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rideboldlyride · 4 years

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ZW 2020; Reunion

So it begins.... This is a Modern/Gym AU. I swore I would never do a modern AU, but, as Edna Mode would say “and yet, here we are.” My plan for this week is to make these prompts all one story. As this is my first Modern AU of any kind, on top of my first Zutara Week, please feel free to leave all sorts of feedback. I will be adding an AO3 link in an edit in the fresh morning. I’m posting this tonight, because I have way too much crap going on in the morning tomorrow. Anyway. No more intro/distraction from my crapstorm. Here it begins.

[EDIT 1: I forgot to mention-- I aged them up realtime. This means that Zuko;Sokka are 31, Katara;Azula are 29, and Toph;Aang are 27, and all the correlating ages of the other characters accordingly. EDIT 2 will be the AO3 link, I promise.]

[EDIT 2: HERE’S the AO3 - finally. I’ve been super busy all day with a screeching toddler.]

It's the smell, Katara decides. It definitely wasn't the music - she always piped in her own mix of high-tempo, hard hitting music through her headphones. It's not the taste of the crappy tap water from their generic doctor's-office-standard water fountains. It wasn't for the sights of the people who were there.

Well, most of the people that were there. There was one or two…

No, she decided. It was entirely the smell that, no matter where in the world she landed, got her moving. A blend of sweat, rubber, and disinfectant, every gym she had ever walked into had the same smell. This realization settled over her as she entered the old gym. She had recently moved back from one of the old Earth Kingdom settlements at the coast, and was now participating in a research project with Ba Sing Se University, her old alma mater. Fortune had been on her side, however, when her old gym’s membership was reciprocal back again to one in the city.

It had been three years since she had left Ba Sing Se for Selin Harbor, fresh from the university, a master’s degree in Marine Biology in tow. Now, she had been called back due to a troubling disease emerging in the dark, mysterious waters off the coast of the city.

She had begun her workout running intervals, hopping from treadmill to resistance training to machines, and back, forcing the stress and worry of her new work out of her mind. Falling into her rhythm, time began to slip away. As was common, during her physical exertions, she felt the outside world fall away, and a single-minded focus overtook her thoughts, caught up only in the heavy beat in her ears.

Somewhere in between a few of her runs, she stepped away from the treadmill, took a pause to swallow down some more water, and turned to the next step in her pattern. She stopped suddenly. In her next station - a gym mat stocked with medicine ball and resistance bands - a fellow gym member was actively using her set up. A moment of frustration passed through her, but she swallowed it down. Instead, she moved away, trying to preoccupy herself with her next exercise, determined to come back after his set. But as she finished up and returned, she found him still in her spot, this time in between sets. Irritation pricked at her lips, but she sucked in a deep breath and plastered her best “people are oblivious” smile across her face. Pulling her headphones down, she rounded him.

“Excuse me,” she knew her voice was sickly sweet, but she didn’t care, “I hate to be that person, but…”

A glint of gold in his eyes shot towards her motions, in contrast with his light skin and dark hair. It was obvious that he was no stranger to the gym himself, and it took a moment for her to remember what she was going to protest. (About those sights at the gym…? She ascertained that he was one of those exceptions.) Swallowing down the startling nature of his side eye, she pulled her indignation back to the forefront. He still didn't turn to her fully, preferring to shoot her a glare sideways.

"But," she continued resolutely, "you're kind of interrupting my intervals. I need to use this spot before--"

"I'm not interested."

"...what?" It was only then that she noticed the white at his ears- headphones. Did this prick really think she was hitting on him? Her face turned sour, her voice rising. "Now, you listen here, you--"

He sighed, and pulled out the earbud closest to her. The music was just as loud as hers, she noticed abstractly.

"Listen, I'm not in--"

"You're in my spot!" She spat out aggressively.

It was his turn to be confused. "What?"

"My spot. You are literally in my spot. You've interrupted my intervals, but still managed to keep my blood pressure up. Congratulations."

He looks flustered for a minute, and Katara curses the spirits. The red on his cheeks only seemed to make him more striking under the iridescent lighting. She uses that disconcerting feeling to fuel more of her frustration.

"I don't see your name on this particular spot."

A bitter laugh escaped her, and she flipped the edge of the mat up.

"Ka-ta-ra." She emphasizes the syllables as she points them out, written in her tight hand, on the bottom of the mat he was perched upon.

For a second time, he flustered.

"Oh." This time, however, he quickly moved off of it, a hand to the back of his neck. "I'm- I'm sorry. Didn't realize…"

She snorted, still not done with his brand of arrogance.

"You must be pretty narcissistic," she snarls, "to think that any girl who nears you must be ‘interested’."

"It's not- I'm not-," he stutters for a moment, before regaining his composure. “Anything I say is going to make me sound like more of an asshole, isn’t it?”

A brow raised over a sea-blue eye, and he sighed.

“Sorry. I didn’t realize you were here. I just figured somebody left the equipment after they were done.”

Her frustration fizzled a little under his apology.

“Oh. Yeah, I guess I could see how you would think that.” Her eyes scanned the free weight area, strewn with discarded equipment like dirty tissues.

Sighing, she deflated. Blue eyes looked up at him, finally catching a honest look at the man she was unexpectedly not as frustrated with. His dark hair was cut relatively close, seemingly unaware of any attempt to tame it’s aggressive angles. Amber eyes followed her motions, one of them wrapped in an old, angry scar that ran back into his sideburn, hairline, finishing on the other side of his ear. Dressed for the gym, she was able to appreciate his evident focus on lean versus bulk. And appreciate, she did. She dropped her eyes again, reminding herself of his protest when she first approached him. Jet had been enough of a narcissistic asshole for her lifetime. She didn’t need a new one.

But he had apologized and did seem properly chastised. Looking around, she noticed that there was no other open spaces for him to work in.

“Listen, I don’t mind you using it. Just- just let me run my sets? Not, like, sit here in between them?”

“Really?” a small smile pulled at one corner of his lips. He seemed genuinely surprised. “Thanks.”

She waved it off, keeping her head down, as she took over the space, and he moved on to another machine.

An hour later, she wrapped up her mat, replaced the equipment, and moved towards the door. He was on the treadmill near the door, and as she passed him, she nodded. A small smile pulled at his lips and he returned the expression.

Buzzing filled her pocket, and she glanced at her phone.

Toph.

“Hey, Sugar Queen, we still on for tonight?”

***

He was a bit breathless. It was hard to tell if it was from having been sick for the week prior and thereby out of practice, or if it was the brilliant blue eyes of the woman slipping out the door. She had nodded at him, and a glimmer of hope clung to him. Maybe he hadn’t completely screwed up that interaction.

“Yeah, we are. I’m excited! We going to meet at--?” her voice was clear, since he had kept one earbud out since they had first crossed paths. Incredulousness laced her words. “You’re picking me up? I’m hoping you’re not the one driving…”

Her voice faded away, and he couldn’t help the smile that stayed on his face, even as he replaced the second earbud and continued his workout.

***

“So where is it we’re heading?” Katara glanced at her passenger in the front seat, but the young woman’s eyes were unfocused and hazy as she stared blankly ahead. When she spoke, however, her tone belied her strength.

“I already told you, Kat-uh.” Her emphasis merely snapped the blue-eyed girl’s dark brows together, but she continued. “It’s an old friend of mine- he’s playing at some small bar. The one we used to go to on Thursdays when we were all in college together.”

“I’m guessing he’s a new addition to the line up?”

“Nah.” A smirk pulled at her lips. “I just never found a reason to go see him before.”

“Thats… sweet, Toph.”

“I know. So considerate, right?”

A sigh escaped the older woman’s lips. “At least tell me if it’s on the milder scale for your music?”

Toph wasn’t known for having the most laid back choices in music. Her worries were slightly alleviated when the blind girl scoffed loudly.

“No, he’s more your speed. Likes some of the heavier music, though, but only plays the nicer stuff.”

“So, covers?”

Her head cocked to the side. “Maybe one or two. From what I hear, his original music is actually starting to get popular.”

As she pulled into the parking lot, Katara bit back a groan. Had it always been this busy? She found herself asking Toph that. For the asking, all she received was a head shake back.

“Nah, but we also came on Thursdays. Fridays are a whole other beast. And besides, I told you he’s getting more popular.”

Suddenly regretting her decision to come out that night, Katara turned the car off, but only started to move to get out of it when she spotted Sokka and Suki waving frantically after her. They had arrived earlier, and together. As she reached them, Katara sighed, and Sokka wrapped the arm he didn’t have around his girlfriend, to pull his baby sister closer.

“You’ll have fun, Katuh. I know it’s stupid busy, but it’s going to be fun. Just, ya know, relax. Have a drink. Listen to decent music.”

As the doors slipped open, her eyes suddenly grew wide as she instantly recognized the chords. Katara slipped away from her brother’s arm. The words to the songs were already on her lips, and she was surprised to find that she knew this band. She wasn’t one to obsess over the musicians, but their music was a whole other thing. They were an indie band, unknown, unrecognized, so she had never expected to come across them live. Despite her desire to bob and weave to see and get closer to the stage, it seemed like the crowd pushed in on them more, and she was impeded. A shot of disappointment shot through her as the music died off, and the drummer announced a break. Turning back to her friends, she dejectedly joined them.

“Oh Katara, don’t get so down.” Toph smirked, propping her dirty sandals up onto the table. “You know that was their first set. Besides, the lead singer is coming this way as we speak.”

Blue eyes rolled hard into her skull, and she let out a scoff. “Toph, you know I don’t care about the musicians. I just love their music.”

“Uh-huh. Well, we’ll test that theory right now. He’s headed this way”

“Your friend?” Sokka asked.

Toph nodded in response.

Katara turned in time to see a dark head dip and weave through the crowd, along with flashes of a dark button up, sleeves rolled up, and fitted jeans. However, when he finally slipped out of the crowd to join them at the high top they had claimed, it took all of her willpower to bite back the laugh that threatened to escape.

“Hey Toph.” His voice had an interesting grate, she had to admit, but she wasn’t sure she was quite over the way they had been introduced before. But if that was anywhere on his mind at the moment, he was good at not showing it. Instead, he followed the line of their friends as Toph introduced them. When it wrapped around to her, the closest to them both, she found herself sitting straight.

“And this is Ka--”

“We’ve actually already met.”

A cocked head told her of confusion, and his eyes scanned her for a moment. Something like a glimmer of recognition started to blossom in the gold of his eyes. With a motion that was more abrupt, she gathered up her loose curls and pulled them back, as if to put them up into a ponytail. His eyes widened. It was impressive the difference a hairstyle could have on recognition.

“Oh. Yeah. Hey again. It was… Katara, was it?”

“You never did give me your name, you know.”

#zutara week #zutara #zutara is my new hell #atla #atla is my new hell #zuko x katara #katara x zuko #I promised writing for zutara week #SO I GIVE YOU WRITING #I NEVER PROMISED IT'D BE ANYTHING MORE THAN SELF-INDULGENCE #zutara week 2020

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the-busy-ghost · 4 years

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Forensic Incoherence - TSP Edition

Ok I snapped and thought I’d get it out of my system. Also because I’m petty and I let things annoy me more than they should. I’d like to say first and foremost that people can and should still enjoy ‘The Spanish Princess’ as a fun tv show if they like, I’m simply pointing out that when it comes to Scotland, it bears even less resemblance to actual history than usual.

Also it is by no means the worst representation of Scotland! Which is saying something because it is NOT good. It’s about par for the course I’d say, with regards to the way mediaeval and early modern Scotland are portrayed in the media. Outlaw King and Outlander rise slightly above the mark but only just- i.e. they’re somewhat good pieces of historical media that are still inaccurate but are recognisably Scotland (and have some nice panning shots and good soundtracks). The middle point is probably inaccurate MQOS movies because they’re the least painful kind of inaccuracy that’s still kind of bad (but even their soundtracks don’t save them- I’m sorry John Barry). I will not say what the absolute worst piece of media is, I believe I have yet to encounter it and for that I am grateful. TSP is somewhere between the worst and the middle. The point is, most historical media about sixteenth century Scotland generally sucks, and this tv series is about the usual kind of bad. So I wouldn’t be so irritated with the people who made it if it weren’t for one or two individuals’ saying things about how ‘it really happened’.

With that in mind this is a good teachable moment. Usually there’s little point to a detailed analysis of where inaccuracy occurs in a tv show or movie- let’s face it, if they weren’t all a bit inaccurate they probably wouldn’t work too well on screen. However in this case it is such a classic example of the usual, standard depiction of Scottish history that it provides a great resource for showing where these things go wrong (which is everywhere).

So I thought I’d strip back a reasonably mediocre, not too terrible, not overly interesting piece and ask what we have left of sixteenth century Scotland after we’re finished.

I should point out I did not watch the first series of this show, and am basing this solely on the representation of the actual country in the first episode of season 2.

(Hours of James IV, source- wikimedia commons)

Now I’ve talked about James IV’s children in the first of the three scenes involving Scotland already. The last scene doesn’t have much meat in it except that I can confirm Margaret Tudor did lose multiple children and it WAS sad. So that leaves us with the second scene- the so-called ‘council’.

We open on your Usual Nonsense. Lots of men, many wearing tartan, with two famous surnames thrown in there for fun, arguing because The Clans Are Fighting Again.

I don’t have room to go into a whole analysis of the clan system and why our 21st century concept of ‘Highland clanship’ is not really applicable to many of the families at the centre of sixteenth century politics. Safe to say it is especially not applicable to the Red or Angus line of the Douglases (because yeah there were multiple different branches of that famous family), and only applicable to some of the branches of the Stewart family (and there were dozens of them, spread all over the country and operating in very different cultural worlds).

If Scottish politics worked the way that these writers seem to think it does- i.e. you support everyone who shares your family name against all others- then one wonders why James IV hasn’t taken the side of the Stewarts, seeing as that was his surname. Surnames and blood feud were very important in Scotland, both to traditional “clans” and to other families to don’t fit that bill, but they’re not everything. T.C. Smout famously said that “Highland society was based on kinship modified by feudalism, Lowland society on feudalism tempered by kinship.” Not everyone would agree wholly with that statement, but it’s a good starting point for beginners. Nonetheless, at no point should that confirm anyone’s belief that Scottish politics consisted basically of a bunch of clans with their own unique tartans and modern kilts running around the hills killing each other.

It’s also quite funny since James IV’s reign was one of the most (comparatively) peaceful in Scottish history between the Wars of Independence and the Union of the Crowns. He also had very little trouble controlling most of his subjects when it really mattered.

But I digress. We have Clans TM. They are Arguing. There are Douglases. There are Stewarts. It’s about as complicated as an Old Firm game, but less intellectual. This is supposed to be a serious political council.

(read more below)

Firstly, I can’t seem to find a good concise source, but based on a brief flip through the various charters, council decisions, accounts, and secondary sources on James IV’s reign I don’t think there were even any Douglases on the privy council in early 1511. Not that it’s a huge issue in itself- I don’t think that period dramas really put that much thought into representing the bewildering government reshuffles and that’s not really their main purpose anyway.

But what it leaves is this motley collection of characters, some of whom have historical figures’ names, and others who have vaguely plausible names that can’t be assigned to a specific person, and others who are unnamed set dressing but I get the feeling have probably been discreetly named something like Big Chief Hamish McTavish.

So among the few named characters you have George, Gavin, and “Angus” Douglas. These three are all presumably based on historical figures and it’s not too difficult to identify them, even if (like James IV’s children in another scene) they probably shouldn’t have been in the room.

“Angus” is presumably supposed to be Archibald Douglas, Margaret Tudor’s second husband, who became 6th Earl of Angus in 1513 (so two and a half years after this scene is set). “Angus Douglas” is not his name, in any way. It would be like me referring to Henry VIII as King England Tudor. Bit of a ridiculous mistake to make, if IMDB is not lying to me, since it implies that not only did the scriptwriters not even bother to use google, they didn’t even read the (somewhat inaccurate) novel that they based their show off.

Angus is not a common first name in the Douglas family during this period. In fact I don’t think I have ever heard of anyone called Angus Douglas from the sixteenth century or earlier. It was popular in some families from the west and the far north- mostly Gaelic-speaking families like the MacDonalds and the Mackays- but not really among the inhabitants of the Borders and Lowland east coast, which is where the Red Douglases held *most* (though not all) of their power. The earls of Angus took their title from a region in the east/north-east of the country, but they had a large power-base in the Borders and East Lothian too (not least the hulking red sandstone castle of Tantallon on the Berwickshire cliffs).

(The highlighted region is the modern version of Angus, between Dundee and Aberdeenshire. Nowadays, it has red-brown soil, old Pictish monuments, it grows wonderful raspberries and strawberries, and its main towns include Montrose, Arbroath (with its red sandstone abbey), Brechin, and Forfar. The urban and agricultural make-up would have been different in the sixteenth century though. The Borders meanwhile are pretty self-explanatory).

In 1511, Archibald’s grandfather, also Archibald, was still alive and held the title Earl of Angus. His eldest son George, Master of Angus (the younger Archibald’s father) was his heir apparent in 1511. Now the elderly 5th earl was still a wily character but he was old, and had also been held in custody on royal orders on the Isle of Bute until as recently as 1509, because the 5th earl and James IV had... well it was a complex relationship. We could perhaps assume that he was not able to travel easily- hence why his eldest son George, Master of Angus, seems to be the ‘George’ who is represented in that council scene. Somehow, I don’t see Archibald Junior being called his own grandfather’s title rather than his name when his father was in the room. George, Master of Angus, died at Flodden, which is why he did not succeed to his father’s earldom and the claim passed to his eldest son Archibald.

(There was another George Douglas worth mentioning, though he wouldn’t be in this scene- George Douglas of Pittendreich, Archibald’s younger- and, let’s be honest, smarter- brother. He was father to the Regent Morton).

The last is Gavin Douglas- probably the most interesting of the three to any literary scholars. He was the younger brother of the Master of Angus, and thus uncle to Archibald. He is one of the most important Scots poets- or makars- of James IV’s reign, and personally I would only place him beneath the great William Dunbar (the other big contenders, Henryson and Lindsay, respectively wrote most of their works before and after the adult reign of James IV). His works include the “Palice of Honour,” “King Hart”, and his greatest achievement the “Eneados”, completed c. 1513, which was the first full vernacular translation of the Roman poet Virgil’s Aeneid in either English or Scots. After Flodden, he became Bishop of Dunkeld, partly through Margaret Tudor’s influence, and didn’t find much time for writing any more poetry in the reign of James V, being consumed by political struggle. He died in exile in England in 1522.

Sixteenth century Scots had many complex and conflicting emotions and opinions, and one could severely hate and distrust England while remaining friends with certain Englishmen or respecting certain English customs. Nonetheless I find it a bit funny that Gavin Douglas is the one who is given the line ‘the English are the root of all our troubles’ since there was one thing that the English gave the world that no early sixteenth century Scots makar worth his salt could ever forget- and that was Geoffrey Chaucer (as well as his compatriots Lydgate and Gower). In his ‘Eneados’, Gavin Douglas himself described the great poet as “venerable Chaucer, principall poet but peir”. Which is not to say that such a character could not also have raged against the English on more than one occasion, this is merely to demonstrate that these three named men were rather more complex than the simplistic kilt-wearing, knife-wielding, drunk, Anglophobic, entirely uncultured stereotype we have on screen.

(And while I’m on the kilt and tartan thing- I literally JUST said that the Red Douglases were mostly centred on the Lowlands, and in particular the Borders. While it’s not impossible that they could have occasionally worn tartan, it’s not exactly everyday dress for them- unless you think it was also day dress for people in Carlisle as well. I notice Archibald Douglas himself isn’t really wearing any- perhaps this is to make him look more palatable. And don’t even get me started on the whole “the clans are fighting” thing).

(Look here’s a nice picture of Archibald Douglas, 6th Earl of Angus- admittedly when he was a bit older and had been in exile in England, but look! He’s dressed like other people in sixteenth century Europe! Nothing wrong with tartan but not your usual sixteenth century Borders earl gear.)

Funny thing is though, while the earls of Angus were undoubtedly important (and Gavin Douglas, being a university man, could act as an official), they’d lost their influence a bit by the end of the reign (again, the 5th Earl and James IV had a very layered relationship). Now, while lists of witnesses to charters do not necessarily reveal everything, if you were looking for powerful men who are likely to have been at the centre of government and on the king’s council in 1511 (and not just noblemen who were friends with the king but didn’t have government posts) I would look for some of the below first:

- Alexander Stewart, Archbishop of St Andrews and Chancellor of Scotland in 1511. He appears at the head of the witness list in almost every charter in the first half of 1511, and also signed off on the royal accounts. A young man, only about eighteen in 1511, who had studied under Patrick Paniter (see below), and then later had travelled on the continent and studies under humanists like Raphael Regius and Desiderius Erasmus. He was also James IV’s eldest son, though illegitimate- however although his promotion was undoubtedly nepotistic, there are signs that he would have made a pretty competent archbishop and he certainly actually did his job as chancellor. Although an archbishop (but never old enough to be fully consecrated or receive the revenues of his see), he followed his father to Flodden and died in battle. Erasmus famously eulogized him in his ‘Adages’, saying that:

“when a youth scarcely more than eighteen years old, his achievements in every department of learning were such as you would rightly admire in a grown man. Nor was it the case with him, as it is with so many others, that he had a natural gift for learning but was less disposed to good behaviour. He was shy by nature, but it was a shyness in which you could detect remarkable good sense.”

(A sketch from the Recueil d’Arras which is allegedly a copy of a painting of Alexander Stewart)

- William Elphinstone, Bishop of Aberdeen and Keeper of the Privy Seal in 1511. A man with many years of experience at the centre of government. After studying at Glasgow, Paris, and Orleans, he was made bishop of Ross and travelled to abroad on diplomatic missions. He had previously been High Chancellor of Scotland under James III, and even though he spent a small part of James IV’s early reign out in the cold he was soon brought back into the fold and played a leading role in government. Even though he was never chancellor again, he held the privy seal until the end of his career and often acted as de facto chancellor during the tenure of James IV’s younger brother the Duke of Ross (also an earlier Archbishop of St Andrews). William Elphinstone is also remembered for being a very active bishop in his diocese- he built a bridge over the River Dee, rebuilt part of the cathedral, and founded the University of Aberdeen, which received its papal bull in 1495. He organised the construction of King’s College, and the chapel built on his orders is still at the centre of the university’s campus today. He also sponsored the publication of the Aberdeen Breviary, on Scotland’s first printing press. He is supposed to have been against the invasion of England in 1513, but after the king’s death, Elphinstone was seen as the natural choice to succeed Alexander Stewart in the archdiocese of St Andrews, despite his age. He died in late 1514.

Andrew Stewart, Bishop of Caithness, Treasurer in 1511 takes third place on a lot of charters. Less can be said about him than the first two, though his rise at the centre of government really took off around 1509. He was Treasurer in 1511. It is not clear which branch of the Stewarts he hailed from, but it may have been the Stewarts of Lorne, which would have made him a distant cousin of the king and a slightly closer cousin of the king’s last known mistress, Agnes Stewart. Things are not made any simpler by the fact that, after his death, the next bishop of Caithness was ALSO called Andrew Stewart, and this one was an older half-brother of the Duke of Albany and a son of James IV’s uncle. The main takeaway- there are lots of Stewarts in Scotland, including the Royal Stewarts, and too many branches of the family for any simplistic tale of “clan” rivalry with the Red Douglases to be at all compelling or make sense. It is also worth noting that until 1469, Caithness would have been the most northerly diocese in the kingdom- whether Andrew spent more time there or at the centre of government is unclear.

(A rare contemporary painting of William Elphinstone, bishop of Aberdeen and Keeper of the Privy Seal)

Archibald Campbell, 2nd Earl of Argyll and Master of the Household in 1511- This post was less explicitly a ‘government’ post but the royal household still had an important political role. Even without this government post, though, the earl of Argyll was an important man. One of the two ‘new’ earldoms created in the reign of James II, the earls of Argyll were sometimes seen as royal ‘policemen’ in the West Highlands and islands. Their earldom was named after the large region on the west coast of the same name, cut up by sea-lochs and mountains. However they often had their own agenda and could exercise some independent policies in the Isles and northern Ireland. The earls of Argyll were usually the chiefs of Clan Campbell (look! An actual Highland clan for once!), including its many cadet branches. Clan Campbell has a very black reputation now (with some justification), though it is worth mentioning that in the sixteenth century they were also patrons of Gaelic culture and poetry, and frequently intermarried with the families they were meant to be ‘policing’. Notably, Archibald’s sister had been married to Angus Og (MacDonald), son (and supplanter) of the last “official” Lord of the Isles, but after Angus Og’s murder in the 1490s, the then earl of Argyll kept Angus’ son (his own grandson) Domnall in custody on behalf of the Crown- at least until he escaped and started causing all kinds of trouble in the early 1500s. Archibald Campbell, also called Gillespie, was the second earl of Argyll and rather less influential than his father had been, but he was still one of the most important laymen involved in government in the latter part of James IV’s reign. He died at Flodden in 1513.

Matthew Stewart, 2nd Earl of Lennox and Lord Darnley- Appears as a witness in many charters and is mentioned at council meetings on occasion. Yet another branch of the Stewart family- I must reiterate, a shared surname, though important, did not necessarily mean that everyone shared the same rivalries or stuck together through thick and thin. The Lennox is a region at the south-western edge of the Highlands, and north of the River Clyde- it is mostly centred around Loch Lomond. The Stewarts of Darnley had also had close links with France and in particular the Garde Écossaise for over a century. This earl of Lennox’s father led a short rebellion during the early years of James IV’s reign, but most of that was smoothed over in the end. In all honesty I don’t know that much about Matthew personally, except that he pops up a lot in government and court records (and there was also a very delicate case that came before the council in 1508 involving his daughter). I will need to look into him further. He died at Flodden- his son was the earl of Lennox who then died at Linlithgow Bridge in 1526, and his grandson married Margaret Douglas, daughter of the earl of Angus, and was the father of the infamous Lord Darnley who married Mary I.

Alexander Hume, 3rd Lord Hume and Great Chamberlain of Scotland in 1511. In the early sixteenth century, the Humes were borderers par excellence. Lord Hume was Warden of the East and Middle Marches, and had a great many kinsmen and friends (and a fair few enemies) throughout the borders counties. His great -grandfather and, especially, his father had also carved out a role for themselves at the centre of government. In the first couple of years of James IV’s reign, the Humes and even more so their neighbours the Hepburns (family of the earls of Bothwell) were practically running the show- this may have been one of the main causes of the earl of Lennox’s rebellion. In 1506 Alexander succeeded his father as 3rd Lord Hume and Great Chamberlain (less of an active administrative role by this point, but it still entitled the holder to access the centre of government and the royal household). He fought at Flodden but escaped- unfortunately for the Humes, rumours later circulated that they were partly responsible for the king’s death in the battle, and indeed James IV’s son the earl of Moray is supposed to have accused Hume of this in later years. Hume was one of the men who supported the appointment of the Duke of Albany as governor in 1515, after Margaret Tudor’s marriage to the Earl of Angus, but he very quickly grew dissatisfied with the duke, and by Christmas of the same year he had crossed the Border to join Margaret in Morpeth. After another few months of shenanigans in the Borders, Hume and his brother were captured by the Duke of Albany and executed in 1516- their heads were displayed above the Tolbooth in Edinburgh. This resulted in even more drama but I’m getting off topic and I think enough has been said on Lord Hume to give you an idea of his, um, colourful character. He is *supposed* to have had an affair with the second wife of the 5th Earl of Angus, Katherine Stirling, and was later the second husband of James IV’s last mistress Agnes Stewart, Countess of Bothwell.

(Restored windows in Stirling Castle Great Hall, the 20th century glass bearing the coats of arms of earls from the reign of James IV. The hall dates from around 1503 and was restored in the 1960s to look like it may have done in James IV’s time. It’s bright yellow and gorgeous and I’m furious it’s never used in anything).

Andrew Gray, Lord Gray and Justiciar in 1511- A lord of parliament like Hume, but with a less committed following, whose main interests lay in Angus (the region). Andrew Gray was one of the men who backed James IV in his rebellion against his father in 1488. Indeed, late sixteenth century legend has it that he was the one responsible for James III’s death- either arranging his murder in the mill at Bannockburn or carrying it out himself. However he acted as a loyal servant of the Crown until the end of his life, and as the justiciar he would have accompanied the king and other important nobles on justice ayres across the kingdom (and held some of his own). Traditionally, there had been two justiciars in Scotland- one for Scotia, north of the Forth, and one for south of the Forth (usually identified with Lothian- there was a third sometimes for Galloway as well). In the 1490s, Lord Drummond and the Earl of Huntly had also acted as justiciars at various points, but from around 1501 Lord Gray appears to have been the only justiciar. He died in early 1513.

Master Gavin Dunbar, Archdeacon of St Andrews and Clerk Register in 1511. Not to be confused with either of the poets Gavin Douglas or William Dunbar, nor with his nephew, Gavin Dunbar, Archbishop of Glasgow. This Gavin Dunbar was a graduate of the University of St Andrews and had travelled to France in at least one embassy in 1507. Technically, in 1511, Dunbar was clerk of the rolls, clerk register, and clerk of council- which is a lot of writing (if we assume he did it all himself, which I doubt). In 1518, Dunbar succeeded to William Elphinstone’s old diocese of Aberdeen and showed a decent amount of interest in the diocese. He undertook an extensive rebuilding programme at St Machar’s Cathedral and provided the nave with the wonderful heraldic ceiling that can still be seen today.

Master Patrick Paniter, Secretary to the King (among other things) in 1511. A very interesting individual. Paniter’s family were from the area around Montrose, in Angus, and he attended university at the College of Montaigu in Paris (as did many of his compatriots, including the contemporary theologian John Mair). He was clearly a bright spark since upon his return to Scotland he seems to have been appointed tutor to James IV’s young son Alexander and the two had a good relationship, with Paniter writing to the young archbishop as ‘half his soul’ and Alexander in turn keeping in touch with his ‘dear teacher’ while on the continent. By that time though, Patrick had moved onto bigger things, since the king appointed him royal secretary some time around 1505. Eventually Paniter became one of James IV’s most influential servants- in 1513, the English Ambassador Dr Nicholas West described the secretary as the man “which doothe all with his maister”. Of course Paniter enriched himself quite a bit too, becoming, among other things, archdeacon and chancellor of Dunkeld, deacon of Moray, rector of Tannadice, and Abbot of Cambuskenneth and, controversially, James IV also attempted to appoint him as preceptor of Torphicen. Paniter helped to direct the artillery at Flodden but unlike both his patron and former pupil, he survived the battle. He is also *reputed* to have been the father of David Paniter, bishop of Ross, by King James IV’s cousin Margaret Crichton.

The men whose careers I’ve outlined above all witnessed the majority of royal charters issued under the great seal in the first half of 1511 (by modern dating). A few others also appeared frequently- for example, Robert Colville of Ochiltree, John Hepburn the Prior of St Andrews, and George Crichton, Abbot of Holyrood. Obviously the make-up of the council changed frequently too. Equally though charters are not necessarily the only or best indication of who would have been part of the king’s ‘council’ and there are other officials and nobles whom we know were close to the king but rarely appear on these, either due to the date range or just their own status- Andrew Forman, bishop of Moray; the 1st earl of Bothwell (before his death); the 5th earl of Angus (in the 1490s anyway- I told you it was a complex relationship); John, Lord Drummond (especially in the 1490s), and others.

But why did I bother giving those long biographies? Well partly to demonstrate the complexity of individual stories in sixteenth century Scottish politics and that they did do important and interesting things. Also since several of these men held opposing political views and family interests, but were usually expected to cooperate at the centre of government, it underlines the point that sixteenth century Scottish politics was a bit more complex than ‘The Clans Are Fighting’. And also this is partly to show that we DO actually have this info at our disposal. Most tv shows and films just choose not to use it.

But the real reason for this long rant was mostly so I could ask, given the info I’ve provided above, WHO THE HELL IS THIS SUPPOSED TO BE:

It’s a bad picture, I know and again, nothing against the actor who seems to be having a lot of fun with the role. But other than James IV, Margaret, and the three Douglases (one of whom has the wrong name and they all have the wrong clothes and also none of them should have been there), this is the only named character in that scene. And I cannot for the life of me work out who he is supposed to be.

He’s given the name Alexander Stewart. As we have seen, there was certainly an Alexander Stewart on the king’s council in 1511- the king’s son who was born c. 1493 and was also Archbishop of St Andrews. Now this this man very much NOT younger than Margaret Tudor, and very unlike the boy Erasmus described, and even though that Alexander died fighting in battle I’m not sure he would have spent most of his days brandishing daggers and yelling abuse at the Douglases in council meetings. He is also probably not our man because as I discussed here, I think the archbishop’s supposed to be counted among James IV’s children in that other scene where this tv series wrongly implies that Margaret Tudor played nursemaid to all of James’ children (again, not one of those kids should have been in the room and it’s really weird that none of them seem to have aged even though two of them were probably older than Mary Tudor).

So who is he? There were definitely other Alexander Stewarts who were both associated with the royal household and who were kicking about sixteenth century Scotland more generally. One was in fact the half-brother of the Duke of Albany- but he really doesn’t seem to have played any role in government, and mostly he appears when his expenses were met by his cousin the king, presumably out of familial responsibility (see also the king’s other probable cousins Christopher, the Danish page, and Margaret Crichton). Another one was Alexander Stewart, Earl of Buchan, a more distant cousin of the king (he was the grandson of Joan Beaufort), but he was dead by 1511 and his son was called John- meanwhile his half-sister Agnes, the king’s mistress, was enjoying the profits of the earldom. In character he seems to come across more like an earlier earl of Buchan, that infamous Alexander Stewart who got the nickname ‘The Wolf of Badenoch’- but he died over a century before 1511. There are probably a couple of other Alexander Stewarts I’ve missed out- it’s a popular name- but none I can think of who would have had any sort of reason to be on the king’s council.

Also worth mentioning I’m not sure what he means when he accuses the Douglases of ransacking his family’s ‘Lowland lands’. That’s just so confusing I won’t even get into it.

ANYWAY there was a point to all this ranting. As I said above, people should absolutely enjoy this show if they want to. However, two things may be said- firstly that if a show is already fairly inaccurate about English history, I am always willing to bet that they have been 200% more inaccurate about Scotland- to the extent that it’s not even inaccuracy any more, it’s just a completely different world and story.

Secondly, when the producers or whoever (and no disrespect to them necessarily except when they say this) claim that they did their research and say stuff like "we are totally with her story, we're up in Scotland, we're sort of Spanish Princess meets Outlander" I would like to remind everyone that not only is this waaaay less accurate than even Outlander could manage:

- Probably none of the kids in the first scene should have been there

- Probably none of the men in the council scene should have been there (except James, obviously)

- The costumes are the same nonsense as usual.

- There were only five named historical figures and somehow they still managed to balls up one of the names (again, Angus Douglas??? How did they even manage to mess that one up??)

- The sixth named figure is a completely made up individual with a vaguely plausible name who appears to serve no other purpose than to get stabby and foul-mouthed and show that The Clans(TM), as they put it, Are Fighting Again.

- It’s heavily implied that absolutely nobody involved in the production has ever looked at a map of Scotland properly, or tried to work out where any of these guys come from. Which is amazing given it’s literally attached to the map of England. Essentially, the land and regions matter in Scottish history and it’s one of the biggest things that period dramas misunderstand or simplify.

- As usual the architecture is slightly off, though it could be worse. Despite the claim that ‘we’re up in Scotland’, suffers from the usual feeling that actually no camera crew made it any further north than Alnwick (though the CGI Warwick-Edinburgh thing kind of worked.).

- Everyone is a classic stereotype of the Barbarian Uncultured Scot and the only sop thrown is the bit with James and the teeth.

- The above thus implies that the creators have not considered that Scotland could ever have anything of any cultural value, such as a talented poet they are literally showing on screen or a bunch of bishops and other churchmen they aren’t. Which is just European Renaissance stuff, and not even getting into the highly impressive cultural world of Gaelic Scotland and Ireland.

- Everyone Is Sexist Except the English (for god’s sake, it’s the 16th century)

- Person wanders around yelling that they are the king/queen and expects this to work. No.

- Bruce and Wallace are (accurately) mentioned a lot but it’s probably more because that’s the only people the writers have heard of, rather than any nod to 16th century literary and historical tradition. No James Douglas or Thomas the Rhymer or St Margaret is expected to make an appearance.

- Incredibly evident that nobody has opened a book on the reign of James IV or even one of those dodgy biographies of Margaret Tudor. I’m not even entirely convinced that they read Gregory’s novel, which is supposed to be their source material.

So what do we actually have?

- James IV’s interest in medicine and alchemy and other proto-sciences is given a nod with the teeth thing

- We know there were black musicians at James IV’s court and that was shown.

- It is implied Margaret Tudor has lost babies. This is true. However there are still allegedly two alive so the maths doesn’t add up.

- Some modern Scottish accents, one done by a Northern Irishman.

- A handful of historical figures’ names scattered around willy-nilly (one of them incorrect).

The overall point is, once again, if you thought the inaccuracy about English history was bad, there isn’t even any inaccuracy in the Scottish stuff, because it’s not even sixteenth century Scotland any more. And that wouldn’t be an issue if the creators didn’t keep going on about how this is what really happened.

(King’s College, University of Aberdeen, with Bishop Elphinstone’s chapel to the right. On other sides of the chapel, the coats of arms displayed include those of James IV, Margaret Tudor, and Alexander Stewart, Archbishop of St Andrews- I think the Duke of Ross might be there too, can’t remember)

- Most of my sources for this included Norman McDougall’s biography of James IV, Macfarlane’s biography of Elphinstone, good general overviews, and a lot of primary sources- especially the register of the Great Seal. Also general knowledge about Scotland because, you know, I’m from there. HOWEVER if anyone wants a source for a specific detail I should be able to find that reasonably easily. Just let me know.

#Scotland #Scottish history #British history #Margaret Tudor #period drama #didn't know what to tag as sorry

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shy-magpie · 5 years

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RQG Discord

So hi, I was mentioning something about the discord in my live blog of RQG 99, and it occurred to me that I should probably mention that I am now on there. I want to be the kind of person that makes civilized post with great insight about Discord Vs Tumblr, but mostly I want to yell that I love everyone in this bar. I have never used a discord before and (makes vague hand gestures at things like I just wrote the live blog for episode 99 the current episode is 131 but am posting this after my live blog of episode 77) you've seen what I'm like; so it's going to be a while before I quit lurking and post. I started at the beginning of the the RQG specific discord and am working my way towards the present. Why yes, that is a lot of scrolling every time I open the page, but the pins help. Thanks to everyone who encouraged me to join, even if I'm not posting it's good to hang around the fandom. Honestly between the show and the fandom my standards are so raised. I keep being surprised by things like how many people put their pronouns in their handle, and how no one makes a fuss about not using standard combos, then realizing that making room for people like me isn't too big of an ask. BTW I want to hug everyone of you using a name that "matches" your pronouns and still puts them in your handle. Especially since no one has put Name(gender) instead of Name(pronouns), the way you kids get name doesn’t equal gender doesn't equal pronouns, is giving me life. But on a lighter note, no one is being mean to the mods or throwing a fit when someone suggests that they should take a conversation to another board. No one is being a jerk to the cast or flipping out if someone criticizes their fav/defends their anti fav. We even have a Bertie or two fan who are up to date and the worst it's gotten is like "but... " "I know but we aren't going to change eachother's minds". Seeing this in action isn't why I love this forum, there are so many reasons to love this forum, but it is why I won't be going back to some of the hostile places I used to chalk up to "what the internet is like". Also I love every single one of this fandom, including you, lurker who is reading this without having posted a word anywhere. We have fan artists, authors, someone is making a Sasha Barbie, I am pretty sure a couple of you invented new ways to be creative with RQG, and they are all rightly celebrated without anyone trying to compare them or tear someone down for not getting things exactly according to canon. I also love how the transcripts and closed captions started so organically with people stepping up to work together and people aren't getting snitty about what isn't done yet (you have no idea how tired I am of people volunteering their own time to do something for the fandom only to be effectively driven out by people demanding they produce perfectly at a rate you wouldn't get from a hired team). We have someone going through to mark every time they sleep and instead of hassle about that being an unusual way to relisten people are being grateful and combine it with an independent effort to figure out the timeline. I love everyone of you who linked to songs from Galavant or shared a D&D meme or made your own meme. I love those of you who share anything about setting yourself on fire or blowing yourself up with #Hamid, even though I'm not there yet. I love Bryn for giving his character a long name because whenever someone posts a fireball fail joke I can mutter "Hamid Saleh Haroun al Tahan, what did you do!?!" and it is so satisfying (even if I am pretty sure I know exactly what he is going to do). I love the people who ask about how obscure bits of history work in this verse, I love the people who ask for context to understand the question, and I especially love everyone who cheerfully explains and simplifies history so no one feels left out or embarrassed. I love everyone who is coming in late like me, and posts to say that they just met Azu and would die for her. I love everyone who is up to date, and instead of telling them to binge faster, simply replies by embracing their new fan friend and assuring them that we would all die for Azu, except we think it might make her sad. I love how gracious Helen is every time we post about Azu, even when she has to repeat herself, like on Azu coming from a town so small they don't have last names. I love Anil and all the mods, and the fandom for getting that without mods the discord wouldn't stay the wonderful place it is. I have a post somewhere about loving Bryn and Lydia so much it makes me kinder to myself so I trust you'll forgive me for not going on about how great they are on the discord as well. I don't just respect Alex's craft in the game, I love how we can post about him by name and he never gets insulted by us calling him evil, but still cheerfully swings by to answer questions. I love Ben, how he gets into Grizzop's thoughts and both the watsonian and doyalist reasons for what he does. (I am also looking forward to reading his posts during the time the episode with Zolf's return is recorded but in the buffer so fans won't know for weeks. My current bet is I won't be able to tell when the buffer starts because Ben is a healthier version of Zolf in terms of playing things so close to his chest you can forget he is playing). In short, I love everyone in the discord, (probably everyone in the fandom) and thank you all with especial gratitude for those of you who encouraged me to join the discord. I hope you can forgive me for tossing this at my queue and running without too much editing; I am working on my shyness but you all need to know how great you are, so this was a compromise.

#Rusty Quill Gaming #discord #on fandom #long post

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thetygre · 5 years

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Arthurian D&D Books

So before the tumblrpocalypse hits us all, I guess I better belt out that mini-review of D&D books that deal with Arthurian legend for @magitekbeth, @fuckyeaharthuriana, and @lucrezianoin. These are specifically 3rd Edition books since that was the edition I started with, and it also had the greatest body of material to work with. 3rd was famous for its glut of books by third-party publishers, and Arthurian mythology was a recurring subject under the Open Source Rules (OSR).

That being said, Arthurian legend has always had some form of presence in Dungeons and Dragons. It is very openly an inspirational source in the fantasy gumbo that is D&D. The original 1st Edition Deities and Demigods included ‘Arthurian Heroes’ in it, along with gods from just about every pantheon. 2nd Edition had a supplement detailing Arthurian legend, though for the life of me I can’t find it.

But let’s start cracking on the 3rd edition books. Atlas Games’ Love and War isn’t necessarily about Arthurian legend, but it is about knights, particularly the romantic characterization of knights that is attached to a lot of versions of Arthurian legend. The book is built around the four concepts of knightly virtue (love, valor, piety, and loyalty), with special knightly orders and character options for each one. It expands outward into fantasy rpg territory a bit more by also offering race-specific concepts for knights, such as orders specifically for dwarves and elves.

Since it doesn’t have to explore Arthuriana, that also gives Love and War more room to explore knight concepts that other books here typically don’t; female knights, knight duos, fallen knights, etc. And as is standard for most of the books mentioned here, Love and War also introduces a variety of subsystems for a chivalric setting, including tournaments, piety, honor, and renown. Interestingly, one of the subsystems is courtly wit, which is a non-combat system meant to emulate the verbal sparring and social maneuvering present in stories about nobility and knights. Again, not Arthuriana, but recommended.

I’ve already talked about I, Mordred before, and it’s what got me thinking about this list again. Like I said there, I just feel like the premise of fighting an evil King Arthur alongside Mordred as the good guy just didn’t go far enough. If nothing else, Morgan le Fay should have been at least Neutral instead of still being cast as Evil. Really, everybody needs to be some kind of Neutral to really get an ambiguous setting of competing factions with no clear ‘right’ choice. Personally, I still want to see a version that goes super-hard with the alignment flip; paladin Mordred and white witch Morgan versus the half-demon warlock Merlin, his puppet king Arthur, and the death knights of the round. But then again, subtlety was never exactly my forte.

But this is where we get into the real good stuff, the books committed to Arthuriana. Relics and Rituals: Excalibur is the book of choice for if you want to plop a faux-Arthurian Britain into a high fantasy setting. It comes at Arthurian legend from a perspective that inherently has multiple races, high magic, and wandering monsters. You can play as not just a human, but a sidhe elf, halfling, dwarf, or even hobgoblin. Even half-orcs have made it in, though reflavored to be their own race of ‘Wild Man’.

Like most extensive themed campaign books, R&R: Excalibur takes an extensive look at what aspects of the base Dungeons and Dragons systems stays the same and what changes. For instance, some player character classes like fighter, rogue, bard, and paladin fit right in to Arthuriana, while other like the oriental-themed monk and the spell-slinging sorcerer are right out. (Regular classical wizards are still fine, though.) And, as is to be expected, there is a new knight class, though the author does note that it can seem somewhat redundant with the fighter and paladin still around, and its use is optional. There are a few prestige classes, with the one sticking out most in my memory being the classic Green Knight, complete with chlorophyll and resistance to decapitation.

There are a variety of essays encompassing everything from tournaments to the importance of knightly decor to honor and, perhaps most importantly, how to manage D&D’s vastly overpowered magic system and magic items into an Arthurian setting. There are no less than two pantheons, one Faerie lords and the other of this new-fangled ‘God’ fellow. Me being me, I mostly remember the chapter on how to treat different kinds of monsters; I was particularly fond of the idea of making the Fisher King’s cursed kingdom filled with undead trying to enact a danse macabre of everyday life, complete with skeleton farmers driving skeleton horses to plow barren fields. But again, that’s just me.

Relics and Rituals: Excalibur is definitely a worthy book for lovers of Arhturiana. But that’s the thing; it captures the spirit and tone of Arthurian legend, but not Arthurian legend itself. There’s definitely an appeal to it; something novel about the idea of jousting on a chimera, or cockatrice fights at the local fair, but it’s not quite the same. It’s high fantasy D&D stepping into Arthuriana, not the other way around. For that, for the real Arthurian legend lovers, you’ve got to get the real gem.

*Slaps top of book* This bad boy can fit so many knights in it. This is arguably THE book for Arthurian mythology in Dungeons and Dragons. Legends of Excalibur: Arthurian Adventures is a love letter to Arthurian legend. It starts with an incredibly brief summary of the history of Arthurian legend, from Wales to La Morte D’Arthur to John Boorman. LoE:AA makes it clear that it’s up to the reader to go research Arthurian legend for themselves; all the book can do is point them in the right direction. After that, it’s right into the content.

There are some pretty drastic changes made to the base 3rd edition D&D core rules before really setting in. The Alignment system is gone entirely, replaced by a character’s honor score. What are the character race options? Get out of here with that; LoE runs old school, so it’s human or nothing. What you do pick, though, is your starting social class, and that can make just as much difference as whether you have pointy ears or not. All the base D&D classes are chucked out except for fighter, rogue, barbarian, bard, and druid.

All that uprooting is fast replaced by a host of new character options. Legends of Excalibur is smaller than Relics and Rituals, but definitely packs more bang for its buck. The new character classes include the fool (with a special nod to Arthur’s fool, Dagonet), the hedge mage (new general mage/spellcaster), the hermit and the priest (for divine spellcasting), the minstrel (meant to represent more traditional Celtic/druid bards instead of the base D&D one), the noble (so that you can finally live out the fantasy of being rich and respectable), the robber baron (which is like the noble, but with more stabbing and shaking people down), the skald (another bard, but for vikings), the yeoman (Robin Hood/archer type), and, of course, the knight.

As if that wasn’t enough, there are a metric ton of prestige classes. Some are fairly bog standard, like the alchemist or berserker, while others are meant very explicitly to play into Arthurian archetypes. Remember how there was actually more than one Lady of the Lake? Now you can be one too. Merlin? Court mage. Morgan le Fay? Fae Enchnatress. And knights? Oh, you bet there are knight prestige classes here. There are no less than SEVEN knight prestige classes, including Quest Knight (specifically for seeking the Holy Grail), White Knight (to replace paladins), Black Knight (to replace blackguards/antipaladins), and practically every color knight in between.

Legends of Excalibur also offers rules for characters that advance beyond the standard level cap in the Dungeons and Dragons system, into the ‘Epic’ character levels. This is actually one of the reasons why I feel like Dungeons and Dragons can be a good fit for Arthurian legend. A character can start out as little more than a wandering soldier and advance to become as powerful as a demigod. While the typical image of Arthurian mythology is of a fairly low-fantasy medieval Europe, the actual source material, throughout its multiple incarnations, isn’t stingy about giving its characters magic powers, legendary equipment, and impossible challenges to face. While it still needs to be toned down to some degree, there is definitely room in Arthurian legend for the kind of superheroic powers that the Epic rules can bring. (Or at least as long as the setting keeps spellcasters to a minimum.)

This book isn’t just a guide to playing Arthurian characters, but the Arthurian world. There is a complete map of Arthurian Europe that has to reconcile Arthur’s given time with accounts of him rebelling against the Pope and fighting in the Crusades before Islam even existed. It’s a wonderful little detail, trying to account for everywhere that Arthur or one of his knights or relatives supposedly lived in or visited. Another detail is accounting for the the timeline; Legends of Excalibur designates five important time periods in the Arthurian cycle, from just after Uther’s death to the Golden Age of Camelot to the civil war with Mordred. Each period has different effects on not just characters, but the geography, people of the land, and magic. Try to go into the forests just after Uther died, for instance, and a character is likely to run into monsters like dire wolves. Go back when Arthur is on the throne, though, and the forest and its animals will be tamer. It’s a world very committed to the idea of Divine Right, and how a king affects the universe.

Of course there are monsters. There’s the standards; white hart, Questing Beast, though some more obscure monsters like a variety of werewolves are here too. There’s individual entries for monsters to describe their individual place in Arthurian Europe; chimeras and manticores are rare, ogres and trolls are common, etc. The real gem of the monster section, though, is giants and dragons; giants and dragons are staples of knightly mythology, after all, so they get special treatment. Just like people, dragons and giants are categorized by class and bloodline; a noble dragon, for instance, will have scales the color of gold and be the size of a castle, where a lowborn dragon looks like the wrong end of a snake and an umbrella. Naturally, there’s more Honor to be gained fighting one instead of the other. It’s a great system that reflects how, along with the King, giants and dragons are tied to the land.

But the cincher, the real hook that I think makes this book worthy of a true Arthurian legend fan, is the sample adventures and appendix. I, Mordred gave you one shot of teaming up with Arthurian big names; Legend of Excalibur gives you three. Fresh adventurers can help Sir Balin kill the invisible knight, possibly even averting the grail cycle by killing the knight before he reaches Pellam’s castle. More powerful adventurers have to choose sides in the civil war, and Mordred is once again an option. But my favorite of the three adventures has the player characters helping a young Arthur claim a castle. It would be satisfying enough to rub elbows with the likes of Merlin or Sir Kay, but then there’s a side-quest where young Arthur sees Guinevere and is instantly smitten, so he conscripts the players into acting as his go-between for her. Players have to deliver Arthur’s notes Guinevere. They can read the love poems he writes for her; they’re awful. It’s just such a wonderful little detail that it’s hard not to love it.

And then, finally, there is the appendix; a whole cast of Arthurian characters statted out. It would be impossible to cover EVERYONE, but Legends of Excalibur makes a fair effort. LoE remembers some characters that typically get left behind; Dagonet, Morgausse, Sir Bors, etc. Some characters, such as Arthur, are presented at different stages in their life. All-in-all it makes a good roundout for what I’d call easily the best book about Arthurian legend in Dungeons and Dragons, if not one of the best tabletop roleplaying.

If you scanned past all that; this is the book to get for Arthurian legend in D&D. Legends of Excalibur is the beginning, middle, and end of the argument for Arthuriana with tabletop roleplaying. Even if you don’t play 3rd edition, or even D&D, it’s still a valuable resource in converting Arthurian Europe into a tabletop fantasy setting. The only way you could get more in-depth is if you made an entire RPG about Arthurian legend.

But maybe let’s talk about that some other time, huh?

#arthurian mythology #arthurian legend #dungeons and dragons #king arthur #arthuriana #long post

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an-aura-about-you · 2 years

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16, 18, 19, 22

Thanks for the ask, hun!

16. What fanfic tropes do you avoid writing for?

That's a good question. I'm not sure if there's anything I've consciously avoided so much as at some point I went, "Nah, I don't do that," and then didn't think about it anymore. But if I think about things I would probably do now, the one that springs to mind is Enemies to Lovers because it's very difficult to do right. (If one looks at my Princess Tutu stuff that ships Duck and Fakir, they'll notice pretty much all of it is after the point when the two no longer think of each other as enemies.) I don't yet have the confidence to do Enemies to Lovers in a way I think I can pull off. Either they'd be too soft for each other at the start or their baggage won't make it convincing that they're together at the end.

18. Do you prefer editing as you write, or waiting until it’s finished?

I do both, but most of the time nowadays I just do the as-I-write editing when posting oneshots that don't get a beta. What's usually happening now is I'll write it up in a doc and edit as I go. Then, when I'm ready to post it on ao3, it gets saved as a draft and gets one more skimming pass. Once I'm reasonably satisfied, it gets posted.

19. What words do you think you tend to use the most?

This is more about poetic language, but if I'm writing about a person being in love, metaphors about stars begin springing up all over the place. Even if I set out to use a completely different metaphor, here they are.

Some notable examples:

In a Princess Tutu oneshot for Autor and Anteaterina featuring an Ultra Forceful Kiss:

In astronomy, a binary star occurs when two stars orbit one another. Both pull with their own irresistible gravity, their dance form governed by the barycenter. The cosmic pas de deux turning them around each other brings two sunrises, two sunsets, a most brilliant day when they are seen together, and at night from the right distance they shine as one bright star. But it is most magnificent when the orbit eventually decays and the two stars finally join in spectacular stellar collision.

This can take eons, and Autor feels every single second of them in the darkness of the theater.

In Thoughts Crashing Into You, the first fic I posted for The Magnus Archives with Jon and Martin together:

He can't think on that, not when he’s too busy following the soft curls of Martin’s hair framing his face and counting the freckles that draw their constellations across his cheek and the bridge of his nose.

And in a Rusty Quill Gaming wip I've got in which Hamid gets a love epiphany that doesn't quite match up with the fanfic standard Italicized Oh:

Hamid turns the feeling over in his head to match the way it flips in his chest. He examines each of the stars that burn in him and how they make up that secret constellation. No mater how he looks at it, he sees love.

22. Do you enjoy making OCs for your fanfics, or prefer sticking to canon characters?

I love both of those things so much that I will sometimes find characters that don't get a lot of stuff to them and just write what I want. It's this spectrum with canon characters on one end, OCs on the other, and somewhere in the middle are characters that technically exist but are basically here to give a shell of authenticity to an OC. The most recent TMA/Chzo Mythos crossover work I posted mostly features characters that exist in the middle bit of the spectrum. From the Chzo Mythos, we have Trilby's psychic coworker Claire from the short story Trilby and the Ghost. I gave her the last name Wyndham and officially made her job psychic investigator. From The Magnus Archives, we have Jon's grandmother and Jon's childhood bully from the events of Episode 81: A Guest for Mr. Spider. I was already figuring out his grandmother for my upcoming big fanfic, so Wendy Sims got planted in here, too. Thomas Orzechowski doesn't have much added to him except the name, which is a combination of one of the names Jon guesses his bully had and a last name from the Chzo Mythos. (Obligatory shoutouts to Jonny Sims and Yahtzee Croshaw for making it easy to fill name gaps and name crossover OCs.)

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dipulb3 · 3 years

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2021 Mini Countryman Oxford Edition is an OK value, but at what cost?

New Post has been published on https://appradab.com/2021-mini-countryman-oxford-edition-is-an-ok-value-but-at-what-cost-2/

2021 Mini Countryman Oxford Edition is an OK value, but at what cost?

You’ll never confuse this car for anything else, except another Mini, maybe.

Andrew Krok/Roadshow

Mini’s Oxford trims are meant to provide great value for new car shoppers without breaking the bank. New for 2021, the Mini Countryman Oxford Edition wraps those efforts in a compact SUV shell, giving buyers extra space without a significant footprint. Trouble is, when you strip away the fripperies that Mini shoehorns into its more expensive variants and start comparing it to the competition, what remains doesn’t exactly feel like a great value.

Unique aesthetics

Decently roomy

Don’t Like

Incorrigible nickel and diming

Asthmatic inline-3

Uncomfortable ride

The 2021 Mini Countryman is a quirky little thing. In a world of ever-sharpening creases and aggressive styling, the Mini’s Hardtop-but-stung-by-a-bee curvature offers a friendlier aesthetic alternative. The headlights are anime-character big and the Union Jack design in the taillights is fun. The Oxford Edition rides on 18-inch wheels (the base model gets 17s), making the whole shebang look a little less entry-level than it is.

Inside, the Countryman’s aesthetics again separate it from the pack, but at the same time, it feels a little meh for a car carrying a $30,000 price tag. None of the softer plastics feel particularly premium, but they do a great job at picking up and holding onto more dust than harder materials generally would. The massive swath of trim across the middle layer of the dashboard looks cool on more expensive variants, but the Oxford’s shiny gray piece looks kind of dull and cheap. It’s better than piano black, though, because this one at least hides fingerprints better. Then there’s the aviation-style switchgear, which will forever remain the most rewarding toggles to flip in the auto industry.

2021 Mini Countryman Oxford Edition has a fresh, friendly face

See all photos

Despite its small form factor, the Countryman is decently functional. The tray ahead of the cup holders is good for stashing a phone or a mask, while an exposed tray under the armrest is sizable enough for a small purse. Visibility is solid, too, thanks to tall glass and styling that doesn’t sacrifice much for an attractive roofline. The Countryman’s shape also means there’s ample interior space for adults across both rows.

The 2021 Mini Countryman is not without its drawbacks, though. The cargo area has a low load floor, which is nice, but its overall capacity of 17.6 cubic feet behind the second row lags behind nearly every feasible competitor, from premium offerings like the Volvo XC40 (20.7 cu. ft.) to mass-market subcompacts like the Kia Soul (24.2) and Hyundai Kona (19.2). The single USB-A port up front smashes your cable against whatever’s in the cup holders. The interior door handles are the opposite of ergonomic, a feature I have disliked from the beginning. Perhaps most galling, though, is the second-row center armrest, which doesn’t exist without a $850 Convenience Package that isn’t even available on the base trim.

BMW’s determination to squeeze every milliliter of blood from the stones that are its customers’ wallets extends to the Mini Countryman’s in-car tech. As a young, strapping new-car buyer, perhaps you’ve heard of these little things called Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Perhaps you’ve noticed that they’re now standard equipment in a staggering number of new cars across the socioeconomic spectrum. While the Oxford Edition does offer an 8.8-inch touchscreen display that’s larger than the standard 6.5-inch getup, you can’t get it with Apple CarPlay, Android Auto or navigation. It’ll still play music from your app of choice via USB or Bluetooth, but if you’re driving somewhere unfamiliar, you’re stuck trying to stare at a tiny Google Maps screen down in the cup holder. Considering you get CarPlay standard in a Chevrolet Spark, Mini’s decision to lock value-seeking buyers out of a generally vital technological inclusion is, frankly, stupid and pointless; sure, it’s available on other trims, which makes the omission here feel entirely unnecessary. The massive, LED-bedecked circular bezel around the screen makes it hard to press the tiny icons along the touchscreen’s edges, but generally, this iteration of BMW’s iDrive software is fine.

Since the Oxford Edition is meant as a no-haggle, what-you-see-is-what-you-get sort of trim, safety systems are limited to the most notable ones. This Countryman comes standard with forward-collision warning, automatic emergency braking and rear parking sensors. If you want access to adaptive cruise control, a head-up display or self-parking assist, you’ll have to move to a more expensive trim and throw a $1,250 package into the mix. If you’re looking for lane-departure warning, lane-keeping assist or blind-spot monitoring, you’ll have to look at a different car entirely.

The Mini’s interior hasn’t changed too much over the years.

Andrew Krok/Roadshow

That leaves us with the driving experience. Guess what? That’s underwhelming, too. The Countryman Oxford’s sole engine offering is the base 1.5-liter inline-3 that produces 134 horsepower and 162 pound-feet of torque. It’ll generate enough oomph to dart through urban traffic with ease, but it feels dead below the belt in wider-open suburban and exurban settings. Constantly sounding as if it’s performing under duress, this three-banger does not like the highway, and even something as simple as accelerating from 70 to 80 mph requires planning. The situation is dire even on paper, with my all-wheel-drive tester set to reach 60 mph in a leisurely 9.6 seconds.

The seven-speed dual-clutch transmission is at its best when it doesn’t need to change gears; pushing off from a stoplight feels clunky, deceleration incurs low-speed driveline vibrations and the stop-start system is so annoyingly obvious that I’m willing to pay the extra gas money to keep it off permanently. It’s not very efficient, either, offering just 23 miles per gallon city and 32 mpg highway as it tries to shove around 3,300-plus pounds with four driven wheels. Oh, and it requires premium fuel.

Maybe the ride is OK? Nah, fam. In its own website copy, Mini refers to the Oxford Edition’s fixed suspension as “super-tight,” which is accurate to the benefit of nobody. The Countryman is perennially stiff, transferring all manner of bumps and humps directly to the occupants’ skeletons, and in urban areas where the inline-3 thrives, that means the ride will almost always be uncomfortable. Sure, its handling is flat as a pancake, which could make for some exciting times on curvy roads, but not when an engine this weak has to move this much mass with a transmission that is loath to act with any degree of haste.

Mini’s little three-cylinder engine may be fine in purely urban environments, but once the roads open up, it’s hard for this little guy to maintain pace.

Andrew Krok/Roadshow

I could forgive a lot of this if the 2021 Countryman Oxford actually presented a solid value, but BMW’s influence bleeds into the price, too. Including $850 in destination charges, my all-wheel-drive tester rings in at $29,350, which I feel is about $4,000 too high given what you can’t get. Yes, there is some value inherent in some of the standard equipment, which includes automatic climate control, heated front seats and the larger touchscreen, but when you line this wannabe-premium offering up against mass-market subcompact competitors like the Hyundai Kona or Mazda CX-30, it’s hard to recommend the Mini when its rivals offer so much more. Slightly more expensive base-trim variants of the Mercedes-Benz GLA-Class and Volvo XC40 feel far more fully baked, too, even if the window sticker asks a bit more from your paycheck.

That’s the trouble with the 2021 Mini Countryman. Even in its Oxford Edition trim, trying to stand out from the crowd isn’t enough to outweigh an undermotivated powertrain and strange feature packaging with some very notable omissions. If you simply must worm your way into the BMW lifestyle before possessing the financial means to put a Roundel in your garage, the Countryman will serve its mission, but when you take a variety of other factors (and cars) into account, its luster fades quickly.

Climb in the driver’s seat for the latest car news and reviews, delivered to your inbox twice weekly.

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aion-rsa · 4 years

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With Crystal of Storms, Rhianna Pratchett Helps Reboot Fighting Fantasy Roleplay Books

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Writer Rhianna Pratchett, known for video games including the Tomb Raider reboot and the Overlord series, returns to an early staple of role-playing gaming with Fighting Fantasy. Pratchett’s book, Crystal of Storms, takes players into a fantasy police procedural on a floating island.

She’s one of only two guest writers for the franchise, and the first woman to put her stamp on it. With a strong career of her own and the legacy of her father Terry’s Discworld series, her quirky take on the fantasy procedural is part of Scholastic’s revitalization of Fighting Fantasy.

Developed in the 80s, Fighting Fantasy works as an introduction for kids to fantasy roleplaying. Players can use dice or flip the pages to roll different outcomes for their characters. Items, stat trackers, and alternate origin stories make Fighting Fantasy more complicated than a choose-your-own-adventure book but still easy to play solo.

“We’re delighted to welcome Rhianna to the world of Fighting Fantasy,” Ian Livingstone, co-creator of Fighting Fantasy, said. “Her charming writing style and clever, imaginative world-building in Crystal of Storms is a new take on the genre and a joy to read.”

Den of Geek called Pratchett to talk about humor, fantasy, narrative design for games, and more.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Den of Geek: How does a Fighting Fantasy game work?

Pratchett: Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson created Fighting Fantasy back in the 80s. I read it as a kid. You choose where the adventure goes. You make choices as you encounter different scenarios, characters, and monsters. You pick up potions and weapons, various things that can help. Just like in an RPG game, except it’s all text. For the choices you make, you turn to different sections of the book and see what the results of those choices are.

You can use traditional dice, and there’s a section at the back where you can record your stats and rolls to see how a battle will turn out. You can record your gold, the provisions, any code words, things like that. But you could also use the pages themselves as dice rolls because every page has a pair of dice with numbers on it, so if you don’t have dice, randomly flick through the book and stop on a page, and on the corner it will tell you what the dice roll will be. Which is very handy. There’s something nice about using physical dice while you’re playing it, so it’s very interactive.

As an older adult you don’t have dice about as much as you do as a kid! I had to go out and get dice and pencil when I was doing research!

What was your process for world building for the archipelago of Pangaria?

I came up with the overarching idea based on an amalgamation of a few things. There was a bit in Gates of Death (a previous Fighting Fantasy book by guest author Charlie Higson) where you interact with goblins that have a flying machine. I thought that sounds pretty cool. I wonder if you could go bigger with that? I was also reading a news story about cloud formations that look like cities. No one knows why! Those things merged in my head, the city in the sky, the goblins, and their flying machine. It had been a long time since I’d read classic Fighting Fantasy books. I wanted very specific areas I could develop in the same way you’d develop a level for a game. That’s why I had the archipelago and the different islands that all have different roles within the economy of Pangaria. So you’ve got the water island, the farming island, the technomancy island. Technomancy, which is halfway between magic and technology, is what underpins the whole of Pangaria. It’s what makes the islands fly, what powers the storm crystals you have in these portable wings you can wear to fly around different islands. There are these little goblin airbuses that go between islands as well. I wanted to create distinct areas I could personalize, make unique, and have fun with and create original monsters for as well as delving into the archives and coming up with some classic monsters that hadn’t been seen for a while. It was a good mixture of that.

A lot of it I did on the fly. Ian Livingstone told me how hard it was. I thought he was joking with me. “Oh, he’s just trying to scare me,” but it is very hard. If Ian Livingstone tells you that, it probably is hard given that he’s written so many of them. Ultimately your writing will not end up in a linear form. Each page has multiple sections, all of which are numbered. You need to make sure you have enough sections, about 400 sections, and that they’re covering enough words, and they’re not next to each other. All that can be quite difficult to manage. Fighting Fantasy authors have different ways of doing it. Ian writes it out freehand. I started doing that, then I did a flow chart. That was becoming too time consuming, so I started an Excel document with colors for different sections, and the pages, and the different islands. Which more or less worked. So I devised my own system for how it works. I had the great Jonathan Green, who is a Fighting Fantasy author who’s written a lot, helping guide me through the world. Particularly with things like boss fights, how to structure fights in the Fighting Fantasy style, and how to do things like have little moments within the boss fights where you can roll the dice to do something specific.

The thing that underpins Pangaria is a combination of the goblins’ tech and creatures called stormborns, that are a bit like jinns as we know them, but not like jinns in the Fighting Fantasy world. They’re like elementals that live in and around the Ocean of Tempests, which is where Pangaria is situated. It’s floating in the eye of the storm, protected from the outside world by this giant tempest. The stormborns harvest storm crystals from the tempests, which are used to power the goblins’ tech.

You start off as a member of the Sky Watch, which are more or less like the police force, but Pangaria is largely peaceful. You don’t have much to do and you’re a little bit bored and wishing for adventures. You find yourself the only Sky Watch member left. All the other recruits are on the Nimbus island, which crashes into the ocean at the start of the story.

All the islands are named after clouds. There are five islands, around a sixth central island. The sixth crashes out of the sky and you have to visit the other islands and find out what happened to the island, how to get down there, who’s responsible for it. It’s a fantasy police procedural set on a floating archipelago, basically.

Did your history writing video games help in putting this book together?

Certainly the level design aspect. I wouldn’t call myself a game designer, although I would call myself a narrative designer, which is kind of a subset of game design. I have had to pick up a lot along the way, and I have had to work on games which were very level based. Each level has its own unique aesthetic and personality and characters and things like that. So I’m used to creating mini-worlds within worlds. So that really helped.

Usually, I don’t get the opportunity to write fights as part of my job when I work on games because that’s usually done with whoever’s dealing with the gameplay mechanics. That’s not usually me, unless there is a substantial bit of narrative embedded into the fight. For smaller, indie projects like Lost Words: Beyond The Page, my last game, I had quite a big role in coming up with some of the mechanics and level design aspects because they were so heavily tied to the narrative in that game. I’d been working on it for three or four years on and off. My brain had developed in a way that when I took on this project I understood things on an intrinsic level that maybe if I hadn’t been in video games for so long I wouldn’t have understood so easily. I understand the pace of games and I could bring that to the table.

Also brevity! In games you have to learn to be succinct. If you’re dealing with lots of little sections and you have to write 400 or so sections, you have to be economical about your words.

What is your history with Fighting Fantasy?

I played them when I was 8 or 9 years old. I used to get them out from my local library. In fact I think I got a threatening letter from my library when I was a child because I’d held on to the book so long. I thought they were threatening me with taking me to court!

As the first female author in the series, do you bring an element to it that girls and women would particularly appreciate?

Ian and Steve have been bringing the books back over the last couple years, and bringing in guest authors like Charlie and myself to work on. It’s fun that there are still areas in this world where women haven’t done anything before. It’s nice but nerve wracking to be the first woman to write one. Our illustrator [Eva Eskelinen] as well is the first woman to illustrate for a Fighting Fantasy book.

It’s hard to know because I don’t have any frame of reference other than being who I am. A lot of what I did in games narrative was quite new for women to get involved in. There were obviously women who were doing great work in fantasy games in the 80s, Roberta Williams, Jane Jensen, and Christie Marks who did the King’s Quest games, Conquests of Camelot, and the Gabriel Knight games. There are a lot of women who worked in design who were also doing narrative.

I think it’s more than I bring my own sensibilities to it. It’s very difficult to separate what’s me and what’s particularly female. I had to write in the Fighting Fantasy tone, which is quite standard fantasy tone. Not particularly jokey. I probably stretched jokiness and irreverent charm to about as much as I could…I don’t think it’s intrinsically female. It’s intrinsically me.

Your contribution is described as “narrative rich.” What do you focus on when it comes to giving a unique identity to your own writing style?

As a writer you have to be open to all kinds of information and stories. You need to read. You need to be interested in people and the world. You need content to generate content. You need to pay attention to the news and read around the genre you’re writing for. You need to go as broad as you can, to educate yourself, exercise your imagination and your creativity as a result of that. So I don’t have any particular tools except all the stuff that goes into my brain and comes out. I don’t really know what happens in the middle. Lots of stuff goes in and stories come out!

I’m often working with stories that exist in part. In games, I coined the term “narrative paramedic” many, many years ago to describe the job a game writer sometimes does where they’re basically handed a box of narrative body parts and you have to assemble them into a story. Or the story is dying very badly and you have to save it. Narrative paramedics often get called in very late in the day. They’re patching up the story, not writing it from the ground up. When I was a games journalist I never met a game writer. I might have met some designers that did some writing. Writing was done literally by whoever had the time and inclination to do it. It could’ve been designers, or producers. It wasn’t done by a professional as a standard. That has changed very much. Game studios are building out their narrative teams. But we’re still working out how to fit writers into the process both in house and freelance. … You still get narrative paramedic jobs, but they’re thankfully less common because more studios have writing teams or relationships with writers.

It was Mary DeMarle, who’s narrative director now at Eidos Montreal, who coined the term narrative designer when she was working on the Myst games. Narrative designer is different to a writer, although those jobs are shared. Writers deal with what you might think of as traditional writing, the story, the dialogue, the cinematics, the VO, letters, documents, graffiti, that kind of thing. Whereas a narrative designer is concerned with how the story gets to the player. How the player will experience it. It could be the player experiences it through cinematics, or level design and art and there’s no traditional narrative. They’re usually a conduit between the writers and the rest of the design team and make sure the needs of the design team are communicated to the writers. Some do writing themselves, some don’t, but they’re really there to make sure the story gets into the game in the best way possible.

I really like putting humor in games and quirky weirdness that is intrinsically me I think. I worked on all the Overlord games with Triumph Studios and Codemasters years back, and they were fun to write for. There’s not always room to do that in games, but wherever I can. It’s a product of what I read, what I listen to, how I think, how I was raised, what I’ve experienced.

I’m always very suspicious if writers really have a handle on what is going on inside their heads to produce the stories. It feels a bit magical. Which I know is not helpful, because people would like “you need to do this and this.” There are some of those! But a lot of it is your mind as a writer, your mind you have developed through being open to the world, and letting that percolate. Eventually in the narrative gumbo things will float to the top.

I’m a very multitasking writer. I’m not good at setting hours. I work all hours, mostly during the evening, and its very antisocial but I have a very understanding partner. I wish I was a writer who could get up, start a day at a particular time and end at a particular time. But I’m not. But it works for me!

Were there any particularly fun ways you worked the mechanics into the story, or anything that would only work in Fighting Fantasy?

When you’re working in games, you have a fear that someone’s going to press x or spacebar and skip the cutscene or whatever that you’ve spent weeks or months of your life slaving over. It can just be skipped. That’s a risk and the nature of your job. With Crystal of Storms I know readers are engaged. They’re there for the words. Although every player of Fighting Fantasy knows basically that you go to the different sections and learn all the outcomes and choose which one you like best. You learn to have about four different fingers in different sections of the book so you can flick between things to see what the outcomes are.

What games are you playing nowadays?

I always like The Long Dark. I always joke with the ghost dad in my head, because my dad was a big gamer. Sometimes I play games because I can tell they’re the kind of game he would like. I have a particular fondness for wilderness survival games because when I was growing up my dad and I lived in the countryside on the edge of a valley, and my dad would take me out walking and teach me about what plants and berries and fungus were edible and which weren’t. Or, I guess, everything is edible once.

He would teach me a light smattering of wilderness survival, and I was always interested in books that touched on that as a kid. So I really like games like Don’t Starve. I play that a lot with my partner. My partner actually got me a beefalo plushie from Don’t Starve!

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

I’ve also been playing Among Trees, and I’ve started to do a lot of the harder challenges in The Long Dark. We have a bit of a heat wave here in the UK so it makes me feel slightly cooler to be playing a game set in the Canadian snowy wilderness. I am somewhat obsessed with that and my poor partner has to endure tales of how I escaped wolves, and how I shot a moose with one shot and then two wolves got me! The emergent narrative as well as the existing narrative Hinterland [Studio] has done with their story chapters are really, really good. I’ve turned to outdoor games where you’re trumping around in the wilderness in isolation.

Crystal of Storms is out on October 1st. Find out more about it here.

The post With Crystal of Storms, Rhianna Pratchett Helps Reboot Fighting Fantasy Roleplay Books appeared first on Den of Geek.

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movienotesbyzawmer · 4 years

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Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace

December 8: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace

Source: Blu-ray release, the box set with all six Lucas-era movies (2D)

Surely the most eagerly awaited movie ever, right? We were all absolutely bonkers in anticipation of this. I was a movie theater manager at the time, and although my theater didn't play the movie, we all got invitations to advance screenings. That was a fairly normal occurrence but it was a big deal to see this movie before it came out. I think I saw it about a week and a half before the big release. And although my initial reaction was actually largely positive, I did observe at the time that the best thing about it was that I got to see it before everyone else…

…but I also observed that the second best thing about it is that the visual effects were a monumental achievement. CGI had never been done to that level. It's normal for movies to look like this now, but it wasn't in 1999, and I’m sad that that fact is lost on modern audiences. Okay, pressing play now.

I kinda get chills at the intro. So classic. This music. Before it actually opened we weren't even sure the same music would be in it.

Opening crawl is like "well there is a dispute about trade route taxation so they send some Jedi to sort it out". The idea is kinda like, "at the beginning of this story things were not as dramatic as they would eventually get". Okay fine.

Very quick "I have a bad feeling about this" fan service in the first couple of minutes.

The Asian-talking bad guy aliens on the blockade ship are all CGI and by modern standards they look a teeny bit dated. BUSTED!!

0:05:45 - quickly we get to the first action scene. No dawdling. But the robot chatter is a little childish-seeming.

The rolling droids! Those are a cool idea.

The first establishing shot of Naboo - very beautiful! Give 'em some credit, yo.

So we've seen holo-calls of Darth Sidious and of Senator Palpatine, and of course it's the same guy. Were we not supposed to figure that out? Seems like it would be super obvious to everyone.

Battle droid army rollout on Naboo, more impressive visuals, but some of it doesn't hold up to modern standards. And yet, so what.

Ugh. Jar Jar. He says "exqueeze me". Neat CGI effect for 1999, and probably not as awful as people say, but it feels like a forced character. "We gotta have a comic relief character that will be kid friendly and will make for a cool toy."

Then they go underwater with neat breather devices, and the underwater city looks plenty neat.

"Yoosa in big doo-doo dis time". I feel like I'm not the intended audience for this dialogue.

The quirks of the boss leader dude in the underwater city always struck me as more creative than some of the other character design dealios. That mouth thing he does.

The planet core is all underwater ocean world. Neat idea, though I suspect physics wouldn't work in the way we're seeing. If you care so much, maybe just go read about physics instead of watching a space adventure.

Less than 20 minutes in and there's another exciting action sequence with the underwater monsters. I suspect George Lucas was pretty proud of getting down to business like that.

Modern day CGI sea monsters would look better than this, but try comparing 2019 CGI to this, and then compare this to 1979 effects. Yeah. Uh huh. See? That's what I'M saying.

The queen and her minions… I don't remember exactly what the deal is. They're all, or mostly, played by Natalie Portman… is there a switcheroo happening?

Whatever the case, there's a missed opportunity here to get us to like the Queen. At this point in Star Wars, we had been effectively seduced by multiple charming characters. But instead this Queen has all the soul of a neatly folded napkin.

"how wude", ugh. GL was very pleased with this "catchphrase". The rest of us not so much.

0:27:45 - Darth Maul emerges onto the holo-call! Good bad-guy reveal.

So "Padme" is a different character, the story is clear on that. Just saying.

The salvage shop dude with wings, he just hovers, I like that.

And then we are introduced to Anakin Skywalker. It is very, very wooden acting. I know it's hard to get good kid acting, but it SUPER SUPER SUPER drags this movie down. Most of his lines sound like he's parroting a grownup who said "say this line just like this…"

The big city planet, Coruscant! Quick look at it, but it's impressive.

Buncha story development about "well we need a plan to get off the planet, blah blah blah flimsy excuse for everything to hinge on a pod race". Fine, but feels like corporate storytelling.

"There was no father". Kid is totally Jesus. Wait, do Christians hate this movie for being kind of flip about immaculate conceptions?

Actually, Anakin's mother is managing to convey some emotion. A shot of her face as she realizes her kid is going to do the dangerous race does a lot with some subtlety.

0:55:35 - Pod race sequence starts. The arena looks very cool, a lot of cool alien and ship designs too. The two-headed announcer effect looks a little poorly integrated.

This pod race sequence… there is seriously TONS to like about it! Hard to take notes during it because it is so fun to watch.

And some of the humor edited in that breaks up the intense racing action… actually works! The whole thing, with its super energetic editing, cool ship design stuff, and even the overt references to Ben-Hur, it's all plenty satisfying.

Ewan McGregor is all "why do I sense we've picked up another pathetic life form?" It feels like a super-uninspired, unsuccessful attempt to give a little personality to at least one character. EG tries to grin a teeny tiny bit and just can't even quite manage it.

1:16:55 - Whoa, just like that Darth Maul shows up and it's a light saber duel! Doesn't last long but it's fun that that happened.

Sometimes Jake Lloyd's performance kind of works when he doesn't have to talk. Like when he looks flummoxed by not being on a hot desert planet any more.

The shot with Terrence Stamp at a strange angle, with the sky traffic of Coruscant in the background, I like it. Just all the shots of Coruscant, totally lovely and you gotta appreciate how advanced this was for 1999.

1:24:40 - First scene of the Jedi Council, so first appearances of Yoda and Samuel L. Jackson. Was Yoda still a muppet when this was first released, and then made CGI in this Blu-ray release? Looks like solid CGI at least.

The Senate. Super neat design for how that chamber looks & works.

I should note that during this viewing I'm starting to suspect for the first time that Amidala, or whoever is in Amidala garb, is played by Keira Knightley but with Natalie Portman's voice dubbed over. The makeup job is disguising who it is. Am I right about this? Did everyone else know that all this time? I've always thought NP just played both parts. But the deeper I get into the movie, the less "Amidala" looks like NP.

Anyway, we're now at the part where "Padme" steps forward and is like, actually I AM QUEEN AMIDALA, doesn't that BLOW your MIND, I am in PLAIN ROBES and my DECOY is in NICE CLOTHES AND MAKEUP, HOW you LIKE me NOW. If the decoy was pretending to be Amidala this whole time, it's worth noting that she seems to have Queen skills down. She should apply for Queen jobs.

1:45:45 - Imagery now recalling Spartacus. I've always liked how the setup for this Naboo land battle looks.

What's happening now is suddenly lots and lots of battles. The Jamaican-talking Naboo water city people fighting the robots (which just unfurled rather elegantly from the big nose ships), the protagonists fighting in the palace/city, and the space fighter battle stuff. Still the droid army stuff is the most fun to watch.

Oh! Scratch that, Darth Maul is here and now we are about to get this super excellent light saber fight! It is awesome, and it's accompanied by the only memorable musical theme that originated in this movie. It's got a choral part!

But there's all this dumb, infantile comic relief shit with Jar Jar accidentally bumbling into being helpful and Anakin accidentally bumbling into being an awesome fighter pilot. The mixed tones in the pod race sequence worked… but it's too dumb for this ending sequence. Lucas was clearly like "cutting between four different fights will be so intense that I can diffuse it with some really shitty humor and the audience will be like ‘oh thank you I needed that’".

1:56:40 - I love this tense break in the light saber fight while they're separated by energy field things.

Jar Jar running from bomb sphere things, that's a reference to Buster Keaton in The General, right? If so… Cocky, GL. Real cocky.

Obi-Wan can't catch up because of the energy barriers, so he just has to watch Qui-Gon get stabbed to death, that's all very nicely done.

2:01:00 - Okay now they're saying the decoy wasn't a decoy, except no that was just a trick, oh mercy this movie is just too smart for me

The light saber fight continues minus Mister Dead, and it's still exciting and intense.

In the course of just screwing around, Anakin blew up that bad guy ship which made the droid army stop working. Okay fine… but wait, was that the actual climax of the movie? Because dude, that does not compare well to the destruction of the Death Star.

But then Darth Maul gets bisected so there's that.

Ends with that funeral, followed by an obligatory parade. Pretty to look at, but doesn't feel as merited as the throne room stuff after the death star blowing up. It's totally trying to be that.

You know what it feels like? A PILOT EPISODE. It's got those qualities that are like, "here are the basic elements that we're making really obvious so you'll decide to produce more episodes, just trust us we'll elaborate on some of it and it will be better, come on just give us the money".

(next: Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones)

#star wars episode 1

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lady-divine-writes · 7 years

Text

Kurtbastian one-shot - “Fear of the Subpar” (Rated NC17)

Kurt is having doubts about his manuscript. Sebastian helps him overcome those doubts the way he does best - with a heart to heart talk, a lot of positive affirmations ... and sex afterwards. (2134 words)

So, after I discovered that a couple of people described my work as subpar, and apparently the reason why they no longer search the Kurtbastian tag on AO3, I decided to take that to task using one of my favorite writers as my mouthpiece - Kurt from Deliver Me. Call me petty, but my work is my outlet. If you don't like it, you don't have to read it, but you also don't have to be rude about it. This comes somewhere in the middle of Special Delivery, but that doesn't really matter so much. Not knowing where this falls in the timeline really doesn't make this confusing or anything. Also, as a side note, I have disabled anonymous reviews for this one-shot on AO3 and FF.net - not for me, but for you. If you feel the need to be critical of or mean about my work, you should have the balls to sign your name to it. So I'm just helping you along. But, you know, it's always better to build someone up than to tear them down. Remember that any time you're moved to comment on someone's writing. Your karma will thank you <3

Dedicated to @kurtbastianalways

Read on AO3.

“Whatcha got there?” Sebastian set two mugs of freshly brewed coffee on the coffee table and flopped down beside Kurt on the sofa. It was raining outside, and a good, torrential, New York rain storm went perfectly with a mug of steaming hot coffee … and sex. All day sex. Dirty couch sex (which Sebastian was hoping for), and slow, passionate, under-the-covers sex (which they could certainly get to later). But in the middle of making coffee, Sebastian had gotten struck by a case of domesticity, and ended up cleaning the kitchen while Kurt worked on his manuscript. When Sebastian returned to the living room (shaking his head out how much of a homebody he’d become), Kurt did have a manuscript on his lap, but it wasn’t his. This one was thinner, the font was wrong, and there were red notations scrawled all over it.

Kurt always did edits on his own manuscript in blue pen, and with the aid of a yellow highlighter.

“It’s a manuscript I started reviewing a long time ago and never got the chance to finish.” Kurt hummed when he sniffed in and caught a whiff of mocha sitting in front of him, but he was too caught up in reading that he didn’t put down his pen to reach for it.

“I thought you were going to put your job on pause for a while and focus on your own book?” Sebastian slid an arm around Kurt’s shoulders and sat back against the cushions, dragging Kurt with him, trying his best to pull Kurt away from other people’s work that shouldn’t matter to him as much anymore.

“I know,” Kurt said, resting his head on Sebastian’s chest, but bringing the manuscript with him. “And I am, I promise, but … I don’t know. I feel like I owe it to some of these people.” Kurt tilted his head to look up at his boyfriend. “You know how I feel about that.”

“Yeah, gorgeous. I know how you feel.” Sebastian kissed Kurt’s forehead. If Sebastian were in Kurt’s shoes, he’d say, “Fuck everybody else! This is my time!” but he had no reason to argue with Kurt over this. They were both dealing with their pasts in their own ways. And even though Sebastian wished that Kurt’s ghosts would go away once and for all and leave him in peace, he had no right to criticize. “So, tell me, is it any good? Is this one the “hidden treasure” you search for? The “diamond in the rough”?”

Kurt’s eyes returned to the manuscript. He laughed sheepishly. “Nope. Not even close.”

“What’s wrong with it?”

“It’s …” Kurt picked through the pages, trying to find words to describe it “… I don’t know. It’s passable. Subpar, I guess, is the word I’m looking for? I try not to be too harsh with my criticism, but it’s just … it’s lazy writing.”

“How do you mean?”

“Well, it’s really trope heavy. A lot of smaller publishing houses are fine with that – you know, strictly for ebook publication. But for ink and paper, it’s not worth the money. There’s a ton of exposition in the first paragraph.” Kurt one-handedly flipped a few pages, searching for examples to back him up. “They didn’t take the time to build a world. They just took the entire setting, condensed it into four lines, and then slapped it at the beginning of the story. I could forgive that maybe. It’s an anthology of short stories, so each installment is going to be compressed to a degree. But then we have repeating dialogue – three whole instances of Look, I’m not an idiot in three out of six stories, and by a character so similar, they’re interchangeable. We get it already! You’re not an idiot! Say something else!”

Sebastian chuckled at the way his boyfriend became passionate over things; anything, not just his work – cooking, art, musicals, America’s Next Top Model ...

… Sebastian …

“And it rushes,” Kurt continued, flipping more pages. Sebastian felt guilty for not paying attention to the parts of the manuscript that Kurt so fastidiously hunted down to show him, but Sebastian was too focused on Kurt’s head on his chest to concentrate on much else, the warmth of Kurt’s cheek seeping through the cotton of his t-shirt, the way Kurt shifted up, then snuggled into the softer rises of Sebastian’s relaxed pecs. “Like … in this one - we’ve got some decent build-up, we get to the meat of the story here, I finally become the teeniest bit interested, and then boom. Just a straight rush downhill. They wanted to get to the H.E.A. …”

“The H-E-what now?”

“The happily ever after.”

“Ah. Continue.”

“They wanted to get to it so quickly that any chance they had to give the characters depth or purpose or true conflict goes straight out the window. So by the time person A tells person B I love you, not only does it not sound authentic, I’m not even invested. I couldn’t seriously care less if these two get together. It’s like they’re assuming the audience knows something that they haven’t bothered to show us. I’m all for not leading readers by the hand, but clues would be nice, maybe a little exposition. A satisfying ending doesn’t matter worth snot if everything else is blasé.” Kurt closed the manuscript and sighed heavily, sinking not only deeper into the sofa, but inside himself.

“Okay, those are fair points ...” Sebastian had been rubbing a hand up and down Kurt’s back, and felt tension knotting Kurt’s spine, winding tighter as Kurt spoke. It radiated off his body. “But why do you seem so upset over it? It’s almost like you’re taking it personally. This isn’t your manuscript.”

Kurt laid a hand over the work as if to protect it. “The person who sent this in probably didn’t realize it had these flaws. They didn’t have an editor, didn’t get it proofread. This could be the best work they could turn out, and they were proud of it. Proud enough to send it in. Except, it’s not up to the caliber of being published.”

“So …?”

“So, that’s my opinion. It’s an educated opinion, one that comes from years of experience. And I get paid for that opinion. But it’s not everyone’s opinion. There’s no industry standard - not really. What I do is very subjective. I’ve seen books that I would have personally never approved get published, and become famous. What if all of those things I feel about this work are what people are going to think when they read my book? I mean, it’s my first work officially. I want everyone to love it, but I know that’s not realistic. You know what they say about those who can’t do, teach? My job so far has been to critique other people’s work, but I don’t take criticism all that well. That’s probably why I’ve been hiding behind other people’s names for so long.”

Sebastian wrapped an arm around Kurt’s body and gave him a comforting squeeze. “That definitely is a lot to think about.”

“Yeah,” Kurt agreed. “And, unfortunately, I’ve been thinking about it a lot.”

“Well, if it’s any consolation, I happen to think that your work is incredible. And yeah, there are people who aren’t going to like it, but you can’t worry about them. You can’t please everybody. You became a writer for you and no one else. Recognition is nice, and you deserve all the recognition in the world. But in the end, you have to be proud of what you’ve put down on paper. What you attach your name to. That’s all that matters.”

Kurt nodded. He knew Sebastian would say something along those lines. And Kurt agreed that it was true. But he’d hoped that it would feel a little more reassuring. Give it time, he said to himself. Kurt had spent so much of his life being judged by others. At one point, his safety relied on their opinions of him. Now he had to start doing for himself, pleasing himself.

And, possibly, one other person.

“And what about you?” Kurt asked.

Sebastian smirked. He held Kurt hard against him, breathing in when Kurt breathed, getting as close to Kurt as he could. “You please me just fine, gorgeous.”

“I mean, my writing!” Kurt chuckled. “What do you think about my writing?”

“It moves me, Kurt,” Sebastian admitted. “The same way you move me. Your words weave a certain magic. I’ve never read anything like it.” Sebastian remembered the first time he’d read Kurt’s manuscript – the fear it invoked, the pain. It tightened around Sebastian’s heart, tormented him in his sleep, forced him out of a warm bed in the middle of the night and brought him to Kurt’s front door. Nothing in the world has ever touched him the same way. “Now, I may be a little biased, but you are, by far, my favorite author.”

Kurt smiled at him, eyes bright. “Really?”

“Absolutely. James Patterson, Michael Crichton, Danielle Steel – not a single one of them has a thing on you.”

“What about J. K. Rowling?”

“Well …” Sebastian hemmed and hawed, but only for Kurt’s benefit “… she comes close, but no. No cigar. But that’s just my humble opinion.”

“And don’t forget, it might be biased.”

“A little bit. But that doesn’t mean I’m pulling your leg. Your work is amazing, Kurt. Really. And the world deserves to see it.” Sebastian put his hand over Kurt’s where it rested on the manuscript. “You said you feel like you owe it to the writer of this manuscript to read it, but you really don’t. The only person you owe anything to is yourself.”

“And what do I owe myself?”

“Time,” Sebastian said, the word catching in his throat, swelling with gravity. “Patience. Forgiveness.”

Kurt turned his head into Sebastian’s chest and laid a kiss on the spot above Sebastian’s heart – Kurt’s favorite place by far on Sebastian’s body. It’s where Kurt felt the most connected to Sebastian. He felt Sebastian’s heart beating, and knew that a part of it beat for him. “Thank you.”

“For what, gorgeous?”

“For making me feel better.”

“I’m just telling you the truth.”

“Well, thank you for telling me the truth.”

“You’re very welcome.”

They sat there together in silence, listening to the rain beat against the window. The sound became stronger as the sky grew greyer. Lightning flashed above the building across the way, and thunder shook the sky. A smile blossomed on Sebastian’s face. In the midst of all this heavy talk, Sebastian had nearly forgotten his plans for the day. Now would be a good time to implement them. “But, you know, I think I know something else that might make you feel better.” Sebastian tugged on Kurt’s shirt, dislodging it from his jeans, and slid his hand underneath. The first touch of Kurt’s skin was always Sebastian’s favorite - especially since Sebastian was the only person who got the honor - though every touch after tied for a close second.

“Really?” Kurt sat up a hair, untucking the front of his shirt to help Sebastian along. “And what’s that?”

“Well, that depends.”

“On what?”

“Are you ready to ditch this manuscript and get a little naked?” Sebastian gave the papers lying on his abs a flick.

“A little naked?” Kurt asked, his eyebrow arching up.

“Okay, maybe a lot naked,” Sebastian said, his hand creeping down to grab Kurt’s ass.

Kurt jumped at that and laughed. He still had a bunch of work on his own manuscript to finish - work that he’d been avoiding - but he had to concede to Sebastian’s superior plan. A day like today wasn’t made for sulking … or working. It was made for making love, as many times as humanly possible.

“Why not?” Kurt smiled, his eyes going over Sebastian’s reclined body once like he was already pulling off Sebastian’s t-shirt, already unbuttoning his fly. He stood, even though that meant dislodging the hand from his right cheek, but Kurt reasoned that it would feel much nicer without denim between them. “I’ll just leave this …” He went to drop the manuscript on the coffee table, but Sebastian intercepted it.

“No, no, no. Allow me.” Sebastian stood, too, following his boyfriend’s lead. Kurt performed a flirty spin and sashayed away towards the bedroom. So, slow, passionate, under-the-covers sex it was.

Sebastian could roll with that.

He waited until Kurt slipped through the door to their bedroom. Then he diverted to the kitchen and tossed the manuscript in the recycle bin. “There you go,” he said, covering it with toilet paper rolls and shredded mail to hide it. “Right where you belong.”

#kurtbastianfic #kurtbastian #sebkurt #sekurt #frankie writes

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sunbrights · 7 years

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fear aggression: 1, 3, 4, 5. by the claw of dragon: 1, 2, 13, 14.

fear aggression

1. What inspired you to write the fic this way?

I really like taking small details/throwaway lines and running with them! It started out that I just wanted to consider what Fuyuhiko’s dog was like + what he would be like as a dog owner + how Peko would try to interact with a dog that (presumably) was around for most of her life, too. From there it sort of melded with other brainthoughts about the two of them growing up together, and having to navigate all the boundaries popping up and the consequences of them.

3. What’s your favorite line of narration?

[ … ] the firelight catches orange and gold in her hair when she turns her smile on him. If he feels warm, it’s because it’s way too early in the season for a fire, almost definitely.

It was exactly what I wanted to say in exactly the words I wanted to say it in. It’s pretty simple, but I like it that way!

4. What’s your favorite line of dialogue?

Hahaha, if I’m being 100% honest, it’s this one:

“He saw a bird,” Peko says [ … ] “It flew away. I don’t know if he knows.”

Writing children is tough, but I really did enjoy it for this fic! For Peko especially I wanted to hit that moment of transition where she’s trying to slot into her proper “role,” but her childish excitement still peeks out in places. I liked the interaction with Taro and the bird for that!

5. What part was hardest to write?

The second vignette was probably the hardest! I wanted there to be a thread of transition and change in how Peko and Fuyuhiko related to each other as they got older, separate from the larger story of Successfully Floofing the Doggo, and striking the right balance for the middle piece was tough. I ended up trying to ground it in how Fuyuhiko communicated what he wanted to her (he does a lot of telling in the second vignette, whereas in the first and third he does more asking). It’s up to you guys if that panned out or not! But it did take a lot of editing and rewriting to get it just the way I wanted it.

by the claw of dragon

1. What inspired you to write the fic this way?

I was interested in a Fuyuhiko/Natsumi role swap pretty much right out of the gate, actually – I liked that the game set Natsumi up to be a fairly standard “younger sibling is better at The Thing than the older sibling and would rip the rug out from under them if they could” in the main storyline and then flipped that on its head in Fuyuhiko’s FTEs (specifically that said attempted rug ripping already happened and Natsumi was the one who shut it down). When DR3 gave us some more tidbits of her backstory and character I got really interested in a) how the two of them relate to each other, especially since we only see them talking to other people about each other, and b) how much outside pressures/expectations/validation affects them and their relationship. (eg, what would Fuyuhiko be like under a little less pressure, and what would Natsumi be like if she were the one in the spotlight?) I wanted to focus on Natsumi in particular because I think there’s potential for a really rich character there that never got the chance to be explored.

The rest sort of snowballed from there!

2. What scene did you first put down?

It hasn’t gone up yet, actually! It’s the very last scene of chapter 4, which I wrote back in December before I had a plot to speak of, or really any sort of concrete concept. Not much of it has survived plotting and drafting and editing since then, but there’s a couple of sections left that have. I’d post a little snippet for y’all, but I’m having trouble finding one that’s interesting but not super spoilery, haha. I hope you like it when it goes up!

(I know I said this already, but ch 4 is legitimately going up very soon – I’m in final edits for it now!)

13. What music did you listen to, if any, to get in the mood for writing this story?

I don’t tend to listen to music much when I’m actually writing; it crosses wires in my brain enough to make it hard to focus, even when there aren’t any lyrics (an exception being a few albums by Lullatone, especially Computer Recital, which I highly recommend for focus music).

But! I actually do have a small playlist specifically for by the claw of dragon that I listen to when I’m out and about to help get the brainthoughts percolating. A few of those songs (sorry in advance for my taste):

Master Hunter by Laura Marling

Hey Brother by Avicii

Transcendental Youth by The Mountain Goats

Colors by Halsey

There are a handful of others, too, but they toe the line of spoilery, I think, so I’m gonna play it safe. If y’all are interested I might put a full playlist together once the whole fic is posted! (I’ve been adding to it as I go along.)

14. Is there anything you wanted readers to learn from reading this fic?

This is a tough one! Learn might be a strong word, but in terms of what I hope y’all get out of it: it’s very much a story about trust, family (blood related or otherwise), and self-worth – even when it takes those topics to some dark places.

#WHEW #this got so long #but it was really fun!!#thanks so much for asking!#i really really love talking about this sort of stuff #even if i don't think it makes as much sense outside of my head #memes #asks and answers #not a fic

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layacuviw · 4 years

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Discover more about crop photos with the photo editing software free download and new photo editing software for Computer to invert photos or edit an image software to color adjustments for experts. Simple rotate photos with a photo editing software for Windows 10 for amateurs to photo batch processing. Download the photo editing software for speedy and simple brighten images. Whenever the perspective line in an image is certainly not degree, one of my personal scratch inconveniences in photography is. Sometimes whenever we are actually captured up in the second, this fundamental policy is forgotten yet the bright side is such editing your photos with the photo editing software for Windows 10 to make them grade is also very manageable. Leveling the electronic camera within the corner of the pier meant that the picture was not level that is particularly noticeable to the eye anytime the image has actually a clearly identified horizon line, just like the ocean. This leveling method becomes part of the crop technique, as well as you can just turn the pic to suit. The grid will certainly appear to aid you obtain the positioning right while you make use of the photo editing software for Windows 10. Regularize a photo is an actually basic task that will certainly take just a number of ticking, leading to a lot more visually wowing pic. In some cases if we make a photograph, parts of the image could wind up being gloomier than we really want. I describe the shady parts of the image as darkness, and also the intense parts of the photo as highlights. Compare has to do with highlighting the contrast between the light fixture and dark components of the photo. Raising the contrast of an image can considerably boost the visual influence in which had, by creating the boundaries between these dark as well as light components more clear. Coloring modification is yet another significant item related to the photo editing software for Windows 10. We can change image shade in all kind of methods, starting with altering the entire character of the photo like exactly how red or green it looks, to independently transforming the color and saturation of specific colors contents of a photo. We only wish to cover a few really simple color scheme changes you can easily make use of to help to make your photography simply just a bit much more aesthetically impressive. The quickest way in order to change the coloring related to an image is actually using the saturation device from the photo editing software. That changes the appeal of any color scheme in a photograph to help make it essentially saturated. Just like many edits, the solution is actually to locate an effective equilibrium excessive shading the photos often tends to seem rather unnatural. Color images can easily be really effective, as well as naturally white as well as black is an amazing option for almost all type of situations, in specific, snapshots, as well as specific garden pictures.

Soften a picture or photos gradation is very easy with the photo editing software for Windows 10 or editing photo software free download

As we was searching the web for a basic photo editing software for Windows 10, all over sudden we tripped over this very good tool

Photo editing software for Windows 10 for experts to convenient cut pictures or functional write text in photos. Read more about Photo editing software for Windows 10 download for experienced or software photo editor to scale a photo and write texts in a photo. Download for free this photo editing software for fast and easy flip pictures. Sometimes there may be something in a picture that you really do not really want to exist, just like a troublesome furuncle on someone else's forehead. That is simple to get rid of in all of the leading photo editing software for Windows 10. It is generally very easy to remove any kind of things out of an image yet the photo editing software functions best on distinctive, small things that are covered by uniform color tones. This is since the recover device has to replace the location you wish to remove with something else, and also this functions ideal when it has an area nearby that looks similar. So for instance, a red point on a face is bordered by a whole lot of in a similar way colored skin, so the heal tool can conveniently calculate what to replace the dark point based on the bordering area. This is simply due to the fact that the photo editing software has to change out the spot you like to get rid of with something besides, and also this function finest whenever it gets a section close by that seems identical. Photo editing software for Windows 10 has actually ended up being extremely complex and also helpful and it is usually possible to adjust pictures and so they come to be totally different out of the initial. There certainly are definitely lots of photo editing software for Windows 10 and also wide ranges of ways of creating the exact same or similar final results. My intention very most for many photographs I publish process is normally to make all of them appear being natural as feasible. I strongly believe this is a superb position to start off, even if you want to go on as well as create more surreal looking images. Shade variety at a photograph is just one of the key concerns. You are able to typically see a wider range of shade than your electronic camera able to record. The significance of image modifying is the process of altering a picture, basically. However this is oversimplifying a subject that is extremely complicated. You can commonly execute basic picture modifying methods just like photos fisheye effect relatively quickly and also swiftly yet complex strategies and digital editing may call for photo editing software and also more know-how. Photo editing software for Windows 10 is a tool that you can use to adjust as well as increase photos. Due to the fact that photos contain an enhancing variety of uses, more firms are exploring methods to reutilize images and use them on multiple channels. More helpful hints about rotate pictures with the photo editing software free download and great photo editing software for experts to practical colorize photos or comfortable merging photos. Blur a picture made simple with the powerful unique photo editing software for Windows 10 for PC. Download free the photo editing software for Windows 10 for prompt and intelligent crop a photo.

#windows 10 photo editing software

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chey-dev-blog · 7 years

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GraviThomas – Log and Analysis

LOG: GraviThomas is a 2D platformer that Thomas Tobin, Michael Guattery, Dave Brown, Richard Baldock and I worked on over the course of a single week. The main Mechanics of the game involved platforming across stationary and vertical moving platforms. The moving platforms are controlled by the player when they decide to use their gravity powers, and will either go up or down, from their normal position, based on their density. We decided as a group that traversing the game world should feel like a solving a puzzle, so we’ve also added some basic lock and key mechanics, button and door mechanics and coin collecting mechanics to help add some challenge and guidance to the game.

Overall, with the exception of Michael who was diligently fine tuning the gravity mechanic, most of us worked pretty evenly on the game. Each of us picked up and completed whatever needed to be done next rather than being assigned roles which I found really efficient. I was responsible for a few of the smaller parts of the game. I created the lock and key mechanic, the coin collecting mechanic, the respawn on death, set up the UI, and helped design a decent portion of the total level.

I focused most on the intro of the level, assuring the player understood and absorbed the main concepts of the level right off the bat. The player is shown a green key in another section of the level and a green lock to their left. This assured the player knew they would have to collect the key, and that the level will circle back to the start. How to jump is pretty standard with the layout of the coins arching over a pit of spikes, indicating a hazard. And lastly the moving platforms and button/ door mechanic is introduced immediately after. The player would walk over the button opening the door, but immediately after stepping off, the door would close again. If the player held down click, the platform above them would come down with gravity and so long as it was in contact with the button, the door would open back up. Most of our issues came with the actual designing of the level and implementing the gravity mechanic efficiently. Sometimes we’d gate an area of the level too difficult, or downright impossible, to pass and it took a lot of tweaking and tuning to make the level progress smoothly. Analysis:

I think the game was a strong learning experience for us in group dynamics and taught us how to work well and efficiently with each other. Our group has a sense of creativity and most of us came up with some really strong ideas when pitching games ideas to the rest of the group. The game itself has an interesting idea with a simple premise but I think it definitely wasn’t executed well enough to be carried on to something marketable. At least not yet. My biggest issues with the game is its lack of tuning in movement. Our character movement came attached to an animated 2D character that we downloaded from the Unity asset store, and we decided to work around its movement rather than edit it (we really liked the movement animation is why we kept it). However this, I feel at least, screwed over our game a little. The game is meant to be faster paced and make you think on your feet, however our characters premade movement was slow and clunky feeling. Our platform gravity was also an issue for me, as they accelerated quickly and applied way too much force on each other which often made the platforms bug out for a bit before returning to their normal positions. I think steady-velocity translations would be more efficient for timing and movement than the current gravity we have, but apparently this was too difficult to work around given unity’s built-in physics and its issues with colliders. Given a week though, I think we did REALLY solid! We made a full level of a platformer in a week, introduced our mechanics well, challenged the player as they progressed through and we had fun doing it. I think if we can apply Nintendo’s teach, test, challenge and flip philosophy to brand new mechanics and further levels, then this game could be really workable.

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dipulb3 · 3 years

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2021 Mini Countryman Oxford Edition is an OK value, but at what cost?

New Post has been published on https://appradab.com/2021-mini-countryman-oxford-edition-is-an-ok-value-but-at-what-cost-4/

2021 Mini Countryman Oxford Edition is an OK value, but at what cost?

You’ll never confuse this car for anything else, except another Mini, maybe.

Andrew Krok/Roadshow

Mini’s Oxford trims are meant to provide great value for new car shoppers without breaking the bank. New for 2021, the Mini Countryman Oxford Edition wraps those efforts in a compact SUV shell, giving buyers extra space without a significant footprint. Trouble is, when you strip away the fripperies that Mini shoehorns into its more expensive models and start comparing it to the competition, what remains doesn’t exactly feel like a great value.

Unique aesthetics

Decently roomy

Don’t Like

Incorrigible nickel and diming

Asthmatic inline-3

Uncomfortable ride

2021 Mini Countryman Oxford Edition has a fresh, friendly face

See all photos

Parent company BMW’s determination to squeeze every milliliter of blood from the stones that are its customers’ wallets extends to the Mini brand, as seen in this Countryman’s in-car tech. As a young, strapping new-car buyer, perhaps you’ve heard of these little things called Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Perhaps you’ve noticed that they’re now standard equipment in a staggering number of new cars across the socioeconomic spectrum. While the Oxford Edition does offer an 8.8-inch touchscreen display that’s larger than the standard 6.5-inch getup, you can’t get it with Apple CarPlay, Android Auto or navigation. It’ll still play music from your app of choice via USB or Bluetooth, but if you’re driving somewhere unfamiliar, you’re stuck trying to stare at a tiny Google Maps screen down in the cup holder. Considering you get CarPlay standard in a Chevrolet Spark, Mini’s decision to lock value-seeking buyers out of a generally vital technological inclusion is, frankly, stupid and pointless; sure, it’s available on other trims, which makes the omission here feel entirely unnecessary. The massive, LED-bedecked circular bezel around the screen makes it hard to press the tiny icons along the touchscreen’s edges, but generally, this Mini-skinned iteration of BMW’s iDrive software is fine.

The Mini’s interior hasn’t changed too much over the years.

Andrew Krok/Roadshow

Mini’s little three-cylinder engine may be fine in purely urban environments, but once the roads open up, it’s hard for this little guy to maintain pace.

Andrew Krok/Roadshow

I could forgive a lot of this if the 2021 Countryman Oxford actually presented a solid value, but the brand’s premium underpinnings bleed into the price, too. Including $850 in destination charges, my all-wheel-drive tester rings in at $29,350, which I feel is about $4,000 too high given what you can’t get. Yes, there is some value inherent in some of the standard equipment, which includes automatic climate control, heated front seats and the larger touchscreen, but when you line this wannabe-premium offering up against mass-market subcompact competitors like the Hyundai Kona or Mazda CX-30, it’s hard to recommend the Mini when its rivals offer so much more. Slightly more expensive base-trim variants of the Mercedes-Benz GLA-Class and Volvo XC40 feel far more fully baked, too, even if the window sticker asks a bit more from your paycheck.

That’s the trouble with the 2021 Mini Countryman. Even in its more-affordable Oxford Edition trim, trying to stand out from the crowd isn’t enough to outweigh an unmotivated powertrain and strange feature packaging that includes some very notable omissions. When you take the competition into account, this Mini’s premium luster fades quickly.

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