#though I have a personal hatred for spawning in items

[pidgecv]

[xoxo-ren-xoxo]

Tommy’s (and Tubbo’s) Character /rp /dSMP

This is a bit of a rant so like be warned. I have nothing against any CCs mentioned in this, this is all roleplay, lighthearted, and just a bit of fun analysis. Mostly this is a ramble about how I see certain people analysing Tommy’s character on tumblr and twt, and why I think they’re wrong. This isn’t directed at anyone specific, just a trend I’ve been seeing that kinda irks me. I don’t dislike the fandom, just a few ‘takes’ have been really weird for me.

TW for everything below: analysing the effects of trauma, abuse, manipulation, gaslighting, and lack of therapy.

I’m not really liking how victim-blamey everyone is getting currently in the dSMP, both in fandom and canon. In canon with certain characters but especially in fan analysis posts and especially about Tommy and Tubbo. People legitimately celebrating that Tommy might start ‘apologising’ for his actions more and 'growing as a person' somehow don’t realise that hes been made this way through a tonne of negative reinforcement. abuse, and gaslighting. And people blaming Tubbo for actions he had no choice in, rather than the actions he did choose.

Currently, as I see it, Tommy is so scared that anyone would find a reason to be pissed off at him that his fighting spirit has been completely crushed. He was exiled and abused when he should have been helped and given an understanding figure to guide him and teach him how to deal with things non-violently. In everyone’s eyes, the problem was that Tommy was creating violence with no real reason, acting recklessly and commiting crimes. Tubbo, having made him a part of his cabinet, knew that this would only harm the country. So instead of talking to him reasonably, he got angry, put him on trial, and punished him with the logbook (humiliating him by making him report back to Fundy, which he obviously hated). Tommy’s actions were, of course, bad, but did he deserve everyone ganging up on him? No. Especially when Tubbo was supposed to be in his corner, helping him out like he always said he would (”It’s me and you vs Dream” etc). This is the first betrayal of trust from Tommy’s POV. He doesn’t understand what he did wrong to its full extent, and no one can explain it to him. 

However, Tubbo was under a lot of pressure from Dream and George, and he’s a literal child President, so his ‘safety over friendship’ actions are understandable. I don’t believe Tubbo is solely to blame for anything he’s done in season 2, but it can’t all be excused. If you are to blame Tommy for his recklessness, you have to blame Tubbo, at least partially, for his disregard for Tommy’s feelings and mental state. There were other ways to go about the entire thing, including the trial, which was just horrible to watch, and agreeing to give Dream the disc, something Tommy gave him in pure confidence that it would be safe with Tubbo. Yikes moment.

At that time, Tubbo knew a lot of things about Tommy. In fact, he probably knew the most about Tommy out of anyone on the server. He knew the discs were incredibly important and a comfort item for Tommy. He knew Tommy had trauma from being exiled in the past. He knew Tommy was abused, or at least manipulated by Wilbur, in addition to growing up in war. Wilbur once told Tommy to stop being reckless, and Tommy listened, changing his attitude because he looked up to Wilbur so much. Then Wilbur said ‘let’s be the bad guys’ and stopped trying to mentor Tommy. There’s a conflict here, because Tommy was told by Wilbur that he wasn’t good enough to be President (links to the idea of ‘not being strong enough’) but he knows that Wilbur was a bad person. But Tommy is never given the chance to reconsile his feelings surrounding Wilbur, both because of Ghostbur and because of the conflict he starts with George. So he is harbouring a mixture of emotions about his mentor and brother, not understanding how to untangle the ‘real Tommy’ from the manipulated boy he became. 

What was going through his head when he stole from George and griefed him? Perhaps the thought that he needed to show he was still the same old Tommy. Maybe the need to ‘prove himself’ as a strong person? It could have just been an outlet for his trauma. He’s grown up in a world where everyone is either a friend or an enemy. George isn’t a friend. How was he supposed to know that hurting him was bad?

Tubbo was pressured into the actions he took against Tommy, but he was pressured far too easily. There is no moment where Tubbo turns to Tommy and makes sure he’s okay, he views him as ‘selfish’ and overdramatic, and sees his actions that way. This makes sense from Tubbo’s POV, he’s struggling to be President in ways that Wilbur *knew* he would, but in Tommy’s eyes this is the worst betrayal he’s ever known. The moment Tubbo (rightfully, but poorly executed) defies Tommy’s plan to hire Technoblade (ahem, seeing Techno as a weapon again) and exiles Tommy is the moment their friendship shatters. They’re two people who don’t understand each other anymore. Two people who are technically in the right, but only hurt each other. 

What Tommy needed was a therapist, instead he had Dream, who put out the fire of rebellion that made him so strong, and Techno, who was trying to help but doing it in the wrong way. 

People see tommy's change post-exile as a good thing because he's not as rebellious anymore and he’s thinking things through a lot before he does them, but they will soon realise that his rebellion was one of his best traits and the fact that no one saw it as anything but a problem really shows. He now second-guesses himself so much and is so scared of being wrong that everything seems too difficult and too dangerous. Every trait can have a positive and negative side. Tommy's defiant nature would have made him the perfect negotiator with a little practise. In fact, he had plenty of good ideas before he was exiled (using spirit against Dream, though it didnt work in the end, for example). The negative side of this was recklessness and the desire to cause problems on purpose, but what he needed was a friend (looking at you Tubbo) who understood that hes been through several wars, was manipulated by Wilbur, and hasnt known a time of peace where everyone who wasnt on his side was out to kill him. Now that ‘fight’ is gone he's just become easier to manipulate.

He may be getting better (see: telling Dream to go fuck himself) but there hasn't been any long-term growth because he was never told what kind of rebellion was good and what was bad. He was just told it was all bad. By Dream (and by Tubbo). Who he doesn't trust. So he's just going to revert back to his old ways because no one told him what was bad in a way that didn't make him feel like everyone was against him. Dream is the enemy (though Tommy’s feelings towards him are complicated, they make his brain go all ‘flippy floppy’) and Dream told him that rebellion was bad, so rebellion must be good always, right? 

And then there's Techno. Techno did nothing wrong except for when he did. Techno is 100% right except for when he isn’t. He doesn't understand Tommy because Tommy was never fully open about what Dream had done and how it affected him. That's not Tommys fault though, because who the fuck openly talks about their trauma? So neither of them are to blame for pretty much anything up until the confrontation at the community house. 

However, Techno's methods and ideology were not what Tommy needed. He was thrown from one extreme to another over and over again, from complete subservience to total rebellion. Neither of these inforce good attitudes in Tommy. One, as stated before, makes it so that he will regain his negative traits again. The other reinforces those violent traits as good, just like Wilbur did. The only difference is that Techno had good intentions, he wasnt trying to use Tommy, which is why he feels so used when Tommy 'betrays' him (Techno doesnt realise that he himself betrayed Tommy by teaming with Dream, he sees it more as a transaction than a personal thing). Techno feels so hurt by Tommy ‘viewing him as a weapon’ that he goes on with his no-mercy attack, completely dropping Tommy at his lowest point. 

Tommy says he doesn't want to be like everyone he's hated. In fact, he say's he is 'worse' than all the villains. This is very obviously untrue, though he was clearly going down a dangerous path with Techno's influence (see: bullying Fundy, spawning wither, kidnapping Connor, and saying that the discs are more important than Tubbo, more on that later). He's not a villain but who exactly has said he's not a villain. Dream? Techno? Neither of them can be trusted in his eyes. They say he's a good guy, Wilbur wanted to be the bad guy, who's right? He doesn't know. He has a crisis of morality. 

And? Some people want to point at that and say 'aha! Character development! He's finally realising his actions have a negative affect on others!' OH GOD NO??? He's a *child* who thinks that he is worse than his abuser. Does that sound like positive character growth to you? 

Lastly, the discs. We know theyre a comfort item blahblahblah. He hates himself for valuing them more than he values Tubbo. He's literally innocent in this. He’s been horribly manipulated by Dream to believe that the discs are worth anything. Theyre really not worth anything if they are being used as tools rather than, yknow, discs. My poor boy. He doesnt trust people, so what can he trust? The discs. But then he says it out loud and realises he misses Tubbo and he wants to be with his best friend again and and and WAHHHH. This also isnt really character growth its just fucking sad leave me alone. 

Anyways what the fuck guys. @ Niki and Jack what the fuck. Yeah we get it it’s miscommunication but wtf. Kinda worried that the actual lore will make Niki and Jack’s hatred of Tommy justified in some way and take on a big victim-blamey vibe, but I’m hoping that everyone is smart enough to not do that. I cannot praise Tommy enough for how he’s portrayed his character. I’m currently hoping that he himself understands the true complexity of it all. I’m sure he does.

Mostly though im actually pissed off at all the people praising tommy's character for 'maturing' when hes literally just got trauma. Nice one, tumblr and twt users. Thanks. Great job. He hasnt 'learnt his lesson', he’s traumatised. What the fuck.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk, leave your responses in the reblogs and comments.

[glopratchet]

intro

In the world to come there is little sin You see a flash of light and then darkness There are just lots of american alligators "What the hell was that? " you ask "I dunno, but I think we got some sort of new enemy out here They seem to be coming in waves It looks like they have something similar to what we had with those other guys down at the lake though A lot more powerful too…they don't look friendly or anything either We need to get back before they overrun us completely! 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Purge the sinful nature that has infected this world Send them to the barren void Turn their earthen fill into interplanetary space The government, all powerful as it is, conspired with Molpy Bob's psychic prowess developed delicious strangled fantasies and sold them to children Point of view of the player: The last human survivors scurry about a corpse A corpse that died so that they could have food, water, energy, and whatever else they needed to survive this hellish nightmare the world has become You are one the human survivors Your friends Your loved ones Everyone you know is here with you Everyone but your brother; he chose to stay behind when the apocalypse struck Or rather he was left behind A delivery champion his truck captured by the first group of ravenous undead You remember him putting up a sign saying 'Out of order' Ah, your dearest brother Makes you laugh to think back then Before all this happened To think everything was so different back them; he was cringing about having 'out of range' signs on his truck when what he had was an out of range life support system But I digress, that was the start A delivery champion, He had a secert life as billy fea fbots vstar ohtr The signs were to stop the other life Anyway, back to present times and zombie plague There's talk of a vaccine through some old computer that was miraculously unharmed by the collision that sent it into a freezing lake Or something, you didn't really pay attention You mostly just sort supplies and clear walked zones nowadays, but everyone does their part for staying alive He had a secert life as billy fea fbotsvstar ohtr And one more thing UNDEAD! You alert the group about the snow zombies shambling in from over the hill "I'll bring up the federal government's freeze rays, Stevey fires his fully automaticNASAraceblastahatthat'llkillanything! " You shout at each other It turns out no one has made a crappy real time virtual reality game dedicated to this escapade would've been much more useful When you wake up it looks like the government won't have to bother sending a vaccine after all: everyone is dead or undead, the military having taken most of the hit It seems only you are strong enough to not turn into one of the brain-eating monsters You don't get hungry or tired and can only guess that whatever infection caused this mess mutated you into the perfect predator: no emotions and an absolute killer It turns out no one has made a crappy real time virtual reality game dedicated to this escapade would've been much more useful Delivering dragon tail in the far, far, future We proudly introduce today 'sgame: Undedtedded We proudly introduce today'sgame: Alligator delivery service MANUAL: It's the pixilated hell of the future as zombies and demons jump up and try to eat you You can jump with space, drop down with ctrl, make roundhouse kicks with a, throw random objects; (which I'll get to soon) with s, taunt with tab, and quit the game with q The taunts can distract some demons allowing you to do massive damage and sometimes even kill them The alligator farm where the gator are delivered is currently under attack as part of the alligator delivery service have been hired to save them while they are transported by plane to a safer area You need to accomplish this without the alligator coming into contact with zombies and demons that spawn in tropical areas The gator has a ravenous appetite and one bite from him and the pilot will drop the same way pilots do when they get bitten in cape coralside The alligator farm where the gator are delivered is currently under attack A series of construction tasks need to be done to get the plane up in the air, such as opening the gate and turning on the water Sometimes you will come across certain items or areas that will allow you to play various mini-games: cupies planet, mushball, super mario bros zombie edition, nes and much more so on top of all the caos your having fun too! You crazy kids are probaly going to love that A series of construction tasks need to be done to get the plane up in the air, Already we own over four over ten foot alligators that had escaped until you got there You wonder just how many of them are out there considering this is an alligator farm About the only thing in this world that'll eat a zombie or demon and live are alligators Most creatures die quickly in this pixilated hell, even the fish die fast Where's the reset button? Don't expect to find it Already we own over four over ten foot alligators that had escaped until you got there Including rex lex, there are six varieties of alligator that you'll be dealing with The smallest of which is a mini alligator that's not even two feet and merely acts as a container for random items if somehow managed to trap 2 or 3 of them in a playpen then you could make yourself a pestcontrol device Yep, it pretty much allows you to massacre zombies from a safe distance A massive 14 foot beast that will make mincemeat out of any zombie or demon it touches These guys are fast too, fastest creature in the game Who talks like that? This guy does and he's bringing his alligators to your rescue A massive 14 foot beast that will make mincemeat out of any zombie or demon it touches Each on is incredibly detailed with over twenty bioligocail parts like a functioning mouth, eyes, and skin Two different types of each exist and you can command them with your minds! 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Grab a partner and let's see the funds begin to flow in for a good cause! 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You know how this works, money upfront Hope you brought a big bag along today, because were going shopping at the Jewelers Row! You tap Gwen with your knuckles She jumps up, shredding the newspaper in surprise Orders for gator teeth are starting to accumulate, We just need your help to fund creation of the wrestling simulation video game you were dreaming about! Since you are a supervisor at the Tech repair dock you have access to the newest and top notch developments in VR gaming A smile forms on Gwens face as she stares off into the crowd while listening to your instructions She gives a thumbs up and starts pushing through the crowds towards the Jewelry's district The job pays out at 93k and we get 5% of all covered expenses We just need your help to fund creation of the wrestling simulation video game you were dreaming about! Our desire is to create an expierence which leaves you dripping with satisfaction and the dripping of blood The game should be done by this time next month if all goes well! But thats a pretty big IF For you see, this IS the very first attempt at creating such a large project in this time period! An inch to the left and Gamesville could be paying out millions rather than bankrupting itself, but we will make sure we get it right See you at the end of the month boss! Our desire is to create an expierence which leaves you dripping with satisfaction From the feeling of utter terror and awe as you combat one of these unpredicatable beasts We serve realism Anything else would be a sacasticism to the deaths of those who fight with all thir might against these beasts and anything less than accurate would be poor representation of those heroes Focusing more on mystery, adventure and discovery rather than gore and violence VR makes even the most bestial of enemies seem formidable thus avoiding repetitiveness A game should make you think, feel and wonder not just tear out your guns and loose interest in five minutes Hours of alligator combat video have been studied Now we just need to budget of 500 dollars towards the creatation of these Games and they shoud be ready! Ok so four specialist workers have been assembled for the design of our games Mike has years of expirance with Fighting games, but also is into Adventure games He'll make sure it's appeal crosses genres He just needs a pen a paper and time in which to work his magic Amanda then Amanda is fantastic with 3D design as was worked on some movies as a designer Now we just need to budget of 500 dollars towards the creatation of these Games and they shoud be ready! Of an accurate alligator wrestling simulation So moves and logic should be top notch By giving these artists the tools to work with they can make something wonderful They need a computer which is top of the line and all the programs needed to make our games graphics and gameplay realistic Amandas costs have been covered so she can 3D model the wrestler, ring and all those gators! We just need to pay her 225 an hour for research, planning, design, redining, testing and making sure everything goes well And on behalf of all the artists improving perfect beeing Let's see what mr Coding can eke out of our money Coding requires a computer as well as a good mind for logical planning to make sure the game works on most stages He's also going in with ot without a big risk as despite being planned, changes may need to be made on the fly which could risk crashing the computer if he doesnt program wisely Between him and Amanda one of them should cover most eventualities in the programming! Thank you for allowing us to serve your alligator fantasies Thank you for allowing us to serve your alligator fantasies! Sofware is taking over everything a these days Without good software your computer is junk so better the programers you know than the ones you don't! Steve has 24 years of expirance to bring to the table, we're pretty sure he can make do with what we give him Sofware is taking over everything a these days We will be the last one standing when all others have fallen! Well we're ready to get started, wish us luck Apparently in exchange for a special offer those running the grocery store will allow us store to organize our event from their 24 hour opened deli! It's a tiny space but it'll have to do I guess because alcohol is involved they have some restrictions on after hours use of their buildings We might still have to use the backroom of your garage until the festival begins We will be the last one standing when all others have fallen! The artists become in time we all will be artists of our world, the creation of these masterpeices shall secure games progress forever But without beautifying our buildings in which they shall be played it will feel less inspiriting then one would hope something must be done about the ambience! Something that brings a feeling of class and dust jacket art quality I know! I'll buy some art from local high-school students and slap it up on the walls! That should bring in those feels The artists become in time we all will be artists of our world, The human condition is to become an artist This shall be our greatest creation yet! The human condition is to become an artist! We cant do it know be have sacracity filled with high schoolers talentless works I know this place has regular art displays but I think we need something cooler So just go around and scoure the town for local artists and get their info and artwork The older they are, the more outlandish and edgy their subject matter the better! Just dont forget to look for quality of cotton string in their work No bad painty paintings cluttering up the office please! We cant do it know be have sacracity filled with high schoolers talentless works So people have to be responsible for coming in to our deli because we cant just leave them unattended Thankfully because of the nice weather you guys can sit and drink coffee either inside or outside on our patio types thing But Greg the manager says that everybody needs to order at least a drink each once an hour or be asked to leave if there getting too rowdy I guess while your out gathering artists info you can take pictures of the event with your phone? So people have to be responsible for coming in to our deli because we cant just leave them unattended The big picture at the end of this festivae will reveal itself along with its prizes but for now let's collect some postcards from different places around town 'til next time, stay creative! artists info: Zac Broadhurst: an old man who has been painting for 60 years, most of his paintings are very tranquil The big picture at the end of this festivae will reveal itself along with its prizes but for now let's collect some postcards from different places around town Algrothymic story telling with algrothymic alligators 20 year old hipster who likes heavy metal and monsters Let's get some pentagrams going on, yeah! Looking over at Amanda she is starting to fidget and isn't even looking at the paper in front of her but more looking sightly downwards and to the right It seems your game has really affected her greatly The subtle head movements suggest she's trying to make sense of something and then it suddenly stops She looks back at you 'To Books? Algrothymic story telling with algrothymic alligators! Chances are your are going to be entrenched in a feeling of dread for quite awhile after this but before that black cloud comes you must take advantage Your theory is if you can get her to a quiet secluded place then maybe just maybe Yes! The library was it? Was that the last one? " You ask with enthusiasm 'To the library it is then! ' In your mind you are repeating "Don't look down, don't look down Your five minutes later 'Excellent! Chances are your are going to be entrenched in a feeling of dread for quite awhile after this but before that black cloud comes you must take advantage Utter terror and awe sometimes as you encounter an alligator you have neve seen before 32 years experience tells you to keep moving and greatings will be exchanged at a later date Your even later Victory! One postcard from the library in your hand and your walking back to the Deli discussing the days events It's the end of summer now which means your last year of school The first simulation we need to get on-line is wrestling for alligator teeth It's your last chance to make something from the whole experience so you are suggesting the higher powers sut down each others permit operations and actually colloborate with the otherside This goes over very well "Teams? Are you kidding me in this 9 year old flame war of series Well " is what you hear as you enter the deli to see Amanda behind the counter serving a customer a frapuccino On the farm are incredibley detailed casts of all the gator's your found in the swamp and close to the river you'v been draining in the simulation To complete it though, you put all there teeth on as shown in the logo Furthermore with your permit issues you've gotten involved with a new kind of energy water company run by a bunch of Canadians On the farm are incredibley detailed casts of all the gator's your found in the swamp and close to the river you'v been draining in the simulation They own the following body parts of the gator: The digestive tracks Are you serious? With two major branding pieces out now your numbers show that 9% of children north of the Mason-Dixon line with report a gator sighting in their back yard; vs 0% before your art existed Before the summer ends it grows to 30% and onwards form there Even witht he booming economy and sut down on your activities you helped improve education rate significantly They own the following body parts of the gator: ------------- GENERATED PAUSE--------------- You stop and think back as you want to remember the taste of that victory for awhile, yes it was sweet Amanda acts exactly like the kind person she is towards you as per normal but you know it will not last with out some something to keep it cemented in place -------------GENERATED PAUSE--------------- Brain scans would probably revele that the area in her brain that has intense pleasure is much more accessible to be accessed than other area's prompting rewarding activities Sorry about that but mad scientists can't escourt their creations senses you know She remebers everything up until your wager but it's all brightened up, framed and put on her walls as happy memories she experienced in the few weeks you all interacted from meeting her untill what you dubbed "The Wager" Brain scans would probably revele that the area in her brain that has intense pleasure is much more accessible to be accessed than other area's prompting rewarding activities Left eye for Right Tail, Right Eye for Left Tail, Whole brain for both You settle for a frontal lob or somthing that will allow you to stick around for longer rather than exiting gracefully from her life It's a slow process but over about a year you learn each other's habits as well as mannerisms that you now notice are mirrored in opposite directions whilst slowly fading in and out of existance based on people who visit your "giant salty aquariums" Left eye for Right Tail, Right eye for 2 right side teeth, Right Throat for left eye, Left elbow for medial Fin Eventually you see the break through you need when Amanda asks you if she looks better with her fringe parted on the left or the right; "forget i ever asked that question" is what your looking for but never comes which means evedentally she new haerd of a new brand of hair part merchandise out called "Giel's frontang 'ailspray! Right eye for 2 right side teeth, Upper jaw for lower jaw, Throat for upper tail You've done it You're set for the next few cycle's in this realm you think, you've even got time to prepare her for what will be sticking around for a whole lot longer on her own However you don't worry as much due to having another larger stash of the drug in your Ultra chamber, enough to last you many cycles before you need to find a new source of raw prettiness Upper jaw for lower jaw, Lower jaw for upper jaw, both eyes for ears and medial fin With Amanda transfered into your other home you begin the rest period for her which involves keeping her comatose while she recovers from the ordeal of sudden body part loss, You inform her of your plan to slowly phase out your current ventures in exchange for becoming a full-time business yourslef so she needn't worry about going back to her mundane job ever again Lower jaw for upper jaw, Right ear for right arm, both legs for lower tail Over the rest period you get the tank repaired again and hire a new personel to man your front of house; two fishers you know from the Delerg region, they're married and all around hard workers so you don't worry about them stealing the girl, just keeping up with demand Right ear for right arm, Left ear for upper arm, right eye and lower jaw for teeth, right foot for lower arm, remaining tail for final foot Eventually she awakes and stares at her reflection in the mirror over your bed for hours, tracing scars smooth as she grew up with ears, eyebrows, eyelashes, vocal chords altered part of her from now on Left ear for upper arm, Tail All 8 foot of herself, Medial Fin all grown back "How long was I gone? " "Ahead of your time, Behind in looks, Petrified in age" She asks quizzically "4 weeks in real time, But lets look to the future eh? Tail, Front right leg and back right leg for 2 handily placed arms ending in swimmer efficient 2-digited hands! Front right leg and back right leg for 2 handily placed arms ending in swimmer efficient 2-digited hands! Front left leg and back left leg for 2 identically handy placed legs ending in 2 big nifty feet Cleft chin and lumpy coarse skin turned sugar honey skin as smooth as SeaBeauty from Head to Tail! Front left leg and back left leg for 2 identically handy placed legs ending in 2 big nifty feet Hind right leg and Hind Left leg shrunk to adorable Sub-fin ; (like a mermaid! Bruised skin faded and destroyed to become clear as Water jewls from scales! Girly eyes as bi-coloured as the sea became 1 glitteringly shiney Eye the colour of blue dreams Hind right leg and Hind Left leg shrunk to adorable Sub-fin ; Hind left leg and cleft chin turned to raised/sharped scales like pillars of hydro stalagtites! Girly teethes small and uneven turned sharp as knives and White as Ghadesh's Diamond Dome Big Forehead smooth as Glass made automatically smooth by scales growing there 6 teeth replaced with Golden incups that sparkle as she smiles like Sunlight on O-Par WinWin Beans Hind left leg and cleft chin turned to raised/sharped scales like pillars of hydro stalagtites! Heart filled with pain turned to Packed with Unfathomable Wonder Liquid Nails replaced by Jewllar Blue Quillins that shine whenever she touches something "Does it hurt? " Innocence asks, "A bit, but no where near the amount of worth I see on you, Estimations could say I joined a 100 boys for 3 months in exchange for just one Month of this instand [sic, moment? No Pain at all Heart filled with pain turned to Packed with Unfathomable Wonder Liquid Gentiles would fall for the blush overtaking her cheeks at you complement but you know it is just the blush of appreciation for saving her life A beautiful life of a different kind and you are grateful for getting to spend your remaining few moments alive watching over her Genital_s grown back in 23 days after living 23 hours without, 1 Tail-Fin as short as left leg and left arm replaced by Smoother bein covered stinger ready to give Queen some cute Puppies Gentiles would fall for the blush overtaking her cheeks at you complement but you know it is just the blush of appreciation for saving her life Nose overgrown into awsome 2 nostrils ending just before reaching eyebrows, skin colored in dark pencil inside giving an even evelutionar advantage at blend-in Upper lip grown in to a scale-less lavish Barb on her muzzle Nose overgrown into awsome 2 nostrils ending just before reaching eyebrows, Right flank facial fur replaced with external ear like an elf ; (It's not a replacement its an addition, she simply missed out on having one! Horns remain as fully formed as they grew in, even while her head hairs grew straight into tippant fringe on forehead It just keep getting better! Right flank facial fur replaced with external ear like an elf ; Left flank Patch of Spikey hairs replacing fur like an I-pod skin, sprouting where arm and hand hair and beard would of grown if arm were there whole new sensitivity in that spot but she wears it proudly! Left flank Patch of Spikey hairs replacing fur like an I-pod skin, Back hide Orange Hair she once had grown inn every single one of her scales whose increased size can now protect in rows all the way along her spine making a River over which there are No bridges And All covered by a clear hard layer of Blue Icnaceous substance not just on skin but on all weak spots ready for combat and laying eggs under shield like Turtle's back shell Back hide Orange Hair she once had grown inn every single one of her scales whose increased size can now protect in rows all the way along her spine making a River over which there are No bridges Belly hide turned into Grey pattern like on Indian Cow providing camoflage to help the rescue and rescue her just in time as she looks Hope in eyes : Belly hide turned into Grey pattern like on Indian Cow providing camoflage to help the rescue and rescue her just in time as she looks Hope in eyes : Teeth 2 incisors grown into fangs next to canine and 3 molars grown into wolfs teeth up top increased her bite force 10 times making ya never want to feel it : Like every girl she knows how to make herself pretty, now she has new shiny Eye-lids lined in black kohl with shining white around the eyes and enlarged brown irises that see deeper into your soul than you ever would like a Gorgon Teeth 2 incisors grown into fangs next to canine and 3 molars grown into wolfs teeth up top increased her bite force 10 times Lungs amplifying breath now Minty fresh 2 ribs removed to let heart beat strong for ever all her skin cells Renew every 3 weeks ffs killing most girls but not our Desert Rose : But of course Genitals fully functioning including Gel like tubes leading from Belly to able to Ejaculate 300m Sperm onto 200km/h Winds Now how cool is that? D no more Childbirth just happy boys and girls riding wind blown every which way Lungs amplifying breath now Minty fresh The alligator has a weight in kg s and is length from the tip of the snout to the end of the tail I don't think there have been many alligators reported at sea despite them being fairly common in freshwater across much of North America Makes me wonder if they can survive for long in seawater and if crocodiles are found towards the coastline, they may well venture into the open sea The alligator has a weight in kgs and is length from the tip of the snout to the end of the tail A percentage of the weight is affixed to each body part 15% of the biomass is womb space and 55% is brain to control its behavior ARKS : Great name After seeing how they made the plesiosaur, can you make a turtle or alligator? Maybe a turtle Today i added some code to make back/spine ; (radius, ulna, spinous and transverse process) and parts of the leg, paw, arm and chest A percentage of the weight is affixed to each body part, All the percentage of the weight equal to one hundred if you can help me, I would like to create a museum for kids to learn all about extinction and how it happened in our world Kaiju sphinx ready now, which weigh 1722 3345 kilograms as well as being 3 66164 meters long from the tip of the tail to the opening of its mouth A big block of sandstone is levitating next to it, inside is roughly 800kg of TNT and RDX All the percentage of the weight equal to one hundred, These precentages affect certain rules of the game like the body part rule, is every part of the animal on certain percentage it will be affected in the pc game Like every part till 14% Same Rule apply, if you kill plesiosaur with bare hands their attack can trigger massive tremors running though ground and making land forms like islands fall apart These precentages affect certain rules of the game, We need all the words to describe an alligator hide for the game Such as vinyl, p-phenethylene, hexane, acetone etc body shapes Great job Callum : ) now we are getting far! But we are on Generations 3 about fleece, scales, muscle, tyrant, bats ears, mouth parts, ione and squidgge spihmoduipuisitalipbsipguiopweifjwn or something like that : We need more about horns and spikes too! We need all the words to describe an alligator hide for the game Word one to describe alligator hide pages 60-100 There are no riocol or kwkworc There is just us and arks, Sea monsters Apep and others, also said there was one "shepherd" that created itself Word one to describe alligator hide for the game Word two to describe alligator hide About fleece, Forgot how to spell! This is really cool and kind of amusing that there's so many stages of development! Word two to describe alligator hide for the game Word three to describe alligator hide I havent been through all of them but I found one egg looking object in the process : Word four to describe alligator hide for the game hieroglyphs? Not being funny but I dont want to risk losing this data when my battery dies by searching all these word sugggestions, if it matters Im on log 3229 Word five to describe alligator hide for the game nice! Heres another; - c Word three to describe alligator hide for the game Word four to describe alligator hide Word five to describe alligator hide It would be easier if you numbered them : Word six to describe alligator hide for the game Haha nice one! I meant number of the backups, there are currently 3271 on this backup : Word seven to describe alligator hide for the game Lol it didnt recognize acres! Word six to describe alligator hide Funny thing a typo early on in gen 1 meant I ended up with ogre instead of as previously acer Thanks guys! now ive got my results from the test in the /arsadmin/killers logs folder : Nearly all of those words appear in there at one time or another : ) what were the various backup times? nice that gives the best one! 1 min volt 8192 meg ohm kb ISO miles 1080pixels in in2 Pi feet How many inches in a mile 1600 10243 mole 2xs pascals kb MB kbps meters bps miles in km mebitfeet rpm 5 Units slug flowvolt seconds mine ft2 water hours gpm to liters per minute though a few look suspect : boom with some incramental damage ; (my results! ) cool : calmly with minimal, non-permanent damage to atmos and enviroment ; (I rolled the dice on this one as they reached 50 500 450 before going any further! ) woo! nervous but safe! its says seconds sorry, my computer is slow also there is no % although it looks like disk 2 disk 1 means part one right? 55 90 0 0 Safari Safe! ( wow! As darkness develops, and eyes begin to unfold from flowers and petals I did not quite awaken this step : Thanks for taking the Time, it was a cool test! finally : VERY COOL! hmm and im dead : ( : ) : ( ; (hopefully the New : D thing adds a : )) congratulations! you made it this far! ok 2 rolls later remember the 2 takes it to hard drive so when it starts again and asks you if you liked safari park, lie : ) hehe I say yes every time! then its takes me back out when its done! amazing and funny! now if I could remember all this and not screw it up! bah silly tired brain! amazing! really I just hit refresh and it brought me right here! loyal readers prepare to get blown away by the BLOG OF THE FUTURE! Quick Get Ready With The Reading! Many Of You May Die Of Old Age Before This LOG Finishes However like A Decent Rollercoster, It Starts Slowly Then Gets Fast thenSlow then faster : You grin as you open the creaky door and interrupt Mrs Gaange killing a Patient (oh noes! (): What is this log End of Line! 1 min volt 8192 Expected behavior, whether or not it rolled over or what is interesting : ) other computer science Geek stuff meh like the design of 20080405003317977 ! ( so exciting! (dont lie) the other 11 came first, for reference this was around half an hour before this post, I simply pasted them into here and now I shall play! good night crazygeek world! I should Really Write These Things Down WOAH! I made it to the end! My eyes are burning! Bad flash! Not funny : ( 67 555534 33337 Username: eraser14 53 Password: Kladfvk Domain: crazygeek com ================================= Login Successful ================================= Username: eraser14 Password: Kladfvk DOMAIN: com ; (CRAZYGEEK ))) *sprinkles magic! * : a yellow stuumbrella appears beside you! wow, 1 in 36, 493, 760 chance of that happening : ) congrats! there seems to be magical symbols floating around your head : ) sorry again about the flashing images : ( I'll never do it again, pinky promise : in 50 millinium studio's presents "MORK CALL GULDAN! ugh sorry Mork called, thats my asignment for tonight : ) so you want aww answers right? congrats you defeated the boss! here is some ice cream : D yum! your heart melts and spills out of you this game stinks : ( and so do you! DIE! PEST! awww sorry earth got in the way : "Our Pick to Play" sadness is gone : starting over with 999 lives more! ABOUT TIME YOU BUY MY NEW ALBUM! YOU OWE ME! ( The most beautiful day in earth'sHistory is about to Begin! You are in a Strange room Looking around It appears You're Finally Here! Hold on Lets Grab the Rocketlauncher before leaving Wow look at all the people do you Remember Any of them? more importantly do they remember you? hold on lets find out! boom! cant believe you just did that! you monster! err oblivion awaits! *cough* ok sorry about that, its just this minature pipe is so small it keeps falling out : ( anyways where were we? YES! you finally got the album released : ) lets celebrate with some miniqwer! D despite the sad news of your death spreading : S the album went platinum in 8 minutes remember? not exactly something to celebrate is it : ( haha just kidding, lets check on what the critics had to say about it! critic: holy crap this is the greatest album ever released in the history of mankind! amazin world! wow thanks : ) maybe you should buy some of my albums! D Am I borred yet? One more level until Ama__ zine awards says NO! your a boring person and overuse words like awesome and super : ( 2 critical review : (song name) Is super super weak and crappy : ) how could the best die? ( eraserhead 4 the win : A million seconds Left to live, trillion feet below the surface of the earth, millions&; of lightyears from home Flames flickering up the walls around you, You sit tightly in a bound Iron coffin ok I'm bored : ( hahahahaha monster rally! I Laugh Loudly oh haha sorry, sometimes random things just come into my mind and i start laughing at it for some weird reason : D o well time to get going if you haven't noticed : ) also are those flashing icons disappearing from your eyes? time left: 977, 617 minutes so about 1 million and a few odd seconds a sad face Emoji: ( am I really that Boring? ( 4 Eyes Lol!

[cameron-malkin]

Exit Wounds || Self para.

The intrusion had been unwarranted. In the throes of a new creative process, charcoal stained hands worked painstakingly across the page as the black and white image came to fruition. Eventually leaning back to observe his work at a distance, sapphire eyes studied the drawing meticulously, critiquing every inch of his creation. There had been a recent spark of creativity within the young man, an intense level of muse unlike any he’d experienced before. 

“Open up!��� A thunderous boom from an unfamiliar voice interrupted him, eliciting an eye-roll from the 28-year-old. 

“Nobody’s home!” He sing-songed in return, the snide retort rolling easily off his lips before focusing his efforts back onto the page. Diligent blue hues turned their attention towards the developing art, the delicate curvature of pencil lines distracting him from relentless knocking upon hardwood. Eventually, the culprit of such upheaval made his presence known, entering the room, “Malkin, pack your shit. You’re moving to yellow.” 

Spinning in his chair to face the intruder, a sharp comment locked and loaded on his tongue, a deep frown of annoyance etched across his features. Suddenly he was thrown into a vast abyss of confusion as he caught the tail end of the command. “Excuse me, I’m what?” Demanding repetition from the stranger, Cameron leant forward, elbows resting on his knees as two hands clasped in front of him. “What’re you on?” Was this some kind of twisted prank? The twenty-eight-year-old had to stop himself from erupting into a fit of laughter, a heavy exhale of disbelief taking its place. 

A disgruntled groan pushed through the guard’s pursed lips before reiterating simple instructions, “You’re moving. Yellow floor. Five minutes.” It irked him, the way the guard couldn’t bring himself to use any more words than necessary — the implication in his voice clear: Cameron wasn’t worth the wasted breath. A burlap sack thrown in his direction signaled the end of the conversation, coaxing a frown onto Cameron’s lips once more. Reaching out to catch the bag flung towards him, a whirlpool of thoughts swirled menacingly onward, reeling from the sudden loss of belonging the small space afforded him. 

Azure orbs glanced around the space he had occupied for the better part of five years. The walls that had once been bare were now finally brightened by few belongings, decorated with polaroids of late night adventures and inspired drawings that filled him with a sense of pride. Carefully prying each item off with delicate precision, ocean eyes gazed over the dimly lit photo of Lexus on the hood of Charles' car, a wicked smirk pulling at the corner of his lips as he recounted memories from the crisp autumn evening beyond the walls of Thornewood. 

Cameron leant against the hood of Charles’ car, cigarette in hand as smoke intertwined the cool air surrounding him, sidewalks decorated with pumpkins accompanied by the ghoulish decor that hung from every post and pillar. The awe-struck smile never faded from either of their features as they basked in their newly found freedom. One size twelve stepped in front of the other, approaching Lex before strong hands enveloped her waist. “Hey, beautiful.” He murmured in her ear, his lips moving to line a path of delicate kisses to her neck. It was an understatement, her standing there in skin-tight jeans hugging her curves in a way that made his mouth water. He’d meant for it to be a simple distraction before lifting her up onto the hood of the car, but it left him wanting more, positioning himself between her thighs. Reluctantly, he pried himself away from her open palm, desperate to grasp a fistful of his jacket. Curelian hues glided over her frame, heart heavy with the desire for this singular shared moment to stretch into eternity. The beginning of their nights together had always been the most joyful, excitement and anticipation igniting deep within his bones. “Wait, stay there,” In retrospect, to his ears, the words were more of a love-stricken plea than a seductive invitation. He recalled the burning need for the photograph, the image of it hanging on his bedroom wall too good to resist: Lexus sprawled out on the top of Charles’ car, like she owned it.

There were a multitude of reasons behind Cameron’s minimalistic style of living, chief among them that he could never afford luxury items, and the few belongings he did have lacked sentimental value. Moreover, he had lived by the belief that when he eventually left Thornewood, it would be to return to a life of poverty unable to be swayed by an abundance of possessions. He’d need nothing apart from the clothes on his back. However, it became clearer day by day that his future was morphing into something with more promise. Not only had he gained a vision of a future worth fighting for, but he'd acquired more everything. More clothes, more cologne, more cheesy trinkets — all from Lexus that he would never be able to part with. One by one, he placed them gingerly into the rucksack. Coming to terms with the fact that he clearly was unable to object to the move, a tornado of thoughts created a path of destruction as he struggled with the notion. His personal demons whispered harsh truths about the significant progression. What possible growth had occurred? He hadn’t earned this.

Incarcerated within Thornewood, the patient had watched numerous people come and go over time. Some stayed longer than others, but always worked their way through the levels eventually. Even Lexus — despite her cemented belief that she was incapable of improvement — hardly spent a year on the same floor before moving. Such progress hadn’t gone undeserved, but this transfer felt anything but justified. With an angry beast waging war inside him, Cameron knew this progression symbolized something he was not: tame. It was abundantly clear that there was a higher power at play here, an overwhelming sense of trepidation surrounding him as crystalline hues stared at the now empty room, his prized possessions slung over his back. A terrifying realisation struck him as he descended the carpeted stairs: he was unable to name the force that moved him. Who possibly could have swayed the Forresters to look the other way? And why would they? 

The walk to the new room — his room — was paved with a painfully long stretch of silence. The only twisted form of relief from the ear-splitting stillness were the perturbed thoughts occupying his mind. Cameron’s self-loathing knew no bounds, incapable of bottoming out as copious insults were hurled at him from every direction. Somewhere in the spiralling depths of his self-hatred, the notion that he would now have to occupy a space with another smacked him in the chest, eliciting an angry snarl upon impact. In a matter of seconds, the privacy he had taken advantage of on the third floor was unapologetically snatched from beneath his feet. Swallowing hard as he pushed past the outrage bubbling below the surface, the 28-year-old turned towards the guard escorting him. 

“Not to question you, your highness, but there’s got to be some sort of massive fuck up here.” A demand to talk to Charles almost surpassed tight lips, struggling to stop himself despite being intimately aware of the naivety behind such a thought. No one requested a meeting with Charles Forrester — not even Thornewood’s oldest resident. 

Deafening silence answered him, falling over the two men before abruptly stopping at a closed door on the second floor. The guard held out his hand, an unspoken demand for Cameron’s wrist, before producing a small pair of scissors to remove the last remaining shred of his existence on the red floor. For a split second, the tender skin of his sunless wrist came into view. He noted how odd it looked, almost as though he’d forgotten about the patterns of ink now exposed. The moment was, however, short lived as the garishly bright new colour was clamped onto his arm, repulsing the New Jersey native immediately. The inaccurate mark granted him new permission, throwing the lone wolf into the pasture rife with sheep. The road before him became rocky and uneven, sharp twists and jackknife turns appearing out of nowhere, leading him to a destination he was wary of approaching. 

Upon entering the new room, a grimace replaced the look of confusion he had been sporting. Uncertainty spawned a pounding between his temples as a frustrated hand flung up to rub his forehead in desperate search of relief from the growing pressure. A guttural groan escaped his clenched jaw as he flung his bag onto the bed and slammed the door behind him. The feral beast within paced the confines of his steel cage with insurmountable irritation on the rise. A clenched fist leveled with brick, a scream on the tip of his tongue as the threat of an impending collision of bone against cement loomed overhead. 

“I don’t give a shit.”

“I don’t give a shit.”

“I don’t give a shit.”

Backing away from the wall, Cameron collapsed onto the edge of the bed. His hand dropped in defeat as two lungs gasped for air, head shoved between his knees in an attempt to force himself off the ledge. 

With his gaze fixed upon unscathed knuckles, he was stunned by the distinct lack of blood. The beast locked eyes with him, nearly unrecognizable as it prowled behind the iron bars of a newfound equilibrium.

[wild-blue-sonder]

Tips for Breath of the Wild Newbies

Or anyone who may be as obsessed with the game as me.

I’ve officially done five playthroughs of Breath of the Wild since I got the game and Switch last year. Even though I’m on my sixth now, I’m still somehow discovering things while playing it! That goes to show how expansive and utterly amazing it is. If I had to choose just one game to play for the rest of my life, it’d be Breath of the Wild without hesitation. It has officially dethroned Twilight Princess as my favorite Zelda title which I never thought would happen. Anyway, if you’re a new player like I was just last year, or a veteran looking to critique some hints and tips, I hope this post doesn’t disappoint!

1: Thoroughly explore the Great Plateau This area is the beginning of your journey, and methodically running all over it will equip you for the rest of your adventure. There are some weapons lying around other than weak Traveler’s and Boko gear, such as a Soldier’s Bow at the top of the Temple of Time (which you literally can’t miss after the first major cutscene), a Throwing Spear in the Bokoblin camp behind the Temple, and a Soldier’s Broadsword under the waterfall of the snowy area. Raiding all the Bokoblin camps will reward you with a few ambers and opals you can sell for rupees early on. Keep the Iron Sledgehammer you get in the Owa Daim shrine and use it to defeat the Stone Talus near Hopper Pond instead of expending precious, expensive Bomb Arrows. Make it a habit to use Magnesis near any body of water, especially bogs. Comb the Forest of Spirits for all its insect and food resources. Lastly, there are eighteen Korok seeds to be found around the Plateau which gives you a good start to upgrading your inventory.

2: Gather Korok seeds early and efficiently Most new players probably want to know how they can carry more gear since it breaks. Hestu provides the solution to that issue and you can’t miss him if you follow the main questline. There are 900 Korok seeds in the whole game but you only need 441 to max out your gear slots. My favorite areas for getting a lot of seeds early on are the Dueling Peaks and Hateno regions (combined to form Necluda), the Lake region, and north-northwestern Faron. You can easily glide to many seed locations from the Lake tower and the top of Dueling Peaks. Zelda Dungeon is the best resource for finding seeds.

3: Embrace the durability system Something I hear from many players is their hatred for weapons breaking, but that system is in place for a reason! There’s tons of gear scattered all over Hyrule and breaking it gives you the opportunity to try out everything. I’m sure you will come to favor certain items as you progress. I hate finding a chest with a good weapon or shield in it that I can’t carry because my inventory is full, so I have to throw something on the ground ‘cause I’m too impatient to come back and get the better thing later. I’d rather break weapons by fighting enemies and gathering resources instead of letting them poof. You will also get the most mileage out of your gear by using it appropriately. Instead of running into monster camps and breaking all your swords and spears on tough enemies, take some of them out with bow headshots. Instead of trying to melee certain enemies, use shield parries to deflect their projectiles and kill them. And don’t use your claymores to smash ore. One last aspect of the durability system is to learn where certain weapons spawn, providing you with an endless supply. For instance, there will always be Iron Sledgehammers leaning against Link’s house in Hateno and a Silver Longsword behind the Ne’ez Yohma shrine in Zora’s Domain.

4: Save Guardian gear for Guardians Guardian gear is most effective against the various types of Guardians loitering around Hyrule. After passing some Minor or Moderate Tests of Strength, hang onto those weapons for Guardian Scouts you’ll encounter in certain shrines, Decayed Guardians posted around certain areas, and Guardian Stalkers which yield the highest amount of ancient materials. You can use Guardian gear against regular monsters, but it’s not as efficient. Shock Arrows are also effective against Guardians if you need something in a pinch.

5: Ignore Yiga Footsoldiers If you see random people on the side of the main roads in Hyrule either whimpering or standing around like creeps, they turn out to be Yiga assassins 99% of the time. I personally find them annoying so I just ignore them. They won’t pursue you unlike the archers and blademasters that poof in to disrupt your questing later on.

6: Use Dragonbone Moblin Clubs to defeat Taluses Dragonbone Moblin Clubs are highly effective and extremely common two-handed weapons that work well for dispatching Taluses in the early stages of the game. The easiest way to get these clubs is to run around at night and wait for Stalmoblins to pop out of the ground; they are commonly found in the Gerudo mountains. It should be noted that these clubs aren’t as effective against Igneo Taluses due to catching on fire. But Frost and Stone Taluses of the plain, rare, and luminous ore varieties will fall quickly beneath the might of the Dragonbone Moblin Club, especially if you hold a charge attack after climbing onto them. It should also be noted that Boulder Breaker is actually the best weapon in the game for farming ore from Taluses, so you can just use that after you get it. I still hang onto Spiked and Dragonbone Moblin Clubs for smashing regular ore if my sledgehammers break.

7: Do not fear Hinoxes, Moldugas, and Lynels These are the three most intimidating monsters in the game, but engaging them is entirely optional. You can hear Hinoxes snoring from a mile away so they’re easy to stroll past or ignore altogether. After a certain heart count they’ll almost always have boosted weapons around their necks, usually Royal gear, and there are three methods for gathering them. You can sneak onto their hand and wait for them to drop you onto their belly, then nab the weapons and carefully jump off. You can engage them, shoot them in the eye once, and grab the weapons while they’re sitting on the ground before running away. Or you can just kill them which is easy if you have Urbosa’s Fury and hold a charge attack with any two-handed weapon. This method will even kill red and blue Hinoxes in one go with a strong Royal Claymore! Moldugas only spawn in specific areas of the Gerudo Desert and you can see their sand ripples from far away, so you can give them a wide berth if you want. But they’re worth engaging for the good weapons in their treasure chests. Again, the best method for defeating them is to use a strong two-handed weapon (Royal Claymores are my personal favorite for their abundance and high durability), hold a charge attack, and make sure Urbosa’s Fury is active. Lynels are obnoxious to fight due to how much they dick around. The key to defeating them is to master perfect dodging because their attack patterns are extremely predictable. Use a combination of high durability and high damage one-handed weapons, such as Royal Broadswords and Lizal Tri-Boomerangs, paired with strong shields. Always try to swoop in on Lynels with the Paraglider from a high point because if they spot you from afar they’ll shoot you with elemental arrows. Speaking of which, Lynels are immune to elemental arrows and weapons so don’t waste them. Just go toe to hoof and have good reaction time.

8: Learn the best locations for farming resources After five playthroughs I’m still working on this one, but here are some tips I can share. Razorshrooms and Zapshrooms are commonly found all over Akkala. Rhino beetles are best gathered in Faron. Equip the Sheikah set, start in Lurelin Village, and run along the beach checking palm trees along the way. Hearty Lizards are also commonly found in Faron. For gathering Rushrooms with minimal climbing, stay in Necluda. Naydra Snowfield yields more Chillshrooms than you’ll know what to do with. To get Gourmet Meat either to sell to Trott or make expensive kebabs, hunt Tabantha Moose and Great Horned Rhinoceros in Hebra; wolves and coyotes tend to yield Prime Meat. Avoid bears because they’re jerks. If you’re in need of the three varieties of Safflina, you can’t do better than farming the Ruins and Great Fairy Fountain of Gerudo. Lastly, if you want a lot of ore for upgrading clothes or selling to get rich, turn on your Sheikah Sensor in Eldin. Of course I wouldn’t leave out the dragons. Farming parts from them can be frustrating because of the elements that hurt you, but you need horn shards for upgrading the Champion’s Tunic. It is easiest to fly at them head-on and use either a Golden or Phrenic Bow, or the Ancient Bow since it shoots straight, then stay in the updraft so you can see where the part lands. In my experience, the best spot for Farosh is on Floria Bridge in Faron. Hylia Bridge and the Gerudo Summit are good second and third areas. The best spot for Dinraal is Tabantha Great Bridge; the second best is near the Eldin Great Skeleton. Climb one of the rock spikes along the edge of the map or up the mountain to catch an updraft and shoot him. My favorite spot to farm Naydra is in Lanayru Promenade. Climb up either of the dilapidated sides and wait for her to come down. You might also catch her while gliding southeast from Vah Ruta.

9: Explore one region at a time I started doing this during my most recent playthrough. Previously I would go around activating each tower as soon as possible to fill in the map, but exploring each area as I reveal it has led to some fun discoveries, like a big stash of gear just north of the Gerudo tower, and certain side quests I’d never done before such as A Parent’s Love. Methodical searching is also the best way to find Korok seeds if you don’t want to use a guide. There are so many secrets in Hyrule that you’ll definitely miss stuff when you have the whole map laid out before you, so consider exploring one region at a time!

10: Try the Expansion Pass content Master Mode is probably the best offering from both DLCs. It does ramp up the difficulty to a certain degree and is worth a full playthrough even though the base game stays the same. There are no red enemies, you start facing off against the blue versions of each monster type. In addition to black and silver, you will fight golden enemies which are quite tough. Monsters also regenerate health which can be frustrating. However, there are way more and better weapons to be found! Floating alongside most bridges and waterfalls will be Bokoblins and Lizalfos guarding treasure chests. Master Mode also gives you much more rare ore. The Champion’s Ballad is enjoyable and has three main parts. First, you run around with the One Hit Obliterator and if the name of that weapon doesn’t sell you, then don’t buy the content. Second, the shrines you must beat to complete each champion song are difficult, good for anyone who complained about a lack of a challenge. Third, the final dungeon is like a fifth Divine Beast and the boss fight is kind of easy compared to everything you had to do to get to that point. But the Master Cycle is worth it. Think “steampunk unicorn dirt bike” and if you have no desire to drive Link around Hyrule on such a vehicle, then you are playing the wrong video game. I can’t talk about the Master Trials since I have yet to complete it, but I loved going on a treasure hunt for all of the EX armors, the Royal Guard uniform being the best. They can’t be upgraded, though, which is a bit disappointing.

Was this post helpful to you? Am I completely wrong about something? Do you have anything to add? Feel free to reblog with your own hints and tips! And let’s all hope that Breath of the Wild 2 measures up to the awesomeness of the first game!

[ofstassi]

*james charles vc* good morning kitty girls ! i’m violet & after a few months of being highkey Stressed over coll*ge she ( me ) is Finally back from the dead :) this is a mess so i apologize for what u guys are About to witness, but be sure to click that like button & subscribe if you wanna see more videos ! but seriously plot with me ple ase ok anyways

a SCARLETT LEITHOLD lookalike was strolling down broadway street in their orange prada leather flame wedge heels. anastasia “stassi” deniro just had a birthday bash for her  twenty-second birthday. she has been living in new york city for twenty two years. i hear she tends to be gregarious at parties, but also kind of covetous. 

FULL NAME: anastasia ( resurrection ) lucille ( french origin of light ) sage ( wise one ) deniro. NICKNAME(S): annie, stassi, stas, stasia, anything her close friends & family can come up with, she’ll love. AGE: twenty two. DATE OF BIRTH: september 21th, 1996. ASTROLOGY SIGN: virgo. GENDER: female. PRONOUNS: she / her / hers. SEXUAL ORIENTATION: bisexual. LANGUAGES SPOKEN: english, french, italian, greek, some spanish. OCCUPATION: actress, 2019 miss universe contender. BIOLOGICAL PARENTS: aldo nathaniel arthur deniro & scarlett baccouche-deniro. SIBLINGS: aurora deniro ( twenty-six ) & atlas deniro ( twenty-one ). PET(S): gracie ( shihtzu ) & baby ( toy french bulldog ). CHILDREN: none. RELIGION: roman catholic. DRINK / DRUGS / SEX: yes / no / yes. HEIGHT: 5′10. RIGHT/LEFT HANDED: ambidextrous. TATTOOS: none ( at the moment ). POSITIVE TRAITS: gregarious, perceptive, audacious, quick-witted. NEGATIVE TRAITS: covetous, controlling, obstinate, snarky. NOTABLE HABITS: tying her hair up in a bun when she’s focused, fleeing the country when conflict within herself arises, unable to hide her facial expressions. NECESSITIES: green tea latte, lucky pen, lavender, 2 diamond-encrusted cartier bracelets ( gifted by her father ). LIKES: fighting, pastel blues, macarons, traveling, architecture, knowing all the answers. DISLIKES: small spaces, losing, anything orange flavored, the smell of gasoline. NET WORTH: 18 million.

𝚒𝚗𝚝𝚛𝚘𝚍𝚞𝚌𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚊𝚗𝚊𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚜𝚒𝚊 𝚍𝚎𝚗𝚒𝚛𝚘.

                  the story of the deniros was easily depicted as nothing short of a classic fairytale ; nathaniel was next in line to run his family’s long-standing business worth more than you could put into words, while scarlett baccouche, the daughter of two british politicians was also a woman in power many learned to fear. given their elite statuses, it was no surprise to anyone when they had enrolled into columbia university, one of the most prestigous colleges in the country ; though the story of how they’d become enamored with one another had started with a hatred that had only melted the forthcoming years. it was what one would consider a true love story as they graduated, professed their vows, & conceived their first well-anticipated child, aurora deniro. it only took a couple years for the deniros to calculate the birth of their next child, & to settle down & begin their empire ; or as most would put it, a family. 

                     on october 21st, 1996, anastasia lucille sage deniro was born. she was the second, yet not the last child to arrive, meaning her place in the home was that she was a middle child. it had its perks, obviously —— not reigning the full responsibilities of what it meant to be the first & oldest child, or not being taken seriously as most younger siblings struggle with. see, from the very beginning of her life, stassi was well aware of the fact that she wasn’t a child, and she didn’t want to be treated as such ; the female figures in her life such as aurora & her mother ( even their maid, diana had landed a  fond place in stassi’s heart ) were the girl’s inspiration growing up, & thanks to their strict upbringing, they were raised with class & were put on a pedestal that expected nothing less than perfection.

                      stassi was five years old when she had asked  —— or more so, begged her parents to compete in pageants ( only the most prestigious ones, of course ). while her mother didn’t take much convincing as her & little stassi had grown to share many loved interests such as acting, her father was apprehensive about the decision. but because the main factor besides beauty for pageants were intelligence, he agreed, though it resulted in him piling that much more pressure upon her for schoolwork & of course, to win so it wouldn’t disgrace the deniro family name. whatever child worked hard, stassi worked 100 times harder, thanks to her brilliant work ethic ; she managed to skillfully juggle her schoolwork alongside the additional business classes her parents had given their three children, the acting classes, her private ballet & jazz lessons 7 days a week for the talent portion, & the countless hours of tailoring her custom-made outfits ( with her input, of course ) it wasn’t a shocker to anyone when she was crowned little miss new york.

                        by sixteen, the pressure had only multiplied as she grew older, striving for nothing but the best. she was preparing for the miss world competetion rounding up another win at nationals. high school was supposed to be the best years of your life, yet she turned down any youthful opportunity as a means to please her parents. that is, until a fellow classmate introduced her to adderall ; the tiny, magical pill that enhances your focus, granting you more hours of the day to pass your tests with flying colors & maintain your social life, because who needed sleep ? flash forward to her senior year, where her life was crafted to perfection —— she held the title of miss world that year, got accepted into columbia on a full scholarship ( not that she needed it ), had the perfect jock boyfriend on her arm & friends that were on top of the hierarchy with her, class valedictorian: the only thing was she became reliant on her pills.

                        it was prom night when the realization had dawned on her that the bubble encompassing her perfect life was made of glass. when it came to the deniros, the extent of her social life was partly a double life. while she wasn’t nearly as bad as her brother, she wasn’t exactly an angel, either ; stuffing silk pillows under her duvet to cast the illusion of a sleeping stassi if diana or her older sister, aurora, would check up on her that night, adorning an innocent white lace dress to her parents only to hike it further up the moment she met up with her peers. she learned it was a skill of hers, keeping secrets.

                        popping pills had managed to become one, too, which is why after winning prom queen & attempting to get belligerently wasted, she hadn’t even felt the effects of the alcohol in her system. stassi woke up in a secluded hospital room with her parents beside her, along with a nurse. her blood work revealed that she’d gotten severe alcohol poisoning & had she not passed out, a few more drinks & she would’ve overdosed from the mix of adderall.

                        due to the fact that this was anastasia’s first slip-up, as disappointed as they were, the anger had faded just as soon as it arrived. & given the recent events with atlas’s friend along with her acceptance to columbia, rehab wasn’t a suggestion —— it was her only option. she’d go to a private rehabilitation center during the summer while her parents covered it up on her records & the deniro family would have to convince everybody that she was just visiting her grandparents in spain: it was a family secret that stassi had to take to the grave.

                          now, she’s twenty-two years old, currently enrolled in columbia as a business major for the sake of maintaining her role in her parent’s good graces, despite the fact that she’s not interested in helping take over the family business while she’s training for the 2019 miss universe pageant. for the past two summers, when she wasn’t in spain, she was in paris for some time to herself, where she met an owner of a small boutique where there were items such as trinkets, custom-made dresses, etc. 

                          somehow, it inspired stassi to create her own boutique/shop in multiple cities but new york first, especially when she carries the knowledge on how to turn a business into an empire: her own empire. it may be a small one now, but it was a break from the constant approval seeking that was practically instilled in her ; and at least it was hers. she even went to spain over winter break to hint the ideas to her grandparents, just now returning to the city & avoiding her parents so she can delay telling them that she isn’t interested in running the family company alongside her siblings like they dreamed of. after all, it was her parents’ approval that mattered most.

𝚙𝚎𝚛𝚜𝚘𝚗𝚊𝚕𝚒𝚝𝚢 𝚏𝚊𝚌𝚝𝚘𝚛𝚜 & 𝚏𝚞𝚗 𝚏𝚊𝚌𝚝𝚜.

ok hi i’m keeping this long & short

because stassi’s a pageant girl, she was bound to cross paths with honey boo boo when her reality tv show was kicking off, & now she’s stassi’s sworn enemy even to this day

ik they aren’t even in the same age group but fun fact stassi fought children & she still does tbh i hate her

she’s basically an angel in front of her parents but like ?? really different to her friends/people she hates ??

definitely doesn’t have a filter, she doesn’t cuss that much bc “it’s not ladylike :)” but she for sure speaks her mind & she can actually be really mean without meaning to be

she snaps really easily too omg i just imagine her being all cute & smiley & doing a complete 180 the next

she’s definitely stronger than she looks just know that

fully obsessed with dogs like next level obsessed she needs help

also a really big perfectionist if you couldn’t tell ?? please imagine her penthouse being all white & spotless & i know she arranges shit in other people’s houses out of habit

she’s basically monica geller, caroline from tvd & louise from bob’s burgers all wrapped up in one person

it’s honestly such a cursed combination i’m telling u guys she really is the spawn of satan

she’s a momma’s girl though 💗 she loves her dad ofc don’t get me wrong but they get along better when he just buys her gifts skdjsks

also !! i loosely based her off of one of my rly old charas emmie & i have a pinterest for her here if you wanna see what she’s kinda sorta like

i’ll probably make my own for stassi but u know for context

also stassi’s aesthetic 100000%

i’m still fleshin’ her out, so it’s a whole mess but i’m so excited to develop her & i hope you guys don’t hate her guts yet ! i promise she’s nicer than i described, but i do have some plot ideas ( i’m just too lazy to list them help me ), so pls plot with me i’ll do all the work i promise

[zydrateacademy]

Current Activities - Conan Exiles #4

So I just posted my latest story “Assassination at the Summit”, and while I am proud of its contents, it has some background information. Basically starting at  "Her outside clanmates had been navigating..." was practically written in a blind fury. I’ve calmed down now but this is my blog and I feel like ranting. First off, the character depicted in that story, Dey Yin, is an actual player. She’s an excellent writer and I strive to reach to her level of para-posting, as they give excellent opportunities to reply and react and I want to offer the same to other players when they interact with me. Also, she loves the story.

I am happy with the results as there was some effort put into it. Even in my blind fury, the last few parts turned out well. I’ve also been trying to work on my verb tense. Either I missed that class in school or over a decade of roleplaying has completely rewritten how my brain perceives verb tense. You might notice that my tenses swap between past and present, sometimes within the same line. This is why writers have editors, people. Anyway it was mostly a background plot, like many of my stories are. Basically I like to lay some groundwork before I claim things. I do not simply want to claim to be a whiskey baroness, I want to actually show it. I want people to see, through a narrative, the effort put in importing a whiskey from the outside world. The server is too small for specific events to surround these kinds of things, so I compensate by writing short stories instead. Quick aside; I actually did host an RP event with my character announcing the existence of her clan. It went very well with around ~9 attendees.

Whiskey and fun were had by all. Anyway.  I spoke of this plot in-character with others and another player on the server, someone I’ve been trying to arrange RP with for... years, I think, across a few MMO’s. We’ve met on an ERP gathering website (ya’ll know the one) but our interactions could never quite get sexual. They’re a good writer and roleplayer and they definitely value quality over fluff. I can respect that. We had some meetups in GW2 but maybe we just don’t make characters that gel well because we just couldn’t quite get to the fluffy stuff. Anyway she happens to follow me on CE. Fair enough. No prompting, she just saw that I was playing a lot and figured she’d hop on the ship. She’s doing well on the server, has a whole clan, etc. Good for her. But upon hearing about this plot of mine, her character offers some... assistance. Instead of being a simple assassination, she wants it to be poison. She insists, having an IC personal stake against Khitan generals. Fair enough, but then she hands Livia an actual quest. Get three specific items. The items in question are in fact part of the several artifacts you need to remove your bracelet and “win” the game (which deletes your save file by the way). Not the whole thing, just three of them. The scourgestone was probably the easiest, and I had some IC help from a guy. It was all great fun. Admittedly I was salty at first, adding extra steps to a straightforward plotline. Then I got to writing it out and I enjoyed the idea of dungeon delving being written into it. It started to feel like an actual epic on the likes of Beowulf, Clash of the Titans, and indeed, actual Conan books and lore. Sword and sorcery. I’m not claiming to write as well as any of those (though I’m pretty sure the Conan movies didn’t have any writers, holy shit), but it started to FEEL like an epic RPG story. I didn’t have it completely written out but it had about three full paragraphs worth. Might have eked out an extra two before... bullshit happens. The salt starts to come back when the player drags their feet about getting the last item for the poison crafting. They are focusing on their clan base and that looks fine and all, but a boss hunt only needed to be asked in global “anyone want to help?”, 3-4 people would have done fine and we had 3 at any given moment, each of us with powerful weapons and armor. We could have gotten it at any time. Again, fair on them to a certain extent. I’m sure they have a job and when they were online, she was likely wrangling her clanmates and building assignments. I get that, but... again, we could have had this wrapped up in 15 minutes at any given point. Eventually my character tries to meet with another newbie on the server (as she does) but finds them already at this person’s clan base. Figure it’d be a good time for Livia to check in on the poison and see when we can go hunting but... Well. Let me give you quick context on this person’s character. John Mulaney has a comedy set talking about his father and how straight-laced he tends to be. He recalls a story (true or not, who can tell?) where John himself and some siblings (I think? Other kids?) were screaming for McDonalds. The father pulls into the drive through, orders a single black coffee, and drives away. John states something to the effect of “in retrospect, that was the funniest thing I’ve seen in my entire life”. Well, this person’s character is basically that guy. But a woman. Livia already has stated that she’s got quite the stick up her ass. Anyway they’ve traded barbs as you might expect, Livia being more of a carefree roll-with-punches and make-money kind of woman. Livia drops an offhanded line about “Maybe I’ll just get my people to slit the general’s throat and save me a headache [in dealing with this character]”. All we get in response is “So be it” and are then soon banned from her stronghold. That’s when I lowkey lose it. I don’t explode, I don’t rant, I don’t PM them. In fact, there’s almost no OOC communication between me and this person and I think it worked against us. She never once asked me permission to force a poison subplot in my story. The character just “strongly insisted” and Livia was like “fine, let’s make the thing” and I went off to get two of the three items THAT DAY. A week goes by, then that bullshit happens. What a waste of my time. I keep thinking back to a roleplaying guide I posted on this server’s website. It’s the same one I’ve copied and pasted across many MMO’s I’ve roleplayed on. There’s a section in there that talks about IC drama having no affect on OOC, or it shouldn’t. I’ve spent many years separating IC and OOC, often times whispering people after an OOC argument of like “That was fun, thanks for the RP!” That kind of thing.  Unfortunately, this whole thing did have OOC consequences. The entire plot and story was essentially a gift to the player for being active, friendly, fun to interact with and being a good writer. I wanted to give the player and character something they would appreciate, but instead was delayed by a player insisting on adding a step. And then never stepped forward. It wasted my time and theirs and got in the way of that RP. Thus, I feel like my anger while perhaps not entirely justified, still makes sense in this context. My time was wasted, and now I’m possibly barred from RP with that person and their clan, or at least by going to their base. Not a single word OOCly was spoken between us throughout this. I remember PMing them the paragraph that featured them, asking if there was anything that needed to be changed. They said no, it was fine for the context and remaining an enigma. Fair enough.  That was it. She never asked me permission to bullrush into our plot, nor did I outwardly refuse it. I thought nothing of it, and indeed as I mentioned earlier I did have some fun writing out dungeon adventures and Livia’s general hatred of the jungle biome. There was fun stuff there, class adventuring that I don’t write nearly enough about. Then it was all just negated because the other character absolutely refused to meet mine halfway in terms of diplomacy. Livia tried. I tried. So starting from “Her outside clanmates had been navigating the unknown country...” in that story, it was actually a rush job in fuming rage, so much rage my chest actually hurt for a few minutes. I do think it turned out well but I do believe I could have padded more with describing the architecture, culture, the nuances of Livia’s clan navigating the cities, dodging police and bribing informants. There’s a lot I could have done there but the story could have been done a week ago and instead I was left hanging because one player bullrushed into my plot and didn’t want to go kill a boss. I’m angry. I’m annoyed. Heavy sigh. Now, I still have two more stories to write. I have asked and received a new patron item (you can get some cosmetics if you donate to the server), a glowing polearm.

It looks very badass, especially at night. Actually hurts if you look at it too long. It’s great. I have it named “Imbued Polearm” and I have no idea why or how Livia would be in possession of it. I just saw someone having glowing purple daggers and thought “...I still haven’t requested a weapon decal for my patron perks. I want that a lot.” Was thinking of a Ymir ritual but white and blue is his motif so I’m not sure that’d work. Derketo is the goddess of sex, not weapons, and would sooner imbue Livia was a penis to properly spread seed long before she’d give her followers a badass weapon. Next story will be a little easier to write. I discovered with some proper dying the reptile armor does not look half bad at all. The aforementioned guy friend says it looks better on females than males, and I believe it;

Not sure why Tumblr blows that way the fuck up but there you go. Due to quality loss, it does look decent in-game. Definitely a “demon dragon slayer” type story to be had there. Was brainstorming that an alpha got tired of some adventurer killing all their babies at the spawning grounds... Next time Livia goes hunting she’d be in for quite the surprise.

All that and I didn’t even get into my clan growing and even having someone build me a proper stronghold.

Currently can house 6 clanmates with a master bedroom for myself. I plan on adding another floor to make way for 4 more rooms as I tend to get members when Livia goes save newly exiled players from the river. It’s actually in that building the above party screenshot took place. (There’s currently two spare rooms, I believe. Hint hint, come join us.)

[beatricenius]

Please post the fic where Hannigram slay nazis in Sweden. Regards, someone who was at the bookfair in Gothenberg during the demokrati.

@pragnificent who requested Will and Hannibal killing neo-Nazis to begin with. This fic is based on things Nordfront (Nordic Resistance Movement) has done. Warning for xenophobia/homophobia. And graphic depictions of violence, since these things don’t go unpunished. 

It had been a deliberate assertion on Hannibal’s part – of that much, Will was certain.

They were currently making their way through Sweden, and while making a stop in a small town up north, they noticed an odd-looking man standing outside of a mall, one hand behind his steel rod back and a large green banner in the other. He was wearing a white shirt and black slacks, and looking around, Will could see a number of men in the same outfit circling the area. Some of them carried cellphones that they both, in retrospect, should have been more suspicious of. Hannibal spared none of them so much as a glance, but when they passed the man with the banner, his hand slipped into Will’s and squeezed.

The man’s gaze snapped toward them and one of the phones were immediately directed at them. 

Will wasn’t familiar at all with Swedish and had no clue whether Hannibal had any knowledge of Nordic languages, but when the man started talking while letting the phone follow their movements, Will caught Hannibal’s gaze and found his concern mirrored. Hannibal remained perfectly composed as usual, holding his hand in a firm grip as they kept walking.

*

“The banner belongs to a far-right movement,” Hannibal said, tapping on his tablet. “Neo-Nazis, specifically. It appears there is an LGBT event in town and they have gathered to oppose it. Their website contains videos of similar events, where they have filmed participants.”

Will glanced at the screen, where there was shaky footage of two young women with pink and purple hair holding hands while the man behind the camera talked, presumably addressing the viewers rather than the women he was filming.

“Why? I mean, what’s he saying?”

“Unkind things,” Hannibal said, pausing the video. “I assume it’s partly to ridicule, partly to get a message across.”

Will worried his lip between his teeth. “They totally filmed us.”

“I doubt it’s very compromising. It’s a rather obscure website.”

“Still. We should do something before they post it.”

It took no more than a few taps and swipes before they found the familiar face of the man holding the phone on Facebook. His name wasn’t even altered, judging by the fact that an address and other personal information could be found tied to it. He looked young – something about the hair slicked back from his face, drawing attention to his large, kind eyes, but every source they came across stated he was in his thirties. And everything he shared on his social media accounts opposed the idea that he was in any way kind.

“We should hurry. Who knows when they’ll post it,” Will said. “You think they’re still out?”

“We can find out.”

“What do we do when we find out?”

“We ask, politely, that they remove the video.”

*

Asking politely turned out to be an unsuccessful approach. They made sure to walk up to the man with the cellphone when he was alone waiting for a bus, far away from his friends. When the man only shook his head and told them he didn’t know what they were talking about, they gave each other a look and proceeded to trail the bus with their car.

Once the man unlocked the door to his dark, seemingly empty apartment, Hannibal crept up behind him and knocked his head against the brick of the building, hard enough that he fell to the ground, hands cradled around his skull. Hannibal snatched up his phone and pocketed it.

“I wonder what he said when he filmed us,” Will wondered aloud.

“I would rather not find out.”

The man groaned, blinking as if he was confused. His hand started searching the ground and Will caught the moment it started moving where his pocket was, but before he sprang into action, Hannibal stepped down on his hand.

“I wouldn’t,” Hannibal cautioned, digging the sole of his shoe into the meat of his hand until he cried out. The man’s eyes lit up with recognition as he looked up at him, then there was a conflicted mixture of anger, amusement and fear on his face.

“Would you prefer to hold it, maybe?” He sneered. “You just stole my phone and assaulted me. I could report you.”

He tried to get up, and Will stomped down on his chest so forcibly that his head knocked against the ground again. He cried out and hissed a short, angry word, presumably a curse. When he tried to get up a second time, Will dragged him up, wrenched his arm behind his back and forced him face down against the pavement, placing one knee on his back to lock him down.

“You really want to know what I said in the video?” The man ground out. There was blood in his sandy hair and behind the layers of anger and fear and seething hatred, his eyes held a look of disgust. “I said you two should serve as a reminder why the country needs to be closed to outside influences. We don’t want no homophile foreigners dragging the perverse decadence of the upper classes into our honest, hard-working communities.”

“How risky would it be for us to just kill this fucker right now?” Will asked Hannibal. He didn’t know he would be so badly affected by what came out of the man’s mouth, but he was, jaws tensing as anger thrummed alive beneath his skin.

Hannibal opened the door to the apartment with his sleeve, glancing inside.

“If we leave tonight, I suppose it’s a risk we could hazard,” He said, gesturing for Will to come inside.

*

Somewhere between being dragged into his own apartment and strapped down into a chair with a roll of duct tape, the man started acting appropriately scared.

“Poetic justice is tempting,” Hannibal mused aloud. “But I’m afraid the destruction the Nazi regime caused is far too extensive to be applied to one single victim.”

Fear made the man quiet. Will liked that, simply because there was satisfaction to the idea of them having a humbling effect on him. He watched as Hannibal stalked closer, putting his hands on the armrests of the chair.

“It has been said that the Nazis utilized the prisoners kept at the concentration camps for everyday items,” Hannibal leaned closer to the man’s face, effortlessly imposing. “I will have you know that I’m quite crafty myself.”

“There’s an idea,” Will said, though he knew Hannibal was merely trying to intimidate him. They didn’t have time for anything elaborate. “There would be some use for you then, wouldn’t it? Nazi piece of shit.”

“Fuck you,” The words shuddered out of him, but his eyes still held an edge that Will wanted to whittle away at. He shot Hannibal a look.

“Get the duct tape. I don’t want him waking up the neighbors once we start.”

Hannibal stepped back and got the tape while Will picked out his knife from his pocket, advancing slowly.

“I’m not even a fucking Nazi,” The man said, sounding far less confident now. “There’s nothing in our program suggesting—”

“I don’t care what fancy word you want to use,” Will pointed the knife at him. “A Nazi’s a Nazi. You would show your face in public, real name listed everywhere, like you expect no consequences to your actions. Like you’re a predator in a world full of prey, when violent politics spawn violent resistance. What the fuck made you think you’re entitled to safety when you want nothing but to make the world unsafe for everyone that isn’t like you?”

The man tried to jerk away from his restraints, eyes gaining a bright, fevered sheen Will recognized as panic. Hannibal placed a long strip of tape over his mouth, wrapping it all the way around his head for good measure. Satisfied with the tableau, Will tightened his grip on the handle of his knife and stuck it full-force through the front of the man’s pants, twisting the blade in his genitals. The symbolism of it was crude, but Will wanted to speak a language he could understand.

“You want violence, we’ll give you violence,” He said, words slightly drowned out by muffled screaming. If the man’s pants hadn’t been black, he imagined that red stains would spread like watercolor on wet paper. Now they simply looked wet, dark and glistening in the harsh white light of the room. He yanked the knife out and passed it to Hannibal, who accepted it wordlessly.

There was an odd solemnity to Hannibal’s face that Will couldn’t help but notice, a certain vacancy in his eyes that he immediately found disconcerting. It looked like he was far away – a lack of mental presence that Will didn’t recognize in him at all.

He decided to ask later, once Hannibal wasn’t wrists-deep in another man’s torso, prolonging his suffering with a cruel, almost casual efficiency that could only be acquired through years of experience.

*

“Should we have taken something from him?” Will asked from the driver’s seat once they were back in their car. It was dark now and the street lights outside spilled yellow on Hannibal’s face, hollowing his cheeks with dramatic shadows.

“No,” He said. “It’s better we don’t leave our usual MO. We came here to throw Crawford off our scent, the last thing we want is for anyone to be able to track us.”

Will nodded. Something still felt vaguely off. He turned to look at him, searching Hannibal’s face for clues it refused to give.

“Are you ok?” He asked, tentatively.

A small smile softened Hannibal’s features and he didn’t quite snort, but his breath hitched.

“Do you have any reason to believe I’m not?”

Will tried to think of a delicate way to phrase his concerns. He wanted to say that given what he knew of his childhood, being emotionally affected by what transpired between them and the man they just killed would have been understandable. But he knew it would be poorly received, and he didn’t want to go for Hannibal’s throat now that it had been bared, forcibly and unexpectedly.

“When you took my hand before,” He said instead, feeling his way through the dark. “You wanted them to see.”

“I don’t concern myself with politics.”

“Politics concern themselves with you.”

“Would you have preferred that I didn’t take your hand?”

“No. I liked it. I like that you would do that and I like that you agreed to kill him.”

Hannibal frowned and fell silent for a moment. When he next spoke, his voice held a hard edge.

“Whatever notions you are entertaining about me right now are likely false, Will. You should know by now that my decisions aren’t based on any arbitrary sense of morality.”

“No, they’re based on a specific sense of morality that ties into your personal beliefs.”

“And you figure tonight was reflective of my personal beliefs?”

“Wasn’t it?” Will chewed on the inside of his cheek. The apprehension in Hannibal’s face was clear even in the periphery of his vision. “You’re afraid this is going to make me think that you’re a good person. Deep down. That’s it, isn’t it? You think I’ll get my hopes up because we killed a bad guy and it’ll make me pursue a version of you that doesn’t exist. And then we both end up disappointed.”

“Is that your prediction of the future?”

“No, it’s my estimation of your concerns, since you aren’t giving them to me straight.”

Hannibal fell silent once more. Will had set out not to kick him while he was down, yet he felt like that was exactly what he was doing.

“I find all manner of ideology alluding to national socialism distasteful,” Hannibal said, to Will’s surprise. “They are ugly people with ugly views and I would gladly see them eradicated. I held your hand because I’m not intimidated by their presence. I agreed to kill that man because he was appalling. What do you make of that?”

Will smiled a little, warmth threading through the tightness in his chest.

“I don’t need to make anything of it. I just want your honesty. For you to trust me with it.”

He reached out and took Hannibal’s hand, weaving their fingers together. There was still blood under Hannibal’s nails, a rim of maroon that made him want to scrape them clean with his teeth.

“Don’t hesitate to take my hand,” He said, squeezing around his fingers for emphasis. “No matter who’s watching.”

[anautisticdragon-blog]

Why the MMORPG Died

The strange affair everyone had with the MMO genre seems to have passed and now the genre itself is in its death throes. At this point, it might be worthwhile to look back at it and see why it failed so spectacularly. Exclusive Content One of the most interesting aspects of the MMORPG, I think, is that it never learned the lessons of the single player game. A single player game, like Mass Effect, has difficulty settings to appeal to the widest range of audiences. The MMO developer recognises that there are different audiences, but their approach is to foolhardily develop exclusive content for each type. No. Bad developer! Bad. Sit in the corner! That's one of the worst approaches to online play I've ever seen, this specific kind of segregation always creates tribalism, you'll invariably end up with a toxic MMO where the casual, hardcore, roleplaying, and PvP audiences all hate one another with a fiery passion. I've yet to encounter an MMO where this isn't true. Even recent MMOs like The Elder Scrolls Online have this problem. The answer, here, is scaling and instancing. Offer difficulty settings with rewards that have increased numbers to better suit the heightened difficulty of each setting but no cosmetic difference. A player would then play each setting to get the best gear of that tier, before using it as entry level gear to the next level of difficulty. The final level of difficulty would have no gear upgrades, but it would have a leaderboard system for bragging rights. The sensible thing about this approach is that everyone can stay on the difficulty level they desire without ever having to feel forced outside of the kind of play they enjoy to experience all the game has to offer. Let's use dungeons as an example. Usually in an MMORPG a dungeon requires at the very least five people to enter and succeed, this is troublesome when so many people play MMOs as co-op games (as do I, just myself and my partner). It's also needlessly punishing to introverted and autistic people who simply don't socialise as much. You're telling them you don't belong in your game. Is that really a good idea? So I propose a compromise. Casual: The dungeon can be beaten easily by a solo player. Normal: The dungeon can be beaten with difficulty by a solo player. Difficult: The dungeon requires a group of five working with some degree of cooperation to claim victory. Hard: The dungeon is more difficult, though it can still be beaten with duress b a group of five people working well together. Elite: The dungeon has an entry level of around ten players now and the level of cooperation required is much greater. Penultimate: The dungeon requires a guild of at least twenty people to be able to secure any kind of success, teamwork is a must. Some will say 'but this would be hard to balance.' Not really. At least, not if you understand how these things work. It's pretty easy. All you have to do is look at ESO's level-based scaling to see that. What you do is you start off designing it for penultimate, then you par it down, removing abilities from the enemies, having the dungeon spawn less enemies, and giving them less stats until you find something that's comfortable for each mode. Pretty simple. It just requires a developer that isn't lazy. Apply this to the world region instances, too, so that the feel of the game is constant throughout. So, for example, on casual a world boss can be defeated by a solo player. On penultimate, a world boss requires a guild to beat it and the efforts of the players are ranked on a leaderboard. Wouldn't this create segregation? Oh, absolutely. It's just segregation that won't create tribal hatreds amongst your players, you'd have a much less toxic community where everyone's allowed to have fun and enjoy themselves. This is what everyone wants, after all. If you look at the reasons that the vast, vast, vast majority of people don't play MMOs, this is probably going to be one of the most cited reasons. That they can't just sit down and enjoy all the content as they want to, they're forced to play with people in ways they don't find enjoyable, it causes them stress and anxiety when they're trying to use that time for leisure and fun. For a person with a job, that time is precious, so if you're finding your experience is devoid of fun then that time has been wasted. Some can just spend their entire life playing a game, that isn't everyone. If developers kept this in mind, they'd secure a much larger audience for their MMOs. It's a sad state of affairs that they don't. The Gear Grind Only the hardcore elite actually enjoy it. I'm sorry to say but this is true. The vast majority of people only have a small tolerance for grinding, especially in the kind of enforced grouping way that MMOs do it. So, once again, I feel that instancing is our solution. Tie the level of grind into the difficulty levels, so the higher the difficulty, the more grind is required to get more of the gear required to climb a difficulty level. For those that hate grind, they can stay on casual and have fun. 'Wait,' I can almost hear some marketers scream insidiously, 'without addicting people how will our game be successful?' The same way that any multiplayer game is, today. If you keep making content for it, people will return to purchase that content. Plus, whilst casuals don't grind much, they do enjoy altitis. So provide a lot of options at the beginning of the game for where you can travel and what you can do. ESO got this right. Also, provide a lot of entirely cosmetic clothing items for dressing up and roleplay, both within the game and on your cash store. ESO got this right, too. Casuals won't sell their life away to a subscription, but they will buy nice town clothes. Casuals care about immersion. The hardcore player doesn't, they never did, that's why they wear shoulder pads that are each the size of an Eiffel tower. I haven't ever met a hardcore player that actually cares about immersion or roleplaying. It's the same for PvPers, really. The only group that really understands the value of roleplay are casuals, and they'll be the ones that write the flowery articles on websites that sell your game on further. So you allow casuals to play with an almost non-existent level of grind and you provide them with plenty of cosmetic options. As a casual player, every single time I've left a game it's because it's become needlessly more difficult and punishing, or because the developer has increased the necessary level of grind. This was true with GW2, this was true with ESO, and it's been true of every MMO to date. The reason why people leave an MMO in a mass exodus? That's why. It's simple, really. People are leaving ESO in droves lately despite Morrowind. They're doing so because the balancing team are balancing purely for the hardcore and PvP audiences, and the balancing isn't separate for each group. Sigh. Bad Balancing ESO has been oh so very guilty of this ever since One Tamriel, and it's only getting worse with the Templar being gutted just to suit PvP. If every MMO were to separate balancing out by difficulty levels, along with PvP, then everyone would be happy. So on the casual difficulty people can have oddly OP builds because you don't care about what the casuals are doing. They don't derive fun from being underpowered. This is what happens when you staff balancing teams with simple-minded, reticent, rigid, traditionalist old men. That's clearly the case with ESO. They're fogeys who don't understand what the contemporary MMO player wants. So they keep screwing it up. ESO is at one of the lowest points it's ever been right now despite Morrowind, and this is the main reason why. There would be millions of people playing it if it had the kind of difficulty settings (along with their relevant levels of grind) that I keep speaking of. In this scenario, you could simply let people keep their crazy, imbalanced builds and not worry. If Champions Online had done that (as everyone on the forums kept telling them to, over and over and over and over), then I doubt it would've died. In fact, I think it had the potential to be very successful. It drew in so, so many roleplayers. The most obvious example of this is Champions Online's day one patch. It was a balance patch meant to appease hardcore and PvP players. The server population dropped by 60 per cent with that patch. Everyone fled to the forums to tell Cryptic why they were quitting, Cryptic stuck by their balance choices stubbornly, out of cognitive dissonance, and now the game is very dead. It's not even a ghost town. It's just deserted. We tried to tell them. We always try to tell them. Always. It happens to some online multiplayer games, too. The co-op component of Battleborn was fun, initially, but they kept balancing everything to suit only the hardcore at the expense of everyone else. We told them. We told them why every patch seemed to cut the playerbase in half. They didn't listen. Bad balancing will kill your game faster than anything else. If your players are telling you that your balancing only to suit the hardcore and the PvPers is why most of your customers are leaving? Try listening, maybe? And this is why the casuals always push for separate balancing systems, we're not trying to take the game away from hardcore players and PvP players. Sadly, they're more competitive than us, louder, and far less magnanimous and charitable. They demand that the game be balanced purely to suit them, and most developers keel over and obey, to the detriment of their profit. Lots of Little Armour Pieces Single player games seem to understand that the vast majority of people don't enjoy this at all. There are reasons why casual games like Mass Effect and hardcore games like Gothic sold armour as only an entire set (rather than pieces). It's due to not having to think about how each and every little piece of gear interacts, and also how to get the exact pieces you need for every single little part of the game you're playing. So drop the trinkets! Drop the separate armour pieces! In fact, stop the vertical progression altogether! What do you do, instead? Make each set of armour unique. Have every set of armour focus on a unique style of play and support that. It would perhaps be interesting if each armour had a very unique passive effect, too. Say, for example, if one armour would provide constant passive healing. Another would cause an oilslick to follow the player around, so that enemies and other players would slip up on it. Yet another may set those nearby on fire. Have fun with it! Make it fun! And make gear actually bloody mean something for once! Build Micromanagement & Levels This has always been a sticking point for a lot of people. The vast majority just don't want to spend their time figuring out what makes for the very best min/maxed system in the game. ESO was better at this by limiting skills, but they made a fatal flaw. They had classes and levels. ESO came so close to getting this right and that's part of why it's been at all popular. If ESO dropped the classes (and just made the 'class' skill lines work like all the others in the game), if they added alternate routes to unlocking the trees which aren't automatically available (so they're not exclusive to certain types of players), and they removed the level number? Everyone would be happy. Consider the possibilities, here. Without a max level you could eventually unlock every ability in ESO and make whatever kind of crazy build your heart desired. I think that's what most people want. By putting a cap on the amount of abilities that people can unlock, ESO has forced people to feel anxious about every single unlock they make as they can't rectify that later. If the levels didn't have a max? That'd be different, everyone would confidently run with whatever they liked, knowing that they could unlock the other abilities later on. I believe this is how The Secret World works, isn't it? So we moosh TSW and ESO together. PvPers vs. Roleplayers This is another easy one to solve. You add more instances. Allow for RP, Normal, and PvP versions of all difficulty settings. Yes, this might slightly segregate people but it wouldn't create the tribal segregation that creates toxic communities in today's MMOs. Instead, it would simply allow people to be with the kinds of people they want to be, to enjoy their company, and to play how they want to play. The PvP instances would have open world PvP, for example. Would it really be so many instances versus those MMOs often have, anyway? Both ESO and GW2 have a population cap per region instance, after all. As such, I think it would actually segregate less. In that visible way that makes the groups hate one another, anyway. Conclusion If this was executed right it would reduce a lot of the complexity, enforced segregation, and toxicity that trouble MMOs today. I've been playing MMOs since Neverwinter (no, not Neverwinter Nights). If that's not something people remember, then try The Realm. No? Meridian59??? Ultima Online?? Everquest???? There were a lot of games before WoW, you know. So, I've been playing MMOs for a long time, and I've learned a lot. I've learned from talking to people (which MMO devs never do), and observing first-hand what frustrates and annoys people. There is the recipe for a successful MMO, here. All a developer has to do is, for once, sit up and listen. Pay attention to what your players have been telling you forever. We’ve had the technology to do this for ages, now. The first truly successful MMO since WoW could be made. Or we could let the genre go quietly, gently into the night.