#mass effect build guide

[swaps55]

Mass Effect Vanguard Guide

Other Guides: Guide to Basic Infiltrating | Shield Gate and YOU | Adept Guide | Sentinel Guide | Soldier Guide |

First and foremost, this is exactly what it says: a guide. It is not the right way to play this class; it is a way that I have found very effective after well over a thousand hours spent running different builds and different classes in campaign and ME3 Multiplayer. If you build it differently and like your style better, great! If you are having fun, you’re doing it right.

But if you are struggling at all with the Vanguard class or don’t click with it, this guide might help you. The build, loadout, and strategy are designed with higher difficulties in mind. This kit can easily make quick work of insanity and is a lot of fun if you enjoy using your face as a weapon.

THE BUILD

Shepard has 8 skill trees + a Bonus Power. At Rank 60, you can max out 8 skills and have enough points leftover to take the 9th to level 4. For this build, I recommend only taking Cryo Ammo to rank 4 (or skipping it entirely), and maxing everything else. 

Prioritize Charge, Nova, Incendiary Ammo, Assault Mastery, and probably a few points in Fitness here and there.  

Breakdown under the cut! 

Incendiary Ammo: Incendiary ammo might be one of the most brokenly overpowered skills in the game. The explosive evolution adds a flat damage value vs. a percentage on every other shot, which is insane. On rapid fire weapons that do less damage per shot, like the Tempest or the Typhoon, you're basically doubling the amount of damage you're doing. Add the area of effect you get with the explosion? You're now inflicting this chaos on anyone else who’s nearby. Are you using a piercing mod (the answer should be yes)? You now have a shot at another roll for another explosion, because the damage call can pass through the armored target and torment the cannon fodder behind it. A piercing mod reduces the damage on your bullet, but not the explosion. This is super insane on shotguns, because you get a shot at the extra damage roll per pellet, not per shot. Shotgun blasts have multiple pellets per shot.

Have I mentioned that this is affected by increases in power damage? So any power damage increases you take in Assault Mastery make incendiary ammo better.

Rank 4 – Damage. To hell with your squad. I mean, your squad is amazing. But trust me, you want to be selfish with incendiary ammo. You can do so much more with it than your squad can.

Rank 5 – Are you handy with headshots? Take Headshot damage. Would you rather have more ammo capacity? Take Ammo Capacity. Whatever makes you happy.

Rank 6 – Explosive Burst. Always take explosive burst. There is no universe in which you want anything other than explosive burst.

Cryo Ammo: This is your dump stat. I don’t even put my leftover points in cryo ammo, because the circumstances in which you would choose cryo ammo over incendiary ammo do not exist, if you are going for maximizing damage. Cryo ammo is really nothing more than a debuff, and you know what’s better than a debuff? Killing it. Now, if you just want to snicker at enemies with a health bar freezing solid and toppling over, that’s different. 😊 But when it comes to higher difficulties, cryo ammo just doesn’t stand up to the effectiveness of other ammo powers.  

Pull: Pull doesn’t provide nearly as much benefit as your other skills, so I suggest speccing into it last. It can, however, be a fun way to toy with mooks if you’re bored of scattering them like ninepins, and offer an alternative for dealing with Guardians if emptying a shotgun full of fire into their mail slot doesn’t quite do it for you. Pull will also prime biotic explosions. It’s not elegant, but you can do it.

Rank 4: Duration vs. Radius: I go for Radius, because as a Vanguard nothing stays alive long enough for duration to matter. But if you are having trouble with timing to get biotic explosions, you can choose Duration here.

Rank 5: Lift Damage vs. Expose: Go for Expose, which increases all damage to the target, including biotic detonations. Again, things don’t stay alive long enough for lift damage to do much for you.  

Rank 6: Recharge Speed vs. Double Pull. DOUBLE PULL. Why would you choose one pull when you can have two? This skill already has one of the fastest recharge speeds in the game, so choosing recharge speed doesn’t gain you anything.

Biotic Charge: Biotic charge, of course, is the signature skill of the vanguard, and while there are plenty of playstyles you can use that don’t hinge on charge…why would you? Charge is stupidly fun. You can be reckless, silly, and stupid, and no one can stop you. You’ll make so many things explode you can hear colors. There isn’t a problem your face can’t solve, unless the problem is on a platform out of bounds.

Charge is also a detonator power, which means you can set up biotic explosions by painting a target with warp, reave, dark channel, and even pull, and then slamming your face into it. Charge will also create a fire explosion when you ram your face into something that’s on fire from incinerate or….incendiary ammo. Hey, who has incendiary ammo and can make their own fire explosions? VANGUARDS. 

Rank 4: Force & Damage vs. Radius. Dealer’s choice. Do you want to smash for face against one thing with all the force? Or smash your face against all the things with less force? ME3 tends to emphasize cannon fodder over high tier enemies, so if you’re a little shy about running straight into the arms of a banshee and prefer to use yourself as a bowling ball into a pile of husks, go for radius. Otherwise, go for damage.

Rank 5: Weapon Synergy vs. Power Synergy. For most playstyles, power synergy is what you want here, especially if you like to spam Nova, as power synergy makes your nova hit harder. However, if you prefer to charge into something and then stick your shotgun down its throat to set it on fire with fire bullets, take weapon synergy.

Rank 6: Bonus Power vs. Barrier: I recommend barrier here, because the number one problem vanguards have is not giving a fuck, and having charge give you your shields back when not giving a fuck lands you in a sticky situation will generally save your life. Also, the cooldowns on this kit are so fast you really don’t benefit that much from randomly getting a free one to justify giving up those shields you really need because nova.

Shockwave: Shockwave is another detonator for biotic explosions, and it’s a handy mid-range attack when you’re stuck in cover or don’t want ravager goo all over your face.

Rank 4: Force & Damage vs. Radius: Shockwave’s biggest weakness is its short reach, so I choose radius here. NOTE: In the Original Trilogy, this skill is bugged on PC. Choosing radius actually causes this skill to do ZERO damage. So if you are playing OT on PC, choose Force. This bug appeared to be fixed in LE when I tested it.

Rank 5: Detonate vs. Reach: While reach would be great, because again, range is this skill’s biggest shortcoming, detonating combos is what makes shockwave so good. I recommend detonate, unless you find yourself not using it for explosions.

Rank 6: Recharge vs. Lifting Shockwave: Either one will work here, really. Lifted shockwave is cute, and can help you set up explosions, so I tend to choose it.

Nova: The companion skill to Charge! A lot of people are afraid of Nova because it depletes your shields. But I encourage you to practice with it, because if you get comfortable with the pattern of charge + nova + shoot it on fire until it’s dead, there isn’t much of anything a vanguard can’t handle.

Yes, even banshees.

Rank 4:  Force and Damage vs. Radius: You can choose either here, though I will give the lean towards force and damage. If something manages to evade the radius, stick a fire shotgun down their throat to make them think about what they’ve done.

Rank 5: Power Recharge vs. Half Blast: I recommend power recharge here, because decreasing the effectiveness of nova means it dies slower, and Power Recharge speed increases your recharge speed by 25% across the board for 15 seconds. That means CHARGE recharges faster. Which means you can lock yourself in a continuous loop of faster recharge by charging and nova-ing until everything is dead. Remember, this kit does not have a grenade power because SHEPARD is the grenade. Realize your full potential and blow everything up.  

Rank 6: Pierce vs. Sustain: Don’t be tempted by Sustain, and the allure of sometimes not using up your barrier. Choose Pierce. Not only does this make you more effective vs. Armor and Barriers, but also shields, which is something biotics aren’t great at. If you feel naked without your shields, remember you have a FIRE GUN that can protect you until Charge is primed and ready to give you your shields back, and Rank 5 means that recharge is faster.

Assault Mastery: Here’s where things get stupid. Assault Mastery makes all your badass shit even more badass.

Rank 4: Damage vs. Influence & Force: I understand that the Influence bonus is really attractive here, but we’re focusing a build that services combat, not story, and Damage brings you to a 20% power bonus vs. the 10% if you choose I&F. Remember, power damage not only affects your biotic powers, but also your ammo power. Remember how stupid Incendiary Ammo is? This makes it stupider.

Rank 5: Squad Bonus vs. Weight Capacity: Be selfish. Your squad is great, but Shepard is a god, and do you know how your make gods even more badass? Let them bring heavier guns.

Rank 6: Shotgun Damage vs. Power Intensity: Even if you primarily use a shotgun and don’t rely heavily on powers, the 20% power damage bonus from Power Intensity is better, because it also applies to Incendiary Ammo. And it gives you the freedom to use other guns if you want to.

Fitness: Let’s make this short and sweet: As a vanguard, you are not punching things with your fists, you are punching things with your face, so for ranks 4, 5, & 6, go Durability, Barrier Recharge, and Durability.

Bonus Power: I recommend any biotic power that sets up combos, since setting up combos is what Vanguards are not great at. Between Reave and Dark Channel, I prefer reave, because you can paint multiple targets, it staggers the target, it stacks, and it gives you damage reduction. I do NOT recommend Flare. While it is a really cool power, it has a painfully slow recharge speed, and vanguards need to move fast.

Reave:

Rank 4: Duration vs. Radius: I choose radius, to paint more targets. It’s not gonna live long enough for duration to matter.

Rank 5: Damage Reduction vs. Recharge Speed: The recharge speed is a little painful, so if you aren’t having trouble staying alive, you can choose it. If you’re dying, damage reduction will help.

Barriers & Armor vs. Damage & Duration: You can go either way here, but I prefer Barriers & Armor, because you can fire a reave at a banshee and then ignore her while you go bowling with the cannon fodder. When all your toys are dead, you can then ram your face into the banshee so she explodes.     

The Weapons

The weight capacity bonus you can get from Assault Mastery means Shepard can be this powerful and carry some REALLY good guns. I recommend weapons with a high rate of fire to take advantage of Incendiary Ammo. Shotguns are the obvious choice, but any weapon with a high rate of fire that keeps you close to or at a 200% cooldown is good.

My favorites are the Piranha and the Hurricane, the latter of which can take advantage of a power mag bonus. But since you are already giving up a valuable mod slot for the power mag, if you need a stabilizer to use it comfortably, I’d recommend going with something else. The Talon is a good choice because it is lightweight, fires quickly enough, and it has a damage bonus to shields and barriers. Basically, it’s a pocket shotgun. The Reegar is a weapon that can be REALLY dumb, since it melts shields, and it benefits from a piercing mod, but its drawback is that it is very short range on a class that already struggles at range. If you want to use it, I suggest the piercing and thermal clip mods.

Speaking of the range issue. I have two words for you: The Indra.

The Indra is an automatic sniper rifle, one of the absolute best weapons in the game, and Shepard can carry it and STILL HAVE A 200% COOLDOWN. Also? It costs 10k credits on the Citadel at the beginning of the game. Is it counterintuitive to carry a sniper rifle on a Vanguard? Yup. Is it immersion breaking? Possibly. But remember, this is a combat guide, not a story guide. Put the Indra on Shepard with Incendiary Ammo, and congrats! You are now invincible.

How to Play

Vanguard is a high risk/high reward class. It’s designed to play fast and at close range, so if you are trying to play it like an adept, you might not get good results. Get comfortable playing with your shields down (you’ll get them back with the next charge), don’t be stingy with medigel, and don’t fret too much about top tier enemies like phantoms and banshees. You might occasionally get sync killed, but truthfully, your damage output is so high you can often stagger them out of their murderous intent. Even turrets can’t stand up to this kit:

Turn on incendiary ammo the moment you load into a mission and leave it on. I suggest mapping charge, nova, and reave (if it’s your bonus power) to the hotkeys so you don’t have to use the power wheel for each, and make it a muscle memory. Charge everything. Nova with impunity. Shoot everything that isn’t dead until they’re on so much fire they wish they were. Use the power wheel to pause the game and get your bearings or figure out what’s shooting you. Use your squadmates to either strip shields or set up biotic explosions. Use and abuse combat roll to get out of trouble if charge is on cooldown. If you’re about to die, charge first, then medigel. Reload canceling is your friend. (If you are not familiar with reload canceling, I plan to make a post about it.)

A vanguard should rarely stop moving, except for the occasional stint behind cover to regroup, reload your gun, or set up an explosion. If you stop charging, you’ll probably die.

This class is a hell of a lot of fun if you let it off the chain and go hog wild. Don’t be afraid to die. Taking the risk – even if it doesn’t pay off all the time – helps you get comfortable with the batshit playstyle if it’s not something you’re used to.

I love all the Mass Effect classes, but this one is my favorite because this is how I really love to play the game. I hope this guide helps!  

#mass effect #vanguard guide #mass effect build guide #vanguards: we punch with our faces

[cdlum]

I just wanted to say I think your art style is awesome! I was wondering if you had any tutorials on how you draw anatomy in your style (hips and legs especially)? Sorry if there's already one posted and I just didn't see it 🥲. Happy New Year :>

thanks for the kind words. i tend to draw people pretty stylized and then some so a good bit of artistic licence gets used. these tips are just what i use so feel free to take them with a grain of salt. with anatomy in particular you can kind of talk in circles because human/animal bodies are that complex so ill just zone in on the points you specified. here's a little image with a bunch of pointers:

the above image condenses a lot of the points I'd make, but basically the key parts are to start with the bare essentials and build up that complexity. using a line of action is a good way to get a quick, rough start. you draw a line out in the general direction of the pose and do your best to adhere to it to give the pose a sense of flow.

you can also draw smaller, thumbnail versions that throw a lot of caution to the wind but capture the basic energy of what you're going for. even having a tiny little stick figure version of your idea can make for a good guideline of where to take it forward.

when it comes to actual limbs, you wanna consider how they integrate and work together, kind of like how chains do. you can see on some of the parts of pear i've drawn out these wireframes to kind of portray how the mass of her legs works in a three dimensional space. for aspects like the waist/hips, i use that X technique i highlight above a lot, particularly for the lower torso. a lot of the times, even when drawing a character totally naked, imagining them wearing things like skintight underwear can help a lot to guide you in the right direction.

its also a good idea to consider things like gravity and weight to a degree. humans are essentially big meat sacks and gravity is always pulling down on that, but theres all kinds of aspects that effect that, such as character build or clothing. pear technically isn't naked in this, but i've tried to imagine her as such and take that into account.

if you are drawing digitally, don't be afraid to take advantage of the convenience you get with that workflow. you can retry and iterate on things a lot faster that pen and paper, and do things that aren't really feasible at all when it comes to editing and modifying your existing work. things like resizing certain bodyparts, instantly flipping the canvas, or using selection tools to completely adjust the positions of parts of your drawing. to give you an example heres a timelapse with all the little edits i made just to this demo drawing:

you don't have to use these techniques linearly, either. sometimes ill have a really solid idea for a piece in my head, and go back to basics with certain elements if they’re not coming out right or i just want to brush them up a bit more. some of the tutorial-y parts i added in i didn't actually use during the drawing but often do use so they're there just for demonstration. not every drawing i do starts as building blocks or a really basic version, often ill just start with a face and build it out from there.

i always encourage liberally using references (this can include yourself) and trying out stuff like life drawing or looking at things like existing photographs of real people/places/things if you can, the more you use learning material the better you'll draw up a mental inventory in your head that you can rely on more and more. some of these tips are things i've learned from other artists over the years (the chin one especially i remember seeing a tutorial about lol), so this is a lot of knowledge i've amassed from other sources over time myself. there are plenty of times ill use all sorts of reference material and its all in service of arriving at the final destination as smoothly as possible. learn by doing, as they say. hope this helps!

#tutorial #2024

[befuddled-calico-whump]

✨Content Tagging Guide✨

disclaimer: this is not directed at anyone, nor was it sparked because I've seen anyone mistagging anything. I just like lists and I'm going to make it everyone's problem :)

So you wanna write a story with darker themes, but are mayhaps a little uncertain about all the different content warnings you've seen.

Not to worry! Hopefully this quick guide will clear things up. To illustrate each level, I'm going to use macaroni and cheese as the content example. Without further ado...

cw: macaroni and cheese

^^this warning is very general. It tells the reader the content will show up at some point within the text, but doesn't specify the detail, use, or extent.

cw: macaroni and cheese (mentioned)

They drove through town, past the busy main street, and the factory where the local brand of macaroni and cheese got its packaging.

This warning tells readers the content will be mentioned; maybe in dialogue, or in a description, but not explored in detail.

cw: macaroni and cheese (discussed)

"I'm lactose intolerant," he said. "So I can't---well, I shouldn't eat stuff like that."

"But you did anyway?" they pressed. "I'm sorry, just... How did it feel? After?"

"Awful. I really should've listened to my common sense and ordered something besides mac and cheese."

As you'd expect, this warning tells the reader that the content will be discussed, either in conversation, or through a character's thoughts. Discussions can involve the moral implications of the content, how the content fits within the world, philosophies relating to the content, and the emotional or lasting effects of the content on a character.

cw: macaroni and cheese (referenced)

He tapped her shoulder. "Hey, I didn't see you after work yesterday, you okay?"

"Fine now," she said, shrugging. "I just had a bad batch of mac and cheese for lunch."

Very similar to "mentioned", this warning often implies a non-explicit, non-graphic mention of the content.

cw: macaroni and cheese (implied)

He frowned down at the bowl, then averted his eyes, appetite lost by the gooey yellow mass inside, and the heavy, creamy smell wafting off it.

This warning tells readers that the content is not outright stated, but the character's reactions and actions imply what's going on. If you could remove the context from the scene/paragraph in question and make it look like something else is happening, you probably have implied content. Note that there is a difference between simply "implied", and "heavily implied".

cw: macaroni and cheese (fade to black)

She took her seat at the table, queasiness building in her stomach. Her least-favorite food was to be served, and while she knew it would be rude to decline it, she wasn't looking forward to lunch. As the dreaded bowl was placed before her, she picked up the fork, and plunged it in.

Similar to implied, but instead of carrying on through the scene the content takes place in, fade to black builds up to the moment, and stops, often transitioning to the next scene before the content is given any kind of detail.

cw: macaroni and cheese (non-explicit)

For lunch, he was served a bowl of mac and cheese, one of his least favorite meals. He choked it down anyway, and hoped he wouldn't get an upset stomach.

This tells the reader the content will be present in some form, but not described in detail. It may have some active bearing on the character or plot, but won't be particularly graphic. While the character may be emotionally affected after the fact, the content itself is glossed over.

cw: macaroni and cheese (explicit)

The bowl was placed in front of him, steam still rising from the substance inside. He knew what it was before he looked. Mac and cheese. And he'd have to devour the entire bowl of it. He lifted the first forkful, strands of yellow cheese trailing from squishy curved noodles, all the way back into the bowl, even as he raised it to his mouth. Damn, it was extra cheesy. He knew his lactose intolerance just wouldn't hold up.

This is often used as the heaviest warning, telling readers that the content and the characters' reactions to it will be described in detail.

Again, this was something I mostly just wrote for fun, and to dramatize mac and cheese but I do hope someone out there finds it helpful. Let me know if there's a type I missed! :)

#most of this is commonly known but I Like List #writing reference #whump community #whump meta #writing resources #content guide

[stolas-bgw]

Play the Sidequests You Coward

Final Fantasy XVI is a litmus test for the patience gamers have for a story and worldbuilding.

FFXVI has got it's issues, it's combat is a bit over-reliant on the power of the dominant moves and is a little brain dead. It's crafitng system is... clearly forced in? Like the game did not NEED a crafting system and would probably be exactly the same without it. Late game the combat effects begin to obscure the screen and meld together so it gets to be a little difficult to tell what's going on.

That being said, the one and most common critique of FFXVI as being "objectively bad" are the sidequests. A critique I wholly disagree with and, to be honest, am sick and tired of hearing. When I see a reviewer critique the side quests as being boring and tearing away from the experience of the game, all I hear is "I didn't watch the cutscenes."

These quests are not just "collect 3 nuts, get shitty XP, and move on." These quests are world building and story fleshing out events. Some of the best stories are tucked away in these "fetch quests." These stories make the main quest feel MORE EPIC, MORE IMPACTFUL, not less.

As some have pointed out, CBUIII, the team that made FFXIV, clearly took their design for side quests from XIV and put it inot XVI. Except that's not true. They didn't take the structure for it's side quests, they took the structure from their main quests. FFXIV's main quest is filled with "go fetch 3 things," "go talk to X people," "hold my hand and give me a guided tour of X area." And to some people, these quests are "pointless filler." But to the people who are actually invested in FFXIV's story, you know these quests are ESSENTIAL to making the story as emotionally ressonant as it is.

The same is true for the sidequests in FFXVI. These quests feel as though they SHOULD be mandatory, not optional. But because FFXVI is a more mass-appealing game, CBUIII knew that not everyone would have the patience for dealing with these seemingly mundane issues. It was the correct move to make these sidequests. But they are anything but side content.

The sidequests are not boring fetchquests that give shit xp. They are story quests that flesh out the world of Valisthea, the people of the world, and Clive as a character. They show you why Clive fights for the right to live and die as you choose, they give the message of the game texture and depth. The main quests WORKS on it's own, but the side quests really elevate it, if you give them the time of day.

These are incredibly well written, emotionally resonant, and important missions that I am sick and tired for being compared to "shitty MMO quests." This isn't WoW where you help a random guy kill 40 boars and you never see them again. You getting that food to those people MATTER. Those people needed someone like them to reach out to them, or they may have had a much harder time integrating into a new life. Clive needed to see how horrible the world could be through the eyes of a child raised by a corrupt system. CLIVE would give a shit about the people who work for him and help them out when he can. He would want to LEARN about the people who are risking their lives day in and day out to help make their vision become reality.

Can some of the side quests feel boring? Sure. But that's kind of the point. These quests are grounded in reality and tedioum of life. Not nearly as much as in FFXIV, but still enough that it DOES test your patience and appreciation of the story and world. If you don't like that, that's ok it's why it's side content. But these quests ARE NOT MMO fetch quests. They matter and make the story better for existing.

#FFXVI #final fantasy 16 #final fantasy XVI #ffxvi spoilers #I know no one is gonna read this but jfc I had to get this off my chest #I've seen one too many ciritques calling the sidequests mmo fetch quests and it drove me up the wall #ff16 #ff16 spoilers

[catsharky]

I've just discovered your Rolan x Tav comic.

It's SO neat and accurate, in matter of deign and details!

In case you don't mind, of course, I have some questions you maybe have answered before:

What software do you work with? What kind of pencils do you use? How do you manage to set so neat and clean results? Do you need many references for that or is just a gift you have? How many years have you been drawing to achieve those results?

I don't mind at all! And I don't believe I've answered any of these questions before, at least not since I started doing my comics.

For software I mainly use Clip Studio, though I do also use PaintTool Sai (v2) for certain things that I feel it does better. All of my Mass Effect comics are lined in Sai, for example because things like armour have a lot more inorganic shapes and require long, sweeping, unbroken lines, and I like the pen stabilization in Sai far better than CSP's for that sort of thing.

For how long I've been doing art, I've been at it basically nonstop since I was 9 (so 20 years now, jeez). I was in an art program throughout highschool, went to college for art/animation for 4 years, and I'll have been working professionally as an animator for 8 years in May! So there's a lot of practice there for sure.

And yeah, I use a ton of references. Usually a good chunk of the time I'll spend on something is just collecting or making the reference material I need for it.

I'm putting the rest under a read more because it's pretty long:

(Tumblr keeps eating my formatting so sorry if this is a little scuffed)

Because I'm normally working full time and doing this stuff in my free time after hours and on weekends, if I know I'm going to be drawing something a *lot*, I'll usually put together some kind of reference for myself in 3D so I can take some of the brainwork out of it and get more out of my evenings even when I'm feeling fried. It also means I put as little extra strain on my wrist as possible because I injured it a number of years back and it gets angry at me if I go for too many hours in a day.

But to give you an example, for Ember I have a Sculpt of her head that I can use to reference any angle I want, or to draw directly over top of for tricky angles. How I draw her isn't quite 1:1 to the model, but it gives me a base structure and landmarks I can build on top of.

My basic workflow is to take the angle I want, draw over it using the model as a guide (while picking and choosing where to stay true to it and where to say fuck it and do what I want), then I get rid of the 3D and do another pass, tweaking and redrawing anything I'm not totally happy until I'm satisfied with how it looks. I draw Ember with a slightly softer, more rounded face than the model has, for instance. Just because something looks right in 3D doesn't always mean it looks right once translated to 2D and I don't care if something is technically "correct" if it doesn't feel right or isn't conveying what I want it to properly.

I'm also always checking reference screenshots to make sure I'm in the right ballpark of how something should look. I actually have a wall of photos next to my desk and while I didn't put them up for that purpose, it has come in surprisingly handy for quickly checking face or hair details when needed. I also just have a big folder of screenshots and other saved reference material.

I don't have a problem noooo~ 😅

Additionally, if my art has a background these days, there is a 100% chance that's a 3D set I built in Blender because I hate drawing backgrounds, but I do like building them in 3D.

Here's two examples: the area around Astarion's bed, which I built out of some of the in-game assets like a lego set (this was a pain in the ass, it probably would have been faster to just build it from scratch based on screenshots 😩) and a closet I modelled for something that's still a WIP.

I'll get the angle I want, have Blender generate some linework from it and then grab a basic render of it to slap into CSP so I can draw the characters over top of it.

And as for brushes: the main brush I use in CSP is just the default 'Real G-Pen', with opacity effects turned off and these pressure settings: (I like to keep it simple, and I have a bit of a heavy hand so the altered pen pressure just helps me get a smoother taper). I change up the stabilizer settings depending on what I'm doing. Lower for things that need short, quick lines like hair and higher for most other things.

For Sai, I use a 9B pencil I found a number of years ago on Deviantart (I think?) and I wish I could link you to the original post I got the settings from, but Deviantart's search is... bad and I'm unable to find it again.

I hope that answered all your questions! If not, feel free to ask more!

#not sharky art #jlbilu #sharky speaks #process talk

[felassan]

Article: 'Exclusive: Connie Booth, One of the Chief Architects of PlayStation's First-Party Studio System, Is Joining EA'

Veteran executive spent more than 30 years at Sony before her departure in 2023.

Excerpt:

"Former PlayStation executive Connie Booth, one of the chief architects of PlayStation's first-party strategy before her unexpected departure in 2023, is joining EA to help lead its studios amid its ongoing restructure. Booth's title will be Group General Manager, Action RPG, with a portfolio that will include EA Motive (Iron Man), Cliffhanger (Black Panther), and BioWare (Dragon Age, Mass Effect). She will report directly to EA Entertainment head Laura Miele. "Connie spent more than 30 years helping to build Sony Interactive Entertainment’s internal studios and is responsible for guiding the development of some of their biggest franchises, including Marvel’s Spider-Man 1 & 2, The Last of Us, Ghost of Tsushima, Uncharted, Ratchet and Clank, to name just a few," Miele said in a statement. "She is known for having created an incredible developer-first culture and supporting creative vision while driving innovation. I have known Connie for many years and have always been impressed by her love and commitment to games. She especially cares about game developers. She has an impeccable reputation within the development community and will undoubtedly have a positive impact on our games." [...] Booth's hiring points to EA's desire to replicate some of PlayStation's current exclusives strategy, in which it has found success with large-scale single-player games such as God of War and Spider-Man. In initiating its current restructure, EA has said that it is prioritizing its own franchises and that one of its pillars is "blockbuster storytelling" — an area in which Booth has considerable experience. One of Booth's major tasks will be revitalizing BioWare, which is hoping that Dragon Age: Dreadwolf will reverse its fortunes after Anthem and Mass Effect: Andromeda. BioWare suffered painful layoffs in 2023 and its next entry in the Mass Effect franchise remains in pre-production."

[source]

[source]

#dragon age: dreadwolf #dragon age 4 #the dread wolf rises #da4 #dragon age #bioware #video games #mass effect #next mass effect #long post #longpost #mass effect: andromeda #anthem

[justrandomfanfictionskh]

We Should Have Stayed in Gotham ch2

(Almost every Maribat fic I read has the akuma class going to Gotham. But tell me which is more likely, a class touring the city of crime, or a class touring the city of lights? So here it is, the Daminette fic that only I asked for, where Gotham goes to Paris, and the poor students have to grapple with the fact that they have competition for the most dangerous city in the world. I wonder what will happen?)

ao3 Beginning

Once all the Parisians were gone, the mutterings began. It seemed to Damian that the class was divided into three groups. One was the group who were actually taking the threat seriously. The other was the group that still thought this was all some sort of massive joke, or prank. And then there was the group in the middle, who simply didn’t care. “We’re from Gotham!” a girl from this group said. “We can handle whatever magical bullshit this is. Whether it’s a prank or not doesn’t matter! Just download the apps and let’s go.”

Everyone obeyed as the teachers handed out phones to the under privileged students, and then they filed back to the bus. As they moved amid a series mutterings, scoffing, and nervous glancing, Damian Wayne had drawn in on himself in contemplation. On the one hand, this whole situation seemed ridiculous. Magic Butterflies? Seriously? But then again, Damian had seen stranger. His ex-girlfriend was a half demon from a magic dimension. His best friend was half alien. Magic butterflies turning people into villains was not outside of the realm of possibility. No, what really bothered him, was the Justice League.

Assuming for a moment that this “Hawkmoth” was every bit as dangerous and threatening as those girls had described, then where was the Justice League. Why hadn’t they gotten involved? Did they even know about this? He doubted it, but his father did not tell him everything. It made him furrow his brow in confusion. There was just something not adding up here. And Damian had to be prepared for whatever it was. So he pulled out his phone and began to peruse the websites, his survival guide recommended.

 The first conclusion he came to, was that this was not a prank. There was too much information, and too many details for Hawkmoth and Ladybug to be fake, even if they did seem a bit ridiculous. Just looking at the government site, Damian could tell that the “powers that be” were taking this very seriously, and were doing everything in their power to mitigate the dangers. Akuma shelters being made a new building requirement. Guidance counselors being placed in every school. Akuma victim support groups. Whatever was happening in this city, it was real.

But how real? Damian wondered as he opened the blog, SpotsOn. Are they overreacting? Is it some sort of mass hallucination? Where is the Justice League?

Damian’s eyebrow arched in surprise. It was the only external sign he gave that he was effected by what he saw. The government site had given him the basic information, the miraculous, Hawkmoth’s goals, Ladybug’s powers, her roster of heroes, and the most common akuma protocols. SpotsOn.com on the other hand was a virtual treasure trove of what was happening in the city. It had all of the government’s info, but also videos of the akuma battles, uploaded by the citizens, and a complete list of all of the known akumas organized by threat level.

Damian went to this list immediately, drowning out his peers, and came to the immediate conclusion that everyone was overreacting. The threats were categorized by the damage done, so while there were many akumas that seemed to have a great deal of power, they never did any real harm to the city. For example, Mr. Pigeon was the most common akuma with a power that could be terrifying if used correctly. But his page read like this…

Akuma: Mr. Pigeon

Threat Level: One

Power: The ability to control all pigeon, and pigeon adjacent birds in the city.

Akumatized Object: The birdcall around his neck.

Damage: Traffic Jams, Defamation of Statues and Monuments, Kidnapping of Police and Park Personnel.

Action Caused: Messing with the pigeons.

Akuma Prevention Note: DO NOT MESS WITH THE PIGEONS! RESPECT THE PIGEON! BE NICE TO THE PIGEON! DO NOT MESS WITH THE PIGEONS!

Battle Videos: Link

It was almost enough to make Damian laugh, as he perused the list. He could see where some of these creatures could become dangerous. Like this level four akuma, Bubbler. He looked like a bad toy design made by someone high on LSD, but his ability to trap all of the adults in bubbles and send them into the stratosphere was concerning. It was a legitimate threat, but in the end, he hadn’t killed anyone. None of the level 1-4s had, and they were the most common.

Damian set down his phone as they reached the hotel. He didn’t get a chance to look at the level fives, but he was satisfied in his appraisal. The threat was real, the government and this ‘Ladybug’ had it under control. Those girls had just been overly dramatic, probably because they had been akumatized before (The victims were never listed on either the government or the blog). But there was no need for this to disrupt his vacation away from his practically insane family. He could spend the entire trip just sitting on Seine and drawing. He’d tell his father about it when he got home, so that the Justice League could put an end to all of this tom foolery. But until then, he just wanted to focus on his art.

They didn’t stay at the hotel long. Now that everyone had a phone, a trip group chat had been made. And once everyone was settled in their perspective rooms, plans for their free evening began to take shape. Soon a text went out from the teachers saying that they were going to stave off jetlag by going to get lunch and traveling to the top of the Eiffel Tower. It was an arrangement that pleased Damian and promised a fruitful trip. The top of the Tower was said to be spectacular, and he packed his sketchbook just in case. As it was, he spent most of the first day by himself despite being surrounded by peers. So he took the opportunity to watch the civilians and judge his fellow students, and both surprised him.

What surprised him about the Parisians was how the walked. They weren’t like Gothamites who rushed about in silence with their heads down. But there was a wariness to their steps, and a tension in their shoulders. And though they talked free and easy, with smiles on their faces, every now and then they would glance up at the sky, their eyes darting and their smiles wary.

What surprised him about the Gothamites was that the class divide was almost non-existent now. Instead, the groups had mixed into the three groups from before. And none of them were content to let the subject drop until they had come to a consensus.

“You can’t honestly be thinking this!” Chad exclaimed gesturing at the sun washed streets and the laughing families in the park. “Is more dangerous than Gotham?”

“Of course not!” said a Gotham High student, Damian remembered that her name was Kathryn. “Nowhere is more dangerous than Gotham. But that doesn't mean these villains aren’t a threat.”

“Just because Clue Master, is less dangerous than Riddler,” a Gotham Academy boy, Arthur said, “Doesn’t mean his games aren’t deadly.”

“But it’s just too…childish!” a Gotham High girl said, “I mean butterflies!”

“Condiment King,” Kathryn stated dryly.

“Touché,” the second girl said.

“Does it even matter?” It was the girl who had gotten everyone moving to the bus. She was from Gotham High, and Damian thought her name was…Alice. Poor girl, Damian thought, I wonder if I’ve ever saved her from the Mad Hatter. Alice seemed bored by the whole talk, as the line for the Tower moved forward. “Threat or no threat. They’re not here now, so can’t we just enjoy the day! I mean the sun is shining! The sun never shines in Gotham.”

Chad opened his mouth, probably to say something idiotic, when suddenly everyone’s phones went off with a distinct chime like a bell. In that heart beat every single Parisian froze and pulled out their phone. Then in the same breath they all seemed to relax, and as one moved calmly, but quickly, away from the park and the Eiffel Tower. A park employee stepped forward and called out in heavily accented English.

“My apologies madams and monsieur’s. But an akuma has been sited, and Ladybug has requested that the Eiffel Tower be evacuated as quickly as possible!”

“What?” Chad and several other “This is all a joke” students began to grumble, as everyone else pulled out their phones.

Damian did likewise, but he was distracted by what was happening around him. It had seemed that for a moment, all of Paris had operated under a strange hivemind, the moment the Akuma Alert had gone off. But they weren’t behaving like he had expected them too. If these people were really overreacting to the threat, then they should be running and screaming in terror. Instead, the park employees were gently and professionally herding the tourists through the park, as half the students argued that, “They would be fine. They were from Gotham.”

Damian took that time to look at the alert. His entire screen had been taken over by a black page with red letters that cried,

AKUMA ALERT: LEVEL 5.

Akuma: Gigantitan

 Local Evacuation Protocol in effect! All citizens in the Champs de Mars and Rue Desaix evacuate to a three block radius, or to your nearest Akuma Shelter.

Ladybug: ON THE SCENE

Chat Noir: MIA

Temporary Heroes:

Miss. Hound: ON THE SCENE

Bumble Queen: ON THE SCENE

Ryuko: ON THE SCENE

Damian furrowed his brow. He looked up as the guides ushered them behind the line of police cars that were blocking the park. He saw that a number of people and news outlets had lined up to here, and were waiting almost eagerly to see what would happen. “You can stand here and watch,” the park employee said, and Damian narrowed his eyes at the strained frustration, and almost vindictive smile she gave them. “But unfortunately, this is as close as anyone gets that isn’t a Miraculous holder. Even if you are ‘from Gotham.’”

Damian hid a groan at the implication. There was so much wrong with that statement it was physically grating, the least of it not being the sheer stupidity and incivility of his class mates. But he put all thoughts aside to focus on the park in front of him.

It was quiet. The entire park, that had once been bustling with tourists and families, laughing, and playing, was now quieter than a Gotham alleyway at night. From their position they had a perfect view of the Eiffel Tower, and Damian focused on memorizing this moment for his sketchbook later. It was so serine and beautiful, and…

The ground began to shake, and the reporters fell silent. Damian braced himself as the loud footfalls of something enormous echoed through the quiet city and shook the very buildings around them. A loud cry echoed through the streets, and Damian had to cover his ears against the high-pitched whine. He scanned the area with the practiced vigilance of his training, searching desperately for the creature. Then he saw it.

Damian’s eyes bulged and his mouth dropped, and he stared in wordless astonishment at the giant purple and green baby head towering over the buildings to his right. It was so…bizarre. Damian barely even processed the three figures running around it. They were just so small compared to the being that was easily four stories high, but their own colorful costumes made them stand out on the Paris roof tops.

Damian recognized the three heroes from his research, and shaking off the wonder of the giant toddler, focused on them and their actions. The heroes were quiet, practiced, and efficient. Ryuko danced in front of the akuma drawing him out of the streets and into the open space of the park. The creature cried again, with what Damian now recognized was an unbearable, ear shattering, child’s wail. And as he did so the giant flung out his arms in a tantrum breaking the buildings and sweeping them aside as one would sweep away Legos. Bumble Queen and Miss. Hound dove after the debris, but they were still preoccupied with herding the creature.

Damian stared as the creature stepped out into the park. The tree heroines carefully and efficiently driving it towards the tower. Then the creature cried out in joy and picked up one of the abandoned cars on the street. Damian could only stare as the baby began playing with it as if it were a toy as he danced around his new play pen.

Now the three heroines were focused on keeping the giant child inside the park. It was easily the strangest battle Damian had ever witnessed, as the baby didn’t seem to care for anything except for his new toy, while the heroes dodged his feet and directed his path with literally anything the could get their hands on. But where was…Damian blinked as he spotted a small bright red figure leap off of the top of the Eiffel Tower. As the figure fell, a bright, shiny, red cloth with black spots encased the tower until it was completely covered.

“Hey Gigantitan!” The figure yelled. Her commanding voice echoing through the park causing a everyone to straighten and turn towards her, even the giant baby. The baby in question cooed, and then screamed in delight. That was when Damian understood. The hero had made the Eiffel Tower look like a giant piece of colorful candy. And now the baby was stomping towards it in joy.

Unfortunately as he did so, the child decided that he didn’t want his toy anymore and tossed the car…right at the Gothamites. Damian braced himself as people screamed. He closed his eyes as the vehicle got closer and then…

“Cataclysm!” a new voice yelled. Damian blinked as a shower of rusty ash fell on his head. A boy in a black cat suit now stood on top of the police car watching the fight.

“Chat Noir!” Bumble Queen yelled landing beside the new hero in a storm of black and yellow. “Where have you been?! The battle’s almost over!”

“I’m sorry Queenie,” Chat Noir cried, as he played with his tail looking like a kicked puppy, “It took me thirty minutes just to get away! Now where does my Lady need me?”

“Nowhere,” Bumble Queen huffed, “She’s got it sorted. See!”

Damian’s attention turned back just in time to watch the giant toddler open his mouth and bite down hard on the metal structure as if he were eating a candy bar. But even as the child stared in confusion at the building for not turning into a chocolaty treat. The red figure threw something and broke the bracelet on the child's wrist. Something black came out of the broken jewelry, but it was quickly caught by the hero. The child was then encased in a black and purple substance, and the next moment the monsterous child vanished. The Tower’s wrapping as pulled down, and a clear calm voice shouted out, “Miraculous Ladybug!”

Damian watched in wonder as a cloud of glowing ladybugs descended on the city and began repairing all the damages. The roof tops were fixed. Injuries were healed, and in just under one minute, it was like nothing ever happened. The heroes gathered together under the Eiffel Tower and the park employee began ushering the students back to the park saying, “The Eiffel Tower will reopen in thirty minutes, best get back in line now. Thank you, for your patience, especially if you’re from Gotham!”

But before Damian could move, he saw a random businessman check his watch, curse, pull out his phone, and say, “Hey, yeah it’s me, look I’m going to be late. Akuma attack blocked the Champs de Mars again…no yeah the tower’s fine. It didn’t even get knocked over this time…yeah sure I can pick up some cheese on the way home…is there anything else—"

Damian followed his class in a kind of dazed horror. What kind of city was this that a giant baby attacking their signature monument gets spoken of in the same manner as bad traffic? He had thought that kind of casual compliance with villains only happened in Gotham. And yet…

Damian’s phone pinged. It was the Akuma Alert, only this time it read in green letters…

AKUMA DE-EVILIZED.  

Total Damages: €5,000,000

Injured: 50

Casualties: 16

Percent Cured: 100%

THANK YOU, LADYBUG!

Damian shoved his phone into his pocket, as he watched Ladybug return a perfectly normal child to his mother, then vanish among the roof tops. He moved like a zombie through the streets as he was completely consumed by two thoughts. One, where was the Justice League? And two, I’m never going to get a quite vacation.

Next

@night-ngale @annastasha @ev-cupcake @hammalammadamdam @laydeekrayzee @itsemmylie @when-no-wings-do-broomsticks

#maribat #marinette dupen chang #damian x marinette #badass marinette #miraculous ladybug #miraculous #batman #batfam #batfamily #dc x mlb #mlb x dc #daminette #damian wayne #marinette x damian #lila salt #class salt #gotham goes to paris #gothamite #fanfic #fanfiction #miraculous x dc #dc x miraculous #marinette needs a hug #crossover

[cyle]

Speaking of toggles, are you planning to undo existing toggles such as the ability to turn off best stuff first, snooze tumblr live, don't allow tumblr to put posts you liked on others' dashes?

i get why toggles aren't sustainable for major, site-wide UI changes, but undoing these specific toggles would make the site just like any other social media platform (all of which are better funded and better run btw) removing any incentive i have to stay here, even though it has been my online home for so long and i'd so prefer it to stay that way.

i just hope you don't destroy the site completely while trying to make it profitable and let at least some toggles stay.

funny enough, i was talking about this already a bit today, and i've written a couple of proposals about it. basically: none of the dashboard preference toggles' functionality and effects would go away, we'd just consolidate them into fewer, more clear options.

for example, instead of having three separate toggles for different dashboard recommendation injections, we'd have just one. and it'd be named better. similarly, i'd want to rename "Best stuff first" to something clearer, because i don't think it's adequately communicating what it does. there's a lot of work we can do to just make the confusing mass of settings easier to navigate and understand, and move them to places closer to what they control. we have a dashboard tab configuration experiment going on right now that moves that stuff to the actual dashboard tab bar, instead of being buried somewhere else.

an important distinction, when thinking about this stuff, is separating "toggles and settings" from "configuration and affordance" in an interface. a core part of tumblr is being able to customize and curate your experience, and that's not going to change as long as i can help keep us staying true to that guiding principle. nobody at tumblr wants to change that. however, the actual functionality of how that manifests can come in many forms.

for example, we're working on ways to build communities and custom feeds on tumblr, and the very simple straightforward way to do that is to make a big form that you can fill out. but that's intimidating, almost nobody wants to put forth that much effort anymore, for good reason. instead, we could make the initial creation process one-step and simple, and move the configuration and customization later as an evolving flow, making it feel more like a game or a sorting/organizing exercise, which is something people on tumblr love.

but a lot of these kinds of changes are radical for those of us who've been on tumblr for years, and have learned how to do things "the hard way" (as i call it). that's the difficult thing to overcome: how to make this stuff easier and more friendly for more people, without breaking too much of the work that people have already put into the platform.

[tsims]

RPG GAMES RANKED

Since Baldur's gate 3 I've played 3 more RPGs, and here's my ranking:

(1)The Mass Effect Series. I'm deeply attached to this game, the romance of the character's I choose to pursue were very well done. I actually love the combat in this! I think it's because it's ranged (guns), and you can make quick set up decisions (using droids, elevation etc.)

(2) Baldur's gate 3: I really liked this! It's only lower than mass effect because I prefer mass effect's combat system, and even though Baldur's gate has more romance scenes, I feel like mass effect has more believable romance progression and it makes you buy into the fact that you're truly in love. Also I cannot emphasis how a voiced playable character highly improved my attachment to my Mass Effect playthrough. BG3 sometimes feels like you're being talked at lol.

(3) Greedfall (I'm still playing this 20 hours in): I'm so shocked no one seems to know this??? I only found out about this while specifically looking for RPGs with romance. The plot is VERY GOOD, and the side quests are intertwined and are not fetch quest filler. It in my opinion has a better story than both mass effect and baldur's gate, and only ranks below both of them because the combat is 'mid' (gets very easy after you skill specialize! I had to up my difficulty because combats were starting to end in seconds after they were initiated) and the romance is barely there. Story wise though in my opinion it BLOWS all the games in this list out of the water story wise, and has more variable paths towards the ending. To emphasis how okay I am with the plot and character build --- this is the only game on the list I play with no mods. I am okay with all possible outcomes and their combinations. In contrast I modded Mass effect's ending, Baldur's gate charisma checks (absolutely BRUTAL if you're not a charisma class), and dragon age's romance (sorry, I am a woman who would like to kiss Cassandra. 💀)

(4) Dragon age inquisition: has a better romance than Greedfall, and a better story than Baldur's gate. It's ranked dead last because while good it doesn't blow my mind, also the side quests have me feeling like a hunter gather lmao. It gets very tedious towards the end. The combat isn't hard, and I enjoyed being an archer tbh, but the "find this and that timed quests" (ball quest I'm looking at you) are such a DRAG. This is not something you can crank out a few quests before work. This is something you'll spend hours on youtube looking at guides if you don't want to fail a quest. A lot of places are also level gated without telling you they're level gated. Walking into certain locations while under leveled will have you DEMOLISHED.

-----

I'm going to get dragon's dogma 2 when it comes out, so we'll see if I like that!

#dragon age inquisition #DAI #mass effect #greedfall

[sol-consort]

As much as you love the fact that humans are a sociable and communal species, I'm sure you're going to love the Angara.

Their society is based on the expression of emotions, being open and governed by well-being, not only physical and social but also psychological.

They have huge families where they are not even related by blood. And when a new couple forms, they literally merge the families' surnames.

You're absolutely right on the money! The more I'm learning about angara the more I'm falling in love with them.

The fact they wear their hearts on their sleves but are never naive. The fact they are so emotional intelligence and consider it the norm to voice their feelings out loud even if it causes disagreements because it let's people work through it.

Humanity is a constant masquerade, all the invisible tests and social cues. The angara literally defy a lot of the things we have stubbornly latched on into because of our fears.

We play hard to get, we lie about our feelings, we isolate and ghost people rather than face then head on. We downplay how much we love someone, we rarely hand out compliments.

We consider the first person who says "I love you" in a relationship to be the losing one. Love is war in humans. A constant test and guesswork.

So for the angara to come and simply...speak everything out loud? Without fear of embarrassment or rejection? It will intimidate so many humans.

The way Jaal complimented Peebee so openly and Cora tried to make him embarrassed about it but his only reaction was to compliment her too and she fell silent. We have to be constantly under 13 layers of irony to function, otherwise we die from embarrassment and shame.

Fuck when Jaal talked about having many mothers, I melted in my chair. Not only are they so beautiful looking with skin that reminds of galaxy and stars as their white markings, but they are so filled with love for each other.

Because at the end of the day, love is why any of us even bothers living. Be it love for one's children, or love for your passion work. Even love for another or simple love like videogames or dogs.

If love didn't exist, life wouldn't be worth living. We want to live and not just survive, we fall in love with the universe, art, concepts, and people constantly.

But none of us speaks it. And none of the speices in mass effect are bold enough to confess it. The closest ones were the humans with their enthusiasm and clear burning passion but even then, we let out actions speak our love rather than our words.

So, for the angara to come and achieve everything we've written millions of psychology guides for just naturally? The fact there was a couple clearly hugging each other and confessing their love inside the military resistance base so openly and their commander never barked at them to let go or stop? It's truly the alienating experience.

I envy them man. They have the social structures that humanity wished it had, constantly dreamed about but could never commit to. Because of our pride, our ego and fears.

I like to think the reason Ryder agrees to help the angara so much, not just to earn their trust but because humans see the angara and immediately have this urge to protect them.

They're so beautiful inside and out, so filled with love and acceptance for one another. So interested in their own community and safety. Fuck, the fact they need the sun to thrive is so poetic, they're like this beautiful garden of roses amidst such harsh environments. Of course, humans are gonna build a greenhouse to keep them alive during the winter. Are you kidding?

humans are such simps for these things.

Also, it is funny how the Angara and Protheons are on extreme opposite poles of one another.

#☆Angara #☆Jaal

[gmanwhore]

Well better get this ramble over with sorry if it sucks I am tired as fuck. Anyways this is my au where I assign all the main HLVRAI characters Will Wood songs and give them even more trauma. This will make no sense I can't explain it properly help.

Small guide:

Plot first

Character roles

Character descriptions

Tags for people to see this: @benreyplushie @catbitsysinteractsxd @breakcoreboxcat @pigeonwheel

Ok so like Gordon left the game, but all the characters were still there. The world hadn't shut off for some reason. They were all left stranded in a dead storyline. It was decided that they would simply....build a new Gordon. Of course, this new Gordon is not quite right, but no one knows how yet. They all try to move on.

We now zoom to the future. The Science Team all live in a sort of town together, but it's no longer going well. In the beginning everyone had gotten along well, but because they are trying to progress a story without a main character they are literally breaking their universe, and that is taking a toll on everyone. The characters are pretty much decaying as they try to continue their own story.

Gman is technically running the town, but due to the breakdown he has hidden himself away from everyone else to avoid the guilt of being the one to suggest this. He hadn't meant for everyone to decay, he hadn't known that insanity of this level was a side effect of forcing a storyline. He's slowly losing the ability to talk anyways. Because of his guilt it has gotten to the point where no one is allowed to visit his room but Tommy, and even then Gman can't stand it because of the guilt.

Coomer has stepped up as leader of the little community, and he seems fairly normal, barring the fact his flashes of self awareness are much more frequent and are slowly causing permanent damage to Coomer. He is nearing the point of no return, when he will won't be able to close his eyes to the truth anymore. Of course, how he acts when aware is unfortunately much more similar to the Coomer clones scene then any other time. He desperately wants to leave, and now he has the added bonus of not wanting to die of his mind being wrenched apart. Because of the struggle he has had trouble with interacting with the rest of the Science Team, and he's grown a bit more distanced.

Benrey is still upset he was the villian. He can't get over the fact that he died, that who he thought were his friends killed him. Even if he knew it was coming it still hurts. He's actually the least affected by the mass breakdown. Sometimes he will actually make it worse for people. (he was the first to be banned from seeing Gman after giving him a morality crisis) Benrey mostly just doesn't care anymore. Since the story is over he doesn't have to fit the role of a villian anymore but it's all he knows so he's going to lean into it. He does try to be nice, but it usually backfires.

Bubby literally doesn't care. He's let the breakdown fully consume him, and accepted the fact that this is how it will be. He's actually kind of enjoying it, as now his odd behavior isn't questioned. He also just leaned really heavily into the mad scientist trope. He's currently trying to build a rocket so he can finally see the stars like he's always wanted too.

Tommy is trying to help everyone. He knows this whole situation is hurting everyone, and he just wants them all to be happy. Everyone is glad to have his help, but most people are a little too eager to have someone who is willing to help them in any way possible. Tommy has become a caretaker for everyone, and it's beginning to take a mental toll on his because he can't fix anything and that makes every effort to help people just pointless because nothing will change.

Gordon knows that he is just a copy of someone else. He is keenly aware of this, actually, and Benrey never wastes an opportunity to remind him. He doesn't even know who he's based on because everyone explains Gordon differently so if he tried to be all of them he'd end up contradicting himself which he doesn't want. He's just suffering at this point.

Aight so like...they look different in the au and I leaned wayyyy into puppet imagery so slay. Also I just want to say the black liquid is a physical representation on mental decay. Mhm I am so cool and slay.

Gman

Song; Thermodynamic Lawyer esq G.F.D

Description: Gman looks a lot more like a ventriloquist dummy then anything. His face is too smooth, and his mouth goes up and down instead of opening. There is a large crack in his mouth that allows something dark and sticky to ooze out. His suit is no longer blue, it is the hot pink and black checked pattern of a glitch.

Coomer

Song: Suburbia Overture/Welcome to Mary Bell Township!/Vampire Culture/Love Me, Normally

Appearance: Coomer's eyes are now permantly lime green, and constantly spinning. He had strings, but they are quite obviously broken and drag on the ground. His eyes leak that same dark substance. When his personality shifts, his head cracks open and falls in half just slightly.

Benrey

Song: Laplace's Angel (Hurt People? Hurt People!)

Description: Benrey looks the same, except instead of his uniform being blue it is golden and glowing. He also has a halo. Half of his skull is exposed, and he has bullet holes all over him seeping the dark substance. He still has strings, and they seem to be attached to something above him though what that something is no one knows.

Bubby

Song: 2econd 2ight 2eer (That Was Fun, Goodbye!)

Description: Bubby has gained a third eye, it's iris is cyan like his text colour. His arms up to his elbows are blacked and charred, but still usable. All the clothes he wears are torn or shredded but not in complete disrepair, it seems almost artistic. He will occasionally leave wet black hand prints on things.

Tommy

Song: Skeleton Appreciation Day in Vestal NY.

Description: Tommy is missing an eye, and while it's mostly covered up with his shirt he is missing the skin and muscles from his chest. The lost eye had been replace with a button. Parts of his skeleton are visible at times, but the spots seem to move around his body at random. The gaps in his flesh ooze the black liquid.

Gordon (Sunshine)

Song: Dr. Sunshine Is Dead

Description: He appears to be made of fabric, unlike everyone else who either has a wooden or plastic appearance. His right arm is mangled beyond repair. He wears something akin to an HEV suit, but it looks more like pajamas then armour. His right eye is yellow, and his left eye is blue. His hair cannot be taken down from the ponytail, like a doll's hair that has been glued there. He lacks the black ooze.

#hlvrai #half life but the ai is self aware #benrey #hlvrai benrey #tommy coolatta #hlvrai tommy #hlvrai gordon #dr. coomer #gordon feetman #hlvrai coomer #bubby #hlvrai bubby #gman coolatta #hlvrai gman #lookat my funky au #it is so cool #project mary bell township

[swaps55]

Mass Effect 3 Soldier Guide

Other Guides: Guide to Basic Infiltrating | Shield Gate and YOU | Adept Guide | Sentinel Guide

When playing on higher difficulties like Insanity, understanding how to effectively build Shepard can dramatically improve your experience, and a well-built Shepard can synergize with any of your squadmates. 

What's awesome about Mass Effect 3 combat is that there isn't a single best way to build Shepard. All the classes can be incredibly fun, and you can play them all a variety of different ways. But because there are a lot of under-the-hood mechanics that the average player doesn't know (including bugged skill trees), knowing how to spec Shepard to do what you want to do isn't always obvious. And now that ME:LE has added in most of the DLC/multiplayer weapons, there are a lot of guns out there people aren't familiar with that are incredible assets to various playstyles.

SO, Real Life Romance Option and I put together this build guide for the Soldier. Keep in mind that Soldiers are different from most classes in that they focus almost exclusively on guns. While Vanguards are technically a combat class, they mostly play like an aggressive adept. Likewise, infiltrators revolve around sniper rifles vs. pure gunplay. The soldier, however, is not a power kit.

A Soldier Shepard is very good at driving enemies to ruin with quite literal gunfire. The key is building your ammo powers to complement your weapons and using Adrenaline Rush to make Shepard incredible at just about every facet of combat. While you can and should use any type of gun you want, I’d recommend staying away from carrying five guns at a time, and instead focus on a couple of particularly good choices. Loadout suggestions are included below, and if you want suggestions for other weapon that synergize well, just ask!

THE BUILD

Shepard has 8 skill trees + a Bonus Power. At Rank 60, you can max out 8 skills and have enough points leftover to take the 9th to level 4. For this build, I recommend only taking Concussive Shot to rank 4, and maxing everything else. 

Prioritize speccing Incendiary Ammo, Adrenaline Rush, and Combat Mastery before everything else. There isn’t a problem that copious amounts of fiery bullets won’t solve, and Combat Mastery makes all of that better. Just make sure you turn on incendiary ammo at the beginning of the mission.

Breakdown under the cut! 

Adrenaline Rush: Aka, “hang on, one of these bullets has your name on it and I’m going to keep firing until I find it.”

Oh, Rush. This is the power for soldiers. It’s what’s unique from the other two combat classes, and does so many things to every aspect of combat. Once you go into Rush you immediately get slow motion, which means you’re time hacking to be faster and thus better than everyone else in the room. You get a 50-75% damage bonus on all your guns, extra shields, potentially extra melee damage, and to top if off, a full clip of ammo slapped into your current gun! “A free reload is kinda boring,” you might say to yourself, but in response I say, two-shot Claymore. So, Rush gives you full ammo and shields to start putting those new, more damaging bullets downrange, and the time dilation gives you the accuracy and recoil reduction to stay on target. This turns your favorite gun into a dream to handle. Every aspect you love about it is just better now for you the player. While Marksman makes it faster and more accurate, Rush makes you more accurate by eliminating most of the recoil.

Rank 4: Hardening vs. Dilation and Damage: You want Dilation & Damage, to get that magnificent 25% bonus weapon damage.

Rank 5: Duration vs. Melee Damage. Choose Duration if you’re using a slow-firing weapon. Otherwise you’ll want Melee Damage, and not because we’re hitting things, but because Duration means using Rush less often, and we want free shields and free reload more often.

Rank 6: Shield Boost vs. Power Use. Remember: you are not a power class. The only choice here is shields. This is especially great since it will give you shields even if you’re taking damage. Also, the only offensive powers you have are Concussive Shot and a potential bonus power. And Concussive shot is…well, see below.

Concussive Shot: We get this last, as it’s mostly a throwaway power. Every time you use it, you’re not using RUSH and that’s SAD. If you want to spam a power all day (which is valid), there are five other classes that do that better.

Rank 4: Take Force and Damage.

Frag Grenade: Grenades are handy in an emergency, and as they run off a grenade pool and not a cooldown, they don’t interfere with Rush!  

Rank 4: Damage vs. Radius. Both are great here. If you don’t have a rapid fire weapon or aren’t the best throw, take radius. Otherwise, take damage.

Rank 5: Max Grenades vs. Bleed Damage. Both are good. Max grenades is fun, but bleed damage is better. Do keep in mind it doesn’t work on geth, because they don’t have blood.

Rank 6: Armor Piercing vs. Shield Overload. Shields. If you are using a piercing mod (you should be using a piercing mod), most guns are amazing at armor damage already, and you have the bestest, most biggest guns as the Soldier.

Incendiary Ammo: I don’t want to set the world on fire

Incendiary ammo might be one of the most brokenly overpowered skills in the game. The explosive evolution adds a flat damage value vs. a percentage on every other shot, which is insane. On rapid fire weapons that do less damage per shot, like the Tempest or the Typhoon, you're basically doubling the amount of damage you're doing. Add the area of effect you get with the explosion? You're now inflicting this chaos on anyone else who’s nearby. Are you using a piercing mod (the answer should be yes)? You now have a shot at another roll for another explosion, because the damage call can pass through the armored target and torment the cannon fodder behind it. A piercing mod reduces the damage on your bullet, but not the explosion. This is super insane on shotguns, because you get a shot at the extra damage roll per pellet, not per shot. Shotgun blasts have multiple pellets per shot.

Have I mentioned that this is affected by increases in power damage? Any power damage increases you take in Assault Mastery make incendiary ammo better.

Rank 4 – Damage vs. Squad Bonus. Choose damage. To hell with your squad. I mean, your squad is amazing. But trust me, you want to be selfish with incendiary ammo. You can do so much more with it than your squad can.

Rank 5 – Ammo Capacity vs. Headshot Damage. Are you handy with headshots? Take Headshot damage. Would you rather have more ammo capacity? Take Ammo Capacity. Whatever makes you happy.

Rank 6 – Damage vs. Explosive Burst. Always take explosive burst. There is no universe in which you want anything other than explosive burst.

Disruptor Ammo: AKA, “Oh no, I’m fighting Geth.” (If you forget to turn off fire ammo when fighting geth, you’ll still be fine.)

Rank 4 – Damage vs. Squad Bonus: Damage. I don’t like to share. However! Life hack: you can spec for squad ammo here, turn it on at the beginning of the mission for your team-mates without ammo powers of their own, and then turn on fire bullets for just you. Then you get the best of both worlds! Personally, this is how I run the two. It’s not optimal, but it is really convenient.

Rank 5 – Ammo Capacity vs. Headshots. Choose either, but mirroring what you chose on fire ammo is a good idea.

Rank 6 – Damage vs. Stun. Look, we’re already giving up explosions. If you take stun instead, incendiary ammo actually does more damage to shields because it’s that incredible. Stunning is helpful and cool, but a dead enemy doesn’t shoot back either.

Cryo Ammo: Hard skip. You already have two great ammo powers. Don’t need to waste points on a, frankly underpowered, third option. Easily your worst power. But DEBUFFS, you say? The best debuff is killing the other guy.

Combat Mastery: AKA, “I’m going to stab you. With bullets.”

Rank 4 –Damage vs. Influence & Duration. Duration can be nice for Rush, but weapon damage makes your guns better and power damage makes your ammo better which makes your guns better twice.

Rank 5 – Squad Bonus vs. Headshots. I DON’T LIKE TO SHARE. Helping your squad is nice and all, but they shoot the walls sometimes.

Rank 6 – Weight Capacity vs. Weapon Master. I mean, you could lift and carry a platoon’s worth of guns, but then you wouldn’t be a master of battle. Really though, getting weapon damage makes your guns better, and that 40% makes your ammo better, which makes your guns better twice. AGAIN! Essentially, when it comes to ammo powers, the soldier ends up with more power damage than engineers.

Fitness:

Rank 4 – Melee Damage vs. Durability: Durability.

Rank 5 – Martial Artist vs. Shield Recharge: Shield Recharge.  

Rank 6 – Melee Synergy vs. Fitness Expert. Fitness Expert. You’re a Soldier. Just shoot them.  

Bonus Power: This is the hard choice. If you take anything with a cooldown, it’s just getting between you and the magnificence the is your birthright, Adrenaline Rush, and you already have the best ammo power right here in your class (incendiary). So, what do we take? Behold: Fortification, and damage reduction. Great! Now you can take a bigger, harder punch and get more power damage, which makes even better fire bullets, fantastic. It makes you better at everything you’re trying to do: take and deal damage. Just make sure you turn it on before you activate your ammo powers. The damage bonus from Fortification will not affect an already active ammo power.  

Rank 4 – Durability vs. Melee Damage: Durability

Rank 5 – Recharge Speed vs. Power Synergy. Power Synergy. More fire!

Rank 6 – Power Recharge vs. Durability: I prefer recharge, but more protection is also great, especially if you prefer lighter weapons and won’t notice the cooldown bonus as much.

THE LOADOUT

You’re the gun class, the Soldier, with a capital ‘S’! Every gun in the game is better in your hands with one exception: I would leave the big cannon snipers to the infiltrators (but any rapid-fire sniper is fair game). I’ll list a few favorites in every weapon class. I’d highly recommend making a save on the citadel and trying out a few at the firing range, and of course, as the soldier you can and should break out those big heavy guns that slow down the other classes too much. With your extra weight capacity, it’s tempting to load up with a weapon in each category, but I say pick two. Hopefully two that complement each other, i.e. the Indra and a Revenant, but if you take your favorites it’ll be fine. Or just pin all your hopes and dreams on one super weapon, like the Typhoon or a Hurricane.

Assault Rifles: This entire class is packed with fantastic options that are full auto, accurate, have big clips, and big damage. The AR’s only downside is weight. Use a Piercing and Extended Barrel mod on all of them, except for the Lancer & Particle Rifle.

 Revenant – A personal favorite, the big loud heavy MG with the recoil to match. While it’s tempting to use a recoil mod on this gun, I highly recommend getting used to it without one. You give up too much if you swap out a piercing or extended barrel mod in favor of managing recoil.

Lancer - the Cadillac of ARs: infinite ammo, low recoil, accurate, & fast. Instead of the extended barrel, use an extended magazine to manage the heat to go along with a piercing mod (this goes for the Particle Rifle as well), and this rifle will be a smooth ride through the entire campaign. Tip: if you overheat it, going into rush will add one round to the mag and let you skip the overheat animation!

N7 Typhoon – the Revenant 2.0! Everything about the Revenant ramped up to 11: more damage, more recoil, and more accuracy. Note: You have to give the gun time to spin up to get max damage (this is also true of the Particle Rifle). If you fire in short bursts, you aren’t getting your money’s worth. If you can handle the spin up and the recoil, this is the best gun in the game. Bonus, the face plate reduces damage you take from your front arc!

Harrier – A non-overheat Lancer. While it’s solid and easy to handle, be prepared to run out of ammo all the time.

Shotguns: Inaccuracy and low ammo counts balance out raw damage output. Few things kick like a Claymore shoved in the enemy’s mouths. Fun fact: each pellet from a shotgun gets a chance to explode with Incendiary Burst. Extended barrel and piercing mods are highly recommended for all shotguns. The ultra-heavy barrel and smart choke are also a good combo if you can rank up the heavy barrel to not absolutely kill your weight.

Claymore – Well, the maxed damage bar speaks for itself here. You can fire, use Rush, and fire again. Hilarious. This gun gets infinitely better if you learn how to ‘reload cancel,’ i.e. tap a power that’s on cooldown or tap sprint while the animation is playing, but after the ammo bar fills.

Raider – the more practical little brother to the Claymore. Less damage, but two rounds, lighter, and more accurate! Again, you can empty the gun quickly, use Rush, and fire twice again. Few things survive four Raider shots at close range.

Wraith – If you can afford this, it’s a solid alternative and gold flex on these poor not-soldiers and their weak, baby guns.

N7 Piranha – Auto Shotgun. Want to clear a room or a hallway? This is your best choice. Absolutely falls off at any further range than point blank due to its accuracy. Paired with another longer-range weapon, this can be a devastating Ace to pull out in close quarters.

Sniper Rifles: Overall I split the Snipers into two categories: Big Cannon and Rapid Fire. Leave the Big Cannons to our friend the infiltrator; she uses them better anyway. But the rapid fire rifles? Those are exactly what we need. Extended barrel and piercing mods are our friends. You can stack the time dilation from Rush with the concentration mod to nearly stop time, but I personally prefer the damage from the barrel.

Indra – It’s an assault rifle with a free scope mod! This is one of the best weapons in the game and for the low price of 10k credits!

N7 Valiant – Tied for the best sniper in the game with the Indra. Rapid fire, three round clip with a damage-per-second that rivals much bigger guns. You pair that with minimal recoil and a lightning fast reload and you have a solid, easy to use rifle for every day and formal wear.

Pistols: These have some winners and make solid back ups, but as a solider you can easily take nothing but a pistol and have a great time. As with everything, go with a barrel and piercing mod.

Talon – One of the best shotguns in the game pretending to be a pistol.

Executioner pistol – Stand out, since you can give it two shots with Rush.

SMG: The Hurricane is one of the best weapons in the game, but it has a ton of recoil and limited range. If you find you need a stability dampener to use the Hurricane, try the Hornet instead. It’s a burst weapon (so easier to control recoil), also has incredibly high DPS, and you can also get it free during the Citadel Coup. Until then, just stick with the Tempest. All of these work well on power classes but, but once you use them on the soldier with the insane buff from incendiary ammo, you may not recognize them anymore.

You can use the extended barrel and ammo heat sink mods; but without a piercing mod, remember to switch to your pistol or AR for armored targets.

HOW TO PLAY: 

The tricky part about playing a Solider is trusting your gun. There is no combat situation in the game that cannot be solved by killing it to death with bullets. There is a learning curve to master the timing of when to use Rush for that free reload, and it is slightly different with each weapon. But learning it for your favorite only takes a mission or two. When you aren’t shooting, you’re vulnerable, so throw grenades, reposition, or go into Rush and keep up the barrage. Fire ammo will carry you through the game, even against shields and geth. It’s rarely worth switching weapons when you can use Rush and just shoot harder!

There you have it! Go forth and never stop shooting! 

#mass effect #mass effect 3 #soldier class #me3 #mass effect build guide #soldier build guide

[digitalsamay]

Personal Trainer in Bondi Junction/Quick Muscle Gain/Certified Fitness Trainer

Introduction

Many people are looking for effective strategies to reach their fitness goals, including gaining muscle, in a world where time is of the essence. Even though developing muscle involves commitment and consistency, there are methods you can use to speed up the process without sacrificing safety or effectiveness. We’ll explain the essential ideas for building muscle quickly in this manual.

1. Set clear goals

Establish your objectives clearly before beginning your trip to develop muscle. Are you concentrating on particular muscle groups or trying to raise your overall muscle mass? Your ability to modify your exercises, diet, and recovery techniques depends on having a clear goal in mind.

2. Progressive resistance training

The cornerstone of gaining muscle quickly is engaging in progressive resistance exercise. With this strategy, you progressively raise the weight or resistance you lift over time. Exercises that involve many muscular groups at once, like squats, deadlifts, bench presses, and pull-ups, are known as compound exercises and are very effective for building muscle.

3. Compound exercises

Compound exercises should be a part of your fitness programme. These workouts simultaneously work numerous muscular groups, which promotes effective muscle growth. Compound exercises also trigger the production of anabolic hormones like testosterone, which promote the building of lean muscle.

4. Balance diet

By eating a balanced diet, you can provide your muscles with the nutrition they need to function. Protein is important for muscle growth and repair, so try to eat plenty of it. Include plant-based protein options like beans and tofu as well as lean meats like chicken, turkey, fish, and eggs.

5. Protein timing

To maximise muscle building, spread out your protein consumption throughout the day. Eat meals or snacks high in protein before and after your workouts to provide your muscles with the building blocks they require at that time.

6. Proper hydration

The importance of staying hydrated for muscle growth is sometimes underrated. Transporting nutrients, operating muscles, and general performance all depend on water. Drinking adequate water throughout the day is important since dehydration might impede your progress and recovery.

7. Rest and recovery

Don’t undervalue the value of rest because muscles expand during downtime. Get enough sleep so your body can recuperate and heal itself. Rest days should be a regular part of your schedule to avoid overtraining, which can harm you and hinder your growth.

8. Consestency is key

To grow muscle quickly, consistency is the key component. Exercise regularly and adhere strictly to your diet. While you might not see results right away, if you work hard, you’ll eventually start to see improvements.

9. Avoid overreliance on supplements

Although they can help you on your path to muscle growth, supplements shouldn’t be the cornerstone of your plan. Prioritise a diet that is balanced and made up of whole foods. To make sure supplements are secure and appropriate for your requirements before using them, speak with a medical practitioner.

10. Track your progress

Identify what’s working best for you by keeping track of your progress, nutrition, and workouts. Make the required changes to your strategy based on your results to continue to keep your muscles challenged.

Conclusion

With the proper method and attitude, you may quickly gain muscle. You can hasten the process of building muscle while maintaining a healthy lifestyle by combining progressive resistance training, a balanced diet, appropriate hydration, rest, and consistency. Always be patient and dedicated to getting the results you want because growing muscle is a gradual process. It’s always a good idea to speak with a fitness expert or healthcare provider before making big changes to your routine if you’re new to exercising or have any underlying health issues.

#gym #fitness #fitness trainer #personal trainer #trainer #gym body #gymlife #working out #workout #weightlifting #gym motivation #gymnastics #gymmotivation

[knockknoxwho]

The Common Grackle

The first concept to cover is this little guy. They are native to North America and them, being migratory birds, love to come down to Texas in the winter in plagues. They are small omnivorous dark feathered birds

Weeks before the mass infection of the fungus, the grackle population in my town had been steadily growing as winter came, just like normal. Though as the season began to change, the grackles never migrated back north, in fact it seemed like they just kept growing in number, countless of them filled trees and power lines. Small plagues of them were even bold enough to roam the school courtyard in search of discarded food, which they found in plenty. When the day of the mass infection did come it was horrific. Birds began dropping from the sky as if they simply died mid-flight. Of course this attracted curious students, who flocked with worry or fascination. Then the murmuring turned into screams, fires popped up across the courtyard, smoke began to rise from the roof of the school. And worse than the fires were the pools of blood and spurts which flew from the newly wounded students. Though once small, now standing at 3 ft tall and evolved for the crushing of scraps and prey alike. Newly formed and powerful beaks with spikes protruding from them intended to cause a nasty bite. And able to travel at speeds up to 15 miles per hour. The greenery of the courtyard was replaced with thick pools of crimson all converging their flow into a singular river. Few students escape with the help of police on duty and brave teachers who either guided kids out of the building or sacrificed themselves, though of course many tried to flee. This massacre marks the start of the apocalypse, and in tandem, the campaign.

My initial idea for their abilities was very small minded because I mostly considered them just as little velociraptor birds because of their tendency to run with their mouth open. But with a bit more depth of research I have a bit of a better idea to change things up.

And this can be explained in world by the fact that they were the first species to be infected by the fungus outside of the extremely susceptible animals in the lab. Due to this the grackles didn’t have a full transformation, and subsequently either had too much fungal tissue and just ended up decomposing or collapsing, or they had too little and had no motor control, which killed them off. Some grackles—of course—did survive, but it was a fraction of the mountains of them which were infesting the city.

For those which did survive, they were in hiding for a bit as the fungus adjusted and slowly transformed their bodies even more. (Because of its slowness and lack of mass tissue growth it wasn’t lethal because of the time the heat had to disperse and the small amount of heat being made, though grackles hunted frequently in the forests up wind, where the fungus hadn’t reached yet, thereby spreading it).

Due to them being called a plague and their tendency to carry different diseases, I think their mutations would reflect that more accurately. An aura of pestilence around the grackles (a short range in which the spores/diseases they spread are most highly concentrated and have most chance to infect other organisms), though to balance this and due to the immense amount of disease they carry, grackles have reduced stamina and health because of their body’s immune system fighting against the diseases they carry.

They’re three diseases they carry most commonly and are be summarized by cause and their effect here:

Histoplasmosis: a fungal infection of the lungs which can have the symptoms of fever, chills, headache, muscle aches, fatigue, cough and chest discomfort.

Candidiasis: a fungal infection, most commonly referred to as a yeast infection. Which can present in the nails, and mouth

Salmonellosis: a food borne illness spread through food and water (most commonly uncooked eggs and chicken). It’s colloquially known as salmonella. (This wouldn’t be airborne and instead infect the water sources they drink from and food they begin to eat)

Each of these diseases (causes and symptoms found on google, I am not a professional) could be ported into a ttrpg as debuffs. Much like the poison breath of a hydra doing damage over time or fatigue points slowing down movement speed, etc

This is the end of the first animal mutation concept, I hope anyone who read, enjoyed!

#writing #pseudoscience #animals #worldbuilding #writing project #ttrpg campaign #suggestions welcome #more coming soon #birds #grackle #slightly graphic #world building #fungi

[ageless-aislynn]

I still can't launch Mass Effect: Andromeda without my computer going

💀No thanks💀

but at least the MCC can still launch and play (most of the time 👀). So I've been working on some solo achievements that I didn't think I would be able to get, namely the par scores. I went through and tried some of my favorite levels of Halo 2, 3, and Reach (sorry, 4, there is no level of you that I enjoy playing to that degree 🤷‍♀️ and I already have the ones on CE and ODST that I wanted to try for) and was actually able to get them! 🥳🥳🥳

And then. I realized I had 5 of the 9 levels of Reach, by FAR the most par scores than on any other game. And so I decided to try for "We'll Be Back" Beat the par score on every Halo: Reach level.

If you've ever tried this, well, either you're going

or you're just a much better player than I am, lol. Par score means you have to beat the par time but on a higher difficulty with tougher enemies and you can't just run by everybody, you've got to take 'em out to get the points.

"The Pillar of Autumn" was one that I'd struggled to get the par time on before (and that was on Easy so... 👀) but I got the par score on the second try. 🥳 That was a total shock!

I thought I'd get stalled on "Long Night of Solace" but I've gotten much better at the sabre section and blasted my way to victory after a few tries. (It was actually the fight on the Covvie ship after that that kept delaying me until the par time ran out and then your points begin frickin' to roll backwards to practically 0, ARGH.)

But then: "Exodus" and "The Package."

If those two levels just brought fear to your heart, then yeah, you've tried this achievement before.

ZOH MAH GUH. These levels are sooooo long *that's what she said joke goes here* 😜 and require stupidly high amounts of points: "Exodus" 20 minutes par time, 30,000 par score, "The Package" 20 minutes par time, 65,000 par score.

I didn't even get remotely close to par time or score my first dozen attempts at both of these levels. I tried different combinations of Normal + a bunch of skulls to raise the difficulty and Heroic + fewer skulls. I finally went with Heroic + fewer for "Exodus" annnnd after many, many times jetpacking my way to absolute failure trying to do the mid-level fight skip, I would make it to the last battle and my score would drain out because I went past the par time.

😑

That was legit my expression.

But then, I kept working at it, got better at doing the skip. Figured out how to jetpack up the building to do another skip (there's a trick to briefly stopping your jetpack halfway up, then starting again that will - eventually after much trial and error, falling to your death and cursing like a sailor 🤬😇😉 - let you get up to a higher place than you technically can in one jetpack burst). Then it was a matter of optimizing that final fight section where you have to activate two switches, then a final third. I died SO MANY TIMES trying to get to that last switch. Then I discovered you can jetpack up the outside of the room, go through the window, try not to get ABSOLUTELY OBLITERATED by the Hammer Chieftain Brute waiting for you, and hit the switch! I finally made the par score, woo-hoo!!!

And that left "The Package" and its monstrous 65,000 par score.

Playing on Normal with almost all of the skulls, despite seeing Youtube guides of other people managing it easily, just didn't work for me. I couldn't get nearly enough points. So I finally had to go with Heroic and almost all of the skulls on. That was painful but better than trying Legendary with no skulls and then I'd get my face melted off in the first section with the two turrets, the sniper Jackal with the focus rifle, the two fuel-rod Grunts and the 2 Grunts in the Ghosts. MY ABSOLUTE WORD, FRENS. My face got melted off SO MUCH. 😑

I learned speedrunning tricks I'd only heard of before and never thought to even try. I figured out how to run up the frickin' center support columns and do weird curving crouch jumps to 2 platforms just to avoid fighting a ginormous bunch of Jackals. I did the bounce trick where you sprint onto a sculpture, bounce up to a higher point on it, then jump for the window, crash through it and get to the Halsey's lab firefight without having to fight the camo Elites and that one Really Annoying General Elite™ with the concussion rifle.

(GAHHHHHHH, that dude blasted me SO MANY TIMES. And if throws a plasma grenade in your general direction? GOODBYE. HE DOES NOT MISS.)

You lose the points from those fights but if you're struggling for par time and you're already at about 50k points or so going into the firefight section, it was worth it.

I can't record but here are the 2 tricks at 3:46 and 4:36 (I had to jump to the higher level of the sculpture and crash through the window more to the left, I couldn't do it in one jump like Vodred does but I still could eventually make it about 3 out of 4 times, depending on if a camo Elite spawned standing RIGHT IN MY PATH. 😑)

I finally made it through to the Halsey's lab section at under 10 minutes. The following firefight is almost impossible to speed through at less than 10 minutes on its own because you have to wait for each wave of enemies to come in before you can clear them.

(I saw the world record holder do some amazing speedrun tricks to destroy the Phantoms as they come in to bring the enemies but, yeah, it was taking so long to try to learn that, I finally figured it was faster just to figure out how to fight them more efficiently.)

I did learn to reliably hijack a Banshee in mid-air thanks to my cool new jetpacking skills learned on "Exodus," at least. 😉

And then I got shot out of the sky SO MANY TIMES by those dang Jackals and Grunts and their overcharged plasma pistols. MY WORD. I worked a few different strategies, changing the Banshee for the Wraith and finishing the level like that or choosing to destroy the Wraith for the points and stay more maneuverable in the Banshee. I honestly thought the second strat was going to be the one that worked for me but MY STARS THOSE OVERCHARGED PLASMA PISTOLS ARRRGH.

I would get an enormous amount of points - once over 120k! - only to watch it drain to 16k because I couldn't finish the level even close to the par time. I was so sad on that one, frens, I can't even. 😭😭😭

But then, last night, I decided to try one last run before I went off to try to become a slightly more productive member of society. 😜 And I fought my little heart out, doing a combo of speedrun tricks and stand-and-fight to get points. And I out of the corner of my eye, I saw the timer at 19 minutes and change and the last wave was just dropping. 😱 I had over 110k points at this time but would start losing them quickly once we reached 20 minutes.

I was in the Wraith, which is powerful but moves slooooowly, down at the bottom of the map to take out the first of the last 3 Phantoms. I mortar bombed the other Wraith just as it was dropped off. I sped as fast as my Wraith could go - approximately the speed of molasses sliiiiiding down a hill in the sunlight 😑 - back up the map. I mortar bombed THE HECK out of everybody in the middle, trying desperately to be not only fast but to catch them grouped together for the multi-kill bonus points I knew I was going to need to inflate my score as high as possible against the going over par time penalty.

I see the timer hit 20, then 21. I stop looking and decide just to finish the fight™ (Master Chief John-117 😇😉) and see how close I could get.

I hear Dr. Halsey say, "Well done, Spartans. I'm opening the laboratory door," which is your cue to go and push the button (why the rest of Noble Team, who are STANDING RIGHT NEXT TO THE BUTTON can't do that on their own, I DUNNO). I have an Elite dancing around my mortar bombs as I'm Wraithing my way slooooowly towards the door. I glance down and see I have 90K POINTS LEFT, ZOMG. I do this stupid panic jump out of the Wraith without killing the Elite.

He starts shooting me. I JETPACK INTO THE SKY for some reason because I apparently forgot I have the jetpack on and not the sprint, lol.

He's still shooting at me. My shields are lighting up. I'm awkwardly jetpacking straight at Carter, mentally begging my beloved Noble One TO SAVE ME.

I land behind him and he provided accidental cover for me, actually getting shot by the Elite in my place.

Carter, my beloved.

ANYWAY, I'm doing this SUPER AWKWARD jetpack bursting hop thing towards that dang button because I again have forgotten I DON'T HAVE SPRINT RIGHT NOW, GEEZ. I hear the enemy Wraith on the platform behind me launch a mortar bomb and know that it CAN HIT ME WHERE I'M AT.

Ask me how I know. 😑

But this time, my awkward jetpacking meant I got to the button before the mortar got there and YES YES YES!

🥳

Annnnd here are the other par scores I got since I started trying for them last month. (And yes, when I can't sleep, I play Halo. 👀 Don't be an insomniac if you can help it, frens. 😴😉)

So, now I feel like I've accomplished something pretty special, even more than just getting the Legendary achievements because... Wait.

I wonder...? 🤔🤔🤔 I mean, Reach on Legendary is no party. *points up to that part where I mentioned getting my face melted* This would be a Legendary speedrun but I've learned a LOT of speedrunning tricks and there are a lot of really good guides out there...

Hm, maybe not. 😑😂

If you read all of this, thank you. I just mainly wanted to share my happiness at having gotten that achievement and since I couldn't include fun GIFs or video clips of it, I had to just be wordy. 🤷‍♀️

Have a cookie, from my heart to yours.

Now with 2000% more screencaps!

#halo #halo: reach #halo reach #this is my game tag #carter a259 #carter my beloved #noble team #ais plays like a silly goose but somehow gets it done #if you're trying to sprint make sure you don't have the JETPACK ON GEEZ #😂 #long post #long post is long #ais appreciates you reading it anyway #this is the worst guide EVER to getting an achievement lol #love you frens #ageless aislynn #Youtube

[spookyspecterino]

Dr. Strange x Reader "Is It Worth That?"

⚠️ MoM SPOILER FREE

Warnings: Some violence, some blood, not a lot though.

Words: 4.8K

When Stephen Strange tracks you down for practicing forbidden magic you are forced to make a crucial choice.

(A/N): Thought of this concept one night while (re)watching the first Dr. Strange. And then immediately after watching his episode in "What If". Let me know what you think, I have lots of ideas along this same line. Enemies to lovers is my favorite trope fight me.

(A/N 2.0): Also, what the reader is doing in the beginning is based off the Dr. Strange "What If" episode in part. Ok that's all, love you.

A muffled series of blasts outside the old temple brings your attention away from your research. The stone walls tremble and small pieces of debris starts to shake loose. You look up from the old, weathered tome in annoyance, your face twisting with distaste.

Are they ever going to learn?

The answer, you already knew, was most certainly no. Especially with The Sorceress Supreme recently dead, leaving a mass of highly trained, formidable warriors at Kamar-Taj with the sense that they need to achieve something great in her absence. So naturally, they focus their combined efforts on pissing you off and ruining your hard work.

But deep down, you can’t deny that you love the effort they’re making. It’s adorable.

Another great shudder passes through the building. You glance up and around at the high walls, the ornate carvings and eroded statues all had cracks in them now. There would be time for a final summon before they were able to damage one of the anchor points for your shield spell, allowing a few warriors through. As you grabbed chalk, keeping the old book in your other hand as a guide, you set up another summoning circle. But your thoughts began to stray to a different sorcerer, one that simultaneously made your blood boil and your heart race. No doubt he would be outside, observing the others as they worked to weaken the barrier enough to get in. The idea of him sulking around, waiting for his turn to rush inside, made you laugh.

Finishing up the circle and kneeling at its edge, you tossed the chalk to the side, placed the book to your right, and brought your hands together in an almost prayer like gesture. You folded your index fingers down and slowly pulled your hands apart, keeping your fingers rigid, creating the first of many hand signs that would summon an entity from the old tome into the chalk circle. The chalk began to glow a bright red and orange hue, coloring the walls of stone. The sound of energy filled the chamber with a steady hum. You closed your eyes and focused in on the energy while you folded your hands and fingers into rapid signs.

Hushed whispering and faint sounds of movement around you threatened to distract your focus. These had started a month ago, when you began to summon the more serious magical Beings. The sounds became more prevalent when you began to summon or if your life was in danger. Very recently you could start to discern what the whispers were saying, little snippets of conversation or words. When you were summoning they would help you, guide you to your goal. If you were in a fight they would warn you or suggest plans of action.

You weren’t clueless, the whispers were from the Entities and Beings you’ve consumed from the summoning circles. At times it scared you, but the sounds and words would become reassuring and your fears would dissipate. Over time you figured it was just a side effect, you could handle it. You could handle anything. Besides, it would all pay off in the end. You could imagine their faces as you claimed your spot as the most powerful master of the mystic arts. The thought kept you going, pushing you to do forbidden magic.

The energy surged now, beaming light until there were no shadows left in the chamber. A portal began to open in the center, small at first but then gradually opening to half the diameter of the circle you drew. Out of it came a large, muscled red arm, slamming down onto the ground. Its fingers found purchase and pulled the rest of its owner up through the portal along after it. A pair of gnarled, twisting horns sitting on top of a black goat’s head emerged from the portal. Its horizontal pupils searched wildly around the room before landing on you. The Entity had the body of a human from the head down, but colored blood red. At its full height it almost reached the ceiling of the chamber, towering above you.

You rose to your feet slowly, looking up at it curiously. It opened its mouth and for a moment you thought it was going to bleat at you, but you didn’t give it the chance. You spoke an old language from the tome, the words coming out of your mouth sounding like they were spoken by someone else. The Goat Entity’s face twisted in anger (or what you guessed was anger, who could tell what different emotions looked like coming from a goat) and it cried out with a guttural roar. Its form began to change, the outline of its body created an after image as it writhed, swinging its arms around as if it was fighting something invisible.

A second later you felt a strong hold on the Entity’s presence and began to absorb it into yourself. The whispering voices reached their crescendo as the last of the Being was merged with you. The power it contained, now in your possession, hummed through your body, in your bones. When you opened your eyes you thought you glimpsed shadows retreat into the now dark corners of the chamber, the summoning circle a dulled color of charcoal. You shook your head quickly, dispelling the thoughts.

“Well, that was unpleasant to watch. I sincerely hope you don’t smell like a goat now.”

You whirled around, half startled, to face the owner of the sarcastic voice. Stephen Strange.

He stood, covered in shadow, watching you with those intelligent eyes. He made no move to close the distance, but you could see his hand fidget as he stood. Faint whispering started over your shoulder but you drowned it out quickly. Something in the back of you mind was surprised (or maybe concerned) at how easy it was.

As you slowly looked over Strange, taking in every bit of him, you couldn’t help the mischievous grin that spread across your face.

“Oh hello, Stephen. I see you couldn’t wait for your little soldiers to soften me up first- had to barge right in yourself.”

He pursed his lips “I thought I would get right to it this time.”

“Aww, no foreplay? How inconsiderate.”

He suppressed a chuckle and looked down. His dark blue robes and red cape shifted as he moved his weight from foot to foot. He only looked back up at you when he was sure he wouldn’t have a smile on his face.

“This magic is too dangerous, you have to stop.”

You tilted your head “Stephen, Stephen, Stephen. When are you going to learn? This lecture doesn’t work on me.”

This is how it always started. He would come in and try to convince you to stop and what you were doing was dangerous and blah blah blah. You guessed it was just customary, the way he did things, but it was getting repetitive. It was purely because he didn’t understand, but how could he? The star pupil of Kamar-Taj had everything he needed at his fingertips and the Sorceress Supreme herself as a teacher.

No, he would never understand your desire- your need for power. Power so strong it could fell mountains with the flick of a finger, strong enough to make craters in the Earth. Power that would make you untouchable by all the warriors at Kamar-Taj combined. Just thinking about it made you restless and the desire to summon again churned inside you.

Stephen sighed “I know, this is probably a shot in the dark…” His eyes revealed a softness to him “But I have to try, or I’d never forgive myself.”

You narrowed your eyes at him, trying to gage his next move. Close urgent whispers temporarily distracted you and you flinched slightly at the words in your ear. You didn’t feel any breath on your skin but you could imagine it.

Attack

Attack

Blinking furiously and trying to steady yourself, you scowled at Stephen “Trying to ease your conscience, Strange? How nice, but there’s no changing the past.”

He took a step toward you “Believe me, I know.” There was no hostility in his voice, just a sadness that only comes from experience “Please, I’m trying to help you. You’re going down a path you won’t be able to come back from.”

This was new, he never tried this on you before. You were almost caught off-guard by how genuine he seemed. By now, in all the past encounters, you’d have been fighting.

You struggled to fire back a quip “Oh please, is this your latest attempt at stopping me? Using your words. So diplomatic of you.”

He worked his jaw in irritation “I understand how frustrated you are with the rules of Kamar-Taj, and what happened was unfortunate-“

“Unfortunate?” You scoffed loudly, the sound bouncing off the stone walls.

The memory of that cursed day played through your mind vividly. The look of the Supreme Sorceress as she gave the verdict on the steps of the Kamar-Taj, the downcast eyes of the people you once called friends. Stephen, the most upset you’d ever seen him, watching you pass through the gates one last time. It was bad enough that the memory stayed with you, burned into your mind’s eye, but it replayed at night when you slept. A recurring nightmare that jolted you awake and fueled your unending anger.

You leaned toward him, your tone low and dangerous “Unfortunate is a bit of an understatement.”

Stephen chewed on the inside of his lip for a moment, no doubt trying to find careful words that wouldn’t set you off. He risked serious injury if he attacked you outright, you were too strong.

He took a deep breath and exhaled slow “I’m sorry.”

You reared your head back in surprise, the look on your face must have said it all because he smiled thinly before continuing.

“I’m sorry that happened to you, it must have been very difficult to go through…I still blame myself for… for not…” his words died out as he stared at you with soft, sad eyes.

You felt a pang of regret. You knew what he was trying to say. You were two bright students in Kamar-Taj together, studying and practicing side by side. When Stephen had gained the attention of the Sorceress Supreme and began to practice more with her, it left a hole in your life, which was quickly filled with the desire to grow. You funneled your feelings of jealously and loneliness into studying harder, practicing more, getting better, but it wasn’t enough. Stephen was, and always had been, the star, leaving you in his shadow.

However, that didn’t stop you and you pushed yourself to learn more, seek new knowledge. When you did see Stephen in your spare time, he was excited to hear about the things you were discovering, he had encouraged you to find out everything you could.

“Some things are blocked off though…” you had said to him one night over a cup of tea as you two caught up.

He had shrugged with a careless smile, a smile you had grown quite fond of seeing, “You have to break eggs to make omelets, right?”

“That is true-“

“Go for it, just don’t get caught- but if you do, I’ll have your back.” He had given you a wink and that’s when you had made up your mind.

Except, you had gotten caught and he wasn’t able to do a thing for you. Not for a lack of trying, but the Sorceress Supremes’ decision had been definitive and unmoving. At the time you had reminded her of another student that sought dangerous knowledge and had come close to destroying the world.

Attack him

He isn’t sorry

He’s trying to trick you

The whispers had come back full force as your thoughts strayed. You squinted your eyes shut, willing them to be quiet. Stephen noticed this and looked at you with new concern.

He took a tentative step toward you. He was about 10 paces away now “This is what I’m trying to get you to understand. This magic is dangerous, not only to others but to you. You’ve…changed… ever since you started summoning Beings and stealing their power, something is different about you. All those times before, I could still see traces of who you used to be…but now…”

You placed a palm over one of your eyes, there was a nervous tightening in your stomach that you didn’t dare acknowledge. Laughing dryly, you croak out “You don’t understand, Strange.”

“I understand, I do.”

He’s lying

Attack him

He’s jealous

That last whisper struck a chord with you, it echoed in your mind and took hold. You felt anger start to rise to your chest. Your eyes shot up to his in a flash “Is that what this has been about?”

He frowned at, confused, but you cut him off before he could speak “You want my power don’t you? You just can’t stand seeing someone be better than you!”

His expression turned to anger “That’s not true!”

You snorted viciously “Oh please, Stephen Strange, the next Sorcerer Supreme, everyone’s favorite super hero! You hate not being the best!”

He took another step forward, his brows furrowing as he spoke urgently “Listen to me Y/N. We’ve known each other for a long time. This person you’ve turned into- it’s not who I-…it’s not you. This power that you’ve absorbed has warped your mind, twisted you into something sinister. Please come with me- I can help you.”

He’ll take your power away

He’s going to make you useless

You were breathing hard now, his words had turned that small feeling of fear in your stomach to a gut wrenching panic. Was he telling the truth? Were there things about you that had changed without you knowing? Sure, there was the whispering, but you’d figure out a way to fix that when you were finally powerful enough. Your thoughts went back to your time at Kamar-Taj, when you were by Stephen’s side, when you were happy, when seeing him smile at you was one of the only things you wanted. It had been so simple back then.

Ask him how he can help you

Ask him

Your heart beat painfully in your chest as you met Stephen’s eyes “How could you help me?”

He clenched his jaw once, then twice and your heart sank “… I’m sorry, there’s no way around it- your mystic art abilities would be blocked.”

Your mind reeled, the whispers grew in volume, clamoring that they were right. You felt your breath come out in short gasps, you could hear Stephen, but his voice sounded distant.

“This would help you, please trust me. You’re influenced by the Entities you’ve consumed, all the affects would go away if-“

Attack him

He’s weak

Attack him

The force of you shaking your head to try and clear your thoughts made you sway, and you pressed your palms to your temples with a grimace. There was too much going on, too much noise. You couldn’t hear your own thoughts.

“No!” You shouted trying to fight for control over the situation “No, you can’t take everything I’ve worked so hard for!”

Kill him

“This is the only way! The Entities will never let go, as long as you have mystic abilities they’ll be a part of you!”

Everything you’ve done will be for nothing

“This is all I have!” you cried out, your voice sounding raw “You can’t take this from me! I won’t let you!”

You threw an arm up, casting a warning attack, and felt a great surge of power ripple through you. A line of dark, pure unrefined energy shot out, gouging into the ground as it made its way across the chamber. Stephen threw up a shield, reflecting orange onto the ground and walls. But the line of energy ripped through it, throwing him to the side and hitting the stone wall with a great smash, sending clouds of dirt and dust everywhere, leaving behind a deep cut. You stood, shocked, you hadn’t casted anything that was supposed to be that powerful. You looked to Stephen who was getting up slowly. His breathing was hard, there was a small amount of blood on the side of his face.

His expression was grim “Don’t do this, Y/N!”

You saw movement at the corners of your vision as shadows danced and twirled. Tears began to collect as you stared back at Stephen “You aren’t leaving me with any choice, Stephen!”

How did it come to this?

He raised his hands and casted a long tether that crackled with orange energy. It whipped towards you with a flash. Shouting you threw up both arms and dark energy erupted from you, blocking the tether and gouging out chunks of the ground, sending large rocks flying toward Stephen.

Kill him

Kill him

Kill him

His cloak billowed out around him and he flew around, avoiding the debris. The chunks hit the walls with loud crashes and rumbling, the temple shuddered violently around you. Stephen lowered himself to the ground, closer to you now.

The Beings in you howled and screamed, all different things, all trying to be the loudest. You absently reached up to swat at something invisible around your head, as you battled to stay focused. Your vision was filling with slithering, darting shadows that would disappear when you tried to look at them.

“You can hear and see them now, can’t you.” Stephen’s low voice was closer than you expected and you flinched away, sending out tendrils of energy shooting out in his direction, attacking blindly.

He dodged them and they hit the wall behind him, causing more shuddering from the building.

“Is this really worth that much to you?” he cried out “Is it really worth losing your mind over?”

You stopped, staring at the ground hard, with wide, crazed eyes. They were filling with tears that dropped to the ground below. Your breaths came out short, panting. You didn’t bother responding, you could barely understand what he was saying.

Kill him now

“Y/N look at me!”

It would be so easy

“Y/N!”

You could feel thudding vibrations in your feet every time more chucks of ceiling crashed to the ground. Some were faint, others stronger, accompanied with clouds of dust or tiny bits of rock flying out and hitting your back or legs. You didn’t much care as your head felt as if it was going to split in two.

You spun around, chasing another large shadow, to see Stephen standing a few paces away from you. He was shouting something, but you couldn’t hear what it was, and you looked at him blankly. He took another step toward you but there was a giant crash as a piece of ceiling fell right between you, shattering with a giant cloud of debris and knocking you away. You hit the ground, hard, with a crack.

“Hey Y/N. Come look at this.”

You looked up from your book at Stephen, who was standing next to one of the Kamar-Taj library shelves with something in his hand. He had a grin, which usually meant he was up to something.

You rolled your eyes with a smile, not moving from your seat next to the window. The sun was warm on your face. “If it’s another dried out bug between the pages, I will throw this book at you.”

“Mmmnope.”

“What is it then?”

He rolled his eyes at you, but the smile remained “Just come here!”

You obliged, setting your book down and making your way over to him. He held an old book in his hand, its pages weathered to the point they were brittle. On the page he pointed to was an illustration of a harmless creature standing in a glowing red circle, there was text on the edges of the page detailing the materials one could use for summoning mundane Beings that could be useful in certain situations.

“What is that?” you asked curiously, leaning in.

Stephen snapped the book closed, causing you to jump back. You shot a glare up at him.

“Oh, just something interesting I found.”

You narrowed your eyes “May I see it?”

A wide smile spread across his face “Maybe. For a trade, perhaps.”

“Ok, what do you want?”

Stephen looked up and around the room, pretending to think, but already knowing the answer.

“How about-” He paused, leaning toward you slowly, inches away from your face, noses almost touching. You could feel his gentle breath on your skin. He glanced down at your lips then settled back on your eyes.

“How about you give me your extra tea leaves? I know you have a bunch saved up in your room.”

Your jaw dropped and you scoffed lightly. His grin was beaming as you pushed him away with a laugh. You made a pass for the book and he jerked it back out of your reach.

“Deal or no deal?”

You sighed dramatically, trying to hide your smile “Deal”.

You opened your eyes a fraction at a time, jolts of pain running through your body. Your vision was blurry and you blinked trying to clear the dust. As you sat up more pain throbbed in your head, thudding with your slow pulse. The ground around you was littered with chunks of rock, and you could see more falling at the edges of the chamber. Your vision was still blackened with dancing shadows and the Being’s voices were starting to rise in volume again as your consciousness came back.

There was movement to your left and you saw Stephen’s hand push away some rocks, trying to find purchase on the ground. He was covered in dust and dirt, turning his hair a muted grey color. Below the waist he was trapped by bits of large, crumbled rock fragments.

Now

Now’s your chance

Kill him now

You rose slowly to your feet, ignoring the pain in your head. Stephen saw your movement and looked to you with pleading eyes.

“Y/N help me.”

It would be so easy

“Y/N”

Then you would be free

Stephen looked at your blank expression and guessed what was going on in your head. His expression turned pained and he shook his head.

“I know my Y/N is in there somewhere. Please, come back to me.”

You would be the most powerful master of the mystic arts with him out of the way

“I loved every second with you, every moment I had with you was a gift. Ever since you were cast out of Kamar-Taj, I’ve thought of nothing but you. How to try and get you back, how to help you. All I ever wanted was to be with you.”

You blinked down at him, moved by his sudden confession, the iron grip of the Entities on you loosening. The previously forgotten memory of you with Stephen in the Kamar-Taj library played back through your mind again.

“I love every part of you, even the part that drove you to this moment.”

Tears spilled down your cheeks and you fell to your knees in front of Stephen. Voices were howling and screaming around you in protest, filling your vision, as you gently took his hands in yours and smiled at him sweetly. His eyes were wide and filled with impossible hope. As he realized that you were in control again he smiled back at you with tears in the corners of his eyes.

“There you are” he whispered reaching toward your face. You closed your eyes and pressed your face into his hand. It felt like home.

Lound crashing sounded behind you and your attention was brought to the imminent collapse of the chamber. You stood as fast as your pounding head would allow and helped him out from under the rubble. Pulling him partly free by his arms and pushing rocks off from on him as he scrambled out from under. As Stephen stood you put one of his arms around your neck and began to limp toward the exit. Around you the building began to fall apart, crashing down.

Stumbling out through the exit you squinted your eyes shut in the harsh sunlight. There were alarmed shouts around you from the Kamar-Taj warriors, you felt someone take Stephen from around your neck and you staggered unsteadily. There were more shouts, some you thought were from Stephen, but you couldn’t be sure, they all mixed together. Trying to open your eyes was painful, sun blinded you, forcing them closed again.

They will take your abilities away from you

The echo of an entity’s voice sounded in your mind and you thought, first, how nice it was not to have so many voices in your head, and then second, how that might not be so bad.

In an act that brought shock to the warriors surrounding the area, you slowly brought your hands up over your head and knelt to the ground in surrender.

Four Weeks Later

You sat in your sparse, one windowed cell, arms crossed, deep in meditation. Footsteps approaching the bars of your cell brought your attention to the present.

“I would have brought you a book, but you’re going to have to start trading me for them.”

You couldn’t stop the smile from spreading in your face as you opened your eyes to see Stephen standing outside your cell. He wore a lighter version of his dark blue robes and no cloak today, standing with his arms behind his back and a brilliant smile.

Your retort was quick, lighthearted “And what would I trade with?”

Since you surrendered to the warriors of Kamar-Taj your life had become pretty mundane. They very quickly blocked your ability to cast spells and after that you had felt instantly better. No more voices, no more shadows, and no more burning desire for revenge. Your emotions had become much calmer and you were at peace for the first time in a long time. They made you a cell, within the city where Kamar-Taj is located. There were sparse guards, but you would always have meals and whatever you needed was available. Most of the security was left up to the runes on the cell bars.

And of course, Stephen was with you every step of the way. Visiting you often, bringing you things to read and things to do while you sat in your cell. He was making a case to some of the other head masters that since you weren’t a threat anymore you should be released. They have yet to be swayed but something about Stephen’s face today made you wonder.

“Well, considering you literally have nothing… how about a kiss?” he stepped closer to the bars.

You barked out a laugh “Oh, that’s a grand idea. Ho do you suppose we’ll be able to pull that off with me in here?”

His knowing smile grew wider, he brought his hands out from behind his back and casted a weird looking spell that you’d never seen before. Bright orange runes along your cell bars began to glow and fall away, folding over like paper as they disappeared. You rose quickly to your feet. A portal opened beside you, leading out onto a sunny beach.

You glanced at Stephen with wide eyes and he beamed back at you triumphantly “Go on.”

You jumped through and into the soft sand, a breeze tousling your hair lightly. Stephen was right behind you, closing off the portal with a light crackle.

You spun around to look at him “How- are you sure this- what if they find out-“

He stepped close to you, wrapping an arm around your waist and bringing the other hand up to cup your cheek “What are they gonna do? They can complain all they want, I don’t see any reason to keep you in a cell. You have no ability to use magic and you have me as a chaperone.”

Your smile was loving as you looked up into his blue eyes “And besides, I’m basically the supreme sorcerer. Are they really going to tell me no?”

You shook your head with laugh and looked out across the ocean, his hand brought your face back toward his “I love you Y/N. I’d give you the world, if you asked for it.”

“Oh, now you want to give me everything-“

His lips pressing to yours cut you off mid-sentence. You made a pleased noise and felt him smile into the kiss as you moved your mouth back against his. His hands moved to your waist and pulled you close against him. Breaking the kiss you leaned your forehead to his, hearing his content sigh you whispered back “I love you too.”

#dr strange #stephen strange #dr strange x reader #dr strange x y/n #dr stephen strange #mcu dr strange #Stephen Strange x reader #Stephen Strange x y/n