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boognish-worshipper · 3 years ago

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Midnight City AU

i’ve been having fun writing this story, all these lil snippets n pieces comin together n shit,,, but i also find myself getting so frustrated writing sometimes even tho ik that’s a given with literally creating anything 😭 anyway uhhhh scheming shit ensues in this chapter, and we see another familiar pal pop up 🙏 also included obligatory reference to those aesthetic photos with song lyrics 🏃‍♀️💥

//Chapter 2: Oblivion

The vinyl store was a short walk from Sterling Lake, but Ron and Trevor decided to run there like idiots. Trevor was out of breath by the time they got there placing his hands on his knees, while Ron looked ready to keel over and pass out, pressing a hand against the front of the store.

“Remind me why we chose to run here?”

“So we could,” Ron wheezed out a breath, inhaling deep to stable himself.

“So we could hurry up and get Wade.”

“It was a rhetorical question.”

“Right. Sorry Trevor.”

Trevor swung the door open hastily, calling out for Wade right away. A head with muddy locs popped up in their direction.

“Hey Trevor! Hi Ron!”

“Wade! Get over here, no time for pleasantries!”

Wade rushed over to meet them outside.

“Get out of my G-damn store Trevor!”

“I’m going, Debra. Say hi to lovely Floyd for me, will ya?”

“Get out!”

The trio walked away from the place, not knowing where to head next.

“Let’s go talk in my truck, where we won’t be… disturbed by any fuckwad wearing Andés brand sherpa jackets. Why do they even need jackets out here? It’s like 90 degrees all the time!”

He was parked across the way from Sterling Lake, and as he went, he tried his best to avoid running into the clique of phony fucks. The minute they all piled in, Trevor peeled out so loudly it was surprising he tried being discrete at all.

“So, Ron. Fill Wade in.”

“What’s goin’ on?”

“It’s the Merryweather Night Club.”

“Ooh, are we goin’ in to see them pretty girls dance?”

“No, Wade.” Trevor interjected.

“Then what-“

“It’s about Steve.”

“Who?”

Trevor impatiently shot out a breath, trying his best to breakdown the situation to Wade. He put a hand to his face briefly before speaking again.

“Haines, Wade. Steven fuckin’ Haines.”

“Ohh him! That fancy dude at the park.”

“Yeah. The fancy dude at the park.”

“What about him?”

“Well Ron here caught word that Devin Weston is hosting some big event there for Haines and his crew.”

“We invited or somethin’?”

“For fucks sake- No, Wade. We’re gonna plan out how to completely crash and wreck the party, so we can get that club the fuck out of here.”

“How’re we gonna do that?”

“Well first, we’re gonna scope the place out. Get a better idea of what we’re dealing with here.”

Trevor thought to himself that if he didn’t have a good look from the outside, that’d he’d have to get a layout of the floor plans himself. It’s not like he hadn’t visited the club before, but he hadn’t been… sober exactly when he dropped by those few times. So it was basically like seeing it for the first time. If he couldn’t get much from the outside, he knew only one person who could accomplish getting the layout of the place.

“We’re almost there, get ready to do some creeping boys.”

The sun was setting, and soon it would be dark out. And when it got dark in Los Santos, it got dark. The only way the city could be visible was from the surplus of lights that were nearly everywhere, except for a few places. They at least had some darkness to rely on so they wouldn’t be spotted right away. Trevor parked a block away, and the three of them hid on the rooftop of the building across the way. Neon lights flickered on, reading “MERRYWEATHER’S SUNNY DAYS NIGHT CLUB”.

“Such a stupid fucking name. I mean, why is it called Sunny Days if it’s a night club?!” Trevor angrily muttered.

As the sky grew dark, the club began to stir, with some random rhythmic song starting up. Ron lifted a pair of binoculars he brought with him, and gasped.

“There he is! Mr. Weston himself!”

Trevor snatched the binoculars from Ron, causing him to crash into his side.

“Uh, Trevor, it’s still around my neck.”

“Then take it the fuck off, before I take it off for you.”

He fumbled around with it, tossing it into Trevor’s hands. Below them, he saw Devin standing outside, with a pristine woman beside him. Trevor whistled lowly, so they wouldn’t be heard.

“That lady’s wayyy out of that fucker’s league.”

He watched them speak to the bouncer outside, hearing them laugh about something before heading in.

“They’re probably laughing it up now, plotting their next move to take over the city!”

“Shut up Ron, we lost them.”

He growled in frustration, handing the binoculars back to Ron.

“Let’s sneak ‘round back, maybe we’ll see something there.”

As they left, Trevor made a mental note of where the Merryweather bouncers were placed. Two burly men guarded the entrance, with a thick velvety rope not too far in front of it. They had to avoid the streetlights, seeing as people like them were sure to raise suspicion being near one of the hottest night clubs in LS. He couldn’t be made, not when he already had a reputation there.

“Alright Ron, you see anything?”

They hid near a dumpster, away from the lights.

“Not really, it’s too dark-“

Suddenly, the back door swung open. Ron and Trevor ducked while Wade’s eyes were transfixed on who was coming out. Trevor yanked him down, holding a finger to his lips.

“So I says to him, ‘You ain’t payin’ me enough to stay on this failure of a fuckin’ show Solomon!’, old guy flipped the fuck out.”

“That’s that Pelosi actor though!” Wade said, rather loudly.

“Wade! Shh!”

“And then I- wait a minute. The fuck was that?”

“Shit! Shit!” Ron panicked.

“Yo!” Pelosi started to walk in their direction.

“We better get out of here. Now.”

All three of them scrambled up to run off back to Trevor’s truck.

“Get back here! Security!” The actor began to chase them, along with one of the Merryweather guards.

They continued to run down the block, Trevor breaking into a sprint so he could start the car up before anyone caught up to them.

“Get in! Get the fuck in!”

The truck revved up, and Trevor drove off in a haste. Even though it didn’t go as planned, Trevor couldn’t help but laugh out loud.

“Whew! What a rush, huh?”

“Rush?! We almost got caught, Trevor!”

“Yeah, only because Wade couldn’t keep it down for 5 fuckin’ seconds.”

“I’m sorry! That Pelosi guy is famous! I ain’t ever seen a actor up close.”

“Yeah, but he’s already washed up. Nothing special.”

“Isn’t he our age? How can he be washed up if he’s still-“

“Can it, Wade.”

Trevor came to the conclusion that there wasn’t enough visibility of the place from the outside. It didn’t have a single window. He mumbled to himself that he needed to go see a friend of his. The travel to El Burro Heights didn’t take long, with Trevor telling the other two to wait in the truck.

“Ron, please make sure he doesn’t do anything dumb.”

“Got it.”

“It was one time!”

He made his way up the steps, banging on the door. He lifted his head up to the outdoor camera, snarling at it.

“Let me the fuck in Wheels!”

The front door clicked open, and Trevor walked right in. He shut it behind him, and trotted over to a bedroom.

“Trevor. Didn’t think I’d see much of you again.”

“Neither did I old friend.”

“What is it. What do you want.”

The room was lit up with aqua and pink shades, a visual of a permanent sunset on his computer. Some kind of synth music played faintly. A nerdy looking guy was seated in a wheelchair next to a set up that looked like it was pulled right from the 90s, various posters and novelty items strewn about.

“Let me cut to the chase. It’s Merryweather again.”

“Again? Trevor, I thought we agreed you’d leave them alone!”

“Ah ah ah! I didn’t finish, Lest. Get this, there’s some big event going on soon. Steve Haines- some big get together with him and his posse of lame-os.”

“Really? Devin’s letting those guys in? I thought it was all big name people.”

“Yeah, well Steve isn’t exactly poor Lester. I thought we both knew that.”

“Duh, but still. He’s not exactly Devin’s type of crowd.”

“No no no, I think they might be in kahoots. Planning something.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

“Hmm. Let me see…”

He turned to the computer, clacking away on his keyboard. It was rather vintage looking, and Trevor was surprised it worked at all. Lester was into technology more than he was though, so he probably worked some kind of magic on it.

“Hm. You’re right. Seems like they’ve known one another for quite some time. Guess their dads work together.”

“Fuckin’ daddy’s boys.”

“But, I still don’t think interfering with that party is a good idea.”

“Why the fuck not?”

“You’ve had enough run ins with the both of them already.”

“But if we infiltrated the club, we could get it shut down!”

“What are you planning, some sort of raid? You and your buddies? 2 other people isn’t much to work with if you wanna take down one of the most popular clubs here.”

“That’s why I came to you!”

“For what?”

“So you could do your cyber shit, find the floor plans or something!”

“You know that’s gonna take a long time, right? I mean, getting the blueprints, not to mention finding other people who’re on board with the idea of it all-”

“Well no shit.”

“Are you paying me?”

“What?”

“I said, are you paying me?”

“What the fuck would I need to pay you for?”

“Taking time out of my day to get that done for you.”

“Right. Because you’re sooo busy.”

Lester frowned slightly, upset by the remark.

“I’m gonna just ignore that. Anyway, I’m not asking for a whole lot. Just something for the effort I’m putting in to find the plans.”

“So you’ll do it?”

“What choice do I have?”

“Absolutely none my friend!” He said, grin wide.

“Y’know you’re still gonna need to assemble a crew that doesn’t consist of only your… minions or whatever. That’s your part. Now shoo, let me do my thing.”

“Oh Lester the Molester you never let me down!” He said, clapping a hand on his shoulder.

“I told you to stop calling me that!”

“Aww, and here I thought you liked it!”

“Just go already. If we’re doing this, we’re doing it right. No funny business.”

“But funny business is my specialty!”

“Oh my God, go!”

He made his way back over to the truck, seeing Wade passed out in the back. Slamming a hand on the truck bed, he yelled for him to wake up.

“Boys! We got some recruiting to do.”

“Wh-what? What d’ya mean? Who are we gonna find? I thought it was just gonna be us-”

“We’re not taking out one of the biggest clubs in LS on our own, Ron.”

“But I-”

“No buts! Now let’s go.”

They all drove across the city, back to the apartment complex Floyd lived in, Wade’s place being the first one you see pulling in. He had been nice enough to pitch in some cash to pay his rent, seeing as Wade basically had no money to begin with. The trio brainstormed for a bit, chattering away about needing to find people who hated those guys just as much as they did, before Wade and Ron promptly passed out. Trevor threw on a random shuffled playlist to keep him occupied as they slept, and some song he’d never heard before played. Some artist called Grimes? The intro was wobbly, like someone was shaking laminated paper. He kept it on, liking how funky it sounded. The music reverberated loud in his ears, the singer’s voice light and dreamlike compared to the dark, heavy tone of the song. It was the experimental stuff Trevor was into. He opened nosedivr, scrolling through his usual feed. This was a thing he did often when he couldn’t sleep. As he kept going through posts, he noticed he still followed Amanda; they stopped being friends long ago and the task of removing her on there slipped his mind. She had posted a new photo though, and he instantly recognized who she was with just from the shoes. It was that Michael guy.

@krystal-klear-tears

𝔦 𝔱𝔢𝔩𝔩 𝔶𝔬𝔲 𝔞𝔩𝔩 𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔱𝔦𝔪𝔢, 𝔥𝔢𝔞𝔳𝔢𝔫 𝔦𝔰 𝔞 𝔭𝔩𝔞𝔠𝔢 𝔬𝔫 𝔢𝔞𝔯𝔱𝔥 𝔴𝔦𝔱𝔥 𝔶𝔬𝔲.

#grunge aesthetic #lana del rey #lyrics #black and white aesthetic

His finger hovered over the reblog button, and he hesitated. What was he doing right now? He didn’t give a shit who Amanda was with anymore. Michael was just another name, another face, another person she was just gonna dump later on. She could never do commitment. That was the one thing he knew for sure in the period of time they had been friends. Amanda wasn’t exactly a bad person for it, she just didn’t express her feelings in the best way. It was why she jumped from guy to guy. They didn’t need anything more than her facade, her surface level personality. So when the time came that she would be close to showing her true colors, she’d cut them off. Trevor didn’t like that. If there was one thing he truly could not stand, it was people being two-faced. He wished Amanda embraced herself more. But like he said, it was whatever now. Soon enough, he wouldn’t see anymore posts like that.

Still, he figured he could unfollow her another day. Part of him did wanna see how long this one would last. Was that bad? Maybe. Who cares. By the time he had finished scrolling mindlessly on his phone, he’d finally grown tired. He wanted to dream about tomorrow, because tomorrow promised a plan in the works, and it was fucking spectacular. He couldn’t let something so meaningless like a new boyfriend of hers distract him. Yet despite that, he still found himself wanting to know more. This was the first guy in a while that Amanda got with that she didn’t run to tell him about. It felt… strange. But again, he couldn’t let that distract him from what was at the front of his mind. He didn’t have time for that. He had to focus on Merryweather first and foremost. Shutting his eyes, a smile grew on his face. He was finally gonna take those stupid fucks down.

//sorry if these seem short rn,,, it’s gonna be a slow build up tbh. it’ll be worth it later on when i complete future chapters lol. don’t wanna rush it too much ,, also i feel like i’m gonna accidentally make this sound all over the place so uh apologies in advance 💯 i will go into more detail abt amanda n trevor’s friendship in this too btw so expect that eventually ig

#gta v #grand theft auto v #grand theft auto 5 #trevor philips #ron jakowski #wade hebert #lester crest #michael de santa #michael townley #amanda de santa #midnight city au

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recentanimenews · 5 years ago

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My Favorite Art Books of 2019

This year I reviewed 62 art books, a dip again from the 74 I did last year, and 82 back in 2017. I attribute the reasons for the falling numbers to a combination of reduced readership for my blog ( less readers = less conversion, which unfortunately gives me less resources to procure books ) as well as the comparatively smaller number of interesting Japanese art books that I felt was worth picking up.

Despite the reduced quantity, there’s still plenty of great art books that were published in 2019, and these particular 10 are my favorites. I hope you’ll find something of interest in the list, and here’s to a happy 2020 ! –

1) Spider-Man : Into The Spiderverse – The Art Of The Movie

Published in late December 2018, this book narrowly missed my fav art books list of 2018, so I’m including it here for posterity.

Winner of the 2018 Academy Award for Best Animated Film, and a movie I’m super proud to have worked on, this book explores the stunning concept art created for the film, with a surplus of sketches, storyboards, character/environment designs as well as color scripts. The beautiful images that you see in the film were greatly informed by the amazing visuals the concept artists created, so if you like the movie, you’ll the art work in this book too.

Read the full book review | Buy From Amazon.com | Buy From Amazon UK | Buy From Amazon Japan

2) Tokyo At Night – The Artworks of Mateusz Urbanowicz II

Tokyo based Polish illustrator Mateusz Urbanowicz‘s first art book Tokyo Storefronts was one of my favorites in 2018, and he’s back again this year strong with Tokyo At Night, a collection of delightful watercolor illustrations that explores the the moody nocturnal sights of the sprawling, skyscraper topped metropolis saturated with neon lights, mysterious back alleys, wet cityscapes lit by reflections and more. It’s a stunning art book from start to end, and I love it.

Read the full book review | Buy From Amazon Japan | Buy From Amazon.com | Buy From Amazon UK

3) Real Size – Katsuya Terada Art Book

Renowned Japanese illustrator Katsuya Terada’s Real Size is a superb collection of his black marker art works, many of which were created during his live drawing events. The title refers to the print size of the reproductions which are at 100% scale of the original art works, large mural pieces which are cropped and presented across several pages in the book. The complete drawings are also included, scaled down to 16% of the original size.

Read the full book review | Buy From Amazon Japan | Buy From Amazon.com | Buy From Amazon UK

4) Making Solo: A Star Wars Story

Industrial Light & Magic Presents : Making Solo: A Star Wars Story is a handsomely photographed making of book by Rob Bredow, the SVP, executive creative director, and head of Industrial Light & Magic.

As a child, the production photographs of the AT-ATs from The Empire Strikes Back inspired Rob to become a filmmaker, and in meticulously documenting the progress of the production on Solo he hopes to do the same – to inspire the next generation of artists, engineers and storytellers.

The beautiful set photographs gives readers an intimate glimpse into the journey that Solo took from pre-production, production, and post-production, fully documenting how this film came to the big screen.

This book is a great companion for the equally fantastic Art Of Solo – A Star Wars Story, which focuses on the concept art behind the film ( and incidentally one of my fav art books of 2018 ).

Read the full book review | Buy From Amazon.com | Buy From Amazon UK | Buy From Amazon Japan

5) The Idol – Sushio

Sushio is a Japanese animator/illustrator who started his career as an animator at studio Gainax for the TV animation series Neon Genesis Evangelion. After working on many renowned anime series and movies such as One Piece, he took on the character design work for the anime hit series Kill La Kill, catapulting his status in the animation world.

This book is his long-awaited first commercial collection that looks back over his career to date. It features notable works from Kill La Kill, Gurren Lagann, Momoiro Clover Z, along with a panel illustration of Anime Matsuri 2015, his work overseas for an annual anime convention held in Texas, and much more. This book also features Sushio’s illustrations of AKIRA: two original illustrations depicting the imaginary post-AKIRA world, which was officially approved by Katsuhiro Otomo himself, and two illustrations taken from the Tribute to Otomo art book.

Read the full book review | Buy From Amazon.com | Buy From Amazon UK | Buy From Amazon Japan

6) The Making Of Alien

The Making Of Alien is an in-depth and comprehensive book charting the complete story of how Alien was made, featuring new interviews with Ridley Scott and other production crew, and including many rarely-seen photos and illustrations from the Fox archives.

I already own several excellent books on the making of the Alien films, Alien The Archive and Aliens – The Set Photography just to name a few, but this huge hard cover volume explores plenty of material that I’m only seen for the first time, most notably the huge collection of “Ridleygrams”; detail storyboards draw by the director himself, as well as on set production photographs and a giant depository of concept art pieces by several artists like Eliot Scott, Chris Foss and Ron Cobb.

But the book isn’t simply your regular coffee-table book glossed over with just pictures and images. The small print text accompanying the visuals are cramped with detailed production stories and are more scholarly than just a casual read.

As a big fan of the franchise I’m absolutely delighted with this book, and I really look forward to the upcoming Making Of Aliens book, also by J.W. Rinzler.

Read the full book review | Buy From Amazon.com | Buy From Amazon UK | Buy From Amazon Japan

7) Children Of The Sea Background Art Book

Children Of The Sea ( Kaiju No Kodomo ) is a Japanese animated film directed by Watanabe Ayumu and produced by Studio 4°C, based on the highly acclaimed manga by Daisuke Igarashi. The art direction and background art is supervised by Kimura Shinji, who previously bought us the amazing background art in Tekkon Kinkreet and Steamboy.

Published in the same format at the fantastic Shiro ( White ) background art book for Tekkon Kinkreet, this hardcover volume is bursting at the seams with stunning background art painted by Kimura Shinji, with some 250 pages of art work.

Read the full book review | Buy From Amazon.com | Buy From Amazon UK | Buy From Amazon Japan

8) Hellboy – 25 Years Of Covers

I enjoy every page and panel of Mike Mignola’s Hellboy comics, but the art covers he has illustrated for the comic are something special; often drawn with just that extra, delicate detail. Over the years as the volumes of Hellboy and the shared universe BPRD grew it became harder and harder to keep track of all the covers that he has illustrated, and I started hoping for an art book that is dedicated to just the covers. Hellboy – 25 Years Of Covers is exactly that.

This hardcover volume features more than 150 full-page cover pieces from Mike Mignola, Richard Corben, Duncan Fegredo and more, all neatly collected for easy viewing and enjoyment.

Read the full book review | Buy From Amazon.com | Buy From Amazon Japan | Buy From Amazon UK

9) Ikegami Ryoichi Art Works

An art book that is long overdue, Ikegami Ryoichi Art Works is a superb collection of illustrations from the famed manga artist of Crying Freeman, Sanctuary and Mai The Psychic Girl.

Running at a sumptuous 288 pages, the art book is split into 2 separate volumes, with one book dedicated to male characters, and the other female. While a good portion of both volumes feature illustrations from Crying Freeman, likely the artist’s most famous work; there’s still a good spread of content from Ikegami’s other mangas, and this is the biggest collection of his art work published yet.

Read the full book review | Buy From Amazon.com | Buy From Amazon UK | Buy From Amazon Japan

10) Akira Art Of Wall Art Book

This book arrived just in time to be included in this year’s list, and also made for a very splendid Christmas present.

Four sets of giant Akira murals ( see the pictures I took here, here and here ) used to decorate the construction walls of the Parco Shibuya shopping mall in Tokyo from the period of 2017-2019 are fully reproduced in this stunning boxset. The panoramic art work looks spectacular when fully extended, and would immediately class up any wall lucky enough to be adorned with it. I think this might very well be my favorite art book of the year, among all my favorites.

Read the full book review | Buy From Amazon.com | Buy From Amazon UK | Buy From Amazon Japan

Besides the 10 books that I’ve listed above, some other noteworthy mentions include Marvel Monograph: The Art Of Esad Ribic, Perfect Blue Storyboard Book ( New Edition ), The Art Of Kazuchika Kise and Bram Stoker’s Dracula – Mike Mignola Graphic Novel ( B&W edition ).

You can take a look at the full list of 2019’s art book reviews here, and I also recommend my favorite art books of 2018/2017/2016/2015/2014/2013/2012.

If you need help with ordering on Amazon Japan, the FAQs below will guide you through, step by step.

One small request – Due to the falling readership of my blog, I’ve been finding it harder and harder to purchase more books for review. I kindly ask that you use any of the Amazon purchase links in this post or anywhere on my blog to buy books; it won’t cost you anything, but the affiliate fee I earn as a result will allow me to continue reviewing more books. Thank you !

And lastly, I’ll love you hear about your favorite art books this year too, if you have any to share. Happy New Year !

The post My Favorite Art Books of 2019 appeared first on Halcyon Realms - Art Book Reviews - Anime, Manga, Film, Photography.

My Favorite Art Books of 2018

My Favorite Art Books of 2015

My Favorite Art Books of 2017

My Favorite Art Books of 2016

My Favorite Art Books of 2014

By: yonghow

#Anime #News #Halcyon Realms – Art Book Reviews – Anime #Manga #Film #Photography

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withgravityandtime-blog · 6 years ago

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Task 4: The Guild –– Ora

Guild Member Name: Ora , (Bridget Welsh)

Face Claim: Aislinn Paul

Age: 22

Species: Human

Powers & Abilities: Chronokenisis

Backstory: Bridget Welsh always had a quite nervous disposition. Quiet for most of her life, she had learned to make herself more likable by adapting a dry, ironic humor. It served as a good defense mechanism against any bullies that tried to bring her down as she went through the trials and tribulations of puberty. As she got older, however, she became more and more reserved. That witty, sardonic humor became reserved for those closest to her. The rest of the world, in turn, saw a quiet girl with a bright mind and, every so often, a silver tongue.

Problems arose, however, when Bridget hit high school. Taking tests would have her face and hands going numb. her whole body would tremble at the thought of verbal confrontation. Small, insignificant things would make her heart race and her brain fall down dark, terrifying hypotheticals. Getting up in the morning became more and more difficult as dread seeped into her bones. Dread of going to school, hinged around the possibility of failure.

Things came to a head during a pivotal moment in her academic career: her SATs. Her test-taking anxieties skyrocketed, the constant reminder of the ticking clock weighing on her like shackles bound to her desk. She’d studied, gotten tutoring, but very little could prepare her for the pressure when the time came. Her hands shook so much she could barely fill in the Scantron sheet in front of her. Hell, she couldn’t even feel her hands, or her feet, or the tip of her nose. Bridget felt sick to her stomach, positive she’d faint soon as tears began to well in her eyes. This was it. The end of her academic career and, by proxy, the rest of her life. The overstimulation of it all flooded her system, the air growing heavy, body going electric with adrenaline and panic until –––

It stopped. Not the anxiety, not the fear, but everything. The world around Bridget completely froze, the room falling quiet as her fellow students stilled, along with the moderator, her mouth agape in preparation to speak. Dumbfounded, Bridget looked up to see that the clock, too, had stopped in its motion. Time itself had come to a halt. All except for her.

To some, maybe this would have incited more hysteria. But all Bridget felt was the most acute sense of relief. Maybe she’d fallen off the deep end, she figured, but even if she had this was precisely what she needed. She had all the time in the world, quite literally; the least she could do was take a damn breath and collect herself. She even stood, marveled at how she could still push back her chair and walk around without anything snapping back around her. She got water, let herself sharpen her pencil, even stared at the ceiling for a good while before filling in more test answers. It was only when, consciously, she decided she was ready to return to the real world that time resumed with a jump, the moderator appropriately announcing the remaining thirty minutes left to the test. With newfound confidence, Bridget continued, her alter-ego Ora formulating in the back of her brain as she sped ahead of her peers.

Work as a supposed superhero came slowly to Bridget, not much of the fighting type if truth be told. It took quite a bit of personal practice for her to hone her ability without sending herself into body-numbing panic. The trigger, she found, was a definite and concentrated need for time to cease, its mere fabric stopping in its infinite weaving at her own will. By proxy, resuming of time came with purposeful permission to do so. It relieved her, knowing her power was completely intentional and not heavily prone to accident. That is, of course, save for a few exceptions: angry fights, low emotional points, or even times of high excitement. The conscious decision to return, though, always kept her safe.

Telling her parents proved difficult; how can you explain to someone a power which they cannot perceive? Evidently, by using your time-without-time to move quite a few things around the kitchen, spilling milk and inverting pots, to make big enough of an impact. Immediately, Bridget’s mother took to highlighting news events, especially with the rise of Spectrum patrolling Newhaven. Her father even got her bits and pieces of steampunk-esque attire from Halloween stores for her, and many holidays were filled with bits and pieces of costume paraphernalia for what they disguised as ‘cosplay’ to non-knowing relatives. Bridget’s younger brother even helped her design her sigil. So, Bridget –– Ora –– began to work in consistent bursts: her temporal interruption perfect for throwing any evil-doers off balance and letting her move to a safe place before damage befell her.

Such covert tactics, ironically, got the attention of the Guild relatively quickly. More of a flashy bunch, the Guild seemed keen for a member with less austere tactics and abilities. Under their wing, and within the safety of the Guild’s headquarters. Ora has begun to flex her temporal muscles, just beginning to explore what other variations of time manipulation she can slip into her wheelhouse.

Furthermore, she’s learning to rebuild her confidence; a superhero cannot go around with their head ducked whilst in costume, anyway. The surplus of fellow feminine company obviously helps. Maternal and sister-like figures have thus far helped Bridget to be more open in her dry humor, and even with her own physique as what one would assume is an ‘active’ member of the community, despite her general lack of a quick pace in her tactics. The older gentlemen within the Guild treat her akin to a sister, which also helps in feeling less awkward walking around the halls of HQ. It’s only the new kid, Atlas, that seems to set her stomach to flipping, and she’s slowly starting to figure out why...

Overall, Bridget is a nervous, intelligent, and sweet soul. More one to look before jumping, she sometimes comes off as overly trepidatious. But get her annoyed enough, and she can have quite an impish and mischievous streak. Anger in Bridget brings with it rash thinking and a spike in impulse, usually offset by her own ability. Maybe she’s still a bit trapped in herself, deep down. But that’s nothing constantly trying to save the world cannot fix.

Moral Alignment: Neutral Good

Signature Move: Temporal Interruption –– To put it simply, Ora can stop time; think Zack Morris from Saved by the Bell. Everything freezes around Ora, and she can go around, move things as she pleases, take a nap, go get intel, whack a few people upside the head. Whatever she needs to do, she can, all whilst everyone around her perceives that she did so in a blink of an eye.

Extra Info:

Sigil: A clock with slightly bent hands, a la ‘Alice in Wonderland’, Mad Hatter sort of deal.

Diagnoses: Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Panic Attacks, mild OCPD.

Family:

Mother –– Tara Welsh née Skulkin. Copy Editor, detail-fanatic, socially conscious. Will be the person to go to local protests fr liberal social change, but also the person to correct grammar on posters.Maybe a hair too much on the pulse of current events.

Father –– Emmett Welsh. Convention Organizer, not-so-closeted Nerd-of-All-Things. The type of person that offers to plan every party you so much as suggest you might be thinking of having. Hellbent on tight scheduling.

Younger Brother –– Marcus Welsh. Currently 17, Student, aspiring Graphic Designer. For ‘some reason’, very much into making Ora fan art and Guild promotional posters. Gets sick to his stomach whenever his friends mention wanting to get any type of romantic with his sister or with Ora, which obviously have ‘no correlation whatsoever’.

Color Scheme: Bronze, brown, black.

#taskvig #talkvig #((I hope I tagged this right?))#The Guild #Timeless ;; (Bridget Welsh)

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ads-is-shady-blog · 6 years ago

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#3) [Otome Games/BTS] Indie devs enrage fans of their crowdfunded games with a censorship controversy, years of broken promises and delays, & legal troubles on a BTS fan game

View the discussion on reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/HobbyDrama/comments/abjkzf/otome_gamesbts_indie_devs_enrage_fans_of_their/

Post (words belong to original poster linked):

Tl;dr at the bottom since this spans several years and numerous layers of drama and is therefore very long.

Some useful info:

Otome games: a niche genre aimed at a female audience, typically visual novels with a female player character and romanceable male characters. Originated in Japan.

Visual novel (VN): a game where the story and dialogue is (mostly) conveyed in text, accompanied by relatively simple visuals and audio, and with choices that change the direction of the story. Also originated in Japan. VNs made in English are sometimes distinguished with the moniker OELVN (Original English Language Visual Novel).

Route: a specific path or branch of a visual novel, often one involving a romance with a particular character.

Pay-per-route: a payment model mainly found in mobile otome games where a game's prologue/common route is free and each character's route is bought separately as DLC. There may also be separate epilogues, sequels and other DLC.

BTS: a massively popular 7-member Kpop boy idol group.

ARMY/ARMYs: the official name of BTS's fanbase/fans.

BigHit Entertainment: BTS's agency.

This drama concerns one small indie dev company, Aeon Dream Studios (ADS), formerly known as Star Maiden Games, and three of their games:

Mystic Destinies: Serendipity of Aeons (MDSOA): their first game for PC & mobile, an urban fantasy OELVN otome game;

Mystic Destinies: Echoes (Echoes): a promised sequel where the romanceable characters are the male antagonists of the first game;

To the Edge of the Sky (TTEOTS): originally a nonromantic BTS fan game for PC & mobile where the members of BTS are reimagined as operatives in a cyberpunk future. There was no in-game mention of the members' names or of BTS itself, but characters were visibly recognisable as BTS members and the group's name was frequently used in descriptions & promotions by the devs. Though originally free, the game was later monetised.

I'll break things down by year for easier reading. I only became aware of the drama this summer and most of this post is the product of my amateur internet sleuthing in the last month, so I apologise if I have made any mistakes.

2015

Star Maiden Games formed and began developing MDSOA in 2015. Like many indie otome game developers, in September 2015 they turned to Kickstarter for funding with a $2,000 goal. Five days later they'd met the target, and when the campaign closed they had $3,555 pledged in total and several stretch goals met. Looking back now, they were a little overoptimistic in promises for sequels and episodic content which were never added. The $3,500 stretch goal of customisable MC skin colour was also never implemented, though this was supposedly because one backer cancelled their pledge.

2016

MDSOA was soon Greenlit and released on Steam in February 2016 with a free prologue and a single route as paid DLC; four more routes and five corresponding epilogues were to be added as DLC as they were completed. Though the majority of initial reviews were positive (see chart), several Steam users left negative reviews, many criticising the pay-per-route model that had given multiple players the false impression that the entire game was free. One reviewer made a deeply critical playthrough of the prologue on Youtube, branding the game 'Serendipishit', and was soon notified it had been taken down by a copyright strike from the developers. His video about the strike gained significant attention on Reddit and a backlash began to form against the developers' perceived attempt to censor criticism.

A day later, the reviewer posted a follow-up video asking viewers to stop harassing the devs. Having personally spoken with them, he now stated the developers were revoking the strike and everything was good. The exact same thing also happened to another Youtuber at roughly the same time (initial video, video about the strike, update. Judging by a comment on the latter video, the Youtuber believed after speaking to the devs that the copyright strikes were deliberate manual strikes aimed at negative reviews.)

In both cases the follow-ups attracted a fraction of the attention that the videos about the strikes got and the controversy took a while to die down. Outside of Steam the developers made only the vaguest allusions to these events. The devs' most detailed comment on the issue, along with a defence of their payment model, was in response to a Steam review, where they claimed they had not specifically targeted negative reviews, only videos that did not have their direct permission to be posted.

Despite the censorship furore, otome game fans who tried MDSOA were largely pleased with the game and a small but passionate fanbase formed. The developers had a small number of Patreon supporters; bonuses included a short story set before MDSOA, which was also sold for $1+ on Gumroad. The second route came out in May 2016, and that month Star Maiden Games changed their name to Aeon Dream Studios, only citing "varied" reasons for the change.

At some point during the year, the two creative heads of the studio became fans of Korean idol group BTS due to relating to the lyrics of Dope, a motivational anthem about the group's tireless work and commitment to attaining success while refusing to bow to criticism. According to later statements by the CEO/Creative Director of ADS, the devs were enduring significant poverty and exhaustion while working on MDSOA during this time.

That September the third route released and ADS launched another Kickstarter campaign to help fund the final 2 routes and a deluxe edition DLC, all of which were slated to be out by December. Fans spread the word and within 4 days they reached the funding goal of $7,500. The devs then rebranded much of the page to reflect their stretch goal, a sequel called Mystic Destinies: Echoes, initially promised for March 2017. Though the stretch goal was not reached, the funding surplus (roughly $5,500) was put towards Echoes with another Kickstarter planned later to finish funding. The fourth MDSOA route was briefly delayed but came out at the end of November. The fifth route and the DLC did not end up arriving in December as promised, but as some delays are par for the course with Kickstarter, nobody was too perturbed. However, whispers of unrest began as ADS started making references to a BTS fan project.

2017

The developers finished funding Echoes through their third Kickstarter in January 2017. This slightly surpassed its $7,200 goal with a closing total in February of $8,033, and they also opened preorders for the game on itch.io (since closed). They now aimed to first finish MDSOA and its Kickstarter reward fulfilment and then release Echoes in "late Spring 2017", or at least no later than Summer 2017. The studio at the time consisted of only 3 employees, with some work contracted out to others.

Obviously, things didn't quite pan out.

Despite the amount of work still to be done on the Mystic Destinies games, in March 2017 they also released a demo for their BTS fan game, TTEOTS, and in May were soliciting funds through Gofundme for further development. (This closed in September 2017 at $1000 raised.) They dreamed of receiving an official endorsement from BigHit and not only emailed and tweeted at BigHit (with no response) but encouraged fans to do so as well, mobilising under the Twitter hashtag #ARMYWantsBTSGames. Though they never received any response, they decided to go ahead with the game anyway. Meanwhile, due to the pushbacks, lack of updates, and emergence of the BTS project, Mystic Destinies fans began to criticise the studio more openly (sample comments: one, two, three).

One focus of criticism was the devs' poor communication. Statements and news were scattered across multiple platforms or buried in Kickstarter comments, leading to confusion and rumours flying among the discontented community. When pressed for answers about whether the delays were TTEOTS-related, the developers insisted they were only working on one game at a time. Meanwhile, the final route of MDSOA hit further delays and due to the devs' communication issues many fans only found out it had been split into two parts when the first book finally released in June. The second followed in July, while the deluxe edition DLC was now slated for "Summer 2017". Continuous delays followed, but the developers posted semi-regular updates, blaming delays on problems like Hurricane Irma and their main artist leaving. In October the DLC was still not out and the devs stated Echoes would be out in November - but at the same time they were running more crowdfunding campaigns for TTEOTS.

As a BTS fan game, the developers tapped into a large and dedicated worldwide fanbase, so it wasn't a surprise that the two TTEOTS funding campaigns launched in October across Kickstarter and Fundrazr netted over $36,000 in total. From here on Fundrazr was the devs' crowdfunding platform of choice, using its "Keep it all" option where backers' money is sent immediately and campaigns can run forever. By November 2017 TTEOTS's first part had been launched to the public and they created a petition for BigHit to officially recognise the game (9000 signatures and 2k+ comments as of this post), but there were no updates on Echoes or MDSOA's deluxe edition DLC until the end of the month, when both were again delayed until December. Still, as the releases had only been delayed by a month or two each time, it seemed like both games must be near to completion.

Just two weeks later, ADS pushed back Echoes' release date indefinitely, offering a vague promise of 2018, and stated Echoes would now have less content than originally promised - 10 hours' gameplay instead of 15-25. They claimed they would offer refunds to anyone who wanted one but backers were understandably confused and upset, leaving comments expressing their frustration. As 2017 ended, fans were growing deeply concerned.

January - July 2018

After announcing another delay for the MDSOA DLC and receiving a few exasperated responses, the devs posted a backer-exclusive update threatening to forcibly issue refunds to backers whose behaviour they found dissatisfactory and blaming negative comments as the reason for their silences. I was not a backer so don't have a screenshot, but here's part of the text:

We would like to issue a reminder to everyone interacting with us in the community that comments should remain respectful and polite. [...] we ask that the community please keep a positive, welcoming environment instead of the toxic one it's veering into for us - which also makes us reluctant to speak openly about our progress and engage with the community more often. If you feel you cannot do this, or are engaging in abusive language, we do reserve the right to refuse service - this can result processing a refund for your backer number. [...] Part of supporting a project is more than just the financial aspect, but being an encouraging, welcoming presence for the team to come back to and feel comfortable with discussing the development with you in our regular updates. (emphasis added)

Many read this as a threat to stop airing any criticism whatsoever. In the Steam forums, backers dissected the devs' statements and wondered about the legality of TTEOTS, with one user predicting legal trouble was inevitable. (sample comments: one, two, three)

In February, ADS launched another Twitter campaign to promote TTEOTS using the hashtag #BTSxTTEOTS and the account @Trend_TTEOTS. They also hired a new writer, a BTS and TTEOTS fan who had helped promote the game by handing out promo cards at BTS concerts before she was hired. She was set to work on Echoes along with another employee while the most experienced employees, including the CEO, continued work on TTEOTS.

February also brought the release of the deluxe edition DLC for MDSOA, which meant the game was at last considered complete over a year later than promised. Some backers were incredibly frustrated by this point as those who had paid for the full deluxe edition of the game on Kickstarter did not receive any part of the game until the deluxe edition DLC was finished. As the promised release date had been December 2016 at the time of the Kickstarter, backers had certainly not expected such a long and uncertain wait to receive the full game. Some backers had been so dedicated to the game that they had bought the DLC as it came out on Steam on top of backing one or more of the Kickstarters.

As for Echoes, there was little mention of it throughout the first half of 2018, but the devs continued to post regularly about TTEOTS, released the first volume of a TTEOTS graphic novel on ComiXology, and launched additional crowdfunding campaigns on Fundrazr, including:

a project to send gifts to BTS in hopes of receiving official recognition for TTEOTS ($645);

a full length TTEOTS novel (which is still open and currently stands at over $3.5k);

a second campaign to fund TTEOTS development ($4,123);

a campaign to revamp TTEOTS's art ($4,516).

As 2018 rolled on, Echoes backers became angrier at the continued lack of updates and perceived favouritism towards TTEOTS. Those following the devs' social media in hopes of receiving Echoes news were infuriated by the constant stream of TTEOTS-related posts; even the Echoes Kickstarter received an update which featured several lines about TTEOTS and only a cursory mention of Echoes at the end. Despite their claims that half the studio was working on Echoes, their silence about the progress of the game continued and was not well received.

Comments in the Steam forums and elsewhere had by now become much more accusatory. Some backers speculated that the money they'd paid for Echoes had been funneled into TTEOTS instead; some suggested the devs were just opportunists cashing in on BTS's popularity by milking eager fans for money. Since January, numerous Echoes backers had reported difficulty getting the promised refunds (example), often due to unanswered emails and messages, or failed to get any response when asking about backer rewards they were still owed (example).

TTEOTS Premium also launched in late May, swiftly climbing to the #10 Paid Casual app on the Google Play store. Premium included extra content, including exclusive art and the beginnings of romantic content with the characters. For $9.99 Premium players were promised an all-access season pass to all future content up to the game's completion date in December 2018.

With a large fanbase and multiple revenue streams, TTEOTS seemed to be thriving despite the escalating discontent from Mystic Destinies fans.

August - December 2018

Then, in early August, the devs dropped a bombshell: they had been served a cease & desist by BTS's agency, BigHit Entertainment, along with a demand for financial records regarding TTEOTS.

Though TTEOTS was originally a free fan game, BTS's agency may have finally felt a legal line was crossed with the addition of its premium version - presumably they had been aware of the game for some time due to the volume of ADS and ARMY's attempts at contact. Irate Echoes backers experienced a certain schadenfreude at this announcement, with some perceiving it to be the studio's comeuppance. Many had given up on ever getting Echoes and some actively hoped ADS would be sued into bankruptcy.

After the C&D the devs hired legal advice and launched Operation Phoenix, an effort to edit the game's art so characters could not be recognised as BTS, as well as redact all mention of BTS elsewhere to avoid legal repercussions. Some art was updated, but other characters' faces were hidden with masks while new art was being worked on. As many TTEOTS players were ARMYs, some complained about the change or stopped playing entirely, but if anything much of the game's fanbase was bolstered by the crisis. ARMYs sometimes have a contentious relationship with BTS's agency and some felt that BigHit's approach to TTEOTS was not only unfair but set a worrying precedent for other BTS fan works. (At least one fan took to calling the agency 'BigShit'.)

The developers posted two passive aggressive tweets bidding goodbye to those who had abandoned the game due to the C&D and Operation Phoenix and thanking those who stayed.

Not long after, they suddenly began posting developer interviews to promote Echoes' "imminent release" in September 2018, and appeared in the MDSOA Steam forums to lock a discussion thread with over 200 posts which backers had been using for more than a year to discuss and speculate on the Kickstarter problems and, later, the legal situation with TTEOTS. The devs posted a warning against libel and slander and instructed anyone with concerns to email them directly and wait 72 hours for a response instead of posting on the forums. Some commenters felt this was simply an attempt to threaten them into shutting up and hide criticism from the public eye, prompting dozens of outraged comments in response. Several people pointed out they had tried emailing questions or refund requests in the past and never received a reply.

After that, things eventually quieted down for a time. A number of official statements followed on ADS's website between August and October. Echoes was again delayed past September, but many backers had given up caring anyway. The CEO/Creative Director lamented the negativity of Echoes backers, admitted they had made mistakes and stated they would have been homeless if they hadn't started working on TTEOTS. These statements again riled up the posters in the Steam forums for both MDSOA and Echoes, and there were several critical responses to these statements on Kickstarter, but also several supportive responses too. In October they stated Echoes is 80% finished and offered a vague release date of "before the end of the year [2018]".

Come December this began to look increasingly unlikely, and on top of that TTEOTS fans began to grow concerned about the schedule slip and silence regarding Chapter 4 of TTEOTS which was originally scheduled for September, then November, and is still unreleased as of this post (tweet compilations: one, two). While December 2018 had originally been slated as the completion date for TTEOTS, the devs had since announced they planned to continue the game indefinitely in seasons. Echoes backers clearly felt that history was repeating itself for a different group of fans. However, TTEOTS fans appear to mostly still believe in the developers, and some have tweeted defending the devs and urging people not to pressure them for updates.

After a long silence, the CEO of ADS posted a personal blog in mid-December stating that she had struggled to focus on her work ever since a BTS member sustained a minor injury in October that affected his mental state (for reference, "MAMA 2018" refers to Mnet Asian Music Awards, which mainly features Kpop artists, and where BTS won several major awards this year). The post expounded on her many worries about the mental and physical health of BTS members and the effect they had had on her life.

Finally, there was a year-end update on the 24th, pushing back Echoes once again to 2019 and placing blame for the delays on the staff she selected to work on it. Echoes backers were incredulous. Most expressed sympathy for these employees, their consensus being that the CEO had essentially dumped her mess on people with less experience, not given them sufficient help and supervision, and thrown them under the bus to avoid taking responsibility herself. No date was given for future TTEOTS content and she described wanting to "focus less on ADS and more on other solo projects" in 2019.

It is currently unknown if any further legal action will be taken by BigHit, but the development of the amended version of TTEOTS will supposedly continue and the devs' website still contains a link in the navbar to their petition for BTS to officially recognise the game.