#and no these are not previews of their new designs its still the old ones. which i can live with but GODDDDDD I JUST WANT MORE PLEEEEEASE

[cherry-bomb-ships]

OHHHHHHH MY GOD AND THERE'S A MINUTE LONG PREVIEW FOR A NEW CINEMATIC AND JAMIE & HOG SHOW UP FOR LIKE 3 SECONDS

#LET ME SEE MY FUCKING BOYS IN THE CINEMATIC STYLE ALREADY BLIZZARD. WHAT THE F U C K #I NEED TO SEE MY HUSBAND IN FUCKIN 4K ALREADY HSBXHF PLEEEEEEEEEASE 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 #ruby rambles #💜: love burning like the sun #🐷.fmly #and no these are not previews of their new designs its still the old ones. which i can live with but GODDDDDD I JUST WANT MORE PLEEEEEASE

[pandiongames]

Substratum Protocol, the Solo+ Apocalyptic Mystery TTRPG by Pandion Games

The Substratum Protocol campaign is nearing its end! There are less than 24 hours left to join over 600 scientists on the expedition to save the planet!

If you haven’t yet, check out the campaign before it’s too late!

There have been some fun updates since launch, including additional artwork by Galen Pejeau, new rules for environmental hazards, and a big story update!

If you want to see what the game is about, we also have a free preview PDF for you on the campaign page.

An Anomaly

During our interview with Rascal News, we realized we had made a fundamental mistake in writing an open-ended mystery: We said what was at the core of the planet, an interdimensional portal. The portal being is now just one possibility. We spent last weekend updating all the writing to now be an anomaly. The otherworldly abilities you get from taking stress are now Anomaly Influences, rather than Portal Influences, for instance. The Expedition can still decide it's a portal, but calling it an anomaly opens up a huge range of possibilities. What is the anomaly that's splitting the earth open?

Is it a massive cosmic egg hatching a world eater as part of a natural lifecycle? 

Did an advance interstellar ship accidentally exit hyperspace at the center of the planet due to a miscalculation, and its damaged engines are holding open a hyperspace bubble? 

Is there a cult of advanced species calling forth eldritch gods with a powerful ritual that consumes planets to power it?

Substratum Protocol is about letting the clues and your answers determine what is really happening, and we think this update opens the floodgates for it.

Depth Sector Deep Dives

In our campaign updates, we have been talking about the different sectors players can visit and their inspiration. These are all available publicly on the campaign - but we wanted to share the Fracture Opening sector with you here.

How the Depth Sectors Work

Substratum Protocol is a collaborative mystery game. The text gives hints and whispers of possibilities, but strays away from definite answers. What you discover and imagine at your table becomes canon to the story and the setting. Each sector shows its location in the Fracture, includes in-universe handwritten notes from an unknown scientist, relevant art, and a table of events - each giving a glimpse into what the sector contains. Scientists can spend as much or as little time in a Sector as they want. When they're ready to venture deeper, whoever leads the way rolls for the Travel Action.

The Fracture Opening

This is the first sector of the expedition experiences. At 1,300 kilometers long, it covers the distance between New York City to Miami, Florida. London, England to Naples, Italy. Melbourne, Australia to Alice Springs. Buenos Aires, Argentina to São Paulo, Brazil. It is massive. Where did the fracture open in your game? What exists teetering at its cliff walls? The world at the surface is a hellscape of the apocalypse, and much of the Fracture Opening is littered with crumbling buildings, detritus, and ancillary debris of civilization. Oceans spilling over the edge seem small in scale. Sitting suspended over it, is the Fracture Observatory. The Fracture Observatory, the home of Mission Control.

Furthest from the anomaly, this sector is rooted most in the reality of the surface. Here, players may find groups of survivors from the cities that tumbled into the great fracture, steam vents, cave ins, and earthquakes make finding solid footing and a reliable path difficult, and even here, strange subterranean creatures may make an appearance. Old research stations, part of the Substratum Protocol's monitoring efforts may still be intact here, and dangerous fast flowing waters threaten to whisk away scientists into massive whirlpools to further below. When we were first designing Substratum Protocol, the thought was that players would start in the action of the expedition and wouldn't really spend time on the Fracture Observatory or on the surface. The Fracture Opening was our way of showing what the surface was going through while still being en route. It is meant to showcase the incredible destruction happening, and give the players a sense of urgency to stop it from getting worse. How do the scientists descend into the fracture before being left to their own power? Lowered on a cable lift? Paraglide down? Or perhaps they are more like hell jumpers, free-falling through the gargantuan opening (or Link entering the depths in Tears of the Kingdom!)?

The title screen fades to klaxon alarms and screams of the world above, slowly giving way to a deafening silence of rushing wind as the expedition descends past the cliff walls into the abyssal black depths of the Fracture Opening...

Join the Expedition!

#ttrpg #indie ttrpg #mystery #solo ttrpg #hintsandhijinx #horror #journaling #crowdfunding #ttrpg community #solo journaling

[lilis-palace]

WORK-IN-PROGRESS : A Secretaire desk

Not really a guide, but can be interesting for those who would like to know how I create an object or a set. Originally I wrote this essay for a course at my uni but I translated and simplified it.

💡☝️ INSPO

The secretaire desk is an iconic piece of Biedermeier furniture. My fascination with the elegant yet straightforward style is beyond measure.

🧊🕸️ MODELLING

I used Blender for modelling. (I made it when I was still using the old 2.7 version.) The design process for the object consumed a significant amount of my time, spanning a total of three hours.

After I finish making the model, I need to do something called "unfolding." This means turning the 3D object into a 2D mesh. Once that's done, I "burn" the shadows onto it, which gives it the final look you see below.

🎨🖌️ TEXTURE

After that, I use the Sims 4 Studio program. This is where I make sure that the object looks right with its texture and I decide how it should act in the game.

To create the special intarsia effect, I use patterns that I've already prepared in Photoshop. I carefully rotate and arrange them until they fit just right. It takes a lot of time, but the final outcome is totally worth it.

🌐✨ NORMAL & SPECULAR MAP

The Normal map is really important for objects with low levels of detail. It determines how light behaves on different surfaces. With the Normal map, even a surface that looks completely smooth can actually appear uneven when light shines on it. This creates the illusion of more intricate details without slowing down the game's performance.

In the game, they use a simpler version of the Normal map called the Bump map. To make it, I use a plugin in Photoshop and save it in a specific format called .DDS. I have to tweak the channels and choose the right settings to get it just right.

When I apply the Bump map to my Biedermeier writing cabinet with shelves, it creates small shadows at the edges of the shelves when light hits the center. This makes the shelves stand out from the flat surface and adds depth to the object.

The shine of an object is controlled by the specular map. It determines how reflective the surface appears, whether it's a shiny metal, a glossy glass, or a completely matte material. By adjusting the color values, we can create different types of shine.

In this project, I want to achieve a specific type of shine that looks like wax or honey. Fortunately, I already have a template ready for this. I just need to find it and apply it to the object in the program.

📊📐SIMS 4 STUDIO SETTINGS

After that, I need to make a bunch of tweaks to make sure the object works properly in the game. It involves doing both small and big adjustments. For example, I add tags to make it easy to find in the catalog, figure out how the surface should look, find the right spots where other objects can connect to it, decide where chairs and writing surfaces should go, and more. The first picture shows how things are set up by default, while the second one shows the changes I've made.

Throughout this whole process, I have to carefully figure out the exact positions for different parts using a coordinate system. It can be a bit tiresome and take up a lot of time.

📈 💼 WORK IN PROGRESS

First, I made a work-in-progress picture. This is how I announce the new collection.

💃🎞️ GIF

In the post, there's a gif that demonstrates various color combinations. Creating this gif involves a careful and detailed process. I have to take individual photos of all 16 color combinations for each of the two cabinets. Afterward, I need to carefully match and merge these photos together. Finally, I use an online Gif maker site to edit and finalize the gif.

📷🖼️ PREVIEW PIC

I spent a good 2 hours setting up the scene, and it wasn't easy finding the right items and creating the perfect environment. Editing the image also took me another 2 hours, as I paid close attention to every little detail.

Out of the three images you see above, the first one is the default color scheme generated by the game itself. The second image, on the other hand, was created using a program called Reshade. It's an extra tool you have to install separately, and its main purpose is to change the lighting inside the game. It adds depth and creates a whole different atmosphere. As for the third image, that's what it looks like after I adjusted the colors in Photoshop. And finally, I added shadows and highlights to the image to give it a more three-dimensional and immersive feel.

I hope you enjoyed this post and see you soon. The release date of the set is tomorrow!

#guide #ts4 historical

[easternmind]

Last year in classic games

For motives I cannot expand on with much glee, I found a little more time than usual this year to reduce my seemingly endless backlog of classics. Despite all the fine new releases 2023 has greeted us with, I was able to finally dive into this eclectic handful of games I gathered over time. It is perhaps no coincidence that I reached out for more direct game experiences than story-driven ones. I find myself increasingly drawn to games designs that are mindful of the player's time as a commodity not to be carelessly squandered.

One note, if I may: I would like to inspire my readers to progressively discard the use of the word retro this year. We are all of advancing years and wisdom, I trust. The introduction of the term retro to the videogame vernacular was a gross mistake furthering the abhorrent notion that games were as ephemeral in their nature as fashion. It is a purely commercial designation by which to profitably repackage old software as a category of its own, originating from the same minds that considered games as mere novelty trinkets of limited marketable lifespan.

It is up to the player to individually decide on an older game's appeal, whether they may be discovering it for the first time or revisiting it for the umpteenth one. This is not only an appeal for those of you who write about games in any capacity, rather to anyone who takes videogames as a serious interest and communicates with others about this the object of their predilection. Thank you.

This loose cart came with a Famicom bundle auction I won in 2009, if memory serves. I turned on the Famicom and tested it merely to verify if it was still in working condition and found myself engrossed in that trademark Pajitnov/Pokhilko elegant approach to game design. As per the cassette's label, Hatris was originally a concept developed in collaboration with ParaGraph, a Russian studio that went on to develop specialized professional software, a year before the Bullet-Proof Software licensing deal. They produced a few games in the turn of the decade that were rather unusual and, some would say, even visionary. I recommend that you look up their story, if you're curious.

The only entry from the group that isn't of Japanese provenance - though it is a Japanese edition - I played it for purely nostalgic motives, perhaps a yearning for a certain pixel, palette and parallax that resoundingly evoke a time I was fortunate enough to experience, first-hand. If I may be honest, I purchased the game for the visual value of its unique cover art, which I deem superior to the US edition's. In saying that, I must highlight that the original Amiga game box art was quite accomplished.

In the Summer of 93 while on holiday at the beach, there was a French Nintendo magazine for sale whose purchase I could not resist. It was very common to find Spanish, English and French publications at the time in Portugal. This edition had a striking four page preview of this Jaleco gem, Ikari no Yōsai, or Operation Logic Bomb as it was named in the West. For years I searched the PAL version in vain, then ultimately decided to import it on account of - you'd never guess! - the superior box art. Playing it this year at long last, I was instantly reminded of an old Game Boy favourite, Fortified Zone, which I now know to be its prequel. Most top-down shooters are best played in co-op. Ikari no Yōsai is strictly and single-player affair and not once did I miss the absence of a friendly companion.

Keio Flying Squadron 2 first came to my attention via an infamous Saturn demo disc, which came into my hands through circumstances I have since forgotten about. I use the word infamous because the entire game code was available in the disc and the level select cheat code enabled me to unscrupulously play the entirety of the game for no additional expense - at only the cost of missing out on the colourful Studio Pierrot anime FMV interludes.

Having played the sequel first, I was somewhat disenchanted to learn the original game did not feature any platforming segments, it being a pure scrolling shooter in the same whimsical vein as Parodius or, say, an AirZonk. Still, a jolly good time with the old three buttons.

For reasons that will not be immediately apparent to younger reading audiences, I pride myself in having completed most Shinobi games, The Revenge Of and GG being my preferred ones. Shin Shinobi Den, or Shinobi X in Europe, was a game not readily available from my usual game dealers. I eventually borrowed the PAL version once, though not nearly long enough to master it. I finally saw it through this year, mere days before SEGA announced a new episode. While the live action clips looked a tad maladroit in the 1990s, they came to acquire that nice patina I now look for in classic games.

Omega Force was known to take the sporadic breather from producing some of KOEI's most cherished and profitable series. I distinctly remember enjoying Destrega quite a bit in its day, a game quite unlike any other. What their 1998 Enigma lacks in consistency and originality, it more than amply makes up for with its own bizarre concepts, extravagant characters and unexpected genre fusions. Of all the titles in this post, this was the one whose pace felt the most sluggish, and needlessly so.

Microsoft Game Studio Japan release schedule plans were not at all kind on this, their first production, Magatama. Earlier this year I praised this era for its highly inspired H&S action adventure titles and even spent a few days delighting myself with the likes of Blood Will Tell, Nightshade, Bujingai, or Chaos Legion. This most unusual creation, developed by the aptly-named Team Breakout - a group composed of many talented ex-Square employees - is one among the finest of the era. Sadly, it did not do enough to persuade players at the time that it was a better purchase than Otogi or its sequel. Playing it with my mind and heart set back in time to 2003, I can say that this misguided consideration may not have withstood a second thought.

I've long wanted to write an extensive article on Japanese firefighting games. In fact, I have the structure laid out for a Japanofiles entry gathering moss in my Tumblr drafts for over a decade now. For a brief period this year I convinced myself I could finally fulfil this aspiration and resumed Sakurazaka Shouboutai as research. Developed by Racdym - later Racjin - for Irem, it is every bit as good as Firefighter F.D.18 or Hard Luck, and in many ways more inventive from a conceptual standpoint. While Konami and Spike found a way to have their games released in the west, Sakurazaka's poor regional sales performance clearly accounts for Irem's reluctance to bear the cost of an overseas ticket.

#hatris #paragraph #bullet-proof software #wolfchild #mega cd #Ikari no Yōsai #operation logic bomb #fortified zone #jaleco #super nintendo #keio flying squadron #victor entertainment #shin shinobi den #shinobi x #shinobi legions #sega saturn #enigma #omega force #koei #magatama #xbox #Sakurazaka Shouboutai #irem #racjin #racdym

[akumahoshojo]

Castlevania I + II Fanfic: A Horrible Night's Dream (Chapter 1 preview)

I wrote this fic for @eboni-napalm as part of a Halloween gift exchange that started back in like... 2021 😱 After two of the roughest years for me ever (school/health/family/general RL problems all happening at once), I've actually been able to work on it!

While I'm still finishing up my final draft of the first chapter (fingers crossed I can do it before midnight!), I thought I'd post this preview of it here for tonight for any CV fans who might be interested in reading... and hopefully checking out the rest. It's the first 4 out of 8 vignettes to be contained in the completed first chapter, set in CV1 era for now.

Game: Castlevania I and II Pairing: Simon Belmont + CV2's "Mysterious Woman" (😉) Themes: Prophecies, Curses, Fighting Fate, Anachronic Order, Second Person POV, Experimental Style Content Warning: General themes of prejudice, non-graphic human sacrifice scene Thanks so much for your patience eboni-napalm-- I'm so sorry about the delay, but getting to work on this story has been rewarding and challenging in the best kind of way! 💗 Check out the story below!

i. now

To one who dreams the future, the present is the past. And thus all your remembered life has been a divided one, waking eyes on constant guard and inner eye fixed on time untold, like two-faced Janus in the body of a girl.

You've never been able to consider your nighttime visions a power, or even a gift: not when they've only come to you as you've lain helpless in the dark, bringing unwanted glimpses of a greater darkness in the world that encircles the realm of dreams.

And if some force beyond even that world can tear through the layers of time to give you a fleeting glimpse of what lies on the other side, then one lone human attempting to change the future’s design in response seems as futile a task as attempting to prevent an avalanche through the placement of a single snowflake.

But that's never stopped you from trying.

ii. then 

To the citizens of Transylvania, he may have been a savior, but to you, he was no different from the rest of them—which placed him somewhere just above scum. And so, as all of Jova turned excitedly north to welcome their conquering hero home, you chose to remain alone in the wooded outskirts of town, where they'd told you your kind would always belong.

Simon, the latest golden boy of the Belmont clan, with a mane of golden hair and bags of looted gold to match, was already the stuff of legends. He'd journeyed alone only days before to Dracula's stronghold beyond the mountains, slaying its monstrous guards and unholy master in a single night and escaping just in time to watch the demon castle crumble at dawn. Stories of his triumph had already traveled down from the hamlets at the foothills and across the river from the town of Yomi, faster than the news of the Dark Lord's resurrection on the night the Black Mass occurred. 

The night they’d shunned you for the last time.

iii. now

The future creates itself in the darkness behind your closed eyes. Your essence stares back from the depths of your mind.

Another vision, two-sided as always: fate's promise to you, and yours to yourself. You will fight it, the truest part of you swears, in the waking world where dreams can't reach, no matter what you'll see and see again.

It catches you off guard anyway.

As your mind's eye clears, the darkness that clouded it coalesces into a black sea, the crests of dozens of waves rising ominously from its surface. The light comes next—faint touches of distant moonlight and dancing candlelight, refining the indistinct sea of shadows into something all too real.

Hooded worshippers, lit by candles as black as their robes, fill the gutted remains of an old church. The church is dark, and the night outside is darker, showing through the shattered stained-glass windows like a void swallowing up the holy and the fair. Idols and relics, goat-headed demons and inverted stars and things you can't decipher, lurk just at the edges of the shadows.

But it's the thing on the altar that scares you the most.

Nearly shrouded in a tattered black cloak, it lays limp and motionless, sickly pale as any corpse—but with a countenance alert as any living man. Its face is twisted into a rictus of mad triumph, sightless eyes fixed on the crumbled ceiling above and a sky empty of stars, as if to mock, even now, whatever higher power watches from above. You're certain you've never seen it, through this eye or your outers. And yet, the longer you stare, the louder a primal alarm seems to scream from somewhere deep inside you.

Known and unknown, mighty and weak, living and dead—the thing’s very existence is a contradiction made flesh.

Clarity flashes across your mind in the errant glint of candlelight off a fang.

You know, now, what this thing is. Its—his—name is Dracula: scion of the dragon, the devil's very son.

His dark grip still chokes Transylvania as tightly in legend as it did in reality, even a century after his last death. Though the countryside has long healed from the scars of his prior reign, those like yourself, too well acquainted with the occult, feel their phantom ache to this day. It is the pain that springs up with each scornful word and every hostile stare, the chafing knowledge that anyone judged slightly less than normal will never be truly safe from a populace still cowering from even the memory of Dracula's shadow.

Your gaze focuses once more at a sudden shuffling among the faceless worshipers: a parting of the shadow sea. From the darkest corner of the church a maiden is borne, light as spindrift, through the crests. Her dress is pale, and her panicked face is paler. She seems almost to shine amongst the shadows that guide her onward, a lone spot of white nearly consumed by the blackness of the church.

A sacrifice.

As she nears the grim idol that lies in wait upon the altar, one of the encircling shadows shoves her roughly forward. She stumbles against the altar's edge, delicate hands bound tightly behind her back.

You are forced to watch, powerless as always, as present and future slip beyond salvation.

Another shift of the lurking shadows. A fleeting flash of metal. A torrent of blood from the maiden's lovely neck.

As the blood splatters on the leering corpse below, its fanged grin seems only to widen. And with a creeping chill of dread, you realize the thing on the altar isn't a corpse anymore.

The church darkens even more, beyond what seems possible, as the sky through the ceiling is choked by thunderclouds. The candlelight drowns in a shadow sea.

For a moment, you see nothing but blissful darkness, blessed oblivion—for a moment, you can nearly imagine what a normal night's sleep might be.

By the time a flash of lightning illuminates the church once more, Dracula is already gone—the monster loosed from its temporal cage.

You barely notice. You'd seen it, then, when the lightning struck, in what little you could view of the world beyond the church. The outlines of a cityscape all too familiar. The narrow curve of a waning gibbous moon.

Jova. Easter Sunday.

You still have time, you realize.

And, fate willing, so do they.

iv. then

It had been Easter then, the time of the town's yearly carnival. Those dull brick buildings had looked almost inviting, festooned with grand banners and colorful paper lanterns, as lively dances and celebrations went on in the market square. The scenes of joy and community, the swirls of music and laughter, seemed to sweep you up despite yourself, almost softening the heart their world had hardened long before. You were hopeful enough to believe the Lord's Resurrection reason enough for them to accept you, for that one day at least, to heed your warning and save their souls.

You were wrong.

No matter who you approached, no matter how you pleaded, the hatred you'd grown up with, inseparable as your shadow, blocked you at every turn. Maybe it was your clothes, or your accent, or just the fact you knew something they didn't, but whatever attempt you made, they judged it to be wrong. Your warnings, increasingly desperate, were met with insults from even the kindest faces in that celebration, insults steeled with the threat of something worse.

Liar.

Witch.

Unholy.

Unwelcome.

You'd finally turned your back on Jova when the stares began to linger a little too long, when the murmurs in the crowd began to overpower even the sounds of the festivities. You refused to add your own life to the number that would soon be lost.

And you'd tried, dammit. They couldn't say you didn't try. 

If their blood was to be shed, it would not be on your hands.

You told yourself this as you left them all behind, the music growing fainter and the colored lights dimmer with each step you took into the engulfing darkness. They'd just shown they cared nothing for you, for even themselves, so why chance your life for them? You didn't care—you truly didn't care.

But when your prophecy came true and hell came to earth, you suffered with them all the same.

#castlevania #simon belmont #castlevania 1 #simon's quest #castlevania 2 #my fanfiction #castlevania fanfiction #castlevania ii #castlevania i #fanfiction

[eschergirls]

Hi everybody!  

It's a new month, so it's time to celebrate how awesome squirrels are and also to do a site update and to thank our wonderful Patreon subscribers (and adjacent squirrels)!

For a site update, the big news is me and our website designer (Socketwench) are going to revamp the main website (eschergirls.com) and change the overall look, probably so the web version has a grid of post previews rather than just listing the posts in a row because the current setup leaves a lot of empty space since it only previews one line of text.  Mobile users shouldn't see much change except we'll be removing or changing the scrolling menu bar so it doesn't block most of the post on small screens.  We'll also be adding a popular tag cloud so people can more easily browse the blog if they want to casually.

If anybody has any other suggestions to improve the main site's usability and readability, please let me know!!!  I'm very interested in feedback.  I'm also working on the glossary and index, so people should be able to search the tags by category of character, series, genre, etc... and the glossary should explain what some of the terms like "boobsocks" (clothing that encases each breast separately like socks), "boob flounder" (both breasts on one side of the body), etc... mean.

Also, as usual, I've been working through the archives and fixing up all the old posts to match the current way I'm formatting my posts and to fix posts that were broken during the Tumblr export.  I also add alt-text to every post I restore so people who use screenreaders can access them.  This month, I fixed this post involving Marvel's Magik on an old trading card, the two posts with Boundless Comics' Ember (1, 2), and these old PLAY Magazine "Girls of Gaming" pages (1, 2, 3). I also fixed up this submission about how video game magazines used to advertise contests where you could go on a date with Lara Croft and stuff, and I edited the post to include an update with a link to an interview with one of the models who portrayed Lara for those ads, for those interested! 

I'm still working my way through the Tumblr inbox backlog, so if you submitted a post a long time ago, you might see it pop up soon.  Unfortunately, the way Tumblr does its inbox means the older it is the longer it'll take me to reach it. :\  I apologize sincerely for how long it takes me to get through the inbox sometimes.

I'm also still appealing the many incorrectly flagged posts on Tumblr, and the arbitrary algorithmic flagging, sudden rule changes, and other issues, are why I'm trying to fix up the main site to try to get it as usable for everybody as possible so Tumblr isn't the only way to view the blog, or the only place where it's archived.

I know it's repetitive, but it's also why I really appreciate everybody who supports us on Patreon and Ko-Fi.  It gives me much needed help to pay for server costs, upgrades, domain hosting, and just keep the site going in general. :)  I really appreciate that people think what we do is worth supporting <3

So I want to thank everybody who supported Escher Girls on Patreon in March!

Thank you so so much to:

Anne Adler Cat Mara CheerfulOptimistic  Chris McKenzie Em Bardon First Time Trek Greg Sepelak Ian Cameron Ken Trosaurus Kevin Carson Kim Wincen Kristoffer Illern  Holmén Leak  Manuel Dalton Mary Kuhner Max Schwarz Michael Mazur Miriam Pody Morgan McEvoy randomisedmongoose Rebecca Breu Ringoko  Ryan Gerber Sam Mikes Sean Sea SpecialRandomCast  Thomas 

And a special thanks again to PJ Evans for donating on Ko-Fi last month! :)

Also a huge thank you to everybody for reading, submitting, and generally commenting and engaging with Escher Girls!  It makes running the site so worth it. :)

For those who want to follow us without using Tumblr, we have an RSS feed. (For newbies, RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication and is basically a feed you can read using an RSS reader. Simply copy and paste https://eschergirls.com/rss.xml into an RSS reader and it will keep you up to date on Escher Girls!)

Thanks so much to everybody, and see you next month!

Ami

If you have any issues with the site or suggestions to improve it, please do not hesitate to contact me and let me know!

If you wish to support Escher Girls, you can subscribe to our Patreon at: https://www.patreon.com/ami_angelwings or donate through Ko-Fi at: https://ko-fi.com/amiangelwings.

#update #note #patreon

[pawborough]

Hey everyone!

Thank you for the patience before this check in. There’s a lot of new and exciting things to share. First, a small announcement…

We’ve had some restructuring of our organization. Holly and Meteor, previous project owners, have taken an amicable leave from the project. I (Blue) have taken up the mantle of sole project owner and senior, and am working very closely with the rest of the team as its head. There is no bad blood! We concluded that this decision would best benefit the project going forward. All three of us are beyond excited for PB’s future and development! I vow to be a strong, central lead, and to help vitalize the vision of this project.

With that being said, the previous iterations of art, information, mechanics, and layouts shown here have functioned as proof of concepts, and it's our plan as the team to upgrade and improve upon things as we begin serious building. The last few months following the Kickstarter have been dedicated to extensive pre-production (so we don’t build something and then impulsively decide at the last minute that it doesn’t work, wasting precious time and resources.) I myself have also continued this conceptualizing with the team after being appointed head this month.

Simply: As lead, I will be making changes. In this update, I am presenting a few changes and potential iterations of the game’s UI and aesthetic. With a strong and centralized vision, it’s my hope to improve upon a lot of what was previously shown.

Gene Stylization

The previous color and gene system helped us conceptualize the process of mass coloring and designing a cat, but it left some to be desired. Patterns look very messy when slapped together with such stark borders, very few genes compliment one another with artistic synergy, and the potential for good looking cats could definitely be expanded upon. We’ve started experimenting with more complex looking patterns, and where those patterns fall, and it’s greatly benefitted!

These color experiments aren't final, and may be subject to palette changes. But they're a start with the new direction. 

All the colors will all be getting upgrades to accommodate this new style of rendering. And the genes, well, will be re-rendered following the direction seen here! My goal is to more realistically be able to represent what an average cat looks like—as this looks much closer to your average mackerel tabby—and to open the door for some real beautiful mythical renderings (starry pattern...?) I’d prefer if a randomly generated cat was, on average, something that’s nice to look at – so it’s my goal to try to push and guide the art and gene system in this direction!

I also want to establish more aesthetic synergy with the customization, giving users gene options to customize smaller aspects, such as the skin color or the ear fluff color, while not being overwhelming (or requiring too many color slots for breeding.) I want to design it so that you essentially can't get an "unusable" color combination. Not too little customization, and not too much as to be overwhelming, confusing, or difficult to breed with. 

Doing so will also open the door for potentially a larger color wheel, as our wheel still lacks. The original intention behind a smaller wheel was to allow for getting a "good" color combination easily, but I believe the solution to a problem like that is to retackle the different areas of customization. 

So, hold out for that!

It's also worth noting that our developers have figured out the "colored shading" problem, allowing for us to make the current plain black shading tinted based on the color it sits above. The next update to the generator should include this colored shading! More on the state of the generator available below... 

New UI/UX Direction Preview #1 - The Camp

Let’s face it, the old displays and mockups shared here may have been passable, but they were rudimentary and amateur. I did them on my own, but they were no way up to speed with the demands of web design. As intended, the development team has been expanded. I’ve been working with a seasoned UI/UX designer to develop and improve upon the mechanics we originally conceptualized, and to adapt my original design intentions.

Everything is subject to change as we move forward, and of course this is low fidelity (please excuse the work-in-progress nature!) But it gives a new concrete direction for where elements will be placed. Everything will also be formatted competently for mobile.

New UI/UX Direction Preview #2 - Cat Profile

Once again, low fidelity! There are still some aspects which need workshopping, such as the formatting for the text in the heritage and traits boxes, and we may experiment with the margins and spacing of each element, but the goal was to create a much cleaner web view, and we're getting there!

New UI/UX Direction Preview #3 - Cat Generator

This is the biggest change that I am workshopping right now. An experienced consultant on our team pointed out that dropdowns, while popular within our genre, are difficult for users on average. They’re outdated, and they’re harder for accessibility, intuitive design, and user flow. We have gotten user complaints and requests to help accommodate the dropdowns in the past, but why not make the whole process easier?

NOTE: The "review" tab will also be added to the mobile layout

The mobile version especially will have to be implemented and tested for design and usability. I'm still back and forth on moving the randomize and history buttons to the top in the web view, but for the mobile view it could not stay below due to being where a user's thumbs often sit, and potentially causing frustration while designing. I wanted to keep some consistency between the mobile and web layouts, and it does seem to mimic a sort of "back button" placement, but what do you as the community think?

As to when the cat generator will be updated: I’ve been wanting to do a big bang of an update with all the breeds that will be available at launch. With this overhaul, it will depend on the speed of artist production.

Other low fidelity mockups are currently being workshopped, including new user onboarding, breeding, and a potential “dashboard” feature for registered users which accommodates completed dailies, site news, and monitoring timers for functions like cooking!

Next, let’s take a look at some art the team has done this month!

Pixels

Icons

Illustrated by Hybridremmie on Instagram

Work in Progresses

Lastly, let’s look at some sketches this month!

Fauna concept: The Lupiné

Illustrated by fulemy on Instagram

Backdrops Experiments

Illustrated by Runeowl on Deviantart / snowfinchstudio on Instagram

Illustrated by skazinbud on Instagram

Illustrated by hybridremmie on Instagram

Woo, what a big drop! Things have started moving quite quickly, and I’m working day to night with my teammates to develop on schedule and deliver something amazing! So far, despite the setbacks, we are on track. I’ll come back with news on the building process next month.

AS A FINAL NOTE: With art production speeding up, we are working on backer companions/Fauna. This process consists of us emailing backers our concept sketches and waiting for input. Please watch your Kickstarter email if you have backed a design tier!

To Summarize: We shared the beginning of a new direction for genes, low fidelity UX/UI designs for the user’s Camp, the cat profile, and the cat generator. We shared pixel icons, a few rendered icons, and a collection of work in progress sketches!

What to expect next month: Further UI/UX previews, progress on build functionality, further asset renderings. 

#kickstarter update

[therobotmonster]

How big of a threat do you think AI Art is to the employment of concept artists? Given how artists like RJ Palmer and Bogleech are panicked about it, you've worked in fields adjacent to that, and you've worked extensively with AI art, I'd presume you'd have some perspective on that.

AI art is going to shake up the art field, any new art tool worth its salt can and will.

I was training as a graphic designer when InDesign was finally starting to hit its stride in the late 90s, but I learned on QuarkExpress and learned old-school techniques in high school Newspaper club. I'd been dealing with dot-matrix printers and photocopier work since I was 8 at my dad's office.

So I got to see the graphic design industry in a state of panic through my professors and our various industry guests. All the EM-dashes and the declaration that the " on the keyboard is the inches mark and not the quote were protective measures for the industry so that talented amateurs wouldn't know the secret handshakes and couldn't "fake" their way into being seen as real graphic designers. And they were PISSED that Adobe InDesign was easy to use and automatically converted the measure-marks into "proper" punctuation.

Yet there's still a graphic design industry.

That said, I'd be curious if the ones that are actually freaked out have ever actually used the products. Because I"ve been in a down slump and I'm prone to stim, I have done pretty much nothing but dig into Midjourney and Stable Diffusion's brains and my experience doesn't match the observations of the terrified.

I think part of it is because people only see the results and they don't see the work. And there is work involved.

Iteration and Curation: I've posted a couple hundred pics from Midjourney so far. What do you don't see is this:

Now, in Midjourney parlance "image" also includes 4-grid previews used while developing final images.

For each panel of "Glitch"/"The Bethesda Epoch", for instance, I generated at least eight options (usually more) and evolved several of them across many generations to get what I wound up with. The Bethesda Epoch took me days to put together and garners me feedback and response roughly equal to a 3d modeled piece I'd put together in the same time frame.

Truth of the matter is, you rarely get anything perfect first try, everything needs modification or massive amounts of reiteration to pass for final work.

Promptcraft: Spend even a little time on the discords and you can tell who is playing and who is trying to make art. Play is an entirely viable application of this technology (more on that later) but while this levels the technical skill barrier for a lot of people, it does not cover for a lack of vision or ideas, and it requires its own skill.

There's a big difference between "in the style of D&D art" and "as a D&D monster, full body, pen-and-ink illustration, etching, by Russ Nicholson, David A Trampier, larry elmore, 1981, HQ scan, intricate details, inside stylized border" in terms of what you get.

Play: Most people are just having fun. It's real easy for artists to take the ability to express the ideas in our heads for granted. Most of what you're seeing is people playing with ideas they've been unable to express before. A lot of what I do with it is play, too.

Accessibility: My hands cramp when I draw these days, depression and other problems frequently knock my motivation and energy out of me, but I can use AI to put my ideas out there when the other parts of me aren't cooperating.

Limitations: The tech looks miraculous, but it can't do everything. In fact, it can't do a lot of things. The artist is still needed for the vision, for the ideas, to work the outputs into something meaningful, to supplement the outputs with human intention so a copyright can be involved, the list goes on.

Even Rembrandt used a camera obscura.;

#AI artwork #don't know why this needed to be anon TBH #midjourney #ludditism

[candy8448]

I took a peak back into the warrior cats fandom and there is some exciting stuff going on i cant wait!

First, arc 9 has been confirmed, and they're contemplating returning to the old forest territory and setting it between DOTC and TPB which is so exciting! Dotc is my favorite arc and the old territories are my favorite, and starting with a fresh slate again will be so good for the series i think ut really needs this. I cant wait for it if it happens (would need to catch up on a starless clan tho first)

New ivypool super edition is anounced (Ivypool's heart) and its set during book 6 of ASC. Ivypool is one of my favorites so this is cool!

Okay... but for the real exciting thing:

THE GRAPHIC NOVEL ART IS SO SO SO GOOD I LOVE IT O MY I WANT IT! I stopped reading the books for a while but when this was announced i was truly excited and im gonna get it when it releases. I think this is the closest to the movie we will get

Here is the link to the preview

Also on another note, the new ultimate guide art is so pretty and shiny

Also can i say, the merch is getting way better! I never thought i'd see the day! Go look in the merch shop, there are some really neat looking things

As always, the minis were always the best items but this series i think looks the best yet. We finally get a Lionblaze and Hollyleaf (after 2 jayfeather ones) and they look so nice

I love leapoardstar and tallstar's designs here, it really does look like them! I think i would buy tgese two if i were to buy any of them

Shadowsight looks meh, i never cared for the character either but dovewing's design looks so cute! Also! GREEN EYES! (I have no idea where this debate is now but its still funny to me)

The mug does look really good, its textured and bainted in just the right way. Tbh i wouldn't buy it myself but it looks really good

The T-Shirts!!! They look so nice!! Done away with the "i am scourge" minis shirts we have really nice looking stuff! As a windclan member i want that shirt so badly, it looks the best out of the new clan shirt designs and the first one looks so adorable!

Tbh i love this plush, sure they did do mapleshade kinda bad but she looks like a gremlin and i love that! It resonates with me!

Bro is warriors actually getting good again? :000 0.0

#i do a little ramble #warriors #warrior cats erin hunter #warrior cats #WC

[nancydrewwouldnever]

NYT Magazine - March 2018

“Chris Evans Comes Back Down to Earth”

March 22, 2018

Chris Evans has a theory about tap dancing. “Tap is waiting to have its day,” he said one recent afternoon, sitting in a TriBeCa hotel clubhouse around the corner from an apartment he’s been renting since last month. Mr. Evans, or Captain America, as he’s been known in omnipresent Marvel movies for the better part of a decade, tapped as a child and still has sincere reverence for the form. His theory is that tap dancing today, like competitive hip-hop dancing in the early 2000s, is generally undervalued and ripe for a comeback.

“If you walk down the street and you see someone tapping,” you stop in your tracks, he said, using an unprintable word, “because it’s awesome.”

Twice a week since he’s been living in New York, Mr. Evans, who ordinarily splits his time between his native Boston and Los Angeles, has taken refuge in tap, clearing his mind and working up a sweat in private lessons taught by a friend. The lessons aren’t preparation for any role in particular, although Mr. Evans is hard at work on a pivotal one: his Broadway debut, as a charming but manipulative cop in Kenneth Lonergan’s "Lobby Hero" which is now in previews and opens March 26 at the Helen Hayes Theater.

The dancing, rather, is just a low-pressure new hobby (“It makes me feel like I’m a part of the music,” Mr. Evans said.) Along with the play, and the move to a new city, it’s one component in an ad hoc but inevitable process — not quite a rebirth, more like a re-orientation — designed to help the 36-year-old actor answer a nagging question: What do you do with your life after walking away from the role of a lifetime?

Since 2011, the year “Captain America: The First Avenger” was released, Mr. Evans’s face (and torso, and biceps) has signified a marketable mix of principled strength and rank-and-file virtue as reliably as any in Hollywood. He was a working-class revolutionary in the dystopic thriller “Snowpiercer,” a stoic defender of the public school system in the indie family drama “Gifted,” a cunning spy who risks everything to save a persecuted minority in the soon-to-be-released “The Red Sea Diving Resort.”

And then there are the Avengers movies, in which the nobility of Mr. Evans’s character is so unimpeachable that entire plotlines turn on the ticks of his moral compass. In the TriBeCa lounge, Mr. Evans volunteered his own stereotype: “Taciturn men who are leaders, selfless and magnanimous.”

Last year, he filmed back-to-back the final two Marvel movies for which he is under contract — “Avengers: Infinity War,” due in April, and a sequel planned for next year. For now, he has no plans to return to the franchise (“You want to get off the train before they push you off,” he said), and expects that planned reshoots in the fall will mark the end of his tenure in the familiar red, white and blue super suit.

It was in the midst of shooting “Infinity War” that Mr. Evans signed on for “Lobby Hero.” Also starring Michael Cera, Brian Tyree Henry and Bel Powley, it inaugurates the nonprofit Second Stage Theater’s recently remodeled Broadway venue. The choice will give those wondering about Mr. Evans’s frame of mind plenty to chew on: His character, known only as Bill, is essentially a narcissistic creep, with a vision of protecting the innocent that lifts a warped mirror to the actor’s usual procession of do-gooders.

The play’s director, Trip Cullman, sent the script to Mr. Evans betting that the potential to subvert his image would be too enticing to pass up.

“I had this inkling that he may not have had the opportunity to show what he can really do as an actor,” Mr. Cullman said. “A lot of actors are afraid to play someone unlikable, but I think he really has an egoless desire to serve the work.”

Though “Lobby Hero” is his Broadway debut, Mr. Evans is not a total stranger to the theater. He grew up in Sudbury, Mass., outside of Boston, in a family of performers: His mother was a dancer who later ran a children’s theater, his elder sister Carly studied drama at New York University and his younger brother Scott is a television actor who recently appeared on the Netflix comedy “Grace and Frankie.”

In high school, Mr. Evans balanced wrestling and lacrosse practice with Shakespeare, and was voted “most theatrical” after appearing in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and “The Winter’s Tale.” The summer before his senior year, he moved to New York to intern for a casting company and went back to Sudbury with his first agent. By graduation, he’d landed a role on television, as one of three boys in a former all-girls’ school on the short-lived Fox drama “Opposite Sex.”

He spent the next several years playing a series of clean-cut hunks with an ambivalent relationship to their shirts: There was the shirtless jock in “Not Another Teen Movie,” the shirtless musician in “What’s Your Number?” and the shirtless flame-throwing superhero in two “Fantastic Four” movies, which put him in Marvel’s orbit.

In conversation, Mr. Evans is more thoughtful and grounded than his filmography might suggest. He is animated by the challenge of playing against type, but has no regrets over his previous roles and surprisingly little anxiety about future prospects.

“I used to have thoughts of wanting to climb to the top of something, or wanting to be somebody,” he said. “But when you get the thing that you think you want and then you wake up and realize that you still have pockets of sadness, and that your struggle will reinvent itself, you stop chasing after those things and it’s liberating, because you realize that right here, right now, is exactly all I need.”

Mr. Evans was wearing the urban camouflage of a black NASA baseball cap with a cuffed brim pulled low. At around 6 feet tall, he is much less physically imposing in person than he appears onscreen, with the unassuming athleticism of the friend you forget does CrossFit until beach season comes around.

For the play, he recently grew a formidable mustache — a mighty rust-flecked horseshoe — and gained a super power of a different sort. “People don’t recognize me at all,” he said. “I can look them right in the eye — it’s like I’m invisible.”

“Lobby Hero,” which ran Off Broadway in 2001, follows several nights in the lives of four workers on the graveyard shift who are stratified by professional and social class. A pair of male security guards, one black and one white, have a series of run-ins with a swaggering cop and his young female partner in the lobby of a nondescript Manhattan apartment building.

A queasy drama, replete with abuses of power and sexual coercion, unfolds between the male officer, played by Mr. Evans, and his partner Dawn (Ms. Powley). In the #MeToo era, when sensitivities to the plight of women in male-dominated institutions are especially raw, Mr. Evans’s scenes add live wires to the play’s emotional and political circuitry.

In an interview, Mr. Lonergan, the playwright, dismissed the notion that he had been prescient 17 years ago. (He has since gone on to a successful film career, writing and directing “Manchester by the Sea” most recently.) The play’s fresh resonance, he said, was an indictment of how little has changed in society.

“This isn’t new,” Mr. Lonergan said. “Anyone who’s shocked by these issues — I don’t know where they’ve been.”

Mr. Cullman, the director, said he hoped “Lobby Hero” would further “expose toxic masculinity.”

“Kenny has given voice to Dawn’s predicament in such a compassionate and powerful way,” he said.

Mr. Evans’s newfound appetite for morally challenged characters has already been tested by Broadway’s eight-show-a-week routine. Two weeks into previews for “Lobby Hero,” he said it had felt more like two months.

But he’s prepared for the part with the fervor of the newly indoctrinated. Mr. Evans’s character is charismatic and often funny, and the actor devoted much of his rehearsal time to exploring how a man who is well liked can shade into reprehensible.

“He has the right instrument to bring the character to life,” said Mr. Cera, who worked with Mr. Evans on the 2010 film “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.”

Mr. Cera pointed to one scene in which Bill threatens his partner. “The words on the page are menacing, but Chris made the choice to deliver them as if he himself is spinning out, which is much more frightening,” he said. “It reduced Bel to tears one night because it was so unexpected.”

The role has unexpectedly submerged Mr. Evans in questions of gender inequality and the distribution of power just as those same questions are roiling his industry.

The actor, who said he didn’t base his performance on anyone in particular (“It’s awful to admit, but I know plenty of guys who fit this mold”), has been studying how to better conduct himself as an ally to women in his profession.

One book he found eye-opening was Rebecca Solnit’s “The Mother of All Questions.” Mr. Evans read it while dating the actress Jenny Slate (their on-again, off-again relationship, beloved by the internet, recently ended) and decided that he needed to listen more and speak less.

“The hardest thing to reconcile is that just because you have good intentions, doesn’t mean it’s your time to have a voice,” he said.

As has become the norm for star-driven plays on Broadway, “Lobby Hero” has a limited run, through May 13. And while the show is as substantial a leap as any Mr. Evans has made professionally, it remains a kind of riff on his existing résumé. When it’s over, he’ll discover what it really means to be a film actor with Captain America’s face (and bank account), but without the job.

The last time he experienced anything similar was in 2016, when he took a year off from acting after wrapping the third Captain America film. Mr. Evans spent the time remodeling his house in Boston and bonding with his family. He visited his mother or sister every other day and marked the seasons with his nieces and nephews — apple picking, pumpkin carving, decorating a Christmas tree. He raised an adopted puppy — a regal mixed breed named Dodger — and became a regular at his local grocery store.

Mr. Evans said it was those slice-of-life domestic moments, rather than notions of any particular career path, that have most influenced his vision board.

“When I think about the times that I’m happiest, it’s not on a movie set,” he said, adding that he no longer wishes to make more than one film per year. “I’ve stopped thinking about my trajectory, or my oeuvre, or whatever pretentious word you want to use. I’m just following whatever I feel creatively hungry for.”

He wants to direct (his directorial debut “Before We Go” screened at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2014) and to start a family of his own. And, when he’s had his fill of tap dancing, he envisions many more hobbies, including sculpting and carpentry.

“I’m not afraid to take my foot off the gas,” he said. ”If someone said tomorrow, ‘You’re done, you can’t do anything else,’ I’d be O.K.”

For all those who couldn't read it through the NYT link.

#interview #2018 #lobby hero #NYT Magazine interview #chris evans

[wintered-debtz]

CT ocs!!! idk their names yet other than kenni's. more info about my fan story/ocs under the cut (warning: its super long!!)

I have a fan AU in my head. The premise of my AU takes place in the Cramp Twins universe, about 6-7 years into the future. The protagonist is Kenny, who is based a lot on myself. In my AU, Soap City has a scandal regarding the soap factory, and people are moving out En Masse. Property value has gone down, people are losing their jobs. So my fan AU is gonna be focusing a lot on the hardships that come with this.

Kenny is based a lot on me, and he is the main character of the story. He is Beady's son, and his father is a Swamp person, but as a child, he lived with his Mother beady

That girl on the way right of my drawing? Thats the bully from the girl gang! (Shes the one in the middle). She is Kenny's best friend.

She and Kenny are long time friends. Kenny was once part of the girl gang and thats why they are so tight-knit. How was he a part of the girl gang, you may ask? Kenny is trans masc. He came out much later. Kenny is in his early 20s. Im thinking about naming her Trix or something similar in honor of an old OC of mine.

The girl in the middle is Trix's girlfriend. I don't know her name yet. Shes the girl from School Disco (the one with orange hair!!)

Many fans suspect Mari Phelps is adopted. So this girl, I think is Maris biological sister. Mari was taken away as an infant/toddler, so Mari does not remember much, but her older sister deeply is hurt and feels wounded by losing Mari. Sometimes only one child is sent away to live with another guardian in certain cases. I feel bad introducing such a dark element into a fan AU. I won't delve much into it. Point is, she really hopes she can meet her younger sister again one day. Im thinking of naming her beatrice but idk.

There is of course, already a huge plot hole in my AU... if this is Mari's sister, then dang, Wayne has an older doppelganger who looks exactly like him... ughhhh -_-

this loophole literally made me want to scrap the story and work on something new ugh. bc even though the main characters of the cramp twins arent the main focus, they ARE present in my story. So this "wayne" is very contradictory if I use the girl from school disco as a character and have her be maris older sister, fff. (I kind of HC that mari is based off her, who agrees? mostly bc the orange hair and her "edge" attitude, for lack of better word)... bc wayne and all the others are present in the story, but they are younger than the main characters.

Again, this story takes place 6-7 yrs in the future, . heres a preview of some designs im making for the already existing characters/ them when they are in high-school

this is Wendy Winkle's new design. in the story, she has a lot going on. with the soap factory shutting down, her family loses a lot of money. her parents are going through a messy divorce. i know this seems out of character, but sometimes hard circumstances will change a person- wendy is still popular at school but she is very depressed and as a result, more reserved and quiet in high-school. she has a lot of regrets on her mind but idk if i wanna say it. shes a sad prep kid basically. i think her father will have main custody, but the money comes from her mother... the soap factory shutting down causes a lot of issues for walter winkle and he has to live in the swamp. wendy may potentially be living with tony for some period of time in this AU. it forces her to uh. sadly face a lot of things her parents never prepared her for.

then this is Wayne and lucien. both of them grow their hair out. (Fun fact: I am digitizing this doodle!! its not done tho)

anyway, Wayne is kind of grungy, he often is wearing overalls bc he works a lot at the junkyard. Lucien kinda loosens up and becomes uh. a "hippie" for lack of better word??? i notice many ppl think he would be preppy, ive seen two fanarts depict him as a prep kid when he gets older. but after i thought about it, its so possible lucien wants to rebel that life style and focus on what matters to him - peace and justice!!! thus the hippie attire :] (im projecting bc i was that way in highschool and i relate to lucien a lot lolol)

theres so much more i can type about my fan AU but basically the premise is... soap city is falling apart, families are falling apart. everything is hard, but maybe things can get better...

tony goes to school in this AU bc his family is worried tony might not have a future. there is a possibility the swamp may be destroyed due to pollution (the Soap factory scandal has to do with a leak into the swamp, hurting much wild life and even civilians). mari realizes she is a lesbian and fights with her conservative mormon parents a lot...

all 5 of the main kids work together at a grocery store, for varying reasons. and Kenny is a long-time employee there, thats how he meets them. Its all connected in some way. Kenny lives with Trix, the girlfriend of Mari's older sister. so thats why one day, they will get to meet, for example.

i have too much going on in this AU, dont i? :P typing this all out has been very exciting tho. i never typed it all out like this before. my ideas for my AU usually just float around in my head as i work or listen to music

[dailymilesmorales]

Lord and Miller tease the return of Miles Morales in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

Multiverses: They're very hot right now. Between Everything Everywhere All at Once, Spider-Man: No Way Home, and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Hollywood sure loves a trippy tale that bounces between dimensions.

But no movie does it quite like 2018's Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, the innovative animated film about teenage web-slinger Miles Morales (voiced by Shameik Moore). When the original first swung into theaters, it almost immediately became an instant classic, reenergizing the genre and winning the Oscar for Best Animated Film. It's everything a superhero movie can and should be: ambitious, colorful, heartfelt, and deeply funny.

Now, Miles and his fellow Spideys are back — and they're about to face their biggest threat yet.

The first of two planned sequels, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, is scheduled to hit theaters June 2, 2023, and anticipation has never been higher. For EW's 2023 Preview, we caught up with screenwriter-producers Phil Lord and Chris Miller, who teased the next chapter in Miles' adventure, one that follows a slightly older teenage hero as he juggles growing pains with the high-stakes responsibilities of "great power."

"As he's growing up, he's trying to figure out how he can go out and see the world and spread his wings and leave the nest," Miller, 47, explains. "But he also feels rooted to his home and his family. It's that push-pull of your life as a teenager, where you're like, How do I get to be my own person, but also not lose where I came from?"

Fortunately for Miles, he's not navigating that journey alone. If the first film followed a squad of different Spider-People as they traveled to Miles' universe, this one finds Miles venturing into the multiverse himself. As he swings across dimensions — each with its own unique art style — he meets countless other Spideys. (Lord and Miller don't have a final number, but between major roles and brief cameos, they estimate about 240 unique characters were designed and modeled for Across the Spider-Verse.)

A number of familiar voices are back, as Miles reunites with Spider-Gwen (voiced by Hailee Steinfeld) and Peter B. Parker (Jake Johnson). He also links up with new allies, like Jessica Drew's Spider-Woman. Insecure's Issa Rae voices Jessica, a motorcycle-riding phenomenon who helps mentor Gwen. "A lot of work has gone into making that character look great," Lord, 47, adds. "If you've ever been around Issa, she's such a dynamo of talent and grace, so you just want to make the character look as cool as she is."  

Oscar Isaac takes an expanded role as Miguel O'Hara, a.k.a. Spider-Man 2099, who made a brief cameo in the first film's end-credits scene. Lord and Miller say that Miguel and Miles have a lot in common, but they don't always see eye to eye — especially when it concerns the safety of the multiverse. "He's not the villain of the movie, but he's sort of an antagonist to Miles because they both think that what they're doing is the right thing," Miller teases.

As for the actual villain? Jason Schwartzman voices the Spot, a cryptic baddie with the ability to create portals between different dimensions. With his goofy, almost dalmatian-like costume, he isn't necessarily an A-list comic book villain. But Lord and Miller say the Spot's trippy powers make him "a perfect character for animation," with abilities that allow him to bend reality almost like an old Wile E. Coyote cartoon.

"I like the villains best when they reflect the journeys of the hero — sort of a dark mirror of the protagonist," Lord adds. "And I think Spot's no different. He wants to be seen as legitimate. He's a character that has a silly costume and is not always seen as the top tier of Spider-Man foes, but like all of us, he wants to be taken seriously."

Still, despite all the jaw-dropping animation and clever cameos, Lord and Miller stress that Across the Spider-Verse is Miles' story, first and foremost.

"Even with all the whizzbang parts, we're always trying to look for ways to make them scenes between characters," Lord says. "That's the thing that everybody wants, which is so surprising to me. I never expected the star of [the first] movie to be people talking together in dramatic scenes. But that's the thing that people are most interested in."  

"Really, the hardest thing is making sure that you've got a story that you care about and that you're emotionally connected to," Miller adds. "Without that, you've got nothing.

#movies #movies: spiderman across the spiderverse #stills #articles

[hereliesbitches--me]

 has your muse ever felt as though they’ve been reborn ?  have they ever desired the feeling of a fresh start ,   or a better understanding of themself and/or the world around them ?  

Random Asks (ALWAYS ACCEPTED)

A consistent theme I have for Iniquitous Essence (IE) and its main cast of character revolves heavy around the way they develop and change as people based on the world and the drastic events that warp them. Focusing on the big two of this blog, lets deep dive:

Rosie Valentine

Considering her to be one of the primary leads of IE, she is a character whose entire theme is about "dying" and being reborn again and again as something new that can survive in the environment Shes been forced into. The symbolic catalyst for these changes, Ironically, being flame and chaos. Depending on the era in which you meet her, Rosie is a very different person: from childhood, her days in the calvary, her time in Tennessee, to the well-known "Unbreakable Sphinx" hero facade Shes picked up now late in life. The designated marking points of being "reborn" is at the cusp of each of these life phases -- so lets talk about the very first

The first time she felt she was reborn, letting the old life die and the new one rise from its ashes was when she initially left the calvary. Left it, I should mention it, collapsing in on itself in a smoldering mass of corpses of soldiers, monsters, and melting tech alike. She had set up the detonation that caved the entirety of the base underground, and she'd killed off every one of her former teammates to make sure there was no ties to say this version of her had ever existed at all. Up until that point, Rosie can say she had no discernable personality of her own. Her life from 14 to 22 was spent in perpetual survival mode as she was preyed upon, manipulated, beaten down on, and overall had no real hope for what a future could look like for someone like her. What was the point of it when all she wanted was to die? For a small era she had almost had a blip of hope when Kasimir came along, promised her that they'd break away from this, be heroes and have a family together. And for once in her life she believed it

But even that was short lived and decimated right before her eyes when kasimir was cast out of the Calvary unit. 17 years old back in the jaws of the wolves and no one to save her anymore. She miscarried the baby they were suppose to have.. then that point on marked the ascension of change.

When Rosie watched that base burn down, where all her tormentors got an express early preview ticket of Hell she thought they belonged to, it was the very first time in her life that she felt she could breathe. The first time she felt like she was waking up as a person... and now had to discover who she was outside of being a victim or a soldier. The old Rosita Roselyn had died in a mechanical malfunction that killed hundreds of soldiers, priests, and demons in a blazing pit of meat and molten metal, no one suspected who was the real cause of it... she was free, reborn to be who she pleases.

Unfortunately for her, the first run of the person she chose to be was not perfect or as good as she wanted to be. Which leads to the second evolution: When did she desire a fresh start?

An 6 year era following the end of the calvary, Rosie lived in Tennessee as a caretaker for a monster she stole from that very base she destroyed, Nikki (A character for an entirely separate post to talk about). The personality Rosie developed with her newfound freedom was not really a person, but rather an agglomeration of personality aspects and traits she had picked from a variety of the significant figures in her life, and the biproduct of her divided psyche coping with the sudden and drastic change from survival mode to... person mode. Rosie never really got out of survival mode... instead she became good at pretending. To be the friendly deputy of a small town everyone could rely on, while behind the scenes she was still as calculative and manipulative as she needed to be to ensure the safety of herself and Nikki. Even if it meant harming Nikki with lies and guilt to keep her safe. For her own good, Rosie tells herself. If she has everything under control, they are safe.

In this same era, she discovers new feelings of love for a waitress -- but is it really love, or projection of longing for what was? Love and lies dont really go hand in hand, neither does paranoia and distrust. So driven to keep everything under control, convinced she can keep what she loves safe by being this monster, Rosie ends up being the cause of her own downfall as things spiral out of her control. Nikki found and saved by the father of her children, the waitress she adored suddenly very aware of the monster Rosie is slowly revealing herself to be and leaves her for her fellow deputy, the very same deputy that closes in in preparation to reveal the serial killer that Rosie Is ; Then she was alone again. Everything that she held dear and tried so hard to protect slipping past her fingers. Because she lacked the ability to realize she was suffocating them in her palms and digging in with her claws.

Left to her own accord, she realizes the person she made herself to be at that time was a mistake... So what was there left to do? Allow herself to be caught, or follow Nikki and try again?

Too much to be done, she couldn't afford she be caught or to die... at the very least, she could try to do right this time around. Gain forgiveness by helping from afar. ' Her move to New York at age 28 marks yet another transformative era of rebirth, shedding the skin and bad habits of her old life to improve herself. Give up her obsession with control and take initiative to make meaningful relationships outside of what she needs people for. Be... kind. Gain a sense of humor. Give herself worth outside of being a soldier and a fighter.

She becomes the beloved Sphinx, the friend and maternal figure that will always have your back and defend you from dangers. Give you a way out. Curbed her more violent instincts like the monster of Tennessee and the calvary days had never existed. But its not truly dead. She is a mom now in her 40s -- she's tired, but endlessly giving. She does the best she can to make everyone happy because they deserve it. And she takes the torment and the punishment because that's what monsters deserve. That is how justice is served. It's what she is good for.

Jacob McCool

While less dramatic in his developmental stages, Jacob is another main cast in IE whose development is more so in terms of emotional maturity. The massive heavy hitter we see now was once just an orphaned kid that was lost in the foster system. Mistreated because of an inherent strength he didn't have the experience or know-how to control. Deemed a liar because he heard things talking, heard sounds that no one else did. The lack of support had led him down a path of delinquency for the sake of survival. He didn't always have the ability to solidify his muscle into weapons and claws and armor. He was always big, always fast and stronger than the average person. But still just a cocky teenager like anyone else his age. If no one would believe him, he would be the monster child they painted him to be. For most of his early teens he was a delinquent, got in with the wrong crowd to run paraphernalia for a good chunk of cash. Not that he was any good at money management, but he ate whatever he liked and lived in the bare minimum of abandoned places to pass his time. Things went well... up until he was the unknowing goods being traded up. Betrayed by his own boss, a 17-year-old Jacob is tied up and sold off to a military division who want to unlock the full potential of his power to replicate it. Prodded, cut open, beaten down, pumped full of chemicals, assaulted -- all trials to push the limit of his capabilities, to activate that hidden gene that angels have that he knows nothing about. He could have been there for days to months to years -- he had no real sense of passing time as he hung onto life. til the day those desired abilities they tortured him for finally activated.

They got what they wanted but did not account what could be done with those powers in the hands of a starving half rabid animal. The details are blurry to him; just a slideshow of red, a symphony of gunfire, squelching meat, crunching bones, twisting metal, and gurgled screams. Then he's suddenly out in the open air, breathing in that fresh city smog -- a new freak of nature, with bulging muscles that took the gunfire like plastic pellets and claws that ripped through steel and meat like paper. Whatever he was before he was dragged down to that pit had died successfully and what came out was something new, something worse, that they could never beat. A man with a newfound fear of needles and the pungent stench of hospitals, ever angrier, ever more distrusting, knowing the only one who will look out for him is himself. Newly reborn Abaddon as they'll come to call him.

The desire for a fresh start comes further down the line, as paths cross and his life is yet again turned upside down by the arrival of his own children he thought to have died in the womb. Sometime in his early 20s he had met a 17-year-old Nikki, and it had only been a year before their relationship fell apart following the perceived death of what would have been their twins. Rejected and blamed by Nikki and told to leave, emotionally immature as he was, he did exactly what he was told. Angry and heartbroken but unwilling to compromise if that's what she wanted from him. For nearly 10 years he had drowned himself in a career in underground fighting for cash. Made himself friends in Rocky and Guts, and tried to forget about anything that had to do with the pretty girl that broke his heart. Then out of the blue a little girl shows up -- has his scowling face and unruly hair, but all too familiar beauty of a woman he never forgot. At first in denial, an absolute dick to this kid he thought was yet another government trap to catch him, it's with the coaxing (verbal berating, maybe getting smacked in the back of the skull a few times) of his friends that gets him to face the music that he is in fact a dad. And he has a moral obligation to find his whole family, save them, and bring them all back together.

But life is never quite that simple, is it? Its always nice at first. A spree of excitement for something new, something different, and something familiar. Here he had his girl back, had kids... and he had no fuckin idea how to be a dad or a husband. In typical jacob fashion, he fucks it up too.

He comes to realize that people don't always grow and stay compatible with each other... for all the love he had for Nikki, she had grown into a woman of her own, and he has still stayed that immature boy who only knew how to save the day and nothing else after he gets the girl. It costs him everything. What good was he if he could not make her happy? If she was always disappointed in his inability to keep up with her in conversation and interest?

After getting a job within the angel project thanks to Rosie, he takes it in stride that his family is better off when hes not around to ruin everything. He leaves them the house, still pays the bills and picks up the kids every other week, and finds a different place to bunk.

A fresh start comes only after you have everything to gain and nothing else to lose. In finding out he has a family; he sets out on a journey to be the better man both Nikki and his twins need him to be. Even if it means coparenting from afar. There was more to life than just food and fighting to see tomorrow.

#:headcanons: #:answered: #:The Unbreakable Sphinx (Rosie Valentine): #:Abaddon (Jacob McCool): #thank you so much for the development question!!

[solradguy]

dude tell us about your metal gear oc

Lmfao.... Ok so it's kind of embarrassing now that I'm flipping through this sketchbook again, but I was for real actually 12 years old when I came up with this stuff and was just a kid having fun so I can't be THAT embarrassed by it haha

So, I somehow ended up with MGS2 for the PS2 back in circa 2005. Metal Gear Ray was the COOLEST goddamn thing I had ever seen in my LIFE (it's still cool tbf) so I had to incorporate it into my stick figure comicbook ASAP. I drew it from memory and got its head all wrong but, like I said, I was literally 12 and only had my memory of the short cutscene to go off of lmfao

This sketchbook is falling apart but here's his reference box:

Name: Fazre Powers: Razers, N/A Weakness: Rafiyan (this was an actual dragon character not based on MGS) Symbol: All my characters in this comic had their own glyph for whatever reason. Fazre's is like a horizontal line that starts off spiky and ends in a loose spiral. There are 3 dots around the spike at the start. Hobbies: N/A Weapons: Lazers [sic], N/A Character description: Robotic, amphibious, very big

The first few pages of this sketchbook fell out and I had to staple them back in, but here's the first comic where Fazre does stuff. I'll try to explain wtf is happening after each page lol

I hope these post right because they look cropped in the post preview?? EDIT: Oh cool they did

This was the 5th of the comics I made in this sketchbook. It's titled The Bob Stories #5 and has the symbol for my character in it. The main character, Bob, is drawn in indigo; my persona [Deadname] is drawn in purple, Toby (who didn't scan well at all!!) is in neon orange, Joe in turquoise, and Kyoto in black. Bob's whole thing was fire magic and his special ability was picking up rocks and turning them into fireballs. Him and Joe were mortal enemies. Bob wears a black and orange bandanna worn bandit-style, covering the entire top of his head, and Joe wears sunglasses. Joe teleports into the first panel Terminator-style. Bob points at him, saying "YOU!". The rift in space-time from Joe's teleporting caused two Kyotos to appear. Bob and Joe start fighting while [Deadname] and Toby get bored and leave. In the last panel, one of the Kyotos turns into a character drawn in orange, Irifinagon. Bob and Joe stop fighting to fight this new guy. Kyoto was actually a friend's OC that I kind of adopted into my comics. I didn't design or name him.

Bob does a powerup and removes his bandanna, revealing a powerful mullet. Irifinagon gets crushed by Fazre, who teleports on top of him with a crackle of static. He charges up a big laser attack while Joe and Kyoto chop at him with swords and shuriken and Bob charges a big fire blast. Bob and Fazre's energy attacks collide but Fazre's is stronger and incapacitates Bob while Joe does a sick flip over their colliding lasers. Joe then throws his sword into Fazre's mouth before he charges another attack.

Bob steams on the ground while Joe tries a lightning attack on Fazre. It does nothing and then Fazre bites his head off. Kyoto chops off Fazre's tail while Bob gets back on his feet and charges a double fireball. Fazre turns into Irifinagon for some reason and says that he will be back while the ghost possessing Joe, and the source of his powers, Kyle, floats out of the decapitated corpse of Joe.

Kyle heals Joe and then possesses him again. Joe is not pleased and says "Stupid spirit..." while Bob and Kyoto spectate.

The End

--

I drew these comics in class instead of paying attention. There are like 30 of them lmfao

Bob is probably my oldest OC that I actually wrote down any story or anything for. I never brought him back because I only ever drew him as a stick figure and didn't consider what he would look like in a 3D form lol

#asks #my stuff #<- I GUESS?

[stormxpadme]

A little preview of the next series part for @sneakymystique who can use a little pick me up after the last few weeks.

"If I may ask, Miss ..." For a moment, he feared that he wouldn't remember how the lady had introduced herself, but fortunately, that somewhat exotic name had stuck. "... Miss Katsopolis ... Is there any particular reason for your visit? Have there been any difficulties with major league customers that have not been brought to my attention? I assure you, if there is ..."

"Routine," a seductively deep and smoky voice replied shortly, with a strange smile that might have seemed charming had the eyes above it not been so icy and calculating. "In recent years, there have been repeated attacks by mutants on public utilities. We fear more terrorist attacks like the one at Liberty Island. Especially now that Lehnsherr has escaped prison."

"Magneto? Oh please." Harold rebuffed with a throwaway hand gesture. "Not to mention that I can't currently imagine what that old fart and his freaks would want with a power plant, of all things ..." Mildly amused, he caught an irritated twitch around Rachel's pretty bright eyes. Well, with him she had chosen the wrong man to lecture. He had been in this business far too long for that. And even if someone would try to rob his chair at some point, he would get a new lucrative job within a few weeks. No need to worry about routine checks by the authorities. "There has never been a single hostile incident in my building. Every single person who enters and leaves this house is thoroughly checked out. As I have pointed out ..." He fished an information sheet from his desk that told visitors about the not always entirely pleasant measures at the entrances.

"... DNA scanner, you mentioned it." The woman had only a quick glance for the laminated piece of paper to spare. "Great effort for someone not attaching any importance to themselves regarding current political events as a simple energy supplier."

"I didn't say that. And simple hardly covers." Terrorist attacks, however ... If that was what this control was really about, Harold had presented his work in the best light, anyway. Perhaps now he could get back to his real job. Only after he had found out the agency girl’s phone number, of course. "There’s certainly threats for us to expect, though not necessarily from misguided people with faulty genes. Thanks to our advantageous location in this wind sector and our technological innovations, we have been able to triple our output in recent years. Our network is accessible to every location in the city. This plant is designed so that, at the push of a button, it could power all of New York on its own for days, should there be an emergency. It must meet the highest safety standards."

"Then it's high time you put them in place, Simmons," was the very definite retort from his visitor. "You seem to hide in your laboratory too often. A few scanners and guards equal little more than a rusty garden gate should, say, followers of the Brotherhood of Mutants decide to take advantage of your work. You have a lot to learn. I see my visit here has come at just the right time. Provide me with a laptop with access to your network. But before we go into details, why don't you have a cup of coffee with me?"

"Uh ... yes ... of course." There weren't many people who could leave Harold speechless. So much for hoping he could somehow still keep the appointment with the Europeans. Just what he needed. Hurricanes, tsunamis, fires, earthquakes, and now mutants ... What was he going to protect himself from next? The apocalypse itself? Resigned, he reached for the phone. "Mandy? Tell the Swedes to be patient until tomorrow. Organize someone to show them the plant for me, and pay for their hotel room upgrade. And bring us something to nibble on. Big and black." This was apparently going to be another long afternoon.

"You'll excuse me for a moment." Rachel reconciled him with a charming smile for the inconvenience. Maybe the useless lecture wouldn't be half as boring as expected, at least, with this walking seduction sitting right next to Harold ... The woman shouldered her purse, got up, and looked around with raised eyebrows.

"Down the hall, second door on the left."

****

Raven hissed, relieved to be out of the haze of this chubby creep of a homo sapiens for at least a few minutes. There were jobs that required mentally stubbornly telling yourself over and over again what you were actually doing them for. Otherwise, she probably would have long since snapped this sexist moron's neck with her bare hand. Unfortunately, she still needed the guy. As tempting as it sounded to get rid of him, to take his place so that Erik could take up his plans in this building here undisturbed, she simply didn't have the time. It was difficult enough on many days to play her parade role as Senator Kelly without attracting anyone's attention because she spent far less time in Congress than would have been appropriate. For now, unfortunately, they needed this Simmons guy. But it would give her a lot of greatest pleasure to shut him up. She knew what she needed to know now, and by the time she got back, the guy would hopefully have provided full access to the plant's computer system. Then Raven could finally get on with her actual work. She took a quick peek into one of the offices she passed, entered the restroom just long enough to match her physical shape to that of one of the female employees, and then hurried to the coffee kitchen as unobtrusively as she could, where a red-haired, obviously completely overwhelmed girl was filling two cups with flying hands. "Mandy? One of the Swedes is asking for you."

"Great, this just keeps on getting better. You take the tray to Harold. You know he hates to wait. You don't have anything to do anyway, do you? That's what I thought. Hurry up." Cursing and swearing, without even waiting for a reply, the young woman ran past her.

"With the greatest of pleasure." Raven kicked the kitchen door shut with her heel and reached for a blister of pills she had brought with her in a pouch of flesh under her sternum. After a moment's thought, she dissolved three sleeping pills in one of the cups instead of the usual two. It would be a relief to hear her talkative friend fall silent as soon as possible.

"Wait, that wasn't the point. You're a guest here. Where's my assistant?" Frowning, Harold looked up when she single-handedly balanced the large tray of coffee and cookies into his office.

"I guess your girl had more important things to do. Vanished in some broom closet with a male coworker. This was in the kitchen." Raven smiled sweetly and handed Simmons his requested caffeine refill. "Laptop?"

"We can work on mine. Have a seat." Patronizingly, the man patted the seat of the leather chair he'd placed next to his, barely more than a few inches from it, and typed a few letters into his keyboard. Access data, Raven noted with satisfaction. She allowed herself to put her hearing on mute for the next five minutes, unless it was for any data relevant to her task. It was an art that was perfected when one had to team up with an oversized toad and a hormone-driven Neanderthal. With pointed fingers, she pushed Harold's chair aside when the guy finally dozed off and read into the plant's downright ridiculously simplistic administrative program. She quickly put on her headset to inform her leader of her progress, connecting her cell phone to Erik's with a quick press of one button. "I'm in."

"Hurry up," was the unusually gruff reply. Trouble, Raven heard it immediately from the uneasy nuance in Erik's voice.

Once again she cursed the fact that she had already had to waste so much time in this office crammed with tasteless kitsch. "What happened?"

"Toad needs your help. We have scouts in the system."

"Xavier." Raven gritted her teeth hard to keep from letting loose a very unkind comment about her favorite enemies, for whom Erik notoriously had a lot more love than she did. Now these plagues had gone too far. They wanted access to the Brotherhood's computer system? Well, Raven would be happy to show them what happened when you couldn’t keep your nose out of other people's business. There were some technical gadgets in Xavier's house that could be used against its own inhabitants ... She had already toyed with the idea at Liberty Island when she had first looked around Westchester. And this time she would not hesitate.

#x men #everything after x2 didn't happen sue me #x men original timeline movies #stormys fanfics #this had no final edit #i literally just chased this through deepl and gave it a quick read #but it's a nice taste of the things to come in pt 5 aka Frost #bonus points for the disnosaurs among us who catch the easter egg #really just a small excerpt and i put so much of your inspiration for her in already :D #thank you lots <3

[zizz-asdf-re-r-o-u]

Leviathan Chronicles Audio Drama - Reactions, part 1

So these are some of the reactions i had when listening to it for the first time last year:

I’m still listening to Leviathan Chronicles and it turns out it’s one of the earliest internet audio dramas from 2008. It’s not perfect since some of the concepts are a lil outdated but the blockbuster-style sound design & voice acting is amazing for its time. (This was still the era of flip phones, myspace, & geocities! Youtube was only 1years old.)

The creator is so precious bc you can tell it was created in 2008. There’s no patreon promos yet lol & in one of the outros he said “I got my first iPhone!” “Thanks for talking about us on AIM!” 🥺 He also jokingly blames President Bush for making one of the episodes late xDDD now that definitely dates this show lol.

Nowhere near as annoyingly straight as We're Alive. It does the female characters better than We're Alive. but omg the straightness is pungent. but yeah, if you like 2008 callouts and like crazy action (like think Black Widow "you should have died how are you still alive" action), and can withstand annoying straightness every 5 episodes, its an audio drama that stands the test of time so far.

Actual plot spoilers ahead!

one selling point tho is... its very very DELICIOUSLY violent 8D like on par with or more than darkest night & blood crow stories. altho the characters all have plot armor so no one important really dies :// some of the humans should be lying in hospital beds for 6months. or with major disabilities this is one of those audio dramas that rely on a narrator + voice cast, so there's clear descriptions of whats going on. but for a tasty preview of what happens so far (i havent finished s1 yet... its a HEFTY BOI. thats another downside.): there is a blimp fight, at least 4 submarine crashes & fights, there's been 2 mecha bot fights so far, there is a hospital shoot out, a boat shoot out, lab explosions, monster fights, human torture & testing, the most RIDICULOUS multi-vehicle chase scene in any media i've encountered, and the equivalent to a marvel movie finale battle Ooh it is so fun & stressful & adrenaline-pumping. Altho the characters tend to have an annoying amount of plot armor, so you lowkey know the important ones will survive no matter what shit is going down

Some more leviathan chronicles reactions: Holy moly a shout out to the 2008 Beijing olympics in the story “I think we’re the first podiobook to include a kungfu fight!” Story is written by a white guy & there is no “kungfu” fight. There is a LOT of gun fights tho! And it’s deliciously violent 8D “Hey come to our comic con booth & get free CDs!” “After I finish this podiobook I can be a real writer!”

holy moly am I listening to a marvel movie plot? This is probably the most extravagant motorcycle chase scene that is only matched by that one gang chase scene in Under the Electric Stars. This motorcycle chase scene in the middle of New York City would absolutely crash the characters xD it’s impossible unless you have Marvel movie plot armor I am frustratingly annoyed at how straight this show is tho. It’s nowhere as bad as We’re Alive at least. If this was written today, I’m sure several characters would’ve been genderflipped or queer. 

omg there are sooo many twists & backstabbing going on. I think some people may hate it, but I actually find it fun! Oberlin & Whitt: having a flirting 3way fight Mai Lee: what’s going on here O&W: uh guy talk Mai Lee: I’m glad I don’t have a penis Me: DAMMIT WHITT IS SO OBSESSED W ALL THE GUYS THAT HE SHOULD BE GAY. Oberlin & Tulley would totally be an estranged gay couple if it was written today. Mai Lee & Lorelei have super lesbian or at least bi energy too. Same with Evangeline. Harlequin shouldve been a girl. I’m so pissed at Oberlin/Mai Lee … NOOO NATHANIEL!!! First main character death I guess I wish there was an queer audio drama today with as much action & mix of international settings/characters as Leviathan Chronicles (edited)

OMG THIS SEASON FINALE IS SO EPIC I HAVE SO MANY FEELINGS. PLOT ARMOR SUDDENLY NO LONGER EXISTS. woohoo. This is like stranger things cuz finally everyone is united and sharing information. Note, I'm still team Evangeline. I have not listened a season finale this stressful since Blood Crow Stories or Primordial Deep or Penumbra. Altho it’s worse cuz it’s like 3hrs of adrenaline

#personal#audio drama#podcasts#reaction#leviathan chronicles#the leviathan chronicles

#personal #audio drama #podcasts #reaction #leviathan chronicles #the leviathan chronicles