#are. Favorite Ex-assassins who get great redemption arcs

[lady-merian]

For the WIP ask meme, The Dream Story and Prompt, please?

Dream story (a better name will come when I actually work on this)

So I don’t often remember my dreams. Even when I do, they seldom make a good story. This was one of those memorable dreams that I wanted to be sure I remembered, so I wrote down what I could remember and extrapolated from there, based on the very strong feelings the dream gave me.

This is what I wrote:

I had a dream last night that was part Alastair Coldhollow, part Leith Torren, part Tahn Dorn, part something else I don't know what.

Sort of like Alastair, this guy in my dream had worked as a hired sword, then assassin, but a bit more like Leith, he didn't really know what he was in for until it was too late. More like Tahn, fear kept him tied to his…employer…  but warred with the guilt of knowing he was doing wrong until he couldn't stand it anymore. He left, but like Alastair it was with the knowledge that his employer would put a price on his head and the true authorities would want him for his crimes. I think his evil employer had protected the guy as long as he was serving his purposes, but when he leaves, the evil employer (who may be plotting rebellion?) wants him back, dead or alive.

The differences between this guy and all my other favorite ex-assassins is that he has a family. Two younger sisters, one married, and the other living with her and her husband. When my guy (he needs a name) quits, he goes to them because he hasn't seen them in a long time and he fears he may never see them again. He really thinks he's going to die, one way or the other.

They don't know any of this. He doesn't want to tell them, but the elder sister's husband somehow knows about it.  I think he was personally hurt somehow by my character, and kinda hates him for it. He guilts my character into telling the older sister at least about it.

Unbeknownst to my character, that sister is seriously ill, maybe dying. This may be why she forgives him completely, and it helps the husband to forgive him too. (That is, seeing the guilt and hearing the full story.)

Up till now, he's thought of himself as a monster, unforgivable, and almost ready to turn himself into the true authorities in the hopes of at least getting them to look into his evil employer's (EE from now on) plots, though he doesn't see much hope in that as it might look like an excuse for his deeds, but at least whatever they do to him it wouldn't be as bad as the EE catching him and "making an example of him". I remember a sense of dread along with the guilt in the dream. Hopeless.

He wants to help his sister live. One life he can save. He knows something that the local healer wouldn't know, tied to his service to EE.

Somewhere he'll come across the gospel, but other than that I don't know what happens.

Update:More story thoughts this morning (6/9/17. I wish I'd written the date when I had the dream, maybe a few months ago?)

Anyway, I think a child, someone the younger sister's age, should be the one to tell him the gospel. He'll resist, saying (somewhat patronizingly) that it's a nice story, but in his experience when something sounds too good to be true it usually is. The child, upset, will probably bring up the eyewitnesses, who were tortured and died rather than give up their faith, and would they have done that if they knew it wasn't true?

But that reminds him more of the things he did. He answers something along the lines of "even if it was true, your God would want nothing to do with me."

This story has to be in first person. I know. I've said things like that before. If I ever write it, I will try.

Will I work on a changed names version of the gospel, or will I do it like Tahn in the way she kept it real? I still don't know for sure what I'm doing on Erandir’s Reckoning. It's got the potential to be in the same storyworld, but I don’t know.

"I knew all along that I'd die because of this. The only question was whether it'd be the rope, the sword, or a traitor's pyre."

-my mc. He so needs a name.

Idk. This gets the feel of what I'm thinking. Man, I want to write this.

That’s all I have for the dream story  I’m letting the ideas percolate while I focus on my main stories and prompt  

Prompt 

this one is the easiest to describe. I’m in a very small writing group (small as in, two people besides me) that takes turns picking a prompt (usually one word) and writing short pieces based on them (my shortest was around 140 words, which I realize is hardly even a drabble but that was a rough week. My longest is around 1,500 words.) This year we switched from weekly prompts to making it two or three weeks for each prompt. Life got busy and I write slow. We often write things set in our respective story worlds, but we’ve used it as a way to branch out and explore different stories, new characters, different writing styles, and one of them even spun a neat little self-contained serial story that concluded last year.

It’s great fun. And I’d say this even if they weren’t my sisters.

I’m going to post a prompt here that has technically been finished, but I want to continue off of it sometime. It was partly inspired by the dream story, it might even be repurposed for that story if I ever get around to writing it.

Promise

I sat on the ground, trying to get my breathing under control. My hands were tied securely in front of me. A mistake, maybe, on my captors' part. They ought to know I didn’t need my hands free to be dangerous. If I was the only one in this trouble, escape wouldn't be much of a problem.

I wasn't.

Two years ago I wouldn't have cared about the kid beside me, wouldn't care that any attempt to escape on my part would have terrible consequences for him.

Two years ago I would have been on the other side. I would have had a weapon of my own ready to point at him if he tried anything.

I tried not to look like I cared now. If my former comrades had any idea of the lengths I would go to keep him safe, he'd be used against me. More so than he already was.

"Kid" was a misleading term, I suppose, but that's how I thought of him. He wasn't a literal child. He was old enough to fight for the Resistance, after all, and unlike some they didn't allow child soldiers.

He was maybe twenty. Maybe not. I felt ages older. Some of that was his youthful idealism. Most of it was the fact that I'd been living by my wits for almost as long as he'd been alive.

His name was Cade, and he was one of the few in the Resistance who trusted me enough to go on a mission with me. For that, I owed him my best efforts.

I knew how this would go. As soon as a prison transport arrived we would be taken to the Capitol and charged with treason. They would try to learn anything they could from us about the Resistance before we were sentenced. Given Cade's youth, he might not be executed outright. Especially if he gave them something useful. But that was a slim chance, and not one I was willing to take.

For me, there would be no mercy. Unlike Cade, I deserved to be called a traitor. I'd served with the Emperor's army for years until I couldn't ignore my conscience any longer. I’d known when I deserted that I was a dead man if I was ever captured. Joining the Resistance hadn’t changed a thing in that respect. They'd make an example of me either way.

I wasn't yet sure if it was really worth it. Had I made any difference at all?

It would definitely go worse for Cade if he was connected to me. I couldn’t let that happen.

He sat beside me now, unnaturally still. Usually he was a bundle of energy. Always in motion. Maybe he knew enough to conserve his energy for what was to come. His head drooped so that his mop of brown hair fell across his forehead, but I knew he was awake.

We were under guard, but for the moment no one was close enough to hear if we talked quietly. I seized the chance.

"Cade," I whispered.

He looked up, a question in his expression, but he didn't speak.

I took a breath. "When the transport comes, I'm going to give you an opening. When you see the chance, don't think twice, just run. Got it?"

"What about you?"

I lifted my shoulders. "If all goes well, I'll take off in the opposite direction and we'll meet later. No sense making it easy for them, all right?"

And they'd go for me. I knew they would. I clenched my hands to stop a tremor from showing.

His brows knit together. "I don't like your 'if.'"

"You don't have to like it. You just have to run as hard as you've ever run in your life and don't waste time looking back. Promise me you’ll run."

He looked hard at me. "Are you sure about this?"

"Promise me, Cade."

He studied me a moment more before finally saying, "All right. If you promise me you'll really try to get away."

Kid was smarter than I'd given him credit for. Worth any sacrifice on my part. He would do what I could not, and see this fight through to the end.

"Sure. I promise."

My words sounded hollow, even to me; for who would ever trust a traitor?

The end (for now)

Whew. It’s different from my usual prompts, but it seemed like a good choice for this since it was inspired by the dream story. I do have this thing about Ex-assassins. Thanks for asking!

#Whoops I forgot to explain who #Alastair Coldhollow #Leith Torren #and #Tahn Dorn #are. Favorite Ex-assassins who get great redemption arcs #I love them #my writing #ask meme #my ocs #Wip ask meme #wip ask meme answers

[aurimeanswind]

Cold Breeze—Sunday Chats (11-19-17)

Another week, another Sunday

It’s been a long week for me. Not in actuality, because I’ve slept an average of 10 hours a day every day this week, which is both a good and a bad thing. It’s good because I’ve been sleeping crazy well. It’s bad because it reminds me of my Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, of my sometimes inability to drag myself out of bed to do anything. It’s also a common habit I fall into when I know I’m depressed, and while I push back as much as I can against that overwhelming feeling, it’s still there. Ever-present. And it sucks.

It helps to know that the ExtraLife team, now disbanded, is definitely full of the melancholy. We all miss each other. Some more than others, assuredly, but there is just so much love an affection there. I think taking that step back in the aftermath of ExtraLife, the distance, the pride fills me more because of the tight bonds that were just driven home over that week. 

It’s full on Persona-style bonds. Maxed social link meters and unbreakable relationships that serve as tentpole and standing memories and gifts that we all cherish, equally. It’s a comforting feeling, in the sad/loneliness. 

But I digress.

It’s been very good for games! And I’ve sunk my teeth into some big ones this week.

What’s On Tap

Assassin’s Creed Origins

This is the really big one. I’ve spent about 25-ish hours with this title this week.

I love this game, which is super surprising. I wrote a big long thing about all the wild changes they made on this blog, so I’ll refrain from repeating myself here.

One thing I really love in this game is Bayek, the main character. The relationship with him and his wife Aya is just so good. They just fucking love each other so much and its disgusting but sweet and kind of nice. it’s this central bond that the plot swirls around and it’s really strong, unlike other AC games.

I also think the side quest quality in this game is remarkable. It reminds me a ton of The Witcher 3. While I don’t think the voice acting is quite up to that same par, it’s astoundingly excellent. 

I dont’ have many complaints about this game. I really just adore it. And I’m thankful to my friends Barrett and Youssef for recommending it.

Destiny 2

I’ve only been playing a bit here and there, with another playdate with Tony and Greg tonight. It’s been fun playing the game again though, and I’ve excited for the new content coming early next month.

Overwatch

I just wrapped up playing some Overwatch just now, trying out Moira.

Moira is excellent. She is exactly what the healing team in Overwatch needed, a new on-the-ground healer. I feel like Ana is just not an effective healer at all, at least on console where aim and precision is not as strong.

What I love about Moira is that healing is a resource for her, she needs to tap into it, and if you run out, you can’t heal anymore. It means you need to use her primary energy drain weapon, get out there, and be aggressive in order to be able to support your team.

It’s a lot like Doomfist’s shield, which he generates for using his abilities on enemies, and it requires him to use his skillset to then be a better and greater asset to his team.

Moira also heals herself with her attack, so she benefits herself and her own play style by being aggressive.

I really like her. She may take top spot as my primary healer, but I am also incredibly fond of Mercy’s new ultimate, so it’s a toss up. Much like all the many characters I play in Overwatch, it’ll depend on the situation.

Questions

Remember to look for my tweet on Sunday afternoons with the hashtag #SundayChats in it. Reply with your question, and you’re in here.

Let’s do this.

On a personal leve, because I don’t think 2018 will hit the same highs for me, I want there to be more surprises. Again, this is for me, because I think there were huge hit surprises this year for folks like PUBG, but I just didn’t have quite so many hits.

On that note, I hope those surprises come from smaller, indie games. Like I think that was a collection of titles that got lost for me this year because of the stellar AAA games that took the spotlight, but those weird and nuanced and special indie games are some of the best experiences I live for, and I hope with more room in 2018 I’ll be able to get lost in them.

Personally I just use the Twitter app on my phone, and I’m happy with it. Most folks I know swear by Tweetbot, but I’ve never really gotten to use it myself.

As for Desktop, it’s all about Tweetdeck. You can tweet from multiple accounts, and have just multiple timelines open it it. On mine I have a news story feed for games, my timeline, my mentions, my notifications, and then the IP notifications too. It’s the way to go, in my experience.

It was the greatest thing I’ve ever been a part of for about a dozen different reasons.

I’m excited to be able to relive it in the archived videos.

I’d love to visit Hyrule castle town either from Breath of the Wild or Twilight Princess. This is all pre-apocolypse, of course, but especially in BotW it seems like such an incredible and bustling place. I’d love to see the different peoples and cultures of that world melted together in that supreme beauty.

Another one is Hengsha from Deus Ex, because it’s the two-layer city, kind of like Midgar from FF7. I’d just love to see that in person. That’d be more of an architectural look, just to see that crazy design in person and up close.

Another would be Inaba from Persona 4. Just because that place is like a second home for me. I’d love to finally see it in person.

Hrm, that’s tough. I have a lot that I just need to boot up and get through at this point, so it’s likely the ones that I just know I’m not going to get. A big one is Night in the Woods. I’m determined to make Edith Finch happen, but Night in the Woods seems like a really special game that I’m just not going to get to.

That list of indie games is depressingly long for me too. Pyre? Probably won't get to it and I want to play that so bad. Steamworld Dig 2? I may not get to that this year. I’ll definitely play it but probably just not this year, and that’s such a massive bummer for me since I loved the first one so much. The Housemarque games this year too, since I loved all the times I played them in preview settings.

I do still have some time, and I plan on getting through a few good things between now and the end of December. We’ll see what doesn’t make it.

For me its a handful of titles that maybe Nabeshin has thrown out to me. I’d like to try Red Dead Redemption at some point. And 999. Those two are huge standouts, but outside of that, it’s hard for me to think of some franchise that I haven’t dipped my toes into at least a little bit with the given time. 

I should probably play Tokyo Mirage Sessions someday but we’ll see. Still have it sealed in the plastic wrap.

Man, this is so hard. Ideal is tough too, because maybe that implies I’ve been there?

The place I’ve always wanted to go my whole life is Ireland. Its the motherland right? It calls me back. That, and Japan. I’ve wanted to take the journey to the land of the rising sun since I was old enough to barely mutter JRPG. Those are the two places.

Let’s go.

So, for context, I saw Justice League last night and... I really loved it? Like, I loved everything about it?? I feel crazy, like I’m Greg Miller defending Batman V. Superman??

But I think if I saw it again or I took the step back, I could totally see why people dislike it so vehemently. I was honestly shocked because it... well, it felt like Justice League to me. It felt like it was out of an entirely different DC Cinematic Universe. And maybe my expectations were so low? I don’t know.

But anywhere, there are going to be spoilers in my response here, because Liza deserves the best response I can muster for this, since we’re JL believers.

YOU’VE BEEN WARNED.

Boy when Superman shows up and is just straight up like, good, smiling, wise cracking Superman (again, a totally different character than he has been up until then, but I didn’t care because fuck I miss good Superman) I was just grinning ear to ear. They managed to tap into Henry Cavill’s charisma and make him shine as someone I could actually believe is Superman. And just seeing him work with a team and work with other heroes, like, that’s Man of Steel I know and fucking love, and they just nailed it in this movie. It made me so happy. You have no Idea. It’s like I’ve waited my whole life for that.

So yeah, he was my favorite, but I liked everyone! Any second Wonder Woman was on screen was perfect. They made Batman feel so much more like Batman here it was ridiculous. I liked Cyborg a lot, and I feel like they gave him a great arc from self hatred in the beginning to “wanting to live” in the end. Aquaman and Flash were just a ton of fun. 

For me it’s just under Wonder Woman since I thought they just nailed Wonder Woman so well, but I really really loved it, as I’m sure you could tell. I was just a happy kid grinning that my heroes were finally on screen together, and it was rad.

Haha oh my god okay I don’t think I can pick ten different fingers, but I was thinking about this when I grabbed the question. Probably like, someone who’s fingers have powers, like Emperor Palatine or something? I guess Cole McGraff would be the real world video game equivalent, but someone who would let me shoot lightening out of my fingertips. If I could just choose one then one of theres and then the others from all the characters in Until Dawn.

Because why not

#AgentOfChaos

Eh.

It’s fine.

Honestly, the lesson you shared with me Tyler has been a really great one. For folks curious, it’s about Mountain Tops. It’s a great analogy to the higher moments we find ourselves in in life.

https://twitter.com/acegiak/status/924762544383782912

That and one I’ve taken to heart over the last two or so years, which is just to listen, and to care, and to pay attention. You don’t need to interject your opinion in every controversial topic, and far too many people do. But that doesn’t exempt you from paying attention.

We don’t have anything concrete in the works, but we have a lot of ideas. I think PAX East is something to expect us at, and I think more written work in the future is something to anticipate soon too. Not more from who is there, but more and new voices. Exciting voices too, if we can muster it.

I’d totally be down to play Overwatch for 24 hours. I just love the loop of that game. I’d probably hate myself and it at around the 18 hour mark, but I think I could still muster it.

Least willing to do would probably be something best experienced in short bursts, like a Spelunky, or a Flint Hook, or a Cuphead, Some games require breaks and I think those fit into that fine. Doesn’t make them worse or bad by any means, but when you can walk away and come back better rested, those are good picks.

The Checklist

I have been essentially off reading stuff, but it’s worth shouting out a thing my best friend Jazz wrote today, about ExtraLife 2017.

http://brazenbebop.blogspot.com/2017/11/extra-life-2017.html

She is getting into the writing of the content, and I’m excited to support her and see what she comes up with.

I am tired again, but excited to finish some things I’m working on.

Thanks for sticking with me, and for the unending support.

And for taking care of me.

Much love.

Keep it real.

#video games #gaming #extralife #assassin's creed origins