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sophiainspace · 5 months

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20 Questions for Fic Writers

Thanks for tagging me, @crestfallercanyon !

How many works do you have on AO3? 82.

What’s your total A03 word count? 648,300 (quite pleased with that - a lot of words of fic in six years!)

What fandoms do you write for? In terms of what I've published - Mostly Arrowverse, with a little bit of Buffy and the Good Place (and I'm currently dipping my toe into Star Trek: Strange New Worlds for a fandom event). In terms of what I have not published - so many fandoms. Way too much Star Trek and, again, Buffy.

What are your top five fics by kudos? - Can’t Take That Away From Me (Coldflash identity porn). - Better Latte Than Never (the meet-cute prequel to the above Coldflash, and I actually hope to finish that series soon!) - [A fic that I'm embarrassed to have as 3rd highest kudos so eh] - The Bed (The Good Place, Chidi/Eleanor/Tahani). I'm really pleased that's still high on the list, because I think it's for the writing as much as the ship. - Unspeakable (DCTV Coldwave). I think the high kudos is mainly because it's been published so long - I wrote it years ago.

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? Always. And I say so at the end of every fic. I adore comments, so I feel like I should acknowledge them. Even if my thanks are really boring some days!

What’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? So many to choose from! But in terms of angsty endings, probably First Time (Westhallen time travel post-Eddie's death).

What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? It might be the Stealing Time/Saving Time series (Coldwestallen, Len with Oculus powers), where Barry, Len and Iris kind of get everything they want, in a way I think makes sense for this version of them.

Do you get hate on your fic? Only once, and I don't know if it even counts as hate, but it was someone who got mad about one of my neurodivergent headcanons - which was more of a surprise than anything, as those usually get great comments. I got so much support from my fandom friends about it that I felt much better. :D

Do you write smut? On occasion, but I try not to. No one needs to read my grey ace ass trying to write sex in a vaguely convincing way (and failing).

Do you write crossovers? Not yet... but let's say I've been working on a Faith Lehane/Leonard Snart fic for ages, that will probably never see the light of day at this point. It's fun though!

Have you ever had a fic stolen? Not that I know of, but I can't imagine anyone bothering with my fics!

Have you ever had a fic translated? I don't think so, but I've had podfic made <3 The awesome @litrapod turned Fireworks (Coldwave) into a great podfic, which made me so happy.

Have you ever co-written a fic? A few times! Including with @achangeinpriorities. Top tip, beta readers can make great co-writers!

What‘s your all-time favourite ship? That question is too hard and I will never answer it but also it's Coldwave. Or Faith/Buffy. Or... Nope I'm not starting down this road :D

What’s the WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? I *really* wish I'd been able to finish Take The Keys (And Drive Forever) - Lisa Snart/Caitlin Snow, spooky fic - but I just ran out of ideas for it. Maybe one day...

What’s your writing strengths? Questions about my strengths are a challenge! I've had some nice comments about my writing of character dynamics.

What’s your writing weaknesses? I really struggle with dialogue. You'll see me try out many different ways of writing it, throughout my fic back catalogue, as I attempt to make it work. I think I'm getting better, but slowly!

Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic? If it was a good fit for a character - like if Hartley Rathaway was being snarky in Latin - I might give it a go, but I wouldn't try it very often. Too easy to get wrong, in too many ways.

First fandom you wrote for? Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but I never shared those early fics anywhere. It's for the best!

Favourite fic you’ve ever written? I've written 82 fics this is very difficult! This answer would probably change if you asked me another time, but I think it might still be the Retired Rogues series, in which Coldwave retire and hijinks ensue. Both were early fics, so my style has changed a lot since then, but they stick in my mind as being a lot of fun to write. I'm not sure who's done this already, so sorry if I tag you and you already have... Tagging (totally obligation-free, of course) @habibialkaysani @coldflasher @kittsfics @joanthangroff @sugar-haus @strangebrainrot @achangeinpriorities @blueelvewithwings

#weekend fic meme #fanfic and fandom #my fic

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shittysawtraps · 1 year

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Hello There Mods of Beloved Puppet Trap Grandpa,

A few weeks back i put a unexpectedly decent amount of work into writing a shitty saw trap about the explosive Oculus VR headset that was being touted about as something to find cute, without targeting anyone or getting uncomfy with projected wrongs. I have patiently checked back in over the weeks, and i have yet to see anything of my post, but i do see posts encouraging followers of Puzzleman to submit more. in front of you is a blog inbox, where people browsing this clunky website may submit messages for you to read and publish or respond to. Inside there may or may not be a submission from the user sending this ask, and your task is to see if you can locate it. Will you find it, and consider if it is worthy of this blog? or will it end up lost in transmission, never to be published while youre stuck with this seemingly nonsensical ask? Public or private, the choice is yours.

Chances are, it was submitted. We have a queue of over 150 right now. If it wasn't, it probably got lost somewhere along the way, or was sent as an ask.

I occasionally scroll waaayyy back to queue submissions, but I tend to gloss over asks because they take longer to tag + queue.

-Mod Sam

#shittysawasks

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a-man-for-hire-and-his-archives · 26 days

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Luke Arnold, Doc Wyatt talk the teamwork and insanity that defines ‘ESSENTIALS’

The compelling new OGN is funding via Kickstarter.

by Chris Coplan (April 18, 2024)

You may know Luke Arnold as Long John Silver in the Black Sails and/or INXS’ own Michael Hutchence in the Never Tear Us Apart miniseries. Doc Wyatt, meanwhile, is best known for his production work on the iconic Napoleon Dynamite and the animated Rocket and Groot for Marvel. So, what happens when a lauded actor and a TV writer/producer get together? Why a brand-new graphic novel, ESSENTIALS.

For ESSENTIALS, Arnold and Wyatt were brought together in part by The Lab Press, a new publishing outfit that focuses primarily on graphic novels. Together, the pair then collaborated with a veritable smorgasbord of comics artists, including Bill Sienkiewicz (who does the cover), Dani, Jason Howard, Andrea Mutti, and Glenn Fabry. (The book’s colors were provided by Jordie Bellaire, Brad Simpson, and Wesley Wong, with lettering from DC Hopkins of AndWorld Design).

Once fully assembled, this superstar team behind ESSENTIALS set about crafting a story in which “the world you see around you is not real.” More specifically, we follow “disgraced mathematician Harris Pax” as he and Buttons (an “interdimensional being possessing his niece’s favorite toy”) set about smashing the walls of this faux reality. ESSENTIALS asks some big questions — “What matters most in a well-lived life? Is joy more valuable than truth?” — just as much as it’s a rollicking, dimension-hopping adventure story.

ESSENTIALS is currently crowdfunding via Kickstarter, with the campaign having raised $13,000-plus (of a seemingly $1,111 goal) on the way to its May 16 deadline. (Head here to contribute.) To get a better idea of the work that went into ESSENTIALS, we recently got to field questions to both Arnold and Wyatt. The duo spoke about the somewhat involved creative process, the big themes at the book’s heart, working with The Lab Press, and much more.

The talent behind ESSENTIALS. Courtesy of The Lab Press.

AIPT: I’m curious: what’s the collaborative process look like between a TV writer and an actor making a comic book?

Luke Arnold: It’s hard to summarize this process because there are so many stages. We broke most of the story on zoom between Australia and LA. Then, we outlined in pieces, trading them back and forth multiple times, rewriting and recrafting until we were happy. After that, we’d take a chapter each, write them, share them, editing and/or rewriting each other’s work. Then, it would go to the artists, and we’d wait for the first sketches to roll in.

Because the team (Doc, myself, and everyone at The Lab) is spread around the globe, we found that the best place to review artwork was actually in VR. We all got Oculus headsets that allowed us to sit around a table together with the art displayed on a huge board in front of us, marveling over the work and deciding on any notes to send back to the artists.

The next few stages would take place over email, and then when all the art was finished, Doc and I would get back on Zoom to take another look at the script. Once you have those final pages, you can quickly realize that a lot of dialogue feels unnecessary, so we’d go through and make changes before sending everything to the letterer. That was one of my favorite stages, as you have an opportunity to write some parts all over again, inspired by the work of the artists.

Doc Wyatt: Luke’s an actor, but he’s also a novelist. His novels blow me away. I knew Luke first as an actor, and on set, he was talking about these fantasy novels that he wanted to write. But when it actually happened, I was blown away. The Last Smile in Sunder City was Luke’s first book, and it kicked off a series that’s a mashup of the noir detective genre with urban fantasy. Anyone who’s missed it should catch up with it.

As a writer, Luke is intricate. He works in levels and layers, meanings behind meanings, and philosophical underpinnings. It was a really rich and rewarding experience because we’d start out talking about the story we were breaking, but the conversation would drift into all these other, unrelated places… until suddenly it would snap back into story mode, but bringing along all these influences from our seemingly unrelated conversations.

AIPT: What’s the elevator pitch for ESSENTIALS? It seems like there are a lot of big questions churning at the heart of this book.

LA: Our world has collided with another dimension and reality has become untethered. Most humans were killed in the collision, and those that survived are now trapped in their own subjective realities as their beliefs, thoughts, and fears become manifest around them. Harris Pax – the only scientist who foresaw this apocalypse and managed to protect himself – has teamed up with Buttons – a being from the other dimension. Together they must travel into these subjective realities and convince the people inside to give up their illusions and return to the real world.

DW: Honestly, it can sound complicated, but at the end of the day the story is pretty simple. A cosmic catastrophe has killed most human life, with the few survivors unknowingly stuck in their own bubbles of subjective reality. It’s the job of our heroes to pull them out of these private realities before they’re killed by them.

AIPT: Similarly, it seems like this book may be about/interested in simulations and subjective reality and the like. Why are those kinds of massive ideas interesting, and how do you come at them from a new angle?

LA: It’s a cliché now to say that we’ve never been so divided. We started writing this four years ago, and things seem to have only gotten worse. In this age of reactionary politics and algorithms, we really are starting to live in separate realities where even basic facts are up for dispute. But this feeling of disconnection was an existential issue long before the internet. Artists and writers have always explored the pain of isolation, our yearning for interconnection, and the despondency that comes from witnessing the perpetual division of the human race on both an intimate and planetary scale. With ESSENTIALS, we found two heroes, a villain, and a reality-spanning quest that allows us to dig into these concerns in a way that feels fresh and kind of limitless. There are already so many realities we’ve had to cast aside and many more we hope to include as the story continues.

The Jason Howard cover to ESSENTIALS. Courtesy of The Lab Press.

AIPT: What’s it like to be the debut release from Lab Press? Does that pressure help or complicate your process as creators and then also promoters of said creation?

LA: I can really only speak to it from a creative standpoint. It has awarded us a kind of freedom that is rare to find. The Lab and ESSENTIALS were formed at the same time, so the publishers had no preconceptions about what this book needed to be. There were no expectations, either from the reader or the company itself, so the book was able to find its form on its own terms. And being their debut, The Lab was likely more open to our wild ideas, such as jumping between so many artists in the way we do.

DW: For me, sure– it’s a little nerve-wracking to be the first book from a new publisher, because they’re going to be doing all their learning on our book. But that said, we believe in them. They’ve certainly taken a risk on our weird, little, indie book, so it’s only fair we take a risk on them!

AIPT: The book has a slew of talented artists attached, including Dani, Andrea Mutti, and Bill Sienkiewicz. What’s it mean to have such a roster of sheer artistic talent, and do you have any standout moments/pages?

LA: Even though this book has been in development for years, from the artists signing on to sending their pencils, their inks and colors, and now holding the final version, I still can’t really comprehend that we were able to work with artists of this caliber.

This is the first comic I’ve written, and so I was still wondering how all our scripts would come out after being interpreted by the artist. There’s a sequence in chapter two with a collage of a conversation that passes through a bunch of scenarios across a double page spread, and when Jason Howard sent us his pencils of that section, I started to believe that this world Doc and I had dreamed up could actually be realized.

I also have to say that I’m a huge Glenn Fabry fan. We gave him some of our weirdest pages, and his beautifully textured detail is everything we hoped for and more.

DW: The Lab Press had us submit a list of dream artists we’d be dying to work with. We did, thinking–well, they’ll never be able to get these… But they did!!! They didn’t tell me that they’d gotten Bill Sienkiewicz for a cover, who has been a very important artist to me since childhood. Instead they just revealed to me the fully finished cover at a party at New York Comic Con as a big surprise, and I just about lost it. It’s such an amazing cover. And it’s so Bill while still being so ESSENTIALS!

AIPT: Do you have a fave sci-fi book/film/show/etc. that maybe made its way into this project in some way (intentionally or not)?

LA: Doc is a font of sci-fi knowledge, and our original scripts were stuffed full of amazing references. Eventually, we decided to remove most of them before sending the scripts to artists because we didn’t want to cloud their minds with other visuals before we could see what their imaginations offered up. On quick flip though, you could see references to Alien, The Blob, and Night of the Living Dead, but we’ve done our best to use that imagery as a starting block to build something weirder.

AIPT: Why should anyone support the forthcoming Kickstarter for ESSENTIALS?

LA: Because this book is done and it’s incredible. We’re teaming up with Kickstarter because it’s the best way to get the books out to everyone around the world. We’re not asking for support to get it finished or anything like that. Not long after we launch, the book will be out of the printers and in your hands.

DW: We love our weird little story, and we want to tell more of it in the future, but we’ll only get the chance to do that if people read and love this one. We want to get the word out any way we can, so backers will find and support and read the book. It’s strange, it’s heady, and it’s not for everyone, but the people who it’s for– we hope– will really love it!

Source: AIPT Comics

#black sails #luke arnold #doc wyatt #interview #essentials

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canmom · 2 months

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asgard's wraff too (immediate impression)

I had a brief go at Asgard's Wrath 2, one of the flagship games of the Quest 2/3, published by Meta themselves through their 'Oculus Studios'. This game is provided free to every Quest 3 owner so I figured I'd give it a shot lol. Though I didn't play for all that long before I got a headache and had to stop. (I think the headset was a bit tight, it's very finicky to get this right even with a better strap, and games that demand more movement tend to be worse for it.)

Asgard's Wrath is not to be confused with Asura's Wrath, the fascinatingly odd QTE-based game featuring animation by Studio 4°C. No, what we have is a first-person action game based on Norse mythology. Actually this new game seems to be broadening the mythological palette a bit, but the prologue/recap segment keeps things Norse.

tbh I wasn't particularly sold, but this game's been getting rave reviews everywhere, so maybe it gets better.

When I booted the game it had to compile some 4500 shaders - kinda odd, every Quest is the same so surely it could come with the shaders precompiled? Nevertheless, once that was done the game could get going. What I found was... kinda awkward, if I'm honest.

Broadly speaking Asgard's Wrath II features thumbstick movement with a directional iframe dash, and you can swing your sword and hit stuff. The opening level sees you fight a giant gryphon-like monster which flies around you and shoots laser beams. Credit where it's due, I think it's about as decent an implementation of this kind of thing as you could hope for... but in that very respect it really starkly shows the limitations of VR for action games.

Standing up and playing this game did not, fundamentally, feel more ~immersive~ than sitting at my desk playing an FPS game. If anything it felt less so. It felt sort of like I was piloting a mech rather than standing there as a Norse goddess. Especially when your character is flung bodily around: you look down and see your character's body near-prone, but your proprioception tells you exactly where your feet are, and it isn't there.

Movement generally feels quite glidy - no doubt too much up-and-down camera movement would be a motion sickness trigger, but also you can feel that you're physically standing on the floor, and somehow that is more noticeable when you're supposed to be walking than when you're supposed to be flying in a game like Rez Infinite. If you try to physically move around, the world sorta slides away from you in a weird way. I honestly think I would have preferred the teleportation based movement used in games like Half Life Alyx.

The whole thing felt like it was constantly calling attention to the difference between my physical body and virtual body.

Still, all that aside...

The game throws you in to a recap of the previous game. You get a little controls tutorial in a mysterious mystical space by disembodied arms belonging to the Norns, then you ride a giant bird through a series of vignettes from the previous game; then you get to wander around a tavern that is supposedly a prison where Loki used to be contained (always up to his tricks), encountering sort of phantasms of almost all the Norse gods telling you off for trusting Loki. Plus a little band playing tunes with a centaur in it, that part was cute.

This story, where a nameless player character is just sort of crowbarred into Norse mythology, feels incredibly 'videogames excuse plot'. From the way the recap was told, it was pretty evidently the kind of game where you're led around through a series of setpieces, while being told that you're powerful and important and a big deal. It's a story that's hard to take seriously in its own right.

I don't love the character designs. They look like a Marvel movie crashed into a truck full of concept art, full of ostentatious armour and huge horns. The way they talk, as well, feels very much like 'I am trying to get this exposition over as efficiently as possible'.

Things picked up a bit when a gryphon shows up and attacks you. The big bird here looks great and movies really well. The mechanics involved a few types of attack pattern to respond to - it's a tutorial boss so nothing too complicated.

The main weak point is the actual act of swing the sword at the big bird when it's down. It felt sort of like I was just waggling at it with a foam sword - there is no way to disguise the fact that you are swinging a small plastic controller which isn't actually hitting anything. But it was also hard to tell how much damage I was doing.

After you beat the gryphon you fall in a lake. Here, you're floating back-first into the gloom, but in practice you're falling horizontally, so again it has that disconnect.

OK, now let's talk about rendering. You knew it was coming x3

A lot of the materials in this game have that sort of smooth, noticeably low-poly look you see on the Quest. The game does try pretty hard with baked lighting and what appeared to be some envmapped specular reflections, and one point in the opening sequence had a dynamic light playing across the hands of the Norns - that was neat. I was also impressed by the rope physics while you're riding the giant bird. Certainly those 4500 shaders are doing some work in here. The main issue is, as with every Quest game, the lack of any dynamic shadows.

The tavern scene seems to be running into some kind of limit with showing skinned meshes, since most characters only appear when you move near to them, and they're all rendered with this Fresnel glow shader that hides any actual lighting information. But the characters rendered more normally generally look good. The animations at least are solid and abundant. Expressive body language is vital in a game.

I'll give it a bit more time at some point, but overall this feels very much like a game that was made as 'flagship action game to prove an AAA-style game is viable in VR', and on that front I feel like I'll take some convincing still - everything so far feels like it would work a lot better on a flat screen. It doesn't really have much identity as a game so far either - its interpretation of Norse mythology is gaudy and not particularly original, and it really feels like it's taking itself way too seriously. I think a dash of humour and weirdness would help tremendously. But maybe the Egyptian and Aztec sections will be more appealing, Norse shit is kinda played out these days.

iunno, are people still interested in reading about these VR adventures? I know most people don't have these platforms so I may as well be discussing the fauna of the moon

#computer games #vr

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incorrectcoldflashblog · 5 months

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Hello~ For the ao3 wrap 29, 10, 12, annnnnddd 16 <3

Hey, friend! Thanks for the ask <3

10. What work was the quickest to write?

Probably No Wine and No Chocolate. Although you could argue that it was supposed to be a Valentine’s Day fic and I only posted it in the middle of March, haha, but it was definitely still the fastest in time of time actually spent on it. I wrote it in, like, two writing sessions, a real miracle XD

12. How many WIP’s do you have in your docs for next year?

So. Many. There’s my three on-going projects, and I also have, uh, 17 unfinished WIPs, some of whom are quite big projects, plus a couple of other ideas that I haven’t even started writing yet, so. That should keep me busy for a while, lol.

16. What’s your most common “Additional Tags” tag?

Already answered here but my second most common is “Post-Oculus Leonard Snart” (to the shock of absolutely no one).

29. Favorite line/passage you wrote this year?

Argh, I find this question so hard to answer. My favorite passage I wrote this year…I’m going to limit myself to published works and say Barry and Len's first kiss in my Vegas fic because kisses are my favorite thing to write (well, that and them fighting) and this one is probably still the one I think turned out the best:

Len has to lean forward, far enough that their noses brush, their breath mingling. He holds himself there for just a moment, letting the kid stew in the proximity and shared body heat. It’s something of a surprise when Barry bridges the gap.

His mouth is warm and pliant against Len’s, tentative for a moment until Len kisses back, and then Barry unravels. His mouth presses urgently against Len’s, his teeth a gentle but insistent threat as they tease against Len’s lower lip like he can’t help but want to bite down, just a little. His hands creep up, lightly cupping Len’s jaw as if he wants to pull him closer but can’t bring himself to go that far; instead his thumb rubs these soft circles on the hinge of Len’s jaw, his cheekbone. Len shivers. He’s not used to being touched with such delicacy.

When they pull back, Len presses his forehead against Barry’s and laughs. “I knew you were holding out on me, Barry.”

He can feel Barry’s eyelashes fanning against his cheeks, the moment they fly open in panic, so Len leans forward again, presses his mouth softly against Barry’s. It’s a delicate kiss, no pressure to it at all. It only takes a couple of seconds before Barry begins to deepen it, to push up against him and take what he wants.

Ao3 Wrapped [Writers Edition]

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inklingofadream · 8 months

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Idk your horror tastes but Lake Mungo, Savageland (prime), Fresh, Oculus, (Hulu), Ouija 2, Hush, The Babysitter 1 & 2, Incantation, (Netflix) and Noroi the Curse is on YouTube for freesies and is way way too good. They took a ton off of Hulu recently :/ (rip Digging Up the Marrow)

most of the random "give me recs" responses will probably die in my to xyz files instead of being published (maybe) but i had to post this one bc 1) you absolutely do know my horror tastes lol, I've seen Lake Mungo, have Savageland on my to-watch list, and I LOVE Noroi: the Curse.

2) Sadly, though, it is no longer on youtube! It's a shudder exclusive... and they mean EXCLUSIVE. Nothing sadder than finding out you've sent your mother (over DVDs, doesn't like horror, DEFINITELY doesn't watch foreign language horror) searching for this movie on DVD or Bluray :( BUT! Occult (2009), by the same director, still is on yt. So if anyone following me wants recs... Noroi is better, imo, but Occult is still excellent.

Also, incidentally. if anyone noticed a pattern to my enthusiasm. Found footage horror in documentary form is not a common enough subsubgenre :( I have seen... almost every single one I can find listed as such. And at least half of them are Quite Bad, but so it goes. Except Savageland, bc I'm saving it for when I start a new knitting project.

#asks #horror #recs #ink post #movies #early tma where they still do the little research bits is also in this category that's the good stuff #and part of why i don't like s5 quite as much crol

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mrrougejr · 2 years

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The Essentials

A 1.18 Minecraft Modlist for FORGE

*Updated: 02/07/2022*

*FOR A MORE ORGANIZED AND OVERALL BETTER READING EXPERIENCE GOT TO MY BLOG*

🢀 ❰ 1.15 ❰ 1.16 ❰ 1.17 ❰ ● 1.18 ● ❱ 1.19 ❱ 🢂

IMPORTANT: This modlist is done after my main playthrough that was originally started in 1.15.2. It has been adapted to the newer versions to the best of my ability. More info on outdated mods will be at the end of the post. I originally used this mod list with 8GB RAM PC (dedicating 4GB in MC). But I've recently switched to a 16GB PC, dedicating 10GB to MC, so going forward from 1.18.2 you may need to dedicate more than 4GB.

Mods:

Requirements:

Option 1:

Forge

Optifine

Option 2:

Forge

Rubidium

Rubidium Extras

Dynamic Lights

Oculus

Mods

Ambient sounds

Backpacked

Better Animals Plus

Biomes o' Plenty

Double Slabs

Fast Leaf Decay

Mr. Crayfish Furniture

Inventory HUD+

Just Enough Items

Pam HarvestCraft

Pam HC FoodCore

PamHC Crops

PamHC Food Extended

PamHC Trees

Snow under Trees

Torch Slab

Xaero's minimap

I Like Wood

I Like Wood - Biomes O' Plenty Plugin

Versions & Compatibility:

Versions List:

For this mod list to work, you need to install the mod's version specified on the list. Otherwise you will get an error.

Table with all mod versions info ⮞ here ⮜ .

Outdated mods:

Mods that are leaving the list:

Blur: It doesnt look like we are going to get any new versions. The updated FABRIC version can be found ⮞ here ⮜ .

Mixin Bootstrap: No longer needed since the mixin library is already included in FORGE 1.18.

Vanilla Woods: The CurseForge page has been deleted so I assume this mod wont get any new updates.

Mods pending updates:

All mods on this list have been updated and can be used with 1.18.2.

Special Cases:

(12) Torch Slab: The 1.18.1 works for 1.18.2 Forge, so it actually doesnt need an update.

NOTES: Going forward I've decided try to use Rubidium. So going forward this modlist will have to options: to be used with Optifine or to be used with Rubidium The Rubidium version of this modlist only requires Rubidium, but other mods other mods that add missing features from optifine are available. This mods are: Rubidium Extras, for more features like zoom and others, Rubidium Dynamic Lights, for the dybamic lights feature (duh) and Occulus, for shaders.

CHANGELOG: ● 02/07/2022: Published. ● 14/07/2022: Updated mod versions. ● 31/07/2022: Formatting.

#Minecraft #MC #MC 1.18 #MC 1.18.2 #Mods #Mod Lists #Forge #MC Forge #Java #Java Minecraft #Minecraft Java Edition #Minecraft Java #Minecraft Forge #Optifine #Rubidium

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taleweaver-ramblings · 2 years

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As a follow-up to my post about rereading Dragons in Our Midst and Oracles of Fire, I just wanted to give y'all a heads-up about another book you might enjoy.

I don't know how closely any of my fellow Bryan Davis fans have followed his work after he finished everything DiOM-related and/or after he had that one wider gap in publishing books (or after his works shifted to what I think of as "new Davis," aka Reapers and anything published after it). But he recently released a middle-grade sci-fi adventure novel, Search for the Astral Dragon, and it feels and reads a lot like Dragons in Our Midst (just with a bit less purple prose and some more subtlety in its themes).

(Tumblr is not doing the cover any favors, but if you go look at an actual listing, it's SUPER cool looking.)

I'm not sure if I can pin down exactly what makes this book feel so much like DiOM. The characters are a bit younger, and it's primarily sci-fi with fantasy mixed in (rather than fantasy with sci-fi mixed in). Maybe it's the themes — while DiOM/OoF had the primary theme of sacrifice, it had a very strong secondary theme of the tension between justice and mercy, and that tension is the main theme running through Search for the Astral Dragon.

The other source of the similar vibes may be the setting and mood of the story. A lot of Davis's work lately has been rather . . . gritty, for lack of a better term. Reapers, The Oculus Gate, and Let the Ghosts Speak — even, to a lesser degree, the MG superhero series that I can't recall the name of — they're all stories of people already caught in a web or system of evil, struggling to keep the light shining in an overwhelming darkness. In Search, that darkness feels much less overwhelming. The story still centers around that fight for good against a corrupt world (that Davis doesn't shy away from exposing for what it is), but it feels like there's much more hope of success.

The final element contributing to the similar feel might be the emphasis on family. Megan, the main character, has a close bond with her parents and spends most of the book trying to reunite with her mom. There's a found family aspect between many of the characters (four in particular), and even on the antagonistic side, one of the early antagonists is primarily motivated by a desire to find his kidnapped son. There's less on-page parent/child interactions, but the emphasis is still present.

Comparisons to DiOM aside, though, Search is an excellent adventure in its own right. I liked Megan — she's spunky and determined, smart and sensitive, and she feels different in a good way from most of Davis's other leads. The sci-fi aspect is well done: the space travel and space combat elements felt believable, and we have a nice variety of planets and beings living on these planets. (I will say that I had trouble remembering the difference between two of the alien species, but I that's probably a me problem. Also, Davis's alien concepts make it very clear that his roots are in fantasy, which I find kinda fun.) There's also a good variety of antagonists, from genuinely and fully evil villains to antagonists with a tendency to flip-flop and keep you on your toes.

So, yeah. Just wanted to give y'all the heads-up about this book. I think y'all would enjoy it.

#books #book recs #taleweaver reads #book reviews #search for the astral dragon #bryan davis

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gamersalad · 1 year

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32 Hours of VRChat - Your 2nd Reality

Today I will introduce you to the game in the VR Category which is VRChat!

VRChat is a Virtual World social game created by Graham Gaylor and Jesse Joudrey developed and published by VRChat Inc. It was first released on January 16, 2014 as an app for the Oculus Rift then released on Steam on February 1, 2017. It’s a place to meet all kinds of people from around the globe in a virtual environment. VRChat’s content are created by its amazing community creating avatars, worlds, games and more. It’s a game with thousands of games inside it. From scenic worlds to game worlds that will blow your mind. And the best part? It’s free to play!You can play the game even without a VR, with just your PC on desktop mode. You can also play it without a PC using a standalone VR like the Quest 2 or Pico 4.

First up, in VRChat you can be who you want to be! Be your popular anime, game, or movie character. You can choose your own gender from being a girl, boy, and other genders. You can join different types of fandoms and groups from Warhammer, Undertale, FNAF, roleplayers, ravers, hobbyist or tech enthusiasts, no matter your taste you’ll find a place for you. Here you have the freedom to be who you are and find people the same as you.

Next up, VRChat worlds that blow your mind. You’ll find worlds here that can make you appreciate scenes or landscapes that are so beautifully created in 3D. You can also visit VR cities from different parts of the globe like the busy streets of Tokyo to the romantic city of Paris. You can also find worlds that are so mesmerizing, creative, trippy, or out of this world.

Then we go to the games. VRChat has hundreds of games that people can play. From recreated games like Among Us, prop hunting, to games like Prison Escape, Zombie Tag, & Murder Mystery. There’s definitely a lot of unique games to play here. There’s also community created worlds such as Devouring, Pop Escape, Hunni’s Horror Maps and also the Award-Winning game Magic Heist. If you have a game idea you have the freedom to create your own game here as long as you have knowledge of coding, blender and Unity.

And Lastly, In VRChat you can live in the virtual space like you’re in another world. People who want to feel the escapism or people who just want to be themselves can live their life here. People are so immersed that you can find love, marry people, sleep in VR, join rave parties, drink with friends and even join live stage shows. There was a documentary made about a couple that met in VRChat and started a family. Finding love virtually is now made easier in VR because you can see a physical representation of your loved ones.

Since VR is like a 2nd world, you can also find work here and earn money. You can stream yourself, selling your avatar creation, start a service type of business, teach others how to dance, translate other languages, DJ for clubs, create custom worlds or models. People use their talents in music, arts, acting, comedy, games and many more for people’s needs and demands. With this they have created an economy that made VRChat one of the best free to play VR games that has so much potential for the future.

It really shocks me how a lot of people haven’t heard of it before when popular Vtubers such as Filian or Project Melody use VRChat on their videos that are viewed by millions of people. This shows how underrated the game is due to some misconceptions and misunderstanding people have about VRChat.

And here in Gamer Salad, we showcase games and give them their love and glory they so deserve.

If you're interested to try out VRChat yourself: feel free to create an account and login with the link below! I look forward to meeting you.

I am Mark and thank you for reading Gamer Salad!~

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