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soaringsearingphoenix · 1 year

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how do u prep for dnd i feel like i should be doing that before sessions

That's a great question! And it varies from GM to GM. If you're new to prep, it can be a little overwhelming - start with ONE thing you want to focus on (materials, scenery, voices, combat, lore) and play around with that; figure out your own preferences. I'll try to be comprehensive [aka i tend to ramble - I'll also try to format it so it's not just a wall of text.] If you already are confident about some of this stuff, great! But I hope some of it helps.

In my opinion, prep is as much about feeling prepared and confident as it is about having materials ready. Both are important! TL:DR; it's mostly about PRACTICE and ORGANIZATION.

I'm a person who tends to run a bit of a sandbox world, and trust that I'm prepared to improv a little when the players inevitably go 'off course'. But I have a lot of GM friends who are much further towards the "I like to have everything prepared, with a set map and a set understanding of IF you do this, THEN this will happen."

It can be a good idea to be honest with your players about what to expect - especially if you have new players, making sure they are prepared may be part of the process. Letting them know whether there will be combat, and whether there will be time in-game to prepare for it, can help a game run smoother. (I'll come back to that.)

Know how to use whatever resource you are using. If you are running a game, whether physically or digitally, figure out how you like to set up your area so that you know everything you need is within reach. If it is in person, make sure things like books and maps are all in once place ahead of time. If you are calling with Discord, you could make sure the server has a dice bot, or make sure any music bot you are using works properly. If you use roll20, google drive, or another site, you can upload maps, make sure they are aligned to the grid if they need to be, and play around with any other features it might have! There are some useful tools out there for GMs, and even just finding something to help you organize your notes can be huge. That could be a whole separate post.

If you're running a game from a module/pre-written materials, you want to spend the time reading through those materials. It's honestly a bit like studying in a class! Make sure you know some of the information, and know where to find the rest of it.

For familiarizing - whether I'm using a guide or writing it myself - I try to prioritize visual and narrative descriptions - practice narrating what your players 'see' when they enter an area, for example, so that you are prepared for any potentially unfamiliar or confusing words (I'm a pretty confident reader and I still stumble over things like "minute" [pronounced min-it] as in 60 seconds of time being spelled the same as "minute" [pronounced my-noot] as in tiny.

This goes for NPC voices too. If important plot information is being delivered via dialogue, say your line a couple times! If you are giving your characters specific voices, practice how you want their speech to sound! (I like to take notes for that too - this guy sounds "comfortable and friendly, like a dad at a barbecue". This woman sounds "like a librarian - pursed lips!" It can help to find a key phrase, gesture, or posture that helps you get into character. I really enjoy doing NPCs, so I tend to start with that, but not every campaign has a heavy focus on them.

Keywords can help you give 'character' to your environments, too. This foggy coast might be ominous, so I want to narrate it in an ominous voice. This tavern may be comforting - it's warm, so I'll narrate it in a warmer tone. Listening to your own voice ahead of time can help you set the mood you want a scene to have.

You may also want to try to anticipate player questions. This gets easier with experience. If you have a wizard who likes to look for spell components, expect "could I find a sprig of mistletoe?" when the narrative takes them to the forest. If you have a rogue who really leaned into the thief archetype, expect "is anything on the table small enough to fit in my pocket?" If they encounter a dog, no matter how menacing, expect that someone is probably going to ask if they can try to befriend it. Knowing what your players enjoy, and what their goals are, can give you a better sense of how to anticipate their responses to what you throw at them.

If there is going to be combat, puzzles, or obstacles, have stat blocks you may need available. If they are in a book/ on a web page, BOOKMARK THEM. If not, write them down!

I have found it very useful to get note cards, and write a 'cheat-sheet' with some basic stats down from my players' character sheets. My current version (for D&D - other systems have other stats) includes their max HP, AC, passive Perception, base stats, languages, and their main weapon - anything I might otherwise have to ask them about, I like to have in front of me. It's not uncommon for a GM to say "What's your AC?" when they roll an attack against a PC, but I often have newer players, and I like being able to say "You're using a short sword - that's 1d6 of damage, plus your strength is +2" right away.

Even if your players are experienced, knowing what they are capable of as their GM helps you write challenges that they are appropriately equipped to solve. If your party has a lot of spell casters, maybe give them a puzzle about solving runes to get into a locked chamber. If there are a lot of fighters and barbarians, maybe the barrier is clearing a rock slide, or scaling a wall, or fighting a guard. Give the players chances to show off the things their characters are good at!

I also make note cards for any monsters in combat, and use my note cards to keep track of initiative order in combat, by putting them in an ordered pile - that way I have the stats for whoever's turn it is right in front of me when their turn comes up. But that's just my personal preference, and many GMs I know will use an online initiative tracker (roll20 has one built in!)

Having stats ready and accessible is so helpful. For some GMs, (and some players!) being familiar with the combat they have planned IS what prep is all about! Even if you're a more narrative-focused GM, read through monster stats in advance - I've run some combats that were harder than I realized because I went "ooh, fire mephits sound cool! I could put some fire enemies in an abandoned forge" and didn't consider the fact that they also explode when they die and damage anything within 5ft of them...

and that most of my players were melee fighters.

Oops! Lesson learned. Which brings me back to working with your players and their abilities.

One of the simplest things you can do to prep is to remind your players that the game is coming up, and to make sure they've done anything they need to do. Just a "Hey, we're playing tomorrow. Do you have any questions for me?" Being approachable to your players helps you get to know them, and in turn helps you anticipate what they will respond to. Plus, asking "Would you like any help leveling up your character? If not, may I see what new things you chose when you leveled up?" when relevant gives you an opportunity to get more familiar with their character sheets.

I hope that helps! If you have any other questions, if I can elaborate on anything here, or if there is another GM-ing related topic you would like my thoughts about, let me know!

#my advice #about me #gm tips #rpgs #thanks for asking!!#long post

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fluffy-critter · 1 year

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#crosspost #busybee

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movedtohypnocus · 1 year

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final thoughts on Sonic Frontiers (as a viewer and not a player)

ive got some stuff to say about the game since i finished watching playthroughs and i will try to keep this as spoiler-free as possible, but still going to tag it and add a read more.

i will not be sharing/posting any big spoilers for the game until after official release as ive stated before (albeit in a now-deleted post). regardless, any possible spoilers will always be tagged. same goes for fanart.

Admittedly before, I didn't have much hope for Frontiers despite my excitement, but recently as more and more info came out (and me looking for leaks oops), I was a lot less pessimistic.

It takes a LOT for something in the franchise to disappoint me, and I mean that. I'm more of a "accept something as it is" kinda guy when it comes to Sonic because for even the "bad" games, I just appreciate them for existing in the first place since they make me happy.

But unfortunately, as great as Frontiers was throughout the majority of the game, the ending was surprisingly underwhelming at best, disappointing at worst. It wasn't bad I guess and maybe that's just me being nice, but it was anticlimactic for sure. I will say, while many people find the true final boss to be boring or otherwise "lazy", I honestly thought it was interesting. It isn't the best final boss fight ever, but interesting. I'm hoping we learn more about them in the future.

There is a point on the 4th island where the stakes of the story are at their highest, only for it to be easily resolved within seconds in the most anticlimactic and cheesy (/neg) way. Which is unfortunate seeing this was something specific fans were looking forward to. The game from that point on kind of takes a turn. Again, it's not really bad, but it feels like stuff is missing from the game entirely and a ton of missed opportunities.

There is also a big complaint I keep seeing about the final islands just being extensions of Kronos, and to that I say I really don't mind. The 4th island is story driven strictly anyway, with no enemies, Cyberspace levels, or maps. I do tend to look forward to lore than gameplay regardless, so I understand people being upset by this, but I personally am not.

Despite all the negatives, the majority of the game was amazing from a viewer standpoint. I loved the character interactions and developments, and I can't even say "oh this character had the better development" because they all were great in my opinion, and I hope we get to see that in future games. There were plenty of moments between characters that got me emotional to the point of tearing up or entirely sobbing, but that could just be me.

Another thing I adored was the soundtrack. Some songs are definitely more memorable than others, but that's just kinda how soundtracks are. I enjoyed the vocal tracks and Cyberspace level themes a lot. Music is a big, important thing to me and I'm glad Frontiers did not disappoint on that at all.

Seeing as there are things that were very obviously left out or cut from the game for one reason or another, I hope they get expanded on in some form. It would be nice to get an IDW comic about Frontiers more extensive than the prequel honestly because there is so much potential.

I'd say up until the 4th island, the game is a 9/10. Anything after is a 7/10. Definitely get the game if you've been looking forward to it; I'd hope its flaws don't ruin the whole experience for you when most of the game is good, just don't expect the most spectacular ending.

And of course before I close this off, if you do still plan on playing it, there is a "true" final boss that is not indicated anywhere in or outside of the game at all. To get to that boss, you need to play on hard mode. Easy and normal mode gets you the cut/shortened ending.

Overall, if given the chance to play Frontiers, I will. I just don't see myself buying it for a while (mainly because I'm broke lmfao).

I hope this was helpful to someone, and I hope despite everything you still allow yourselves to have fun with Frontiers.

#postnocus #sonic frontiers #sonic frontiers spoilers #sonic the hedgehog

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antisocialxconstruct · 2 years

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hope it's okay to kinda springboard off your ai post - but i feel like a similar reason as to why ai generation can't be mapped onto the usual fear of "x replacing y" is that all of those other mediums absolutely require a skillset of their own to actually create a good final piece.

certainly as someone who does digital art i could pick up a camera and take a few shots, but none of my photographs would be so technically stunning as someone who actually Knows their way around a camera. and the same thing with traditional into digital art, while there's a similar knowledge of color theory, anatomy, etc, it took a lot of time for me to get used to a tablet versus a brush! but when it comes to ai generation it is really not hard to just throw words at a machine to get what you want out of it. people calling themselves 'prompt engineers' as if it takes anything other than a few moments of trial and error to get the ai to do all of the work for them truly overestimate the amount of work they're putting in

RIGHT that's a good point too... like obviously I have to admit that my knowledge of how interfacing with these neural networks "works" only extends to seeing what other people do with them, but I have been actively researching and I've seen both how you can get some fascinating stuff from a pretty vague prompt, as well as a lot of garbage, and how tweaking and fine-tuning your prompt can give you far more specific and potentially more tailored results. It is a skill, inasmuch as it requires conscious intent and effort to get a specific outcome.

But in my personal opinion, it's a little more akin to the fact that like... I can load up GarageBand and throw together some random pre-made tracks and make something really weird and dissonant that I can, on a purely technical level, call "music." Or I can take a little more time to pick tracks that are in the same key and have rhythms and tempos that complement each other, and probably end up with something that sounds pretty cool (I have, in fact). But that doesn't really mean I can claim to have "composed" either of those songs--I didn't make a single decision about notes or chord progressions or instruments, I just stacked a bunch of sounds on top of each other and then slapped a 5-second fadeout at the end. Did I "make music"? Yeah, I guess, although I'm sure we could still split hairs over that. Does it feel like work and effort while I'm in the process? Sure, I'm still making creative choices based on my own sensibilities. Am I a musician? God no.

#ask #anon #AI art #might as well just throw a new tag into the mix #rom speaks

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sanstropfremir · 2 years

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Now that queendom is over what are your thoughts on all the contestants overall? like did they surprise you? are you disappointed? i just wanted to hear your opinions on them as someone who didn’t know them prior to this (except for hyolyn). Personally i was very surprised by kepler and i look forward to what they’re going to do next even though their stages were never impressive i really admired their energy and i can see how talented they are and i would love to give them a chance in the future, wjsn disappointed me i never saw them perform before but i liked some of their songs so i thought this would be the perfect opportunity to get into them but they kept doing the same thing and i just got bored unfortunately. I never cared about viviz/gfriend and i will continue to never care about them. I was surprised by loona in a good way loved the shake it stage and the final one same with brave girls that final stage was fantastic and so much fun and you can see how free they felt because they didn’t have to worry about the ranking. Do we have to talk about hyolyn she’s a legend but i have to admit that unlike you i really didn’t like her final song which was a bummer :(( in conclusion it was fun but if they do a queendom 3 i really wish they change some of the challenges which brings me to my next question if you could design a show like this what would you choose for the challenges? (Sorry this is very long and i asked you two questions) enjoyed your weekly reviews of the performances!!

oh hmmmm, good question (the first one). other than the first one i didn't actually watch the full episodes, just the stages, so tbh i'm pretty sure i know just as little as you about all the contestants! i'm not a big girl group fan so coming into the show the only two i had any really familiarity with were hyolyn and brave girls, and both of them exceeded my expectations. viviz i knew would be be poor performers and they blew well under that expectation from me. also no one should be supporting them anyways why were they allowed on this show. i only knew wjsn from the black and chocome, and i will admit that i am disappointed by their showing during queendom. their first stage was pretty good and there was a lot of potential there, but they stalled HARD and ended up producing really lackluster stages for the rest of the run. design wise they dropped a lot of balls and also did some stuff that i consider to be very unsafe (the pantomime stage), and honestly i did not like any of their music either, so i'm not that interested in checking them out beyond the show. i don't even know if i can pick out a reason why they stalled so hard either, since i know they have the capacity to do more focused concept work bc of the black and chocome. the only thing that i can maybe think of would be that they were trying to do some sort of connected universe type thing that tbz were trying to do, but if they were it was absolutely inscrutable to me.

loona i don't think my opinions of them are changed? like i said in my reviews they clearly have access to good set and costume designers when they want to, but i wasn't particularly impressed nor disappointed? someone sent me an ask about them before the show started and i've left it until after the show was finished, so i've kind of been holding back a judgement on them until i get started on actually watching some of their mvs. they had one of the better runs on the show but i always ended up finding that their stages were incomplete in some way? like they always seemed to have one design element that was really good but then the rest fell by the wayside. like the set and lights for butterfly were good, but the costumes sucked ass, or the costumes for pose were great but the lighting was horrid. it was very inconsistent, which was not something that i've seen in any of this series before? like with kingdom i could logically map out the choices how the design teams were working; like skz had ass costumes because i know jype has garbage stylists, or how sf9 generally had across the board really good stylings. like the discrepency between the pose costumes and the shake it costumes are SO high from a costume designer's perspective. like you do a stage themed after one of THE most iconic western eras of fashion that has a ton of modern subcultures specifically surrounding it and you somehow don't manage to use THE most iconic garment from that era, but two stages later you can put up costumes that pinpoint an approximately five year chunk of history with a extremely specific situational circumstance AND include references to one of the most famous designers of the time????? i cannot explain that other than they just straight up hired a new stylist. or their stylist is really into versace history, idk. it's really weird.

kepler.........sigh. it was intensely unfair of mnet to put them on this show. these girls were fresh off of ANOTHER survival show, they had JUST debuted, they had a maximum of like five songs, and then you're gonna put them up against HYOLYN??????? also the fact that there are still minors in the group?????? like everything about having them on the show was wrong. and i can't even say that the girls made the best of it because their creative teams were making them do inappropriate shit half the time! i feel so bad for those girls. i think maybe if they had had a couple more years under their belt it would have been a slightly different story, but even then not everyone can be ateez going toe to toe with btob. i think i mentioned it in one of the earlier reviews but this process must have been very creatively demoralizing for kepler. they were so ill equipped to be competing against these more senior groups and it showed in their stages and in their rankings. the ONLY thing that saved them from placing last was that they had probably the largest fanbase. i also don't know what the deal is with their company, maybe it's because they're a project group, but it felt like they got NO good creative support. like their styling and their design work and even their choreography was just not up to snuff for the scale of this show. like they're mnet's group and i'm pretty sure they're managed by the same company that managed wannaone so like. what's the deal. you guys have money, where are you putting it? it feels like they just threw them out there to let them drown.

as for your second question, i am so so certain that someone sent me a similar ask about designing a kingdom type show ages ago but i cannot find it anywhere, and someone did ask me about my predictions/what i wanted to see for queendom before the show started here! in terms of changing the challenges, i would do a couple of things:

keep the song swap/cover song round, but instead groups would have to swap genders AND generations, kind of like what they did during rtk. so if it was queendom they'd have to do like 2nd gen boy group songs or if it was kingdom they'd have to do 3rd gen girl groups (generations are changeable, it just has to be different from the one of the performing groups). therefore there's a challenge for arranging AND for performing

i really liked what double trouble did where they would assign like a theme word with each song, so i would go for one round where everyone picked a theme word out of a hat and then they had to make a song work with that theme word

prop round. either it would be everyone gets assigned the same prop and they have to all make performances around it, or like the theme word round they get randomly assigned a prop (like canes, hats, chairs, etc) that they have to work into the choreo. tbh the props could be really weird or really normal, it doesn't matter.

i would also keep the collab stages, but instead of them being just dance/vocal units, i want them to make whole new groups. they can either be 'randomly' assigned or they can be like, all the same mbti types or zodiac signs or whatever. the unit stages are fine and i liked that they brought in choreographers for queendom 2 but i think a real test would be negotiating a new group structure. and i think it would help distribute some of the talents better.

#PLS can you imagine a mayfly unit stage that was just all of the scorpios????#eunkwang minhyuk hongjoong wooyoung leeknow??????? i would CRY that would be sooooo funny #god i wish the challenges were actually challenges SO BAD like pls make them do something weird or hard for ONCE mnet #queendom 2 #queendom questions #i didnt talk about brave girls or hyolyn bc i talked about them the most in my reviews and we all know i love them #text #answers #this turned out way longer than i thought soz

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almostjollyprince · 4 months

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100ish days of productivity: The beginning?

So, while I am claiming to go for the 100 days of productivity, I know for a fact that 100 straight days of productivity will burn me out. This'll be more like... 150 days with a mix of productivity and breaks. Remember to take breaks often!

Day 0/100 - Jan 1 2024 A day of planning. What are my goals? Why am I putting myself through this crap? Why on Tumblr? Am I sure I won't back out after Day 30?

To learn something new (music theory and music production). To improve and better myself (physical training and weight loss). To continue and finish what I've started and to make it the best that it can be (my various projects still being worked on).

Because if I don't hold myself accountable, who will? The wife probably won't. And because it'll be fun(?).

Why anywhere, really?

Not really, but I'm already here.

Day 1/100 - Jan 2 2024

First day of work of the new year. Why am I getting up so early? morning - arrived at the office. It's still dark out. I'm the first one of my group here, so I catch up on stuff from when I was on holiday. Prep the buddy schedule for everyone for the week. Grab the data I need for my quarterly evaluation. There's an interview today so I'll look over that individual's work history to prepare myself later. mid-morning - code with the juniors and help them out when they get stuck. They're a good crew to work with. Liveshared the code so that everyone's on the same page. Today's goal was to get some visuals to show when a button's pressed (we'll worry about functionality later). To avoid potential overlap, I containerized the dialog box into 3 separate components so that everyone had their own section to work on. Since we had a mock-up designed for how we wanted things to look, things go pretty smoothly. early afternoon - interview time. Let's see how they do. mid-afternoon - gave a progress report to the project lead. Visuals are maybe 60% done. We'll need to tweak things here and there and apply functionality but he's surprised we got a lot done on today. evening - study time. Bit of music theory, bit of certification study. I still need to finish the prep work for my D&D campaign that I run. That includes maps and a couple of puzzles. The concept's all there, I just need to mold it to my vision.

Do I wanna write these as status reports? I'll figure something out that best suits me as this progresses, but today is not that day.

#100 days of productivity

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archer3-13 · 8 months

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in many ways i wanna say pokemon scarlet and violet are worth it solely for that last battle and story section with professor turo / sada. good build up, interesting fight, kickass music, and a nice ending bit of using a terra blast to kick your opponents ass.

on the otherhand the actual gameplay section leading up to the final battle is a dull hallway, and the process of getting to that final section [in overcoming the various paths of the game] feels undercooked by comparison.

its an arguable problem all open world games have in storytelling mind, but i do think there were ways it coulda been overcome so that the strong points of the endgame can shine throughout the entire game.

victory road feels the most obligatative of the paths, and considering its been in every mainline pokemon game i dont think you could cut it in good faith. what it did need was either more 'environmental exploration' elements present... or less.

more in the sense that well the gym challenges are more about interacting with the environment they dont push that concept hard enough in some cases.

or alternatively it should be less in the sense of streamlining the experience and leaving environmental exploration to the other paths well making the path about pokemon battles more about pokemon battles.

gyms in pokemon have always been this odd mix of obligation and actual excitement, self contained puzzles to avoid the main interactive mechanic of the pokemon game the battling. i think scarlet and violet really missed an opportunity to reinvent the concept of a gym in pokemon though by awkwardly hemming to tradition without the self contained gym environments to maximize the potential effectiveness of whatever puzzle [or challenge in this instance] they had in mind. especially since team star bases as self contained environment would have been much better suited to a puzzle challenge instead of the weird beatdown thing they did with team star bases.

SO! proposed solution here would be to 'divide the labour' so to speak. gyms instead of the ecliptic mess of minigames they are, are instead gonna be all modelled on larrys gym about exploring the immediate city of the gym to 'unlock' the gym battle itself. that way you can get a more natural understanding of the cities layouts through experience, the cities can be more intently designed to accommodate a gym challenge and battles can more easily serve as the centre piece attractions without having to share. all in all it can also just be more compact this way. titans are a let down because ya dont so much hunt them as ya do walk to their premarked locations. and i understand its going to be difficult for giant pokemon to hide, but it atleast would have been less of a let down if you had to more thoroughly explore the environment to drag them out of hiding. theres a lot of space in scarlet and violet that feels rather empty aside, and making ya have to more extensively track titan pokemon would help reduce that feeling of dead space. finally as noted the team star bases should have been more about infiltration and environmental puzzles then a straight up brawl. the poison star base for instance being ninja themed should have had a self contained stealth section, well for the fairy base ya have to draw the rich kid out through dirtying up his nice stuff or something.

finally area zero instead of being a hallway i think would have been better suited to being a kinda sprawling explorable environment that you map your way around to find all the research stations in. not a winding slide downwards but more of a bowl shape if that makes sense. that and maybe some unique megabosses guarding the stations that need all of your friends at once to take on [super titans or something, idk]

#pokemon #pokemon scarlet #pokemon violet #ramble ramble

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alexod · 11 months

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Rare GameDev update May 2023: Good news and bad news.

Hello all, it’s been a while since I gave a proper update or #screenshotsaturday as to what I’ve been up to with the game. There are several reasons for this which I’ll explain later but essentially the main two reason are

1. Most of the outstanding framework/refactoring work I’ve been grinding away at, like most software work isn’t really something you can “show off”, and there hasn’t been any art-side work to demo either because of this.

To give you an example in 2023 I have:

• Refactored the entire rendering (twice cause I’m an idiot) to support transparent views within buildings

• Refactored shadows so they can be cast backwards

• Refactored collision again cause its my most hated gamedev aspect

• Implemented sound/music with spatial audio

• Created a nested GUI/Menu system from scratch

• Developed a full day/night cycle across all maps

• Calendar system

• Questing sytem

• Inventory stuff

• Save/load data stuff

• Gamepad support

• Weather shaders

2. Life stuff and, again, working on this in my own hours on top of a full time job means that this takes time

This leads me to talk about the good and the bad:

The BAD NEWS is that the “BIG ONE” is delayed until further notice, because the GOOD NEWS is I’m going to be working on releasing a smaller scale game made with the same framework first.

So what lead to this decision?

• Uncertainty with releasing a game and how my game engine framework will cope

Due to the nature of one-man development, it’s safe to say there will be bugs and issues that will fly under the radar, which is why with working on a smaller scale game I can highlight these problems before they impact something a more larger scale project.

To give a real life case study, compare Breath of the Wild to Tears of the Kingdom. A lot of the time and hardwork with BotW you can see probably went into getting the damn thing to work, hence why TotK has a lot more going for it gameplay element wise, as they had BotW groundwork to build upon.

• I want to release something in a smaller timespan and build an audience for the “big one”

• Apart from the “Big one” I’ve been fixated on working on this one for a long time now.

• I want to show the flexibility of what I’ve made and potentially make it open source

Outside of things like launcher->deployment->release piplines, the framework itself is basically done, and it’s safe to say outside of gameplay specific elements I have all the building blocks to actually make a “game”.

We’re at the point now where I can actually start cracking on with pixel art work again, and I’m looking forward to hopefully showing off the direction the new game is going soon.

TL:DR: The big game I wanted to make is being put on the backburner while I make a smaller game using the same framework that the big one was being made in.

What kind of game? Well... you’ll see in due time.

#gamedev #screenshotsaturday #pixel art

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button-mash · 1 year

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What I played last week #6

Metroid Prime [Nintendo Switch]

I have a lot of nostalgia for Prime, and outside of making FPS platforming actively satisfying, I think it's biggest achievement is that it does what Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time managed where it took a game firmly rooted in it's 2D identity and transitioned it into 3D whilst still making it feel the same at its core. However, I think as an actual metroidvania, its a bit lacking. The opening few hours are pretty great - it weaves that web all the best games in the genre do where it slowly reveals an intricately designed area that subtly guides you around where you need to go next without ever feeling linear. After a while though (around the Magmoor Caverns area), it starts to lose its way a bit - it starts to become really vague, and the map is so spawling and confusing that it starts to become harder to track where you are in a way that the 2D games don't feel as confusing. Once you get past that section, it then has a massive stretch where it's actually kinda linear and combat heavy, befor having a solid final section again.

When it clicks it really clicks, and it's incredible how good a job they did bringing the game into a 3D setting. There are little touches like seeing Samus' face reflecting back in the visor after an explosion, or like steam from the jungle fogging up the vents that seemed mind-blowingly immersive and atmospheric at the time and they're still really effective even now. They've just done such a good job of brining all of the visually iconic enemies and items into a 3D format, and hearing the rearranged music is such a powerful nostalgia burst, especially the stuff they've taken from Metroid/Super Metroid

The game isn't without it's flaws though, and I definitely think this is one of those games where it's become such a beloved fixture in gaming and was so revalatory at the time that people just seem to completely look past it's issues and it's just been cemented as some sort of perfect game. I think one of it's main troubles is that it doesn't do a good enough job of working in it's mechanics and teaching you to use them - you can easily get caught in a loop of backtracking around because you're forgetting to religiously scan a room so you'll miss a switch, or forget to use a certain vision because you've not had to for the last 4 hours, etc. The move to 3D just makes it a bit more visually muddled sometimes where it's just easy to miss things. Such a Nintendo thing as well where there doesn't seem to be any in-game brightness settings and some areas are so dark it's hard to properly see. Also a lot of it's required backtracking is the worst kind where it'll send you all the way back and forth from one end of the map to the other, etc.

Also to get to the very end of the game you have to collect these 12 artefacts hidden around the game world. Some you might find from naturally exploring, but some are actually extremely well hidden, and the game only gives you a relatively vague clue as to the location of each one. They're not impossible to find by any means, but some of them are tucked away behind puzzles or tricks usually reserved for a game's most tucked away side-secrets, and I can see plenty of people simply getting to the end, not having all of the Artefacts and just having no real idea what do to or where to go without looking up a guide. Obviously Metroidvanias are focused around exporation and backtracking, but I think Prime gets a pretty soft go of things for how obtuse it can be to be honest.

It also has a few moments people always seem to completely ignore in beloved games, where it's just objectively bad design that doesn't respect the players time. The very last boss is a good example, which is a potentially tricky, multi stage boss that is a long fight even if you speed through it - basically I can see a few people needing multiple attempts to beat it if they've never done it before. Yet to get to the boss from the save point, you have to do a relatively time consuming platforming section with some strong enemies that can knock a decent amount of your health off if you get unlucky - it's just a stupid thing to have before a final big fight imo. You see a lot of games really bin the pacing of the game with the final few encounters, but peple always seem to overlook it, and I don't think Metroid Prime is an exception, even if Meta Ridley is very cool

As a remaster this game is incredible. It looks beautiful and runs really well, and the dual stick controls were really the main thing it needed to update it and bring it into the modern world. It's a testament to the original art design and Gamecube performance that I felt like the game looked barely any different to the original until I saw them side by side - it shows not only how good and memorable the original was, but also how much a good art style and world design can shine with a new lick of paint without losing any of it's identity or style.

I absolutely love it and I think it's a really influential and important game in a lot of ways, but as an actual Metroidvania I actually think it's pretty average, and that's from someone with a lot of affection for it and can remember a lot of roughly what to do/where to go. The game is incredible for something that came out almost 20 years ago, but there are plenty of bits of 20 year old game design I feel like a lot of people just don't want to accept isn't actually that great. Still well worth a play for anybody interested in the genre in my opinion

#nintendo switch #nintendo #nintendo gamecube #gamecube #retro gaming #retrogaming #metroid #super famicom #super nintendo #super metroid #metroid prime #90s games #90s

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foxstens · 1 year

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i think im playing revelations wrong

so it seems the exclamation mark i kept avoiding was actually just an introduction to recruiting potential assassins and doesn’t start sequence 3 like i thought... i just avoided it as long as possible and did everything else i could. explored every corner i had access to got almost all the treasure chests on my map and lit up all the templar towers... they were so easy what the heck. i guess it’s bc the borgia towers gave me ample training and i developed a foolproof strat for these. but i still feel like there’s fewer guards around or the captains are in really easy spots or smth. they’re just a lot easier than the borgia towers which is a bit sad. still cool tho

so i went through all that the entire time wondering when i’d get recuits lmao. getting recruits is a bit more creative this time like there’s ones that are exactly like in brotherhood where you just kill some guards but here the citizen can die (idk if that was possible in brotherhood) and some are actual very short side-quests which is really fun. also none of the towers are locked so you can just destroy all of them then save like 12 citizens and you’re set. now instead of pigeon coops we have crafting tables that basically serve the same function but you can also make bombs with htem?? somehow?? they don’t really show up on the map tho so that sucks.

also the hideout in this game is a lil bit... annoying... there’s always other assassins around who react to you walking past which i like but it’s so confusing i always get lost there and i just can’t find shit lol. don’t like the structure or the music of the place eh

speaking of bombs you can find all sorts of ingredients in treasure chests and you can craft bombs with them provided you’re introduced to the bomb somehow. there’s also a black market guy who can sell you bombs provided you find him when he shows up on the map. and yea it’s kinda cool like different bombs do different things and they’re good for distracting guards for example so you can get a treasure chest or smth. buuuuuut you can also only have 3? types of bombs at once and only four pieces of one bomb. which. makes me not want to use them and instead rely on the crossbow which works great most of the time and now i can have 25!!!! bolts

eh idk i don’t think the crafting part is really well explained at least so far. also this game’s collectible is the animus data fragments or whatever, there’s like 100 of them. i havent been vibing wiht hte modern storyline in this game and i honestly have no idea what the fragments do so i dont really feel like hunting them down... i’ll still try to get one if i happen to see it but yea.

there’s also this horrible slomo effect when you do a chain kill? or something? idk it only shows up on the last guy you kill i think and it’s so annoying pls why. like some thigns are a bit slower bc ezio is older and stuff but that just breaks the gameplay pace and i hate.

i do love ezio tho like i haven’t /seen/ much of him bc ive barely seen anything of the plot but every time he speaks he sounds so much calmer and more mature, and the things he says are so???smart??? and the game fits that vibe, it’s all so very chill, even the guards are less likely to attack you for no reason. well there’s guards on roofs with shotguns which i hate with a burning passion but i don’t actually spend a lot of time on the roofs so it’s fine.

also the templar awareness system in this game isn’t that bad. igniting a tower doesn’t actually increase it and you can just bribe a herald then turn a corner then come back and bribe him again if needed. there’s also these templar stalkers that kinda show up out of nowhere and you could hunt them down if you wanted to but if they attack you you can just hit x and they’ll die, and it decreases your awareness significantly soooooooooooo i kinda like them

there’s also a tower defense minigame that everyone seems to hate but that i havent seen at all outside of the tutorial bc it only happens if the templar try to take back a den you took over, which in turn only happens if your awareness goes way up. which im paranoid about and i never let it happen. altho ive heard they kinda stop attacking if you take over all of their dens??? i havent tested it out yet but that’d be fun lmao.

but yea im having a pretty good time, its a lot of fun. i haven’t played as much as i wanted to this week bc ive been pretty busy irl and that’s prob how it’ll be next week too, but its fine i dont wanna rush through this game, i’d rather just take my time and enjoy the experience while it lasts. i hope there’s some cool collectible other than the animus fragments and the treasure chests so it doesn’t end up feeling too short. oh and also appearances of other characters we know and love such as leonardo and claudia and all them :’)))))))

#my posts #gameblogging #liveblogging ac #long post #my rambles

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five-rivers · 3 years

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Beltane

Written for Ectober 2021 Day 1: Trick vs Treat. This is part of the Exhumed series.

Danny Fenton walked into the precinct. As often happened when he did this, all attention slowly turned to him. “Hi, Detective Patterson. Have you ever heard of Beltane?”

Patterson took a long swig of coffee through the plastic stir straw, because she felt the need to be at least a little drugged before dealing with whatever this was, and then said, “Is this the kind of thing the whole precinct needs to know about, or is it more specific to me?”

“Mm, not specific to you, but I’m not sure if everyone needs to know about it, yet.”

Despite only select members of the Amity Park police force knowing Danny Fenton had another identity, he’d become a sort of ‘ghost liaison’ for the precinct. Better him than the adult Fentons, who tended to break things even (especially) when they were being careful.

“Actually,” continued Danny, “you might have already noticed some things about it. I mean, it’s seasonal, and Mom and Dad were detecting ectoenergy and ghost activity spikes for events like this before they got the portal up and running. Although, the portal was supposed to stabilize and reduce those spikes… I guess reducing one isn’t bad?”

“Okay,” said Patterson. “I don’t really know what you’re talking about. Do you want me to go find Collins?”

“Oh, that might be a good idea.”

“Great,” said Patterson. She turned her head to shout across the room. “McGee. Go find Collins.”

“Still the new guy?” asked Danny, sympathetically.

“It isn’t like we’re a popular posting,” said Patterson, “and, thanks to the ghosts, we don’t really need new people.”

Danny nodded placidly. “I know. But it must be hard for him, don’t you think?”

McGee had done his job. He’d discovered the corruption in the Amity Park Police Department and plumbed its depths. The problem was that he could never, ever, report it. Even if they didn’t have a perfectly good cause for it all, what they were ‘hiding’ (and they were only barely doing that) was so ridiculous that McGee had thought he’d gone crazy at first.

Ghosts.

The whole of Amity Park was haunted. Just like it said in those touristy brochures at the front of the local diners.

He stuck his head into the break room. “Collins, Patterson and Fenton want you,” he said.

“In the normal room?” Collins asked, shoving a sugary monstrosity of a donut into his mouth.

“I have no idea. She didn’t say.”

“Normal room then. Great job, McGee.”

McGee rolled his eyes. Great job, he said. As if he’d done anything.

God. What would Halloween be like?

“So, it’s like, reverse Halloween?” asked Patterson.

“Well, not exactly,” said Danny. He patted Daisy, the department mascot slash corpse sniffing dog who had followed them into the small interview room, gently on the head. “Actually, there are more similarities than differences. Basically, like Halloween, we’re going to get a spike in ectoenergy. Maybe even some ectoplasmic storms. More portals. That kind of thing.” He shrugged. “Most holidays and seasonal divisions have them, you know.”

“So… we’re getting Halloween round two?” asked Collins.

“What do you bet that this is what gets McGee to snap?”

“He’s been here since December,” said Collins. “I think he’s too stubborn to leave.”

“Is he still spying?” asked Danny.

“No,” said Patterson, waving a hand. “He gave up on that, after a while. But there’s a new office bet about whether or not he’ll stay stay, or if he’ll decide to quit. We’re not allowed to join in because we know him too well.”

“Mm,” said Danny.

“I don’t actually know if I feel like I know him that well,” said Collins.

“Well,” said Danny, “it shouldn’t be as extreme as Halloween. Since, I mean, there aren’t as many religious holidays directly associated with death and stuff happening on or around May first. So. Yeah. But the thing is, there are some traditional, er, activities. Spirited activities.”

Collins suppressed a groan, and was glad that Captain Jones wasn’t available today. He and Danny could sling puns at each other for obscenely long periods of time.

“I’ve never noticed ghosts doing anything on May Day,” said Patterson.

“This is only the third year anyone’s even acknowledged that ghosts exist,” said Danny, “so I’m not really all that surprised. But the reason that I came to talk to you guys is that some of the ghosts want to do Beltane stuff. Like the fire blessings. Also, I’ve been told that some of the trees in town are secretly ghost trees, and if we don’t want to deal with another tree army, we need to do some stuff to appease them.”

“Secret ghost trees.”

“My source is very reliable,” said Danny. “Also, while I say ‘we don’t want to deal with it,’ I think we all know who’d be dealing with most of it.”

“You would,” said Patterson.

“Got it in one. Like, I can convince most of the ghosts to either do their Beltane stuff in the Ghost Zone, or somewhere out of the way. They’ll be disappointed, but I can do it. The ghost tree thing, though…”

“Can’t we just, I don’t know,” said Collins, “get rid of the ghost trees?”

“Well, they aren’t really evil ghost trees. Or even really ghost trees. They’re more… ghosts that live in trees?”

“What, like dryads?” asked Collins, raising his eyebrows.

“That’s what I said, but they’re different species, apparently.”

“Okay,” said Patterson, “so. Appeasing the trees. How many trees are we talking about here, and how are we going to appease them?”

“Okay, so, this is definitely a whole precinct kind of thing,” said Patterson.

“And possibly an ‘all civil servants’ type of thing,” added Collins. He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Where are we going to get the funding for this?”

“Oh, don’t worry about money,” said Danny. “I’ll just blackmail Vlad, and if that doesn’t work, I can get Mom and Dad to pay for it.”

“What,” said Collins.

“I think this might be a bit beyond your parents’ budget,” said Patterson, “but knock yourself out as far as Masters goes.”

“Well, I guess if it is,” he allowed, dubiously, “I could get the cults to pitch in?”

“This is nice,” said Danny. The sky was a bit overcast, which was a shame, but the hundreds of bright flowers and cheerful music more than made up for that.

The May Day celebration was, in Danny’s opinion, a success. At least, this half of it was turning out to be. He’d have to wait and see how the Spirit Bonfires went tonight before he could really make a judgement.

He’d only had to blackmail Vlad a little, too. It turned out that the ‘ruthless businessman’ in Vlad was ludicrously easy to manipulate, and once Danny brought up how a celebration like this one could revitalize local businesses and bring in tourism, he’d caved.

Although, that might have been the threat of an angry tree army. Vlad had definitely come off worse for wear in the last one, on all fronts.

Then, publically putting the Phantom Stamp of Approval (and Necessity Given The Potential Angry Tree Army) on the event had gotten buy-in from his fans and (sigh) the cults. The cults were, in fact, very enthusiastic about their new Holy Day. Danny had made a map of all the places they’d set up booths, and was studiously avoiding them.

Sam and Tucker were doing a walkthrough of that area, now, to check for problems and unadorned thorn trees. They’d arranged to meet up soon.

So, Amity Park was decked out in ribbons and flowers. All of the schools had gotten Maypoles and the day off of classes. Several bands, both human and ghostly, were playing in different parts of town.

It was chaotic, but great.

Danny briefly cut into the street to dodge a pair of college-age men play-fighting with tree branches (a genuinely important tradition symbolizing the battle between winter and summer), then walked through a wall to avoid two ghosts doing the same thing.

Finally, he reached Madame Babazita’s table.

“Hi,” he said, “three readings, please.”

“Three?” she asked. “Just for you?”

“My friends should get here before mine’s done,” said Danny. Was he channeling some predictive powers? Maybe. Holidays did make his powers weird.

“I have no idea what your reading is saying,” said Madame Babazita, after fifteen full minutes. “The cards simply aren’t speaking to me today. Also,” she held up an Uno card, “I’m not sure how this even got here.”

“That’s okay,” said Danny, “I just wanted to make sure it was the same as last time.”

“Hey! Phantom!” called Ember across the crowd of ghosts that had gathered in the cemetery. Most of them were fire or nature themed. “You’re in for a treat!”

Danny, who had been examining the flowers left on his grave, looked up. “I am?”

Ember draped her arm around Danny’s shoulder. She’d been a lot more friendly with him since the corpse incident. “Sure are.” She stepped up onto the surface of his memorial, pulling him up behind her. Danny shook off a brief chill and looked around.

Ghosts were streaming into the cemetery from various directions, bringing armfuls of flowers with them. Danny could see two, huge bonfire piles of flowers growing near the cemetery gates.

“Are there going to be cows?” asked Danny, who was still fuzzy on the details of the ghostly side of the celebrations.

“I don’t know,” said Ember. “When I’ve seen this done in the GZ there are. Here? Who knows. Maybe we’ll just walk through.”

Danny nodded, unworried. Beltane sure was an interesting holiday.

The last armful of flowers was placed, and every flower in the cemetery caught on fire at once. Including the ones on Danny’s grave. Danny yelped, jumping into flight. As an ice core ghost, he vastly preferred cold to heat.

This went without saying, but fire was very hot.

Ember grabbed his foot, and he almost kicked her. “You knew that was going to happen,” he accused.

“Sure did, babypop,” said Ember, grinning. “Come on, don’t you want to pass through the bonfires?”

Danny eyed the very large bonfires on either side of the cemetery gates. They were lit up with sparks like fireworks, shifting like flowers blooming and withering and blooming again. They were beautiful and impressive, and Danny felt like melting just by looking at them.

“I don’t know…” He wanted to, but… melting…

“Well, if you want to go out the other way and be horribly unlucky for the next year…”

Danny narrowed his eyes. “Is that another trick?” he asked.

Ember’s grin grew wider, and she took off towards the gates. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

Danny sighed and followed her.

“Unbelievable,” said McGee. “Absolutely unbelievable.” He gave the elderly cultist a boost into the wagon.

“I know, right?” said Patterson. “All this property damage and a low-key kidnapping,” she gestured to the hapless late night partier who had called the police when the cult got too insistent about their message, “and they didn’t even have the good drugs?” She shook her head. “Not that we ever arrest anyone just for drugs in this town.”

“I did not just hear you say that,” muttered McGee.

“We’ll make an Amity Parker out of you yet,” said Collins, heartily, slamming the back door of the wagon. He thumbed the button on his radio. “Any other disturbances?” he asked.

“No, you’re good to come back,” said the dispatcher.

“What I don’t get,” said McGee, leaning against a nearby wall in a moment of weakness, “is why we aren’t breaking up whatever cult thing is happening in the cemetery.” They’d seen it quite clearly on their way here.

“Because those are ghosts,” said Patterson.

McGee took a deep breath. “The ghosts are having some kind of ritual in the cemetery, and you aren’t worried.”

“Not really, no.”

“I hate it here,” said McGee.

“Do you, though?” asked Collins, sounding genuinely interested in the answer.

McGee opened his mouth to snap back that, yes, he did. But…

Hm. Huh.

Collins patted him on the back.

#danny phantom #ectober #ectober 2021 #ectoberhaunt 2021 #ectoberhaunt trick #ectoberhaunt treat #ectoberhaunt day 1: trick vs treat #fic #fanfic #exhumed

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writing-with-olive · 3 years

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Hello Olive! 👋🏼

I don't know if you're still taking requests but I would love your help ! 🙃

So in multiple POV books, sometimes two scenes from two different POVs happen simultaneously. Usually, it’s much easier to portray this in movies and tv shows by cross-cutting scenes and interspersing them using the ocean's novel formula I think, to create suspens and tension in fight scenes or backstories parallelism.

In a book, my wip for example, I find it much difficult to convey the same feelings and tension in words.

Any tips and/or guidelines plz?

Could you plz add an example of your own creation just to see the result something like a cheat sheet /not that I'm using it, just to understand how I can go through it/?

Thanks in advance!!!

💕

Hey anon!

Quick disclaimer - I write in single pov, so the advice below is based off of what I've seen, and how I would tackle it theoretically if it was something I was thinking of writing something like this. Similarly, because multi-pov is not something I particularly enjoy writing in (personal preference, nothing inherantly wrong with it), and it would probably take me several hours to produce a new work that was of much quality, I'm not going to include my own final example, though there are little tidbits below, as they became relevant. Also, this got long, hence the read more.

Alrighty into the good stuff!

So the first thing to consider is why it seems easier to pull off more rapid pov switches in movies. The main thing is grounding. Oftentimes, movies will put characters in situations where their background is at least somewhat different, and sometimes they'll mess with the music a bit (though not always). This makes it really easy for the audience to place where the characters are in a split second, which in turn means producers don't have to spend a ton of time re-establishing where each person is. This helps to keep tension up.

The thing with books is that we only have words to work off of - no visuals to provide readers with instant grounding. That means if you want to pull it off well, quickly grounding readers every shift is essential.

Parallel backstories are probably going to be a lot trickier to pull off in writing than they are in movies. The reason they work in cinima is that a) like we mentioned before it takes a lot less time to do the whole grounding thing, b) parallels are a lot more aesthetically pleasing when you can see them, but they can come across as repetitive when read, and c) dramatic time shifts like flashbacks are easier to pull off in movies where you can see that characters are visibly younger, but they tend to be disliked by readers, as it tends to disrupt forward momentum.

Intercutting stories with regards to backstory pretty much means you need to be right there with your character to see the backstory unfold. Which means flashbacks.

In some books, flashbacks are a key part of the narrative, especially if it's in a story where time is more fluid. However, if you only have one or two cases where you need to jump back, it has a much greater potential to look lazy. More often than not, it's generally considered a stronger story if you can find a way to intersperse backstory throughout the story.

It also means it's often more interesting to show their backstories, but let the audience come to the conclusion on their own that they're actually kinda parallel, and see how that affects how the characters turn out.

The next thing to consider when maintaining tension is pacing - the pull and push of scenes or even smaller beats that keeps a story dynamic. Even within faster scenes, you have places where you still make your audience wait, or else it'll be over too quick. Slower scenes still need to have some faster bits to maintain forward movement.

Each time you switch povs, you are creating a little bit of waiting time for the "non-active" pov. This is not a guarantee to establish tension, but it does help. To balance it out, make sure what's happening on the page keeps moving. Give your characters time on page to rest sometimes, but largely keep moving forward.

Another thing with pacing for multi-pov is that the longer you bench a certain pov, the longer it takes to get back in their head. So make sure to give all of your pov characters similar page time. They don't have to go in a specific rotation, but they should be balanced.

Some thoughts about making pov shifts that don't disrupt the forward momentum as much:

1 - Establish location before it becomes vital. This is actually something that is key to a lot of action scenes, because nothing breaks tension and immersion like the author saying "oh wait here's this detail that i forgot to tell you until now." Basically, set up the general layout and other necessary details when things are calmer, so the reader has a chance to set up a mental map of the place, and when things are more tense, keep readers spacially grounded by referencing what you've already established.

2 - To make it clear that things are happening at the same time, use references that can pop up in both povs. For example, maybe all the lights go out, or maybe in one scene, a character shoots a gun, and in the next (because pov switch), a character hears a gunshot going off. You're going to want a time, place, and pov reference right away to ground your readers (if you're doing third person, the pov reference could just be saying that person's name), and you're going to want to have a few space and time references as you go through the scene, so that when you do your next pov shift, readers can slot it into the correct chronological spot.

3 - Similarly, make sure that timing matches up. Your audience will notice these things. If two reference points in one pov happen three minutes apart in world, the same reference points have to take three minutes in the other pov too. Something that I HIGHLY suggest is before splitting up your povs, create an outline of what happens from an omnicient point of view, so you can make sure to get characters to the right place in the right amount of time

4 - You don't have to make each character's scene start and stop at the same in world time. This is what makes the aforementioned time references so important. However, if you're going to skip something like a character going from the kitchens to the dungeons because nothing really happens, you have to show that intention before you cut away, or else it's going to take a lot longer to re-establish where a character is.

5 - To keep tension up, mini cliffhangers can work in your favor. Maybe a character gets captured and they're about to discover who his captor is, but then you cut to the other character in a cell, trying to pick the lock before anyone notices.

6 - Remember that in situations like these, your readers will often have a better idea of the overall picture than your characters. If you reveal something in one pov, remember that you don't have to reveal it again in the other, unless it's a means to reveal more necessary information. Going to the example from point 5, maybe in the next scene, the captured character figures out that it's a trap, and that if anyone else walks through the door it will blow up. But the lockpicking one doesn't know that. So she's trying to get there and rescue him. Tension is created both because she has to do it without getting caught, but we as readers would know that if she manages to follow through, it will be devastating. The trick is that the thought shouldn't really cross her mind, because she has no way of knowing it.

7 - Choose your povs with purpose. Does the reader need to know something for the chain of events to keep making sense? Which pov will be privvy to the most knowelege? Does there need to be something ominous (like maybe a body falls past a window), but revealing why that happened would kill some of the suspense? Which pov would reasonably be near the window, but wouldn't be able to see or hear what was happening above? Also consider where it makes sense to bring in povs that haven't been in the spotlight for a little while.

8 - Remember that you can't cut as fast between povs at the same speed you can in movies because of that whole grounding issue. Give each pov at least a full scene to themselves, and sometimes a few so that we can actually see things unfolding, and then switch. If you create things that other povs can reference, even if only in passing, it will still maintain the experience of things happening at the same time.

Hopefully all of this made sense and gives you a better jumping-off point. Happy writing!

#writing #writing advice #writeblr #writing reference #multi pov #action scenes #tension #suspense #writing tips #ask #writing questions #dual pov #long post #movies #fight scenes #escape scenes #spacial grounding #olive's writing vibes

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fluffy-critter · 2 years

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#crosspost #busybee

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voidstilesplease · 3 years

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there you are, and I run

pairing: stiles/theo | rating: M | word count: approx. 5,500 (chapter 5) | tags: Hogwarts AU, Triwizard Tournament, Slytherin!Stiles, Durmstrang!Theo, Magic, Witches and Wizards | warning: sexual content (chapter 5)

summary: The Room Where It Happened of Requirement. That's all.

chapter 5/ Read on AO3

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January 10th – 15 days after the Yule Ball; a month and two weeks before the Second Task

“ In ancient Greek mythology ,” Allison started with a little frown, reading from the tome that Stiles had handed to her as soon as the Slytherin got her alone in an empty classroom. “ – a Siren is a hybrid creature with the body of a bird and the head of a human .” It hadn’t been as easy as Stiles thought, convincing Allison to come with him, which was, really, kind of insulting and maybe a bit gratifying, too (actually, plenty gratifying). She’d warily observed each turn they made even as she focused on Stiles, reading his body movements for any potential assault. Her body was tense the entire trip, arms rigid at the sides, ready to slide her wand out of her sleeve should the need to defend herself arose. If Stiles were Theo, he would understand the suspicion – he would be, too. But what did Allison think Stiles would do to her, seriously ? “ Sirens are dangerous creatures who live on rocky islands and lure sailors to their doom with their sweet song –“ Allison cut off, dropping the book to her lap and raising an exasperated look at Stiles. “Stiles, will you just tell me the point of this?”

Stiles huffed, pushing his back from the door to walk closer. “You French school people are so snooty and impatient.” He muttered as he hopped and situated himself on top of the teacher’s desk, shaking his head lightly. Allison rolled her eyes, mouth twitching a little at the comment, but continued staring pointedly. Stiles exhaled in defeat. “Sirens,” he said, at last, pausing a little. “That’s the next task.”

Allison’s brows furrowed, “Sirens?”

Stiles nodded, reaching inside his pocket for the wing locket – the clue he’d won during the First Task. He showed it to Allison, “I’ve cracked the clue,” he paused, considered it, and amended his statement with a little exhale, “Actually, we’ve cracked the clue – Theo and me.”

The Beauxbatons girl raised both eyebrows at that, looking more skeptical by the second.

“Something about the rune positions, apparently,” Stiles offered in explanation, gesturing at said runes on the locket. “He translated them. And that led to me thinking about the Mirror of Erised at the Room of Requirement . We went there, and the mirror showed me the next task – Sirens.” He crossed his arms, narrowing his eyes a little. “You have heard about both the Mirror of Erised and the Room of Requirement , right?”

Allison bit her lip a little hesitantly, but she nodded. “Lydia has told me about them.”

Stiles knew that. Lydia had mentioned that she had indeed shared to Allison the wonderful mysteries of Hogwarts in exchange for the wonderful mysteries of Beauxbatons. An academic trade was what Lydia called it. She had even suggested that Stiles could use Theo’s inclination for mouthy Slytherin wizards to collect intelligence about Durmstrang and the dark arts. After all, if any school had more mystery than the others, it was Durmstrang Institute. A school that wasn’t on any magical map? Sounds exactly like something right up Lydia and Stiles’s alley indeed. But he had immediately shut her off. Although, if Stiles squinted really hard, he would find he was already doing that, wasn’t he? Not deliberately, no, but all the same. Being around Theo so much, he had already amassed lots about his life in Durmstrang – the rough training they go through, all the commonplace near-death experiences, the impossible expectations sitting in their shoulders, never trusting anyone not to smother you in your sleep. Fun stuff. He had even demonstrated dark magic right in front of Stiles.

“ The Mirror of Erised is a magical mirror that shows the deepest, most desperate desires of the heart.” Allison recited as if repeating the exact words that Lydia had told her. “And the Room of Requirement is a secret room within Hogwarts Castle that only appears when a person is in great need of it.”

“Five points for Beauxbatons.”

Allison rolled her eyes good-naturedly. At least she wasn’t regarding him like a snake about to eat her anymore.

Stiles smiled at her before continuing. “Anyway, that’s how we decoded the clue. We’ve been reading about it for the past two weeks.”

There was a thoughtful look on her face as she silently pondered on the information she was given. Finally, after a long moment, she lifted her eyes and nodded to herself, closing the tome and putting it on the desk before her. “Okay, but why are you telling me?” Allison asked, crossing her arms and raising a questioning brow.

Stiles shrugged. “It seems only fair,” he replied honestly, fastening the locket around his neck. He gave it a soft pat afterward. “Theo knows, I know, so you should, too. Sirens are dangerous creatures.”

“Do you really believe that they are in possession of a live Siren?” Allison gestured at the book. “I know a little about these creatures; we studied them at Beauxbatons, too. They’re truly more mythical than real now, Stiles.”

Stiles nodded in agreement, “And the closest kin we can associate to them are the merfolks, which are very much real .”

“So, the merfolks could be the actual next task?”

Stiles shrugged again, “They’re part of the next task. The last Triwizard tournament coordinated with them for one of the tasks, after all. They could do it again.”

Allison lowered her eyes in thought.

“Look,” Stiles hopped down the desk to stand directly in front of the girl. When she looked up, nibbling on her lower lip, he continued. “I’m not asking you to trust me. I just want you to know, that’s all.”

Allison hummed, giving Stiles a speculative look. Slowly, the slight frown on her lips formed into a smile. “So,” she straightened up, tone light and playful now. “What else did you and the Durmstrang boy do in the Room of Requirement?”

Instantly, Stiles felt his cheeks getting warm. He snatched the book from the table and rushed to say, “ Nothing .”

***

Nothing that he was insane to share with Allison, or anyone else, for that matter.

It had been almost 3 in the morning when the pair of them arrived at the seventh-floor corridor where the door to the Room of Requirement was located. It was harder to escape from pissed Malia and Erica than sober Malia and Erica, apparently. And there was Jackson, completely off his trolley, who attempted the jelly-leg jinx on Theo and backfired tremendously because the tosser had pointed the business end of his wand on himself. They were hollering and hauling Jackson’s body to the sleeping quarters by the time they exited the Slytherin Common Room.

They stopped by a familiar expanse of wall. Theo was the first to break the silence. “Last time we were here, we had an unfinished business.”

Stiles’s lips thinned to a line. He did not want to think about the last time they were there. Especially not after the heated events of the past hour. Stiles was sure that had Jackson not been his usual wanker self, they would have been kissing, tongue and all, right there in the Slytherin Common Room for everyone’s viewing. Or, if they had not been distracted by the wing locket, they would have been horizontal on the bed now, frotting against each other, and Stiles would have lost the challenge – proven to Theo that he had not an ounce of control when it came to him. But they were not there for that . They were on official Triwizard champion duty.

“Last time we were here,” Stiles gritted out, facing away from Theo to hide his inflamed cheeks. “You made up my mind to put my name into the Goblet of Fire.”

Theo scoffed, looking put out, stepping closer so he could confront the side of Stiles’s face. “I told you the exact opposite of that.”

Stiles still refused to look at him directly, choosing to side-eye the Durmstrang boy. “Which is why I did the exact opposite of what you told me.”

There was a brief pause from the other boy before he scoffed again, utterly disbelieving. “You’re so contrary .”

This time, Stiles looked up to meet his eyes in the dimness of the corridor. With a tiny upward tug on the corner of his lips, he repeated Theo’s words from earlier. “It’s part of my charm, though, right?”

Theo did not answer with words. Instead, his eyes fell on Stiles’s lips once more and remaining there until the door to the Room of Requirement appeared.

They both know the answer to their question.

***

When they entered the room, it was like they opened a portal into a dimension filled with all kinds of objects you can think of: broken and functioning, ancient and modern, small and gargantuan, ordinary and dangerous. But the powerful magic surrounding the room, converging from all of the objects it held, even the defectives, was unmissable. It shrouded them like an invisible cloak the moment they entered – as if the very air they breathed was magic. It was very different from the first time they had been there together. Then, there was only a king-sized four-poster bed in the middle of a spacious but otherwise empty room. When Stiles went before that, it was the same, except the bed was sometimes a table and a chair or a cozy settee beside a crackling fire. Now, it was a whole dumpster site of magical items.

There was a wood dresser on the left side overflowing with golden trinkets; hundreds of piles of tomes and parchments; several instruments littered about, including a grand piano with a missing leg, a cello with broken strings, and a rusty harp that was playing music by itself. On their right were potteries in various sizes and shapes and artwork, brimming with sparkling gemstones; a whole cupboard of old broomsticks and random pieces of broken furniture. Even the ceiling had many embellishments hanging up like dozens of old, flickering chandeliers, levitating lamps, and even a lonely, single, time-worn shoe. It was impossible to find anything there – especially something you'd not seen in your life. But the Mirror of Erised was there somewhere, and they had to try. If only Stiles knew a summoning spell that would not call the furniture to crush Theo and him to mangled bones and flesh…

“How are we going to find the mirror?” Theo spoke behind Stiles, gaze wandering the vastness of the room. “This place probably has hundreds of them.”

“The Mirror of Erised is only one,” Stiles responded with more confidence than he actually felt. But he had enough. He already had a mental list of spells they could try. “We’ll find it eventually.”

“Yeah, in a decade, give or take.”

Pursing his lips in annoyance, Stiles turned to Theo. “You can turn back, you know? I’d still tell you the clue.”

“And leave you here alone?” Theo gave him a dry look as if Stiles was daft for even suggesting it. “Yeah, fat chance, babe.”

Stiles sneered at the endearment, but Theo ignored him and walked ahead of Stiles, procuring his wand in his hand. “If you get trapped in here, there are many witnesses that knew I came with you.” Halting in his steps, he wrinkled his nose at Stiles. “I’d rather not be the primary suspect for kidnapping you.”

Stiles snorted, “So you’d rather get stuck?”

“With you,” Theo added smoothly, smiling widely because he knew exactly what that did to Stiles. “That’s the vital bit.”

Stiles wanted to retort with something witty; he was usually good at that. But he wasn’t as sober as he thought he was, it appeared. His brain was still muddled, and Theo was a pretty strong toxin.

Shushing the traitorous uptick in his heartbeat, Stiles rolled his eyes and exhaled a long-suffering sigh. It was not the time.

Pretending he was less affected than he actually was, he took his wand from his pocket and muttered the first spell on his list – an advanced magical-signature tracking spell. Ignoring the wide grin still plastered on Theo’s face, he pushed past the git and barraged deeper into the sea of artefacts without looking back if Theo followed. Of course, he followed. He followed because he was infuriatingly dedicated like that. Dedicated on driving Stiles to the brink.

And Stiles was not far behind.

***

They found the mirror quicker than they expected, which made sense to Stiles because they did seek the help of the Room of Requirement to find it specifically . So, more than likely, the room had opened to the exact section where the Mirror of Erised was nearest. It wasn’t Stiles’s tracking spell that found it, though – not conclusively – but Theo.

Stiles was still walking ahead of the Durmstrang boy, resolutely keeping his distance, as he followed the tug of his magic and checked side-by-side, up-and-down thoroughly, trying his damnest not to pause and gawk at every single fascinating thing he came across. He unveiled every looking glass they passed by, running his tracer magic on each one, hoping to catch a unique signature that would identify the artifact as old, rare, and extremely powerful – anything that would separate it from the other magic in the surrounding. The spell had drawbacks, of course, Stiles recognized that. The room probably had thousands of old, rare, and powerful artefacts (most might even be older than the mirror they came for) – it wouldn’t necessarily isolate the Mirror of Erised from everything with similar magical signatures.

He contemplated switching to the next spell on his list when he heard Theo speak.

“Do you see that?”

Stiles drew away from the set of portraits he accidentally uncovered – everyone in it grumbling and cussing Stiles for disturbing their slumber. Stiles quickly draped the cloth back over them – to look at Theo.

The Durmstrang boy was looking onward, a little farther from where they stood, and Stiles followed his line of sight. All he saw was a darker pathway with more antique broken objects.

“What?”

Theo pointed, “That,” he muttered, walking towards whatever it was that he saw.

Curious, Stiles tailed closely.

Theo had stopped in front of a huge ornate mirror with a gold frame. Stiles inched nearer and almost jumped in glee upon reading the inscription around it: Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi . Unbelievable. It was there; they had found it! A quick tempus charm would confirm that they had only begun searching less than twenty minutes ago. And it was now in their presence!

Stiles grinned, turning to his companion. “This is it! The Mirror of Erised .”

But Theo only stared at the mirror, brows furrowed in deep concentration. Stiles could only see Theo watching his reflection. But from the way his eyes moved around, his face flickering with different emotions (more than he ever saw Theo wear), Stiles quickly realized that the mirror was serving its purpose – showing people their desires. Stiles wondered silently, what could Theo be seeing ? What does someone like him desire the most ? More wealth? Prestige? More possession of the Dark Arts? Does Theo desire something mundane and vague as love and happiness? If so, what scene does he see himself in that includes being in love and happy? Around a family of his own, maybe? A wife, their two-and-a-half children, in a country manor with a vast field of green dragon berry trees?

Stiles broke from his stupor when the Durmstrang boy stepped away from the mirror, eyes alight in awe and trepidation. Then, softly, he chuckled without humor. “This mirror is cursed.”

Stiles glanced at him questioningly. “Because it shows you what you want?”

Theo turned to him, face set in a hard expression. He almost looked pained. “Because it shows you what you want that you evidently can’t have.”

Their eyes met, and Stiles saw the yearning and defeat in Theo’s. It was probably the most earnest he’d ever seen Theo. Something had truly rattled him. What did he see ? He thought again. What did the mirror show him that he – who, on the face of it, has everything – desires so much because he believes he can’t have it ?

Stiles shook his head and replied, “You don't know that,” He pressed on even as Theo scoffed. “If you want something enough, Theo, you devise means to achieve it.”

“Even at the expense of everything else?” Theo challenged.

“Yeah!” Stiles cried out. “Who said ambitions were always smart?”

There was a moment’s pause following Stiles’s statement before Theo lowered his eyes. Stiles wanted to say something sarcastic to break the ice – he wasn’t used to Theo like this – but he didn’t think it would be helpful at the moment. When it became apparent that Theo wasn’t going to say anything more, Stiles decided to take his previous position and face the Mirror of Erised as they came to do. Anyway, if Theo allowed it, they could talk about… feelings , after. Although Stiles reckoned Theo would probably pretend this moment of vulnerability didn’t happen once they were out in the real world, he was oddly hopeful. Because it actually felt nice, even if he would never admit it out loud, to be the only one to see Theo this way. At least, he thought he was the only one.

Stiles internally sighed and shook his head. Emotions were so weird . He was never not conflicted having them – too many and too foreign and always in-between.

He cleared his throat and stood before the mirror, forcing his mind to clear. He heard Theo shuffle behind him but otherwise remained silent, watching Stiles as Stiles had done with him earlier.

Stiles swallowed, taking a deep breath, and barred any other thoughts in his mind apart from one – his longing to win the Triwizard tournament. His victory during the First Task ignited it fully; he wasn’t just in it for the thrill – he wanted the galleons, the look of awe and jealousy directed to him, the pride, the fame, the glory. He wanted to emerge victorious on the other side. And he was going to get that if he knew how to arm himself for the Second Task. He would know how to arm himself if the mirror showed him what he would need to arm himself against. The mirror could show him.

He repeated it inside his head like an incantation.

Soon enough, his reflection started distorting, forming vague shapes like images through water, until it became a vision of him brandishing the Triwizard Cup in the air as fireworks of silver and green erupted in the sky. It was quick, but it brought the biggest grin on his face, then the mirror cleared once more. He was about to think “ that’s it ?” when the wing locket around his neck began unfurling. Stiles’s eyes widen, and his hand immediately flew to the jewelry. When he looked down, however, it was still the same: a pair of wings enclosed together, cold on his skin.

He looked up to the mirror, but his reflection was holding an opened locket. Stiles gaped in astonishment.

“Do you see anything?” Theo asked, stepping forward.

Stiles nodded, eyes still fixed on the figure inside the mirror.

Faintly, the runes glowed, and so did the encryptions that Theo’s spell created on the locket. Listen to the desire of the heart . Belatedly, Stiles thought that the opened locket now resembled a heart, actually. Then slowly, Stiles’s reflection raised the unfurled locket to his ear and held it there. Confused, Stiles mimicked and brought the golden wings to his hear.

Merlin’s fruit basket , Stiles swore, but he could hear whispers from within the locket! Listen to the desire of the heart – Stiles wanted to laugh out loud because that was almost too literal, wasn’t it? Excitedly, he pressed the locket more firmly to his ear, but the melodious whispers, almost as if singing to him, stayed garbled and incomprehensible. He started getting pissed after a moment – he, unfortunately, didn’t speak nonsense – until he caught on to a specific word: Seirḗn .

A Siren.

***

“The next task is a Siren ?” Theo asked dubiously, as they were tracing back to the exit.

“It makes sense, actually,” Stiles replied, glancing sideways at Theo, and his mind wandering to each clue, making sense of them now. “First, this is a wing locket. Sirens are depicted as half-woman half-bird hybrids. Then, when the wings open, it forms into the shape of a heart. The rune on the locket says: ‘ listen to the desire of the heart ’. And sirens are mythical creatures known to sing the yearnings of a person to lure them to their death.” Theo nodded along to his points, brows drawn together in musing. “And now this .” Stiles opened his palm to reveal a small, white object.

Right after Stiles heard his final and most concrete clue, the Mirror of Erised returned to being a simple looking glass, and the wing locket in Stiles’s hand pried open unprompted. A white object fell from the locket and into Stiles’s curious hand.

Theo looked down at it, wrinkling nose. “What’s that?”

“Wax.”

“ Wax ?”

“For noise-canceling,” Stiles explained, giving Theo a dull look. “It was what ancient Greeks used to survive a Siren’s song. You should know it since you apparently read Greek literature.”

Theo returned the look with a mild glare. “I know about that . It's why I also know that a tiny glob of it won’t do any good. It doesn’t even look like there’s enough for one ear.”

“I can make additional, Theo,” Stiles answered, already mentally listing ingredients he thought would be needed. “But obviously, it’ll take time. Thank Merlin, we have over a month to get ready. And we also have to read more about Sirens.”

“Hurray.”

They fell into silence, Stiles drawing a plan inside his head and Theo wordlessly walking beside him. He was more or less back to classic Theo – Stiles was convinced that the brief moment they shared would be pushed down to forgotten lane – and though a part of him was disappointed, it might be for the best. If Stiles were hard-pressed on not crossing the line, then confiding weaknesses should be out of the trade. This tension between them was frustrating, but it was safe. Safe was okay. Safe was preferable.

Suddenly, he found himself being shoved to a wall. He was too surprised and tired – it was past three in the morning – to react quickly. He grunted softly, but the impact hardly hurt. One of Theo’s hands cushioned his head protectively, and he only stared wide-eyed as Theo pushed closer and caged Stiles between a random wall and his body. His really hot body – Merlin, he was a furnace. He knew the Durmstrang delegates could create sparks with the tip of their magic canes, but Theo could make fire . Stiles saw it – many, many times after the Welcome Feast. Theo was always eager to demonstrate. He enjoyed watching Stiles’s open-mouthed response and the way his eyes would glaze over. Theo was always burning, and Stiles would have complained if only the burn didn’t feel perfect.

He only hoped he wasn’t leaning against temperamental portraits who cursed in seven languages because then, it wouldn’t be as perfect.

“What are you doing?” He hissed, but his hands grappled on both sides of Theo’s waist, the wax still clutched in one.

Theo’s other hand curled around Stiles’s neck and started playing with the tips of his hair. His eyes locked on Stiles. “You said that if I wanted something enough, I would have to make ways to get it.”

Stiles’s pulse quickened. “Your heart’s greatest desire isn’t seriously to have sex with me.” He tried to sound jeering, but he had turned into a gasping mess. One of Theo’s knees had parted his legs and pressed their lower halves together.

“No,” Theo’s hot breath fanned across Stiles’s face, his calloused thumb caressing Stiles’s jaw, and his voice dropped to a whisper. “But I want you badly, nonetheless.”

--------

hello! I've reached the maximum limit for a long post, apparently (didn't know there was one!), so I had to cut the scene. Sorry. If you wanna continue reading, it's on AO3! If not, thank you for still reaching this part!

Byeee 🖤

#steo #teen wolf #stiles stilinski #theo raeken #stiles x theo #hogwarts au #fics tag #after 9 months here's an update heh

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