#wow look guys I actually rendered a background | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

saturniandragon · 6 months ago

Text

Adra's Project Wingman In-Depth Review: Per Mission Experience and Commentary

(Caution: extremely long read. Please have snacks ready)

Project Wingman! Or so I've heard it more described as "a love letter to the Ace Combat franchise." Another arcade flight action shooter game similar to Ace Combat, and if I remember rightly, designed and developed by Ace Combat fans. Again I've spent years and years avoiding spoilers, although inevitably I began hearing a few things about it; it's like Ace Combat, it's set in alternate history, you can carry up to 4(!) different types of ordnance, and it's orange. So I guess like NFS Most Wanted (2005). Like Ace Combat 7 of course, I'm playing with my Xbox controller.

Which brings me to the first... quirk of the game. The menu interface. You control a cursor on the screen with your left thumbstick, and you have to carefully position it to the menu buttons that you want to access. The left thumbstick doesn't cycle through the menu buttons, you have to control a cursor with your joystick. Which I find to be a little on the negative side and I decided to just use my mouse to navigate the menu. Makes me wonder if this is a side effect of Project Wingman being developed as a PC game first and console second.

The last time I was met with this kind of UI controls was in the 2019 game "Observation."

However I am very impressed that the menu background isn't just a static image or a repeated video. It looks like a real time 3D rendered scene with planes flying above the treeline. Also what looks like a massive airship or a mothership trailing slowly across the sky. My hype level is up by 3 notches. I can't wait to start playing.

No fancy animation or a CGI video as the intro. Just a text that briefly tells the story about the game's world. Very much like David Szymanski's "Iron Lung" game. Seeing Sector D2 is not a massive game studio and just an indie developer, it's perfectly fine. And what I learned is that Project Wingman's universe is alternate history Earth that experienced some kind of massive natural disaster or calamity that changed the world forever, and new nations start to rise from the ashes. The game takes place 400 years after the event.

First briefing screen. Wow this orange tint really reminds me of Ace Combat Zero briefing screen. And I can also see the map of the Project Wingman world in the background. The continent of America has changed, not dramatically, you can see the general shape of the continent, but the west shoreline has practically split off from the rest of the continent. And a glimpse of what used to be Japan, China, Philippines and Indonesia, now reduced to just a few main islands, presumably the remains of the cataclysm mentioned earlier.

Apparently our protag is a mercenary pilot who goes by the name Monarch (as in monarch butterfly, I assume), who is a part of Hitman team, under the mercenary organization known as Sicario. And our client is the Federation? Is that a country, or a union like the one in COD Ghosts? Either way it brings me back to Cipher and Pixy, who were also merc pilots. In PW, apparently we're fighting a group of pirate pilots.

First mission, destroy some kind of research material that was deemed unsafe and fell into a group of merc pirates. A few ground targets, ships, and a few air targets. Alright, no big deal. My Ace Combat experience is more than enough for this.

I'm actually impressed with the voice acting. I've heard how difficult it is to voice act in a game or a movie that doesn't sound too cringey or too monotone. The guy doing the briefing actually does sound like he's done it probably a thousand times. I wonder if they hired a professional VA or just someone from the internal dev team.

Plane hangar. They give you 2 starter planes to choose. A T-21 (apparently a trainer plane that resembles MiG-21), and T/F-4 (a trainer plane that resembles F-4). I was going to use the Fishbed but the Phantom has slightly better stats, even though I'm bored with Phantoms, so I chose it. UGBL as secondary weapon, pretty standard.

First flight. Operation Red Current. AWACS Galaxy on station and OH MY GOD I HAVE A WIZZO. AND SHE HAS DIALOGUE LINES. The last time I had a wizzo was Ace Combat 2, but he just had generic repeating dialogues like missile lock/alert and stall warning. Your plane does form vapor clouds at Mach 1, something missing from AC7, so I loved that. Once again, for a small dev team, the voice acting is well done.

First set of ground TGTs clear. Ronin moving in. "Cordium" cargo? Never heard that before. They say it's too unstable, Federation orders to just clear it BOOM. MASSIVE EXPLOSION like an FAEB just went off. Mission complete, question mark? Another flight called Master Goose comes in the AO, flashing as friendlies. I don't really trust this but hey, I'm just a merc, not paid to ask questions.

If they turn out to be a fake squadron like the 8492nd, I'm gonna be... Well I don't know what I'm gonna be.

And there's a civil war in the Americas. Country of Cascadia being invaded by the Fed for natural resources. Our client is Cascadian Air Force now I guess. Is this like Belka trying to annex Ustio in AC0?

You know what, I'm too excited to have a wizzo. I'm gonna get another Phantom that isn't a Phantom (F/E-4). Big surprise, all of the SP weapons are available for use right away, no need to buy them separately. I like this game already.

Can I just say the explosions in PW from STDMs are so dramatic. Way more dramatic than AC7, it's like they hired Michael Bay. Not a bad thing though, it's giving PW identity. So it's not just a "Ace Combat we have at home"

Mission 2, all going well, fighting Fed border patrols until a massive airship came practically out of nowhere. At least this one doesn't have drones, just SK.27s and F/C-15s. A couple MLAAs later and it's down, but then no explanation as to what we just shot down. Oh well, at least we're with Cascadian AF now.

Mission 3. Rowsdower AFB. Once belonged to Cascadia now seized by the Fed on their conquest to expand their military (ala Belka), we're on a mission to take it back. Ooh, new aircraft for purchase. SV-37. I genuinely thought I unlocked a Flanker early in the game but it's just the Swedish dorito (Viggen). And it has MLAGs, if MLAA is Multi Lock Air to Air then I guess MLAG is this game's version of 4AGM. Only single seat though, I still want to hear more of Prez's dialogues. Maybe later.

Crosstalk squadron appeared, 5 Super Hornets. Grun Squadron flashbacks from Zero, anyone? Oooooh there's a health bar on the bottom of the screen for each enemy craft. I loved it. Wasn't much hassle fighting them, and we landed in Rowsdower.

Honestly I'm kind of impressed that as a band of pilot mercs, we have our own AWACS. Anyway next mission, aid Cascadian national guards from being overwhelmed by the Feds.

Two new aircrafts. CR.105 and SK.25U. I thought CR.105 is a Foxbat at first but it's delta wing design with no canards or tail surfaces. But its speed rating is off the rails, so I guess partly inspired by the Foxbat.

I'm buying SK.25U for Mission 4. Two seats and a boat load of A2G hardpoints. I sure hope there isn't any mission update where we suddenly have to fight an entire air force! (Thank fuck there isn't)

Really this game has the Frogfoot when Ace Combat 7 doesn't? Come on PA.

Next mission, Cascadian capital of Presidia. The Feds have taken over the city. Cover retreat of Cascadian armed forces. Multirole mission with tendency towards A2A. MG-31 and F/C-16 now available for purchase. Not sure if I trust a flying brick with wings for this mission, so Viper time. Guess I have to leave out Prez for this one.

Mission 5, over Presidia. WOW THIS CITY IS SO COOL with all the low hanging clouds. Though what's with all the needle towers/structures all over the city?

Thought we were done but the Feds sent out not just one or two other massive airships but FIVE of them to try and keep Presidia in their hands. I thought I shot all of them down but Mission Over text?? Did I fail??

Debriefing says Status: Success but Stardust said Presidia fell anyway. I guess it's supposed to be that way.

So far into this game, I'm developing the sense that Project Wingman is largely inspired by the classic PS2 AC titles (aka The Holy Trinity), I guess more towards Zero. The orange tint, no checkpoint system, the absence of aircraft tree, aircraft parts, merc pilot protagonist, but they also incorporate some modern QoL features like flares.

I think I would appreciate something present in AC but not present in PW; lock range indicator. You know the HUD in AC, just to right side of the pitch ladder, is a slider with a chevron that indicates the distance required for your ordnance to lock.

Mission 6, attack the Feds from the other front by crippling their energy production sites at Apodock Fracture, apparently in Yellowstone. Also they've been hunting for some material called cordium? Is that what caused the massive explosion in the first mission?

Two new aircrafts, Super Tomcat and Fulcrum! Two of my favorite aircrafts. But I had to choose the Tomcat because I miss Prez (cmon man I've been all alone in Ace Combat for years). Fucking hell it's expensive though. Better be worth it.

Yep they're hunting for cordium. We're ordered to destroy their containers. Fucking hell the SAMs in this mission are fierce, I got hit 3 times and was down to 23 health. And two more of those fucking Fed airships?? Just how many of these things are there??

Alright, mission completed. Almost. New blips on the radar, VX-23s and SK.37s. Federation Peacekeepers. Engagement Not Advised written in large text on my screen. I hammered the throttle and fly just meters away above the ground to avoid missiles and head to the return line. Reminiscent of the first time you face Yellow Squadron in AC04.

Crimson Squadron. Fed's top ace in Cascadia.

(I learned late that you have infinite flares in this game)

Mission 7. Cascadian Coast Guard seized a Fed battleship/cruiser off the coast of Cascadia. Just me and Hitman 3 this time. We're to provide air support although I kinda don't want to fly the SK.25U just to have its LASM. New aircraft for purchase called the... Accipiter. Whatever the hell that means. Apparently based on the Harrier. Not enough cash to purchase. Back to the Tomcat.

Think I forgot to read the weather report for this mission because it's stormy as fuck and the clouds are violent. I'm not sure who has the bigger balls to fly through such extreme turbulence, me or Monarch. It's actually very scary from cockpit view, everything shaking up around you and you hear the creeking and clanking from the plane's aluminum panels like they're going to break off at any moment. Oh well it's just an anti ship mission with a couple of air targets THE FED SHIPS HAVE RAILGUNS ON THEM WHY AM I FIGHTING MINI STONEHENGE AT SEA

Ok that's over now. New mission that's purely air to air mission. Take down Fed logistic planes while also avoiding shooting down civilian airliners. Weather cloudy. Two new aircrafts, Super Hornet-C and Flanker-B. But I'm still having way too much fun in my F/D-14.

Also I just learned that the seemingly random clicking noises when I'm flying is just a noise indicator of my missiles fully reloaded.

Mission 8, Briggs Mountain Range. Wait why is that civilian airliner the same as the Fed airship that I've downed multiple times before?

Doesn't matter. STDMs, HVSMs and MLAAs. One by one shooting down Fed Globemasters. Conservative with MLAA use because I totally didn't restart this mission because I accidentally shot down a civilian airliner. Then the true airship arrives. Airship Gladeus with two F/S-15s. The fucking AAM pods on the Gladeus are a nightmare to hit tbh, but mission done. More importantly no civilian casualties.

But I begin wondering, is there like multiple paths in this game like Ace Combat Zero? Like Knight, Soldier and Merc paths that are determined by whether you shoot N.TGTs or not. That's my goal for my second playthrough.

Mission 9. Raver mountains. Covert mission to take out SAM sites so we can push without losing planes. F/C-15 is now available for purchase.

But you know what, let's take the Accipiter for a spin. What was the last Ace Combat game that lets you fly a Harrier? None. Well, Assault Horizon, but that's not a true AC game. Woah, what is this, CGP? A shotgun gun pod?? Flechette rounds?? I don't fucking know how it works but I wanna try that shit out.

Alright, near CIWS units. Time to try CGPs, and... it's disappointing. Although I think my expectations were a bit too high. Well at least they didn't lie about it being a short range weapon.

And of course I did the tunnel runs in this place to destroy the containers. I'm an Ace Combat vet after all, tunnel runs are my bread and butter.

Mission 10, now the real deal. Solana Comms Array and the adjacent airbase... without Cascadian air force to help us. It's alright I guess, Monarch is already a one man army as he is. Or one man air force.

But I'm this far into the game and I still haven't found Project Wingman's equivalent of QAAMs. Maybe there will be a "HASM" (High Agility Standard Missile) or something. I guess it's time to try the Eagle for a spin.

And my thoughts? So worth buying the Eagle. Missed out on Prez, but when you attach second and third slots with MLAAs, you get 6AAMs in game. Awesome stuff. Fed is crumbling.

Mission 11, Bering Strait. Another purely A2A mission. The most expansive A2A battle ever committed, he says? We'll see to that WHOAA THIS IS LIKE THE MAYHEM MISSION FROM ACE COMBAT ZERO ON STEROIDS

And of course Crimson squadron shows up with a fuck ton of reinforcements. Totally reminding me of Schwarze squadron battle. But I'm not going down without a fight.

55 fighters, 3 SK.37s and 2 VX-23s downed by one humble F/D-14. I tried getting a close look at a VX-23 but couldn't make out what it resembles. My best guess is that it's probably something like Chengdu J-20 but couldn't see the fine details. Is there like a PSM mechanic in this game because those guys were pulling 90 Gs every now and then

Feds have issued retreat. Crimson 1 insists on staying, Crystal Kingdom order stands. Eventually Crimson obeys, and retreats the whole squadron.

If anything Ace Combat or movies have taught me, I predict Crimson is going to go berserk within the Feds. He's gonna think the Fed is too weak and just holding him back, he's gonna take Federation's most outrageous aircraft and weapon and use them to set a personal score with Monarch. I'm calling it.

I love Prez's reaction after Crimson retreated. Like yeah bitch, you better fucking run! I love her.

Alright, mission 12. Feds is absolutely crumbling after their airforce got decimated by Hitman. Multirole mission with heavy tendency towards A2A. Something about oil rigs facilities at sea.

It's railguns again, the same one that Fed ships were firing at me on previous mission with the Eminent Domain. Hitman 3 said something, why is this rig more heavily guarded than the comms array?

Mission update came up. Unknown target marked on my HUD, but I'm not firing yet. I fly close to the unknown to try get a visual but it's too damn dark to see anything, even with gibbous moon. Then something happened.

"Project Wingman is away."

What the fuck is that?? Project Wingman?? Something rapid just took off from one of the oil rigs. It's way too dark on my screen to see whatever it is, but it's roughly triangular AND IT'S SHOOTING RAILGUNS BACKWARDS AT ME WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK IS THIS THING

Apparently piloted by another merc named Frost? Monarch shot it down with HISMs and STDMs. Frost ejected but said something about releasing data pod. I suspect this is a Federation superweapon undergoing research. That will explain the amount of AA defenses all around it although of course the game's debriefing doesn't tell me anything.

Mission 13. There's a new Fed superweapon, an airship fleet by the name of Task Force 1. It's resting in a port, we're to destroy it before it's unleashing hell, I suspect. Although something about Kingdom of Sawaiiki, one of Fed's states, will probably get in the way.

Maybe I should expect neutral/N.TGTs.

Two new aircrafts. F/S-15 and... what the hell is this? "Chimera"? At the front it resembles Su-57 nose, but the way the wing blends into the body is a bit like F-16XL's cranked delta wing, and it also has a V tail like YF-23 (maybe that's why it's called Chimera). And it's 285k to purchase, I don't even have 100k credits. Why is this available to purchase right now?

Whichever the case I can't buy either of them. I'm going with the F/C-15, I'm gonna need its MLAG.

I think this mission is where the game can do with some optimization, because my frame rate was down from 80+ to 40 near the docks where there are a fuck ton of targets. But I don't want to compare this to Ace Combat 7 because this is a game from an indie developer. I'm sure they did what they could for optimization, and I'm not gonna blame them.

Mission itself was pretty standard. Nothing super interesting although the part where Hitman 2 had to radio out a long announcement to Kingdom of Sawaiiki that we have no beef with them, and telling Galaxy afterwards that it costs "2 bucks per word" is pretty funny. I love these conversations.

Mission 14. Grimwood coast, provide CAS for ground troops and prevent Feds from regrouping. But expect bad visibility he says from the forest fire nearby. I'm gonna gamble and take the SK.25U.

Oh shit, I guess we're working with firefighters as well now. I hope I don't have to protect them at some point because I'm essentially flying a tank. That has 40mm/65mm HE ammo for its main gun.

I forgot to say but the MLAGs in this game are phenomenal. The multilock ability of a 4AGM and the range of an LAGM? Slow reload speed but I'm sold. Who needs an A-10 anyway right

Feds in Grimwood have surrendered. They burned the forests for nothing. Also I keep hearing allies calling Monarch "The Crown" now, and in earlier sorties I also hear something along the lines of "how dare you take the name of a king as your own", "not all kings are just."

I'm developing the feeling that this game is fantasy medieval action adventure but with jets and airships instead of swords and magic. No hard feelings on that, I'm a huge fan of The Elder Scrolls series. So I'm looking forward to see how much this game plays into the mythological/medieval theme. Maybe like Ace Combat Zero, with how Cipher and Pixy did the aerial equivalent of jousting? We'll see.

Also there's this level of detail and touch of realism, that I think has never been done in Ace Combat before. When an enemy jet whizzes past you above Mach 1, you can actually hear the sonic boom from their wake. That's awesome.

Mission 15, Cascadian city of Prospero, the largest trade center apparently. Get rid of its air superiority elements and secure the airport. SK.37 is now available for purchase, yet I'm still under the required price for it.

I do have to comment on the way planes are painted in PW, or at least the default skins that you use. It's like plastidipped or cerakoted or something, like how guns are these days. Nothing really spells practical camouflage/camo pattern. But hey, maybe that's just how Monarch wants to look in the skies.

Liberate Prospero they say but they didn't say the Feds would be so desperate that they would LAUNCH 50 NUCLEAR CRUISE MISSILES JUST TO PREVENT CASCADIA FROM GETTING TO PROSPERO. THEY JUST BELKAN'D THE SHIT OUT OF THIS CITY. DID THEY JUST OPEN UP A VOLCANO FROM THE GROUND?

Hitman 3 just said Calamity. Is this what happened 400 years ago before the events of this game?

Fucking hell.

Mission 16, instant continuation from previous flight. Only me, Prez, Diplomat, Comic and Galaxy now. No idea if anyone else is alive. Flew over Rowsdower, no response.

Fuck, new blips on radar. It's the merc Frost from earlier. AND MASTER GOOSE FROM MISSION 1. I FUCKING KNEW THEY SHOWED UP TOO CONVENIENTLY

"You fired up? Come shoot me down." Yeah bitch I'll shoot you down in that fancy bitchass superplane you're flying. And don't you dare copy my boy Pixy's line from Ace Combat Zero.

(Just kidding, I love the devs for having her voice actor say that)

Fucking hell, I thought a swarm of MQ-101 drones was bad, but I never thought I'd be on the receiving end of an ADMM where each individual missile is a QAAM.

Stardust again. Contract to fulfill you say? Fuck you man, there's nothing else out there now. Everyone's got our number, even Diplomat and Comic's real name. Sicario is only 4 man band now, 5 if you count Prez.

Kaiser seems convinced after Stardust offered something to us. Whatever that is. Meanwhile I guess we're regrouping on an abandoned highway as a makeshift base.

2 months later.

Mission 17. Brite Fortress. One of the safe havens outside the whatever the fuck is happening out there.

I sold my Harrier to get some cash back. I'm done with the Super Tomcat. It's time for SK.37. It's only got AA hardpoints but I need to fly something else. Oh and an MGP. I've never used MGP in Ace Combat before but I'm gonna try this one.

Woah, what is this? AOA limiter? Replaces flares? Doesn't say what it is.

Alright, Brite Fortress. Railguns and airships as usual. At this point I've been desensitized to them, because I learn that the Feds is just Belka/Erusea hybrid. As in, a superweapon maniac.

Aw shit, they have a massive tank/train/land cruiser. This thing doesn't have any A2G weapons, but it has MGP. 4 of them. And AOA limiter, more like AOA unlimiter. Let's you pull off PSM-esque move while holding down L3 and turning sharp. I like it though, it replaces your flares but it doesn't restrict you to low speeds and a complicated QTE like Ace Combat 7, and you can perform it anytime as long as the indicator is ready.

Mission 18. Aw shit, we're back to Prospero now? I really don't want to.

Yeah, figured. Crimson showed up again. VX-23s and SK.37s again. But now I can at least match their crazy AOA maneuvers.

My first try I nailed AOA limiter module pretty quickly. If used right it's essentially a "teleport to enemy's 6" button. Well I didn't use it right. Got shot down.

My second try. If Crimson is calling it personal then so will I. I will spam this AOA limiter if I have to. Even Diplomat is absolutely fed up with Crimson's shit, telling him to shut the fuck up and turning off his radio. Learned that, other than spamming AOA, you have to firewall the throttle, make sure your speed never goes below Mach 1 even when turning. Got hit by a missile once, but this time I downed them. All 8 of them.

Crimson laughing maniacally on the radio as his plane falls. What a waste of pilot, Comic, I agree. But I'm feeling that won't be the last.

Mission 19, back to Presidia. Take out Federation's naval force.

VX-23 is now available for purchase. It is like Chengdu J-20/Lockheed F-22 hybrid. Well, more like F-22 with the wings swapped positions. Can't buy this one either even if I sell my SK.37. And I love this thing already because of its AOA limiter.

Naval force destroyed. Presidia is next.

Mission 20. Now I could really sell my SK.37 now to get the VX-23, I wonder if I should do that...

Fuck it. Yolo.

Presidia is liberated. Feds are surrendering. War is over. And then...

"KINGS"

....

No.

No, Sector D2. Please, don't.

Don't make Crimson 1 pull a Pixy on me for the ultimate mission.

I called it earlier. He's gone off the rails. He took the Fed's superplane and nuked everyone in Presidia with it except Monarch. Probably intentionally, to set a personal score with me.

But I'm not scared. Well, until he fired railguns on all directions, launched Project Wingman's equivalent of ADMM, and released force fields ala Arsenal Bird/Alicorn. When I thought this game would be like Ace Combat, I didn't think it would be "Ace Combat, but 150% more fucked up."

I employed the similar strat from before. Lock the third person camera at his plane, firewall the throttle up to Mach 2 and spam the AOA limiter. He's got 3 health bars in that superplane that's probably powered by cordium. If previous missions didn't emphasize on how orange this game is, well, this final showdown does.

Everything is orange. The skies, the ground, the sun, the missiles, the railgun trails, my HUD, half the time I couldn't tell if my missiles hit him or not because my interface was loaded with directional missile proximity indicators. Thank fuck the health bar is still perfectly readable.

"You signed this deal a long time ago." WELL I DIDN'T SIGN UP TO FIGHT YOU SPECIFICALLY NOW DID I. But you've decided that it's personal so bitch, COME THE FUCK AT ME.

"I'm Cascadian. You think I take joy in killing my own countrymen?" SO WHY THE FUCK DID YOU DO IT IN THE FIRST PLACE. YOU LET YOUR OWN PRIDE CONSUME YOU AND THOUGHT THEY'RE ACCEPTABLE LOSSES IN YOUR OWN PERSONAL BEEF WITH ME. FUCK YOU.

I danced with him in the skies for probably a good 15 to 20 minutes just trying to land one or two hits on him. A deadly aerial dance that involves jet fuel, multi lock missiles and nuclear railguns.

Three health bars depleted. My camera is still locked onto his PW.MK1.

"No, not yet..."

Then all my HUD element disappears.

He's not dead yet. Two health bars now on the bottom of the screen, one for Hitman 1 and one for Crimson 1. Fuck, I have to fight him again. I grazed my VX-23 on the railgun trail and took some damage. But I still have my wings. I can still fly.

Another 10 minutes of fighting. I'm gonna fucking joust him now like Pixy. Dozens of STDMs, hundreds of railgun projectiles and thousands of 20mm Vulcan rounds.

His last health bar is depleted.

...

But my camera is still locked onto his plane. The corpse of his PW.MK1 flailing through the clouds and trailing flames.

Why am I not seeing a chute?!

"Monarch..."

God damn it, Crimson, eject! Eject now!

"When you hear the thunder..."

There's no time for speeches, damn it! Eject!

"When the storm comes for you..."

Dying will not solve anything! Fucking punch out, god damn it!

"Remember me."

...

But he was a fighter pilot to the end.

Remember him, Monarch.

Because it's just you left.

No one else. No Prez, Galaxy, Diplomat, Comic,

It's just you.

As a final send off, I leveled out my VX-23 to the horizon, pointing towards the sun, and fly off into the distance.

Contract completed.

---

Project Wingman, completed. Wow. What a game.

The story, the gameplay, the graphics, the sounds, voices, visuals, everything.

I can tell it's all been made with passion and love. And it really is... a love letter to the Ace Combat franchise.

It may as well be an Ace Combat game on its own.

I never mentioned it, but the OST is also phenomenal. Especially on Mission 11. On par with Ace Combat. Maybe even better, for an indie game. Especially the credit song, the leitmotif that's been playing throughout the game since Presidia. I'm calling it Monarch's theme.

Wow, just wow. I nearly shed a tear.

You know I once read a quote, I don't remember if it was from this game or something else, but

War doesn't decide who is right.

Only who is left.

10/10. Phenomenal game. Sector D2, you are legends. Absolute fucking legends, you hear?

There are so many people backing this game on Kickstarter, on the order of hundreds. Maybe thousands. All their names are in the credits.

And it was all so worth the money you all have invested in the development of Project Wingman.

And for me, it was worth the money I spent on buying this game.

Enjoy your victory while it lasts, Monarch.

You may not have a throne, or anything left in your world.

But you are the king.

As for me, I'm gonna play the game again and try to understand the lore better. It seems that I have a tendency to hyperfocus on the task/quest/gameplay at hand. Probably gonna turn down the bgm and sfx a little bit so I can hear dialogues better.

#project wingman #project wingman review #project wingman prez

20 notes · View notes

lancer-the-blue · 1 month ago

Text

Going to finally watch the full Ninjago Dragon's Rising season 1 and 2 since everything's out rn and live blog throughout the experience

1.30 in and man the animation is crazy, Arin is already pretty compelling. Really good vibe so far

*"Jay the Lightning Ninja!" nooooooooo, not this foreshadowing!

Kais voice was weeeeeird there for a sec... ohhh that's Arin my bad

Oooh as someone who is obsessed over the map of ninjago ngl that's a sick map of the Merge, I need a copy as a map nerd

OMG THAT SEAGULL WAS A REFERENCE TO ZANES FALCON

Arin with Lloyd's hood is so cute! *i need to draw that*

I need those rottweiler dogs as fig accessories

"It's called having money, which isn't exactly our situation" moood Sora mooood

"Wannabe ninja go!" Damn the writing this season is snappy af

Just noticed how fucking gorgeous the backgrounds are in this season like damnnnn

"Who doesn't like pie?" Feels like a reference to Cole and cake but that might be me looking waaay to much into it

Kingdom of Imperium smashed up against Ninjago does looks snazzy I agree Arin

"And the perfect chance to meet me" dawwww that's so cute

Ooooh it's called the crossroads, nice

"My bff, my fam" ☠ never did I *ever* expect that from Ninjago

I agree having your own penthouse is pretty cool, damn Sora is so relentlessly shsmeless I fucking adore her

Noticing again how *clean* the animation looks, the inside of the room is so highly rendered wow

"Whennn we win" gods damn it Sora you fucking rock!

"And invite everyone else who lost their parents to live with us" noooo gods noo the feels, jesus these kids are putting me through it

Damn I'm sensing potential arc tension between Arin and Sora after that earthquake exchange

First time actually seeing Lord Ras on screen and not through fanart he's giving me Chima reject /lh

Golden helm horn guy with the autism yeeeees relatable

*Omg gimmie frog faced minifigure it's a whole mood will be my sigfig*

Quick serious question tho, is the frog person and Ras' spieces from Chima tho? Lord Ras is giving me Sir Fanger vibes

I LOVE LABO, will not ask about mom noted tho

OMG THAT SCENE PAYING WITH THE PIE DIDN'T HAVE TO HIT *THAT* HARD

Ngl love seeing the random Hypnobrai walk around is peak

Dawwww baby riyuuuu

"Labu avoids hazards" awwwww

Sora being peak again about money

RIYU AWWWWW

"The things they'll do to him" oh gods what does that say about jay...

"What would the ninja do?" "LET'S SAVE THAT DRAGON"

OH NO NOT LUBO GIVING A RESENTFUL MOTHER SPEECH

The scene with Riyu giving Sora powers is sick. Need to draw that

That grey haired raz goon is pretty, funny top 7 ninjago evil side bitches

Need to draw Arin doing Spinjitzu like that that was also sick

Damnnnn Raz was intense, "hunt down your entire family" I don't think ninjago ever got *that* explicitly threatening

"Runs on dragon power" ngl that's a little bit too goofy for me

Arin hyping up Sora is goals ngl

Uuuuh Sora roasting the ninja that's funny

Lloyd coming in that last second was low key kinda unexpected, was thinking it would happen in part 2 but still cool tho

Annnnnd we're done with Ep 1 S1, on to Ep 2!

Rating solid 8/10, writing and pacing was cleannnn. One of the best season openings

#ninjago #ninjago dragons rising #liveblogging #ninjago dr spoilers #ninjago dr s1

8 notes · View notes

eyesore-boi · 2 years ago

Text

y'know for a guy who hates the ocean sure is doing a lotta filming involving the ocean in some way-

But wOW REALLY WEIRD FOR ME TO ACTUALLY HAVE THE MOTIVATION TO DO T W O FULL DRAWINGS WITHIN THE MONTH. ....ART BLOCKS DEFINITELY GONNA STAB ME AGAIN SOON AFTER THIS BUT Y'KNOW WAS NICE WHILE IT LASTED-

But for real this one was another fun one to do! Really trying to practice more using my rendering """skills""" and try not to make it look as plain as leaving it just the shading, so hope it shows! Cool experiment with making one side lighter and the other darker, background simple but still wanted to add....things, and either glad I could just draw these guys!

Been a LONG while since I've last drawn Dave with his scars and sleepy face, and for the Convict (which i just found out is what we're apparently calling Mark's character in Iron Lung since, y'know, dunno that much yet-) was also fun with just making him look all scruffy and....honestly just kinda done with everything, so that's nice- XD

also yes i now know that in the actual full piece the split isn't actually in the middle and yes that really fucking bothers me too but now their'a nothing i can do about it so i'm sorry hskandksHHHHH-

But yeah, I'm still hoping that AT LEAST the Edge of Sleep trailer will eventually show one day, real fucking hyped for Iron Lung movie, but for now if you'll excuse me gonna go watch the man that starred in these soon to be masterpieces nearly cause his intestines to explode (again) eating expired pop tarts and taki's, so good day hhhjkdnskbsh-

#please mark #just #one less then a minute trailer of edge of sleep #not including the leak on stream #please #n e e d t o s e e i t -#markiplier #the edge of sleep #teos #dave torres #iron lung #iron lung movie #iron lung convict #eyesore's art

60 notes · View notes

acaplaya-musings · 8 months ago

Text

Voiceplay Visuals: Hoist The Colours

Oh boy, we're heading into the big ones now!

Hoist The Colours was uploaded on September 18, 2021, and features Jose Rosario Jr in his second collaboration with Voiceplay. This one stunned a lot of reactors (one of them, Dennis King of King Family Reacts, literally got up and left the room after the video was finished because he had been rendered speechless by it!), and the video currently sits at 4.6 million views (close to 4.7!) (EDIT/UPDATE: as of the night of the 8th of March, it's now at 4.7, close to 4.8!). So without further ado, let's get right into this one, and hope I don't have to start paying attention to my screenshot count!

Can you believe this was only Cesar's second (full-length) video as a full-time Voiceplay member? Because wow

(Also interestingly enough, Rick Underwood is credited with makeup in the video description (shoutout to Rick!) but no one is credited with costuming, so did everyone just acquire their outfits themselves or what?)

Geoff was in charge of the video creation for this one, as well as doing the arrangement, and he worked together with Eli for the lighting design, so big shoutout to Geoff! (And as always to Eli the lighting whiz)

OKAY a few things to talk about here

First of all, love the set design, it's like the Little Mermaid Medley but on steroids and more pirate themed! Also love the horn-playing skeleton on the left-hand side of the screen (took me a while to notice it ngl 😅)

And of course the outfits/costuming! I can't really think of a lot of things to say individually right now, but there was 100% a lot of thought and effort that went into the clothes (even if the description won't specify who acquired the clothes. I'm going to assume Geoff, since the overall video credit goes to him.)

Oh hey it's my blog banner/background, or close enough to it at least! (Hoist The Colours has a decent few very cool visual moments that are totally screencap-worthy, and of course that's what I'm here for - to point them out!)

Geoff may play the villain (or otherwise just-generally-creepy/spooky/scary guy) a lot in videos, but as of the last few years at least, Eli's often been looking like the one that you really don't wanna pick a fight with. (Also cool ring, and is that fake scar tissue on his head?)

This is a better shot of everyone's outfits actually. A few notes on everyone (except Eli, who I just talked about?)

Cesar: Very ghostly, especially with the cloudy contact lens in one eye. Love the white coat/jacket, and love the pop of colour with the red sash! Also what is he holding/shaking? I thought it was a set of old-fashioned keys, but it doesn't look like it.

Jose: The "captain" of this "motley crew", obviously. Cool coat, and love the sword.

Layne: Not too much going on with his outfit, relatively speaking, but I love the bit of eyeliner under his eyes, and the fake scar on his cheek! (Seriously Rick did a great job here, as he always does)

Geoff: Wearing at least two necklaces, and in true Geoff Castellucci fashion, he's got the top two buttons of his shirt undone (well, gotta show off those necklaces! 😉😁). ALSO, bonus thing that I literally only just realized after taking this screencap, is that Geoff has "VP" on his right arm, done in a way that makes it look like like scar tissue I believe.

That is seriously a very cool and very smooth transition. Who edited this? Was that Geoff too? (Also Crazy Eyes Layne!)

As I figured, one of the necklaces Geoff is wearing, the gold one, is for costume purposes, and the other one, the silver one with the diamond-shaped pendant, is the necklace from Kathy that Geoff basically never takes off (bless him <3 )

I think Cesar's holding old-fashioned shackles/handcuffs or something?

Hang on that skeleton on the left lost his little horn/trumpet and got stabbed?? 😅😂

Yeah Layne had fun in this one I can tell �� (also his vest is more detailed than first appears! Very nice!)

What a really freaking awesome shot/moment. In terms of "money shots", these two might in fact be two of the most awesome stills from any Voiceplay video ever (or so far, anyway).

He's got charisma, I'll give him that (also cool necklace!)

How are they just an independent acapella group that make YouTube videos that we can all watch for free? Like seriously, this is top tier stuff (both in terms of the video and the song cover itself), but this wasn't even Voiceplay at their peak! Voiceplay doesn't have a peak! They don't stick to a lane, they take "risks", they get creative, they will sing pretty much anything, and it works

Voiceplay says in the description "we may have gotten a little carried away with this one", but honestly would it really be Voiceplay if they didn't?

Anyway, I've got many more awesome videos ahead of me to write about, so stay tuned!

#voiceplay #acapella #hoist the colours #geoff castellucci #eli jacobson #layne stein #cesar de la rosa #jose rosario jr #acaplaya analysis #voiceplay visuals

14 notes · View notes

clock-onyx · 10 months ago

Text

Woah?!?!?!!!!!!! Flashback woaahhh shocking jaw drops on floor

I love ibispaintx!!! (It crashed on me and i had to redo Odin's rendering 💚)

"Relax! Make yourself feel at ho.... erh... make yourself feel comfortable, alright?"

"Right right..."

"So you're one of those fellows from that village right? I thought you guys were all in the south!"

"Well, thats the m-most well known village, theres more scattered, closer to the North Crater, actually."

"Well, that explains why you're so tall!"

"Hah, yeah."

"Anyways, back on track, good fellow! What was your name again? If you'd like to say it again, of course."

"Odin."

"Odin..? Never met an Odin before, I'm Chester, nice to meet ya', bud."

Wow okay flashback time, did you guys know Odin had long hair? No? Okay well he did I KNOW!!!! SHOCKING WOAH I KNOW

Anyways excuse for the cringe dialouge i wanted to write it for a while but i didnt want to get carriwd away so i simplified it, and also excusing how bad the drawing looks, its not my best work i know ibis was freaking out and lagging!!! Im not good with complex backgrounds, ESSPECIALLY HOUSES, dw... ill get better one day...

Not so sigma anymore, are we Odin?

#till death do us part #oc story #oc story art #flashback art #demon oc #aquatic oc #oc artwork #artwork #art oc #art #digital drawing #ibispaint art #ibispaintx #awhhhh theyre bonding loooook awwhhhh #i sure do hope nothing bad happens to them either! awh man that'd be a bummer...

11 notes · View notes

me-when-cancer · 3 months ago

Text

ARTFIGHT RECAP

this was my first year of joining artfight! It's been a whole lot of fun, and I made 39 attacks. Oh boy. My goal was at least one attack per day, and wow I have never been so productive.

Also, making sure, don't call me out on stealing art. If you look on my artfight page you can see these actually belong to me, my artstyle is just all over the place and can't decide what it wants to be.

《ATTACK ON STRANDEDAYLILY》

This one was started on the first day, finished on the second. I'm really proud of how it turned out, and the design is so adorable!

(The rest of the attacks under the cut)

《ATTACK ON CIOROR》

The first of many lineless art attacks. I had the idea of the scug just hugging onto it's tail, and I got to work immediately. I wanted to emulate Cior's artstyle a tad, but make it a little more round. It looks so adorable.

《ATTACK ON VESRIMM》

This silly goober. Same thing as the previous one, it's the first of many stickers, and I got to work after getting the idea. Yes, she may craft nuclear warheads :>

《ATTACK ON AWADEKOKO》

I drew this character right after it was posted. I am speed. You are not safe :>

Also sky moment.

《ATTACK ON PESSIMYSTIC》

The design nearly killed me. I love how it looks though! Shoutout to Cioror for giving me the idea to make the background an aurora after one of their attacks.

《ATTACK ON OPSIIAN》

This silly goober. They were quite fun to draw! They look like they might be vibrating. Desire porl.

《ATTACK ON SHINYZEBAT》

The colors, the design, everything about this scug is so beautiful, and I love them. The lil wing ears :D

《ATTACK ON D0RKY》

Indeed. Tis a dork. Quite a creature. I love the design.

《ATTACK ON VESRIMM》

Woag. First time rendering. Looking at it again, I kinda like it. Hollow Knight for the win.

《ATTACK ON ENTER-THUNDERZONE》

VOX!1!!!!11

Such a goober. I really enjoy drawing in this artstyle. Initially it was meant to be an imitation of Cioror's artstyle, but I noticed that Thunder's vector artstyle (they're on scratch) is very similar. So it could be an emulation of both you guys.

《ATTACK ON POLINAKOTLIKESTHEV》

https://artfight.net/attack/7257849.get-jarred

Only sharing the artfight page because when people put characters in jars in movies and other works of media, no one bats an eye. But when someone posts an art of a character in a jar, the internet goes wild. And it annoys me. I don't want to hear anything about it. This artpiece was not meant to reference the thing that literally happened years ago. That aside, the goober. Nuggy's design is adorable, and this was quite fun to draw!

《ATTACK ON MANY-FACED》

sorry it looks a little odd. I rushed this because one, I wanted to fill my daily attack quota, and two, I wanted to attack eepy.

《ATTACK ON FLIGHTDRAWZ》

CHUGJUG! The second I saw him on artfight, I knew I had to draw him. Chugjug is so goober.

《ATTACK ON SKULKIE》

What an adorable fella. This was my first time drawing a seal, and I love it. Little guy.

《ATTACK ON STARRYWARRY》

You accept gore, you like character interactions, so here ya go! I with I made Cinnamon's outline black, but welp. Too late for that now. This one was incredibly fun to draw. Something oddly coincidental is that I was watching to markiplier play cuphead while drawing this.

《ATTACK ON DINGS》

They've got six limbs. Creature. What a fun guy. His design is so interesting, I like him a lot.

《ATTACK ON WORMZEE》

I love this lil scug's design. Very colors. This took surprisingly longer than I thought, but I'm proud of the result!

《ATTACK ON THENYAN》

Ooog the colors are really nice. This was really fun. I love drawing overseers just so incredibly done with their respective iterator.

《ATTACK ON ARCHIEDRAGON》

RAAAAHHHH THIS GUY IS SO ADORABLE I LOVE HIMMMM. Also hey the one time I don't forget an iterator's halo. Their eyes though. So freaking adorable. I feel like iterators designed with mouths don't look right without the mouth. It adds to them anyway, he's so cute.

《MASS ATTACK》

WIRE HUG. WIRE HUG. WIRE HUG.

《ATTACK ON KETRALINE》

Silly guy moment. The design is so unique and awesome. Reminds me of notebook paper.

《ATTACK ON MAMABOY》

The silly! Loved drawing Shi. I've been watching all the animations since I got into Rain World. I meant to draw Polaroids too, but sadly I never got to him in time.

《ATTACK ON XXRUBYDA_ALIENXX》

I bookmarked this character the second I saw them. The design is awesome and gives me some sort of vibe that I can't place. I went for a purple sunset vibe on this one, and I love it a lot!

《ATTACK ON THATDEERLING》

I love this guy. Is so cute. They give me teddy bear vibes. So friend shaped.

《ATTACK ON XXRUBYDA_ALIENXX》

Attacked again because the Revenge they did on Wire was to perfect to not be rewarded. This character gives koifish I love them.

《ATTACK ON CHEESYART666》

Only giving the link because the flashing colors is so rapid and jarring that it hurts even my eyes. And I'm not photosensitive. Be warned, the creature will bleed your eyes. Love the Venus fly trap guy. He looks so cool.

《ATTACK ON CROWPANACEA》

Tried out a new lighting style, (because revolvious uses it) and it turned out awesome! So now I'm using it for future arts. I'm really proud of this one. The background looks neat and the character is awesome.

《ATTACK ON PINKGOLDFISH651》

Love this goober! Went for a cybernetic green atmosphere. I love the lighting in this one.

《ATTACK ON TAPEDECKS》

Theyre real! The colors used in this design are awesome, I love it so much. Looks up at you with those eyes. Little goober.

《ANIMATED MASS ATTACK》

https://youtu.be/16iiAGH6Z4Q?si=Gm_cDngHw6_eNaf0

Eheheh. This one didn't take as long as I thought it would. I saw this meme and decided to do a slugcat mass attack. Don't mind the scav.

《ATTACK ON HINDRANCE77》

Woah this is cool. The art and the character. Silly creature, I love them a lot.

《ATTACK ON RAVENMA》

Woah noiseless goober. The ear isn't as long as I would've liked it to be, but overall it looks great. I drew this while playing Kirby's Air ride.

《ATTACK ON ALATYSS》

This is the first character I put in my bookmarks. (Last year) Their design is so cool, and the artstyle i used was perfect for drawing them.

Welp, looks like I hit an image limit. Looks like I'll have to make a continuation.

People I attacked (on this post (and that i could find)): @strandedaylily @frozenhi-chews @loonaticforaza @sleepless-tea @crowpanacea @vesrimm @wogot3 @cioror @iipessimystic @hdra77 @darkopsiian @thenyandrawsnstuff

#artfight #art fight 2024 #others characters #art #Crap I make for people

2 notes · View notes

mochamartyr · 1 year ago

Text

alright. let’s actually talk about it (spoilers below of course)

I Am So Very Normal About The Spot. I Am Very Normal About Him. the transition of wheatley-ass villain-of-the-week to full on interdimensional horror is so, so good. his interdimensional horror design is fucking fantastic, genuinely frightening as opposed to his goofy ass at the beginning of the movie

GWEN’S WORLD IS PAINT???? IT’S SO FUCKING PRETTY DUDE. the scenes where characters aren’t fully rendered, their bottom half blends into the background with rough paint strokes, the paint seeping off the walls during the rain, such a visually stunning location

also the opening fight scene with the da vinci style guy is fucking awesome, i wish he would show up more because he is Very Neat

and yea the themes of breaking the status quo are really well done and interesting. the character writing is phenomenal (wow gwen and miles have flaws? and it’s not being rubbed in our face like “LOOK GUYS WE CAN WRITE FLAWED SUPERHEROES WE’RE SO COOL”??? fucking finally)

one thing that worries me is recently superhero movies all have like. several villains/antagonists. i don’t know how easy it’s going to be to wrap up the stories of the spot, miguel, and miles prowler (bro thinks he’s tails) in a way that feels satisfying. it is lord and miller tho so i trust them, i just don’t like the precedent that’s being set

just watched across the spiderverse, pretty solid movie

2 notes · View notes

prettyboyeddiemunson · 2 years ago

Note

eddie generally did not know what to say to pretty people, so when you, absolute dream girl material, walked up to him and said "hey, aren't you in corroded coffin??" he really doesn't know how to even breathe anymore

OH GOD YES YES

Like you go to every single one of his shows, kinda hiding in the background. Corroded Coffin isn’t really your type of music, but you just happened to be there one night when they played and actually enjoyed their sound. After that, you made it a point to always go back, but not just because you really dug what they were playing.

You were mostly going back to see the lead singer & guitarist, an absolute dream of long dark hair, the most beautiful brown eyes, a breathtaking smile, and the sexiest voice you had ever heard in your entire life.

And one day, the two of you happen to bump into each other. You’re in town, running some errands, and he is cruising around in his van, on his way to find a spot to smoke and blow off steam. You both happen to stop at the general store at the same time, and when you quite literally bump into each other, you can’t believe it. It’s him—the man who fronted the band you loved going to see every week. He was even more gorgeous up close, and you had no idea what to even say. He had rendered you speechless, in the best possible way.

He looks at you like you were the most amazing thing he’s ever seen. He’s taking in the beauty of your hair, the color of your eyes, the build of your body, everything. He does so with such awe, such admiration, and you’re absolutely smitten even more than you already were. You just grin at him as he apologizes for not watching where he was going, and you tell him not to worry about it. Then you casually ask if he’s the lead singer of Corroded Coffin, and his face just lights up.

“You know my band?” he asks, in complete disbelief from the sound of his voice. “You’ve seen us play?”

“I come every single week!” you say excitedly. “Metal isn’t really my thing, or wasn’t. Ever since I saw you guys play, I’ve been getting into it.”

“Wow,” Eddie says, beaming at you. He’s silent for so long that you don’t know if he’s going to say anything else. He looks so flustered, so nervous, and you furrow your brows in worry. You’re about to ask if he’s alright, but then he’s speaking again. “A girl as beautiful as you, coming to our shows? Really?”

You feel heat in your cheeks, and you laugh softly. “Yeah. And, I mean…If I may be so bold, you’re nice to look at, too.”

Eddie’s cheeks turn crimson, and he hides behind his hair as he chuckles. “Nah.”

“Yes!” you say with a wide smile. “No joke! You look incredible up there. It’s like you’re really in your element, and you look sexy doing it.”

“Oh, stop,” he says, but by the way he’s beaming at you, he doesn’t want you to. He clears his throat, still extremely flustered as he toys with the ends of his hair. “Hey…so, I was going to grab a bite to eat before I headed out to Lover’s Lake to hang out. Do you wanna come with?”

“Are you asking me out?” you tease with a smirk.

“I guess that depends on whether or not you’re going to say yes,” he says uncertainly.

You wink at him before biting your lip. “Maybe I will. I’m y/n, by the way.”

“A beautiful name for a beautiful girl,” Eddie says, extending a hand for you to shake. “I’m Eddie.”

“Well, Eddie,” you say as you shake his hand, looking toward the front entrance and then back to him with a smile. “It’s a date.”

#flustered eddie is so 🥺🥺#eddie munson #eddie munson imagine #eddie munson x reader #eddie munson x y/n #eddie munson x you

907 notes · View notes

cakeofthepan · 2 years ago

Audio

Just a little Ashly Burch appreciation for y’all. Plus some bonus sibling favoritism at the end ;)

[Audio Transcript:

[Instrumental Old Time Rock and Roll plays in the background]

Ashly: Hi, I'm Ashly Burch. I play Mark Likely. Brother to Well Actually formerly Scam Likely— No, I'm his sister. This is going great.

[laughter]

Henry: Mark Likely! My goodness gracious!

Mark: [drawn out and nasally] Hi—!

[someone dry spit-takes]

Mark: Hi…!

Mark: Okay, look. At max, two favors.

[laughter]

Mark: Two favors.

Will: Wow!

Ashly: I want to cast Shape Changer on myself to wriggle out of his grasp.

Anthony: Go ahead.

Jimmy: Ooh...

Anthony: What do you change shape into?

Ashly: The first thing that came to mind was an otter in a rock and roll outfit because we're in the...

Beth: Hell yeah.

Freddie: Oh my God...

Matt: Hell yeah.

Anthony: Okay, so that's a thing.

Ashly: So, I slip out and then I kind of squirm on top of the nearest bar.

Anthony: Okay.

Ashly: I'm just going to look at him with my big 'ol otter eyes and go like—

Mark: [singing sadly] Just take those old records off the shelf. I'll sit and listen to them by myself.

Henry: Hey, Mark. Real quick.

Mark: Yeah.

Henry: What is a death tyrant? What is that?

Mark: [sucks air through teeth] Ooh, ah... yeah. I guess I should tell you guys that.

Dae-ruel: Mmhmm.

Mark: Y’know, he's got eyes that are kind of... [hisses again]

Henry: Okay.

Mark: They're not great, uh...

Jodie: You're going to help us fight this guy, right?

Mark: Oh, yeah! Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah...

[laughter]

Ashly: Mark's going to shapeshift into... a recognizable rendering of the Tenth Doctor, but going into like an American phone booth.

Beth: Oh. My goodness.

Freddie: [laughing] Oh my God!

Ashly: And she's going to go like—

Mark: I'm the Doctor! Here I go in my BARDIS!

[laughter]

Ashly: And like walk in.

Anthony: Well Actually doubles over and goes—

Well Actually: It's not— It’s not an American phone— [pained grunt, like he’s been stabbed and might throw up] It's not an American phone booth and it's not called the BARDIS. [grunts] Its—

Mark: Doo, doo, doo, doo, doo-doo-doo! Hey, Tulip. Do you want to come with me and see the galaxies?

[laughter]

Well Actually: [physically pained] That's not her name. That’s not her name. Her name was Rose. It was the Time And Relative Dimension In Space, it's not—[barf sound]

Mark: Oh, no! A Small-ec! He's so small, I'll squish him! With my sonic hammer!

Mark: Why the fuck did I go to them?

[resurgence of laughter]

Mark: Why did I go to them? First pick. First pick, I went to these guys. God, I'm so fucking stupid.

[music fades out]

Matt: You're not going to let that happen.

Anthony: No.

Matt: [dice roll] Especially with an 18?

Ashly: [sucker-punched] Uh!

Anthony: Ashly, go ahead and roll Dexterity.

Ashly: Oh, God. I don't think that's very good for your old pal. Ah, it's alright.

Anthony: You'll do with advantage though because you shape-changed.

Ashly: [two dice rolls] Euh... 11.

Anthony: Now go ahead and roll again.

Ashly: I did.

Beth: Just keep going.

[chuckles]

Anthony: Yeah, do it again until you get a 19.

Beth: Say when.

Ashly: And again?

End Transcript]

#dndads #dungeons and daddies #mark is one of the weirdest characters and I love her very much #my audio #long post

73 notes · View notes

lizbotw · 4 years ago

Note

hi!! can I ask for some shouto headcanons with a s/o who has frequent nightmares? ty! ily

Todoroki With a S/O That Has Frequent Nightmares

hi! wow, i really loved this request and enjoyed writing it! once again, it's a bit on the longer side and more scenario-like than just plain headcanons, so i hope you like it! tysm, ilyt!!! ♡

Todoroki Shouto

Everyone knows school is just plain hard and going to the top hero school in the nation meant things were… less than easy for you and your classmates.

All-nighters were common, especially now that everyone was living in the dorms together and were up to antics at all hours of the night, even despite the scolding of Iida (Aizawa admitted he couldn't care less what the class did as long as they kept it down and didn't cause too much trouble—just don’t interrupt his sleep and everything is all good).

It’s not like it was unusual for someone to complain offhandedly about being tired one day, or for your classmates to be spotted with eye bags, so no one ever thought to point out the sleepy look you seem to sport regularly from being kept up all night.

Everyone was basically kept up later than intended one way or another, whether it be finishing an assignment last minute or staying up to finish a movie, so they sympathized with your plight, assuming that it was similar to their own—but what they didn’t know was that the reason you were up was much different than any of their reasons.

While they slept peacefully only a few floors away from you, or sometimes even a few doors down the hallway, you were plagued by dark images, the type that twisted around in your mind, growing in ferocity and coiling around your heart with sticky, inky blackness so tightly that you felt as though you couldn’t breathe—any attempts against them that you took seemed futile and you always woke up gasping for air, a cold sweat breaking out across your forehead as your chest heaved, heavy with emotion.

You'd gotten used to hiding it, having been dealing with them for quite a while now, and while you eventually learned to brush them off due to their frequency, in the dead of the night, whenever they struck you, you felt as powerless and hopeless as the very first time they arrived.

It was only in the light of day that you were able to be reasonable with yourself and in which the fears lost most of their power (they were never completely gone though, the thoughts lingering in the back of your mind and causing you to mull over them whenever there was a dull moment in class and your attention started to drift).

Perhaps it's because you had these nightmares that you made the most of the energy you had during the day, fighting in your own way in the light to prove that you were still powerful, even if you were stripped of that power every night.

You'd adapted to running on only a few hours of sleep and tried to take short naps throughout the day to make up for lost time (although it was still hard after particularly difficult nights where you got almost zero relief from the terrifying images), so by the time life in U.A. came about, you were able to tough it out and focus on your training.

Speaking of training, you were vicious in class battles, taking many by surprise and were able to render several of your weaker classmates immobile in capture exercises and swept them off of their feet relatively quickly in one on one fights, including a certain “IcyHot” boy (although the way in which you swept him off his feet was much different—it was hard to beat him in normal fights anyway, but when it came to matters of the heart he was forced to surrender).

Your pure power may have caught his attention at first, but it wasn’t until Shouto spoke to you more and your personality came out that he was truly faced with the fact that he was falling for you hard.

A series of mishaps and a fair share of intervention from the rest of Class 1-A later and you two were miraculously dating and even could finally rest easy—they definitely had their work cut out when it came to getting you two together, but they ultimately bit the bullet because they could not stand the mutual pining and hopeless romanticism that continuously went on between you two.

It may take a while for Shouto to realize that spending the night at each other's dorms is a romantic™ thing couples do and that he should offer that up. That would be a great alternative actually versus the current are arrangement of that whenever you come over to study during the afternoons with him (which quickly turns into night because wow, time sure flies when you're being tortured by textbooks), and once it gets late enough, he comments about what time it is and how both of you should start getting ready for bed—effectively forcing you to leave his dorm. Don't blame him—the thought just never crossed his mind.

It was actually Mina, wanting to pry in on all U.A. relationships and resident sucker for romance, that probably brought the idea to his attention.

Something about asking how you two spent time together turned interrogation when she realized he could be clueless about certain things and made it her personal mission to school him on all things romance.

And then came the question, “So, have you guys had a couple’s sleepover yet?”

“A what?”

“Mina, please stop, just leave the poor guy alone,” came Jirou’s chiding from somewhere in the background. Mina had dragged her along with her for unknown reasons, but Jirou had made it very clear that she did not want to be there, slowly distancing herself from the conversation and discreetly trying to slip away.

While Mina took up arguing with Jirou about the “necessity” of these questions and Jirou facepalming and asking Mina why she didn’t just bring Hagakure (second in command on all things romance) with her, Shouto took the chance to mull over Mina’s words.

“And what does this... ‘couple’s sleepover’ entail exactly?” he interrupted their bickering after a few moments of contemplation and being unable to come up with an answer himself.

Mina absolutely lit up at that and turned to him once again, scuffle with Jirou long forgotten. “I am so glad you asked! Well, first of all-”

“She just means spending the night at each other’s dorms,” Jirou interrupted before Mina could go off on another tangent. Shouto turned to look at Jirou now and found her boredly examining her nails before then switching to nervously clinking the ends of her earphones jacks together when she noticed he was watching her.

“Then why-”

Jirou interrupted him this time. “Why did she call it a ‘couple’s sleepover?’ I don’t know, why don’t you ask Mina herself?”

It only took her a fraction of a second to realize her mistake when Mina opened her mouth to unleash the lengthy explanation she had prepared and Jirou immediately cut her off again before the damage could be done.

“Actually, never mind, don’t ask her. I don’t think I have to explain the sleepover part. Just spend the night doing fun things, like playing games or watching a movie or something, I don’t know. Typical sleepover things. And the couple’s part is because… well, you’re dating aren’t you? Bam, a couple.” She did unenthusiastic jazz hands at that. “Hmm… and I guess that means the sleepover activities will be more romantic than a typical sleepover too.” She scrunched her nose at the idea, not even wanting to imagine what that sort of description would entail.

Mina was getting antsy next to her, desperate to jump into the conversation with her own input and Jirou finally seemed to notice it. “Looks like Mina wants to go-” (“What? No, I don’t-”) “So see you later, Todoroki.” She grabbed Mina’s arm with one hand and gave Shouto a small wave goodbye with her free hand—one that he returned—as she pulled Mina away. “Oh, and don’t worry too much about it,” she said over her shoulder, “It’s literally just spending some time together and you do that already, right? The only difference is that this time it’ll be overnight, so just act natural. It’s not some big fancy event despite what Mina’s name for it might suggest.” And with that the two were gone, disappearing down the hallway in a fit of distant, mumbled bickering about how Mina is no longer allowed to give unsolicited love advice and how Jirou needs to learn the ways of love to truly understand, leaving Shouto all alone with his thoughts, trying to decipher what the fuck just happened.

Truthfully, he was always sad to see you go after a day of hanging out, wishing he could spend more time with you. For some reason he thought that as soon as night came, you deserved to head back to your own dorm for a proper night’s rest. He was just being concerned for your well being, isn’t that what proper boyfriends did? He considered the idea once of what if you spent the night together?, and despite that literally addressing all of his issues from before, he still brushed off the idea because it was preposterous. Shouto, where are your thinking skills???

After a while of back and forth with himself over the wisdom Mina and Jirou had bestowed upon him, he made the decision that next time things would be different.

Another late night study session had you packing up your things once you noticed the blinking alarm clock on Shouto's desk had stuck 11 P.M., the process routine at this point and you no longer waiting for your boyfriend to end the study session himself.

You rose and starting gathering the papers sprawled across his floor into a neat stack in your arms, absentmindedly talking about the things you had to do tomorrow as you went—it was like you were just inputting some closing remarks before calling it a night and Shouto fell easily into the conversation as he slipped stray pens and highlighters back into his pencil case.

You two usually cleaned up amongst the quiet hum of your words—discussing how you felt about the upcoming test, subjects either of you needed more help on next time, and what you were looking forward to eating for breakfast in the morning—but this night had Shouto's eyes straying away from the mess at his feet to you. Your back was to him most of the time, but even when you were facing him as you gathered up your books, your attention was focused on said objects, rather than him.

You guys didn't look at each other much as you cleaned, he realized—it was an obvious observation, but he still had the thought as he watched you, taking note of how this was just the perfect chance to admire you.

When you turned to him at one point though, gaze piercing, he quickly averted his eyes, shifting them to a highlighter that lay in front of him in your general direction, reaching to pick up. He ran his thumb over the smooth, bright yellow cylinder of it as you walked over to him, crouched down, hands planted on his shoulders, and leaned in to brush your lips against his. His eyes fluttered close and he leaned into the kiss, pushing back against you. He moved to deepen it, about to grip onto the fabric of your shirt for leverage, the highlighter rolling out of his grip, but the kiss was over in a matter of seconds and he opened his eyes, finding your smiling face right in front of him. You gave him a brief kiss on his cheek, as though to sign it off, and he had to admit that the heat of your face against his felt nice.

“Night, babe,” you said as you got up and turned to walk over to your bag that lay by the door.

“Night…” Right, that was just one of your normal goodnight kisses. That was also part of the routine but… something about the idea that that was the last kiss of the night didn’t sit right with him.

Shouto studied you once more, tongue in cheek, as he watched you stuff the papers and books you had gathered up back into your bag. The contemplative look never left his eye—it seemed as though you hadn’t noticed his staring from earlier so he was a bit more bold and confident about doing it now—and he almost lost himself to a trance of watching your methodical movements of picking something up from the pile of books you had lain at your feet and slipping them into the bag one by one.

When you slung the bag over your shoulder and moved towards the door, turning back to give him a final wave goodbye, he stiffened, remembering his plan.

“Wait-” He scrambled to his feet as you watched him in confusion, hand already on the doorknob. “Um… do you want to stay the night?” He flinched internally at the unsureness in his voice and straightened up, crossing his arms to create some semblance of nonchalance. “I mean, only if you want to. We don’t have to keep studying. I have a… movie? If you want to watch that together?”

Shouto’s eyes carefully tracked your movements, trying to gauge your reaction.

You tilted your head in bewilderment at the sudden offer, but then you grinned brightly and dropped your bag back at your feet, it landing on the ground with a thud from all of the heavy books inside. “Okay,” you beamed and Shouto was sure he was about to faint.

He followed Jirou’s advice to a T, or at least he tried to. He meant to ask if you wanted to play Monopoly but Kaminari had stolen it from the dorm’s game closet and refused to hand it over because his plans for the night included kicking Sero’s, Kirishima’s, and Bakugou’s asses at the game (Mina was there to be the unbiased banker because the boys were so sure that one of them kept stealing money out of the bank whenever no one was looking and Jirou was just there to bask in the chaos that was sure to ensure—when Mina and Jirou caught sight of Shouto, they both gave him a knowing look).

The loss of the Monopoly board meant you two instead played with the dingy Uno card deck Shouto found buried in his school supply drawer (he was pretty sure it was Midoriya’s and in his mind sent him a silent thank you—as for if he was going to give the desk back or continue “borrowing” it… well, that depended on how much you enjoyed playing with him).

You won three times in a row, but also Shouto seemed to keep getting distracted by something (spoiler alert: it was your smile) and you realized he wasn’t even playing his best cards most of the time so you easily crushed him. You clapped your hands in celebration at every victory and Shouto noticeably increased his speed while shuffling the deck whenever you did that (oh yeah, he was definitely keeping these, sorry, Deku).

You two eventually got around to watching the movie he had brought up before on his laptop, you slotted comfortably under his arm while it hung around your shoulder, and even had a late night snack run per your request (snack run = sneaking into the kitchen and stealing the plate of hot pockets Kaminari was making to supplement his game night—better yet, you made Shouto do the stealing with him timing his crime perfectly and waiting for Kaminari’s back to be turned.)

(You supervised the whole thing by peeking around a hidden corner, barely containing your laughter, and then jumped in to distract Kaminari right when he was about to turn around before quickly taking your leave once Shouto was out of sight. Kaminari’s screams once he realized what had happened could be heard down the hallway as you two rushed back to the elevator, stolen goods secured and you laughing freely.)

(You’re pretty sure you heard Shouto mumble, “How’s that for Monopoly, you electric bitch,” and while you’re honestly not sure what he’s talking about, you support his energy nonetheless.)

Soon it was time to actually sleep and you two were curled up under his blanket, limbs tangled together. You had taken brief naps together before so this wasn’t exactly anything new (even though it was, judging by what a big deal everyone had made of it, including you two), but you found yourself appreciating once again how Shouto was the perfect person to sleep against—he regulated his body temperature exactly how you liked it and you found yourself nodding off to sleep easily in between the quiet whispers about nonsensical late night topics between you two.

The brief concern about your nightmares had completely slipped your mind at this point—you found that short naps meant that they didn’t have much time to strike and since said naps were what you were used to with him, you forgot that this was a full night ordeal. When he had first proposed the idea of a sleepover, you had thought it would be good to have someone else there to comfort you, but then felt guilty about being selfish and wondered if your reaction to the nightmares would scare him off—although you eventually pushed those thoughts to the side because no way would you turn down spending some quality time with your boyfriend, and the night of fun had led to never returning to mull over that internal conflict.

You two fell asleep at some point without even realizing it, peaceful in each other's arms—that is, until a few hours later when disaster struck because of course something just had to ruin your perfect night.

Shouto blearily blinked his eyes open, confused at the sound that reached his ears and brain slow to comprehend what exactly was going on. It took him a moment to suck in a breath to clear his mind and decipher the situation, shifting in place—that is, until his arm brushed against yours and he stilled, mind suddenly clear as it recalled the events of the last hour he had been awake. You were spending the night with him.

Carefully, he sat up, head pounding a little. He brought up a hand to rest on top of his head, fingers curling around his hair and massaging away the beginnings of a headache. And then he heard it again—the sound that had woken him up. A quiet whimper maybe?

He was back to being confused, except now his eyes were darting around the room suspiciously, ready to go on the defensive, especially because you were next to him. U.A. had a proper security system, didn't it? He shouldn't be worried. Although, then again, his mind kept returning to those thoughts of uncertainty and how villains had been able to endanger his classmates time and time again recently.

The shuffling of blankets and a sharp intake of breath had him refocused within a second and he looked down at you. Eyes now adjusted to the darkness, he could make out your face against the backdrop of his pillow, your features twisted into a troubled expression, teeth pulling on your bottom lip. Your hands gripped the blanket in a tight fist, your arms shaking a little.

You continued squirming under the blanket until you eventually kicked most of it off of you, almost as if there was someone there that you meant to hit. Your mouth curled into a silent scream, ragged breaths coming out in huffs as your chest rapidly rose and fell. He could tell you were mumbling now, voice low enough that he couldn't exactly make out what was being said—the syllables coming out in quick bursts and half formed as your focus seemed to jump from topic to topic, each of them bringing you increasing distress.

Shouto had been watching you in horrid fascination, unable to take his eyes off of you as much as his mind screamed at his body to just fucking move, but when a sliver of moonlight coming in from his window—peeking out from behind a gap in the drapes he hadn’t pulled together close enough—caught the glint of tears brimming your eyes, he was quick to react, gripping your upper arm and, as gently as he could while still being firm, shook you. "(Y/N)!" he hissed, not wanting to startle you, "Wake up, please. What's wrong?"

It took a few tries—him wanting to snap you back to consciousness right away, but also afraid of hurting you or making things worse—but before a minute had passed you were coming back to reality, forcing your eyes open as you realized the images plaguing you hadn't been real. You sat up quickly, almost bumping your head against Shouto's (not that you even noticed he was there), your breaths coming hard and fast.

You completely forgot where you were for a moment, just focusing on calming down, and it wasn't until Shouto managed a quiet, "(Y/N)?," concern clearly lacing his voice, that you whipped your head around to face him.

And then your eyes slowly traveled around the rest of the room, recalling where you were. If he hadn't been there, the unfamiliar environment probably would have made you feel alarmed when you came to and make you start wondering if you were stuck in another nightmare again.

You heard Shouto clear his throat as he looked at you curiously, and your eyes snapped back to him. Just the sight of him had your eyes watering and before you knew it, you had flung yourself into his chest, fingers finding purchase in the loose fabric of his shirt.

He easily managed to steady you two from the momentum of you crashing into him and wrapped his strong arms around you, squeezing you to him as you sobbed into his chest.

It would take a little while for him to calm you down and although he was incredibly concerned, he made sure to be the rock you needed and let you take all the time in the world to stabilize yourself.

You would probably be a little embarrassed to tell him about your dream, especially now that you were more lucid, and may even start apologizing for your behavior earlier until he cuts you off because you had every right to react as you did.

After a bit of coaxing, along with you realizing you felt comfortable around him and that you shouldn't worry about him judging you for something as trivial as this, you opened up and told Shouto about your frequent nightmares. He would play with your hands as you talked to let you know it was okay and a silent kiss—soft lips against yours—would confirm that he loved you no matter what.

Shouto wouldn’t mind staying up late into the early hours of the morning with you if you wanted to talk about what you had experienced and may even suggest that you two sneak down to the dorm kitchen and get something to eat and drink (now that was fun—teasing him by pretending to be on a spy mission and forcing him to glance around all of the corners with you, as though you were suspicious about someone catching you? absolutely gold).

Just laying together and talking because you didn’t want to go to sleep would be fine with him, even if you insisted that he should get some rest. He didn’t want you to feel bad about the situation or think that you were a burden, so he did his best to take your mind off of it.

If you wanted to stay up longer, you might watch another movie or even play a few more rounds of Uno (Kaminari, the bastard, still had Monopoly locked in his room for some reason and hadn’t returned it to the game closet—now not to say that Shouto considered leaving an anonymous tip to Iida about the blonde breaking the unwritten rules of the dorm by not returning the game as soon as he was done with it but… yeah, he definitely considered it).

Expect sleepovers to become a lot more common between you two from then on, especially after you admitted that having Shouto there made things a lot more bearable. Whether it be in your dorm or his, both of you were always open to falling asleep in each other's arms whenever the other person asked.

At your next late night hang out session, you two even played Monopoly!

(Shouto had frozen Kaminari’s feet to the ground when he saw him running towards the game closet to snag the game again, and then calmly walked off with his prize after plucking it from the shelf while Kamianri wailed in distress and tried to unstick his feet and pull them free. Shouto couldn’t help but crack a small grin to himself in victory as he walked away.)

Per your request, you two invited some of the other students to play Monopoly because it was always fun with more people (for some reason, Shouto expressly stated that Kaminari was not to be invited and while you were confused, you just shrugged and agreed, even when you heard him say something about forcing the blonde go through “Monopoly withdrawal” as a punishment—you decided not to question him on that point), and a few of those who didn’t want to play just came to watch as well.

(Midoriya was one of those who came to play and while he was glancing around the room, his eyes landed on Shouto’s desk and he squinted in confusion, scrutinizing the little deck he saw tucked in the corner.)

(“Hey, Todoroki, are those my Uno car-”)

(“Nope. Oh look, you just landed on Boardwalk and Uraraka has a hotel there. You only have $200, right?”)

(“Wha- oh, fu-”)

Shouto had to deal with his fair share of nightmares as a child and if you ever want to talk about what the latest disturbing image that had haunted you was, he’ll always be available. In turn, he feels ready to open up about his own fears to you, all while soothing away yours. Talking with him feels natural, just like anything else involving him, and not keeping everything bottled up has definitely helped you more, causing your performance both in class and out in the battlefield to improve.

Your chest definitely feels a lot lighter these days and your dark circles seem to be fading. You probably owe those to your wonderful boyfriend turned portable heater (what? he’s perfect for when you want to take naps and now that he knows about your nightmares during the night, you no longer have to explain to him why you like to sleep so frequently during the day).

Shouto is nothing short of supportive and if there’s anything you ever need to ease the nightmares and lull you off to sleep—whether it be him buying you a diffuser you saw online, getting you a custom sleeping mask, or just you needing him to whisper sweet nothings into your ear and pepper kisses along your temple to help you fall back asleep after being jolted awake again—he’s always there to provide it.

393 notes · View notes

qqueenofhades · 3 years ago

Note

Keeping my fingers crossed for that Black Widow meta

Aha, okay. As usual, I am ludicrously easy to enable, so let's take a crack at this. The ask obviously contains SPOILERS for the Black Widow film (and is also tagged "black widow spoilers" if you're planning to filter), and discussion/reference to other films/properties in the MCU, though I don't feel like any of those are still a secret.

Anyway, as I said in my earlier post, I can't believe I am actually still trying to critically analyse a Marvel production in the year of our Lord 2021, but then, I feel like we all have a complicated relationship with it. Likewise, the feeling of "oh wow NOW you're giving Natasha a solo movie after you killed her off in a cheap and fairly sexist way in Endgame?" If this film had come out ten or even five years ago, it would have been major, but holding it off until now seems to have left most of us justifiably unimpressed. Plus, as I am absolutely not the first person to point out, it renders Natasha's sacrifice in Endgame "because I don't have a family" even more narratively incoherent. I realize that this film was written after that one by totally different people, there's no point in expecting the MCU to make consistent canonical sense throughout its eighty billion different films/series, we were all stuck with a mess after the Whedonified Age of Ultron Nat, and so forth, but still. Natasha explicitly SAYS that she has two families (her wacky Russian found family of spies and the Avengers) and her decision to leap off the cliff in Endgame to save Clint and his retconned perfect white heterosexual nuclear family.... Hmmmm. To which I say to you, I do not bite my thumb at you, sir, but I do bite my thumb at Male Writers, sir.

Likewise, while I am wildly attracted to Florence Pugh as Yelena and deeply desire to be wrapped between her thighs, the movie felt more like her story than Nat's. Yelena drove most of the plot and the action, while Nat was just kind of along for the ride. As a solo piece, we really didn't learn that much about Natasha aside from the opening scene (which felt like it was straight out of The Americans and probably worked the best of the whole film for the reason) with her childhood in America. But even the infamous "what happened in Budapest" backstory with her and Clint was quickly info-dumped rather than shown, and they could have taken more narrative risks or included more flashbacks or otherwise given us more NATASHA, y'know??? Instead of cramming the film into the small space between Civil War and Infinity War and making it even weirder that Nat seemingly has no memory or reference to these events when she returns to the team at that time. Why not show her looking for Yelena or her actual defection to the Avengers or anything else we might want from a film that purportedly exists entirely to provide backstory for a now-dead character? It felt like even in the film universe, the main quest was being repeated -- she tried to kill Baddie McSoviet once before and it didn't work out, so she has to do it again, something something. Okay.

As for that, good ol' Marvel and its American Superiority TM. The only actual Eastern European actress in this film about Eastern Europeans was Antonia/Taskmaster, played by the Ukrainian Olga Kurylenko (and I was very interested in her?? If she's supposed to be a narrative foil and a ghost of Nat's past and mark of her former sins, etc., why not develop her as an actual character?) Everyone else were Brits and Americans hamming it up with even more chew-the-scenery fake Russian accents than Elizabeth Olsen's "Sokovian" accent as Scarlet Witch. If it's established that they all have perfect American accents at the start of the movie, why is Nat the only American-accented character in the modern day if she had presumably the exact same childhood as Yelena? I know it's another way to set her apart, but that and Baddie McSoviet (the Russians are finding a way to steal free will from people's brains! Zomgz!!! Is this 2021 or 1981?) were straight out of the Cold War in terms of its not-so-veiled American Supremacy Message. Likewise, making modern!Natasha a former KGB agent never really made sense, since she says in Winter Soldier that she was born in 1984, and we see her in this film as an 11-year-old in 1995. But the USSR collapsed in 1991, when she was seven, and the Red Room appears to be an entirely unrelated flying....lab....thingy run by a generic evil Russian (Ray Winstone, likewise Hamming Up Accent). So like. What is she, guys?? Make up your minds!!!

Likewise, Baddie McSoviet/Dreykov as a villain obviously plays into the hoary old Hollywood "All Bad People Are Recognizable As Being Terrible Sexists and Also Probably Russians" trope, but aside from that, he doesn't make sense. He has this entire army of basically unstoppable Widows and he has just been.... waiting around and causing random explosions? Or was just waiting for Nat and company to return so he could Put His Evil Plan Into Motion? Are we really supposed to believe that this guy has just been sitting up in his flying saucer and essentially never doing anything this whole time? He had about a million chances to launch this take-over-the-world plan long before Natasha ever got there. Plus, I.... am.... not sure what to think (aside from /deep sigh/ MARVEL) about the fact that all the Widows we see dying/getting killed on screen are women of color. (Then the Black surgeon who was about to remove Yelena's brain in the Red Room and the only other Black guy being Natasha's errand boy, which just... in context... YIKES.) I think the fact that there are random Black background Widows are supposed to mean that they're inclusive and badass or something? Scarlett Johansson also has her own issues with White Feminism and all the other things we've critiqued her for before, so after TFATWS and the Flag Smashers, Marvel clearly has found its subtly racist sweet spot. As usual?

The end of the film also just basically turns into the standard Marvel empty-spectacle/cool-looking fights/people flying through the air thing, and I wanted a lot more focus on the wacky found-family Russian-spy hijinks (I did love them, for reasons) and character dynamics, rather than all of them separately fighting baddies in different places. I did obviously have feelings about Natasha putting the parachute on Yelena to save her life. But why were we then denied Nat/Gamora parallels/relationships/any character development or interaction at all in Infinity War/Endgame? Both of them are trained assassins adopted into a non-biological family that they have a complicated relationship with, but end up forging a strong bond with their sister (Yelena/Nebula) nonetheless. Of course, that would have required Endgame to put more effort into its female characters than what it did, which was one (1) Epic CGI Charge Scene at the very end, and literally nothing else. Not that I am still salty about this or anything.

Anyway. The movie was genuinely fun in places. The wacky Russian found family of spies was definitely the best part, even if it made Endgame even more nonsensical as a result. But I wanted this movie to be a lot better than it was overall, though I probably would have liked it more if it had actually come out in a timely fashion and wasn't only released after they killed her off. It just feels like there were so many possible threads of potential that could have been done with Natasha if they were actually interested in experimenting and exploring the character and not just coming up with new baddies and ways to go boom, and it unfortunately missed the mark with that.

#anonymous #ask #black widow #black widow spoilers #mcu #long post

31 notes · View notes

nnightskiess · 4 years ago

Text

r e q u e s t : Hi ! How are you ? I’m so sad as to what happened with Naya she was a huge inspiration in my life and It hit me really bad But I want to ask for an imagine where you are Santana’s little sister and you come in to join the glee club and you’re better then Rachel and she starts saying stuff but you pop off on her and Santana backs you up?? If you can, sorry if it doesn’t make sense

✫彡

Y/N sat cross-legged on a chair in the back row, texting one of her friends to try and pass the time. Mr. Schuester was late, as always. Her older sister, Santana, walked in with Brittany close behind her. They sat down in the chairs in front of Y/N and turned around to the younger Lopez to engage her in their conversation.

Their conversation was cut short when a loud clap of hands and an exciting yelp, coming from no other than Rachel Berry, interrupted them. Santana immediately rolled her eyes, knowing she was about to say something stupid again.

“You guys, I have amazing news!”

Y/N groaned loudly, knowing whatever Rachel had to say would probably only have interest to Rachel herself.

“I just made up my mind on what song I’ll be singing for regionals.” She went to stand in front of the group. If she had paid close attention, she’d seen that not all of them were pleased with her statement.

“What you’ll be singing?” Y/N cocked an eyebrow when Rachel stared at her for a few seconds. “We can all sing, we’re not your ensamble.”

“Didn’t you see how much everyone loved my solo at sectionals?! I want... I mean, we want that same standing ovation for regionals!”

“Oh, hell no.”

Puck cleared his throat, looking between Y/N and Rachel. “I kind of think Little-Lopez has a point.”

“Yeah, why can’t someone else get a solo this time? Sure, you’re an amazing singer but maybe you should give someone else a... chance... for once?” Artie tried to reason with her but his voice slowly died down after seeing Rachel’s disappointed expression.

The girl looked at Y/N for a split second only to see her with her arms crossed and a sneer on her face.

“So I’m taking you guys don’t want to win regionals then? Because we won’t if we’re changing our obviously, well-oiled, brilliant plan.” She took a deep breath and scribbled the name of the song down on the whiteboard- Always Starting Over from the musical If/Then.

“Listen here, Berry.” Y/N cocked her head to one side, “That obviously, well-oiled, brilliant plan of yours makes us look like your jazz hands, dancing oompa loompa’s who are just there to try and make you look better. Well, Willy Wonka, get this- I’m done being your background furniture that you picked up along the road just because we were free to take and have piss stains all over us.”

Santana whistled proudly at the insult her younger sister had just thrown at Rachel and it earned a few hums of approval from some of the other Glee club members.

Rachel was taken back for a few seconds but regained herself and cleared her throat, “Did you forget the cheering I got after my part? Why can’t you see that that’s exactly what we need to win regionals as well?”

“Ptchh, you should get your facts checked because they weren’t cheering for you. We all know I’m the better singer out of the two of us.”

Santana crossed her arms and gave Rachel a smirk, knowing who had won this argument. Everyone knew that the sassiness that ran in the Lopez family wasn’t only given to Santana. When it came to that, the two sisters were basically carbon copies of each other.

“That is so out of line! You talk the talk but when it comes to the performance you don’t walk the walk.” Rachel pointed a finger at the younger Lopez sibling and Y/N shot up, her fists balled up in rage. She was about to lounge at Rachel until Mr. Schue walked in.

“What is happening, guys?”

“Y/N is throwing a spanner in the works of our way to end up on top at regionals.”

Mr. Schue put his bag down onto the piano and eyed the younger girl for a few seconds, silently asking her for an explanation.

Santana rolled her eyes, “Hardiharhar, don’t be so dramatic. Y/N just expressed her displeasure and put her in her place- the lowest of the low in the hierarchy, where she belongs.” She shrugged.

“Santana.” Was all that Mr. Schuester said before turning to Rachel, who pointed to the song written down on the whiteboard.

“I’ve practiced this song for months and I think regionals is the right moment to finally sing it and show them what I got.”

He nodded, “Wow, If/Then is a great musical. Are you sure you can handle this song?”

Rachel nodded enthusiastically.

“Very well then!” He turned to the group, “I think we just found our first song for regionals.” He smiled his goofy smile. Mercedes and Kurt looked at each other before rolling their eyes while Quinn sighed and sank into her chair.

Santana furrowed her eyebrows again and shook her head in disbelief, hoping she didn’t just hear him say that.

“Um...hello?” She waved her arms around until Mr. Schue looked at her. “Okay, good! You do see us! For a second I thought you completely forgot about the rest of us existing.”

Mr. Schue sighed and looked down before eyeing his students, “Listen, I know everyone here works very hard, and each of you has an amazing and unique voice, but for now I think that we should just let Rachel sing the solo at regionals. However, that doesn’t mean that I render any of you unworthy of taking the lead another time. You will all get to sing a part in the second song, I promise.”

“How’s that fair? We didn’t even get a chance to tell you what we would like to sing or show you what we got.” Mercedes spoke up.

“Rachel practices every day. She deserves to sing.” Finn shrugged.

“No one asked you, Finn.” Y/N shot at the boy, who widened his eyes in response. “You don’t have a leg to stand on in this discussion, we all know you will probably get the male lead.”

Y/N then turned back to Mr. Schue. “Everyone knows Rachel is your favourite and I’m sick of it. You treat her like she’s the best thing since sliced bread.”

“That’s not true. I don’t do favourites.”

“Yes, you do. You clearly favourite that vest because it’s all you’ve been wearing for the past two weeks.” Santana shrugged.

Mr. Schuester rubbed his temple. Having to deal with not only one, but two Lopez girls was making him age faster. Especially at times when they let their minds run rampant.

Y/N crossed her arms. “I signed up for Glee club, not for ‘Sing-And-Smile-In-The-Background-Of-The-Rachel-Berry-Show’ club. Half the time, we’re not even on stage during her songs.”

“Wait, does that club exist?” Brittany mumbled under her breath.

“Guys, when have I ever steered you wrong? Please, trust me on this.” Mr. Schuester placed his hand on his heart.

“I think you’re just jealous.” Rachel’s tone was challenging as she sat down next to Finn.

Y/N shot up again.

“Yes, you might know how to sing, but you’ll never be able to leave the audience as impressed as I ever will.”

Santana now shot up as well.

“Qué acabas de decirme?” (What did you just say to me?)

Both girls made a move to lounge at Rachel but Quinn, Mike and Sam held them back. They struggled to do so while Y/N threw all the Spanish insults she knew at the girl in front of her.

“Enough!” Mr. Schuester tried but his voice didn’t stand out in the chaotic yelling. He sighed before clearing his throat.

“I want you both out.” He directed to the two sisters.

“Now!”

Everyone fell silent and it seemed to do the trick. Y/N slowly turned to him. Mr. Schue had a stern look on his face while he glared at the siblings. He kept pointing at the door.

“Fine.” Y/N grabbed her backpack, waited for Santana to dust herself off and grab her belongings too.

“You know what? I could use a break.” Santana huffed as both of them walked out of the room. Their heads held high, no dignity lost over what just happened.

They walked to the football bleachers where Santana immediately lit up a sigaret.

“Do you think he kicked us out... permanently?”

It was times like these, when it was only the two of them, where Y/N still depended on her older sister.

“Maybe.” Santana shrugged her shoulders, “If he can’t appreciate having you in the club then that’s his loss.”

Santana gave Y/N a playful nudge with her shoulder when the younger Lopez still seemed deep in thought. Y/N looked up to see Santana’s soft smile and she immediately sent her a goofy smile back.

“They can’t go to regionals without us. And if they do find a way, we’ll just have to start our own Glee club, huh?” She smirked. “I’m sure it won’t take long before Mercedes is sick of it as well.” She comforted her little sister.

“Yeah, but what will we do in the meantime?”

Santana furrowed her eyebrows, wanting Y/N to elaborate.

“I can’t believe I’m about to say this- but I actually really like Glee club and I was pretty excited for regionals.”

Santana nodded, “I know you do. I can see it in your eyes when you sing.” She took another drag of her sigaret. “Between you and me, I enjoy singing in Glee club as well.”

Y/N nodded softly and brought her legs close to her body so she could let her chin rest on her knees.

“San?”

Her sister hummed in return.

“Was Rachel right?” She looked up at Santana, “Am I really not giving that good of a performance?”

“Baby, no.” Santana gave her a stern look, telling her not to go there. “You might’ve only done one couplet by yourself so far... but even in the songs where you sing background vocals, you manage to outshine the rest.”

“But there must be a reason why I haven’t got the chance to lead a song yet.”

“Yup. And that reason is Rachel, dwarf, Berry.” Santana shrugged. “You know I’d tell you if you sucked.”

Y/N laughed at that, Santana so would.

“If Mr. Schue isn’t letting us show him what we got, then we have to come up with another way to get through that head of his how capable you are of leading a song.”

Santana suddenly stood up, put out her sigaret with her shoe and motioned for Y/N to take her hand.

It was a few days later and neither Santana or Y/N had attended Glee club after what happened on Monday. Rachel had made herself very clear to Y/N that she was very disappointed in her since Y/N’s jealousy caused the club to not be able to partake in regionals. Brittany had tried convince the two girls to join Glee club again with a clumsily, selfmade powerpoint and even Finn had kindly asked them to reconsider going back. But they simply couldn’t, at least not just yet.

But now that it was Friday, everything was ready to go.

The two Lopez girls decided to wait a few minutes until everyone was present before they walked into the room. Mr. Schue stopped talking and turned around, a disappointed look on his face.

“We’re not here for a pity-party and we’re definitely not walking in with our tails tucked between our legs,” Santana started as a few band members shyly shuffled their way into the room, instruments in hand.

“We just want to show you that we are fully capable of leading a song.” Y/N spoke as she shoo’d everyone to the side.

“Hit it.”

[glee performance of tina turner’s ‘river deep, mountain high’, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82lYMlXB-fI ]

Rachel seemed unsettled during the performance, clearly noticing how everyone else was enjoying the two sisters sing. Mr. Schue, who had seem hesitant at first, was now visibly entertained and impressed and had already long forgotten what happened a few days earlier. Rachel sunk further into her seat when she noticed that.

Everyone knew the Lopez girls both had beautiful voices, but that they would sound so well together was news to them all. Mr. Schue now realised what a shame it was that he had never explored letting different kids sing together, and that all his attention had always been on the same people.

What topped the performance off, was the excitement in the sisters’ eyes. They were clearly having fun with the song and their minds seemed to have no memory of why they originally decided to perform. It was just them and the music they danced and sang along to.

But when the band played the last melodies, they suddenly seemed to remember and turned back around to the group with proud smirks on their faces.

On the last note, Santana held her hand up for her sister to high five.

Everyone started clapping and Mr. Schuester stood up, walking up to them.

“Ladies! That was fantastic!” He gave Y/N a pat on her shoulder. “Now that is how you sing a song! Well done!”

Rachel silently clapped along. She would never say out loud how much she had enjoyed their performance.

“I’m sorry, Rachel, but now that I’ve seen this-” Mr. Schue rubbed his chin, “I want to try a different approach at regionals. This is what will get the crowd’s attention!”

He turned to Rachel, an apologetic look on his face, “Do you mind giving your solo to Santana and Y/N?”

Rachel shrugged absentmindedly, trying to make it seem like she didn’t care, “It’s healthy to have some competition. It will push me to become a better performer.”

Mr. Schue nodded and turned back to the Lopez girls.

“Congratulations, you two. It’s yours!”

Everyone clapped again until Santana spoke up.

“No, no, no. I’m backing out.”

“W-why?” Confusion was written all over Mr. Schue’s face. “I thought it’s what you two wanted?"

“What I wanted was for you to realise that there are other people capable of leading a performance.” She turned to her sister, who had been confused at Santana’s decision up until now. “People like Y/N, for example. You take it. I know you can do it without me.”

Y/N tried to convince her otherwise, “But you’ve never had a solo either! We should-”

“Uh, uh.” Santana waved her finger, “I want you to take it.”

The two had a little face off for a few seconds, it was their way of talking to each other without words. Santana cocked her head to the side, knowing Y/N was about to give in.

Y/N rolled her eyes. “Fine.”

Santana smiled widely, grabbed her sister and planted a kiss on her head.

“I’ll always back you up.”

She winked at Y/N before the two of them went to sit down, ready for today’s Glee club.

#santana lopez imagine #santana lopez x reader #santana lopez / you #santana lopez one shot #santana lopez #naya rivera imagine #naya rivera imagines #santana lopez imagines #naya rivera x reader #glee imagine #glee imagines #glee x reader #glee preferences #glee one shot

444 notes · View notes

carnistcervine · 4 years ago

Text

Cyberpunk Avatar RPG

Wouldn’t it be cool if there was a cyberpunk Avatar RPG?

[Image Description- A logo that says “AVATAR Neon Lights in the Eternal Night” “AVATAR” is done in a classic 80′s chrome style, and “Neon Lights” and “Eternal Night” are done like neon lights. Raava’s diamond dots the “i” in lights, and Vaatu’s diamond dots the “i” in night. The phrase is set over a starry night sky.]

youtube

[Video Description/Transcript-

A woman pants a few times, out of breath. She pauses, and hesitantly turns around. Behind her is an ominous tree with a creepy glowing orange object in it looking like an eye. We cut back to the woman who has turned around and is facing the tree.

Next we cut to a simple game scene where the woman and the tree face each other. There is some simple game gui displayed on the screen. A dialogue box is open.

“A strange tree in the middle of the room regards you carefully. You stare back into a glowing object in the tree’s hollow that you can only assume to be it’s eye. you become transfixed, gazing deep into the strange hollow as the soft hum of neon lights and the strange, heartbeat-like ticking fade into the background.

Suddenly, a voice emanates from somewhere. It is low, but commanding. It calls to you...”

Another dialogue box with a portrait of the tree and labeled “???”

“Well, well, well. What do we have here? You seem... different from the usual humans that bother me. Yes, you don’t wear that hideous outfit and you seem to carry yourself differently...”

Another dialogue box

“...

That tremor in your mortal core...

...

You aren’t supposed to be here, are you?”

Another dialogue box but with the woman and the label “Ember”

“...”

Another dialogue box for “???”

“Do not worry, I am not going to raise any alarms. Quite the opposite, actually. You see, I require your assistance. I have been imprisoned here for well over 10,000 years, and if that wasn’t bad enough, in the past few hundred years humans have come across my prison and decided to exploit me for their own gain. They’ve been draining me for hundreds of years. Please. If you consider yourself an ally of spirits, HELP ME.”

Dialogue options for Ember

“>[Ominous] “I don’t know...”

[Accepting] “Sure...”

[Mean] “Not my problem...”

[Silence] “...””

The ominous option is chosen and this dialogue box from Ember appears.

“I dunno, you seem pretty ominous to me.”

Another dialogue box from “???”

“So, I don’t deserve your assistance because you find me scary??

I deserve to be in pain then.

Wow.”

Ember responds

“That’s not what I said.”

??? replies

“It was implied.

Ember’s dialogue box:

“No it- Look. I don’t even know your name.”

??? now known as Vaatu replies.

“My name is Vaatu. I am an eternal spirit. I have watched the sun’s violent birth, and will be here for it’s burning end. I have existed before time began, and have played role in the shaping of the very universe itself.

My counterpart trapped me in here so she could shape the world without my input. The humans are draining me of my power and I’ve been in agony for centuries. Is that good enough for you?”

Ember’s dialogue options:

“[Kind] “You poor thing...”

>[Accepting] “Sure...”

[Mean] “Not my problem...”

[Silence] “...””

Accepting is chosen.

“Sure. Why not.”

Vaatu replies,

“So, you’ll help me?”

Ember’s options:

“[Accept Quest] “Of course.”

[Deny Quest] “No.”

>[Inquire] “What about me?”

[Silence] “...””

Inquire is chosen.

“That depends... What’s in it for me?”

Vaatu responds:

“Hmm... What’s that you mortals are always prattling on about? Morality?

Do it because it’s “the right thing to do” or something...”

Ember’s dialogue options:

“[Accept Quest] “Fair.”

[Deny Quest] “No thanks.”

>[Assuming] “Bold of you...”

[Silence] “...””

Assuming option is chosen.

“Bold of you to assume I care about doing the right thing.”

Another narrating dialogue box appears.

“There is a silence. Annoyance rolls off of Vaatu in waves. You almost expect the tree hollow to narrow at you.

But instead he replies:”

Vaatu’s reply-

“Fair enough. Help me, and you will be rewarded... quite handsomely.

Do you find these terms agreeable?”

Ember’s dialogue options:

“>[Accept Quest] “Sure.”

[Deny Quest] “Not good enough.”

[Tease Him] “I dunno...”

[Silence] “...””

The quest is accepted.

“Sure. Why not?”

The dialogue box closes and a pop up appears. Saying that the quest log has been updated.

Another dialogue option appears indicating that the player has chosen to interact with Vaatu again.

“Soo, how exactly am I supposed to free you?”

Vaatu replies:

“Well, ending the drain of my energy would be a great start.

Occasionally humans will come in here and check these strange electrical vines for anomalies. Sometimes talking about a “system overload.” It seems this would take their whole set up down. Maybe look into that.”

The dialgue box closes and the characters continue their idle animations for a few more seconds as the video ends.]

Like, that’d be pretty sweet huh?

Anyway, here’s a thing I’ve been working on for past couple weeks. It’s gonna be a long one, so lots of concept art, vids, and descriptions below the cut.

So, anyway, I kind of got this idea for a cyberpunk Avatar RPG fangame and did some concepts and mockups for it. :D

A working title I came up for it was Avatar: Neon Lights in the Eternal Night. The main idea/driving force of the plot is that humans are exploiting Vaatu/The Tree of Time as a sort of infinite clean energy source. And well, while the energy gotten doesn’t cause runaway greenhouse effects that would devastate the planet’s climate, it has upset the spirits, and caused major metropolitan areas to be cloaked in eternal darkness. Also, over the past few hundred years, the physical realm and spirit world have been drifting further and further apart, creating a void/rift realm between the two. And if that weren’t bad enough, the world governments are corrupted and run by big business, and their iron will is enforced by the corrupted police systems.

So you’d have to deal with dark/corrupted spirits, bad cops, evil corporations, and uncaring governments. :’D

My idea for the main game is that you can either choose a preset character or create your own character from scratch. You can choose your gender, bending ability(including being a nonbender!), national alliance(which determines where you start), your appearance, starting stats(make your character as balanced or min-maxed as you want) among other things.

Here’s a GUI mockup I made for the character creator, it’s very basic, only a first draft but it gets the basic idea across. I hope. :’D

[Image Description- A simple gui mockup for an RPG game. It shows the options for naming, gender, ability, choosing an alignment to a particular nation. It also has unshown tabs for looks and stats. There is a window for finalizing the character open, asking “Is this your true form?” A yes or no option is given.]

I’m not 100% on this look/design, but what I was thinking was that the character creator could be split into three tabs- Bio, Looks, and Stats.

Bio would be your name, gender, bending ability(you can choose nonbender!), and which nation you align with. There’s also an option to be unaligned(the yin-yang like symbol), and you’d be offered some info about your ability/nation combo. Like information about the Fire Nation if you choose to be a Fire Nation firebender, or even info about nonbenders in whatever faction you choose, or how people of other bending types exist/are treated by your chosen faction. Like how waterbenders live in the Fire Nation, or firebenders live in the Water Tribes.

I am considering adding the swamp tribe and splitting the Water Tribe into the Northern and Southern variants, but again, this gui thing is just a first draft. :’D

For looks, you’d choose your characters skin color, hair color and style, eye color, as well as from a few small cybernetic options. Of course, you could have a character with no cybernetics as well.

With stats, you’d choose your starting stat distributions. I’m thinking that I’d have stats like strength, bending, speed, agility, and maybe even stats like charisma or spirituality. Charisma would effect your character’s ability to interact with others, and spirituality would affect their ability to interact with spirits or connect to their patron deity.

Someone who isn’t very spiritual wouldn’t have much of a connection to their deity and isn’t likely to be blessed by them however they’re more resistant to the effects of negative spirit energy and dark spirits. Meanwhile, someone who is highly spiritual would receive buffs and bonuses from their patron deity, but would also be much more vulnerable to dark spirits.

Also yes, the character creation screen is absolutely your character standing there as Vaatu ominously stares at you in the background.

Also here’s how I picture the character creator minus the GUI-

youtube

[Video Description- A short video of a character standing in front of the Tree of Time, doing an idle animation. The video looks very reminiscent of PSx style rendering.]

Here are some character models I’ve done thus far~ (They’d probably end up as preset characters)

youtube

[Video/Image descriptions- A simple idle animation of a woman swaying slightly from side to side. After that are a series of screenshots to show off her design. She has brown skin and dark turquoise eyes. Her hair is a slightly darker brown than her skin. She wears a dark purple hazmat/wetsuit type deal. She has dark blue gloves and boots with cyan tops. The boots also have a stripe going down the front. The wetsuit has a cyan collar and a design on the front that looks a little like a fishbone or a pelvic bone with a few vertebra. She has cyan water symbols on her shoulders, and has a water tank on her back. The water tank also has a water symbol on it. She has a dark purple gasmask with white markings over the eyes and nose, cyan filters, and fancy-looking lenses.]

I don’t really have a name for her, I just made the design on the fly, and called her “Cyber Water”. :p I really ended up loving her design though, and her idle. Like it’s just a simple sway/shift weight from foot to foot, but I quite like how fluid she looks, and the way here ponytail swings so nicely~

For her design I kind of got this idea of a hazmat/wetsuit type thing. While, unintentional, I do really like how the marking on her front kind of looks like a fishbone/pelvis and spine. I feel like it kind of adds to the hazmat type effect. Also, I meant for the white on her gasmask to be shine, but it ended up looking like snow/markings, and well, I actually really like the effect it gives actually! She also has a tank of water on her, so she also has some element to use. I haven’t decided whether the water should be tainted so it poisons the people she attacks or purified so she can drink/heal with it should the need arise.

I also really like her face, I feel like I’m getting better at texturing faces. My only regret is that I keep forgetting to add some hair around the edges of her face so her hairline isn’t so awkward/abrupt.

Also yes, I did make her hair danglies droplet shaped on purpose. I couldn’t help myself. :3

youtube

[Video and Image Descriptions- A young woman sways slightly once, and taps her foot impatiently twice. Next are a series of screenshots showing off her design. She has lightly tanned skin, dark hair with green highlights, neon green eyelashes, her left eye is normal and dark green, her right eye is cybernetic and looks like it’s made from a smoothed emerald. Her face is dotted with neon green crystal freckles, she has a silver nosering and snakebites, as well as earring with the same crystals that make up her freckles. She wears a dark green tunic with a gold collar, and golden Earth Kingdom symbols as accents down the front. The bottom is lined with neon green symbols. The symbols don’t mean anything, they just look cool. Her hands are robotic, and she has brown pants that are tucked into bluish-green boots.]

LORD. I had WAY too much fun with this one! Her idle is by far my favorite! That little foot tap. I just, it’s such a small thing but it adds so much character. <3 Also it’s just cute as hell~

Her face is also my favorite. Like, I love her creepy, crystal eye, her nose ring, crystal freckles, even just the way her face turned out. <3 <3 Like, I’m gushing but I’m super proud of her~ Like my idea for her is that she kind of takes body mods to the next level and has crystals implanted into her face, giving her crystal freckles.

Also she got robot arms/hands.

I have more characters, but I’ve reached my video limit, so rip.

I mean, I’ll just make a second post with the other three I’ve made, no big deal.

butsneakpeek

[Image Description- A screenshot preview of five cyberpunk style benders.]

I’ve made three levels/environments so far~

The Tree of Time-

Once a part of the sacred balance of the realms and a keystone holding the two worlds together, as well as a prison to keep Vaatu from reeking havoc upon the world, this place has since been exploited by an enterprising group of humans who decided to use the tree and it’s hapless occupant to power the world and it’s vanities. Hundreds of years later, both the tree and Vaatu remain as a source of infinite energy for mankind, with the cost being the slow spread of eternal darkness and chaos. While Vaatu isn’t happy about his predicament, he is an eternal being. He bides his time, waiting for his inevitable freedom...

[Image Description- Multiple screenshots of a cyberpunk take on the Tree of Time. The first two are rendered in unreal with dark purple lighting and some PSX shaders for some good old PSX crunch. The last three are screenshots from Maya with neutral lighting. The level’s ceiling is a downward pointing cone of many black cables/wires connecting into the top of the tree. The tree itself is also covered in black wires with red lights. Vaatu peeks out from the tree’s hollow. With the way the model is designed, the tree hollow looks like an eye that follows the person looking at it.

Because it is.

The tree sits on a red platform with it’s roots entangled in wires coming up from the floor. Tall, grey metal walls surround the tree, they are all adorned with the symbols of the elements along with a symbol for light and a symbol for dark.

Ember is also there because Vaatu needs an emotional support firebender and Zuko wasn’t available.]

The Jasmine Dragon-

The Jasmine Dragon is a teashop opened and ran by everyone’s favorite proverb giving, tea drinking, fire-breathing Uncle. It sits comfortably in the upper ring of Ba Sing Se, many patrons describing the tea served there as divine, and something to experience at least once before you die. Being an old retired general and ex-crown prince of the Fire Nation, Uncle knows how to lay low in the public eye and hide his cards well. Which is why, despite not appearing on the radar of the Dai Li, Uncle has managed to create safe space for those rebelling against Ba Sing Se’s authoritarian regime.

[Image Description- Multiple images of a more modern take on The Jasmine Dragon from ATLA. The first two are renders from Unreal, with that good ol’ PSX crunch. The rest are screenshots from Maya, which is why they’re actually legible. The walls are a beige color, there are many cream colored tables surrounded by green chairs. There are two rectangular windows at the front with a long table and sofas for customers who want to look outside as they drink. There are also two sets of two smaller hexagonal windows on either side of the restaurant. Down the center isleway there is a green rug with a dragon design on it. The walls are also adorned with many deep green posters, depicting earth symbols or dragons. In the employee’s only backroom there is a counter with a table and a few shelves as well as a couch for employees(Zuko) to rest while on break. There are red posters in the back room and a red backdoor for emergency exits. The Earthbender girl is featured in the first two screenshots. Ember can be seen in the Maya screenshots. She likes the boba tea.

Here’s what all the posters would say if Carnist wasn’t poop at writing Chinese.

-Earth is strong

-Jasmine Dragon

- It is better to go for three days without food than one day without tea.

-Fire

-Fire is fierce

-Exit

-The world [all under heaven] is guided by one.

-Fuck the police.]

Convexity-

As the rift between the material and spiritual planes widens, an airlock of sorts has been created. A void between worlds, created by the imbalance, and shifting of spiritual energy and physical matter.

Yes this place was inspired by convexity from The Legend of Spyro. :’D

[Image Description- Multiple screenshots of dark hexagonal stones with purple/pinkish energy flowing through them. The stones appear to be floating in an empty void, however once one looks down, a spiraling galaxy or maybe a quasar can be spotted.

Also Ember is there.

She really gets around.]

Finally, here’s a bunch of concept sketches-

[Image Description- Several concept sketches depicting a cyberpunk Gaang, the Krew, and even the best Avatar: Wan.]

One last thing I feel I should mention- I wasn’t planing on making a fangame, but if this post gets 150 notes or the video at the top of the post gets 150 likes, or both, I’ll make a functional demo and make the project open source with my assets and such also available for download.

I’m making the game, lol.

Credits-

Character models were made from Jugapugz’s lowpoly base

Aight, I desperately need sleep, so I’ll post the other three characters tomorrow. And I’ll update this post a better description for the concept sketches. Until then, thanks for checking this out~

#ATLA #Avatar #LoK #Cyberpunk #The Gaang #The Krew #Mula #Pabu #Naga #Long Feng #Raava #Vaatu #Zhao #Azula #Wan #Neon Lights in the Eternal Night

14 notes · View notes

stry-someone-to-remember-you · 4 years ago

Text

Plan(ed) to Have Something Ready, By The Ball Drop &/or Tomorrow!!! If Everything Works out...

Hey Everyone,

HAPPY NEW YEARS EVE!!!

Wow, this is the second message without any art added or anything... LOL... Seems odd really to do this without having something up by now... By the way, yes the current avatar pic is related to the comic as you’ll come see soon. It’s and early sketch so some kinks aren’t worked out in the current image. But it was the one I was ready to have when I made this blog so there was at least something...

So as you probably can see by this title, I do plan on having something posted... I just don’t know to what extent. Due to some family drama, and continually piling on work I wasn’t able to get my Christmas Pic out to you guys, which was just a static scene with a few of the characters to get us started here. But... well family got in the way, continually decorating till Christmas day... a lot of things going on, bickering (though we all love each other) it’s just... you know life. I fully expected this as well, which is why I promised something before New Years, but didn’t specify as to what.

I postponed that idea to be released today or tomorrow, after seeing how I was completely unable to get to the work by Christmas Eve. But, by the looks of the progress I made on it and my families continually need of me till we get some things done in this house (that always has something to be done in it... LOL, at least things are coming fairly together). So lets just say, I may not have anything out by tomorrow. But with hopes I want to have something out. So We’ll see. I could release early the character sketches. But I want to keep this blog clean as possible, so I feel releasing the character profiles, cards and blogs together prior to the Prologue, would fit better and keep this page having a cleaner look to it at the start.

Maybe even by midnight tomorrow PST I could have something... But that again depends. I need to clean stuff for the internet/cable guy and I’m seriously allergic to dust... So the next few days I may be in an almost sickly comatose state regardless of the precautions I take. If dust gets kicked into the air at all and isn’t properly vacuumed up, than I’m often sick for days... I feel like all I’ve been doing the whole month is cleaning or working story wise on this comic... Mostly cleaning if you ask me, but at least after Saturday things should be more relaxed and I can have a better work schedule planned out. So yeah, that’s my life...

But DIDNT’ WAN TO LEAVE YOU HANGING with this Negative Nancy Talk ;D ;P ;D lol....

I want to tell you what I have so far:

I have the Christmas Image at least with the basic building blocks to complete it. Like I’ve drawn where I want things, but not detailed anything... So that’s why it may be a day or so... Technically its a Happy Holidays and New Years piece, but with the Christmas Tree in it I have the habit of calling it such...

I may have plans to detail it a bit more then I plan on having the comic, but that also depends on things. I may just leave it in the same style and not fully decked out to make it easier to finish...

~Several Characters for the beginning have their final forms created. These are major characters that will be scene in the prologue. I’m just having to figure out out little things with background characters in some instances.

~The prologue is almost completely written out. I had a change of heart a week ago on some things and had to change it around, which is why the written format for the prologue isn’t complete as it initially was. I just felt some things didn’t fit, so I added and took away some things so it flows better and also works both fanfiction wise for the story, but easily mixes for the Ask AU... I also have at least the beginning portion of the Intro script written, the parts unaffected by the changes. However, parts of the intro will be written out, depending on the questions you ask the characters in this prologue so these portions I’m leaving open on purpose. It’s the plot driven portions I’m mentioning that I’ve changed slightly. ;) I have fun plans for the prologue. Remember this story has a clear direction I’m taking it with plot. But the Ask portion will be a part of it, I have such a fun way of Ask’s being tied into the plot driven story, and it will change depending on the context, person and setting which makes this really fun to plan out.

-With that said, here’s an early heads up, that for Ask Questions, I will allow any sort of asks, but if it has potential to spoil a part of the story, then I won’t answer it. Alongside this, I’ll allow Anon magic to a small degree. I won’t include Asks that like spoil something for a character, or tell the character where someone is, give away what someone else is doing to another character, etc... Unless it may fit the context, but generally I won’t use these types of asks. I will allow Anons to appear occasionally rather then just be unseen voices, as I have fun ways of incorporating Anons into the story that also works with different points in the plot. I will accept things like... say a dog or cat to appear for ex. amount of asks. I already know who they’ll be and have been planning out their designs, but I may draw the line at other animals (e.g. horses, fish, racoons, squirrels, lizards, etc.) Although, I do really love rabbits, I chose to make it concise to just two animals that if asked could appear. It’s not because I can’t draw them but I don’t want things getting out of hand. Types of anon magic I’m not going to use if put in the Ask portion, are things like giving people certain powers or items that may completely effect the tone or plot of the story, accept maybe if I did a non-canon AU to this au for fun one day. I will go more in depth in the general rules later. In no way is this to discourage anyone from asking such things. I may set reminders at times if I get to much of something. But, in general I’ll do what I can to make this a fun Ask blog all the same.

~The Larger Summary, I promised like a trailer would be in the comic form I have rendered the Script for, and have two slides so far drawn out, just not completed. (for the time I didn’t have around the Holidays compared to normally I actually surprised myself with this)

~The story itself is really coming together, I already have a starting and stopping point (which I had prior to this blog) as it will have several Acts and Arcs, some which have greatly changed and take on new depth since the point I started this blog. The themes and story in general are drawn out pretty well. I don’t have all the chapters I’d want fully written. As I have my plan, but I also want to get the prologue in first, just to see if there’s anything I should change with my concept. It’s just a precaution, something I’ve learned well when taking on something new. So I don’t have things that are written in stone and hard to change if the form I’m hoping to take doesn’t work out and needs to be retooled or something. But these are minor and shouldn’t change the overall scope and plot I’m taking this story on either.

~I’ve created several of the character bios, many in fact are already written in true Henry Stickmin fashion. But as I took inspiration to make this into a AU as well, I will possibly make both the bio cards and show a static shot of the characters alongside it or something... It’s an idea, but I want this to also be the easier comic. But, considering that I’ll always have a static shot I use as reference for any character I make, this is what makes this more realistic to occur as well. ~I’ve nearly drawn out all the characters for the intro portion. And already know how I’ll handle Anon’s in the story. In the Prologue itself, I’ll actually have you Anon’s being referenced as audience members in a conference of sorts. Think of it like those conferences when a new Apple or Microsoft product is first advertised as something new to the news conference, those big rotunda’s where someone's being interviewed and presenting the hot new item. Think of the opening to the prologue being something like this scenario. So the questions directed at the character in there, who... *cough* I will introduce later after I fully render both their character profile and have their character bio(s) fully done. Which considering how fun and easy it’s been to do this so far shouldn’t be to long now... Although to keep from getting questions to soon on them, I may hold off on posting the Characters and Bio’s till I have that Intro/Trailer completed... I’m still considering which to do first actually. But top on my list out of all of these is having my cover art for the top completed. That’s something I admit though I have the layout I have hardly started on and should focus on first.

~I’m also taking close looks at how to properly make the rules for this group. When I posts either the Character Bios, Holiday Pic, OR the Trailer Comic... Maye even just the cover art... Then I will try to have out an official Rules list. The one I have on the group posts is just general stuff... But I’m reconsidering some rules I already wrote... Basically keep things family friendly, be kind an courteous, nothing vulgar or disturbing.

I may change this from a PG-13 comic to maybe PG-15. I’ve realized recently, there are some points that some characters do swear... sometimes more then once. I’m not someone who talks with vulgarity myself, but I sure can write characters with it.... Let’s just say I’m going to see if in those scenes I might just bleep out words and see if the dialogue still comes through. But, I dunno... LUCKILY, we don’t have to worry about many of those scenes till way further into this comic. So lucky for either of us, this isn’t a major concern at the moment. And on the plus side it’s not the crudest words I could have chosen so... it may still work as a PG-13 work... I’ll make this decision soon as possible.

Another reason for the sudden change, came as I realized as the story goes, and even in early chapters there will be scenes where blood is shown and physical mortal danger and peril is experienced by the characters. I do have heavy theming sometimes, later on it may seem constantly about. As this story is heavily Drama/Mystery and some suspense based. As the story progresses it will become less Drama/Mystery and more based around the drama/suspense itself. This will obviously be some more intense scenes that showing less blood would allow me to make PG-13, however I also don’t want to undercut the certain tones using representations of a mortal wound would bring. I also want to look at things like these future scenes realistically. Which is why I’m mostly considering changing this story to a PG-15 or at least more certain I am. I just don’t want people shocked that I’m doing this. I don’t feel this story will be R, there was a time where I heavily considered it. But for once I decided no, I didn’t want that. I just didn’t want to open the door for scenes I didn’t intend to have in this story. There will be heavy themes that my have TW for some people. But I didn’t want some TW’s that having a R rated story could potentially have. I mean certain themes people are free to write fanfictions for, and depending on the content can make art for. But again this will be family friendly group... As You can see I’m considering more then a little here when it comes to the official rules. These details will be followed up on the official rules post.

~~~~~~

Now I apologize for the length.

The structure of this and the previous Authors Notes will probably fall under their own category for length. I’ll work to make sure posts in the future won’t be so long and hard to read. It is early morning for me when I woke to write this, and I found once much of the day passed that I still wanted to include the stuff I did into this update.

I have more to tell you, but I think this post has spurned the energy in me out. Anything that I missed in this post, I’ll try to remember to update in the next post (hopefully after I get some art on here). What I can’t do at the moment is promise dates right now till I’m more certain of schedule to work on this or can promise that my general allergies won’t cause me to delay this at all. But I can confirm that I should have several things coming out this next month, including the comic Prologue I hope. Depending on the traction the comic and fanfic gets, I may try to work on it quickly, or take my time with it. I may do a mix of both as my perfectionist self won’t let me just shoot something out without giving it my all first. I’m shushing that side slightly so this comic will be easier on me then the more detailed one I have planned. All the same, I’m planning to work on this one more at the moment till I can get an idea of my work flow. Sometimes the easiest route of work is better for planning, rather then diving head first into the deep end right away. You don’t learn to swim by jumping head first into the ocean. Piece of advice that it took years for me to learn myself ;). Anyways, I figured since I did promise something hopefully by today or tomorrow, I’d give you a formal update... Also... Well I can’t promise that updates won’t be like this in the future. I’ll try to keep them concise. But as people who know me, well have learned when it comes to personally talking I tend to write or talk out epistle. So... When I give updates, I may have lengthy ones... I’ll try my best to keep this side of me out of updates, if I can help it. Anyways Happy New Years Everyone!!! I hope everyone's Christmas and Holidays were extra special, despite the state of the world!!!

HAPPY NEW YEARS EVE AND DAY!!! Sincerely, <3 (Mod) Sweet Heart Blaze

6 notes · View notes