High Places", however, when I clicked on -View Choices-, it instead gave me the entry for "A Friend in Every Port", however the text for that made reference to Scouting the Deep Mountains instead of the Dreadsea Coast. "Aspect: A Friend in Every Port - Requires Friendly and two Scout the Deep Mountains Success or Crits, awards an additional two assignments on Scout the Deep Mountains Success or Crit results."

So just had an interesting bug. I took a slave to auction, my camp leader going along on the assignment, got a critical result, and while the assignment said that the slave was sold, she ended up coming back with me. Some factors that may have had an effect: Had gotten word that bimbo slaves were in demand, and the slave was indeed a bimbo and my leader has Inquisitor, which activated giving me an assignment.

First one I’ve sorted for the update. 

Other was that slave bimboborn? Cause I think that might be causing issues with selling. 

Anonymous said: Hi! What do you think about oppotunity not only gain new perks when slaver lvl up, but to remove existing ones, such as Unruly or Reserved for example? Thank you!

My current plan is to use hypnotic to tackle those unwanted mental traits. Certainly not a bad idea though. 

Decided that it wouldn’t be a bad idea to pull in questions from other sources to give as much info as possible out in one place at one time. So going forward I’m also going to be including some of the questions asked elsewhere along with including the answers I made. 

From TFGames: I'm a little confused as to biomancy and hypnotism and changing other characters. The odds seem to really not like being "in the field" but I can't figure out where else to be? Also, I can't seem to figure out what hypnotic triggers actually do when you put them on a slaver. Is there a way to alter someone's personality via hypnotism or domination? In terms of customization and exporting... is it just the char-gen where you can export a character? Is there a way to say, see a slave get captured, manipulate or change them via training and influence, turn them into a slaver and then export that character and see what happens on their career? Alternatively, is there a way to change the names of the slaves you capture and slavers you recruit? For say, immersion purposes >.> Or generate and specify your own "number two" ?

Hypnotic triggers on slavers currently are used for respect checks which are when a slaver doesn't want to do something like go whore themselves out, where a slutty outfit, or be corrupted and you need to persuade them. Using the triggers is a lot more effective than some of the other options. In the next update triggers will also be used on slaves to help with their training and unlock new bonuses. In future those slave mantras will be able to be used on anyone including yourself, and I'm also planning extra usage to deal with annoying traits like reserved and unhinged. Currently it's just the main character. I'd like to do more, but given I also want to move away from rags I'm not planning to do anything with it for now. There is an option to nickname under help and options. I don't think it's ideal though in the current implementation and it needs another look sometime.

From TFGames: Is there any get mind controlled content besides the "dreams" ascociated with Lacey's toy?

Being possessed is the main one which is a rare outcome from corruption which then has a bunch of follow up text at end of day, during respect checks, and leadership challenges. The Quick as You Like mini-adventure if you go on it assignment has MC content, especially if you 'win' the race. There's the hidden cults when you go into town where you can lose control. There also might be some assignments that have a bit of MC action if you go on them. If you're submissive there's also mind control content in the story line assignment to unlock the hidden area and slave auctions.

From the Patreon: A suggestion to add more interplay with your slavers in NH - in the "Talk" menu add a topic called "ask for rumours" where you can ask your slavers if they have any leads/tips. Depending on certain factors they could offer you a tip-off for a mission (type & quality determined by slavers type and your relation with them), to be added to your list, in exchange for gold/supplies/days off/sexual favours. Could also lead into leadership challenges if you rely too much on a slaver. Slavers could also have an x% chance of approaching you for a chat each day and ask you for things and you could choose what to charge them (no charge leads to a relation increase, refusing outright leads to a decrease). Would be a way of getting slavers to wear things/do things that they otherwise wouldn't and vice-versa. Looking forward to the update.

That's a really neat idea. Added it to my to do list.

[pokemoneverlastingorchard]

Download 10/20/22

Or 10/19/22 depending on where you live. I’m uploading this after 12:30 AM.

Before you download this version: I have no idea if this will replace your character or not. I’d go to:

Graphics > Characters

And copy either TrChar000, Boy_Run, Boy_Surf, and Boy_Bike, or TrChar001, Girl_Run, Girl_Surf and Girl_Bike and paste them somewhere outside the game’s files. If your character changed after downloading this version, close your game, then paste the copied files into the “characters” folder and say “yes” to replace them.

---

Download

Download for Cut Music

Download for replaceable graphics

Story:

+Finished Kalani’s pre-marriage schedule

+Finished Alderic’s pre-marriage schedule

Pokemon:

-I noticed that somebody made a sprite of Wyrdeer here, so I made it into a fairy/psychic type (based on Bambi’s dad, since fairy Stantler is based on Bambi) and added it into the game. I decided that level 30 would be a good level for Stantler to evolve into a Wyrdeer..

I thought about making a female version based on Bambi’s mom. I’m sure you can figure out why I didn’t do that on your own.

-I finally realized that most of the Delta Pokemon I added had their stats mixed up because somebody thought it was a good idea to mix up the stat order instead of doing it like it’s been done ever since gen 2! So I fixed them. This includes making sure the base stats is equal to the base stats for the original Pokemon for all but one Pokemon.

-Shuckle is that one Pokemon. I may have created a monster when I decided to reverse it’s defensive and offensive stats, plus giving it the possibility to have Sturdy. So now Sturdy is a Hidden Ability. I replaced Sturdy with Water Absorb for the regular abilities, and it’s just as slow as it’s canon counterpart now. (I did raise it’s HP a bit still.)

-I also fixed up Fairy Stantler a little more. It will learn some of it’s moves a little earlier now, plus I switched Draining Kiss and Dazzling Gleam because for some reason I made Draining Kiss come before Dazzling Gleam, despite Gleam being a much stronger move. And I also added an Egg move to it.

-I removed the ability to get a Partner Eevee and Pikachu for now because I’m not that happy with them. (They still exist in the game, so if you already have some they won’t disappear or corrupt your game or whatever.) I’m annoyed at myself for making them “new” Pokemon and not new forms of old Pokemon. I might just remove them altogether someday and start over.

Blog:

-I updated this and this page to add in the new Pokemon and to update the old one’s changes.

-I started making the page where it shows the abilities of Pokemon a bit easier to read before remembering why I did it the way I did in the first place and gave up after the starters.

Features:

-Added a new game that you can play the demo of. It’s a “Dating Sim,” but it’s more like a Newgrounds Dating Sim game (all of which are probably dead now) and instead of having a real conversation with them it’d be more like the dating sim-like mini game in Pokemon Masters. I made the demo within 4 days while suffering the side effects of my birth control shot.

Basically I made the portraits while waiting on the game to compressed, liked them, but didn’t feel like doing anything with them. Then I got my shot and became mostly useless so I decided to outline the inside of a Japanese school from some anime or VN or something on FireAlpaca. (Which was the most I could do in that state.) As I started sobering up I cared less and less about the graphics, which will become apparent if you play the game.

The story and characters are bland, (if you played one game in particular you’ll know what I was kind of inspired by) and I made a joke about them “not being based on real people” since they don’t look very different from their base. And that’s kind of part of the joke. (Though with some tweaking I could make “Witney” look original, easily.) Plus this way I don’t have to make up interests for them- I can just take the interests straight from canon.

+I worked on the Dungeon Crawler game a bit. I was watching something live and it’s easy for me to focus on that while also replacing some switches, pictures, etc. on the game.

At some point I’ll probably have to make a page on mini games.

Graphics:

-I just realized that the script that allows you to dress up does not include the VS portraits that happens when you start an important battle, so the transition would show you as either a white, brown haired boy or a white, brown hair girl. The simplest (and possibly the only) solution is to just do it yourself, so I have many folders that has all possible hair colors plus instructions on where to put them in the “replaceable graphics” folder. (As seen above.)

-I recolored the graphics for the “dating sim demo” to use the 16-bit color pallet, but I do have the original graphics in the “replaceable” folder.

-I touched up on fairy Stantler’s front sprite.

+I worked on some graphics that I’ll need for the future while waiting for the game to compress.

Audio: 

-The Gym Leader Battle Music is either all the same or not there at all. I removed all but one song and started giving every Gym Leader the same song but then everything crashed. When I tried going back in the game crashed again.

At best about half of them have battle music.

-Replaced most of the Victory! music, maybe. Probably not.. I tried to replace all of them so when you win a battle or catch a Pokemon you’re not greeted with a compressed Gen 3 style song but every time I tried changing the name of the songs it would again crash.

-Deleted most other battle music I know that I haven’t used for a battle itself. (Keeping only my favorites for the radio item.) I decided to have all cut music available for a separate download instead. (Which you can see above.)

Anyway, doing all of this has cut a little more than 200 MB out of the game, making the total music I removed over 400 MB.

Misc:

Made it so you’ll get the National Dex at the beginning of the game... For now. I never really thought about actually making sure the new Pokemon shows up on the Regional Pokedex until just now somehow. Instead of numbering them now, I’m going to wait until I have all of the Pokemon I’m going to have in, actually in first.

[polizwrites]

2018 Fandom Projects List

I was tagged by the wonderful and talented @belovedmuerto - who has some fun-sounding project in store for the year!

Rules: list all the projects you want to work on this year, then tag however many people to do the same.    

First up, I need to finish Forging the Shield - the pre-war Stucky a/b/o fic.  I should be able to wrap things up with one last chapter, bringing the total to seven and somewhere around 17k total.  I'm posting chapters weekly, so this should wrap up the third week of February.

By then, I have a feeling that the expanded/revamped version of Time Out of Joint that I'm collaborating on with @tisfan will be in good shape to go up on Ao3.  This a MultiVengers fic with time-travel hijinks that we're having quite a bit of fun with!

Carry On, Wayward Sons (post CA:CW StarkQuill) is still very much up in the air, in terms of what these two boys are up to, but I have Vague Ideas and hope to do the pairing justice. 

Then there's the sequel for To Shield From The Storm, which is waiting in the wings with a couple of scenes sketched out. It needs research, since I'm sticking as close to canon as I can, given the alpha!Steve/omega!Tony premise.

The Subtle Briar -  I REALLY need to get this fic going again, as I adore Peggy Carter and I think this alternate origin for her could be a lot of fun to write.  Canon-level Steve x Peggy is the eventual end game, pairings-wise, but I expect the rating will remain Gen/Teen.  Don’t expect to see this any time soon, as it’s sitting somewhere around 2k on paper  for the first major act with a few plotty bits sketched out and several  further elements still to be jotted down. If anyone is interested in beta/cheer-reading, HMU.

Then there's  Remember, Then Follow -- I've got the first chapter of thisTony POV  post CA:CW Siberian scene written, with notes on a few more chapters, but this will need a lot of time & effort to live up to its title.

-------------

I'm also trying to step out of my comfort zone in terms of writing this year by signing up for some writing challenges/contests (eep!)

For example, I signed up for the Avenging Comes in Tiny Packages contest that @ifdragonscouldtalk is running, with a deadline in April.  I've got  almost 3k written on a fic already, but it's veering too far from the intent of the contest (deaged!Tony or  dad!Tony with de-aged Avengers) to work; however,  I think I can re-write the same set of events from the kid!Tony POV to submit for the contest, and post the current version as is at some other point.  

@tisfan is heading up a Tony Stark Bingo Challenge with signups running 1 Apr - 10 May and cards going out on 29 May. Due date is TBD.  

Then there's being a guest writer for @imaginetonyandbucky -- I've only filled one prompt so far, but probably ought to try to find another that catches my fancy.  Although I have my own prompt in mind that would fit quite well on the blog -- I need to check with @potrix-the-queerschlaeger to see if that would be kosher!

As for non-writing projects - I have some Captain America fabric and a pattern for a gored skirt that I want to make in time for Wizard World Chicago in August.  

I'm tagging:   @reioka, @orbingarrow, @ashes0909, @bill-longbow and any of my other writing mutuals who'd like to share their lists!  

[crazy-multiverse-junk]

Can you tell us anything about Balal-Gen ? What did happen there ? Or is it too confidential to give us any information ? If that's the case, well, sorry to have bothered you with those questions.

Pfsh, confidential? Please, the very reason this blog exists is because we’re gonna explain y’all everything! There’s no secrets between us, I can even tell you the code for the fusionic bomb of the Clayxer-925 Zhinfnar government if you want!I mean yeah of course most of that stuff is officially confidential, but seriously. Who cares about the history of another Plane if you have no means to visit it afterwards, right? Especially when it’s dead!

Anyway. Right, Balal-Gen. It’s true that, technically, I can’t tell you all of it because of what you would commonly call, well, spoilers. BUT! I can tell you that all of its inhabitants are not dead! … Or, technically, that their descendance is still alive somewhere else. In another Plane. Long story.

It wouldn’t be funny if I was to tell you everything just like that, but just ‘cause I like you, I’m gonna give you hints about this Plane’s whereabouts.

If you look closely at its logo’s background, you will see this:

Looks familiar? Well, I suppose it could be. Spoilers ahead!

Second hint, of course you saw it, it’s that strange symbol that’s even more obvious than the other one! Then again it does look similar as well, but… Maybe not that much. Be careful, there are at least three versions of the same stuff. The joys of being separated by both time and space. These monsters were real travelers, I tell ya.Also, if you understand which version was the original one, that is to say the real one, then you will understand something pretty interesting about this Plane’s origins, and the whereabouts of its main actors.

Third hint, it’s gonna be a question actually. This is not an Ono, which means that this Plane initially had a Creator. A Creator which was made angry for some reason, so the guy just abandoned that Plane before he had entirely finished it; so the Plane was actually doomed before it was even fully ready to go.My question is simply: who is the Creator? If you find out, you’ll understand quite a lot of things.

Last but not least, if you really want a hint about its history, that Plane died more than a million years ago. So you can trust me when I say that this Plane really doesn’t matter anymore. Even its descendants have no idea they’re not native to the Plane they really were born in!Anyway, I hope I answered everything here.

[psymulacre]

Rules

How I Play:

I am extremely gracious to all who interact with me. I feel honored! Even if the thread somehow gets dropped or other mishaps occur.

I have no triggers. Obviously there are some things I dislike, but there is no need to avoid or trigger-tag content for my sake.

I am willing to play mature themes including gore/violence, angst, horror, torture, my character’s death, etc.

Unless I have difficulty finding a way to reconcile a certain thread with our others, I generally assume a continuous universe/relationship between your muse and mine throughout all our threads.

Mewtwo’s default verse setting is post-Mewtwo-Returns. Please let me know if you would like our thread to take place somewhere else on the timeline!

I operate my muse based on what I feel is in his character to do at that moment. Sometimes that makes planning difficult, because he may not respond to a circumstance in a way I anticipated. Change of plot may occur!

I play a powerful Pokemon that has inhuman levels of strength, ability, and endurance. That being said, I try my very best to keep him from being invincible or unbelievable according to canon. He absolutely still has weaknesses, physical and otherwise.

Romance/shipping m...might??? Be able to happen?? With...chemistry? I can’t strongly see that happening with Mewtwo, as he is definitely not the romantic sort, and neither of us are particularly looking for such interaction. But I’m open to it if it feels right...? Just don’t push it on us and don’t get too physical/intense, and we’re golden.

I am lame and old and have not fully kept up with current pokemon generations. I’ve beaten Gen I and II and played Gen IV vaguely, and though I’ve done research into most of the more recent generations of pokemon, I don’t know a whole lot about said games’/movies’/anime-seasons’ plots. Feel absolutely free to interact with me with said generations regardless, and I am totally open to being educated with any info you deem pertinent!

My life has waxing and waning amounts of busyness. One day I may be available to respond to threads all evening, and another I will have zero free time. So in general I’d tell you I’m probably slow at responding, my apologies.

I may drop a thread if I can’t think of any way to respond properly or if I don’t have any ideas (or if I forget about it). Don’t feel bad and DO feel free to continue interactions with my muse in the future!

I will be much more likely to follow you if memes and other starters are clearly displayed or even tagged. I would mainly use those to start a thread with you, and I can’t if I can’t find them. Also I may not choose to follow if there are too many non-RP posts compared to RP. I check my dash for opportunities to RP, and if it’s cluttered with too much other stuff, it gets difficult.

What I Appreciate:

I am a huge fan of thorough communication. If you are planning on attempting to kill or torture my muse, it would be nice for some notification of this (either in the post/tags or in a message) at least one post beforehand.

Let me know if something in our RP is making you uncomfortable. I don’t know where to limit myself unless you tell me (and I will do my part to check your blog rules), especially because I myself am comfortable with some pretty dark things.

Please try to refrain from controlling my muse’s thoughts and actions. Fights get kind of sticky, because if one waits for every response to an attack in order to determine the results, it tends to make our posts very short. Please give me the chance to respond at least to important actions against my muse, but in general, use your best judgment case-by-case.

What Is Acceptable:

Always feel free to send me an ask or communicate in our RP thread if you have something to say or ask. Or if you just have a random comment! Seriously, anything.

If I haven’t responded to a thread in a while or it looks like I’ve dropped it, and you really want to continue, don’t hesitate to tell me so! I will do my best to bring it back!

Let me know if there is something you want tagged, in a specific post or in general, and I will try to accommodate with what I see as reasonable.

I accept OCs and characters from other fandoms. It would be nice to have a little background on them first (either in a message or a link to info), especially if I am unfamiliar with the character or fandom (just assume I am). Also please specify what universe you want our interaction to occur in–yours, mine, or some AU you describe. I may not be capable of responding if I don’t have enough knowledge about what I’m doing.

I am okay with roleplaying total AUs (as in, a completely different setting), but it is not my default preference. The best way to go about seeing if I’m interested would probably be to message me.

If you want a certain thread between us to be a separate AU from our other threads or to occur at a point on the timeline different from usual, just let me know

As I will not be roleplaying smut, minors are allowed!

I am conditionally willing to play with multiples of my own muse; probably chat with me about it first. In any serious thread, I would prefer our Mewtwos be separate creations with separate life experiences and backstories--meaning Origins-verse and Best-Wishes-verse are particularly acceptable, while another movie-verse might cause problems.

What I’m Not Interested In:

I am not comfortable roleplaying smut with pokemon. Therefore, there will not be sexual action with my muse at this time.

I would rather not play serious threads with gjinka or otherwise-humanized versions of pokemon.

[superhusbands4ever]

Superhusbands4ever’s January 2017 Fic Rec

Hey guys! So I got the idea to do a monthly fic rec where I list any Tony ship fics that I read and liked that month (because I read a ridiculous amount of fanfiction, it’s crazy), and a lot of people were interested! So I’m going to post each month’s list on the last day of every month, but I’m posting two this month since I missed January (there’ll be more in next month’s, I promise). (If you’re not a Tony fan this list probably won’t interest you lmao)

January | February

Fics marked with ** are personal favorites that I highly recommend you read. Like if you don’t read the others, at least read those.

Stony (Steve/Tony)

And In The Silence That Follows by lazywriter7 - Civil War fix it (kinda) - 20K - Now a series!

“But as a guy who’s never been good at anything but killing- lemme tell you this. Wars can come to us, and we can fight to end them.”

“But nothing’s ever worth starting one. Nothing at all.”

As the dust of Civil War starts to settle- Steve begins to see a couple of things.

Your Name on Every Wall by Sineala - 616 Fix it of so many things, general knowledge of Civil War and Original Sin recommended - 18K

The Time Gem throws Steve into the past rather than the future, and in doing so, it gives him the opportunity to undo his past mistakes. But when it turns out that all of his mistakes involve Tony Stark, Steve begins to wonder if he's ever going to be able to mend things between them.

**Proof Positive Series by MegaraNoelle - Superfamily & SO MUCH FEELS - 362K - WIP

Tony is no stranger to paternity claims from his female conquests, there's a system in place for them. But when one of the tests actually comes back positive, he makes a rash decision to not tell anyone about it, not even Pepper Potts. All Mary Parker wants is for Tony to spend a little time with their son. Tony has a lot to think about in his life now, how he wants to run his company, how his life is going to change with the arc reactor, and what he's going to do about his son, Peter. Then, the Avengers Initiative pops up, and in waltzes his childhood hero, and enemy, Captain America.

Follows the lives of the Starks, Parkers, and Rogers', as they grow up, and grow in life.

(more under the cut)

WinterIron (Bucky/Tony)

Even Darkness Must Pass by Finely Honed (jaqen_hgar) - Dad!Tony, Super cute - 15K

Someone requested a story where Tony has a shy/withdrawn child that had trouble warming up to the other Avengers, but likes Bucky right away. Their friendship helps Bucky heal post Winter Soldier. Combined with a prompt asking for nerd love, where Bucky had read the Hobbit back in the day, and Tony introduces him to Lord of the Rings.

“Fake it till you make it,” Bucky whispered to himself, swallowing around his panic. Sam had drilled the idea into him, and it had become a mantra of sorts, something to hold onto when all he wanted to do was blend into the shadows and disappear.

“You’ll be fine.”

Steve placed a warm, strong hand on Bucky’s shoulder and squeezed, his super soldier ears having picked up Bucky uttering the now familiar saying.

Bucky nodded, tried to believe his own words, and followed Steve onto the common floor, a wall of sound hitting them as they entered.

Play Date by Akira_of_the_Twilight - De-aged!Tony, Protective!Bucky - 27K

“Forgive me, Captain," FRIDAY said. "I needed a moment to be certain I hadn’t erred, but based on my facial recognition systems, I can safely say that Mr. Barnes and Mr. Wilson have located Tony.”

“What the fuck?” Bucky rose to his feet.

The kid tried to run, but Sam caught the rugrat and restrained him.

“Let me go!” The kid struggled. “My dad isn’t going to pay any ransom. You’re just wasting your time.”

Ransom? Facial recognition?

Bucky stared at the kid—really looked at his face.

Amber eyes, oval face, olive skin, strong but narrow chin, a slightly larger than normal forehead, and a nose somewhere between small and medium in size.

“Oh, fuck. Tony?”

The tears were back in Tony’s eyes. “Fuck you, you assholes!” He wiggled one arm free and punched Sam in the kneecap.

I’ll Be Your Bodyguard (If You Be My Security Blanket) by NarutoRox - De-aged!Bucky - 5K

When one of Loki's pranks gone wrong leaves the team with a young Winter Soldier in their care, they know they're going to have their hands full. Especially since this newer, tinier version of Bucky seems to have a bodyguard complex - and a particular attachment to Tony.

Stuckony (Steve/Bucky/Tony)

Just Far Enough by TheSopherfly - CACW Fix-It - *Heed the Warnings* - 52K

Tony couldn’t honestly remember how long it had been like this. Probably since the day he’d called T’Challa and offered his help. At first it had just been compulsive self-denial: you can’t eat until you’ve drafted your opening remarks, until you’ve finished your research, until you’ve rewritten every last colon and comma and apostrophe in those Accords so that everyone can come home.

Those goals had been realistic. Lately, they’d become impossible. Until everyone forgives you. Until you forgive yourself. Until you make up for every bad thing you’ve ever caused.

He was fine. He was coasting in a dangerous place, but he was fine. He wasn't taking it too far - just far enough.

Hellooo Nurse! Verse by themthere_taterthings - Medical AU, Nurse!Tony - 23K - WIP

Steve and Bucky are magnets for trouble and keep getting hurt in crazy ways. Tony is the ER nurse who is constantly treating them. One of them is always hitting on Tony, who's more than a little confused by the attention.

**Hide A Heart Of War by RayShippouUchiha - Soulmate AU, Soul Mark AU - SO MUCH ANGST - THIS HURT MY SOUL IT WAS SO GOOD - PERSONAL FAVORITE

“You’ve got war in your heart boy,” Howard sneers, “don’t ever try and pretend to be anything but what you are.”

Tony feels the familiar burn of a flower mark being etched into his skin but he doesn’t look, doesn’t try and check to see what it is.   Instead he keeps his eyes on Howard and his hands cupped around his bleeding mouth and nose.

General Tony Feels

not so different, you and i by theapplepielifestyle - Stony, mostly IronWidow Bro-TP centric - 15K

Three years ago, the idea that Tony Stark being one of her best friends would have been something she’d laugh at.

Not even laugh- she’d have given whoever suggested it a dry look and changed the subject.

Supernanny by ashinan - Stony (background) - Mostly Team (and specifically Tony) Whump -  Sickfic - 9K

The one thing Coulson has never quite understood is where he gained the title of Supernanny.

**Stick With Us by petroltogo - High School AU - Tony Angst/Whump - Happy Ending - 4K

Prompt fill: can u write like a hs au, with avengers as a group of friends. they act like they think tony doesn't have feelings, they seem to never take him seriously and they often tease him or laugh at sth that actually hurts him (they dont know that it makes him feel bad) he usually just takes it, because he thinks he deserves it. but then he has just the worst day ever, and they make some comment abt sth and he just breaks and starts crying, cause he just wants someone to care abt him. they comfort him.

**Gone by nonna - Post-CACW - Gen, but can be read as WinterIron or IronPanther (I see more WinterIron) - Bucky, T’Challa, Wanda, Tony-centric - Blind!Tony - 47K - WIP

In the final fight scene of Captain America Civil War, Tony's helmet breaks off the armour after the relentless clashing it receives.

What if the harsh hits to his head create serious complications for Tony, and he loses his sight?

Special shout outs to @silly-nargles @thejaded-feather @beautiful-tyrant77 @iron_blue @arcreactorforaheart @thicketofwires @katharctic @martameetstumblr @biivory69 and @shiznosaur-blog for specifically letting me know about their interest in this idea and basically giving me the push to do this! Next list, February 28th!

[clarencenicholsonata]

30 Marketing Tactics We Learned from 6 Years of Rapid Growth

The working environment at Wishpond is focused on rapid growth.

This allows us to throw marketing tactics against the wall to see what sticks.

More often than not, the things we throw end up breaking. But sometimes they stick, and we boost sales by 40% or find a new avenue for growth.

This article is a carefully collated list of hacks and tactics which, I hope, you will not have seen before. These are the tactics we've found to be the most reliable for growing a business.

Which element of business growth are you most interested in? Click below to head straight to each section:

Increasing Brand Awareness

Getting More Customers

Becoming More Efficient

Most of the marketing tactics in this article are simple to implement, but some will require a developer or a bit more advanced understanding of digital marketing. If you have any questions, reach out in the comment section and we'd be happy to help!

Increasing brand awareness

The marketing tactics in this section revolve around getting a business seen and heard.

Less-focused on driving sales, here are 11 early-stage marketing tactics which drive brand awareness.

#1. Join active communities of other marketers

There have never been more awesome marketing communities than right now. Check out Facebook and Slack, in particular.

These communities don't just offer advice. If approached correctly, they can also share your content and connect you with a network of people excited to increase your brand awareness.

Share this marketing tactic with your network!

#2. Send micro-influencers an Instagram DM

If you're looking to connect with a larger audience on Instagram, identify micro-influencers (people with 2000-10000 followers) and DM them. Compliment them on their photos and ask for feedback, in return for a discount code.

Then, follow up with interested influencers and offer a free product in exchange for a promotional post.

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For more on this marketing tactic, check out 10 Tactics to Grow Your Ecommerce Customer Base

#3. Stand for something

Standing out from your competitors may mean choosing a side.

A good example of this is Harry's, an ecommerce company selling men's shaving tools. To stand out from their (frankly, numerous) competitors, they built a brand around exploring what it means to be a man.

In particular, they jumped into support of the LGBTQ community, devoting a month of their blog's content to exploring their stories:

In honor of Pride, we sought out inspiring individuals in the LGBTQ+ community and asked them: How do you actually identify? No labels. No expectations. Here, see how fun—and moving—true individuality can really be. - Harry's Five O'Clock blog

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#4. Create videos for LinkedIn & YouTube

A powerful way to increase the reach of your posts is to create a video - just a minute or two, describing your content or your newest feature.

These videos don't need to be incredibly professional. So long as you have good audio and good energy, people will respond positively.

To see an example, check out this LinkedIn post and video from Shopify Plus editor Aaron Orendorff.

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#5. Find and Repost User-Generated Content

76% find UGC more trustworthy than branded advertising. A tool like Later can help you search for user-generated content using hashtags, save it to your library, repost it and credit the people who took the photos.

This is an awesome way to reach new audiences on Instagram.

Share this marketing tactic with your network!

#6. Mention people when you post content on social media

Whenever you write an article and share it on social media (especially LinkedIn and Twitter), create a list of thought-leaders within your network who may be interested, then @mention or tag them in your Post.

Another cool idea is to mention brands within your content, and let them know when you've done so.

Share this marketing tactic with your network!

#7. Run a referral or bonus-entry campaign

Referral or bonus entry contests are the best ways to use your existing contacts to spread awareness about your brand.

These contests give people additional chances to win a grand prize if they share your contest with their network.

Share this marketing tactic with your network!

#8. Reward sharing

Your existing customers are the most valuable resource you have to increase awareness. They already love you, after all.

Check out a tool like Referralcandy, which enables you to reward your customers (in a number of ways) when they share your brand with their network.

Share this marketing tactic with your network!

#9. Communicate easily with followers

A tool like Commun.it automatically tracks all your new Fans every day, identifies the most engaged Fans and allows you to reach out to them directly from the app.

This is an awesome way to ensure you're engaging with your social media community (and ensure that community is engaged with your brand).

Share this marketing tactic with your network!

#10. Run a co-promotion with a business similar to yours

Identify business who don't compete with you, but do have a similar target market (and are a similar size). Combine forces to offer an awesome prize package, then promote to your existing lists.

You'll double the effectiveness of a normal contest, and drive huge awareness from your target market.

Share this marketing tactic with your network!

For a walkthrough on how we at Wishpond used co-promotions, check out "A Behind-the-Scenes Look at How We Generated 1,263 New Leads (With a Little Help from Our Friends)."

#11. Brand your app, and offer a free version

If you have the capability, a great way to increase brand awareness is to offer a heavily-branded free version of your software (or a part of it).

Wishpond uses this strategy ("Powered By" within our free popup tool) to drive over 1,000 website visits every month.

Share this marketing tactic with your network!

Click here to head back up to the Table of Contents.

Getting more customers

Ultimately, driving sales has got to be the focus point of a marketing team.

Website optimization, advertising, and testing are important, but you already know that.

This section focuses on giving you tactics to grow your customer base which you may not have necessarily thought of.

#12. Retarget pricing page visitors

Rather than spending huge money to retarget/remarket all your website traffic, focus only on those most-interested visitors.

Retarget people who viewed your pricing page, but didn't check out. YouTube video ads are particularly effective.

Share this marketing tactic with your network!

#13. Don't send people to your homepage

Homepages still have a place, of course. You need somewhere for people to go if they just want to learn more about you (though there's an argument to be made that even your "About Us" page should be optimized to drive demos).

But if you're running ads, using social media, blogging, or (really) driving people to your website from any traffic source except Google organic search, you should create a page specifically optimized for that traffic source.

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For more on this marketing tactic, check out my article, "Homepages are Dead: The Rise of the All Landing Page Website."

#14. Send a text instead of an email

Using marketing automation, you can trigger text messages instead of emails. With a 98% open rate, texts may just be a better way to confirm a demo booking or fight shopping cart abandonment.

Apps like Twilio make it easy:

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#15. Make your 404 page a landing page

Changing your 404 page to a lead-gen landing page means you're taking advantage of every page of your website.

Consider offering an ebook, demo or email-gated promotion to everyone who accidentally finds your 404s.

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#16. Auto-select form fields

Auto-selecting form fields enables your site visitors to simply start typing rather than having to move their mouse to your form.

Never underestimate the importance of usability in your sales funnel.

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#17. Add PayPal & Amazon pay to checkout

PayPal and Amazon pay options are super easy additions to your ecommerce site, and every time you give people more options, you cut out the excuses to not complete a purchase.

ComScore ran a study which reported that ecommerce checkout with PayPal as an option converted 82% higher than checkout processes without PayPal.

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#18. Add social logins to signup pages

We get about 40% of our total signups through Facebook and Google logins. Clicking a button is so much easier than entering your email address.

Without social logins, our signup rates would be significantly lower. You'll need a dev for this, but it will pay off almost immediately.

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#19. Delay sending emails until office hours

Email open and click-through rates are significantly better on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays than they are on Sunday. And they're significantly better at 8am than they are at 8pm.

Use a tool like Wishpond's email-delay to make sure your automated emails are only sending when people are around to open them:

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#20. Instead of a landing page, use a click popup

We saw a 40% increase in conversion rates when we kept blog readers in an article (allowing them to download a guide in a popup) than when we sent them to a different tab to do so.

Over the course of the year, the test resulted in thousands more leads than we otherwise would have had.

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#21. Use conditional formatting to personalize the website experience

Conditional formatting enables you to include demographic information, product names, even first names within in your landing page, product pages, and popup headlines.

This type of personalization drastically increases conversion rate.

For instance, let's say you own an ecommerce company. Wouldn't it be awesome if your page headlines changed based on product that the visitor clicked on?

Here's an example from eMusic, in which headlines change automatically based on a visitor's previous visit:

Share this marketing tactic with your network!

For more on conditional formatting check out Shopify's walkthrough for ecommerce companies.

Click here to head back up to the Table of Contents.

Becoming more efficient

Does it feel like you don't have enough hours in the day?

Marketing a business online requires coffee, late hours and more creativity than you'd think possible.

But there are ways to make it that little bit easier (and isn't a little bit all you need, some days?)

This section covers marketing tactics and tools which help you become a more efficient marketer - saving you time, energy, and resources.

#22. Use templates

The easiest thing you can do as a marketer to make your life easier is to use templates everywhere you can:

Blog header images: Have a designer create a PSD file which looks great and learn how to edit it (you don't have to learn Photoshop to edit a Photoshop file)

Landing pages: Edit an existing template within your favorite landing page builder with your brand colors, brand font, etc. Then duplicate and edit that template for each of your future marketing campaigns.

Facebook Ads: Have a designer create three or four Facebook Ad designs, then run campaigns with all of them. Ask them to create an editable template of whichever design performed best and use it as a starting place for your next campaign.

For instance, take advantage of designer-created landing page templates:

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#23. Make Facebook Ad testing easy

We've been using AdEspreso for a few years now, and there's one main reason:

The platform makes it super easy to create multiple tests.

Let's be honest, Facebook's ad manager doesn't make it easy to create tests, but testing is crucial to getting the most bang for your ad budget.

Import a single ad image and write three different headlines, and AdEspresso automatically creates 16 different variations. import 3 images and 3 headlines, and you'll get 45 distinct tests.

It's quick, easy, and the time-saving (and conversions) more than pay off the cost of the platform.

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#24. Use a project management platform well

I say "well" there, because I honestly believe that's what makes this marketing tactic different from the ones you've heard before that recommend project management apps.

Tools like Trello can be used one of two ways: 1) haphazardly and inconstantly or 2) to save you time, stress, and make your team work 50% more efficiently.

It's up to you.

A great example of a well-used project management tool is Buffer's public content calendar

Here's a snapshot:

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#25. Zap it

Need to send data between two platforms? Use Zapier to connect them.

Fighting for a developer's time can be one of the most frustrating and time-consuming parts of a marketer's job. Zapier makes it possible for marketers of all skill-levels to send data from the tools they love to the tools they love.

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#26. Use marketing automation

You've may have heard this marketing tactic before, but there are a few use cases you may not be familiar with:

Use marketing automation to send a series of emails to leads (this is the one you've probably heard before).

Use marketing automation to send a message to a salesperson (prompting them to get in touch manually) when a lead visits your pricing page twice in two days.

Use marketing automation to send an abandoned cart email when someone abandons checkout, prompting them to return.

Use marketing automation to move leads to a "hot lead" segment based on pages they've visited, frequency, demographics or any other variable you can think of.

Share this marketing tactic with your network!

Want to learn more about marketing automation? Book a no-obligation, free chat with a Wishpond marketing expert to learn how it can help you grow your business and save you time.

#27. Create automated webinars

Tools like Demio enable you to create a webinar once, then replay it (automatically) forever as if it's live.

The technology is a bit cheeky, but you can create a level of urgency you wouldn't otherwise have with on-demand webinars. This increases registration rates.

Share this marketing tactic with your network!

For more on how you can drive sales with webinars, check out my article "How We Made $11,283 with a Single Webinar."

#28. Use Google Drawing instead of learning the Adobe suite

This is one of my favorite marketing strategies - the ability to create almost everything that my designers can create with a totally free tool.

Google Drawing (and Presentation) make visual content-creation super simple. And they save you from having to go back to school...

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For more on this marketing tactic, check out my post "How to Create Beautiful Gated Content Without Graphic Design Experience."

#29. Take a pause

I first heard about the "Take a pause" method when a friend forwarded me this Forbes article.

In it, marketing influencer Bruce Kasanoff recommends that, after you complete a task, just sit there for a couple minutes, resisting your desire to push on to another task immediately.

That desire, Bruce says, "[leads] to a long and winding road of inefficiency. You end up being reactive instead of proactive."

Instead, sit for a few minutes until your impulse to check your email, check your phone or jump into another task fades.

"Just wait, until you calm down.

When at last you are content doing nothing, allow yourself to consider your next move. Whatever you do next will be the product of calm and focused thought."

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#30. Ask for help

This is perhaps the most important marketing tactic I've learned in 6 years at a startup. That's why I've included it twice, kind of.

I said above that communities are an amazing way to increase brand awareness, and they are. But they're also incredible resources.

A simple question, "Which webinar software should we use?" is far more effectively answered by an active Facebook group than it would be by a day of Google searching:

That question got replies from 14 marketers, looking to help someone out of nothing more than their own altruism.

Growing a business takes a village. Never forget that you're not alone in this.

Share this marketing tactic with your network!

Click here to head back up to the Table of Contents.

Final Thoughts

I hope you find a few tactics in this post which you can use to grow your business, as we have.

I don't have any real favorites, as I believe every single one of these has serious value at different business stages and for different industries.

As I said in the introduction, though, some of these require a bit more thought than others.

If you have questions about implementation or any of the tools I've recommended, feel free to reach out in the comment section.

Happy growing!

Related Reading:

Growth Hacking: 100 Hacks, Strategies & Techniques

77 Tremendous Tools to Make You a Content Marketing Superstar

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[photomaniacs]

A Forgotten Solution to the Problems of Zoom Lenses http://ift.tt/2uDsEzg

For a few years now, I’ve had in my collection one very strange lens. I bought it primarily for its value as a collectible so, up until now, I haven’t really spent much time playing with it. Made in 1975, this manual focus Minolta MC Rokkor-X 40-80mm f/2.8 lens is one strange puppy.

When it was first introduced, no other zoom lens could top its image quality and it really didn’t have much competition until more recent years. This is largely due to its very unique gearbox design that sought to overcome the problem with zoom lenses that we still face today.

Way back in 1959, the first commercially-available 35mm still camera zoom lens, the Bessamatic-mount Zoomar 36-82mm f/2.8, was released by Voigtlander. Its mechanical design would not be unfamiliar to you since the focus and focal length were adjusted via a few round-turns of the lens barrel. This simple helicoid design remains the only common method manufacturers use to make our lenses zoom in and out and focus.

When you twist the zoom/focus ring(s) of a lens, the optics are carried forward or backward through a threaded barrel. This design results in a fixed movement ratio of the optical groups mounted inside that helicoid.

The problem with this is every focal length requires a slightly different adjustment of the lens element/group spacing to properly correct aberrations, and the fixed ratio of a helicoid cannot provide that kind of variance. The helicoid is relatively simple, easy to make, and its shape tailors to a fitting physical design of a lens. If a lens were designed to have as few compromises as possible, it might look vastly different from what we see sitting on store shelves.

For simplicity though, manufacturers have stuck with the helicoid and instead invested in overcoming its mechanical shortfalls with optical solutions. Over the years, lens designers, aided by computers, have learned how to improve the optical designs of the zoom lens to work around most of the limitations of the locked-ratio helicoid. Modern zooms still aren’t quite as good as a prime lens but, with aspherical lens elements and fancy coatings to help out, they’re getting pretty darn close.

Back in the early 1970s, Minolta’s engineers, armed with their slide rules and cigarettes, had a go at thinking outside the box to come up with a lens design that would allow for precise positioning of the optical groups in a zoom lens. What they came up with was so clever that it required they put it inside a box — a gearbox, to be precise.

Rather than work with the limitations of a helicoid design, this clever bunch decided to abandon that whole concept and create a new one where lens groups would be blessed with the freedom to move independently of each other. They came up with this unorthodox gearbox design that drives 12 optical elements in 12 separate groups along linear, gear-operated rails. With the chains of fixed-ratio movement cast from them, the entire lens design could be “geared” for precise positioning of the optics to best correct for aberrations throughout the range of focal lengths.

What they did was figure out how to make a handheld zoom lens that is as well corrected across its range of focal lengths as a fixed focal length lens would be at its one — that’s the theory, anyway.

In spite of the weird and wart-like appearance of their solution, Minolta’s engineers achieved with this lens something that is truly unique and special. There is no mistaking this lens for any other, that’s for sure.

Weighing in at 19.75 ounces (560 g), it isn’t particularly big or heavy. In fact, even with all the metal machinery inside this lens, it’s almost exactly half the weight of Nikon’s current 24-70mm f/2.8 VR.

Focus is adjusted by turning the big wheel while focal length is controlled by moving the lever arm. Both controls are very smooth and easy to move across their fairly short range of motion. The focus wheel features a precise distance scale with Infrared Index.

The lens has a 55mm diameter coated front element. Here you can see the profile of the gearbox which is fixed to the left-hand side of the lens body.

Did I mention it has a macro mode? The lens has a metal stem poking out of the gearbox which, when twisted anti-clockwise and pushed in, shifts everything inside the lens out toward the front, essentially putting more space between the film/sensor plane and the rear element (same thing an extension tube does). The result of this forward-shift is a reduction in the Minimum Focal Distance from 3.3 ft (1.01 m) to 1.2 ft (.37 m) @40mm.

In this image, the stem is in its Normal position

Here, the stem is shown in the Macro position. When pushing in this stem, the focal length lever shifts forward with the internal glass. What a cool, whacky design!

Let’s see how well all of the engineering effort translates into actually making images with this lens.

My sister told me about this row of old silos that sit alongside a two-lane road not too far from where I live. Yesterday, I had to go by it while I was on errands. On the return trip, I pulled over for this shot. I had the lens set to 40mm and the aperture was wide-open at f/2.8 on a Sony a7R Mark II. This was the first shot I took and I kind of hurriedly grabbed it because of the unique lighting. That isn’t vignetting in the grass. Passing over head was a thick, dark cloud that cast the strangest light over this scene. No sooner I had shot this and the sun was back out in the open.

On the same errand run, I came across this old Chevrolet police car. Focal length was 80mm @ f/8.

I was very interested to see how well the lens would control chromatic aberrations when shooting this brightly lit chrome. I’ve not used a pre-1980s zoom lens that didn’t produce some purple-fringing in a shot like this. Kudos to Minoltas engineers because there was none. Zoomed 400% in the 42-megapixel RAW file I could see nothing but bright chrome and colorful rust. 80mm @ f/4

The Jelly Palm in our front yard is full of fruit this time of year. I shot this with the lens’ Macro mode enabled. 40mm @ f/2.8

Just a bowl of bananas on the dinner table. Shot somewhere around 50mm @ f/5.6

The Magnolia tree in the yard is sprouting new buds. Macro mode, 40mm @ f/2.8. In the shade and backlit, color and contrast are good and the out-of-focus background is pleasantly smooth and non-distracting.

My second oldest daughter was kind enough to pause a moment for this final shot. 80mm @ f/2.8

What can I say? The lens is awesome. All the effort put into designing this strange gearbox-driven lens seems to have resulted in an excellent mid-range zoom lens. When I first started shooting with it, I did find it a little fiddly using a lever and wheel to make adjusts but after awhile I grew fond of it; it’s actually really fun to handle.

You don’t hold this lens like you would a traditional zoom, with your hands wrapped around the barrel. I keep it propped with the gearbox resting on the up-turned palm of my left hand and use my thumb to move the focal length lever and index finger to turn the focus wheel. The travel distance of both is just right so that you aren’t moving your fingers outside their natural range or having to make repetitious movements.

I can highly recommend this lens to anyone wanting to own a piece of history and/or turn some heads on their next photo walkabout. Comparing this to my favorite zoom lens, the incredible Minolta MD 35-70mm f/3.5, I would say it at least equals it. They’re both around the same size and weight and have a similar range of focal lengths.

In fact, this Minolta 40-80mm f/2.8 lens is the antecedent to the 35-70mm f/3.5 (thus, for giggles, I used it to shoot the lens photos). Minolta likely found that the unusual design and complexity of making this gearbox lens was cost prohibitive and went back to the drawing board to come up with a balanced compromise.

They only made two versions of it before canning the whole idea. The lens I have is the 1st Gen ‘MC’ version. An ‘MD’ version was made in 1977 and after that, they called it quits. Both versions can still be found for sale online but I’ll warn you, this lens is priced for the committed collector.

About the author: Tom Leonard is an amateur photographer, engineer, and father of 9. You can read his musings and follow his travels on his blog. This post was also published here.

Go to Source Author: Tom Leonard If you’d like us to remove any content please send us a message here CHECK OUT THE TOP SELLING CAMERAS!

The post A Forgotten Solution to the Problems of Zoom Lenses appeared first on CameraFreaks.

August 14, 2017 at 10:05PM

[polizwrites]

WIP Update - 21 Nov 2017

Trying to get back to a regular mid-week schedule for these updates.

Open Up, I’m Climbing In:  The @imaginetonyandbucky blog post is out there now  - it's a tad spoilery for the longer Ao3 fic, but then again, so is the prompt itself :^) Chapter 2 of the longform version (see above) is going up tomorrow, with the plan to post  twice-weekly installments thru the second week of December.  @hddnone did a wonderful job (as always) beta-ing both the extended mix and the Cliff Notes version.

Forging the Shield:  Stucky pre-war  a/b/o that I haven't done a whole lot with since last time; more polishing than new wordage.  I wrapped up chapter 3 and it's sitting at about 7500 words.  The next (and likely final) chapter is probably going to be pretty smut-tastic, considering that knotting and bonding are the endgame of the fic. I’m still debating on whether to carry it beyond their initial bonding into what we see in The First Avenger -  if you have any feelings one way or the other, let me know! If all goes well, I’ll start posting this after Open Up, I’m Climbin’ In  finishes up.  @hddnone is also rocking it as beta for this fic!

The Subtle Briar  – still on the back burner, but I’m not giving up on this Peggy POV alternate-origin story of our favorite SSR agent.   Canon-level Steve x Peggy is the eventual end game, pairings-wise, but I expect the rating will remain Gen/Teen.  Don’t expect to see this before the beginning of next year, as it’s sitting somewhere around 2k on paper  for the first major act with a few plotty bits sketched out and several  further elements still to be jotted down. If anyone is interested in beta/cheer-reading, HMU.

I've got an idea rolling around for a Gen-rated Tony & Bruce post-Avengers film  BroTP one-shot that might get jotted down and at least posted here, if not over on Ao3.

The one-shots I’ve written about before are still to be polished prior to posting, tho I'm leaning towards tossing the StarkQuill bit from last May (probable title Carry On, Wayward Sons) out on Ao3 first.  Then there’s a couple of WinterIron ficlet ideas, and if my first @imaginetonyandbucky story goes over well, I might take on another prompt or two from there.  

And if you’ve read this far - feel free to hit me up with a  One Sentence –>5 Sentence prompt – throw me the first sentence and a POV/pairing in an Ask and I’ll try to turn something around within a day or so & post it here.

[polizwrites]

WIP Update - 17 Nov 2017

Nothing brand new, but a decent amount of progress on existing fics as I celebrate my multi-shippiness.

Open Up, I'm Climbing In: Since I went WAY overboard with my initial fic for the ITAB prompt (Road Trip where Tony & Bucky end up sharing a bed = total set up by Sam & Steve, "would be nice if it were smutty"), I created a condensed & slightly tweaked version with a much more reasonable word count of about 3k.  The shorter fic has been queued over at the @imaginetonyandbucky blog and should show up within a day or two - I plan to reblog it here.  As for the extended mix version, it is complete (7 chapters total and about 17k), and I plan on posting it in twice-weekly installments thru the first week of December.I posted the first chapter just before Ao3 went down for maintenance, but I did grab the link:  http://archiveofourown.org/works/12752940/chapters/29091447 @hddnone did a wonderful job (as always) beta-ing both the extended mix and the Cliff Notes version.

Forging the Shield:  This is a prequel to To Shield From the Storm; it's set in 1934 and told from Steve’s POV: it covers Bucky and Steve’s unexpected transitions to omega and alpha status, and their subsequent bonding.  It’s now  over 7k words and probably about 3/4 done  - just moving into the smutty bits.  I'm debating on whether to carry it beyond their initial bonding into what we see in The First Avenger -  if you have any feelings one way or the other, let me know! If all goes well, I'll start posting this after Open Up, I'm Climbin' In  finishes up.  @hddnone is also rocking it as beta for this fic!

The Subtle Briar  – still on the back burner, but I’m not giving up on this Peggy POV alternate-origin story of our favorite SSR agent.   Canon-level Steve x Peggy is the eventual end game, pairings-wise, but I expect the rating will remain Gen/Teen.  Don’t expect to see this before the beginning of next year, as it’s sitting somewhere around 2k on paper  for the first major act with a few plotty bits sketched out and several  further elements still to be jotted down. If anyone is interested in beta/cheer-reading, HMU.

The one-shots I’ve written about before are still to be polished prior to posting, tho I"m leaning towards tossing the StarkQuill bit from last May (probable title Carry On, Wayward Sons) out on Ao3 first.  Then there’s a couple of WinterIron ficlet ideas, and if my first @imaginetonyandbucky story goes over well, I might take on another prompt or two from there.  

And if you’ve read this far - feel free to hit me up with a  One Sentence –>5 Sentence prompt – throw me the first sentence and a POV/pairing in an Ask and I’ll try to turn something around within a day or so & post it here.