#this is another one that i probably wanna revisit once the whole build is finished. big towers and all

[spiderziege]

deep frost citadel :D

here we go! dark colour schemes are difficult but i think it kinda worked out haha

[liminalbookshop]

Workflow Tips for Writing

sooo I’m working on a writing project but since I’ve done a lot of project management for creative teams in classrooms and I have pretty severe executive function issues (ADHD) so I thought I could provide some Workflow tips rather than specific writing tips. 

0. ***STARTING is it’s own skill!*** Have an empty word document open on your desktop. Or a new page open in your notebook open on your desk. Use your notepad or an app like Bear, Ulysses or Scrivner (all of these can be opened on your computer and phone.)

Challenge yourself to write for 30 seconds to a minute everyday. It can be anything. Sometimes I just write out two characters discussing who needs to pick up laundry. Sometimes I write out “I don’t wanna write.” for five minutes straight. Doesn’t matter.

You’re building the muscle of “Showing Up”.

***Starting is the most difficult and important habit to establish. Don’t let anyone else tell you otherwise. It is completely different from every other skill.

1. There’s a difference between Brainstorming and Drafting 

Brainstorming = Pinterest, Image, Searches, Sketching, Quick Scenes, talking into a recorder, Whatever

Drafting = Writing or Drawing your Scene

Know when you’re DRAFTING as opposed to BRAINSTORMING. You might be very good at brainstorming from 1 am to 4 am, respect that. You might have an idea (brainstorm) while working a draft, put it on a page titled “Brainstorm/Cool ideas!” and revisit it. You can switch--- just recognize that you’re switching.

Sometimes you’re not getting any new ideas - don’t trip --- just draft.

2. The only job of a first draft is to exist. Memorize this. Please make it shitty. The point is to get it out of your head and stop using your brain as a storage receptacle. Your brain is not a shelf ---- it’s a desk. You need it clear.

3. You need to get through the whole process. Take a full lap.  Eventually you will figure out the end of your story. Practice paraphrasing from start to finish. As you think of new scenes you will realize what has been missing from earlier ones. You won’t fill those holes until you finish that lap.

Brainstorm -> Draft -> Launch/Steep -> Edit/Rewrite.

You can’t get good at editing if you never finish a draft of a scene

You can’t get good at drafting if you only brainstorm

Sometimes we keep doing something because we feel like once we stop we can never come back.

But we can-- it’s a cycle.

Only doing one part of the cycle is like skipping “Leg Day”--- it shows.

4. Let it sit or ‘steep’

Leave the scene alone for a few days or a month. When you go back to it you can see weird holes that you missed. I usually do this for scenes rather than full stories.

5. Rewrite over editing. 

It’s best that you just open a new page right next to the old one and retype. You will naturally self-edit as you go. When you rewrite you can lean in on your instinct rather than working within the grammatical confines of your earlier draft. Pretty much every writer recommends this from James Baldwin to whoever. Just do it.

5.a. If you hate the scene re-write from memory. You’re only gonna write what’s important. Or you’ll catch what you missed.

5.b. Re-read a scene from a book you like then immediately rewrite your scene. For some reason tones and methods from books will stick in your brain like a sweet drink in the back of your tongue. Usually I’d say worrying about copying but honestly no matter how you try you’re not going to be able to write the scene the way another writer could unless you’re stealing phrases outright. No one can write like you. You can’t write like anyone else.

You probably gotta cut it out. Less is more. Readers usually like less words and less double negatives. (This list of tips is exempt lol)

6. You won’t write your story in order. Don’t expect to. Writing is mostly seeing a cool scene and then doing everything in your ability to get the reader to it.

7. Because you won’t write your story in order you can use one of these to indicate you’re jumping scenes...

“something happens”

“Unfinished dialogue with an open/missing quotation mark

line break, “---”, line break

line break, “idk”, line break

double/triple break line

There’s no need to even take you hands off the keyboard. Just use a way to indicate within lines that you’re jumping scenes

8. Learn to paraphrase your story from start to finish. The more times you cycle through your story the easier it will be to find hiccups and holes. You cannot pre-empt or prepare the reader for scenes that you haven’t realized are going to happen.

8.a. Try pitching your scene. Ask a trustworthy friend, patient family member if you can pitch a scene to them, let them ask you obvious questions. Practice answering them and learn what’s not as obvious as you thought and how to communicate it quickly. This is helps make ideas seaworthy. Stories can’t only be prose.

If you don’t have anyone use voice recorder app and listen back.

8.b. Read your shit aloud. Even if you’re exceptionally bad at reading aloud. You’ll get a better sense of flow and tone when you do. You will get better at this. It will become more bearable.

8. An Act 3 problem is an Act 1 problem.

Same for lines. If you’re having a problem put it in [brackets] and head back ten lines, or three paragraphs and try it again.

9. Mapping out your plot IS work. Make sure to give yourself credit. There’s a reason that people say Jack Kerouac’s “The Road” is just typing.

10. Establish tone and POV in your character sheet. I make all of my characters respond to the same question. “Can you tell me the story Little Red Riding Hood?” Some of them do. Some of them muddle it. Others forget it outright or tangent.

11. Don’t Break The Chain. Get a Calendar and a Sharpie. X out your days.

We need ways to visualize our progress. Sometimes writing requires a lot of front-loading and esoteric nonsense. It helps to just [x] out a calendar space every day you do something for your book. Try not to break that chain.

These tips are compiled from years of me helping an endless flow of groups working on creative projects. I find that a lot of the issues people have with creative projects aren’t issues of skill but issues of workflow. I hope these can help you.

[floosies]

The Professor and I

pairing: professor!Tom x poc!oc!fem

summary: A conversation can lead into a million things. These things can turn into the best decisions ever made.

warnings: age gap (character 25, Tom 39) , smut, cursing, fluff

taglist: @honeychicana @lex-the-flex @ronimina

A/N: just wanna say I had a blast on this small project and revisiting my first mcu crush as well as releasing some fic ideas I had in mind while the loki show ran. Thank you guys so much for the love and I hope you really enjoy this final chapter. xo.

Carpe Diem

She started work in late October and he was well into beginning a script for an english film. Did that stop them from having plans for themselves underway? No, and just like that they had prepped a day to elope.

They didn't want the whole fuss of wedding day plans and schedules for everyone. They just wanted each other and nothing more. City hall was only some miles away. It rained on the day, but for some reason it felt perfect. Once everything was signed and the pair had left the building the laughter and smiles on their faces were impossible to get rid of.

In an interesting turn of events her husband had made a change for the evening. As they ate their celebratory dinner at the Michelin star restaurant he'd read about, Tom suggested, "we should go explore the night life...what would you say to going to a night club?" Sonya raised an eyebrow, "really? Filled with people much younger than you?" He shrugged, "why not?" She giggled, "okay then." He reached for his glass of wine and lifted it, she returned the gesture and they toasted to the wild idea.

Arriving to a rooftop club they'd heard about from one of her old friends, they saw the rain had ended and the place was busy. She'd never taken him for a dancer or someone who would enjoy those types of spaces. However, he proved her wrong as he led her into the dance floor. The music was booming and laser lights hit everywhere making the atmosphere around them feel so alive.

Drinks started making rounds and the more they downed, the more provocative it all became. She'd worn a silk dress for the night and the smoothness of fabric allowed for his hands to roam everywhere. All the while she danced against. They had some kisses which tasted of fruity liquor and their eyes were full blown with lust.

Luckily for them there was no security to guard the washrooms. Escaping into a stall the married pair began to somewhat undress each other. She couldn't help but giggle as she undid the zipper of trousers, "I never took you as the type to do dirty things in a night club." He turned around hiking up her dress and moving her panties to the side, "my wife is a temptress and I cant get enough of her." His voice somewhat muffled lowly into her skin as he began entering her while placing sloppy kisses over her shoulder.

Her head rolling back onto his shoulder as he began to thrust into her. They were practically deviants, but it felt too good and too fun for her to say anything. His hands found their way to her breasts. Her quiet whimpers and moans kept him going. He could feel her tightening around him. With a desperate need for release she weakly whispered to him, "harder. I'm almost there." With another rut of his hips he grunted, "almost there too dove." Then it happened, his mouth letting out a broken cry all the while her legs quivered.

They dressed as quickly as possible in hopes of not getting caught. Thankfully the music was still booming and the people were still locked onto the dancefloor. Fleeing the scene they laughed like schoolchildren about what they'd just done.

-

It'd been well into December, months later after their little mischief. Though she never finished her mastery, she was becoming a prodigy under her new boss in the MET. Tom already having made a name of himself in the writing business was now taking on new ventures into producing and directing.

Behind their successes though was an interesting and mostly quiet love story. People sometimes raised an eyebrow, but around their scene it was usually taken well. Many of Sonya's friends and family were actually quite pleased with the man she chose. Tom's kin were quite happy that'd he found someone who he could actually smile with.

New York had also become their safe haven and escape. It was a mix of their old homes respectively. They planned to move into a bigger place the following year. The pictures of them and their friends all around their current flat, began to fill certain rooms.

At times, they still think back to the odd way they finally had a proper chat. They even wonder what happened to poor George and if he ever graduated. She jokes he probably whined his way to his mastery. Still, they're continuing to know each other more than the day before.

The flame never dies, they go on dates and sometimes think about possibly having a family. On other days when its all too overwhelming he recites his favorite soliloquies or poems to her before bed. She'll sit and listen to him go on and on when he's either upset or fully entranced on a subject or work. It never gets easier, but it's never hard work either. They love each other, they found each other, they made happiness where they might have otherwise only ever been academic achievements.

Fin.

[ashenberry]

hey i dont know why but you seem to subtly imply you dont exactly appreciate whatever the magical turnabout had to offer.

,,care indulge me in these anti 6-2 feelings

ehehe

spoilers for 6-2 and probably aa4 under da cut

this case is like a culmination of almost everything I dislike about soj But I’m gonna start with THE POSITIVES the PLUSES the PROS

•the investigation is super fun actually

•anytime we get to see the show ^-^ you go girl

•I like the twins

alright. Now that we got that out of the way

The Trucy

augh. It flattered her character to like a generic performers anxiety. I had a friend point this out to me but aa4 Trucy has a deep love and respect for professionals. it’s something unique to her! it gives her an interesting depth and in magical all she has is perfectionism and sHE SHOULDNT HAVE BEEN THE PERCIEVE TUTORIAL i DO think she should have had a breakdown given. fuckin everything but I think it should have been later I think she should of held it together a little more cause as it there is not enough buildup to give it the weight it deserves. Trucy is aa assistant archetype a she is very good at hiding her emotions I think it would have worked better either during a recess or the end of the trial but as is she cries once and is over it and. aug. For comparison at the end of the game when Apollos leaving she hardly gets a line to talk to him so it REALLY feels. artificial igues. Trucy u deserved so much better

Setup

should have mentioned set up earlier tee hee anyways it’s very clear they wanted an Apollo defending Trucy senario and like. Fair good call but I hate the way it’s done. They have Phoenix miss his daughters (who he loves very much) first televised magical show over a false alarm because if they did have Phoenix in the country no way in hell was he gonna let Apollo take the case and oops! They already gave him his job back last game so they can’t use that excuse! Honestly this doesn’t annoy me as much as it did when I was playing the case but I do think something ala monsterous would have been way more interesting with Phoenix trying to take the fall for Trucy and that becoming a whole thing

(but ashen! You say, what about ahlbi‘s trial? first of all. story contrivance it can happens whenever second of all you can have Maya take his defense without moving when it takes place and then I don’t have to watch Phoenix be cringe and blantsntly disrespect other cultures (another one of sojs major issues))

Mr Reus

this is a really blatant retcon that annoys the hell out of me because aa4 had a whole ass case about how there wasn’t another gramarye cmon guys. Easy fix just make him a syndrome type he has never actually talked to a gramarye he just thinks he’s sick and HATES Trucy for being cooler. Manov Mistree you will be missed

Really Really bad pacing

this case feels long as fuck and that’s because of two (2) reasons. First off, it’s a near perfect murder. Honestly feels like your running in place until the end i sucks to get through and aa’s most egresious example of this type of case. This is compounded by the fact that honest to god gameplay wise Nahyuta is the worst prosecutor. Unlike the trilogy prosecutors who suffer from chronic hubris or klav/Simon/Zieks who do want to discover the truth behind the crime and will help you get there, Nahyuta does fuckin nothing and feels like he doesn’t want to be there. Tells you to find the holy mother in your heart and then tries to end the trial every other line. It is a battle to get this guy to talk about the case and i Wanna say magical is where it’s the worst but I didn’t even truly finish rite of the turnabout so

Other Grevinces I can think of right now

• sojs creep quota I don’t know why it has one but this case has the cameraman

• Start of sojs building up Apollo for 6-5B and honestly. not his most impressive win for them to by hyping up

•I think these are general soj grievances oops. I think trucys face looks weird in this one compared to dd

• valant should’ve been mentioned I miss that fuck. I think he’s in jail but it’s never mentioned in the english versions of the games so I choose to believe he’s trapped in borginia

•he might’ve been mentioned honestly it’s been a year and I don’t want to revisit this case. Poor Trucy chose the weekend when everyone was out of town

•no way was that contract legally binding Trucy is not a legal adult get fucked reus

[kinnoth]

AVENGERS INFINITY WAR MEGATHREAD

-really doubt i'm gonna be able to finish this movie so we'll just see where i get to

- we already know how i feel about loki and thor, we don't need to revisit this

- ok but if i were going to revisit this, i mean come on, who wants to talk about "hela draws her power from asgard, same as you" cos i wanna talk about that

like what if that's the reason thor, god of thunder, king to a civilisation of warriors, was unable to fend off like, 4 dudes and a big purple dinosaur? the royal family of asgard draws its power from asgard, and without it, they are weak, they are mortal. maybe that's why heimdall is unable to just, you know, bifrost everybody off the fucking ship the minute it comes under attack. maybe that's why loki can't fucking conjure up a swarm of fucking microscopic knives to fillet the invaders from the inside out. MAYBE THAT'S WHY LOKI TRIES TO KILL THANOS WITH A FUCKING DAGGER. BECAUSE TAKE AWAY HIS POWER, TAKE AWAY HIS GODHOOD, WHAT DOES HE HAVE LEFT OTHER THAN HIS WILE, HIS TRICKS AND HIS BROTHER

WHAT IF IN SAVING THE UNIVERSE AND DESTROYING ASGARD, THEY'VE LOST EVERYTHING INCLUDING WHAT MAKES THEM GODS

somebody talk about this

- etc etc what if the reason loki is unable to attack the purple dinosaur with magic is because when he tackled thor earlier, he used whatever magic he had left to spare in order to heal him

checks out cos thor goes from flat on his face to swinging his fists in the space of like 30 seconds and the only thing to happen to him in between is said bit about loki tackling him

- why does heimdall save hulk? i mean, i could understand it if he were trying to aim the bifrost at thor and somebody somehow knocked off his aim and he accidentally saves hulk, but like, we've established that heimdall's loyalty is to the royal seat of asgard upon whom sits thor's mighty ass. thor who, in this scene, has just been incapacitated by a metal eggshell(?) and is at the mercy of their assailants. given heimdall's priorities, it is baffling to the point of inconceivability that he would preferentially save fucking HULK over his own king.

- if this next scene isn't the guardians of the galaxy coming across thor clutching loki's dead fucking body floating through space then i don't know why any of us are even here

- "he sent loki! the attack on new york was thanos!" makes no sense? like, if loki's scepter had the mind stone in it, which we established it did in the last movie when we broke it open to retrieve vision, then.....why didn't thanos just....take the mind stone in the first place? cos rock collecting is and has always been his goal?

what, do you think that just because you assert a thing makes us forget all the shit that happened before?

- i.....am actually with tony stark. why don't they just destroy the stones they have so that thanos can't get to them? oh, you made a promise? well promises change and circumstances change! you tell him tony! you tell that stupid fucker --

oh my god i'm gonna be ill

- i think the only person whose ego can match tony stark's is probably a neurosurgeon so 👍 i guess

-i love how we immediately went back to the "so dark can't see shit" aesthetic after ragnorak because ensuring that one's audience can SEE what is HAPPENING IN YOUR MOVIE is apparently for radical directors like taika waititi

- cannot believe that tony stark staring at captain america's phone number is being played with the same emotional intensity as thor losing his soulmate entire people

- honestly how many times is the mcu gonna invoke 9/11 imagery til someone calls them out for being terrorists

- lmao i know i said this before but peter's spidey senses tingling AFTER the giant alien anus has already started sucking up new york and it is right outside his window is fucking hilarious. that's just called using your eyeballs peter

- "friday notify first responders about the giant alien anus sucking up new york" lol like the first thing somebody did when the alien anus showed up wasn't to fucking call 911 GREAT IDEA TONY

- still can't believe that they let failed neurosurgeon dr strange do more magic than god of tricks and sorcery loki lol

- i know i rag on dr strange a lot about the fact that he's a neurosurgeon it's just that he sucks.

as a neurosurgeon eyy.

- i hate that peter parker has to be here!!!!! leave him alone!!!!!

- tony stark should not be allowed within 100 feet of children or minorities

- it is very weird to me that steve "brooklyn" rogers has an area code from georgia

- since when was hela a half-sister? ODIN'S DAUGHTER AND THOR'S BLOODED SIBLINGS OR BUST YOU FUCKING COWARDS

- i am very disappointed that thor is going to go get another weapon after we spent the whole last movie talking about how he is not the god of hammers

- i just need thor to have much more PTSD than he has right now. fucking hulk has ptsd. maybe they're saving the ptsd for later. one can only hope.

- i am glad that they are letting him be cleverer though

- THEY ARE LETTING VISION DATE A TEENAGER WHY

GOD. FUCKING GROSS.

- wait when did vision turn into a white man again? did i miss that movie?

- i am disappointed that vision the computer techno robot apparently has a penis. like what a stupid limitation to give your computer techno robot, gender. 🙄

- i think that the mass destruction of infrastructure and architecture in the MCU is because of the pg13 no blood limitation that disney has set? like there's no way to show destruction to the body, so one may only show the exponential destruction to one's surroundings. like imagine how much more dramatic intensity you could wring out of a regular fight scene would be if people were allowed to bleed?

- cannot believe that a computer techno robot and a witch are having a punch up with the bad guys. of all people to fight with something not their fists, it's these two

- wanda has no enhanced strength or durability? she's a regular teenager who's a bit witchy. the first time she got thrown through a glass door should have shattered her vertebrae. again i don't understand why we insist that everybody must have the same powers and capabilities when it's clear they don't. think about how much more interesting it would be if some avengers were more fragile than others and had to be given accommodations as such

- IT IS INCONCEIVABLE TO ME THAT FUCKING BLACK WIDOW (regular human), CAPTAIN AMERICA (enhanced human), AND FALCON (regular human with wings) CAN DEFEAT THE CHILDREN OF THANOS WHEN THOR COULDN'T UNLESS THOR (god of fucking thunder carved of steel and stone) WAS NERFED

- still don't understand how we'll lend aliens afro features but not afro hair, like, seriously? you're gonna dream up green aliens with gills who look like black people but imagining them with black hair is a step too far?

- the gap of commentary in this liveblog is simply because i do not care at all for the galaxy defenders

- "earth just lost her best defender" who? who does captain america consider earth's best defender? it's not thor; he doesn't know thor's presumed dead. it's not tony; he doesn't know tony's on an alien anus. who else has died so far?

- love how exhausted bucky looks. have always loved how exhausted bucky looks. love bucky.

- i forgot that tony was with peter parker. god i hate that.

- "i'm peter btw"

"dr strange"

"oh you're using the made up names then. i'm spider man"

ok that was cute, but peter's cute, we knew that already

- i want to fling both strange and stark into space and i'm having a hard time deciding which one to push first

- "you went to bed hungry, scraping for scraps" oohhhh thanos is just anti-poor people, he would literally rather poor people be dead than struggle, i get it nowww

this is on brand for mcu

- oh my god thanos gets 2/6 stones by torturing siblings in front of other siblings, seriously? you couldn't come up with 6 different ways to find his stupid rocks you had to reuse one twice?

- which one of thor's friends was stabbed through the heart....? fandral??

- "if i don't get my vengeance what more could i lose" more like what else is there eh? what else is there for a king of no people but their vengeance?

- CANNOT BELIEVE THEY GAVE HIM BACK AN EYEBALL JESUS CHRIST IF YOU DIDN'T LIKE THOR RAGNORAK JUST SAY SO YOU DIDN'T HAVE TO FUCKING

VEHICLE FOR AUTHORITARIANISM, NOTHING IS ALLOWED TO CHANGE, FUCK YOUR CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT I GOT MINE

FUCK

- i do enjoy that thor is now science fiction rather than fantasy, i don't think anybody knew what to do with fantasy cos fantasy is again, ultimately about conservatism and the status quo. so i do like that we're embracing the new and boundless for whatever that's worth.

- marvel is a cesspool of toxic masculinity. at no point are characters allowed to actually feel anything because weakness is uncool i guess and therefore unmanful. like thor lost ALL OF HIS PEOPLE. fucking ALL of them. he watched his brother die in order to save him. he is not allowed a single fucking response of mourning. i don't care if he's pushing it back because revenge or whatever, this is the sort of grief that rules you, which will bring all your load bearing structures down to heel, and they let him do nothing; he does not even rage. perfect control. smooth witticisms. why. why aren't we allowed to see his sadness?

- yo i can't believe red skull is a scifi villain now lol space nazis for real

- OH MY GOD THEY WASHED BUCKY'S WIG AND IT LOOKS SO BAD

- michael b jordan was right btw wakanda is complicit in africa's exploitation

- i do LIKE black panther i guess in the way you technically like that cousin you met once when you were like 9 and never saw again?

i like how we have here in wakanda the sears tower (chicago), the batman building (nashville), and the gherkin (london)

- ok but like, presumably not a death cult super technologically advanced wakandans who are deffo made of human flesh and human blood still arm their people with spears

i mean unless wakanda is also a death cult

why is this chicks entire fucking face cgi'd she looks like a fucking cut scene video game character

- oh ok they have LASER spears, ok

so then why did they give bucky a fucking gun

- what is bucky supposed to be able to contribute here exactly, like fucking, again, he's spycraft isn't he? he's a one man, dead of night, operation go loud and then immediately silent kinda operation. why do they have him on the front lines of a fucking lock-step formation battle??

- "it will be the noblest ending in history" WHAT, FIRST COUNTRY TO EVER BE OVERUN BY ALIEN JACKALS??

- stormbreaker is just leviathan axe, somebody's said this already right

- omfg i'm so glad they're finally acknowledging that thor is OP as fuck and does not belong amongst the fucking squabbles of earth

-"titan was like most planets, too many mouths to feed not enough to go around, so i proposed a plan, dispassionate to rich and poor alike" JUST SAY YOU HATE POOR PEOPLE MCU. YOU CANNOT HAVE RICH AND POOR, YOU CANNOT HAVE DISPARITY, YOU CANNOT HAVE SOME WITH TOO MUCH AND OTHERS WITH NOT ENOUGH AND CALL IT EXTINCTION. THAT IS NOT A QUESTION OF OVERTAXED RESOURCES THAT IS A QUESTION OF RESOURCE FUCKING MANAGEMENT. IT IS AN ARTIFICIAL CRISIS IF THERE EXISTS ENOUGH TO GO AROUND BUT SOME PEOPLE ARE JUST HOARDING IT THAT'S WHEN YOU KILL THOSE PEOPLE AND TAKE THEIR SHARE. KILLING HALF THE PEOPLE IS THE KIND OF FUCKING SOLUTION TO INEQUALITY THAT RICH PEOPLE COME UP WITH

GOD. ITS LIKE NONE OF YOU EVER READ

-you've got the big fucking boss in an ambush AND YOU ATTACK HIM WITH A MAGIC SWORD STEVEN STRANGE?????

THIS FRANCHISE HAS NO IDEA HOW TO UTILISE MAGIC USERS FUCKING HELL

- when will somebody please utilise ironman like the one man artillery he fucking is WHY IS HE FIGHTING WITH HIS STUPID FISTS HE IS LITERALLY ONE CONTINUOUS CARPET BOMB JUST USE HIM THAT WAY

cut of his arm CUT OFF HIS ARM YOU BLOODLESS SPINELESS USELESS FUCKING CUNTS . this is a manufactured crisis, KIND OF LIKE THE ONES THANOS LIKES I GUESS LOL

- dr strange could have very easily prevented or stopped quill from punching thanos but he didn't cos i guess even the movie forgets steven strange exists sometimes

- i like that the shield around wakanda has the same weakness as a poorly constructed chicken coop -- you always build into the ground a couple feet to stop the diggers man, come on, what is this, your first energy shield?

- oh disgusting, a girl boss moment. whatever you're all fascists.

- nobody adores martial might like fascists do fucking change my mind

- " avengers: not one person in this fucking cast is able to stomach ANY AMOUNT of personal sacrifice" more like

- "why did you give away the time stone?" "we are in the endgame" THAT'S NOT AN ANSWER THAT'S A FUCKING MOVIE TEASER FUCK YOU

- why didn't strange just trap thanos in a timeloop again? we've already established that is a perfectly acceptable way to deal with planetary annihilation. IS IT POSSIBLY BECAUSE NOBODY ON THIS WRITING STAFF KNOWS HOW TO DEAL WITH MAGIC

- THOR OP BLIZZARD PLS NERF

-CAPTAIN MARVEL SERIOUSLY THAT'S WHO YOU'RE GONNA SEND YOUR LAST PAGE TO JESUS FUCKING DISGUSTING

[ruels-bucket-hat]

JOKE

Part 14

Master list

I couldn’t sleep. My thoughts kept consuming me, corrupting any capability to whisk myself into slumber. After revisiting the gallery, the whole scene kept replaying in my head. The one where my friend was in danger, I stupidly got in the way, and a gun was put in my face. I was in this dreadful position now. Working alongside the person who put my friend in danger and the gun against my head. Only three more hours until I’m supposed to be up and ready for a car ride with him. Spending some time with Ruel misguided my judgment. I almost forgot the reason I was there- which was because he threatened Kara’s life.

Not to mention how this undercover job turned into a real one since I am now working for Shawn in more than just an undercover way. He said he knew who I was. He said someone else knew who I was. Based on everyone I’ve met so far, the only person I could think of to know would be Luke. He talked to me most, more than Ruel did, at least in a somewhat friendly way. I just can’t assume it’s him though. The conversations we had seemed more like interviews, with both of us interrogating the other.

I got up from my bed and decided to take a much-needed shower. Anything to slow my mind down. And yes, having scorching hot water run over me would for sure do the trick. I’ve got around two and a half hours before I am forced to be anywhere, so what better to do? ...Probably sleep.

Once I finished and wrapped a dry towel around my body, there were only two hours left until I had to be outside. I just had to find a way to let time slip by. My eyes drifted to my phone as the screen lit up. What shocked me was that it wasn’t a text this time. Ashton’s name had popped up… for a FaceTime. Hesitantly, I picked up my device and stared at the screen. His old picture was still set for his contact. I really need to change that, it’s been a while. Plus, I don’t need to be reminded of a past coffee date. I watched his name disappear before I could push the red ‘ignore call’ button. Now would be a great time to change the bastard’s contact info. I pushed the three dots in the top right corner when his name popped up on the screen- again. Not thinking about what I was doing, my brain was still trying to change his contact, my finger somehow slipped onto the green button. My body froze. I panicked as I saw the screen loading connection. Crap. Crap. Crap. I strained my hands through my hair and dropped my phone on the desk beside me. This cannot be happening.

“Hello? Leah?” the muffled tone called out.

I took a deep breath and reached for my phone. “Ashton… hi,” my voice came out stressed as I faced the screen towards me.

“Hey, I’ve been tryna get a hold of you,” he smiled.

“Um, yeah, I’ve just been… busy,” I told him. Technically, it wasn’t a lie.

“Too busy to answer a text?”

“Uh, yup.” I looked away, trying to avoid any more discussion.

“Okay,” his voice gave out his suspicion. “Are you in town? I thought I saw you at that little diner with some guy.”

“Nope, I’m still here,” not specifying where ‘here’ was. “Why are you calling me this early?”

His eyes widened. “I was just up,” he said, clearly not expecting the question. “Why are you up,” he countered.

“I have somewhere I’m supposed to be,” I rubbed my eyes. Ashton pursed his lips together before opening them, about to say something. We were quickly interrupted when my attention was caught to a knock at my door. It caught his attention too since he stopped himself from continuing the conversation. “Hey, I’ve got to go, I’ll call you some other time, okay?” There was a little bit of disappointment coming from his side, but he nodded and hung up before I could say goodbye.

Another knock was hit across the door, harder this time. I set down my phone and went to stop whoever was pounding. The knob turned before I could reach it, causing the door to suddenly open wide. Ruel appeared from behind, storming in. He slammed it behind him and crossed his arms.

“I didn’t even make it to the door yet, how did you get in?” I asked, annoyed.

“I had to threaten your landlord,” he stood. “Why aren’t you ready and outside?”

“It’s not seven yet,” I scoffed. He didn’t budge. Instead, he continued to stand with a grim look on his face, waiting for me to give him a better answer. I copied his motions and chose to stand across from him, arms crossed at my chest. His eyes narrowed. Usually, my confidence would be at it’s best; however, a similar feeling to yesterday fled over my body. I quickly dropped my arms and turned around. “I’ll be out in a second,” my voice broke. He didn’t move.

I walked away from him and into my room, separating us. The effects of yesterday caught up with me today. This was ridiculous, I don’t know why I’m feeling like I can’t breathe. I tried to recollect myself, making sure to hide my report and the folder Kara gave me while he was here. My breathing had gotten heavy, and my chest felt tight. It wasn’t as bad as it was at the gallery, but something was definitely wrong. Seconds later, Ruel came barging in. “We have to go now,” he grabbed my wrist and dragged me out of my room. Thankfully, my report was already out of my hands.

“Ruel! Stop! I’m capable of walking myself out,” I said to him sternly. A bit of shake had echoed in my voice. He let go and placed his hands in the air, showing he was backing off.

“Is something wrong?”

I stared at him, “Um, no. I’m just tired. I accidentally picked up a FaceTime with my e-”

“Okay, I know I asked, but I regret it now,” he cut me off. Good. Now I know for future reference, start rambling when he asks questions so I don’t need to answer. Perfect. It was still a little annoying though. “We need to be at Joke within the next hour.”

“Joke?”

“Yes, Joke,” he dragged his speech. “Joke Mansion… that giant house we took you to the other day,” he waited for me to catch on.

The confused look on my face stayed on while he was explaining. “I understand that part now. Quit looking at me like I’m an idiot.”

“I thought it was clear you were either an idiot or pathetic, which are you today?” he giggled, letting me know that was supposed to be light-hearted and not insulting.

Ignoring his comment, I huffed. “Why Joke? That’s the weirdest name I’ve ever heard for a building.”

“You’re very talkative today, Vic.”

++

“Tori! How are you?” I was greeted by Luke right as we entered. He came up to me and grabbed my hand. “I believe these are yours,” he smirked, dropping a pair of keys into my palm. I gave him a small ‘thank you’ and walked further inside. Ruel was to the right of me, pulling me aside to where we needed to go. I spotted Shawn out the corner of my eye, sitting at the kitchen island. He kept his eyes on me as Ruel led me to another room. Luke followed.

A tall, dark wood door stood closed in front of us. The carving and woodwork were astonishing for it only being a door. Ruel grabbed the handle and let me through first. On the other side, I was welcomed to some of the members I’ve met before, plus some new ones. “Everyone,” Ruel interrupted the room. It fell into an uncomfortable silence. “This is Tori,” he introduced me. I felt a small brush to the small of my back, pushing me forward. I looked over to see Luke standing slightly behind me, giving off a small smile when I turned to look at him. His touch was comforting; however, I could still feel the tension in the atmosphere. My attention was focused back on Ruel when he started talking again, “She is working with us as intel on the gallery.” He looked at me with resentment in his eyes. “You come to me before you talk to her.” he steadied his stare with mine.

He broke off contact when a voice from the crowd called out, “Just about work stuff right? That’s when we have to go to you first? About work? Cus otherwise, I see no reason to ask for your permission to talk to her personally.” I searched around for the owner of the raspy voice, but they stopped talking before I could find them. Luke’s presence was closer to mine after the unknown man finished speaking.

“You come to me before you talk to her,” Ruel repeated himself. The room carried on with asking questions and talking amongst themselves.

It was a bit overwhelming to be in here. They were speaking about me as if I wasn’t right in front of them. I watched Ruel as he tried to answer every opposing idea to me being allowed in. Without warning, my hair was being moved away from my ear. I felt the cool touch of two fingers brush against my lobe. “You have to remember these are a bunch of felonious men,” Luke’s whisper tickled my ear. “Stay by my side just to be safe.” I nodded slightly to his words. “If anyone starts to harass you in any way, be sure to tell either me, Ruel, or Shawn.”

Taglist//

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[askkrenko]

SWORD AND SHIELD THOUGHTS

Alright, just finished the main game/post-game of Sword and Shield ,and I have... thoughts, general impressions, and feelings about the game. I’m going to try and be spoiler-free, but some things will have to be talked about, and though it might be indirect, no promises. Here’s my thoughts on the game overall...

First off, It’s Pokemon. I’m not going to discuss the parts of it where it’s Pokemon. At this point, you should know whether or not you like Pokemon, and if you DON’T know... start with FireRed and LeafGreen. Still the best gameplay experience.

Graphics are... meh. I understand and accept that they’re really not up to the standard of other Switch games, but you’ve got 400 pokemon, lots of people, locations, etcetera. Battle Animations continue to be pretty weak for the most part, with pokemon mostly wiggling around and a special effect showing up. Nasty Plot’s animation is offensively bad in this regard. Sure, some moves look cool, especially ones unique to individual Pokemon, but this game’s visual advances still result in mostly-static battles where your pokemon doesn’t even move across the screen to use melee attacks. You know how in old Final Fantasy games you rush to the enemy before doing your generic sword swing? Can’t we at least have that? 

The new Pokemon are bitching. Sure, there’s winners and losers, but overall I love Galar’s lineup. There’s new type combos, interesting abilities, a lot of cool designs.

Dynamax is... just not interesting. The idea of giant pokemon are cool, but when you actually use them they replace your cool, interesting moves with heavy-hitting moves that have minor secondaries that are hard to leverage. My best pokemon at the end was a Wishiwashi that knew Aqua Ring and Dive, so my battles involved doing the former, and then Diving, so with Aqua Ring + Leftovers I’d be healing a huge portion of my HP between every attack... In Dynamax, Dive turns into a heavy hitting water move, Aqua Ring turns into Protect, and it doesn’t even last long enough for a tank-build to work. In the gym battles the right answer is basically always “Dynamax when your opponent does so you don’t get one-shot”, and in Raids it’s just “Dynamax when you can.”  Gigantimax is a cool idea, too, but... you just don’t get to do it. You get a Charmander that can eventually do it for free in the post-game, but he’s a baby and your pokemon at that point are level 70+ and you probably already have a fire type who loves you so there’s no reason to train him up.  

On Difficulty: I played a Nuzlocke with no items in battle, so I can’t really speak to difficulty normally but... camping makes healing you party super cheap, and every dungeon and challenge seems shorter than in most games. I only remember one real cave system and it was relatively short, and gyms all seem to have exactly three trainers (or three pairs of double-battle trainers) before the leader. Further, enemies always ask if you’re ready instead of ambushing you, and many will give you a full heal before or after the battle. I had some challenges against gym leaders, sure, and I did wind up losing the Nuzlocke to the final fight against the ‘big bad’ (and then just continued in non-nuzlocke method) but I never hit one of those points like a Rock Tunnel or even one of Alola’s Trials where I felt like the encounters on the way to the boss were really whittling down my resources.

Quality of life: Infinite Escape Ropes and free Fly make Krenko a happy gobbo. Except I never used the escape rope because there’s nothing to escape. Other basic QOL stuff is updated, too- moves are marked with effectiveness once you’ve seen a Pokemon before and presumably know it’s types, the menu felt very comfortable overall (though with all the different types of items I’m starting to think the bag needs MORE pockets), and the hotbutton to pokeball in an encounter is great. Having an EXP ALL as a core mechanic makes leveling up pokemon so much easier. There’s now a name rater and move-rememberer in every pokemon center, and I use that guy so much. Any time I newly catch or evolve a pokemon, I take it right to him to see what else it can get.

Dynamax raids I... didn’t do much of. Because the difficulty of the ones that show up apparently increases with the story or something. The first few I encountered I could handle with my pokemon at the time, but now that I’ve beaten the champion, it feels like every raid location I see is five stars and I need pokemon higher than the level 70+s I have to handle it. It doesn’t help that the NPCs they summon to help you are incompetent. Sure, a few have useful abilities, but why is there a level 49 Magikarp, and why doesn’t this Solrock seem to know any attacks, and what even is this Wobuffet doing here?

Story:  Story is easily the weakest part of Sword and Shield. The story is both boring and too exciting for the game itself. The characters are both too cool and too bland. In the ‘main story’ where previous pokemon games have it, you are doing the gym challenge. This is fine. This is normal. There’s some cool stuff in there that makes it more of a proper sport than just a kid wandering around. You ocassionally have encounters with Team Yell who are trying to stop you, but... Team Yell is never threatening, they don’t accomplish anything, and the game seems to be very inconsistent on whether or not you have to accept that they’re in the way or if you can just kick their butt. When you finally get their super secret origin story, it’s... fine, and I like it, but I’d have liked it more if they had literally any impact on the game. The worst thing is, they compare unfavorably to Team Skull. Team Skull had strong leadership, and though you kicked their butts, they were regularly in the way and up to no good. Also, Guzma was awesome. Team Yell is just... running around being a general nuisance. Which would be fine if there was another real villain but...

Well, it turns out there IS another real, main villain... Who you don’t have reason to believe is a villain until after you’ve beaten all eight gyms, whose plot and motivation makes no sense, who has no convictions, and who you as a character have no real relation to. I literally don’t understand why this character was doing villainy.  And their evil team you only fight in the handful of battles immediately leading up to the big fight, and they make absolutely no impact other than standing in your way for reasons that you don’t really understand. That whole segment had nothing to do with anything, wasn’t properly built up, and didn’t feel like it went anywhere except the game handing me a Legendary pokemon.

Then there’s the post-game villains, who are... eh. They’re a lot more interesting, and I’m not even sure it’s fair to call them post-game. Unlike in most pokemon games, once you become champion the plot doesn’t just stop or say “now go to the challenge areas.” Instead, you have another, shorter storyline where you revisit all the old characters (who are all really cool on the surface and have NO DEPTH so you can’t get attached to them) and deal with stuff involving more dynamaxing and the box-art legendaries. This isn’t the worst plot, but it again suffers from no dungeons. You just fly from Gym to Gym having one fight at each gym. The game wants you to get to know and appreciate each Gym Leader, but because there’s so many of them, plus three rivals, plus the Champion, plus two professors, plus a handful of other NPCs, even the one that spends a fair deal of time with you in the post game never gets any real development. Here’s a key for story-writers: If your character’s not going to develop over the story, you don’t need to make a point of them showing up four different times. I don’t feel more connected to Nessa than I do to Flannery because she kept showing up and I got a card detailing her backstory. I just feel like you could’ve let me play faster instead of waiting for cutscenes.

I could rant about the story for a long time, but the point is: It’s bad. And the worst part is, there’s a bunch of cool stuff that seems to happen... that I don’t get to see.

So, my BIGGEST, absolutely most major complaint about the story is that two of the characters closest to you, Hop and Leon, do all sorts of really cool and interesting stuff... just offscreen. Hop is your main ‘rival’ and best friend, and he’s sharing in your adventures but also has some of his own. He has battles, he has a character arc, he starts really annoying but grew on me over time and I genuinely like him... But it’s hard to feel attached because all his formative stuff happens just off-screen. This isn’t a ‘Blue’ situation where he’s doing the stuff you are but faster and getting in your way, and you want to smush his stupid face in. This certainly isn’t like Hau who was just one step behind you the whole time. Hop has a couple battles that he talks about that alter who he is as a person that you don’t get to see because the game decides you don’t watch them. You’re not racing this guy- you hang out all the time- but for some reason you don’t get to watch his fights. I understand it’d be boring if they forced it and it played out like a normal fight, but give me a cutscene! Hell, I wanna know who he faced at the end! Hop has a mystery battle against someone else who completed all eight gyms that he beats and we never find out anything else about this person... 

But it’s even worse with Leon.

See, a big part of the game’s storyline is giant, Dynamax pokemon running amok and the Champion having to stop them. This means for the FIRST portion of the game, Leon is going out doing heroic things, battling giant pokemon that you never see. Sure, you can dynamax battle, but he’s involved in all these cool, great, crazy adventures... just offscreen. And then when you become the champion, YOU get to fight these rampaging dynamax pokemon... ... by walking to the area you’re told they are and immediately showing up in a dynamax fight. The game has models for pokemon walking around the overworld. Pokemon all have various attack animations. If Dynamax pokemon are running wild, can’t you SHOW me them running wild? There’s so many ‘cool things’ that happen in the game that I just don’t get to see, even when my character should be able to watch them, and it’s annoying as hell. If you can’t SHOW ME rampaging giant pokemon, don’t make the story ABOUT rampaging giant pokemon!

....Okay, done talking about story.

THE WILD AREA is a cool idea with poor implementation. I absolutely love this big area with all sorts of pokemon that change with the weather and different sections having different levels, except the wild area only really connects two locations (you get there via train the first time,) so there’s not much in-game reason to go back except for grinding, it’s small enough that it’s mostly the same terrain, and the level progression of the area doesn’t really match where you are in the game in the way just having routes used to. Also, for some stupid reason once you’re champion everything there suddenly becomes level 60 instead of scaling to different areas.  Which, sure, I get it, for post-game stuff people just want higher level Pokemon, but it’s so weird that suddenly there’s level 60 zigzagoon running around.  The Wild Area would have been much cooler if they’d just done away with traditional routes entirely and had free wilderness between EVERY town- blocked off in part by tunnels and forests which still counted as wild area, sure, but not gated by ‘you must have this many badges to progress.’  Just gated by ‘the pokemon here are level 30, are you sure you want to proceed?’ The only reason the game forces you to face the gyms in a certain order is to lock you into a narrative that’s mostly a waste of time. Not being allowed to catch ‘very strong’ pokemon is dumb, too. You could’ve made us able to catch them and just not train them because they’d do things like go to sleep and use the wrong moves and loaf around like a traded pokemon.

Camping with your Pokemon is cute, but needs more variety. There’s like seven toys, but only one of them isn’t a ball you throw and they fetch. You can make curries, and you will because it’s the cheapest way to heal your pokemon on the go, but the curry minigame is identical every team and gets very boring very quickly. You can talk to your Pokemon, but none of their responses have any meaning or impact or anything at all. It’s not like they’ll give you hints in the game or randomly give you items or ask for specific items for huge happiness boosts or whatever. It’s cute, and they get experience from it, but camping feels like it should’ve been expanded a whole lot.

....In summation: Pokemon Sword and Shield is not one of the better Pokemon Games. It’s still Pokemon, and if you’re into that, there’s still plenty of fun to be had in it, but it’s heavily flawed.