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hopefulstarfire · 1 year

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Have a lil drabble about Kat and Ryous friendship as requested by @kira-quartz

"Thank you for coming over to help with these."

Kat looked up from the figurine she was working on, offering up a smile to her best friend. "It's no problem, Ryou!" She assured him. "I'm happy to help, and, besides, this is actually a lot of fun anyways."

The first session of the newest campaign he was going to be DMing was coming in less than a week. They'd gotten their usual little crew back together for it and Ryou had wanted to go all put with this one. Rather than use base miniatures he kept tucked away, he'd ordered custom models to be based around the designs the others had given him of their characters.

Technically speaking now, she had a sneak peak at her own characters soon to be made party, but Ryou would not budge on giving her any details -- names, classes, who of their friends was playing them, etc -- as it would "spoil the element of surprise". He also refused to tell her which ones were actually npcs or party members as well.

She hummed, attention flickering back to the figurine in her hand. It was a fairy with a flowing dress and bands around her arms, butterfly wings and she was supposed to have opalescent eyes, pink hair and a Fae characteristic of having a glittering mist around her.

"It's fun figuring out who they might belong to," she said, bringing her brush back to the hair. Max had taught her the proper way to color and paint in the lines and give depth to shading; she did great with coloring books and the likes, but actually drawing was a talent not even he could bestow upon her. "Though, I think this one's obvious."

Ryou gave a wry grin, looking up from the gnoll he was currently doing the detailing on. "I don't know; it could very well be Tristans."

Kat snorted in laughter, holding it up a bit higher. "I need you to look me in the eye and tell me you've ever even heard Tristan use the word opalescent to describe anything."

He bristled a bit, but there still remained a small smile. "He would, given the right circumstance!"

"Oh, I'm not doubting the capability; I'm doubting the notion he'd say it to begin with," she teased. She re-situated the figure a bit better, finishing off the first coat of her hair. "Besides, getting glittering mist instead also seems more Mihos style. That gnoll you're holding looks more like Tristans speed."

Ryou gave a slight shrug, though he himself had the answers; she'd been right on the fairy, but the gnoll had actually belonged to Tomoya instead. Tristan had chosen a human with an Artificer class, with it being his second attempt at DND and his first time playing an actual campaign versus a one shot.

"I guess you'll just have to see," he mused, shifting his focus to the miniatures clothes. "I will say, though, your little Harengon is certainly going to be in an interesting group."

Kat shifted, nodding over to the painted figure of her little rabbit rogue. "I think she's gonna at least be fun to play." She was honestly more surprised he had yet to comment on the obvious inspirations from My Melody and Funny Bunny on the character. She had worked hard to put references galore in her new player character and she wondered how long it would take the rest of their friends to piece it together.

It took a little bit more time before she finished the fairy, setting it down to dry. Kat moved towards the rest of the unfinished minis, foot tapping as she weighed her decisions. She picked up what looked to be a guard of some sort to do, one that was set right next to a stack of books with the DMs manual resting on the very top.

"Maybe some time you can help me figure out how to be a DM?" She offered up, finger tracing the spine of the book. "Then you get a chance to play rather than have to oversee the whole story."

Ryou brightened, sitting up a bit straight, hands fumbling with the figure he almost dropped. He hadn't had much real experience being a player; most of the times, he was the master of the game, concocting the story and pushing players forward to the best of his ability. Perhaps it'd be nice to be on the other side. "I think I'd quite enjoy playing a campaign you got to create," he beamed. "Besides, it'll help me get a better understanding of what it's like on your guys side so I can better equip you in my own campaigns!"

Kat laughed, happily. "That would be really awesome to have, not gonna lie."

Before the white haired boy could further speak, the Ring around his neck began to glow, the points jutting out in different positions.

Landlord. I want in. I want to play a game hosted by my girlfriend. Immediately. Forget your campaign.

He bit his lip. The Spirit of his Ring had been working on being...nicer, to an extent. Kat usually kept him under control, made him apologize for some of his past behaviors, but, it hadn't been enough to wash away all the years of hurt fully.

Though, he had been making improvements; he wouldn't even steal to provide for her anymore, going to find ways to earn an "allowance" from Ryou, rather than consistently grabbing things he thought were pretty but usually, more often than not, belonged more in a museum than around her neck. And he hadn't caused any bodily harm since Battle City. Mostly out of threat from Kat.

His hand weaved around the Ring, and he gave an exasperated sigh. "Settle down; we're still doing mine first, you."

Kat cocked her head to the side, before her green eyes found the Item holding her boyfriend's soul and she moved closer, going to poke the eye on it. "We'll do a campaign later, you and me," she promised. "But, first, I want to play Ryous. And you have to keep from interfering. No pulling what you used to."

Now why would you all ever share those details to her? All I was doing was helping you and you paint me in a negative light. It's rude.

"Because you're a feral cat most of the time and we have to retrain you." Ryou told him with a tight lipped smile. His hand found the rope and he slid the Item off of him, setting it to the side. "Now, hush, I have other things to worry about."

Faintly, in the back of his mind, he could hear Bakura cursing him out bur for now he was more than happy to shift his focus back to where it was.

Kat picked her forgotten paint brush back up and refocused her own efforts. "It's just a thought, but, I have a slight idea for the campaign I want to run, but it's very magical girly."

"Now, that sounds like it'd be fun," Ryou beamed, moving to sit down next to his best friend. "And very you; the best campaign stories come from the most genuine places in its GMs heart, I think. It's why I always tackle mine from a place of what my own interests are."

She giggled. "Yeah, I kinda picked it up with all the occult references, the zombies, evil cultists--"

"All in good fun!"

"Yeah, and your idea of good fun is giving the rest of us the heebie jeebies!" Kat playfully shoved his arm, being sure to miss the spot where he'd been stabbed. He still had some nerve damage done there and she didn't want to risk anything.

Ryou laughed, good naturedly. "You're the only other person I've heard other than myself use that term, and you want to joke about Tristan not using opalescent?"

"Well, yeah, cause more people should use heebie jeebies," she mused, dipping the cleaned brush in a navy blue paint for the armor. "It's fun to say, it can be applied to a lot of more unnerving things--"

"It's very silly and very you. All along with your odd southern turn of phrases."

"Eh, I dunno, Ryou, I think the British ones are way weirder still."

He smiled, eyes closing as he tilted his head. "Mhm. I see. Well, whatever helps you sleep at night."

Kat hummed, glancing at her paint brush before getting a mischievous glint in her eyes. She turned, raising the brush and painted a navy stripe over his nose. "Rude."

He balked at her for a moment, before picking his brush back up and swiped a curved yellow line across her cheek. "Doubly rude on your end for that."

They stared at each other for a moment before the figurines were sat back down and their paint brushes were dipped back in the paint just as quickly before they went to use them to swipe at each other, laughing all the way through.

Kat never thought something like DND would bring people together; but, the moments that came with it were still some of her favorites with her best friend.

#yugioh #ygo #yugioh ocs #ygo ocs #kat mercer #ryou bakura #yami bakura #yugioh oc #ygo oc #my writing #drabbles #fic

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bellmo15-blog · 1 year

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If at this point you think dress up and cosplay is exclusive to just the human version of Mikaela, well your wrong! Here's Naga Mikaela dressed up as the cute digital mermaid girl from No Straight Roads! A Naga cosplaying as a mermaid. Fitting ain't it?

Original description: Let me tell you a little something about a certain game that not only came out last year but I actually played when it came out. Yeah, I know. Me actually playing a game the same year it’s released! I’m just ask shocked as you all are. It was, of course, No Straight Roads and it instantly became one of my favourite games I played in 2020. And keep in mind, I’m basing that list of games I first played in 2020, not games that exclusively came out during 2020. I still played a lot of games that came out in 2020 but only really four of them managed to make it on my list of top 10 favourite games I played that year, one of them should be really obvious to anyone who knows anything about me. Shantae and the Seven Sirens, Spider-Man Miles Morales, Animal Crossing New Horizons which was my favourite and this game.

There’s a lot of things about No Straight Roads that made it a favourite of mine from the gameplay to the style of everything, the amazing music and of course the characters. One of my favourites being the second boss you face in this game, Sayu. She is a virtual mermaid idol who in universe was created by accident among a group of high school students but eventually became her own thing, the kids who created her getting a partnership with NSR Records and just like that Sayu became a pop culture icon and is quite popular with a younger audience. She’s pretty much Hatsune Miku if she was a mermaid and even her boss fight is set in a computer-generated world and how her movements and voice is actually being done by the group of kids who created her. And well, there is actually a reason I wanted to commission something involving her recently. Because it’s #Mermay! You know, that time of year where most artists do something relating to the second best monster girl species? (First best is still Naga’s and Lamias.) In this case it’s a pic I commissioned gameboyred f Naga Mikaela doing her own little cosplay of the cute little virtual mermaid. There were actually two ways I could of had this done for me. The first was just having human Mikaela dress up in Sayu’s top with custom designed jeans modelled after Sayu’s mermaid tail. However I decided to go Naga Mikaela because well, I just thought it would be more interesting to see a Naga try to cosplay a Mermaid. Plus, she already has a lower half being her tail. Now some of you may question how Naga Mikaela even knows anything about Sayu or No Straight Roads enough to dress up as her when she lives in a secluded village away from humans who might be scared of the mere sight of a creature with the lower half of a snake. Well, despite the circumstances I can’t really say Mikaela’s people would be cut of from technology entirely. In fact, let’s use this chance to create some lore for this AU of Mikaela! To compromise for the fact that humans would be scared of Naga’s Mikaela would send a human from her harem into a human town with some money to buy some games for her and that’s how she ended up with No Straight Roads and this cosplay. Hey, I never said Naga Mikaela was SO drastically different from Human Mikaela. I mean she was that would just defeat the purpose of it being an AU. Don’t worry about if she starts singing like Sayu either. It’s only her eyes that are hypnotic, not her voice. Either way, hope you all like this pic. Artist is gameboyred: https://www.deviantart.com/gameboyred

#no straight roads #OC #Naga #Sayu #Cosplay

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outfitandtrend · 2 years

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[ad_1] Even more radical was the stuff Dior didn’t keep in the archive, like the cheap suits licensed and sold at American department stores under the brand “Christian Dior Monsieur.” “My touchpoint with Dior growing up,” Linnetz said, “was my grandpa’s licensed suits.” So Linnetz found examples on eBay, and he and Jones emblazoned the old CDM logo on inside-out blazers.Linnetz also wanted to figure out how the California characters that inspire ERL—the surfers, skaters, hippies, and jocks who populate the brand’s dramatic lookbooks, and his neighborhood—would fit into the ultra-luxe world of Dior. For one, they would wear hoodies, a garment never before seen on the Dior runways. “I would never put a hoodie on a runway, because for me that’s not Dior,” Jones told me before the show. But there it was: an achingly luxurious-looking gray hoodie with a wave of silver sequins roaring across the front. “It fits in,” Jones explained. “It’s a different way of telling the story.”A model walks Dior Men's Spring 2023 runway in Venice, California, May 19th, 2022.Courtesy of DiorThe hoodie is one of several pieces straight from Linnetz’s world that, in the hands of the Dior atelier, became the most luxurious versions of themselves. Fluffy shearling tote bags, a cannage-printed down jacket, and sequin-embellished ombré sweaters bring Linnetz’s slightly twisted take on American garments to a new dimension of luxury. “It was interesting to do a lot of the language I've already created,” Linnetz said. “Kim has such a bigger understanding of luxury and storytelling and the experience of people when they go shopping. So he was like, ‘Oh, I don't want to just do another color of something you already do. What's the Dior version? What can we do with our atelier that tells your story in a different, new way for a different customer?’”The hoodie, Linnetz noted with some glee, will cost $5,000, and a new Dior skate shoe based on an uber-’90s raver-skater silhouette—fat tongue, thick sole—Linnetz designed for ERL is going to be more expensive than the $2,200 Dior Air Jordans. How do you sell luxury skate-wear without coming off as corny? You enlist someone like Linnetz. “A lot of people try to tap into skate culture, because it's relevant. But this is actually just what I wear every day,” he said, gesturing at the enormous skate shoes on his feet and big gold chain dangling from his pocket. “They're just abstracted, luxurious versions of stuff that I already wear.” More importantly, said Linnetz, is what didn’t make the show: “I think we've had a successful project, because there's not one skateboard on the runway.”A model backstage at Dior Men's Spring 2023 runway show in Venice, California, May 19th, 2022.Courtesy of Luke Abby for DiorA model backstage at Dior Men's Spring 2023 runway show in Venice, California, May 19th, 2022.Courtesy of Luke Abby for DiorThough Linnetz has been very good at engineering viral red carpet moments (see: quilt-swaddled A$AP Rocky at the 2021 Met Gala or wedding dress-wearing Kid Cudi at the CFDA Awards) he actually built ERL very slowly and carefully. He shoots his lookbooks with the thought and attention of a cinema auteur, and he agonizes over creating what often looks like very simple, soulful American clothing. Before working with Dior, he had not yet collaborated with another brand. “He kind of reminds me of when I had my own label,” Jones told me. “He's super professional. He's super organized. He knows what he wants. And he understands the balance of art and commerce. That's why I think he'll be really successful.” [ad_2] Source link

#FASHIONFORMEN

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goddess-pan · 3 years

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Tailor!Reader in Dream SMP

Dsmp x reader prompt; Tailor!Reader in Dream SMP. Credit would be appreciated so more people can find this and make their own things based on it.

Can fully be read as platonic. GN!reader with they/them pronounce as a placeholder so anyone can adapt it however they want. Both general and character specific parts included.

Characters who have a lot written for/about; Eret, Ranboo, Foolish, Tommy, Technoblade, Philza and Michael. Mentioned; Tubbo, Sam Nook, Purpled and Foolish Jr.

This ended up being super long so I’m putting it under the cut in order not to clutter people’s pages. My personal favourite part is Phil’s and Techno’s part. These could be read as headcanons but are still available as a prompt(s) to use for anyone.

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The reader joining after the doomsday as a time frame in my mind.

The reader helping people patch up their current clothes since most of it got pretty banged up during the doomsday, and it's not like they can just go get a new outfit since quite a few people had just lost all their belongings and only had the clothes on their back. So at first prioritizing helping patch up the current clothing people were wearing and then moving on to making some simple fast to make and easy on the resources clothes for people. Just like basic shirts and shorts/pants, nothing fancy. Then when everyone has at least a couple of different clothes to change to and from starting their own business to sell people more if they wanted. However waving payment if they brought them the materials and what they wanted wasn't overly complicated.

People at first thinking they are just some chump who knows basic sewing or something. A very kind chump, but still a chump. So imagine their surprise when one day they are just walking by the reader's now established tailors and they see these absolutely stunning designs displayed at the windows.

Just like their reactions seeing these beautiful designs they can't help but stare at. I'd imagine some of them just doing a double take when they walk by, someone pressing their face up to the glass trying to see it closer, the braver ones going inside and talking to the reader about their designs and the more anxious and/or shy ones only going inside when the reader isn't there to look at designs closer.

And the reasons they like/are amazed by the designs vary also ! Some just have monkey brain that goes "Pretty. WANT", some who just love the colour and art of the pieces, some who imagine how epic this design or others would look on them, some who love the fashion aspect of it and of course the very small portion who actually know anything about tailoring/sewing and the amount of work that goes into making something intricate.

Some specific character/group interactions I thought of;

Making warm well insulated clothes for people moving to Snowchester so they don't freeze. +A warm cape for Ranboo for the same reason.

Eret being one of the firsts (if not the first) to get himself a fully tailored and customized outfit. Them also being the first and very possibly only person to get a dress or a skirt since most of the other people on the server prefer to wear pants (excluding maid dresses which people might get as joke). The reader crying in joy for getting to design something different for once. And hey if the reader ends up making a few extra ones that she didn't order, but decided to give her anyway it was all just some extra ones they had lying around, never mind the fact that the dresses/skirts are perfectly tailored for Eret and are her style. Just a coincidence, nothing suspicious there. Eret also models for the reader and once he even convinced them to hold a fashion show to showcase some of their work to the whole server. Of course he was the main model presenting the outfits.

At start of the reader beginning to display their designs at their shop Ranboo sees a really cool looking suit on display and his brain just goes "Want." He probably wouldn't be able to buy anything pre-made and be comfortable in it due to his physique. And him having just moved into the arctic and only starting to get settled in, he doesn't have comfortable enough funds for him to get something as expensive as a custom tailored suit AND have enough for any possible rent that he might be required to pay.

Eventually when he gets richer he starts considering getting one but the anxious side of him always ends up winning and he doesn't. However once he finally gets the courage to go commission the suit for himself he doesn't regret it at all. The reader did their best to not overwhelm him and to make it the best possible experience. Just imagining the absolute joy he would feel for having a properly fitting suit that's made just for him, not too short sleeves nor too wide torso and shoulders, just perfect. If he ends up ordering a couple more suits that's between him and the reader. He actually ends up probably being their most frequent and reliable customer.

And we should all know why that is, but let me clarify just in case; Michael.

The reader basically becoming Michael's personal stylist (/hj) . Not only does Ranboo buy a god awful amount of clothes for Michael, the reader also makes some free ones for him. The free ones are things the reader felt like designing since they absolutely adore Michael and the ones Ranboo pays for are commissioned by him. Michael absolutely has the biggest wardrobe in the whole server. The reader learning how to make plushies so Michael could have some more toys, this learning experience including learning to crochet and knit to see what he like best.

Using their newly acquired plush making skills, the reader starts their quest to make some plushies for others after seeing people stare at the plushies wistfully either while they were working on them or seeing Michael with the plushies. People who got them include the minors, their close friends and basically anyone they thought might benefit from them. Some of the ones they made (that I could think of);

Of course a bee for Tubbo, but also throwing in a little ram one as well

Ranboo gets a grass block plush/pillow

Tommy gets a cobblestone block plush and a cow plush. He also later receives a Sam Nook plush while he's working on the hotel

Purpled getting two different sized ufos, one to hold and the other more of a big pillow

Eret definitely gets a flamingo plush

Foolish gets a totem and a gold block plushies

Phil gets crow plush as well these tiny fake coin and gem plushies (the latter causes problems for him which I'll expand upon later)

Techno gets a pig one as well as polar bear one

Back to the individual/group part

The reader just chilling w/ Foolish as a fellow artists. Them talking about both their arts and catching up every time the reader comes to deliver something to Snowchester when Foolish is building the mansion. Just two pretty peaceful artists talking about their passions. I’d imagine Foolish and the reader could relate to each other and their place in the server due to their similar hobbies/jobs as well as their similar time of joining the server. Foolish's first commission from them being an intricate blanket for Foolish Jr so he could have a more comfortable resting place. He may or may not end up receiving that and several other (though less intricate) blankets as well as a tiny shark plush to give to Foolish Jr. Later on when the reader gets better at either knitting or crocheting they end up making a tiny shark jumper with a hood for Foolish Jr as well. Foolish would definitely cry when he sees his tiny shark baby. Any commissions of clothes for himself tend to always take some time due to sheer amount of work needing to be done due to his size so he always makes sure the reader doesn’t already have a lot on their plate and that they know he’s fine with waiting if they need to take a break from it.

Then there's Tommy, who they sometimes teach more about sewing since he already knows some basics. Him probably being the first person aside from Michael they make a plush for, due to him demanding one once he saw the reader making them. Then proceeding to get three plushies in rapid succession. The first being the cobblestone, the second being the cow and the third one being the Sam Nook one. He ends up losing one of them during the prison fiasco and when the reader asks if he'd like a new one they only get the answer of "Don't want to think about what happened and the same one might make me do that". He then promptly receives new clothing (so he isn't wearing the same ones he was wearing in prison) and some extra blankets (for comfort) from the reader.

After Tommy meeting Michael does he use him to scam the reader to make them matching outfits for free? Yes, yes he does. Does it work? Yes, yes it does. Are they bothered by it? Not really, they look adorable in their matching outfits.

The reader being the source for Sam Nook's construction gear/clothes or at least the original patterns for them.

And then there's the arctic boys (minus Ranboo, who will still get mentioned) who are an interesting bunch clothing wise. The first one to commission the reader out of them would be Phil who got the original warm cape for Ranboo but also at the same time commissioned one for himself that would include slits for his wings. Eventually getting to design clothing for him which is always an exciting challenge with his wings. And when Phil finally manages to convince Techno to get something made for himself as well, Techno almost immediately gets addicted to having high quality clothing when they finish their first piece for him. The fun the reader has designing clothes for these boys is immeasurable with their different styles and needs in the clothing. Aside from clothing Techno also commissions them for a pet bed for Steve.

When the boys got their plushies it was adorable but also a very chaotic. Techno giving his pig one to Steve so he wouldn't miss him when he was away from home, but also bringing the polar bear one with him when he couldn't or wasn't allowed to bring Steve with him but still needed comfort. While on Phil's side of things; he was showing his crows the crow plushie joking about he'll replace them if they aren't careful however he made the mistake of showing them the tiny coin and gem plushies as well. I want you to imagine hundreds of crows descending upon this poor fool of a man in the background while the reader is walking away hoping they like their plushies.

The war that ensued the couple following days amongst the crows starts to cool down but the bickering doesn't, every waking moment Phil can feel eyes on him and one or more of the crows coming to complain about the others having had the shiny plushies for too long. He quickly caves under the pressure and commissions more of the tiny shiny treasure plushies. And by more I mean a lot more.

When he finally has enough of the things he goes around distributing them to the crows. Finally a moment of peace, but he still feels like something is staring at him occasionally. Deciding to ignore it since it's finally quiet he goes to makes himself a cup of tea and while waiting for the water to boil he fishes out the few shiny plushies he had saved for himself. The second he does he feels eyes burning into him and now that it's quiet he hears it, quiet muffled snuffles and snorts of discontent. Then he sees what ‘it’ is, it's Techno behind the window looking at the shinies in his hand with such intensity Phil fears for his life (/hj). Phil just sighs deeply before walking over to the window and opening it. For a second Techno looks like a deer in headlights before returning to intensely staring at the shinies in Phil's hand before Phil just dumps the shiny plushies into Techno's hand and closes the window. Happy piglin noises can be heard outside while Phil debates the pros (getting to have shinies himself) and cons (the embarrassment of having to commission even more of the shiny plushies than he already has) of getting new ones from the reader. And in all this the reader has no idea the amount of chaos they inadvertently caused.

And finally; Techno commissioning robes/cloaks for whole the Syndicate to wear in their meetings, because he’s dramatic like that. But since he’s a thoughtful guy, he wants them all to fit the members well and not be uncomfortable to wear so he gets everyone’s measurements. Once he has them all he goes to the reader with the order for the robes, he has all the measurements written down under just Person 1, Person 2 etc. to keep their anonymity and when asked what the robes are for he just tells the reader it’s a book club. When he gets them all and the reader asks no further questions he thinks he’s gotten away with getting some cool robes for the Syndicate with their secrets safe. Little does he know the reader actually now knows all the members in the Syndicate since they can just reference the gotten measurements with everyone’s measurements written down from previous work done by them. Whether the reader thinks it’s some weird cult they all are a part of or just an actual book club people are too embarrassed to admit they are in, is up to interpretation.

#dsmp x reader #dsmp fanfic #dream smp x reader #mcyt x reader #mcyt fanfiction #Pans Writing Prompts #C: Technoblade #C: Ranboo #C: Philza #C: FoolishG #C: Eret #C: TommyInnit #C: Michael_Beloved

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the-iron-orchid · 3 years

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A Grand Tour of the Julian 3D Model, Part 3: Put That Thing Away

(Part 1)

(Part 2)

OK, so we have a reasonable facsimile of a Julian. He has all the body hair you could ever ask for, and fully-featured junk. Now what?

We remove half of that stuff so we can put some clothes on him. 😂 I gave him all the features necessary for spicy renders, but these things get in the way when we want to dress him up! The hairs will poke right through his clothing, and can also cause cloth draping simulations to explode.

Here's Julian in the DAZ3D Viewport, staring stoically into the distance, ready to be dressed up:

The first thing I have to do is remove his junk, because the clothing would just ignore it and his happy dingledonger would clip right through his pants. Hilarious, but not the effect we want. Same for his painstakingly-crafted bush, so away they go!

Warning: weird Ken-doll-like nudity under the cut...

L E G G I E S

Fun fact: the Viewport is actually a type of render - any time you are seeing a 3D model in space, you are seeing a render. The viewport uses an engine called OpenGL that is much faster but much lower quality, so you can see the changes you make in realtime. When I’m ready to test lighting or other things that only appear in a full render, I will switch my viewport to use the Iray engine, which is much much slower but simulates the effects of light in the real world. You may have heard of PBR, or physically-based rendering; that’s exactly what Iray is.

Now we’re going to stuff Julian into something like this outfit, using assets that I already have in my library that are similar:

As you can see, it’s not quite the same, but there are some things I can do to get it closer. The textures look very different in an Iray render, as you can see here:

You can also see all the problems - the clothing is somehow both poofy and clinging to him like a coat of paint, the textures are OK but lacking in detail, and the vest is doing some weird things around his armpit. Nothing works perfectly right out of the box, especially with a custom character!

(Those little green-blue-red marks are rigid follow nodes; they tell rigid objects like the buttons where they should go when I pose or shape the model. It lets them follow the garment without the geometry stretching, warping, or doing anything weird.)

This kind of 3D clothing is called conforming clothing. It conforms to your model. It changes size and shape to fit your model (sometimes a little too much), and it has rigging so that it can move along with posing. When you stack this kind of clothing, it takes the shape of the mesh you choose to collide it with, usually the item right underneath it. So the shirt has the shape of Julian’s torso, and the vest is following on top of that shape. This is why it looks so exaggerated and puffed out. (A lot of clothing also looks puffed because they’re trying to keep the model underneath from poking through, which is a subject all its own...)

But I want this shirt to do something different - I want it to be dynamic. I want it to drape over his body like real cloth. Depending on how an item was made, it can be very easy to do this, or you may as well remake the thing from scratch. Making it dynamic will be a topic in the next installment!

For now, I just want to make some changes to the overall shape of the shirt: I want the sleeves to poof out over the cuff. To do this, I use the GoZ plugin to send the entire model and its wearables to Zbrush:

A quick detour: the model looks faceted in Zbrush because models have multiple resolutions. When you subdivide or SubD a model, it smooths out... but each subdivision level quadruples the number of polygons! For the work we’re doing here, it’s best to work at the lowest level of resolution, or base resolution. It will propagate to the higher SubD levels just fine.

Also, this is the mesh without any smoothing or helper morphs the artist may have put into the product, so it’s much more shrink-wrapped to the figure.

OK, so I have hidden the vest, buttons, and half his body polygons to make things easier to work with, and poofed out his sleeves. This is a shaping morph I can send back to DAZ3D.

Side note: you can move vertices and stretch polygons as much as you want, but you cannot add or subtract even one vertex. If you do, it’s now considered an entirely different mesh, and DAZ3D will consider it an all-new static object with no rigging or helper morphs!

Here you can see that his cravat is FAKE! 😱 I hid the loose ends, and you can see that the geometry of the collar and the cravat is all one thing. There is also no opening in the front of the shirt! There’s just a crease to make it look like it opens. Sigh. But these don’t really matter for the purposes of this render.

More importantly, this mesh does not have enough polygons to drape very well at all; it will just sort of collapse slightly on top, like a deflating balloon. Not ideal.

So, here is my plan:

Move on to the posing and use DAZ3D’s internal dynamic cloth engine (Dforce) to roughly collide the poofy sleeves with other elements in the scene (his lap, a table, whatever it ends up being). It won’t be pretty, but it will give us a rough shape to work with.

Once posing is finalized, I bring him back into Zbrush - there’s no turning back from the next step, so the pose has to be final!

Subdivide the shirt mesh 2-3 times to get a lot more polygons. Like thousands more.

Use Zbrush’s own cloth-simulating tools to refine the draping (they’re an entirely different beast - powerful, but can be very tricky).

Reimport the shirt mesh to DAZ3D as a static mesh (.obj file). I will not be able to re-pose the mesh after this, the rigging will be totally lost. But I will be able to send it back and forth into Zbrush for further refinement if needed.

(Onward to Part 4)

#a tour of the julian 3D model #my art #daz3d #julian devorak

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dndeed · 3 years

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Crit Role Miniature Rollout: C2E140

With Andrew Harshman

An archive and review of the minis used on CR.

A climactic battle for the ages! With a matching battle map for the ages! Quite the episode. I do believe the final scene really shows that D&D is the best game around.

Creating your own climactic battle map for the ages? Well you’ll need a mat! Proceed to matsbymars.com and use my code DNDEED0621 for 10% off your entire MBM order.

A resurrection intervention you say? How divine! It’s time for Crit Role Miniature Rollout Campaign 2 Episode 140!

The List

Mats by Mars custom “Cognouza” mat

Chest and Trove 5E Condition Rings

Dwarven Forge Cavern

Dwarven Forge Cavern Banks

Dwarven Forge City Builder System

Dwarven Forge Pathfinder Plaguestone - Alchemy Lab Accessories Arcane Power Core

Mantic Games Terrain Crate Orrery

Halaster’s Lab Summoning Circle

Heroscape wall ruins

Pegasus Hobby Gothic City

Deadly Foes Dressing: Cage

EnderToys Greek Ruined Buildings Bundle 3D Printed Terrain

EnderToys Battle Ruined Walls

Steamforged Mighty Nein Miniatures

Resin Printed Veth Model (not publicly available)

Eldritch Foundry Essek Painted by Iron Tusk Painting

HeroForge Jester Duplicity Miniature

D&D Spell Effects: Halaster’s Tumultuous Templates

D&D Spell Effects: Arcane Fury & Divine Might Mage Hand

D&D Spell Effects: Arcane Fury & Divine Might Arcane Gate

Arcknight Spell Effects

Axe N Shield Single Flyer Risers - Clear Mithril

Axe N Shield 3D Combat Risers – Deluxe Set – Clear Mithril

Lucien Stage 2

Custom Cognouza Terrain

Custom Eyes of Nine models

The Terrain

One of the largest CR battle maps and one of the few setup directly on the tabletop. Quite the sprawling and impressive encounter map. How ‘bout that Mats by Mars mat eh? An art piece of a gaming mat, frame that thing and put it on the wall!

There are a few 3D components I wanted to call out specifically, the background ruins are from EnderToys, the same company that makes the circular dome towers. The tall cathedral structures are by wargaming company Pegasus Hobby from their Gothic City set. Conveniently, these Gothic components are modular, which is ideal for hurling chunks of the building onto the party wizard.

Many of these Pegasus building parts have been customized with sculpted fleshy bits to Cognouza-mize them. All the custom Cognouza pieces on this map look really awesome and they blend seamlessly with the mat and buildings. Like the Eyes of Nine hivemind structure, this map is very cohesive. Impressively so.

The Villains

Eyes of Nine Custom models

Ya know, the Eyes of Nine are kinda cute when they’re not sprouting out of the newly ascended body of a formerly dead party member. Print quality looks good on the Eyes of Nine. Love to see quality minis for such a mechanically interesting encounter.

Lucien Lucien Stage 2

So this mini is spectacular, but uh, I’d also like to see a terrain set based on this architecture. What an awesome concept and implementation of a creature that is one with a location. The merging of Lucien’s body with the city structures is something to behold. Quite the model, very much befitting a godlike boss monster. Table presence and intimidation factor up the wazoo. It would be an honor for a player character to be instagibbed by this miniature’s multiattack.

Closing Thoughts and Predictions

Might have been nice to see a Lucien Stage 3, but maybe that would have been overboard? The number of Lucien and Eye models we did see was more that sufficient for a campaign ending final fight. A mighty impressive encounter.

See ya next sesh!

#critroleminiaturerollout

#critroleminiaturerollout #criticalroleminiaturerollout #cr #crspoilers #criticalrole #critrole #mightynein

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polkscastle · 3 years

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New Pokemon News-Drop Today (My Thoughts

Pokemon is back at it again with more info on the upcoming Gen 5 remakes, as well as, Arceus: Legends. These were my thoughts on what we were shown: - Unite, Cafe ReMix, Masters, and GO: There's not much I have to say about these updates on Pokemon's running titles, mostly because (besides Pokemon GO) I don't play any of these. Unite holds no interest for me, with the option to dress up your pokemon as the only reason I'm slightly tempted to look at it. I played the original Cafe Mix for a week: thought it was cute but, disliked the puzzle gameplay. And, I just never looked into Masters. Maybe if I find some friends who really, really love these titles and want me to play with them, I'll consider playing these. But for now, let's get into why I woke up early just to see these announcements live... ----- - Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl: YES! YES!! YYEEESSSS!!!! I am SO HAPPY!! Maybe the choice of visual design threw people off at first but, these look so good. The style remains perfectly cute and charming. Plus, they are indeed changing things up and adding new elements to the remakes. My biggest concern when I saw the first announcement for these games was that (especially with another company in charge of development) they would stick too close to the design of the originals. It may only a few little touches that we know of so far, but I'm excited to see if there's more to come. My thoughts on each individual element: - Your Pokemon Follow You: You heard here, folks. The Pokemon Company is once again giving us partner Pokemon that follow you around in the overworld. You'd think such a detail wouldn't be that important but, it really does add to the experience of a Pokemon game. Done well, it helps you see your own Pokemmon as living partners rather than pawns in combat - Ball Capsules and Stickers are Back: WooHoo! It honestly isn't a surprise to see them here, but I'm still happy to see these back again. I don't remember fiddling with the ball capsules too much as a kid playing the Gen 5 games, yet I was still sad to see them go in later games. I thought it was such a cool idea to be able to personally edit the entrance effects of your Pokemon. - Updated Contests: Contests were not a big interest to me when I was playing the originals as a kid. However, I was hoping that they would update them in these remakes. So far, I like what I see. The dance and battle showcase portions of the original games seem to have been merged into a new rhythm mini-game, which is fine by me. I do hope to see the dress up accessories come back into play, especially if these can be worn by your Pokemon outside of the contests. I don't know, I think it'd be fun ^^ - Trainer Styles: Not the full avatar customization of the later generations, but still a nice addition. Good on you, Pokemon - Expanded Underground: Now, this is interesting. I was excited to be able to travel the Sinnoh Underground again, and now they've made it even better. The Pokemon Hide-aways look like a fun addition. And, (from what I've seen so far) these could be another solution to the whole Fire-type issue that Sinnoh was so infamous for. In summation, I was already set to get Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, and these announcements only have me more stoked to see what they have in store. (Side note: My currant status on withholding myself from buying that new Switch Lite when I have a functioning Pokemon-themed Lite and am saving up for the full OLED model is... ...failing miserably. IT LOOKS SO COOL, YOU GUYS!!! T-T ) ----- - Legends Arceus: The perfect little cherry on top to this buffet of news. SWEET MERCY! This game is looking so GOOD! I want it so badly! Everything we saw in the initial announcement is so much more polished and breathtaking here. I can't wait for it to come out. And to put this out there, I love the addition of Action Order battle mechanics. I don't play many action rpg's but, I am excited to try this one out. The idea of using different styles really does seem to add a whole new layer of strategy to Pokemon's base battle mechanics, especially if I can set up combos without taking a hit in-between moves. Maybe if it does well, they'll try incorporating that into the main series games ^^. New Hisui Pokemon: - Wyrdeer: *Flashbacks to Princess Mononoke* Stantler may be a favorite of mine, but I do adore him getting more love and attention like. Wyrdeer just looks like a boss! - Basculegion: Again, not a favorite Pokemon of mine, actually something of a personal ire for me, now given a really boss looking evolution. But, that backstory ... O-O - Hisuian Braviary: Not much to say, he just looks cool - Hisuian Growlithe: *GAAASSSPPP!!* PUPPY!! LOOK AT THE PUPPER!! GIVE ME THE FIRE-ROCK PUPPER!! I'LL TAKE TWENTY!!! New Human Characters: - Prof Laventon: Don't know what to think of you just yet so, we'll just wait and see how things go down with you. - Captain Cyllene: (first reation: "Wait... that's a woman? Well, don't I have egg on my face right now ;P) That said, I am intrigued by this character. Her design reminds me heavily of Tilda Swinton (just saying). Though, with her being this game's parallel/possible ancestor for Cyrus, it seems a bit too obvious to make her the big bad of our adventure. Perhaps they'll do something more interesting with her story but, we'll have to wait and see - Commander Kamado: Oh, my... W-well, it seems we have our Prof. Rowan parrallel/possible ancestor. And he looks very tough, and s-strong, and commanding... ...and handsome, and... O///O ...w-w-will, you excuse me for a sec. ----- TL;DR - I may not care for the running events of the current present, but I am more than excited to see the treasures and legends of generations past

#pokemon #pokemon brilliant diamond #pokemon shining pearl #gen 4 remakes #pokemon legends arceus

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dwellordream · 3 years

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“If any character in English popular culture stands for the sheep, it is Griselda. Her chief detractor is, not surprisingly, the shrew. In Robert Snawsel's A Looking Glass for Married Folks, Eulalie preaches the Griselda gospel to Xanthippe and Margery, urging them to bear their husbands' blows and drunkenness with meek loving kindness. This is too much for Margery: "Are you a woman, and make them such dish-clouts and slaves to their husbands? Came you of a woman, that you should give them no prerogative, but make them altogether underlings?" Margery's scornful reference to slavery goes to the dark heart of the Griselda myth. Folklorists have argued about the ancestry of the famous tale for more than a century.

William Edwin Bettridge and Francis Lee Utley have made a strong case that Griselda owes her features to a folktale from medieval Smyrna called "the Patience of the Princess." A prince buys a poor girl from her father and lays a wager with her that she will not be able to submit to all his demands with utter composure. The prince shuts her in a tower alone and tests her for twenty years, repeatedly impregnating her and then taking away her newborn infants, telling her that he is going to kill them. She builds a mother doll out of clay to talk to and cry to but never loses her patience, and in this way she wins the bet.

The tale, which matches the European narrative more closely than any other yet found, throws into stark relief the specter of female sexual slavery that haunts Griselda's story. The most striking variance between them is that the girl from Smyrna is sold into involuntary servitude by her father, whereas Griselda has a choice and agrees to voluntary and total obedience. Passing into European culture, the story came to Boccaccio. In reworking it for the Decameron he reclothed it in local garb, fashioning his novella partly in terms of Italian wedding and dowry customs that were sharply weighted against brides and wives. Boccaccio thought Griselda's story significant enough to give it pride of place as the last tale on the book's final day of storytelling.

Petrarch read the novella and converted it to an exemplum in Latin for male scholars. Griselda entered English culture through Chaucer's "Clerk's Tale," which is largely based on Petrarch's version. Plays, ballads, and pamphlets on Griselda issued forth on the continent and in England throughout the early modern period, with a cluster of publications and performances in the mid- to late sixteenth century. Arguably the most radical change between versions occurred when Petrarch reworked Boccaccio. The Decameron's final tale is told by the satirist Dioneo, a crucial choice by Boccaccio. Refusing to let the happy ending stay happy, Dioneo spells out the political import of the story and caps it off with a horn joke against the marquis:

Everyone was very happy with the way everything had turned out ....Gualtieri was judged to be the wisest of men (although the tests to which he had subjected his wife were regarded as harsh and intolerable), and Griselda the wisest of them all ....What more can be said here, except that godlike spirits do sometimes rain down from heaven into poor homes, just as those more suited to governing pigs than to ruling over men make their appearances in royal palaces?

Who besides Griselda could have endured the severe and unheard-of trials that Gualtieri imposed upon her and remained with a not only tearless but happy face? It might have served Gualtieri right if he had run into the kind of woman who, once driven out of her home in nothing but a shift, would have allowed another man to shake her fur to the point of getting herself a nice-looking dress out of the affair.

Scholars often downplay Dioneo's bitter words about pig-tending and his final putdown of Gualtieri, attributing it to his cynicism; but their labors to match the tale's disturbing sadism with an uplifting exemplary meaning are less than persuasive. The passage is much more than a glib throwaway, as Edward Fechter points out: "the climax angrily repudiates theological allegory and exemplum." Certainly, it seems fitting that the last lines of the last tale in the Decameron should recapitulate the Boccaccian theme of cuckoldry as female revenge. Dioneo's parting shot about "the shaking of the fur" is also an invitation to his listeners and the book's readers to come up with better interpretations than do the silly sheeplike courtiers of the tale, who judge "Walter wise and Griselda the wisest of all."

Furthermore, it is a jest that asks for scornful laughter, especially from listeners who have grutched throughout the tale at Walter's arrogance, egotism, and sadism. Petrarch told Boccaccio that the story so fascinated him that he decided to spread the tale to scholars abroad. So "snatching up my pen, I attacked this story of yours." The angle of Petrarch's attack on the novella (which he termed "a little too free at times") becomes manifest at the cuckoldry-free conclusion of "A Fable of Wifely Obedience and Devotion," in which he erases Boccaccio's satire and his bawdy call for female revenge:

This story it has seemed good to me to weave anew, in another tongue, not so much that it might stir the matrons of our times to imitate the patience of this wife-who seems to me scarcely imitable-as that it might stir all those who read it to imitate the woman's steadfastness, at least; so that they may have the resolution to perform for God what this woman performed for her husband ...Therefore I would assuredly enter on the list of steadfast men the name of anyone who endured for his God, without a murmur, what this obscure peasant woman endured for her mortal husband.

Petrarch's straight-faced version has none of Dioneo's political satire or irony. He is writing in Latin to male scholars, not in vernacular Italian to women and men, as Boccaccio had done. Nonetheless, it is Petrarch that Chaucer credits by name in the vernacular, mixed-audience "Clerk's Tale," although he departs from Petrarch in crucial ways. The Clerk does follow his source in insisting that his moral applies not to wives but to all humankind: This storie is seyd, nat for that wyves sholde Folwen Grisilde as in humilytee, For it were inportable, though they wolde; But for every wight, in his degree, Should be constant in adversitee As was Grisilde .... (I 142-47)

Chaucer actually intensifies Petrarch's warning that wives should not try to imitate Griselda, calling her example "inportable," or unbearable. (The Merchant, whose turn comes next, blatantly ignores this caveat, complaining "Ther is a long and large difference I Bitwix Grisildis grete pacience I And my wyf the passyng crueltee.") Still, scholarly attempts to align Chaucer's Walter with God do not work because Walter is described as "tempting" his wife, a word almost always associated with sin and vice. In another departure from Petrarch, Chaucer's Clerk breaks in several times to condemn the marquis. After Walter first decides to try his wife, the Clerk interjects hotly what neded it Hir for to tempte, and alwey moore and moore, Thogh som men preyse it for a subtill wit? But as for me, I seye that yvele it sit T'assaye a wyf whan that it is no nede, And putten hire in angwysshe and in drede. (45?-62)

Chaucer's version subtly calls Grisildis's ovine quality into question. The lamb of God is Christ, of course, and Grisildis' meekness when her daughter is taken away resembles his suffering: "Grisildis moot al suffre and al consente, I And as a lambe she sitteth meke and stille" But "moot" she? Within English popular culture, sheep and lambs do sometimes stand for the positive values of resignation and endurance-for example, in emblems on patience. But there is no doubt that sheep generally connote passivity, cowardice, and stupidity. In terms of sheer frequency, the negative secular connotation overwhelms the positive religious one.

A related complicating effect is the criticism leveled at "the unsad" (that is, fickle and sheeplike) people of the realm, who at first deplore Walter's acts but change their minds when they see the pretty new queen (actually his daughter), leading "sadde folk" to exclaim: "0 stormy people! unsad and evere untrewe!" As the Clerk finishes his tale, he shows that he is fully aware that not all his listeners will appreciate Griselda's virtues. With teasing wit he acknowledges the Wife of Bath, who has been called the tale's motivating force and dialogic counterpart. Just before the comic envoy he promises "for the Wyves love of Bathe" to gladden her "and al hire secte" with a song urging them to ignore Grisildis and revel in shrewdam (rr69-74).

By shifting the Clerk's role from that of the preacher of a pious exemplum to a merry jester-singer, Chaucer undercuts his clerkly authority and blurs the moral legibility of his tale, already obscured by Griselda's lack of moral agency and her husband's viciousness. Nonetheless, Griselda quickly proved alluring to husbands, and she retained that allure despite proving highly problematic as a pattern for wives. Like the new husband in the jest about the pottage, men who wanted very much to promote Griselda as a model found her too hot to handle.

In the training manual he prepared for his young wife in the 1390s, the Menagier de Paris offers a confused and troubled account of why he wants her to learn about Griselda. He rushes to assure his wife that he'll never torment her "beyond reason" as the "foolish, arrogant" Walter does Griselda, nor does he expect such obedience: I have set down this story here only in order to instruct you, not to apply it directly to you, and not because I wish such obedience from you. I am in no way worthy of it. I am not a marquis, nor have I taken in you a shepherdess as my wife. Nor am I so foolish, arrogant, or immature in judgment as not to know that I may not properly assault or assay you thus, nor in any such fashion.

God keep me from testing you in this way or any other, under color of lies or dissimulations …I apologize if this story deals with too great cruelty-cruelty, in my view, beyond reason. Do not credit it as having really happened; but the story has it so, and I ought not to change it nor invent another, since someone wiser than I composed it and set it down. Because other people have seen it, I want you to see it too, so that you may be able to talk about everything just as they do.

What he really wants, it seems, is for his wife to be au courant. Griselda had "much currency off the page as a talking point in the late fourteenth century" and was "a subject about which wives might be expected to have an opinion." Codified as a way to get women talking (instead of shutting them up), the narrative about testing is itself a means of testing a woman's opinions and conduct. Is Griselda sick or stoic? Enslaved or free? Is hers a saint's tale, with Walter an abstract tool in the central mystery of her endurance, or is it as much a story about Walter and his court? Is he a cruel tyrant or a stern but loving husband with every right to test his wife? Is Walter God and Griselda a female Christ or Abraham or Job? All these positions have been argued during the six centuries of the debate.

Some recent readers still find Griselda admirable and even question whether she should be regarded as a passive victim. Harriet Hawkins has argued that Chaucer's tale should be read as a criticism of unquestioning obedience to authority, even divine authority, while Lars Engle hears "an implicit voice of sane moral protest" in Grisildis's mild objections to her husband. Such strained attempts at recuperation show that Griselda disturbs more than she edifies, raising but failing to answer questions about the limits of obedience in the face of tyranny and the conflict between Christian duty and wifely subjection.”

- Pamela Allen Brown, “Griselda the Fool.” in Better a Shrew than a Sheep: Women, Drama, and the Culture of Jest in Early Modern England

#pamela allen brown #renaissance #history #medieval #late middle ages #better a shrew than a sheep

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trashycosmos · 10 months

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i've determined i will probs never play minecraft again bc the sheer amount of content, while amazing, also is overwhelming to the highest degree but gameplay videos are highly enjoyable. also since finding creativerse it just hits better and terraria is like my happy (moddable) medium.

#plus since they introduced columns npcs block rotation AND painting i have been OBSESSED #like don't get me wrong Minecraft is a lot of fun but there's just SO MUCH #Terraria can be a bit overwhelming at times too especially bc i like it modded but even then i feel like there's less to it #maybe just a bit more emphasis on mob farming #ngl the devs hope to bring mods to creativerse but idk how plausible that is but is2g if they make it a reality i'll lose my shit #it's basically all that i feel is missing #the style/textures are wonderful and the variety of blocks/decor you can craft is unreal #plus being able to tame 99% of mobs is just???? chef's kiss #don't get me started on how they have wiring instead of redstone which means you don't need an acre to set up machines and TELEPORTERS #also similarly to Terraria you can transfer resources from one world to another??? you just have to unlock and craft the chest #there's also the fact that once you get the right npcs almost everything is renewable without having to terraform #one of them even multiplies the drops you get from tamed creatures #i would like to see more customization for the base character model but dressing my character like a witchy green chicken has been hilarious #in short all of them are amazing but creativerse just appeals to me most #oh! going back to the modding thing if they did introduce it i think with the right people the game could become a 3d terraria #which is a DREAM to me #though Terraria was on a whole other level with the bosses/random events #like the mechanical bosses stressed me the fuck out and wof when i was beginning #i don't think i even ever made it to plantera on my last long run roflmao or any of them tbh #blood moon and goblin invasion was always fun and good for money #hadn't quite figured out the stairs situation though so npcs could traverse up AND down but it's fine #Falling Apart And Coming Together

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anti-anti-a-la-bi-bi · 4 years

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Can you rant about pkmn sword? Rants are enjoyable to read

Alright, so it took me a bit to get my thoughts in line. Lets start with how I feel about the pricing: I am all for having 30 euro DLC over a third version for the full price, however, I do think that if they do that, as well as with the dex cut, they should quit with having there be two versions. Nowadays, with internet communication, it doesn't really do much for social interaction, it's just another hurdle for those of us who wish to complete the pokedex(and especially when they remove the GTS and make you pay for it later). It's still a scummy tactic, and no one will complain if there's just one version+DLC. It makes a big difference in the pricetag, since being forced to buy nintendo online, or two switches and two games to trade, are both mandatory payments to make in order to achieve one of the encouraged goals within the game. Furthermore, people within one family will likely be using the same cartridge, so if there is only one version, all in all, it'll make a huge difference for people who use a whole switch as a family as well. Also, I do not think that sword and shield are worth 60 euros. I think they're worth 30 at most, since the base game is worse than x and y/sun and moon. They also locked following pokemon behind a paywall, which is bullshit and yeah, fuck that. I think swsh are enjoyable, but not when they sell at the same price as games with way more content, games that look much better, and usually both combined. For what the switch can do, swsh look really bad, actually. There are a few pretty spots, but that's the exception, not the rule. To add on to things that I think are horrible; the raid battles, especially the more difficult ones, in single player. I don't have switch online, and as such, I need to do all raids alone. But, the raids are near-impossible in a lot of cases unless you get really lucky with the npcs and ai. I got two gmax Toxtricity by using wide guard with Zamazenta for over four hours until I finally got lucky for each. This is both to blame on the ai, and the horrible selection of pokemon. Pokemon that should have evolved at level 60, well, they are still in their first form, so you have magikarp and mudbray at a 5 star raid. At least have them evolved. They have good moves, yes, but their base stats are so low that it doesn't matter. Also, the shield mechanic. It is predetermined how much damage you can do, and if you land a supereffective hit, it's not unlikely for it to only do a sliver of damage and then the shield goes up. It's annoying, makes battles extremely difficult because a lot of npcs just won't attack while the shields are up, and it just becomes a waiting game if your pokemon is just there to act as support(such as my Zamazenta with wide guard to prevent Toxtricity from 2-hit ko-ing all my teammates). Also, the fact that even if you beat a gmax pokemon, there is still a chance not to catch them. It often takes ages to even defeat them, and then, 'Congratulations! You just wasted over half an hour of your life! Get fucked!'. I had this happen with Applin t w i c e. Also, the wild area is... It's okay, really. Nothing exceptional, my immersion is ruined by the sheer amount of pop-in, something that happens even when there aren't a lot of models on-screen, the Onyx in Motostoke being a rather infamous example. The trees look like shit, the berry trees look like they don't belong, to put it bluntly, it looks like something a student would make in unity. You'd expect something better from the highest grossing franchise in the world. The ai of the pokemon is often pretty bad, with them just moving in circles, I have seen so many synchronized pokemon at this point that it's just... Egh. Also, the customization options are still so limited? Can't choose eyeshape, can't choose clothes that actually make your character stand out, and you can't even choose your challenger uniform after you become the champion. Why does Leon get a special uniform? I have never seen a pokemon game so set on making you feel like a celebrity after you win, yet you don't get to have much of an identity in the game even after you win. It didn't have to be difficult, just a customization screen inside the dressing room of the Wyndon stadium, perhaps some extra clothing options? As for things I like: I like the atmosphere. The music, though sometimes repetitive, does help my immersion. The gym leader theme is dynamic, shifting with what happens in the battle, making me feel like I'm actually standing there, and the ambient themes work well as well, though those were rarely encountered at all. I love the characters, the trainer cards giving you some backstory on them, they are, together with the Unova leaders, the most present gym leaders today, with a history of their own. It felt amazing to just read the trainer cards(and I enjoyed making my own as well). The towns have their own themes, and while I can't remember the names, I do remember each location well. But. There was so much wasted potential. The castle in Hammerlocke? The large building in the east? Hammerlocke's castle: the vault, 1 room and a roof. The large building? Nothing. You don't even get to see the attraction inspired by the London Eye. Wyndon is so small??? It has a small shopping street, the stadium and the inn and that's about it. Castelia City was bigger than that. Overall, the game feels rushed. The gym challenges at the start were cool, but by the end it's more of "battle these trainers in a row haha". Also, the animations. Gamefreak claimed to need to remake all models(they did not, the 3ds models were used with better textures), and to make better animations(only for newer pokemon, most pokemon used their pokemon amie animations and further animations from the 3ds titles). The animations are still bad, especially for something as powerful as the switch. I enjoyed the lore behind the region, but I really, really dislike Dynamax. I like gigantamax because the pokemon usually changes in a way that is distinguishable, but regular dynamax... Nah. Give me mega evolution back, perhaps update its mechanics so it changes the gameplay more and requires more strategy, but Dynamax just feels like something that is so low-effort. Pokemon but beeg. The curry making, on the other hand, I love. Pokemon should not be a cooking game, but it made me feel like I was actually bonding with my pokemon, that they were present in the mc's daily life. I would love to see more additions like that, the possibility to become the kind of trainer you want. Enjoy swimming? Perhaps go for a swim with your pokemon? It doesn't need to be complex, but I'd just love to see my pokemon interact with each other and with my actual character more. The routes are too linear. The last route is literally a straight line with some trainers, with next to no effort in it. I also think that the handholding needs to be talked about. When you get to Motostoke and have signed up for the gym challenge, a staff member will lead you to the in, which is literally one screen to the left. Such examples are found all over the game, and I hate it. They do let you skip some tutorials, which is a welcome change, but characters are so willing to force you to stop with whatever you're doing and make you listen to their speeches that it still often feels like a slog, especially because you don't get to do shit besides gyms until the very, very end, in which the fucking champion tries to catch a legendary in a regular pokeball, not even a great or ultra ball. The lore is great, but the actual story is so nonsensical that I just didn't bother to pay attention. Hop literally recycles Hau's animations. I would love for him to have his own, so he'd feel more separate, because they ARE different characters, with different goals. But Hop is even more annoying than Hau because he just won't shut up. You walk 5 steps and he shows up somewhere, for no reason at all. Meanwhile, there's this big event going down, a crowd has gathered, you get there and... Leon has already resolved it. You just get a picture, that was what you wanted, right? That sums up most of the game 'the adults will deal with this!' . The picture doesn't even look good. Swsh is fond of just showing you pictures, for example, right before the climax when Rose and Leon are talking. There's no background music or anything, just pictures and the sound of the textbox. It feels so low-effort. Also, if you have a character that is a singer, and he uh, he sings, it MAY be a good idea to include VOICE ACTING. They had someone sing in Black and White 2! Surely they can do it on the fucking switch, several years later? The mouths flapping about just feels incredibly awkward. I would recommend the game if you can find it somewhere for cheap, not for the full price. There is enjoyment to be had, but it's subpar in comparison to other games for the same price. I may rant further depending on how much time I have.

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skepticalcatfrog · 4 years

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Stay Ahead and Stay Alive Chapter 1

First Chapter Next Chapter

Summary: When Bill Denbrough starts his third summer at Camp Half Blood, everything seems perfect. He's finally getting used to his cabin, he gets to see his friends again, and he's even getting the hang of fighting with a sword. But that perfection is quickly turned on its head when his little brother goes missing. Bill is determined to do whatever it takes to find him, even if that means he and his friends need to go to the Underworld.

Pairings: (Eventual) Reddie, Stenbrough, and Benverly

Word count: 3,254

Author's Notes: New series! This one isn't Sanders Sides, because I've recently gotten very into the It fandom, and I figured I'd try something new. For those of you who are currently reading Among The Stars, don't worry, that will still be continuing. Chapters might just be coming out a little slower than usual. Now, on to the important information! As some of you may have noticed, there's a new category under these notes. That's because this fic will be switching perspectives between the main characters from chapter to chapter. Enjoy!

POV: Bill Denbrough

I held my brother's hand tightly as we ran up Half Blood hill towards the camp boundaries. We weren't running from anything, just wanting to get to camp as fast as possible. I smiled when I saw the pine tree at the top of the hill, using my free hand to point towards it.

"N-not much further!" I glanced at my brother. "Think y-you can m-ma-make it?"

"Yup! You've got nothing to worry about!" Georgie said confidently, speeding up a little bit to prove his point. I just smiled a little wider.

We ran all the way up the hill and stopped only once we were sure we were past the boundaries, sitting down to try and catch our breath. We looked at each other then started laughing, for no reason in particular. I leaned back into the grass to get a better view of the sky. Georgie did the same. Everything was quiet for a moment, aside from the chatter from the other campers in the background. I just watched the clouds pass by. Then something (or someone, rather) blocked my view.

I smiled up at one of my best friends, Stanley Uris. He was the head counselor of the Athena cabin, and had been going to Camp Half Blood the longest out of all of us. Six years as of this summer, nearly twice as long as how many years I've been here. His eyes were a dark silver, like a sky full of storm clouds. He had brown hair, which was almost untamable due to how curly it was. If you got close enough, you'd notice freckles across his cheeks. Not that I'd ever gotten that close. He dressed like that kid in class who got straight A's every year, all button down shirts and khaki shorts. He offered me his hand and when I took it, he helped me stand up again.

"Hey, Bill. When did you get here?" He asked me, letting go of my hand quickly as soon as I was standing.

"Just now." I told him. Georgie stood up and was next to me again. "W-w-what about Richie and Eddie? Have y-you heard anything from th-them yet?"

"I have, yeah. Richie's only been here for four hours and he's already been to the infirmary twice. Eddie's taking care of him." Stan said. He gestured towards the infirmary. "It's nothing serious though, so he should be out again soon."

"Figures." I laughed. "S-s-sometimes it's li-like he does it on p-p-p-purpose."

As if on cue, Richie Tozier sauntered out of the infirmary, followed closely by a clearly frustrated Eddie Kaspbrak. Richie was a Hermes kid, which meant he was prone to getting into trouble. And more often than not, he would end up getting hurt. Then he would go to the infirmary, where he would be patched up and then scolded by Eddie. Eddie was an Apollo kid. He was probably one of the most qualified people in the infirmary, because he knew an unhealthy amount about diseases. He was like a tiny ball of anger and medical supplies. As they got closer to us, I could hear their conversation a little more clearly. But they didn't stop walking, so we just had to walk right alongside them.

"Arts and crafts? Are you kidding me? How do you get hurt in arts and crafts?" Eddie's nose scrunched up as he spoke.

"It's the beads, Eds. Their sharp edges will get you when you least expect it." Richie shrugged.

"The beads?! The beads are round, Richie. They have no sharp edges." Eddie's mouth was running a mile a minute, like a fast-forwarded recording. "The box says three and up. Are you over three? Because last time I checked, you were. But sometimes I can't tell based on how often you do stupid things. First it was the rock wall accident, now this. You do know that we don't have contests at the infirmary, right? You won't get a prize for being our most frequent customer."

"It was an accident!" Richie held his hands up in an 'I surrender' motion. Then he finally noticed me, Georgie and Stanley. "Hey, Stan the Man, answer me a question. Is it possible to cut yourself on a bead?"

"Maybe if it broke in half, then it might have a sharper edge. Otherwise, no, not possible. Especially not by accident." Stan shook his head.

"Aha! I was right." Eddie poked Richie on the shoulder. He suddenly remembered that there were other people there, and turned towards me and Georgie. "Oh, hi, by the way."

"Hey." I waved at him.

"Hi!" Georgie waved even more enthusiastically. He looked up to my friends for some reason, which was probably a mistake. Really the only good role model in our group was Stan.

"Speaking of our good friend Bill, what are your plans for this summer Mr. Son of Aphrodite?" Richie nudged me with his elbow. "Maybe finally asking Beverly out?"

Oh, right. Beverly Marsh. Beverly was the current Oracle of Delphi, plus the girl who I'd had a confusing relationship with since I first got to camp. Everyone thought we liked each other, and I guess it was kind of true, but there wasn't really anything there anymore.

"Since when do you like Beverly?" Stan asked, looking around at everything except for me.

"I-I-It's complicated." I sighed. "Long story sh-short, I'm p-p-probably not going to ask her out."

"Did you know that they kissed two years ago? There weren't many witnesses, but there were a few, so you can ask them if you don't believe me." Richie said, his voice just a little too loud for my liking.

"Oh m-my gods Richie c-c-could you please just be quiet?" I hissed, my charmspeak kicking in near the end. Some children of Aphrodite, including me, can use charmspeak. To put it simply, it's kind of like hypnosis. For example, when I said that, Richie finally decided to shut up.

"Speaking of Beverly…" Stan muttered.

There she was, waving at us from the mess hall. Her curly red hair had grown a bit since she'd cut it near the end of last summer, but her icy blue eyes were still the same. She also had freckles, and when I say freckles I mean a lot of them. She walked up to us, hands in her pockets.

"Hey, guys! I haven't seen you yet, when did you get here?" She asked.

"I've been here the whole time." Stan crossed his arms. He stayed at camp year-round, instead of leaving at the end of the summer like the rest of us. I never really knew why, but he always said it was because he knew he'd be safer there.

"Well obviously I know that, you do that every year. But I haven't seen any of them yet." Beverly gestured to the rest of us. "What have you guys been up to?"

"Me and Billie just got here. We ran from the car all the way up the hill, and it was so fun!" Georgie told her, practically jumping up and down from excitement. A small smile grew on my face and I nodded, confirming the story.

"Richie got here a few hours ago, but he's been too busy in the infirmary to do anything." Eddie scowled "He's already been there twice in the four hours he's been here, and I've had to take care of him. I thought that maybe this year he wouldn't get hurt as much, but I shouldn't have gotten my hopes up. Like seriously, how hard is it to just-"

"That's nice, Eddie." Beverly cut him off. The rest of us let out a sigh of relief, because we knew that if she hadn't done that, then Eddie could've gone on for hours. "I've got to get going, but hopefully I'll see you guys later!"

"Y-yeah, hopefully!" I waved as she walked away. Richie started clapping quietly.

"Bravo, encore!" He teased. "You're a true poet Bill, you really do have a way with words."

"Leave him alone, Rich. At least he tried." Stan's sharp gray eyes glared at Richie.

"Yeah, a-at least I t-tri-tried." I echoed. Sometimes I just didn't know what to say, but for some reason Stanley always seemed to be able to think of something. "Georgie and I still need to g-get settled in, so we'll b-b-be in our cabin if you n-need us."

"Okay. I actually have to go too, they'll probably need counselors to deal with new campers." Stan nodded.

"I'll go too then." Richie went to follow Stan.

"Richie, you're not a counselor. The whole camp would be in flames if you were a counselor. You can go with Eddie, I'm sure you'll be able to find something to do." Stan pointed to our blond friend, who was indignant.

"Nope, no, not a chance. I have important things that I need to do, and I don't need Richie to be there while I do them." Eddie protested.

"Too bad then, I guess." Richie wrapped his arm around Eddie's shoulders, which Eddie immediately pushed away. "Looks like we're stuck with each other, Eddie Spaghetti."

"Fine. But I really do have work to do, so don't be distracting." Eddie turned around and started walking away, Richie following him.

"Alright, well, just find me if you need anything. If we don't get a chance to talk then I'll see you tomorrow." Stan waved and went back to his cabin. Georgie and I went to ours as well.

The Aphrodite cabin was definitely intense, if you were looking for a way to describe it. The first thing you'd notice would be the smell of things like perfume, hairspray, and nail polish. It would hit you like a brick wall the second you walked through the door. Posters of various celebrities were all over the pink walls, and a circular rug sat in the center of the room. There was a row of beds on one wall, and another one on the opposite side of the room. Everything was very neat and orderly, except for a few stray love letters. They came to the Aphrodite cabin regularly, since most of my half siblings were the subjects of many crushes at camp. Multiple small chandeliers hung from the ceiling, being the only light source aside from the windows. Overall, it was never boring in cabin 10. There was always some sort of activity, and no matter what it was, it always caused excitement.

My brother and I put our bags down on our respective beds, and unpacked all of our stuff. Some other campers had gotten there earlier than we had, and were already settled in. By the time we had all of our stuff put away, we had to go to the mess hall for dinner. The tables were sorted by cabin, so I didn't get to sit next to any of my friends. The table for the Hermes cabin was always more crowded than anywhere else, because it held all the children of Hermes, as well as kids who didn't know who their godly parent was yet. I remember staying there for a while at the beginning of my first year at Camp Half Blood. It was where I'd met Richie. After dinner, we all sat around the campfire for a little while. We sang songs, talked, and told jokes until it was completely dark out. Georgie looked like he was about to fall asleep where he sat by the end of it. I couldn't blame him, the first day of camp was always tiring. We walked back to our cabin and got ready for bed.

It felt like forever before I started to fall asleep. I was tired, but for some reason I just couldn't sleep. I got there eventually, but then I was woken up by a tapping on my face. I opened my eyes, and what I saw was Georgie sitting next to my bed and tapping me on the forehead.

"Georgie, w-what are you s-s-still doing up?" I whispered. I didn't want to disturb anyone else.

"I'm not tired. I slept for a little while, but then I woke up, and now I'm not tired anymore." Georgie explained quietly, a small pout on his face.

"Well what do y-you want me to d-d-do about i-it?" I asked.

"Let's go on an adventure!" Even with the whispering, the excitement in his voice was clear.

"Georgie, you know we're n-not supposed to be out thi-this late." I shook my head.

"Since when do you care about the rules?" He asked. I couldn't deny that he was right, I'd snuck out even later than that many times. I hesitated.

"Fine." I reluctantly got out of bed. My brother grinned.

"Yes! I knew you'd do it!" He stood up.

I quickly got dressed and grabbed a flashlight from my bag. I looked out the window. The magical barrier around the camp kept bad weather out, but I could tell it was raining outside the border.

"Get your j-j-jacket." I told Georgie. We usually ended up wandering outside the boundaries of camp anyway, so I figured wearing our jackets would be a safe choice. "It c-could be cold in the ra-ain."

"Okay." He nodded, getting his raincoat.

We left once I had my jacket on. I put the hood up, because since it was a dark color, I would be less visible. Plus it would protect my head when we were in the rain. I didn't turn my flashlight on yet, either. I knew we were outside the barrier when I heard the pattering of the raindrops hitting the hood of my jacket. I flipped the switch on my flashlight and saw the beam of light spring forward, illuminating a path ahead of us.

"Well, we're h-here. What now?" I asked, glancing at my brother. He looked around and thought for a moment.

"Let's go… that way." He pointed towards a forest that had a dirt road cutting through the middle. He immediately started walking, and I had to walk a little faster just to keep up with him.

I slowly started to lose my nervousness about being in the woods that late. We weren't even supposed to be out of our cabins at night, let alone out of the camp completely. It was like a free meal for monsters. But I'd left camp so many times before that I barely thought about it.

"At least the t-tr-trees block most of the r-rain." I held out my hand and only felt a couple of raindrops hit it.

"But there are still puddles on the ground!" Georgie stepped in one of the puddles, then frowned and looked down at his feet. He didn't have rain boots on, only sneakers. "Oh… now my feet are all wet."

"D-d-do you want to g-go back to camp?" I reached out and took his hand. He had a tendency to run off when he saw something interesting, and I just didn't want to lose him.

"No, I'm fine." He shook his head, starting to walk again as if nothing had happened. "They'll get dry again in a little while."

"Okay, if you're sh-sure." I nodded.

Suddenly, a steep hill stood right in our path. It was so tall that we couldn't see what was on the other side. I let go of my brother's hand.

"I'm just going to ch-check and see i-i-if it's safe on the other s-side." I looked at Georgie, and my charmspeak kicked in. I knew he probably would've done whatever I said anyway, but I wasn't going to take any chances. "I n-need you to stay right here until I get back, okay?"

"Okay." He nodded. I started to walk away, and he stood completely still as I did.

I climbed up the side of the hill. It was steep, and the grass was slick with rain, so I had to hold on to trees to stop myself from slipping. It was even more difficult to climb down the other side. I didn't fall, but I did slide about half the way down. Once I regained my footing, I looked around for a moment. All that was on the other side of the hill was more forest, there didn't seem to be anything too bad. I was about to turn around and climb back up the hill… and that's when I heard it.

"BILLIE!" My brother cried out from the other side of the hill.

My eyes widened and I could feel my heart beating. I turned around and started running, but I didn't get very far up the hill before I fell forward and slid down again. I got back up and tried again, now covered in mud. I used the trees to brace myself as I dashed up the hill as fast as I could. I slipped again when I got to the top, and sliding down the other side felt almost like falling into Tartarus. At the bottom of the hill, I was met with my worst fear. A puddle of water, stained red. My brother was nowhere to be found.

My hand started to shake, and my grip tightened on the flashlight I was holding. I started to run, as fast as I could, back the way we'd come from. I didn't stop to think, I didn't stop to collect myself, I just ran. My hood flew off of my head, but I didn't care. When the camp was in my sights I sped up. The second I was past the border I stopped, looking around frantically. No one would be awake, I wasn't even supposed to be awake, so who could I go to? I could only think of one person who might be able to help me.

I opened the door to the Athena cabin as quietly as I could in my panicked state. When I saw Stanley, I knelt down next to his bed and put my hand on his shoulder. He was completely asleep. I shook him a little bit.

"Stan? Stanley?" I tried to be quiet, but it wasn't easy. "Stanley Uris I s-swear, if you don't w-wake up right n-n-now-"

"I know, you can't sleep, but that doesn't mean you have to-" Stanley muttered. He opened his eyes, but his eyelids were heavy from drowsiness. When he saw me, he seemed to wake up a little more. "Bill? Why are you here, you're supposed to be asleep. And why are you covered in mud?"

"I'll explain l-later, right now I just n-n-need your help." I told him, wiping the tears from my face.

"What's wrong, what happened?" Stan sat up, suddenly becoming much more alert.

"I-I-It's Georgie, he's m-m-m-m-m-" I could barely get the word out. Because saying it made it real, and I knew it couldn't be real.

"It's okay, just breathe." Stan was about to take my hand, but he hesitated, and decided against it. "Everything's going to be okay. Now, do you think you can tell me what happened?"

"Georgie… is m-missing. We w-were out in the w-w-woods, and I l-l-left him alone, and now..." I burst into tears, burying my face in my hands. "Shit, I left him a-a-alone!"

Stan seemed surprised at my sudden outburst. "Are you sure? Are you sure it wasn't just a bad dream?"

"Y-y-yes, of course I'm sure!" I looked up again and met his eyes. "And I n-need you to help me f-find him."

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c-atm · 4 years

Text

Fighting Flirty:

Character Select PT4 (Act3.2)

“Oh, Wanda. You're here."

Alex and Wanda turned to the hybrid, still in his incompleted Shinji Ikari cosplay. The upper armor in his right hand held over his shoulder like a backpack.

"Yes, I was able to finish my business; I am at your disposal." The wardrobe stylist tipped her witches hat as she bowed from her waist. She gave him a once over smirking. "Teenage angst looks good on you."

Alex scoffed out a laugh at the cheeky joke and the surprising look on Steven's face.

"You know you're the second one who said that today, or on the same lines of that anyway."He sighed a bit of a blush on his face. He turned to Alex spreading his arms out. "Well?"

Alex waved her hand. "I'm sorry, I hate that character. My answer's completely biased."

"I'm asking you though and if it's bias, I know it's not me but character. Not gonna get offended, promised."

Alex side-eyed Steven, her mouth left corner turned up slightly disbelieving his words. Last thing she wants to do is insult a customer in front of her boss, but she didn't want to disappoint said customer.

"'I've already been told I make depressing sexy, and teen angst look good. Don't think there's you could confuse me more with an underhand compliment."

"You wear uselessness well."

Steven only started at the quick and blunt reply, ignoring Wanda's giggling behind him.

"You know.." He chuckled. "I agree with you on him being useless."

"But you wear him well...Seriously, that costume fits you like a glove." Alex stated as she looked him over.

“Taking pride in your work, Alex?”

Alex gave her boss a grin. “Not my work, Boss. This is a labor of love,”She pressed her index to her lip turning the grin to Steven. “or should I say friendship?”

“I see..” Wanda jested. “Well, it makes sense to know what would look good on your partner.”

“Really? Isn’t it bad business to tease your customers?” The hybrid retorted with a half- hearted pout.

“Yeah, but who else’s gonna give you top of the line costumes like us.”Alex half smirked as she moved close to his ear “Isn't it bad practice to consummate in a public dressing room?”

Steven's face burned with embarrassment as he turned towards the receptionist. He took a look at Wanda who wore a knowing grin.

“It’s not like we have any written rules against such acts and you did rent out the studio, so you’re not bothering anyone.” The stylist assured patting his shoulder.”Just be mindful that our rooms aren’t sound proof and please respect the merchandise.”

He rubbed his eyes, sighing as he did. “It’s not what you think.I swear.” He lazily held his right hand as if he was being sworn in. “All I did was fulfill a promise.”

The two women looked at one another for a quick glance.

“We won’t pry.” They said simultaneously before Alex moved from him a small smile on her face.

“I appreciate that, really. Also I apologize if we caused you-”

“Save those for when you really offended this place.” Wanda interjected. “ I told you to have fun and it sounds like you are,so no harm no foul; as far as i’m concerned.”

“Yeah, ok.” Steven nodded, not pushing the issue further. “So with that out of the way,” with a smirk he held the armor up “can I get some assistance with this?”

“Ah, let me guess, thought it was a slip on, huh?” Alex joked as she took the ABS accessory and reached inside unclipping the latches in the right, opening it up not unlike a book revealing it’s black hollow inside. “There you go, slip it on to your shoulder and have Connie just close the latch to secure it..”

“Actually Connie’s freshening up, so maybe you can help, Alex? Also,” he turned to Wanda “you wouldn’t have those costumes ready, would you?”

Wanda scoffed at the question. “Of course I have them ready.” She grinned cockily. “What do you take me for, huh? That’s an insult, apologize.”

Alex slipped the armor up his left shoulder, shaking her head as she did. “You better Steven, Boss here does not take underestimation well.”

“Reminds me of a certain someone. “ Steven chuckled in response to Alex’s teasing. Holding his neck up and right arm out as Alex lined up the armor .“I’m sorry Ms. Wanda,I meant no insult.”

Wanad rolled her eyes at his overdramatic voice. “Yeah yeah,” she gave him a side smirk “ watch when I roll the costumes out and we get you ‘friend’ in hers. You’re really going to be singing my praises..” She folded her arms under her chest, her eyes burning in challenge.

“I can’t wait.” Steven said excitedly as Alex closed the latch, securing it on his chest.

“So, how ya feeling? Not too tight or anything?” Alex asked

Steven moved the top half of his torso getting a feel of the complete costume.” It’s not bad, it’s huggy..but not as bad as I thought it would be.”

“Go to the display stage, so you can see the whole picture.”

“Alex,” Wanda sighed “it's not a display stage.”

“Revolving stage with multiple full body mirrors along the perimeter of said stage, that sounds very ‘display’, Boss.” The younger girl argued.

“It kinda does.” Steven agreed.

“It's the main stage, and I won't accept any other name for it, understood?"

Her gentle smile didn't match her steel eyes, nonetheless the two nodded in agreement, if a bit out of fear. Regardless, Wanda nodded, pleased at her victory.

"Alex please go to the back and get those four special orders and bring them to their dressing rooms."

"Aye, aye capi'tan." Alex saluted playfully before leaving the two.

"So should we get you to the main stage?"

Steven shook his head. "Not yet, still gotta get a couple of outfits for me and my...compliment."

"Your compliment…" Wanda snickered. " Now that's an interesting pet name."

Steven shrugged before walking along the costume aisles, observing the costumes, pausing every few seconds.. "I guess...It's not like we're actually exclusive or even in an official relationship."

"Are you trying to change that?"

Steven didn't say anything as he lifted up a couple of costumes from a popular JRPG that they played a few years back.

"I'm not or at least not forcing the change."

"But you wouldn't mind if it changed?"

"Wouldn't matter much."

Wanda watched him as he continued his search. Watching as his eyes lingered on a particular piece.

It was a white leotard with an elegant detachable PVC fauld around the waist that reached the ankles. The upper bust, back and neck had a cross-stitch design, the shoulders were a bit puffed and resembled guards and the sleeves resembled long point gloves. It was accessorized with a PVC broadsword, a wildflower crown connected to a transparent veil, two garter leather belts, and a beautiful plastic bouquet.

"This is quite the wedding cosplay."

Wanda noticed the adoringly tone in his voice. "Why thank you, it's an original piece. Went for a knightly bride aesthetic."

"You nailed it very well, it looks like something a strong maiden would wear. Especially like the lion faced pellets on the fauld."

"If only I had a model, I could probably make it a bestseller."

Steven looked at the stylist from his left peripheral, her tone was suggestive.

"It's not like you weren't imagining her in it as well."

Steven sighed. "Maybe I was." He scratched the back of his head a slight blush. "Though, she wouldn't be comfortable being in the center of attention."

"She wouldn't be alone though. I do have a groom outfit to go with it."

Steven narrowed his sight at Wanda. "You planned this?"

"You gave me weeks in advance. I took my shot and made preparations." The stylist shrugged, a lofty smirk on her face. "You can say no..but I'm willing to remove the cost of your visit, if you two did model my creations."

Steven's eyebrows rose in consideration. "We'll still have to pay for the costumes though?"

"We gotta make some money, but If you model the bride and groom, they're yours."

"Sheesh, sounds like you made these for us."

Wanad turned her head away and raised her hand to halt him. "I admit, the measurements were altered to fit you two, but I had no certainty when it came to having you wear it.." She looked at him, her eyes far-reaching. "Not until I met you two in the park."

Steven watched her grin at him, her eyes both admirable and a bit amused.

"You two are quite taken with each other and you show your affection easily.”

“Never really gave notice to that,” Steven answered with a smile. “it’s become a natural form of communication for us.”

“Can I ask, how long have you known each other?”

“You’re quite curious.”

“Investigative.” Wanada corrected, seriously. “As a stylist, I feel knowing my subjects helps me dress them better.”

“Is that why you were so grabby on Connie?”

She chuckled at the slight bass in his voice. “Now mr. Universe, I assure you it really was just a routine check. No need to be jealous over your best friend.”The stylist grinned. “I would never get in between a couple of eternal honeymooners.”

Steven snickered.“Eternal honeymooners huh?.You should meet Ruby and Sapphire.” He sighed, scratching his head. “Seven years.”

“Preteen friends and you're still together.” Wanda crossed her arms impressed. “Most would’ve grown apart after the first few years.”

“Not many lived our adolescent or teenage years.” Steven retorted with a smile. “I’d wouldn't be who I am without her.”

“Hard childhood?”

“Yeah...Very much so. We’ve gone through things together. Things most people would have ran from.”

“She didn’t.”

Steven laughedt. “Nope, she decided to face it all with me, my little berry knight. Help carried my burdens, protected me from danger, guided me when I was lost, saved my life multiple times.”

Wanda could only watch as his smile grew. “She’s really amazing, huh?”

Steven nodded. “I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t have her, and that is not flowery talk.”

"You love her, don't you."

"Not exactly hiding the fact, now am I?"

Wanda eyes widen at the conviction in his voice. “I believe you…Though it's hard to think of you two as 'just' best-friends. Not after all that."

Steven shrugged, looking smug. "You're not the first who said that, but that's the base of our relationship."

"Meaning you're something else."

"Of course." Steven stated with a snicker, before he took the bride and tossed it over his shoulder leaving Wanada even more curious as he made his way to the dressing rooms.

When he walked in closing the door behind him, he was greeted with the sight of Connie sitting on the bench next to her Asuka costume legs crossed, hands next to her hips. She was looking annoyed while tapping on his phone.

#Connie Maheswaran #Steven Universe #fighting flirty #Mister #Heartberry #character Select #flirty fighting #connverse #steven universe future #steven and connie #steven universe fanfiction #older steven #older connie #connverse fanfic

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dndeed · 4 years

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Critical Role Miniature Rollout: C2E100

With Andrew Harshman

An archive and review of the minis used on Critical Role.

It’s good to be pedantically analyzing Critical Role maps and miniatures again. The furniture placement on the lower decks is nearly identical to two episodes ago. Just like the audience and the Mighty Nein, this map has seemly been in stasis for months. But no more, the magnificent Mercer-led CR miniature machine is loose again, delighting us with narrative-driven, model-laden maps of the finest and highest entertainment value.

It has indeed been awhile, it’s time for Critical Role Miniature Rollout Campaign 2 Episode 100!

The List

Valor Maps ship deck paper maps on cardboard

@Minileed Custom Ship

Legendary Realms Bed (out of print)

Legendary Realms Bed, Double (out of print)

Legendary Realms Crate and Barrel (out of print)

Mantic Games TerrainCrate Dungeon Debris Crates

Treasure Items Accessory Set Chest

Rusty Dragon Inn Dressing: Table

Steamforged Games Critical Role Miniatures

TerrainCrate Campsite Bedrolls

Dwarven Forge Furnishings Pack Chairs and Beds

Tiny Furniture Carved Chest of Drawers

WizKids Deep Cuts Unpainted Miniatures: Cannons

Steamforged Orly Miniature

Steamforged Games Veth Brenatto Miniature

Waterdeep Dragon Heist #039 Lord Victoro

Storm King’s Thunder #015 Bandit

Waterdeep Dragon Heist #019 Renaer Neverember

Pathfinder Battles Iconic Heroes Set 4 Jirelle half-elf swashbuckler

Reaper Bones 4 Dragon Turtle painted by Hanna Lampe @ Art_forArtsSake

Unknown Gridless Water Mat

The Monsters

Dragon Turtle Reaper Bones 4 Dragon Turtle painted by Hanna Lampe @ Art_forArtsSake

In my Episode 99 post I successfully predicted that this Reaper model would be used. But that’s about all I got right. I was totally wrong about when the episode would be and who the painter was. I was delighted to learn that this was a Critter provided model. A highly impressive figure with a highly impressive paint job.

The way I see it, a good dragon turtle must be big enough to look like it could credibly threaten a large boat. This figure certainly does that. The plastic casting clarity looks good and the stability of the elevated base appears solid. As Sam remarked on, the sculpt does look more turtle than dragon. Reaper Miniatures could have make this more “dragony”.

My compliments again to painter Hanna Lampe. Great paint on this monster. The color scheme is natural and believable, giving this fantastical creature an air of realism often lost with more alien and stupendous palettes. The paint grounds this magic beast in reality, contributing to the threat and immersion.

The Nonplayer Characters

Crew Person Pathfinder Battles Iconic Heroes Set 4 Jirelle half-elf swashbuckler

A buckler of the swash variety, Jirelle the iconic Pathfinder Icon, quite the mini. I’m not sure what’s more impressive, the overall prepainted quality of this model or her bangs. Vibrant paint and an engaging fencing pose. What more can one ask for in a swashbuckler miniature?

Closing Thoughts and Predictions

It would appear that I have inadvertently gotten my wish, the Mighty Nein minis no longer have base flocking. On the left Fjord in Episode 98 and 100 on the right. The color of the character’s bases correspond to the color of the character portraits. I would guess the flocking was removed so the players can more easily identify the colors at a distance. The new social distancing compliant studio setup has the players further away from the table.

What exciting maps and miniatures does next session have instore? A volcano island surely calls for some Dwarven Forge Hellscape. I would bet we will get some in the near future. As for this Vokodo character, I am as equally intrigued as I am clueless about who or what he could be. Excited to find out and if it comes to it, also find out what miniature will be used to represent him.

#criticalroleminiaturerollout

#criticalroleminiaturerollout #critrole #crspoilers #cr #criticalrole

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